08-22-2009, 06:58 AM
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| http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_disorder.jpg); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat;"> Death was a strange concept. The coyote woman had reveled in death in her younger years, dancing with him under the moonlight, all the while tempting him to come and take her. She had been reckless, she had been stupid—she had practically begged him to come and take her, relieving her from the chaos that was her mind. Young Kaena's black knight had never arrived, however, and as the Lykoi woman aged, she had not so much learned to control the disorder in her head as she had learned to cope with it. There was no changing her; the damage was long done. Now, she looked at death with fear in that solitary eye, revulsion and terror replacing her carelessness. Parts of Kaena Lykoi certainly did wish to live forever. The hybrid woman was an arrogant, proud thing, and she thought of her own passing as a tragedy to the world. Oh, to grow ancient and witness countless generations of bloodthirsty Lykoi spilling from Inferni's loins—what a sight she would be, one-eyed and blind, almost white after a hundred years on the earth. The younger woman's explosion had certainly come as a surprise to the hybrid woman, but she could only wearily smile again, that same tired thing lighting on her charcoal lips. "If we didn't die, canines a thousand years old would still run with us, but where would we run?" It was a simple answer, the best one she could find. In Kaena's mind, there was no comfort when it came to this subject—mortality was a difficult issue to face, at best. Sometimes, it was the logical, obvious conclusion that gave the most comfort, anyway. She sighed heavily, though it surely was not one of boredom. The hybrid did not know exactly what the young woman's plight was, but there was a certainty and heaviness to her, the simple way she'd inquired about such a heavy subject and her outburst now—this had assured Kaena, the girl would face her enemy soon. Her tone had again shifted, replaced with that almost motherly comfort. "I am almost ten years old, and I should have died with all of my sisters, weeks after we were born. I think death has been chasing me ever since, but he hasn't caught up yet," the hybrid spoke. Her own story wasn't a comfort, no—it was merely a long, brutal tale that only served to outline the cruelty of the world—but it did seem as though the coyote woman should have died long ago, several times over. There was another smile on her scarred features, and Kaena's head turned, that blazing golden eye focused intensely on Sofia for a moment. "You might end up with longer than you thought you'd get." She was evidence enough of this; there were numerous times the silvery canine had wandered too close to that line, courting her oldest friend openly, daring him to reach out and touch her with a single, bony finger—and now here was this woman before her, doomed to a life of brevity. Pity was an unknown emotion in the silvery hybrid, and that was not what she felt as she gazed at Sofia, but there was something vaguely similar, a rare moment of empathy for the silvery woman. |