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The summer was gone, fading fast as fall stormed in with September. The leaves on the trees were not yet dying, but the whole green earth had taken on a faded, yellowy quality, some of the earlier-blooming species of flora dying out with the end of August. Already, there were graying patches of earth here and there, well-worn summer trails that had already pounded the grass to nothing. The hybrid woman followed one of these prey trays out of Inferni, heading North for a long time. She avoided the coast, as the last time she'd been up this way she had stuck to it like glue, walking only a few feet over. Now, she was a good distance from the water, though she could faintly hear the call of the waves in her ears. The hybrid coyote had always been attracted to the ocean and the sea, it would seem. She had been raised along the coast, remembering in her youth the faintest sounds of the ocean's waves, though she'd never seen the Maine Atlantic in person.
The hybrid woman was shifted into her Lupus form, her four legs carrying her in the quick trot of the coyote. This was her preferred form for distance travel; it did not offer the speed of her Secui form, but the endurance it provided was unmatched by either of her other potential transformations. So she walked, her head bobbing with each step, all traces of the limp gone from her figure. It had been nearly two months since she'd encountered Haku, though she had smelled his scent by Dahlia de Mai, something which was immensely troubling. Hadn't she put him in the ground? That was particularly bad for the woman; no doubt there would be retribution for her actions. Still, for once in her goddamn life, she was not to blame for the violence that had befallen her. She had not sought it out; indeed, she would have been completely willing to trade information with him and pass along on her merry way. He had attacked her, and the hybrid woman had felt it absolutely necessary to defend herself.
The silvery canine wandered forward, coming across what appeared to be some kind of farm. She tilted her head to the side; most of the fields where there should have been crops were dead or dying, the sunflowers that had filled the field dying or already dead. The coyote was intrigued; most of the brilliant yellow plants were long-dead, their bright golden metals withered to brown, their stalks bending with the weight of their dead heads dipping down toward the ground. The silvery woman looked around, her single eye peering around at the open spaces around here. She had passed by the area once or twice before, but the hybrid woman had never bothered to stop and give a closer look until just now. She wandered forward, heading toward the empty, dirt ground where the sunflowers were usually situated. They were fast-dying flowers, it would seem, but the coyote woman did not come here to look at flowers. Even now, she was only momentarily interested in the area and satisfying her curiosity.
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Grimsley was not typically one to go in search of things. Time had taught him that the best things in life were happened upon, rather than sought out, and so he had spent most of his life wandering and happening upon beauty, happiness, and wonder in a variety of forms. The summer was coming to a close, though clearly someone had forgotten to tell the sun, for it beat down just as proudly as always upon Grimsley's back, and when he rested his hand upon his tired horse's back, he found his hand was moist with sweat. Street Song was always the more reluctant traveler, usually having to be motivated to keep going by Grims himself, for she was a stubborn mare, but a faithful companion, and that was all Grims would ever ask of her.
"Come now, Song, we will rest soon," he encouraged her, happy to see some sort of building coming up, which meant Song could rest while he explored yet another pleasant surprise that life had provided him with.
It was then that he noticed he was quickly being surrounded by an army of sunflowers. Though a pitiful army it was, a great many of its soldiers already fallen, their heads dipped low in defeat, their colors worn and ugly, with only a select few still proud enough to stand tall. A soft breeze whispered through at this time, giving short burst of life to the fallen flowers, as well as carrying the scent of another canine in the area, which caused Grimsley to become alert. He stood tall, surveying the land around him, and soon his eyes fell upon a rather worn looking woman not too far from where he stood. Making his way closer, he found what was sure to be a coyote, older than he, with a very intimidating collection of scars as well as a missing eye. Still, Grims was not one to judge by appearance, and so he offered a friendly greeting as a test.
"Hello," he chirped. Simple, curious, and friendly all at once.
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[html] | http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_fall.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:240px; padding-left:15px; padding-right:15px; padding-bottom:10px;"> Kaena was not absolutely certain what to make of this place. She didn't understand the concept of giving flowers, either as an apology or a gift, and she could not understand why humans would cultivate them. She understood farming wheat and other grains, for these were edible. There was virtually nothing edible about these flowers, unless you counted the seeds—of which Kaena was completely unaware anyway. She was intrigued by this mystery, and stopped to closely inspect one of the flowers, poised on the edge of the field of half-live flowers. She inhaled its sharp, sweet scent deep into her nose. It was not entirely unpleasant, but still, if they were cultivated only for their scent, why these flowers? She had smelled many sweeter ones in her lifetime, and these were rather dull-smelling, and not as varied and vivid in color as many other types of flowers.
There were the distinct sounds of an approach, though from the sharp tapping of hooves, Kaena was well-aware it was no canine. She had no scent advantage; the breeze tickling the field of flowers was directing her scent toward this outsider. She crouched, turning her scarred head toward the source of the noise, finding a canine, to her surprise. He was higher than the highest of the flowers, seated on the back of a horse. Kaena stared at him openly for a moment, her sharp golden eye roving over the horse and its rider, scrutinizing the canid on top of the domesticated animal. He was a hybrid; of that Kaena was absolutely certain. There was that delicate elongated quality to his features that spoke of coyote, yet his size and visage were almost entirely wolf, marred just so slightly by that hint of canis latrans he no doubt carried in his blood. A wide smile crossed the hybrid's face; an unfamiliar hybrid? Opportunity knocking.
"Hey," the hybrid responded, as nonchalantly as she could muster. She was four-legged, though it did not bother her to interact with a two-legged canine while she was at the height disadvantage, nor did it make her want to shift to match him. If it was not interested in being friendly, he wouldn't have come over here to talk to her. Nothing to concern the hybrid femme here, though she was naturally wary of most strangers she met. "Nice horse," she commented, recalling when Chimera had ridden such things. It was a brief time period in her head a long time ago, but it still stuck out—a horse was a distinct advantage, it allowed for easy travel while the canine rested.
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The thing about wandering around with a horse companion was that it allowed for very little stealth. It was useful for distance traveling, however, and that was the task that needed to be accomplished on this warm day. Atop Street Song, everything was more beautiful. He felt like God himself, looking down upon the world and all that it entailed. Still, he rarely chose to hold conversation while atop his mare, for it was a bit intimidating, if not downright rude to look down upon one when you are talking to them.
It was for this reason that Grimsley quickly dismounted his horse when the female responded to his greeting and he offered her a toothy grin. Though she was quite a sorry sight for the eyes, Grims found himself intrigued by her marred features. Certainly they defined her, and though he knew it rude to ask of their origin, he couldn't help his eyes from tracing them up and down her worn body, lingering a bit too long on the empty eye socket.
When she commented on Song, he patted the horse and nodded, "Thank you. I call her Street Song," he offered, the horse throwing her head back at the mention of her name. "What brings you to this place today?" he wondered allowed, not quite sure what his own answer would be should she throw the question back his way.
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[html]  The horse really was a magnificent animal. Kaena had always been impressed by them—though they were scarcer in number than other wild herds, there were some places where they flourished, especially in the south and midwestern States, where they had been prevalant still as modes of transportation as well as work animals. There were some places in human life where machinery still had not taken complete hold, and farm animals were rather commonplace before the apocalypse hit. Even now, it was not so rare to see domesticated animals running wild, though many of them perished in the early times and had difficulty readapting to feral life. Now, most of those problems were finished, as any creatures which had existed to live beneath human care were surely long dead, excepting perhaps the most longest-lived of the animals, birds and parrots which remembered their masters' faces and the words they had spoken.
Swishing her tail slowly behind her, the woman watched as the hybrid man deftly leapt to the ground from his perch. She had not considered it particularly rude, but she appreciated the gesture anyway, offering him a brief smile. "No doubt she's a good companion," the coyote said, watching the hybrid man as he studied her. She was rather fearsome in appearance, but there was no reason to provoke this loner here or cause trouble for herself. "Kaena Lykoi," she added, introducing herself with the surname as she usually did when outside of Inferni lands. She was quite proud of her own identity at times, and though she was relatively certain this passer-by would not have heard of her, still—it was good to throw her whole name out there.
"Just wandering, I suppose," she said. The hybrid woman had been here long enough to now have a good grasp on which territories were where, and she knew all of the wolf packs by name and scent. This loner held no banner of a pack, he did not even vaguely smell of one of them. "My clan, Inferni, lives a bit further south from here, and since there are no wolf packs in this area, it is safer up this way than in the heart of the territory to wander alone," the silvery woman added. She had plenty of reason to fear some of the canines further south of here—Haku Soul most of all. No doubt he would be angry that a woman had bested him, no doubt he would be mad as hell he'd almost perished. She was beginning to doubt she'd killed him, his scent was so remarkably unmistakable in her nose now that she'd tasted his blood.
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sorry for the wait, my good friend's father passed away unexpectedly and i had to be there with her the past few days :/
Now free from his horse's back, Grimsley was able to better inspect his new companion. She was older than he by a good few years, though he could respect her all the more for that, after all with age came wisdom. Naturally he was wary of her, for she seemed to have been quite a violent youth and there was no telling whether such tendencies were still existent. However, Grims couldn't help but feel slightly at ease around her and smiled at her words.
"Indeed," he commented, brushing Song's mane absent-mindedly with his thick fingers. As she introduced herself he nodded briefly, slightly embarrassed that he had introduced his horse and had failed to introduce himself. "Kaena Lykoi," he said, testing the name out on his tongue. It was a powerful sounding name and he liked it immediately. "It is a pleasure to meet you, I'm Grimsley." Grims had no last name to speak of, but he felt as if his name fit him well enough not to call for any extension of family ties, should a surname of any value even exist.
As Kaena opened up to speak of a clan known as Inferni, Grimsley's ears perked up. He had never been one to be tied down to a certain place, but it was always good to know where certain packs made their home, as not to tread to close to the wrong territories. "I see," he said first, taking in the large piece of information he had just received. "You lead this clan?" he asked, noticing the way she had spoke of it as her clan, though perhaps he was reading too much into her words. "Is it not safe, then, for those like you and I to be too near the wolves of this area?" Grimsley was aware of certain rivalries among the wolves and coyotes and in some places it was worse than others. Grims himself was a hybrid, but sometimes they were less welcome then their pure counterparts.
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[html]  | Sorry to hear that. D: My condolences to your friend. Please take your time, no worries. :] Everyone is busy around these times! And I r ramble. >_O Sorry.
mall-caps;">In Character
Some of the hybrids were forced to walk a thin line. When Kaena was younger, there were far fewer hybrid creatures in the world. Of the original Inferni creatures, she was the only one with a hint of anything other than coyote blood, and prior to that in the Darklands it had been the same. The creatures there were pureblood coyotes or pureblood wolves, and even as the second-in-command in that clan she had felt oddly out of place, she had seen some of them staring on occasion—whether it was on account of her scars or her dirty wolf blood she would never know.
Her closest family and her ancestors had been hybrids, yes—but Kaena had not really known most of them too long, and by the time she hit adulthood they were all dead. She didn't count the Lykoi Pack, not really. Everyone there was long dead, any of her ancestors or close relatives, though if she looked hard enough she was certain she would see her own ghost reflected in their faces. Still, she did not know if their distant blood would have been enough to gain her instant access among them; if they had continued the breeding processes her great-great-grandmother had instilled in them, all traces of coyote would be gone from them.
Life had gotten remarkably easier for those mixed-breed canines in recent years; perhaps it was their new human lifestyle or just evolution, but many kinds of canines were interbreeding now, creating many types of hybrids—some were like her, wolf and dog and coyote all rolled into one, and others were less generic—strange breeds of dog intermingling again with their distant wild cousins, exotic species of foreign canine like jackals and Ethiopian Wolves that had lived in zoos before the apocalypse hit.
The world's blood was becoming less pure, and in Kaena's eyes it was a good, welcome shift. The less pure blood there was, the less reason the wolves would have to consider coyote borders unimportant, unworthy of the respect their own borders were given. There would be fewer lone wolves to hunt and kill her children. The mixed-breed canine introduced himself, and Kaena withdrew from her thoughts of a better world, perhaps the only ones she dared entertain. She was not generally an optimistic canine.
Grimsley was a strange sort of name, and it didn't seem to really match the whimsical type he seemed to be—but she liked it. Grims sounded like a good nickname, but she dared not use it yet, lest she inadvertently offend him. The grizzled canine offered a bow of her head and a shake of her tail to indicate the pleasure was reciprocated, and listened as the canine spoke. "Nope. My son is our Aquila, and I am his sub-leader, believe that?" she said with a grin, hoping he would find amusement in the situation.
It was an unusual situation to see—generally when children inherited posts from their parents, they usurped them by way of bloodshed or their parent passed on. In either case, the parent was unlikely to return and even less likely to regain a position as the child's subleader, so it was indeed a strange situation. Kaena and Gabriel made it work beautifully, however, as Kae truly believed she was too old to take up the leadership role again. Gabriel's energy and youth were what Inferni deserved, and meanwhile she could certainly still fill the familiar Centurion role.
The hybrid woman shrugged at his question, one coal-dusted shoulder lifting. "Depends. A few of the wolves are really dangerous. And some of 'em probably assume whatever's got even a smidgen of coyote blood runs with us, and—well, Inferni doesn't have the best reputation around here." It did not mean he would be attacked on sight—though with Haku still around, it was almost a certainty should Grimsley encounter the Dahlian wolf—but many would regard him with wariness. "You'd do well to stay away from Dahlia de Mai," she added, thinking of Haku. He was dangerous to everybody, no matter their blood.
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