08-02-2009, 01:27 AM
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 The silvery hybrid was rather content in continuing along this way with the younger coyote. There was something boundlessly youthful about her companion, and her energy was infectious. Just being around her shed years off of the coyote; it was similar to being around very young children. Kaena had never been fond of children save her own, but in her old age she found a general fondness for puppies and their enthusiasm. Merilin's general manner reminded Kae so much children, especially as the russet coyote darted around her, circling the elder woman several times as they approached the ravine. Hesitation presented itself in the woman for a moment as she considered the youth's response. The woman did not feel as though she was at liberty to fill the girl's head with ideas about wolves that were half-truths and her own beliefs. It wasn't as if Merilin was her own child, fresh and blank, ready to be etched with the markings of a Lykoi. Instead, she decided to simply issue a warning. "Some of them are all bark and no bite. Others are more dangerous. Just please be careful, Merilin," the elder coyote said. Merilin was far too bright of a coyote to mar; if she held ill will toward wolves, it would come of her own volition. The grizzled hybrid knew it was not right to force such things on her. How her own children escaped this same openness was beyond anyone, even Kaena herself. For the first time since this morning, the energetic coyote seemed to slow, walking next to Kaena for a moment. Surprise registered across the woman's features as the youth licked her wounds, donating the antibiotic properties of her tongue to Kaena's injury. "Thank you," she said, smiling back at the younger canine. "Almost everything," the hybrid said, that same grin stuck on her features. "I believe we've only been here a little more than a year," she said, thinking of the fire. Even as the coyotes headed closer to the ravine, the woman began to speak. Though she had been absent for these events, she had learned enough by visiting the former territories herself. "There was a fire that burned our old territory, but Gabriel brought Inferni here afterward. Inferni was the only group from the old territory that survived passage over the mountains, even though lots of wolves came, too," she said, wondering how it had come to pass that the single coyote clan on the coast, furthest from the mountains separating these territories from the old ones, had survived while all of the wolf packs had perished. The wolves were supposed to be the cohesive, social animals, after all. "We'd lived on that beach for four years at that point, so I guess that makes Inferni just under six years old." There was definite pride in the gray hybrid's voice as she spoke of the coyote clan's age, her mind thinking back distinctly to that night on the beach with Zarah. Her family was the next subject at hand, and the woman's smile changed imperceptibly, just a hint of it growing sour. Only one of her children had looked like her, and that was Maeryn. She was long dead now, but her senseless murder haunted the elder woman still. "I'm sure you will meet them. Most of us have scars, and some of us have gold eyes. "This symbol marks some of us," the woman added, her gray fingers tapping the red star emblazoned on her chest. The chaos star was a wonderful symbol, and Kaena was quite glad it represented them. That bold red shade screamed Inferni, and the eight points extended outward at random, representative of the disorganized, arbitrary nature of chaos itself. There was no better word to describe her family than chaos. They reached the ravine, and the grizzled hybrid halted, settling on her haunches on the rocky shore of the creek's delta. The water spilled into the ground that split like an axe had been driven into it, a near-canyon in the center of Inferni's territory. The silvery canine shook her head in response to the young woman's question. She had never seen the inner portions of the ravine herself, she had merely heard others describe it. "Yeah, it's like... a regular river, only underground, I guess. I've never been down there myself, though," the woman confessed. She did not move as well as she used, and it made little sense to risk her bones on the sharp declines of this place. "There's a lot of water down there, I think," the woman said with a laugh. The younger coyote's enthusiasm was pleasing. "If you're steady on your feet, you can climb down. If not, stay up here with me. I don't want to break any bones today," the coyote said, her voice a strange mixture of stern and playful. She was half-joking, half-serious. |