I'm so tired. D: Sorry, this post is bleh.



    The meal was good and satisfying to the Lykoi matron, and she was digging in for her third helping. She decided to eat the liver, as she had read or heard somewhere that it had the most nutrients of anything she could eat, and as she aged she'd need to keep herself well-fed, well-rested, and in the best shape possible. Longevity was always a possibility. The Lykoi woman was nearing a decade on the earth, and age was making itself known. Old wounds she had long forgotten ached, especially when it rained. She felt far older, though Kaena knew she still had good years left in her, though dying in battle seemed so much more appropriate.



    Although Kaena wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, death was frightening to her in a way it hadn't been before. She had a clan, a family, a purpose—there was something concrete which tethered her to this world, and she did not know what awaited her on the far side. The ashen hybrid had inflicted a lot of pain and killed a few on the way, and their eager souls might lurk just beyond her perception in another dimension, circling her like vultures, waiting for her soul to rise from her body to take their vengeance. She didn't know—and that frightened the hell out of her. She mulled over this as she devoured more of the creature, though she slowed as she grew fuller by the minute.



    There were the sounds of an approach, accompanied by a strange, squeaky sort of sound Kaena simply could not identify. It intrigued her, and she was looking up and chewing as Jezebel came into view. She recognized the hybrid before her as the one who had joined her when that wolf hybrid had trespassed on Inferni territory, claiming to be some strange relation to her very grandson. The dark hybrid was intriguing, but in the exhilaration of the moment, they hadn't had a chance for proper introductions, and they were still basically strangers aside from a name and a face. However, the canine before her had defended Inferni eagerly, and for that, Jezebel was already well-liked by Kaena.



    She grinned at her ironic statement, and indicated the kill with a toss of her coyote head."Want some? I'm done," she said after she'd swallowed her last bite. She was glad someone had stumbled along to share in her luck—it was rare enough to find a deer on Inferni's rolling plains, let alone a sleeping and injured one. The thing must have run a long, long way—pity it was in vain. She had already cracked off a small piece of a sharp rib bone, and she began meticulously picking her teeth with it, showing little regard for human manners—after all, she was a wild canine.

    The coyote nodded as Jezebel spoke to her. "I was hoping to do that," she said with a grin. The offer Jezebel made pleased Kae, and she nodded eagerly. "I'm sure somebody there will be hungry," the hybrid added, cheerfulness in her tone. Inferni was getting to be a big clan, with fourteen adult members and two children among its ranks. She was quieter as the coyote ate, working on her teeth gently with the pick. It was better for her if she kept them in good shape—they would only last her so long. She nearly snorted aloud as she imagined herself as a toothless old crone. Such a thing was not incredibly far away.



    Kaena had made much the same promise to herself as a youth. Her mother had started her off well enough, delivering the first of many scars to the grizzled hybrid's body; Delphine was the one to thank for the two slices just above her eyes, inflicted on Kaena and all of her sisters when they were just days old. From the moment her mind could form cognitive thought, young Kae knew her mother was crazy—there was constant babbling, talk of her mother Sibylla and her father Vasilik, and her grandparents, dogs and coyotes both. Talk of god, the devil, hell, heaven, earth—everything. Delphine was almost never silent, filling the quiet space when her children did not mewl for food with her own words, an endless cascade of mostly useless information, things that hadn't made sense until her father made sense of them for her.



    Even when Andre had saved her, that had been short-lived. Her stepmother Sabryne had been almost indifferent to her, acting as if she did not exist, though she half-heartedly cared for malnourished Kaena and helped Andre nurse her back to health. There was never a kind word for the puppy, and the ashen hybrid had long suspected Saby knew her son was sneaking off at night to rape and torment his half-sister, and did nothing about it. Kae had never been given the opportunity to prove it, however, and when Saby killed Andre for murdering Kairo to protect Kae, she had sealed her fate.



    Though it had taken her weeks to exact revenge for killing the only ancestral family that had ever been kind to Kaena, she had eventually made good on her threat to kill Saby that night, finding her pregnant with Andre's children in the nearby urban city weeks later. Maybe it was that single sight—her father's children in the belly of the wolf that had killed him—that had set Kaena off completely, that one vision that had driven her completely mad. Surely, she was fucked up before that, but maybe it was that one thing that had completely wrecked her and driven her over the edge.



    Her thoughts cleared as she finally dug out a particularly irritating piece of gristle from between her teeth and Jezebel began to speak. Her ears turned to the ashen woman as she spoke, though her golden eye studied the shape of the bone, deciding it was good enough to keep as a permanent sort of toothpick. Kaena's mind was somewhat more inventive now; she finally saw the use in manipulating the world with her hands. It was a late effort, however, and she would never be as proficient at tool-making and adapting human ways as the younger generations.



    "Kaena," she said, sure her reputation would precede her. The mess of Lykoi children had done quite a good job of propagating her name—it would have been more surprising for Jezebel not to have heard of Kaena, unless she was a rather new member. Most everyone else she had encountered thus far knew her by name alone—but then again, most of them had been her relatives. Jezebel and Kaena were not related; the Lykoi matron could see that beyond a doubt. It certainly helped that Gabriel was the Aquila of the clan; certainly if anyone asked about the clan's origins he would mention his mother. A loving thought passed through the grizzled canine's mind.



    "I agree. Damn pest," she said, darkness creeping into her tone. She didn't want to taint this introduction with thoughts of their last, however, and that was all she said about Skylar, quite happy to leave the subject at that unless Jezebel wished to discuss it further. The hybrid grinned, and patted her belly. "A better lucky catch, and much, much more relaxing," Kae added, laughing her gravely laugh. It was lucky they'd found Skylar when they did—she was just outside the mansion, where they had a few coyotes residing as well as many useful items that would be collectively missed by Inferni.

    Naturally, the hybrid woman was ignorant to any personal goings-on between Jezebel and Gabriel; her son had not spoken of such things to her. Then again, why would he? It was not as if he needed or wanted Kaena's approval, and certainly, she couldn't have objected to anyone her son claimed to love, even if she had been a full-blooded wolf. The hybrid was far beyond controlling her second eldest litter; they were nearly four years of age, clearly past the point of adulthood. Still, if they sought her, she would be here for them, regardless of the past—even for Vitium. Surely they couldn't meet on Inferni's territory, but maybe the elder hybrid would dare to meet her traitorous son on neutral grounds—so long as she had an ally lurking somewhere behind her, in hiding and waiting to strike if Vitium decided to attack. Such a thought chilled the gray hybrid, and she wondered if her son was capable of a betrayal of that magnitude.



    The darker coyote spoke, and Kae grinned. Valkyrie was a distant relative to the silver-white hybrid—kind of. The de le Poer youth was the child of Ryan, who was Anselm's daughter, and Anselm de le Poer was something of a cousin to Gabriel and probably Ahren as well. Though Kaena shared no direct blood with any of these canines, there was surely a connection between them, forged at first between Kaena and Ahren. The Lykoi woman had a fair amount of respect for the de le Poer family anyway, and even if Valkyrie hadn't been an Inferni coyote, had she introduced herself with surname, the Lykoi woman would have been perfectly pleasant.



    She was curious about her very small granddaughter, as well—she did not know Zana at all, aside from their brief, awkward meeting on the borders. The hybrid matron was troubled by this; her other grandchildren had been relatively accepting of the hybrid matron, as most of them were too young to have remembered her anyway. Zana, especially—the coyote was just nine or ten months of age by now, far too young to recall Kaena's departure from Inferni and the Aquila position, yet she had showed the most discontent with the elder wolf's return. It was something to think about, anyway, until Kaena actually encountered the girl in a more comfortable setting. She was elusive, however, and the Inferni matron hadn't seen hide nor hair of the cinnamon girl since her acceptance at the border more than a month ago.



    Her name had inspired recognition in the darker clan member, and the coyote nodded. Surely this was how she was most well known; her children and grandchildren had done well to propagate not only the Lykoi surname but the legend of its founder through the coyote clan and even to distant, faraway lands such as the place where Jezebel and Gabriel had met. Kaena wondered if the stories exceeded or exagerated her in any way; surely most of her children saw her in a better light than the rest of the world. Jezebel's next revelation interested Kaena, and her gold-yellow eye surveyed Jezebel with a new intrigue and new question lurking deep in her violent skull. "You knew Gabriel when he was younger?" she asked, her curiosity clearly piqued. "I'm sorry to say he was never very specific when speaking of the Scintilla war," she said, her tone certainly reflecting the apology. Her son had spoken of the war only once to her—explaining why it had occurred and the basics of what had happened—but it had surely been a long time, and she did not know why her son had been drawn to this place in the first place. Jezebel certainly could reveal shades of Gabriel's history his mother had not realized before.



    Jezebel was pretty and petite, her features all the tapering, slender looks of coyote—but for all her beauty, she was still quite obviously a deadly woman. The Lykoi woman grinned, and she figured Jezebel probably meant the eye and all of her scars—surely they made the Veritas easily identifiable. There weren't many creatures walking the earth that looked like she did. No, she hadn't participated in warfare during her youth or been indoctrinated with religion or some other burning cause in her chest; still, the scars alone were proof enough of her ability to survive. "What was it like for you?" the hybrid asked suddenly, content to laze around for a long few moments before they undertook the seemingly gargantuan task of moving the deer's still viable meat to the caves for others to finish; both of the coyotes appeared quite full and content, and the hybrid had no problem catching up and learning a bit about her new clanmate while she digested.

    The hybrid woman thought she had seen war. In truth, she had only seen a brief, mostly futile resistance given by the Aremys wolves that caved within a few moments and sent them scrambling westward. Had they actually been organized or chosen to fight, the damage Inferni suffered surely would have been greater. As it was, they had only lost one coyote—a straggler Kaena could not even remember the name of now. He had been a recent joinee, eager to prove himself in the throes of battle, and he hadn't survived. The hybrid woman had not, however, seen the ravages of true, drawn-out warfare. She had experienced it on a smaller scale with Salvaged, but then again, there really was no such thing as a one-on-one war, so that was not the proper term for what happened between Kaena and Salvaged.



    The hybrid woman was immediately sorry she'd asked her question, and she hoped Jezebel wouldn't be too offended by her bluntness. It was never in Kaena's nature to beat around the bush; she had a direct, open honesty. If she was placid enough to sit down and ask questions and Jezebel was kind enough to answer, Kaena would certainly entertain most of the questions directed at her in return. The coyote hybrid's ears folded back at half-mast, not quite pressed into the shaggy silver mane along her neck but neither erect, the mangled flesh of the right ear moving slower and somewhat more jerkily than her intact left ear. Jezebel didn't seem to take terrible offense to Kaena's directness, so the Lykoi woman paid rapt attention to the words the woman spoke, eager to know more about her son's childhood.



    The hybrid continued to speak, explaining far more than her son had. He had explained the tactics of battle, the tides of the war—but none of the in-between. Inferni's war had been simple, primitive—but the war Jezebel spoke of sounded more like a human war. Those were ghastly things, though Kaena knew as the Luperci and other creatures adapted human buildings and relics, they would grow more human in turn. A rueful look crossed her features, and she realized her assumption about Jezebel was correct. She was indeed a deadly creature—capable of healing and damaging the body greatly with the very same set of paws. It was a comforting feeling to know this canine was on Kaena's side.



    Surprise flashed in Kaena's solo eye, the yellow-gold eagle eye growing wider as she listened to Jezebel. She had not known he had commanded wolves prior to this, though in retrospect, she supposed it made sense. When she had ruled as the Aquila he had taken orders as well as given them to those lesser, and she should have guessed it sooner. Her surprise over this occupied her thoughts, otherwise she might have picked up on some of Jezebel's eagerness in speaking about Gabriel. She was still marveling over the fact that her son had in fact had prior leader experience, that someone completely objective and indifferent had thought her son was good enough to have control over others. It was a lovely thought.



    "Gabriel never told me he'd lead elsewhere," the coyote said, gazing at the other coyote with a strange look plastered across her features. The darker hybridwas looking at the earth, and Kaena was sorry she'd been so forward. "I didn't mean to dredge up the past," she added. The gods knew there was enough painful shit Jezebel could have asked Kaena about, if only she knew. Her comment about the fire hadn't gone unnoticed, and the Lykoi nodded slowly, feeling as though she was missing something crucial. She could not for the life of her figure out what it was, so she set her troubled mind aside and tried to reconcile with Jezebel. "You survived, and you're stronger for it," she said, not daring to say the war had left Jezebel relatively untouched. Kae knew damn well the old wounds of battle often ran far deeper than the skin.



    There was a brief smile across her raven lips, and she peered over at the deer. Just behind it, there was a small sort of rodent, nervously hopping back and forth as it eyed the two canines. It hadn't dared to touch the corpse yet, as Jezebel was still far too close. The dark-eyed, tiny mouse eyed the ashen canine, and then disappeared back into the brush, probably to wait somewhere out of sight. "He mentioned the fire," she said, shrugging one scarred shoulder. It seemed an odd detail to mention to her, anyway—the more recent fire stuck sorely on Kaena's mind and she wondered if Jezebel had lived in Inferni before that wildfire had eaten the territories of Bleeding Souls. There was that pesky feeling that she was ignorant of some vital thing, and she shoved it down as best she could, ready for whatever Jezebel might throw at her next—Kaena knew just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the ravagings of warfare, it seemed, and if Jezebel had anything else to say, whether it was informative or purely cathartic.

No problem. ♥



mall-caps;">In Character

    There was much more Kaena should have known about her son, but she did not. The coyote was regretful she'd ever let him slip out of her fingers; she did not know how he had survived so long on his own nor why he had returned to her so changed. The hybrid had known only a touch of the Scintilla War and what had happened in that dark part of her golden son's history. There were just the faint traditions carried from the west coast by her son and the story of fire and pain he'd brought with him. It was a clipped, censored version—the woman had known it even then. The scars on his body had spoken volumes themselves, though, and the grizzled coyote had been smart enough even then not to press too far into fresh wounds.



    The dark coyote spoke again, and the hybrid woman offered her a smile. She was glad Jezebel hadn't taken offense to her seeming interrogation; it would not have done to cause any tension between clan members. "Too true, she said softly. It hurt to think of the people she'd lost, but in time, the memories seemed to become more bearable. It did not pain the coyote as much to think of Zulifer as it had when he'd first died, though it still hurt to say his name aloud, surely. But the grizzled woman was not the distraught, frail creature she'd been when he passed. "I wonder if they ever go away completely, hm?" she wondered aloud, though it was more of a rhetorical question than anything. She did not expect an answer; she had years on the coal-furred canine before her and her oldest demons had yet to die.



    Kaena's sable ears flicked toward the coyote and she smiled, indeed proud of her family. It was a subject she could discuss at length, though she was still feeling rather lethargic from her large meal. "Yeah, I'm glad you're here, as well." The woman agreed soundly; this meeting was beneficial on both sides, for certain. Her face twisted into a smile, mangled by the knotty, hardened scar tissue criss-crossing her face. "Thank you. Gabriel is everything a mother could want in a son," she said, though she would never deride her other children or play favorites. They simply had not shared that dedication to the clan Gabriel held. It was a strange thing, too—all of her children had been born in Inferni, and most of them had been raised in Inferni. Yet Gabriel, who had been witness to his brother's murder and driven in fear from Inferni's shores so long ago, had returned to her twice and had worn the clan's crown after she had gone, making it strong and founding it on this side of the mountain. What more could a mother want?



    The woman spoke and sprang to her feet. The gold eye in Kaena's skull watched with envy; she could no longer leap from the ground in such a fluid motion. Still, she stood quickly enough, moving slower than the coal-colored coyote. "I think we could manage carrying it," the woman said. She was already in her two-legged form, but she could easily become four-legged. Their halfling forms could easily carry the thing between their jaws, but it would probably do to keep the carcass in good shape for the others. She shrugged her coal sholders. "It's up to you, though. Whatever you think is best," the cloud-colored woman said, the tips of her yellow teeth showing in a smile.