Word Count :: 375 Hi, I suck. :/ If you are too busy for this thread, miss Sunny, someone else can nab. ;O

It was a long way from Inferni where the silver-shaded coyote was. Kaena had spend a few days walking here, purposefully keeping herself to a leisurely pace and taking ample time to hunt and rest in the evenings. She did not usually venture far from her home; the scarred Centurion rarely had a reason to visit any of the other packs. Rikka no longer resided in Cour des Miracles, and Naniko was no longer in Phoenix Valley. She would have liked to visit Dawali more often, but it was an even longer journey than the one she had just made. Dahlia's territory complicated things, of course -- she had to nearly pass Halifax to avoid their borders, which was an annoyance in itself; however, the silver-shaded woman did not mind it so much that she would actually ask Dahlia de Mai for passage through their territory. Conor was a sight saner than his father, but she still could not trust him entirely, even if he had acted as he said in the war and listened to her. She was not convinced that blood was bad, but it would have been difficult to question her fear after what the elder Soul had done to the scarred woman.

Sepirah had been the one to tell Kaena of the new pack -- coastal and beyond Dahlia de Mai, and devoted to the arts. Beyond this, the old woman had heard nothing of this Cercatori place, and she wished to investigate it herself. The very fact that her granddaughter, half-jackal and mostly coyote mutt, had been offered a place in their ranks, spoke volumes to the Centurion. They were friendly toward coyotes, at least -- that meant something to Kaena, and she wished to find out just how friendly they were. When the hybrid reached the borders, she lifted her muzzle and yowled a coyote's howl to the leaders. It was nothing demanding, of course -- she was not so brash as to head to a stranger's packlands and demand a leader, but it requested them, nonetheless, and spoke of patience. She was willing to wait, days if she had to -- it had been a long trek here, and she did not wish to have to come back later.

Word Count :: 371 Eeee. :3 Assumed Skye was Optime!

The silver-shaded woman was not generally one to act as a diplomat. Inferni rarely had needs for such things, anyway -- they preferred to keep to themselves, and even when the looming threat of their closest neighbor had roared to life with Haku Soul, they had waited to strike, leaving themselves defending and retaliating. Maybe it was her scarred face that made her a poor choice for the job, but the Centurion was relatively calm -- she did not think most wolves were the way they had been when she was young anymore, truly. She might have played up such an ideal in the right company, but that belief had been shaken years earlier, and maybe it had finally shattered.

It was not to say wolves had not done terrible things to her -- Haku certain had, and many wolves before him. The silvery coyote, however, could not discount that the vast majority of them simply sought to stay out of trouble, much like Inferni. One or two rotten and terrible individuals did not make an entire species awful. It was not long before the old coyote detected the sounds of an approach, and her sable-shaded ears, one of them still whole and the other a tattered remnant, perked toward the noise, her one remaining eye peering through the thick trees to detect the stranger. Before long, a pale, cream-yellow figure emerged, two-legged and decorated in clothing.

Her own short Lupus form certainly posed no threat, but as the woman came closer, the hybrid offered a respectful tip of her head, angling it toward the ground. It was quick and it was certainly no bow, but it was a gesture of respect nonetheless. “Kaena Lykoi of Inferni. It's good to meet you -- I heard a rumor about a new pack, and I wanted to see for myself,” she explained, quickly. With hardly a pause, she continued: “I also heard my granddaughter, Sepirah, was offered residence in the pack, and I took it to mean Cercatori was friendly toward coyotes.” It was more than she usually spoke, but this meeting was primarily about business -- an official first contact, of sorts. To her knowledge, Gabriel had not sought this pack out.

Word Count :: 342

“Ah. Over in Inferni, we only take canines of a quarter coyote or more,” the hybrid said, rolling her shoulder in a shrug. Sometimes the scarred woman wondered if such a policy was even necessary -- so few wolves wished to walk amongst them anyway, it would seem as if it was a measure in futility. They had never turned away a wolf at their door -- none had ever come to it in the first place. “To each their own, of course,” she added after a moment, a yellow-toothed smile appearing on her muzzle for a moment. If Inferni's policies spoke for their general attitude, the silver-shaded woman would not have been on this new pack's borderland seeking to learn about them -- they had come quite a long way from the way things used to be, and Kaena knew now this was an improvement. They would never be fully accepted by the wolves, she thought, but they would at least make things better for themselves by not starting trouble with the packs.

“Thank you,” she said, her head tipping toward the earth for just an instant, added humility to the thanks. Interested, the scarred hybrid listened as Skye described the territory and their relation with the neighboring packs, nodding her head in understanding every few moments. “Dahlia de Mai had a reputation, but that was their last alpha. His son's much more level-headed,” the silver-shaded hybrid offered. “Dawali of Aniwaya, he's one of the good ones. Cour des Miracles has always been friendly to Inferni. Good people that way,” she said, assessing most of the neighborhood in a few sentences. “Inferni had trouble with Phoenix Valley in the past, but their alpha -- Jefferson,” she said, hesitating a moment. “Saved my sorry hide, he did,” she finished. “I owe them one,” she added, another yellow-toothed grin splitting across her muzzle, though it held its discomfort, as well. Kaena did not like feeling as though she owed wolves, and in her estimation, she owed Jefferson and Phoenix Valley a big one.