07-27-2009, 03:07 AM
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| http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_disorder.jpg); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat;"> Dulled gray and black coated the sky, patched with the occasional lighter patches of off-white and silver. Lightning illuminated the sky every few moments, flashing behind the clouds and lighting up the whole earth for mere seconds before disappearing again, dashing the world into the storm's darkness. It had not yet started to rain, and the coyote waited, her gold-yellow eye turned skyward, focusing on the stormy sky. She was seated in her Secui form, the daintiness of her posture belying the strength of her muscles and the darkness of her heart. Both forepaws were tucked between her rear paws, her pale throat tilted to the sky with wonder. Nigh a decade wandering the earth had not lessened the reverence and power of nature in the silvery canid. Kaena still marveled at the strength the earth held in her grasp; there was something in the great mother that the fragile, temporary hybrid could never aspire to equal, much less surpass. It might have been the hundred thousandth storm Kaena's glimmering aureate eye had viewed, but it was no less spectacular than the very first. The bruise-colored sky clearly forebode rain, but for the moment the world was dry. The smell on the wind was thick and moist, but amongst the heavy dampness of the impending storm, Kaena sought an unfamiliar scent. Brilliant scarlet flashed in the Lykoi matron's mind as realization hit her and an alarm screamed in her thoughts. There was familiarity accompanying the dominant scent on the wind; it was the muddled, communal scent of Phoenix Valley that sent her to her clawed feet immediately. Her hackles stood on end and already those fatal canines contrasted off-white with her coal-colored lips. She did not know the individual, but the old coyote had clearly recognized the badge the wolf wore, and it was one certainly unwelcome within Inferni's land. The canine stood, her long limbs rippling beneath the dusty gray fur as she stretched, moving swiftly from the mansion's porch she had chosen to watch the storm roll in. There was no longer time for such pleasantries for the hybrid woman. There would be other storms to watch. The halfling bounded from the porch, her feet carrying her with the pointed trot of a coyote, that pace quickened by the sensed urgency of the situation. This was the second time she had caught one of them on their lands, and this time she was not so foolish as to mistake their scent for something else. Skylar had gotten off lucky; if Kaena had known of Phoenix Valley how her coyotes regarded them, her fangs would have been far swifter than her mouth. There was no forgiveness in her heart this time, and her yellow-gold eye seared through the shadowy darkness brought on by the impending storm, seeking the source of that wolf stink on the air. The forest seemed familiar as the hybrid woman glided through it, keeping herself low to the ground and moving like liquid. She had known these territories for the better part of two months, and they were a familiar haunt for her by now. For certain, the silvery canine held the home advantage. The pallid canine came into view before her, a ghost-white figure in the relative dark of the woods. Rage showed in her golden eye, and those writhing lips pulled back further to expose those gleaming canines. She stopped, several feet in front of the pale wolf, the throaty growl resonating from within her relaying volumes more than any spoken word could: not welcome. |