I can cut you to pieces

[Kaena Lykoi]

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http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_bloody.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:230px; padding-left:15px; padding-right:15px; padding-bottom:10px;">     The coyote woman was quite content to play nice with this wolf. She was in neither the mood nor the condition to be stirring up trouble, and if she hadn't been intrigued by the pearly coat on this female and her actions the silvery coyote surely would have simply stalked on by, indifferent to the intricacies of some pale loner in the city. If they hadn't spoken at all, Kaena might have even figured Naniko for a ghost. It was hard to tell sometimes; occasionally there were apparations, whispers in her ear, but never a complete hallucination. Ever-cautious, the hybrid woman padded closer, her sharp golden eye focused on the white wolf despite their friendliness. One could never be too safe. Kaena was relatively certain that Naniko was not a threat, but she was ever-wary.     Kaena walked forward, favoring her leg slightly. It hurt to put a lot of weight on it, certainly, but the hybrid woman would survive this wound as she had survived the others. The pale wolf spoke again, and Kaena nodded. "It stings, but it works. I don't know which plants do what, I'd end up poisoning myself," the Lykoi woman admitted, though she hadn't expressed a particular desire to learn. Her method worked just fine; the hybrid woman had never suffered an infection other than the one that had rotted out her eye, though that seemed simply unavoidable. Even with powerful drugs or antibiotics, it was possible that the hybrid woman was destined to lose that eye anyway.     Dulled coal nails clicked against the tiled floor of the abandoned store, though Kaena paused at the entrance to allow the white wolf to take the lead. The hybrid did not wish to be rude and end up back out on the street, without whatever goodies this woman had to offer up. Perhaps if it was good enough and they proved civil to one another, Kaena might offer Naniko a trade. Maybe. The woman peered around the dimly lit store, finding it quaint but mostly unrecognizable. She knew a little about farming, and she vaguely understood why the humans had done it, but for a carnivorous creature such as herself, agricultural proficiency was all but useless. The pallid canine stalked ahead of Kae, who followed at a respectful distance, turning head this way and that to get a better look at the things surrounding her. Though she could not see much use for many of the human relics she saw, she supposed a more inventive canine might be able to jury-rig something useful from the clutter.     They reached a back room of sorts, and the powdered wolf pulled out a bag, though she did not shift. This caught Kaena's attention, and she wondered if the woman was not a Luperci for a moment. There were other possibilities, of course—illness, phobia, even pregnancy—but it was simply most likely that Naniko was a luperci nonissi. The hybrid woman peered at the things the paler canine pulled from the bag, her gaze shifting to the woman's face as she spoke. The gray hybrid began to shift quickly and quietly, though as she passed the halfway point her claws shrank back into her paws, a clear sign of non-aggression when it came to a shift. For once, Kaena was using her powerful Optime hands for their dexterity rather than their ability to rip and rend flesh. She waited, however, quiet content to allow Naniko to move at her own pace. There was no point in rushing the pale canine; such a thing would certainly irritate her, and whatever goods Kaena might acquire here would certainly be lost, bridges burned and buried. Absently, the grizzled woman unhitched her pack, exhaling a sigh of relief as the tightness left her chest. She swung it around and placed it beside her, a battered olive green canvas thing with several patches and more scars than the storm-cloud canine who carried it.     The woman began to speak, and Kaena grinned again, that frightening, twisted smile passing across her coal lips. "I was half of Inferni's foundation, too many years ago. I met an old friend who is dead on a beach that is ash now. I have never known another place as home," the woman said, honesty ringing in her words. Clouded Tears. The name was ancient, reverberating in a way that shook Kaena. The pack had been surely older than Inferni, formed in the same year but in the early spring. There was no point in asking about the pack's ancient history, Laruku's mother Kiriska, or her black friend Ravyn. Those wolves precluded this one's birthday by several years, if Kaena recalled it correctly. There was a thin smile on her lips for a moment, but it disappeared as the words left her lips. "Of course. I remember Clouded Tears very well. Did you know Laruku?" the grizzled woman asked. There was almost nonchalance in her voice, though thinking of the red-eyed hybrid now pained her in an unexpected way. He had delivered three of her children to her—though one was already in the ground with him, his life cut down by his own righteous brother. There was justice in Andrezej's death, however, and Kaena could not hold it against Gabriel. He had acted in protection of the greater Lykoi family instead of the individual, and adhered to his duty as an Aquila.     It was strange to mention the man now. She knew him; she'd known him all along, it seemed. She remembered his father well, and though she did not encounter him until he was an adult, the Lykoi woman had always held him in that glittering, elevated regard. Arlo Xyl's blood had flowed in his veins, and with it came the spirit of Yasu Zarah. There was a dull ache in her chest, similar to that same one she felt when she thought of Ahren, Zulifer, Zarah—any of the ones that could have been. Astaroth was a natural exclusion from that roster; he had betrayed the hybrid woman in an unforgivable way, and his only purpose on this earth had been to deposit the devil's seed in her belly and grant life to Samael, Razekiel, and Ahemait. There was curiosity in Kaena; part of her desired to know why the she-wolf had departed her pack. But just as Naniko had wished to inquire about her scars, Kaena avoided that subject as well—fearing to be perhaps too sensitive. "Did you dislike pack life?" the hybrid asked instead, settling down to her rear. She leaned her back against the wall, stretching one leg out before her while crossing the other over it.

thanks to james for the header image[/html]