The city called to Kaena just as certainly as Inferni did, and the woman was driven to return here to this place repeatedly. There was too much here; even if she took up residence here permanently and spent all her time wandering the city, she doubted she would ever find all of its secrets. It was late afternoon by the time the silvery canine made it to the heart of the urban jungle, seeking a fun time or just something useful. She had nothing planned for the day, and she figured she could take the trip to the city and return by nightfall, as usual.



    Dangerous as Kaena was, the hybrid woman did not mistake the clear risk in the nighttime city. There were too many similar streets and too many good hiding places; if someone wanted to track her back home, it would be far too easy. So she preferred to walk the city streets during the day, when visibility was high. The overcast sky did not completely obscure the sun's rays, and there was plenty of bright light filtering through the broken, gray buildings reaching into the bellies of the clouds.



    The woman was wandering down a wide main street, littered with the hulking masses of ramshackle cars, most of their windows long busted out and their innards rusted just as thoroughly as their exteriors when she saw the other canine. The wolf had pale white fur, something which struck Kaena as familiar. She crouched down, peering around the broken headlights of an ancient car ruin, her golden eye narrowing as she regarded the female. There was simple curiosity in Kaena's features, and she crept forward, intent on getting a better look at the woman before she made her presence clear. There was no aggression in her, just interest. Maybe this was another part of Jael's wolf family. The white coat suggested familiarity, perhaps a sibling or a distant cousin.

I think I forgot to mention Kae's injuries from the fight with Xeris in the last post. :| Sorry! Argh.



    Kaena remained crouched and still as that single aureate eye burned into the wolf's back, watching as she painted. Jealously sparkled in the woman's chest; it was not so long ago that she'd mourned her own lack of red paint to splash on the skulls adorning Inferni's borders. Maybe she could come back and steal it later, if the wolf left it out? Maybe. After all, how useful could the stuff be for her if all she wanted to do was paint a name on the window? Kaena assumed that was the name of the female; this area smelled heavily of that same scent wavering over from the white wolf. She smelled faintly of other wolves, but she was altogether lacking that scent of the pack, the combined, muddled scent of many wolves together.



    The woman remained quiet as the wolf took a few steps back to admire her handiwork, and Kaena almost inched backward, afraid she would be discovered. It was a wonder the powdery female hadn't detected her already; perhaps something was occupying her mind already? The gray woman was curious now, and as Naniko headed forward, she slunk out from behind the car, making a fair amount of noise as she walked purposely. There was no point in scaring the hell out of the woman for no reason. There was a slight limp from the fresh wounds crossing her shoulder, but they were healing nicely and they would leave a scar.



    "Naniko, huh?" she said as she came into view, stopping just outside of what she would have considered personal property. There was no aggression in her body; pure white coats were somewhat rare, and Kae was curious to know if this woman held any relationship to her grandchildren. What she knew of his family she did not like; two half-siblings had come to claim him and neither had pleased Kaena in any particular way. Still, the possibility that both of those wolves were lying had crossed her mind, and the woman still sought knowledge of the wolf side of Jael's family. There was no friendliness or hostility in the scarred hybrid's features, that golden eye regarding the wolf with curiosity.

    The hybrid woman was no longer delusional enough to fancy herself a leader. When it came to Inferni versus her family, her family would always come first. That was an easy choice, though it was not one she would make so rashly in the future. If her family chose to wander, that was fine, but if they were abducted, she would pursue... but she would think about it first. Such a mission, however valiant and necessary, would almost certainly be one undertaken with the understanding that it was a finale. She was old now, and it would be difficult for her to survive another trek into the open wilderness. The grizzled coyote was lucky to have survived the last one, and luckier still that she had managed to return here at all.



    Brilliant green eyes turned to face Kaena, and the pearly white woman seemed friendly enough. Kaena relaxed. She was injured; she could not be an aggressor, or she might find herself in dire trouble. At the woman's question, the coyote hybrid shook her head firmly. No—the city was too powerful for the old coyote. Even now, she could feel its power, a faint heat beneath her paws and a distant hum in her ears. Maybe it was ghosts, the ghosts of the many people who had lived and breathed here before it became a desolate wasteland. Kaena had never been able to see spirits or ghosts of any kind. "No. I'm Kaena Lykoi," she answered, stating what she thought out to be obvious. No, her home was on the grassy, rolling plains of the Waste.



    The woman mentioned her scars, and Kaena grinned proudly, turning her right side to the white wolf, showing off that empty, black hole where there should have been a glittering golden eye. Instead, there was only twisted scar tissue and shadow. Quickly, her vision realigned with the ghostly female. "I haven't seen a healer," the woman replied, her voice twinged with some strange sourness. She was thinking of Fatin, bitterly; she had not seen the reddish wolf since that attempt to bring her to the coyote clan. "The ocean always heals my wounds," the woman added, that momentary darkness gone from her tone. She had always simply soaked in the shallows when she was injured, the stinging salt water cleansing her broken body.



    There was interest in her face as the woman mentioned herbs; she wondered what the pearly wolf had in her possession. "Hm. I'm not in too rough shape, but I'm sure it wouldn't hurt if you can spare some," she ventured, her scarred features focused on the woman intently. "I won't bite," she said with a grin, though the promise was genuine. Inferni often had a fearsome reputation, but this wolf hadn't seemed to regard her with anything but friendliness. It was strange. Then again, loners didn't have that pesky sense of pack loyalty and protectiveness. Kaena supposed it had also helped that she had been as non-threatening as possible. Then again, in her somewhat battered condition she could hardly afford another fight.

    The coyote woman was quite content to play nice with this wolf. She was in neither the mood nor the condition to be stirring up trouble, and if she hadn't been intrigued by the pearly coat on this female and her actions the silvery coyote surely would have simply stalked on by, indifferent to the intricacies of some pale loner in the city. If they hadn't spoken at all, Kaena might have even figured Naniko for a ghost. It was hard to tell sometimes; occasionally there were apparations, whispers in her ear, but never a complete hallucination. Ever-cautious, the hybrid woman padded closer, her sharp golden eye focused on the white wolf despite their friendliness. One could never be too safe. Kaena was relatively certain that Naniko was not a threat, but she was ever-wary.



    Kaena walked forward, favoring her leg slightly. It hurt to put a lot of weight on it, certainly, but the hybrid woman would survive this wound as she had survived the others. The pale wolf spoke again, and Kaena nodded. "It stings, but it works. I don't know which plants do what, I'd end up poisoning myself," the Lykoi woman admitted, though she hadn't expressed a particular desire to learn. Her method worked just fine; the hybrid woman had never suffered an infection other than the one that had rotted out her eye, though that seemed simply unavoidable. Even with powerful drugs or antibiotics, it was possible that the hybrid woman was destined to lose that eye anyway.



    Dulled coal nails clicked against the tiled floor of the abandoned store, though Kaena paused at the entrance to allow the white wolf to take the lead. The hybrid did not wish to be rude and end up back out on the street, without whatever goodies this woman had to offer up. Perhaps if it was good enough and they proved civil to one another, Kaena might offer Naniko a trade. Maybe. The woman peered around the dimly lit store, finding it quaint but mostly unrecognizable. She knew a little about farming, and she vaguely understood why the humans had done it, but for a carnivorous creature such as herself, agricultural proficiency was all but useless. The pallid canine stalked ahead of Kae, who followed at a respectful distance, turning head this way and that to get a better look at the things surrounding her. Though she could not see much use for many of the human relics she saw, she supposed a more inventive canine might be able to jury-rig something useful from the clutter.



    They reached a back room of sorts, and the powdered wolf pulled out a bag, though she did not shift. This caught Kaena's attention, and she wondered if the woman was not a Luperci for a moment. There were other possibilities, of course—illness, phobia, even pregnancy—but it was simply most likely that Naniko was a luperci nonissi. The hybrid woman peered at the things the paler canine pulled from the bag, her gaze shifting to the woman's face as she spoke. The gray hybrid began to shift quickly and quietly, though as she passed the halfway point her claws shrank back into her paws, a clear sign of non-aggression when it came to a shift. For once, Kaena was using her powerful Optime hands for their dexterity rather than their ability to rip and rend flesh. She waited, however, quiet content to allow Naniko to move at her own pace. There was no point in rushing the pale canine; such a thing would certainly irritate her, and whatever goods Kaena might acquire here would certainly be lost, bridges burned and buried. Absently, the grizzled woman unhitched her pack, exhaling a sigh of relief as the tightness left her chest. She swung it around and placed it beside her, a battered olive green canvas thing with several patches and more scars than the storm-cloud canine who carried it.



    The woman began to speak, and Kaena grinned again, that frightening, twisted smile passing across her coal lips. "I was half of Inferni's foundation, too many years ago. I met an old friend who is dead on a beach that is ash now. I have never known another place as home," the woman said, honesty ringing in her words. Clouded Tears. The name was ancient, reverberating in a way that shook Kaena. The pack had been surely older than Inferni, formed in the same year but in the early spring. There was no point in asking about the pack's ancient history, Laruku's mother Kiriska, or her black friend Ravyn. Those wolves precluded this one's birthday by several years, if Kaena recalled it correctly. There was a thin smile on her lips for a moment, but it disappeared as the words left her lips. "Of course. I remember Clouded Tears very well. Did you know Laruku?" the grizzled woman asked. There was almost nonchalance in her voice, though thinking of the red-eyed hybrid now pained her in an unexpected way. He had delivered three of her children to her—though one was already in the ground with him, his life cut down by his own righteous brother. There was justice in Andrezej's death, however, and Kaena could not hold it against Gabriel. He had acted in protection of the greater Lykoi family instead of the individual, and adhered to his duty as an Aquila.



    It was strange to mention the man now. She knew him; she'd known him all along, it seemed. She remembered his father well, and though she did not encounter him until he was an adult, the Lykoi woman had always held him in that glittering, elevated regard. Arlo Xyl's blood had flowed in his veins, and with it came the spirit of Yasu Zarah. There was a dull ache in her chest, similar to that same one she felt when she thought of Ahren, Zulifer, Zarah—any of the ones that could have been. Astaroth was a natural exclusion from that roster; he had betrayed the hybrid woman in an unforgivable way, and his only purpose on this earth had been to deposit the devil's seed in her belly and grant life to Samael, Razekiel, and Ahemait. There was curiosity in Kaena; part of her desired to know why the she-wolf had departed her pack. But just as Naniko had wished to inquire about her scars, Kaena avoided that subject as well—fearing to be perhaps too sensitive. "Did you dislike pack life?" the hybrid asked instead, settling down to her rear. She leaned her back against the wall, stretching one leg out before her while crossing the other over it.