our pace was quickened to her floor
#1
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set at dec 5


This had always been his favourite spot of sorts. The area could be considered dangerous, but the view had always seemed worthy of the risk in the young male’s scarlet eyes. The words of a pale woman had soared within his head for days now, and understanding was slowly taking form. Hell was on this earth, was it not? Would it be his duty to seek absolution for its inhabitants? Itachi was too young to be able to fully grasp this truth that Naniko D’Angelo had spoken of, but as a child he had enough imagination to make up his own truth; one of his fitting.

The blonde boy remained seated there, at the edge of the steep hill, watching the sun throw its eerie blush across the horizon as another day was about to end. Kaena would no doubt start to look for him soon. Pale golden tail curled around his light front paws. He was surprised at his own calm, but that had to mean that this would be the right thing to do.


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Table by Sie-kone
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#2
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HURRHURR this is a crappy-ass post. :/

The old woman made her way from home quickly, concern painted across her scarred face. Itachi was not within her caves, and she had not seen him at all throughout the day. She did not know where he had done, and worry had begun to gnaw at her. He had never gone missing for so long before, and the hybrid woman knew she had to find him. They had been all over Inferni together, and the coyote woman had to sort her thoughts for a moment before she knew where to look. Her favorite spot had always been the beach, and it would always be -- but she was not Itachi, of course, and the scarred woman knew where to find him in a moment.


Kaena loped steadily toward the mountain, moving with surprising swiftness and ease over the land. She was an old woman, but she could still run, largely thanks to Clover. If it was not for the marijuana, the coyote would have found herself too arthritic to move without two hours to defrost each morning. She made her way up the mountain, finding the freshest scent of Itachi not long after. Her scarred nose hovering near the ground, the coyote tracked him to the cliff, panting gently when she saw him, back turned. “Itachi,” the woman said, a hint of sternness in her voice.

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#3
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Apologies for the length <3 sswm 848


He had been a flawless child, had he not? There had been little mischief to strike down on for Kaena. Obviously, Itachi did not know this, but perhaps his lack of a child’s heart should have warned his surroundings of his flawed design. His own quiet demeanour revealed the darker traits of his unique nature. He knew that there was something wrong inside him. They had asked him to play or tried to play with him, but it had turned into poor efforts on both sides. It was not that Itachi did not know how, but he could not bring himself to enjoy such insignificant activities. He had been on a stand still for quite a while now, but the darkness seemed to be slowly blooming under his skin, though the young boy did not at all perceive it as darkness. No, he believed it was a quiet understanding of this wicked world they all lived in. Kaena was an individual he actually respected and cared to, in the degree that he could care for another, and that was why he had chosen to do what he now had to do.

The blonde form remained still as he waited, waited for his caretaker’s soothing footsteps as she moved to search for her missing great grandson. It was hard to understand the ties that brought them together—made them family, but the love Kaena held for him erased every doubt. She should have been his mother, for she was so much more capable of being one than his own. Why could he not live with the young woman with eyes so similar to his? Why had she given him away to another? Was this what mothers did? It was hard for the Lykoi male to determine what normal and what was not; for he knew only the life he had been granted. There were no other puppies around, no other happy families where he could draw out errors of his own home. Everything was as it should be, but the red and violet eyed boy had decided that it was not enough. He needed more than this, and Kaena deserved better. He would be the one to save her. He just wanted her to be able to go to heaven.

Finally, large hybrid ears twitched and shifted to revel in the sound of approach. Rock and gravel was grinded against earth as mighty paws stepped on top of them. The young boy was surprised to find that a grin stretched across his blonde face. The line on his lips was not a pleasant one either. Had he owned the vocabulary to describe it, he might have found it to be wicked. He knew that it was not a loving, pleasant curve, and allowed a moment to pass as he struggled to leash the unpleasant, malevolent expression. It did not make sense, for he firmly believed that he was doing this because he cared for this woman approaching him. The voice, strong despite the owner’s magnificent age, soon whipped against his sensitive ears, though they weren’t sharp enough to turn his mental state into a submissive one. Her tone said more than merely his name; it said that it was time to follow her and retire for the evening. It said that he should not be out here at this hour. That he should have found his way home on his own by now.

Quiet tranquillity had finally settled on his face, and the vicious expression had died. It was only when he was certain that his facial muscles were in check that he turned his little head around to gaze in the direction of the woman that should be his world but wasn’t. ”Grandmother,” he breathed, feeling a pinch of annoyance at the sound of his own childish voice. As every puppy, he dreamed of the days where he would be a grown up and inhabit a deeper tone. He was not that small anymore, and would gain the size of an adult wolf once he was grown, but he was still a small figure compared to her. Kaena Lykoi was not young anymore though, and he was not oblivious of the stiffness he sometimes could detect in the early mornings and late evenings. He would have to trust that his youthful energy and muscle would be victorious for only a moment. His plan was not all that advanced, to be honest. He would offer her a very simple exit, one that did not require fangs or claws to be accomplished. He did not believe he had what it took to injure her flesh with teeth or dull nails. She deserved better.

”Come and sit with me, please,” he asked, eyes holding genuine plea within their deep scarlet depths. She should not be able to refuse him this if he used the right tones. A tinge of sorrow seemed to loom within him, but he could only continue to reassure himself that this was the right thing to do. He owed her this much.


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Table by Sie-kone
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#4
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Word Count :: 275 stfu i love your face



The scarred Centurion had cared for her great-grandchild as her own, raising him with a practiced relaxedness. She had raised more children than she could count at this point, having exceeded her knowledge of number-words entirely. She could remember each face and name, of course, but the scarred woman could not count them all without assistance. There had been little indication of anything wrong with Itachi other than his often-worrying quietness. The old coyote simply took his maturity as a sign of her good parentage rather than something wrong with the boy, of course -- the ego enjoyed compliments to itself, and the silver-shaded hybrid did have the experience to suggest child-rearing should have been easy for her.


That he would misbehave was rare; the monochrome hybrid could not recall the last time she had chided him. He was eager to absorb all the knowledge she had to offer him, and he had lacked the tiring boisterous nature of most children. The one-eyed woman looked at the boy oddly, sensing something amiss but hardly able to suspect her own blood of betrayal, certainly not one she had such close contact with. She moved closer to him before he had even asked, curiosity painted on her grizzled face. He asked her to sit by him, and the hybrid sidled to the edge of the ridge, settling next to him and wrapping her tail around her leg, peering over at him. He was growing, certainly not yet full grown, but large for one who was so much coyote. The silver-shaded hybrid wondered, not for the first time, if his father had been a full-blooded wolf.


“What's wrong?”



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#5
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300+



She had not done anything wrong; it was within him the flaw resided, and today he believed it would lead her to a well deserved end. She had gone through enough. Though, if the young male was to think about the actions he was about to make, he knew that this probably was something conjured out of his own greed as well. He longed for his heart to leap in flooding rhythm; wanted to see the results of his own action; dire results from bold choices that could not be taken back even if he was to change his mind and find that this was a horrible way to force death upon his own flesh and blood.

A lonely, bitter tremble seemed to pass through softened scarlet, but he was a determined youth without fear of facing the consequence of action. Or, he did not believe he was. Time would show, and it would happen now. His matriarch and leader wondered what was wrong, and his seated form rose on four light blonde legs, slowly turning to the monochrome form that had taken residence next to him. Just as he had requested. The depths of scarlet could drown the woman today, but he was confident that she would not smell his treacherous plan before it was too late.

”Nothing is wrong,” he spoke, reassuring her with a gentle voice, inhabited by the unique stillness that so often occupied this strange child. His form turned further, and paws brought him closer to the form. His form adopted the seemingly affectionate movement of a cat brushing its body against its owner’s feet, but his message was not life, but death. As he reached her back, he pulled away for just a moment to gain strength and determination in his weight. ”Goodbye.” The word was quiet and soft as it entered the air a mere moment before he tossed his form into the woman’s with all his might, aiming to shove her down the steep road of rock beneath.

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#6
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+5

Though fear had long been erased from his being, Gabriel lived in a world of suspicion. He saw enemies in shadows and where they ought not lay. He saw heredity as a fault. Conor would never be an ally of his. Any of Haku’s children would be considered flawed. Even Jefferson, whom had stood against his brother, still bore the shame that came from such a beast. Gabriel would not forget this. He could not forget the things that had been done to his family. Paranoia had kept him alive this long, after all. Had he been like this sooner, he might have destroyed Andre before the boy had touched his daughter. That was something he would never forgive himself for.

From the day he had first laid eyes on Itachi, Gabriel had disliked him. There was something dangerous in the way his eyes looked, something sinister in his stillness. Despite his mother’s reassurances, Gabriel had not been able to shake his doubt. Halo had all but abandoned the boy, which further drove the Aquila to believe there was something wrong with him. No mother would willingly abandon her child unless given reason. So Gabriel had watched from a distance, as patient as his father before him, and waited. The boy had never given him reason for this doubt to linger, but it had.

It was an odd and almost supernatural sensation that connected him to his mother. Gabriel had watched her leave her home, something outside of her pattern, when he had first felt something was wrong. This was not the first time he had sensed such a thing. His mother was not unpredictable. The Aquila had lingered only for a moment before he had begun to follow her. Once a spy, the halfbreed knew how to move without being heard, knew how to track and how to trace. His knowledge of the land only increased this skill, for he soon realized where she was going and broke away.

The pair was outlined by rock, one gold and one silver-black. Gabriel narrowed his eyes. Downwind, he could only catch whispers of their words—it was the bodies he read. So when the boy drew back, Gabriel realized with one horrible breath what he meant to do. The Aquila charged up from the mountainside, closed the distance as his mother’s form began to scramble against the face of rock and air, and grasped the back of her neck with jaws that were most certainly wolfish in their nature. He tasted blood.

She was not heavy, so much was the adrenaline that rushed through his body, and as soon as he was certain she was on solid ground the Aquila turned on his would-be nephew, hair all on end. The snarl that tore apart his face was horrendous; not since the truth of Haku’s assault had he been in such a fury. Ivory teeth stained by his own mother’s blood gleamed against a black maw, and his breath came in heavy bursts of steam. He would kill the boy. That much was certain.

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#7
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Word Count → 746 :: RAWRRRRR I RAMBLE <3 The first and third paragraphs are skippable thought and in the second she basically only hangs over the edge and motors her back legs and glares at Itachi anyways, so it is also skippable. :|

She had kept and loved him because Halo had not. Something had gone wrong with the red-eyed woman and her child, and the scarred Centurion no idea how deeply this ran. Had she any idea of the child's parentage, she would have reeled back from him, in all likelihood -- he had no choice in the matter, of course, but this did not save him from the blackened taint handed down by his grandfather. It may or may not have skipped his father, it may not have infected all of them, but it would have been enough to drive Kaena away from the child. He would not have been as precious as he seemed, if she knew all of that. It was a mystery to her, however, and the closest she had come to discovering anything relative to Itachi was her faint pondering of his parentage.


Her remaining eye, set toward him as Kaena always did when she had a choice of where to sit, watched without suspicion as he moved closer to her, a faint smile appearing on her scarred muzzle as he responded to her. “Then let's go home,” she said, though she did not move from the rock face yet. Unconvinced, she would wait until he made the move to leave or until he shared some deeper problem with her. She did not immediately understand what had happened when she found herself dangling over the edge of the rock face, rear legs flailing madly against the sheer rock and forelegs splayed far apart to try and keep her grip on the edge of the world. Confusion and anger both flashed in her face, and the hybrid looked to Itachi, rage and hurt both reflecting across her scarred features. She had raised him, she had cared for him, she had given him a place to live when his mother did not want him. Had she not taken him in, he might have starved to death on their borders, abandoned.


Such was the fate of many children when their mothers did not want them -- few were lucky enough to have outside relatives, she thought. Her own family had been an unknown; there were no aunts and uncles in her life, certainly no known grandparents. Had she left her mother, had her mother chosen to abandon her rather than provide whatever meager sustenance she did, the silver-shaded hybrid was certain she would have perished. Had her father not taken care of her after that, still, she would have died -- it was not until many months had gone by that she was able to fend for herself. These thoughts and many others seemed to fly through her head in slow motion; with her life passing there before her remaining eye, one caustic and stupid conscious thought entered the forefront of her mind: she had never imagined it would end like this, at the hands of family, family she had raised, no less. It was not as if she thought her family incapable of betrayal. Vitium and Andrezej both had proven that the blood was not strong enough to overcome all darkness. She had seen it in Vitium, though, before it had manifested. There were no indications of such a thing within Itachi, and if there were, she had been blind to them anyway.


The silver-shaded coyote became aware of sharp pain in her neck, something like teeth, and motion -- she was pulled back up and over the edge and placed, however roughly, onto solid ground again. Her claws gripped at the ground, her mind still somehow engaged in the act of falling, and she looked to Gabriel in bewilderment and gratefulness both. Still unable to fully process the situation, she watched as Gabriel stepped forward toward the boy. Some part of her was faintly aware she was bleeding and in pain, but even this seemed distant and far away, as if she'd been knocked clear out of her head for several hours and was just now coming to. Moving in a way that seemed painfully slow, the coyote stepped toward Gabriel, trying to angle her body between his and the child. He would kill Itachi, Kaena knew this much. There was no mercy within Gabriel, but whatever was left of it in Kaena extended to family members. Easily overruled, she would not press the matter, but silently, she had made her stance known. Exile, and if he came back -- then he would die.

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#8
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--



From that moment on things did not go in the right direction. Pale blonde pelt flared as a larger figurine burst into the scenery and leaped with canine fangs for the doomed creature of silver that was not supposed to live anymore. Quick steps were made to avoid being pummelled by the Aquila’s speedy rescue. Deep sunset glare remained on the two creatures and he watched Gabriel drag his great grandmother back onto safe ground. The youth was not angry, but he felt deep disappointing shaking the depths of his core like the slow rumble of the approaching earthquake. This was not supposed to happen and he would not feel his soul soar with the extra life that should have been lost.

Deep amber held fire as Gabriel’s eyes turned to the Prince’s still form. Deep maroon eyes did not shy from the vibrant connection, but he knew that he had never been farther from graze. Jaws parted slightly with the belated appearance of surprise at the doggish hybrid’s intrusion into the scene that should have belonged fully to the pale youth. Kaena’s form appeared between the two, but the Aquila’s eyes had been burned into his consciousness and would not flee. The boy, however, did. Turning quickly, he knew well what was at stake. Adrenaline gave him wings, and they were as black as the shadows that had poured their dark intentions into his young heart.

His time here was over, and his crown was tainted. The prince of betrayal had fallen deep.

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#9
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Even now, his mother was weak. Gabriel bristled at her intrusion, his bloodlust not yet satiated. He was capable of forgiving many things, for overlooking evils, but this was too far. The boy had tried to kill his mother. Tried to kill the only person who had looked at him with eyes unclouded, who had looked on him with pure love and nothing more. A terrible hatred boiled up in the Aquila. His jaws parted and a deep roar broke from his chest, pouring out in a wordless demand. As Itachi ran, Gabriel gave chase—but only until his golden form had scrambled over the rocks and vanished.

Staring in the direction he had gone, the Aquila did not turn to face his mother. For an eternity there was silence. “You should have let me kill him,” the dark-faced hybrid rumbled. He thought of Andre, of his brother, and knew he was right. Her weakness would cost them in time, of this he had no doubt. History repeated itself. Itachi shared the same tainted blood that had made the others mad.

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#10
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we could cap if you want after this Mel. :O


He was right. There was no reason Itachi should have still been allowed to breathe, and yet he did. She had not died as he had wanted, and he had not died as Gabriel had wanted. Her coal-shaded ears folded half-mast, and her single eye peered at the ground, unable to look at Gabriel or the direction that Itachi had fled. “I know.” He would return to them, there was no doubt in the aging Centurion's mind -- they all did, in one way or another, and Itachi would be no exception to this.


She shifted her weight from one leg to another, one-eyed gaze still firmly planted to the ground. Her four-legged body was arched strangely, a gesture of deference few were given the opportunity to see anymore. “When he comes back, you will,” the coyote said tiredly. He would be stronger when he came back; of this there was no doubt in Kaena's mind. Gabriel would always be stronger, however -- he was infallible in the silvery coyote's mind, and the thought that someone or something could best him simply was not a possibility. Whether this was a fallacy of old age or simply a misguided belief, one could not tell.

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