Dampwoods. Kae is technically on the Inferni border here, but it's all good. ;3



    The hybrid woman had been drinking all day, just as she had been for the past few weeks. During the sunlight hours, Kaena simply sat in her cave and wallowed, avoiding everyone and keeping entirely to herself, allowing the thoughts to churn over and over in her head, replaying that night again and again. There was a clear divide in her life now; everything prior to that night was crystal-clear in her memory, and the weeks since were blurred and blended together, fraught with misery and self-pity. It was all her goddamn fault anyway. She was dumb enough to walk to the city in the night alone, she was dumb enough to have made herself known to such a monster in the first place. It was her fault for getting cornered.



    Misery had saved her from scrubbing her own skin off, and Hanna had escorted her home and tended to her wounds. Both strong women, stronger than Kaena herself, better than the silvery hybrid. They hadn't allowed themselves to be trapped in a corner by the devil himself, chosing to be sexually violated over dying—what the hell kind of choice was that, anyway? the hybrid thought sourly as she took another swig of the dark whiskey she'd procured from the city. She was almost out; this was it. Some time ago, she'd brought back two bottles of liquor, intending to gift someone in Inferni with them—but one of those bottles had been murdered by the party and Kaena herself, and this, her last bottle, was nearly done for. She'd have to plead with Anselm to get her more in the city, or raid the cabinets of the mansion in the hopes that others hadn't discovered every vestige of alcohol in its halls.



    One thing had hit Kaena much harder than she'd expected; Fatin had been scarcer and scarcer with her returning strength, and the silvery hybrid had known some time ago the russet wolf would move on again. It had happened just a week prior to her encounter with Haku, and though Kaena had already known Fatin had departed to other places, it was no less hurtful to come home to a completely empty cave, the vanilla-spice scent of the cinnamon-furred woman almost totally gone from Kaena's dwelling. Part of Kaena had believed Fatin would have been there waiting for her when she arrived home again, part of her had hoped, and part of her had simply needed Fatin. It was a crushing blow to the silvery hybrid, to say the least.



    Oh, shit, thought the silvery hybrid, sitting straight up. Her vision blurred; she'd just started drinking heavily for the night, but already the alcohol was taking effect, numbing her up quite nicely. Kaena realized she hadn't done anything of worth in Inferni for the past three weeks; she hadn't so much as sniffed the borders. Whining to herself, the silvery canine staggered to her feet, somehow making her way to the skull-lined border without breaking her ankle in her drunken stupor. Once there, the hybrid simply plunked down at the edge of the territory, her three-fourths empty bottle clutched beneath her arm. She would never be able to make a circuit of the borders in her condition, and it was suicide to try—so, to thoroughly tipsy Kaena, this was border-duty now. Satisfied with herself, she took another swig of the alcohol, wincing as it burned like fire down her throat.

    Fatin, Fatin—where did she go? That whole mess had left a sour taste in the hybrid's mouth; maybe if Fatin had been there for her that night she would not have left, she wouldn't have gone alone—but then Fatin would've had to come with her, and then maybe she would have died. Kaena didn't think she could live with that, but no matter how useless the russet wolf had been for fighting, the hybrid was certain together they could have taken Haku. After all, she'd beaten him once in a fair fight; this time it had been in the dead of night when Kaena hadn't been expecting it, when she'd taken care not to offend him by staying the hell away from Dahlia. Apparently, that backfired.



    Swilling another swig of her own liquor, the hybrid thought bitterly of her lost lover; it would have seemed they were well on their way to becoming official, to settling down. Kaena had conveniently forgotten her own disloyalty to Fatin, her excursions with Jacquez—but the Miracles pack leader was about the last thing on her head. She was more concerned with what was lost, and Fatin had left an even bigger hole in her heart. Kaena had been there to help nurse her back to health. Kaena had been there to pick her up from rock fucking bottom on the border, when she'd showed up half-dead and beaten, scarred, almost destroyed. Now, Kaena needed her, and where was she?



    A sudden noise drew the hybrid out of her thoughts. A voice—now, who the hell was that? The coyote staggered to her feet again, clutching her bottle less like a weapon and more like a crutch, tucked beneath her arm. The hybrid took several steps forward, her dulled senses finally picking up on the presence in front of her. "Hey," she said loudly, peering at the stranger suspiciously with her single golden-yellow eye.