The gray coyote had detected a strange scent at the border, one she did not immediately recognize. She was patrolling the borders for just such a thing, though she was aware it wasn't her job. Molochai's arrival had brightened her demeanor immensely, and she found herself eagerly scoping out at least part of the borders almost daily, wondering who else was lurking out there. Perhaps her return to Inferni had given it's call to the blood more power than it had before. Maybe more of her children would slowly filter back in as they had last time; the grayscale hybrid was hopeful, but she did not recognize this scent. It did not mean it could be ignored, however, and she altered her course, angling toward the source of the scent.



    Just beyond the border she found a coyote, dressed in human garb and playing with a rather dangerous-looking knife. She stopped a few feet away from him, quite familiar with this process. This time, it would be quite different from what she was used to, however—this canine's connection to Gabriel meant most of the formalities could be skipped. She didn't know that yet, and looked him over as she would any other canine of unknown origin, that raptor eye wandering over Eli almost lazily, though she sized him up, calculating his worth by physical appearance. He was not starving, and he appeared in very good condition—a good sign already. There was a brief, pleased look on her face, and she nodded to him. "Looking for something?" It was relatively clear the coyote was in a suspended state, waiting for something. A home would be her first guess.

    Survival motivated the grizzled canine, and her instincts kept her sharp around the weapon, though he did respectfully put it away. She correctly recognized its presence as a mere symptom of boredom and a habit, not of malice—though the possibility that the coyote was presenting himself nicely did occur to Kae. His hat came from his head, revealing a very coyote face and two brilliantly chartreuse yellow eyes. They were bright and liquid green, a surprising, eerie shade—not terribly far from that unmistakable lime green color of Salvaged Eternity's gaze, the same one that lurked in her daughter's eye.



    The coyote spoke, and Kaena was not too shocked to hear Gabriel's name leave his lips. She nodded, and returned his smile, although her own was somewhat wary. He hadn't asked for Inferni; he was specifically seeking her son? The need to protect him rose in her. "My son is the Aquila of this clan, yes," the coyote said, and the way she said the word Aquila made it unmistakable as anything but a a leadership rank. It was one of those ancient words in that forgotten tongue, one of the few she remembered from her father's early, brief education. "What do you want with him?" the question came, though it was not unfriendly or hostile—merely business-like. Kaena knew she would call for Gabriel in the end anyway; whether or not this outsider tread upon Inferni's land was no longer her decision.

    The hybrid canine knew very little what happened during her son's departures—he hadn't spoken much of it, but then again, she had never bothered to ask. But it was coyotes like this who had imparted to Inferni the tradition of adorning the borders with skulls, and Kaena wondered how many skulls this coyote had planted into the ground. Other than the vague concept of war and the inherited practice of adorning their perimeter with bones, Kaena knew little about her son's distant past, let alone the coyotes Gabriel had fought alongside. There was easy familiarity about the coyote, however, and he spoke her name and a familiar word to Kaena—Scintilla. She relaxed, and padded closer toward him to get a better look at him.



    His manners impressed her, since they were familiar and not wolfish in the least—how could they be? There was nothing in this creature which spoke of wolf blood, though Kaena could never be absolutely certain. One thing was for sure—he bore the scars of warfare just as prominently as she, and any creature who wore such obvious badges of bloodshed were due respect. She tipped her head to him, a real smile spreading across her face. "I am," she said, confirming her existence. The coyote had introduced himself, and spoke his trade. "You must be to have found Gabriel after so long," she said, suspicious that it was chance Eli had wandered onto Inferni's borders. Then again, it had taken her nearly a year and a half to return here and she had known the way—sort of.



    "Are you looking to settle down, or just passing through?" Either answer seemed satisfying to the coyote; she understood the urge to wander, though it had not shown strongly in her for some time. Then again, a coyote who had fought in the war with Gabriel and was obviously seasoned with the flavor of combat such as Eli would be a valuable asset to Inferni, supposing he wished to stay. The tension was building with Phoenix Valley, and the more frightening, skilled coyotes such as this one that Gabriel amassed, the better.