combat baby (j, p - kaena) - leader needed

[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 hybrid woman was quite used to border duty at this point. She was not a scout by rank, no, but she was uncomfortable with the idea that Inferni had only a trio of Praeses without a Caelum to lead them. Praeses meant basic scout, naturally, and the Caelum was supposed to be their leader. Kaena was quite familiar with border duty; it was a task she had been undertaking for many years. Twice she had prowled Inferni's borders as an Aquila, sole judge of a coyote's merit and worth when it came to her clan. It had been a long time since then, and though Kaena figured she had been a bit rusty with the last few newcomers she'd intercepted, the familiar routine was slipping back into her head, a background function running in the rear of her mind without her even noticing it.     The rain was coming down again. Kaena wondered if it would ever stop—not that she disliked rain, mind you. She was simply growing tired of the same thing over and over again; as indifferent as she felt toward Sol and the sun's light, she missed his brilliance in her life now that it had been raining or overcast for weeks. It was a wet summer, and the hybrid woman wondered just how much more water the earth could hold before the oceans rose to overtake the canines and the rivers drowned their territories. Though Kaena would welcome a cleansing flood, she knew Inferni would not be so lucky as to escape the rising tide. And it was questionable if Inferni would survive another relocation; they had been lucky enough to survive the first.     She was coming up on the coast now; it would be time to turn inland and head deeper into Inferni's territory. Disappointment clouded her features; it had never been as if Inferni had been subject to a flood of newcomers, but lately it seemed as if there were almost none. Then again, it was possible that others were intercepting joiners and turning them away for whatever reasons they saw fit. The coyote woman wandered onto the beach, breaking through the tall grasses of the plains and onto the open coast. Her golden eye lit on a small form, crouched with his nose to the earth. He appeared to be relatively young, probably somewhere beneath a year. The hybrid approached him quickly enough, figuring he probably didn't want to be standing out here in the rain too long. "Looking for anything in particular?" she asked, gravelly voice ringing out clearly even in the low-level storm's noise.

thanks to james for the header image[/html]