08-12-2009, 02:56 AM
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| http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/ ... tblood.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:248px; padding-left:25px; padding-right:25px; padding-bottom:10px;"> Concern for her own fate was a new thought for Kaena Lykoi. In her youthful years, she had been outright reckless when it came to her own life. She hadn't cared if she died at any moment; there was nothing to tether her to this world. Her ancestral family was dead, as far as she knew, and what little hadn't been then would certainly be dead by now. Kaena herself was almost a decade of age—Vasilik and Sibylla were surely dead, as were her paternal grandparents. Anyone she had known of before coming here was almost certainly gone, passed into other dimensions of existence or otherwise departed from their home territory, scattered across the earth. But she had offspring here, even grandchildren—a long, strong line of children and grandchildren carry on her name and the surname she had brought to this land. The Lykois were in no danger of dying out—her son, Gabriel, carried the torch brightly at the head of Inferni, and there were still others. They scattered as her ancestral family had, flung to the wind and spreading out over the land. Maybe there were Lykois she wasn't even aware of—maybe here, maybe somewhere else. Maybe some of them were raised in captivity, forever wondering why they were never truly happy with pack life. Or even still, maybe some of them were happy with their situation. The hybrid did not know, and such thoughts often haunted her in the lonely still of night. The young woman spoke, and at first the hybrid woman almost snorted, sneered—what could a creature so young and spry as this one have to fear in death and dying? There was a strange solemn note to her voice, one that had caused Kaena to hesitate before speaking too rashly, and her golden eye again roved over the mottled woman's face. There was definite fear there, something which told Kaena that it was not the usual realization of mortality—this woman before her here would face something soon, whether it was rebellion of her own body or illness or an enemy, and she knew it was going to kill her. The woman's sable ears folded back, and her single searing eye did not leave Sofia's face. For a long minute, the scarred hybrid was quiet, though her face was not blank. It twisted and her brows furrowed with thought, churning over this revelation. She felt similarly, but it was generally beyond Kaena to open up so widely, especially to one she'd just met. But they were all the way out here in the middle of nowhere, she was alone—what harm could come of this? "So am I," she finally said, shaking her grizzled head, that golden eye finally forced away from the younger canine, focusing on the damp and dusty corners of the cabin. "But you can't run from death for too long. Better to turn and face him than to die a coward," she said. It was not the most comforting thing that had ever passed from Kaena's mouth, but there was a strength and harshness behind her words which gave them validity. "We can't live forever," the woman added softly, then. |