[html] | http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_bloody.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:230px; padding-left:15px; padding-right:15px; padding-bottom:10px;"> For Inferni's thread prompt #3, the crazy wolf who's been all "omg trespass." I think Anselm would work pretty good here, but any number of Inferni people could join up.
The Veritas was quite glad to wake up at some point in the early afternoon to silence. She was asleep in a dampened, moist cave alone and by herself. But she had woken to a strange sound, or rather, a lack of one—the rain. She opened her single golden eye and inhaled deeply. The world still smelled like water, but she could see the sunlight filtering dimly through the cave, flecks of dust dancing through the slim beam of light snaking toward her forepaw. The grizzled coyote stood, stretching slowly as she yawned widely, those sallow teeth showing for a moment as her lips drew back in a frightening expression that could have been a snarl. The hybrid woman moved after a moment, walking quickly into the warm sunlight and breathing a sight of relief to see a bright blue sky.
The clouds were finally gone, and they'd taken with them the rain that had plagued the new world lands here for what had felt like months. The first months of summer had felt more like spring; there had seemed no end to the precipitation. Even still, she could see evidence in hollows in the ground here and there, the swampy muck that Inferni's lowest-lying earth had turned into. Her face soured momentarily, and she almost considered turning back around and going back to sleep, but duty beckoned her to the border, and she set off slowly, wandering over the spongy territory and headed for the territory's nearest perimeter along the inlet. Her most recent venture to the coastline border had brought her upon Mason, and rather young coyote who had managed to survive for a month on his own.
The hybrid woman began her trek around the borders, weaving over and around that invisible line as she went. She traveled in her four-legged Lupus form, her head close to the ground and her shoulders rubbing against the occasional small bush or tree, leaving tufts of gray and white fur behind. Her scent would strengthen that invisible wall between their territory and neutral lands, she knew—and she was eager to keep the outsiders where they belonged, naturally. The woman was almost to the trees now, having discovered nothing interesting but enjoying the sunny afternoon walk nonetheless.
As she entered the woods, the ground grew drier and easier to walk upon, and her pace naturally increased. The silvery woman continued the same pattern of markings here, rubbing her head and shoulders against the trees as she went. A strange scent caught her nose, and interest showed in her body language, her ears pricking and that golden eye narrowing, her pace increasing as she walked at a quick clip toward the source of the scent. The coyote woman growled softly. It smelled very fresh, and the owner of the scent might still be close. She slowed, slinking forward toward the very edge of Inferni territory, happening across the pile of broken and smashed bones, stinking clearly of that wolf scent. He had walked on their territory, for sure—the whole area surrounding the destroyed bones reeked of wolf.
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[html] whoop! -generally too lazy to do the thread prompts but agrees that anselm would be peeved about something like this.- XD
@#$%&Anselm had been aware of the male wolf for a couple of days now. Initially he mistook the scent trails as those of a hapless wanderer, as they meandered inside of Inferni territory only briefly. As time wore on, however, he came to realise these events were not driven by chance. It was the same scent and it penetrated deeper and deeper into claimed territory each time. Every so often he'd stumble across one of Bastardo's markings and cover it with his own; when the trails were fresh, he'd try in vain to locate their source. Every time, the elusive wolf slipped into a stream or marshy part of the land (which wasn't difficult to do these days) and the trail was lost.
@#$%&Needless to say, the territorial hybrid was livid. When was this guy coming? Anselm had increased the frequency of his patrols, trying his best to make a round once every morning, noon, and evening. He never covered the same ground at the same time twice a week, but Bastardo seemed wily enough to realise coming to the same spot twice was a bad idea. His trails were always somewhere new, and he was growing more and more creative in his disrespect. This one, though, would take the fucking cake.
@#$%&By luck or coincidence, Anselm had been sniffing along the same trail as Kaena, though in the opposite direction. She was downwind from him, however, and he didn't yet realise she was in the area. Crouched low in his preferred form, the seccui, the hybrid caught the sounds of someone up ahead. Adrenaline pumped through his veins and he charged, hackles raised wildly and eyes ablaze--a truly intimidating sight. As soon as he spotted his aunt friend in the distance, his hackles settled and he came to a skidding halt as he regarded her distraught expression. His gaze now dropped to the smashed bones at her feet, and a whuff of air escaped his nose as he exhaled violently. "I'm going to fucking kill him," he said darkly, then nothing more for a few long moments. "I take it he's not back that way either, then. Bloody hell, how does he keep slipping through the cracks?"
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[html] | http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/ ... tblood.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:248px; padding-left:25px; padding-right:25px; padding-bottom:10px;"> There was rage across the woman's features in an instant as she looked down at the ruined pile of bones in front of her. What manner of moron walked across their territory and descecrated their border decor? The hybrid woman sat down abruptly, her silvery haunches smacking the ground as she unceremoniously planted herself on the spot, gazing down at the off-white rubbish pile before her as if it held answers. It did not, and the cloudy hybrid was left with only that foreigner's scent in her nose and the broken bones before her, tattered on the ground as if set to mock her. The sable ridge along her spine was prickling in irritation, her tail thrashing in an almost feline manner as she thought about what to do next.
She had smelled this smell before—faintly, here and there. It had gone close to the borders but to her knowledge not over them, not until this moment. The silvery hybrid tilted her head back to the sky, the cry for assistance just about to escape her lips when she became aware of the approach of another. He was coming fast, either assured in his footing here or without a care of who caught him. The hybrid's tapered muzzle tilted back into the breeze, and she scented Anselm, immediately calmed by the presence of another. Anselm was a smart coyote and probably a far better tracker than she was—the hybrid canine watched as he approached, stopped, and came forward again, noticing the wreckage at her feet. There was anger still in his face, and the hybrid woman simply shook her head. She would do worse if she caught this wolf now—there was a difference between trespassers who wandered over their borders out of ignorance and trespassers who came over their borders with an intent. If he was reckless enough to destroy their decor, he would probably not hesitate to attack a member of Inferni, either.
"Nope. No sign of him I've seen," she said dryly, nudging the useless pile of bones before her with a foot and a heavy sigh. "I don't know," she added, more than a hint of displeasure in her voice. Anselm's presence here proved she was not the only one to scout around the borders often. She stood, restless, and wandered around the pile of bones and Anselm, half-heartedly sniffing for something she might have missed. "Doesn't smell like he belongs anywhere." The wolf's scent was singular—there was no underlying hint of other wolves, no badge of a pack to the intruder's characteristic scent. She stopped where she'd started, though the hybrid did not sit back down, merely stood before Anselm, both worry and anger displayed on her scarred visage. |
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------Memories flooded his mind as torrents of blood overflowing a breached dam: the stench of early decay; the stiff, lifeless body of a pup dangling from a noose in a tree, swaying to and fro in a silent breeze; the child's mother with her innards shredded and strewn like confetti as flies gorged and laid their eggs in her exposed flesh. Something in his stomach churned at the thought of the criminal who'd committed this crime still walking free in Dahlia. Though vandalisation was a far cry from ruthless murder, Anselm knew a threat when he saw one, and he knew it didn't take much to jump from one tier to the next. Whoever had done this was threatening his flesh and blood and his peace of mind, and he would crush them accordingly. They would crush him together.
------He watched as the grey woman paced about, and he found himself moving to her side without thinking, nudging her shoulder gently in reassurance. "Nowhere but in the ground," he smirked, "and this only signals our advantage. I've scented no accomplices; no supporters." This wasn't entirely surprising; only a fool with a death wish would dare to incite the aggressions of an entire pack. Perhaps Bastardo's elusiveness was meant to confound and frustrate the coyotes, but there were two sides to every coin. The caramel hybrid didn't view this as a display of effective evasion, he considered it a form of cowardice. The wolf had sent his message, certainly, but he lacked the balls to do more than make petty threats.
------"An eye for an eye," he mused, the irony not entirely lost upon him, "a tooth for a tooth; powdered bones for shattered ones seems awfully appropriate," he resolved, a twisted grin upon his features. It was actually unusual for Anselm to feel such blood lust, but the thought of their prosecutor's tortured cries and regretful tears streaming down his face as they restrained him and crushed every bone in his body was too glorious to resist. Instinct kicked in with a vengeance, and his head tilted back as a vicious howl rumbled from deep in his core. To members of Inferni, a warning, a plea to be on high alert--to the intruder, a challenge. You want us? Come get us. His low, powerful cry carried far and wide, changing suddenly in pitch and frequency in a tribute to his coyote heritage as he invited Kaena to partake. Wherever the idiot was, he would hear them, and Anselm only hoped their message would strike fear into his heart. [/html]
[html] http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_rain.gif); background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:bottom center; border:1px solid #FFFFFF; text-align:justify;"> Yarr, it would. XD I edited the title of the thread, so maybe she will. ^__^ And OH, oops, I totally didn't mean to delete your image. D: I had uploaded the first version, forgotten which I used in the CSS, deleted the wrong one, and voila, no-workie. :| It is okay now. XD Oh, and should they should find some sort of clue other than the smell? :o I wouldn't know what to put, though. Perhaps one of us should PM Mel. XD
The silvery canine was quite glad that the tawny hybrid had stumbled on her here—there was not a doubt in her mind that he was just as old school, hardcore Inferni as she was. She thought he would have been just as home as she had been on that beach so many years ago, quite content to charge the Aremys border to the south of them with Hollow Nothing at their side. Kaena had never thought it intelligent to incite the fury of all of the wolf packs at once, no—but historically, the coyote clan had forged powerful alliances with both loner creatures and entire packs. Twice, she had been the mother to an alpha's litter. There was a time in memory when Chimera would have allied with Inferni quickly, with Ahren at its helm. Though she knew Laruku was unlikely to have risked his pack for the sake of a few mangy coyotes, perhaps his sense of duty and responsibility for the havoc his otherside caused would have forced him to offer his children refuge if Inferni hadn't been safe enough for them. When she had ruled as the Aquila of the clan, they had nothing to fear from their nearest neighbor, Jaded Shadows, so long as Fatin remained a leader there. But these packs were long gone—it seemed in these lands, Inferni was to survive alone, though the grizzled hybrid certainly had no imminent fear for the fate of her coyote clan.
The other hybrid's words shook Kaena from her thoughts, and her damaged features contorted into a smirk, stiff in some places and expressive in others. No matter how many scars crossed her face, the raptor's eye would not deceive—that sharp golden thing showed only harmonious agreement and something that was almost akin to revelry in her clanmate's eagerness. "That's almost too bad," she said, shaking her head. The hybrid woman celebrated war like a holiday. She would have welcomed another conflict at this point—though Inferni was certainly not numerically powerful, their quality of canine was certainly better than the wolf packs. After all, they were mostly Lykois, mostly de le Poers—a scant few outsiders haunted their ranks. Of the fourteen coyotes calling the clan home, only five did not hold either family's blood.
"Oh, we'll find him and tear his ass to pieces, I'm sure. But maybe we ought to just string him up to rot. His bones can replace these," the mixed breed said brightly, an eerie smile lighting on her scarred muzzle. A cry rose up from the caramel hybrid, and the grizzled canine listened a moment, impressed with the quality of his voice and the clear message it relayed to the listening world. It was certainly the deep howl of a wolf, but there sang the silvery notes of the coyote. In an instant, his voice gained pitch, and she was compelled to join him, her voice just as unique a hybrid as Kaena herself. The majority of her voice was the shrill call of the coyote, but within it there was the low rumble of wolf, and the baying of some ancient hound. She sang with him for a long moment, the familiar cry of vengeance resounding from the pair of angry coyotes.
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[html] :] MWAHAHAHA
After another long night of patrols, which were growing considerably less difficult now that his mother and cousin were back, Gabriel had found himself sleeping comfortably in his own den. This did not last long, however—noise from the east reached him and pulled the Aquila out of the fog. There was a sense of urgency in the first voice, and echoed by his mother it demanded attention. Grunting and pushing himself up, the hybrid shook the sleep from his body and trotted off into the gray afternoon.
Gabriel’s pace increased as he became more coherent, and he quickly followed one of the snaking trails in the tall grass. The ground was still swampy, but as he neared the source of the call it became firmer under his feet. Soon the scent of the two betrayed them, and the amber-eyed Aquila found his family standing around a shattered skull. Instantly, his face contorted into a sneer. “This asshole again,” he said through his teeth, advancing and scenting the ground around the crime scene.
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------Save maybe Dahlia and their thug of a leader, Anselm was under the impression that most of the packs here wanted peace, pure and simple. For this he was grateful. They had always been the scapegoats, the oppressed; he didn't doubt if some pack declared war on them, Haku wouldn't hesitate to throw at least some of Dahlia's forces into the battle. Whether this would contradict Cercelee or not, he didn't trust the shit-brown wolf to practise any restraint whatsoever. And if it did wind up being Phoenix Valley and Dahlia, they'd be fighting both of their nearest neighbours on two separate fronts, the only guarded side being the sea and the mountains in the north. This was obviously a problem. The antics of one loner, though, were hardly enough to faze him or make him reconsider the proclaimed punishment: death.
------He had to admit he liked her thinking, though; they'd have their decorations back, and whether anyone knew of Bastardo's story or not didn't change the fact that Inferni would have taken back what was rightfully theirs. It wasn't as brutal of a death sentence, but it would get the point across, as surely as their proud message now. As their cries died down and faded into the forest, his black tipped ears swivelled forward with intense interest. Alas, there was no call in response--the wolf wasn't about to divulge his location only to be shredded and stuck up on a pike. His nose wriggled gently as his head remained tilted back and his ears twitched again; they had company coming. Pivoting as his cousin entered the scene, Anselm bowed his head to the Aquila and aligned himself so that their bodies formed a triangle of sorts, though he didn't take a seat just yet.
------It seemed the doggish male was familiar with their unwelcome pest, and Anselm simply nodded in confirmation. "We were trailing him from separate directions," he informed the man, "and we both met here. This damn rain keeps washing away his scent." A pause. "Do you have any idea what prick might have a bone to pick with us?" Gabriel was more up-to-date on Inferni's recent history than he was; had they stepped on somebody's toes along the way? It was someone who knew enough of the clan's history to send them into "righteous vigilante" mode, he was sure... or was it maybe just some prejudiced moron with nothing better to do than harass the coyotes? [/html]
[html] | http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_jaws.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:221px; padding-left:25px; padding-right:25px; padding-bottom:10px;"> I dunno, I had her find something, but I left it ambiguous enough for it to be almost anything. XD
Kaena was no stranger to border disrespect. Over the course of her long life, she might have chased fifteen or twenty wolves off of Inferni's territory alone, five or ten more when she had served in the Darklands clan. In general, wolves tended to give coyote borders far less respect than they gave another packs' borders, as far as Kaena had noticed. She wondered if this was a similar thing throughout the world, though she had personally experienced such a place where blood had become so muddled it hardly mattered to permanent residents. Only outsiders were surprised, and though Kaena had been among them, she quickly found that most could not spit out percentages as she could. The hybrid woman wondered if this place was well on its way; the Cour des Miracles pack seemed to consist of hybrids and dogs, for the most part. There was always Inferni, which had always been host of many canines of unknown or mixed origins. The only thing they were not receptive to, it seemed, were pureblooded wolves.
The coyote woman remained quiet and seated for a few moments after they fell silent, her head lowered in frustration and her sable ears flat against her skull. The ridge of fur along her spine stuck up slightly in annoyance, and it was clear from the sour look on her face that she was displeased the trespasser did not have the balls to show himself then and there. Apparently, he was smarter than that—but it would be all the more fun to track him down and make him pay, she figured. It brightened her mood the tiniest bit, and she lifted her head in time to detect another approach. Gabriel was on the scene then, black-and-gold fur rumpled with a faint edge of sleepiness. The coyote woman also inclined her head to him, though this was the only display they showed in deference to their Aquila, since he demanded no more of them. Inferni had always been more lax in the respectfulness department—to grovel on one's belly like a wolf was practically unheard of, and it would have earned strange looks all around.
Though the silvery canine was happy to see her son, she wished it would have been under better circumstances; she leaned in to briefly touch his cheek with her russet muzzle in a display of affection, and quickly drew back to allow him to inspect what she had first stumbled on. The hybrid woman only nodded to confirm Anselm's story; there was nothing more she could add to the puzzle. She was about to ask a question when a similar one flowed from Anselm's mouth, and she looked onto the Gabriel for a moment, interested in the same thing. Her golden eye focused on the forest behind the tawny hybrid, and narrowed as she noticed something lying on the ground, very near to a tree and partially hidden from sight by its root. "What's that?" she wondered aloud, her ears sweeping forward in a display of interest. |
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The scent had been unfamiliar—one that he recognized only because it had been reoccurring. Aside from that, there were no tell-tale signs. “Aside from Haku and that dumbass from Phoenix Valley, we haven’t had any problems,” he answered Anselm, and shook his neck. The tall grass had managed to dampen his coat in the short time it had taken to reach them. More then likely, that explained how their unwelcomed visitor managed to elude the entire clan.
Gabriel returned the nuzzle with a shoulder-bump, and followed his mother’s gaze towards the forest. He turned and advanced, lowering his muzzle towards the ground. The scent was fresh, though worn from the rain. A gray-white tuft of fur was stuck to the root, where it had presumably fallen. Above this was a section of bark that had been clawed, and stunk of the stranger. A snarl ripped through Gabriel’s body, and his fur stood on end. Without a secondary thought he rose and clawed over the marking, covering its scent with his own.
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@#$%&His mind was gifted cursed with an impressive ability to make mountains out of molehills, to always overestimate so that when reality reared its ugly head, he was either prepared or pleasantly surprised, but never caught off guard. When Gabriel mentioned only two potential threats, neither of which seemed very likely candidates for this crime, Anselm was puzzled. For an instant it struck him how two individuals could consume his thoughts so greatly, spurring him to train endlessly and never sleep too deeply. Were he any more than one can short of a six pack, he'd probably dive into the world of a schizophrenic madman. That spoiled blood still flowed through his veins, but it was only secondary in nature, and he managed to keep himself together to the point where he appeared strictly competent and calculated. For now, though, he had nothing to say.
@#$%&Coal-tipped ears pricked forward shortly after Kaena's as he caught sight of the fur. His cousin advanced immediately and covered the insolent marks with his own, and Anselm padded over quietly to investigate the fur better. It was monochromatic in colour and he took note of it, though the sample was small and the tattooed wolf was somewhat disappointed. Most wolves had lighter undersides and many had at least some grey fur. The only thing this clue told them, then, was that the aggressor was not pure white or black. He supposed it was a better lead than none at all, and maybe they could carry it back to the others so that even members who hadn't already noticed Bastardo's trespasses could be made aware of his scent.
@#$%&"He visits us frequently," Anselm mused darkly, "so he mustn't reside terribly far away." It was unlikely that someone was trekking all the way from the Trenches or even Shiloh Hills just to fuck with them every other day. "Perhaps we ought to alert the others," he contemplated, poking at the small tuft of fur with a black nail. Though the idiot might turn up sooner or later, Anselm preferred a more proactive approach: he wanted to find the man and take him out before he had a chance to rally sympathisers. "Maybe we could form search parties to look beyond our borders; the Bay, the Dampwoods, Arachnea's Revenge. Just a quick jaunt--we needn't waste too much time on him." Or away from home..
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[html] | http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_disorder.jpg); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat;"> The coyote was curious as Gabriel mentioned Phoenix Valley. Her golden eye regarded him for a moment. "It was some time ago now, but Jael, Jezebel, and I intercepted a Phoenix Valley wolf by the mansion. She claimed to be Jael's sister," the coyote mentioned. The smell was not that same wolf, though, Kaena was certain of that. Neither did she feel it was necessary to elaborate why to the other two—this piece of wolf fur was almost certainly masculine. The hybrid padded closer to the tiny tuft of fur on the ground, her yellow-gold eye narrowing as she sized it up. The same fierceness displayed on Gabriel's face showed across her scarred features, angry that someone would be so goddamn disrespectful. It was one thing to unknowingly trespass, another thing entirely to trespass with intent to cause damage. Those who walked on their lands unwittingly could be chased away; those who walked on their lands more than once with an idea in his head to harm Inferni or its property, well, there was only one solution for that in Kaena's mind, and it involved a noose.
As most of the anger drained from her face, the hybrid woman peered closely at the fur, taking in its details while her brain churned over the matter, quietly regarding that piece of the canine as if the trespasser himself would materialize from it. Her mind was not so perceptive as Anselm's, and the conclusions she came to were less helpful than what he'd been able to derive. She listened anxiously, committing this information to memory and adding it to what she already knew. Kaena was not particularly intelligent; her smarts ran more toward cunning, the primitive, instinctual cousin of logic. Still, she was as involved as any other coyote from Inferni—this was an affront to their borders, an indignant, petty threat thrown into their faces. It would not go unpunished, not as far as Kaena was concerned.
Anselm had suggested search parties, and the hybrid woman almost suggested they just break for it and go now, but she thought better of herself. They had no idea who this wolf was; it could be that he was a large, strong fellow, capable of felling one of them—and if that was indeed the case, better to have two or three coyotes at hand for back-up. "I agree. Shouldn't take too much to bring him around," the coyote said. The bloodlust was almost apparent in her voice, a heavy undertone to the usual rasp of the coyote woman.
It had been some time since she'd incurred the injury on her shoulder, and though she surely was not a hundred percent yet, she was already raring for battle, ready to take on the world. Old as she was, the grizzled woman was not often reminded of it by her body, and on the occasion she was, she did her best to hide it. There was an easy eagerness in her now as she looked to Gabriel, regarding him with that raptor's eye. He was the authority here, and he would decide what was best about this strange wolf and his destructive tendencies. There was almost an excitement to the cloudy canine as she stood, an electricity that had not been present in her for some weeks as she'd been recuperating. If there had been any prior doubt in Kaena's mind that she would be all better soon, it was gone now, erased by the readiness she felt in her ashen paws.
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Gabriel dropped back down to earth, landing with a peculiar grace that seemed unfit for his bulky mass. Staring ahead at the torn bark, he found that the anger in his blood was not yet enough to make him lose his head. Haku had done that. Skoll had done that. One was dead and the other might as well have been. Of all the things that the amber-eyed hybrid believed in it was blood. That was one unfailing thing in all that he had seen. Someone had once told him that there was no language that crossed between the realm of their world and that of others; other animals, men, and so on. This was a lie. Blood alone crossed that line.
Though both his mother and cousin were demanding blood, Gabriel knew that as clever as this stranger was it was likely he was long gone. Guerilla warfare was something that he understood—and knew that this stranger was doing just that. Some asshole with a problem wanted to make trouble, and he had chosen the wrong clan to mess with. “We’ll never find him in this weather,” the Aquila grunted. “If you want to do a sweep then do so. Once we get some clear days I’ll have Marlowe cover the Waste from the air. Until then our best bet is to hope we come across him.” Then things would get interesting.
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Anselm's gonna step out here, especially since we have the pack thread now o: -feels like the point of this thread has been reached.-
#$%&*The encounter Kaena spoke of intrigued him; her vernacular suggested the meeting had been less than a merry family reunion. It didn't sound like the greyscale matron was even confident in the other's pedigree. While the caramel hybrid wasn't certain what would inspire anyone who wasn't related to march in and make such claims, he also invested far more trust in Kaena's words than he would offer to most. Trespassing was always a foolish crime, regardless; to him it was common sense for a "guest" to seek an escort to their family member (or friend), preferably the same canine they were going to visit. To just waltz on in without knowing anybody was stupid. On the off chance he befriended anybody outside of Inferni, he always made a point to tell them to look for him in Halifax, anyway--if he actually cared about them, he didn't want them showing up at the border only to have someone crazy like Hybrid rip their head off for no reason. It was good to keep work and leisure separate, was it not?
#$%&*Though a billion other thoughts were running through his mind (many of which he wished to discuss with the Aquila), Anselm knew he wouldn't be satisfied by anything short of action just then. He didn't suspect that they would find the wolf outright (that would be too easy, if nothing else), but he did reckon they could find some more clues if they tried. At the very least, he would be able to discern whether or not the pesky wolf approached more often from the north, the east, or the southwest. The tracks would be disjointed and impossible to effectively trail, but on higher bits of ground and beneath the cover of thick vegetation where the raindrops were intercepted, there would still be a splattering of the intruder's scent. He nodded to his cousin, respecting his decision not to get the whole clan riled up for what may prove to be a wild goose chase--if they didn't find him, it would be kind of pointless.
#$%&*"Very well. I'm going to push the boundaries of my patrols a bit, then." He peered at Kaena curiously, invitation in his eyes: Would you like to join me? Though typically a solitary creature, he recognised the value of another set of senses (eye, ears, nose) for this urgent case. It was clear to him that the scarred elder felt the same unrest he did, too--even if they turned up with nothing, at least they could rest that night knowing they had tried. "I'll let you know if I figure out anything useful," he offered, turning his gaze back to their commander in chief. "I'd like to discuss some other things when the timing is better, at any rate." Most of these things concerned Phoenix Valley, but he did have some news regarding a couple of the other packs, as well. With that he turned slowly, giving Kaena a chance to follow if she wished.
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[html] | http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_columbus.jpg); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat;"> Yeah, we could end it here if it's good by you? Or they can continue to chat. xD Either way.
The hybrid woman's rage had faded, replaced with a slow fury, boiling and building beneath the surface. Who was this stranger to walk on their borders, a lone wolf with a vendetta against coyotes? The silvery coyote at once saw him for what he was: a symbol, a target. It was painted in blazing red on his back by this scent, and the coyotes would catch up with him and make him pay for his damage and his disrespect, sooner or later. The hybrid woman was sullen and silent for a moment, her smoldering golden eye wandering to Gabriel as he spoke. The name Marlowe inspired recognition and awe in the coyote; she hadn't seen the bird in some time. The hybrid was surprised that he was still with the clan so long. It had been some years since the crow had first joined up with them. Then again, Kaena supposed the picking was good enough to sate his appetite.
The silvery coyote had a reminiscing look on her face for just an instant, broken when Anselm added his voice to the mix. The hybrid's glittering eye refocused on him, interest showing on her features. She caught the look and understood, turning her grizzled face back to her son for a moment. "I'll go with Anselm," she offered. If Gabriel had some other idea of what she ought to be doing, the hybrid coyote could only comply. She agreed with Anselm's other sentiment—there were a few things she wanted to talk to Gabriel about herself, but they could wait in the face of this new development in the clan life. Samael was not dead, as he believed—whatever illness had gripped him was gone. She was also itching to talk about that Valley wolf, and what the clan's status was on that particular pack. The hybrid recalled the snowy white female she'd chased off of clan territory, and she turned her head back to Anselm for a moment, and then back to Gabriel, torn as to what she wanted to do for the moment. But her son offered her a nod, and the hybrid woman dipped her head to him, turning on her heels and walking quickly to catch up with Anselm, the limp still pronounced but certainly improving.
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