08-05-2009, 04:32 AM
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 The hybrid woman was no longer delusional enough to fancy herself a leader. When it came to Inferni versus her family, her family would always come first. That was an easy choice, though it was not one she would make so rashly in the future. If her family chose to wander, that was fine, but if they were abducted, she would pursue... but she would think about it first. Such a mission, however valiant and necessary, would almost certainly be one undertaken with the understanding that it was a finale. She was old now, and it would be difficult for her to survive another trek into the open wilderness. The grizzled coyote was lucky to have survived the last one, and luckier still that she had managed to return here at all. Brilliant green eyes turned to face Kaena, and the pearly white woman seemed friendly enough. Kaena relaxed. She was injured; she could not be an aggressor, or she might find herself in dire trouble. At the woman's question, the coyote hybrid shook her head firmly. No—the city was too powerful for the old coyote. Even now, she could feel its power, a faint heat beneath her paws and a distant hum in her ears. Maybe it was ghosts, the ghosts of the many people who had lived and breathed here before it became a desolate wasteland. Kaena had never been able to see spirits or ghosts of any kind. "No. I'm Kaena Lykoi," she answered, stating what she thought out to be obvious. No, her home was on the grassy, rolling plains of the Waste. The woman mentioned her scars, and Kaena grinned proudly, turning her right side to the white wolf, showing off that empty, black hole where there should have been a glittering golden eye. Instead, there was only twisted scar tissue and shadow. Quickly, her vision realigned with the ghostly female. "I haven't seen a healer," the woman replied, her voice twinged with some strange sourness. She was thinking of Fatin, bitterly; she had not seen the reddish wolf since that attempt to bring her to the coyote clan. "The ocean always heals my wounds," the woman added, that momentary darkness gone from her tone. She had always simply soaked in the shallows when she was injured, the stinging salt water cleansing her broken body. There was interest in her face as the woman mentioned herbs; she wondered what the pearly wolf had in her possession. "Hm. I'm not in too rough shape, but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt if you can spare some," she ventured, her scarred features focused on the woman intently. "I won't bite," she said with a grin, though the promise was genuine. Inferni often had a fearsome reputation, but this wolf hadn't seemed to regard her with anything but friendliness. It was strange. Then again, loners didn't have that pesky sense of pack loyalty and protectiveness. Kaena supposed it had also helped that she had been as non-threatening as possible. Then again, in her somewhat battered condition she could hardly afford another fight. |