08-09-2009, 05:14 AM
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 You can edit for a leader now!  The world seemed as if it was made of rain anymore; it was as if mother nature had forgotten there was any other type of weather. Kaena had never disliked rain or feared storms, but it was growing tiresome to experience the same dreary weather, day after day. It was difficult not to allow it to weigh on one's spirits; the grizzled hybrid longed for the brilliant and sunny days of summer. Where were they? It was already August, and the coyote did not think she had experienced a single bright and sunny day since then. Part of Kaena lusted for the real summer with hot and long days, not this wet and sodden excuse for the season. The young man spoke clearly, pronouncing each syllable of his long name with care. Andre was what she liked best, but the bitterness in her heart for the child she had known for far too short of a time would not allow that name to fall on another so quickly. Perhaps a curse accompanied that name like it had haunted the de le Poers. A chilled realization crept up the woman's spine. Ahren's death meant Gabriel was the eldest de le Poer, did it not? Did the curse that haunted that family now follow her own, tied with her blood in her eldest known child? That thought struck her like a bullet, and it was all she could do to contain the momentary fear that gripped her. The young coyote spoke again, rattling the old canine from her distant thoughts, and she smiled again, though it was a strained one this time, tugged by a worry that would not resolve itself. "I like Mason. It sounds strong," the coyote said, though she did not know why this word held that meaning. It was unfamiliar to her. Again the coyote spoke, displaying that puppyish energy he had previously lacked. The smile that again showed on Kae's face was less thin this time, spreading over her scarred features. "Not a problem at all," she said. It wouldn't due to respond with something callous about duty. He had been perfectly kind to her thus far. Duty brought her here, certainly, but it did not force her to stand here with him. She could have simply called for one of her relatives to attend to him and left it at that. "I will call for our leaders," the woman said, stepping back a few steps to yowl into the sky, her voice just as strange of a hybrid as she was—the shrill yap of a coyote mixed with the tones of a wolf combined with the faint baying of some hounddog. The cloudy hybrid turned back to the youth, satisfied her call would bring either Gabriel or Ryan to attention. "How long have you been on your own, Mason?" she asked. It was a simple enough question—it avoided a potentially painful past if he had one, and it would tell her volumes about his resilience. He would have plenty of time to fill her in while they awaited the presence one of the Legatus ranked; the constant rains had turned much of Inferni's plainsland to a swampy muck. The going was much rougher than it usually was. |