funfunfunfunfun omg fun <3. Kae be Lupus, btw.



    The coyote sat on the front porch of the mansion rather listlessly, her golden eye glaring forward at the overgrown gardens sprawling before her. The hybrid inhaled the scent of the oncoming autumn, her eyes drifting to the dying greenery surrounding her. It seemed as if fall had suddenly come crashing down on their heads without warning; last week the trees were green and lively, now they were orange, brown, and red or already bare. A coat of leaves covered the ground, and each time Kaena shifted her position on the porch they crunched with her movement.



    The mansion was better used than it had been since Cotl moved in. Kaena sometimes worried about Halo, living on this bare edge of Inferni territory all by her lonesome, and even if Cotl was relatively new, Kae liked him just fine and his presence here with her granddaughter gave the Centurion a strange sort of comfort. Halo was a woman, and women shouldn't be alone without someone else to watch their back, or so Haku Soul had taught her. His name reoccurred bitterly to the hybrid quite often, and she was sick of thinking of him.



    A welcome distraction rose at the border, and the hybrid hopped to her feet immediately, trekking forward to the source of the sound with purpose in her step. Anything to keep her head occupied was just fine with her, and it did not take the hybrid terribly long to identify a strange scent at the borders. She tracked it to the source, walking swiftly in her four-legged form toward the strange coyote waiting on the borders. A silver ornament decorated her nose, but otherwise she appeared quite normal, at least opposed to the most recent addition to their ranks, Cotl. "What can I do for you?" she asked, presenting neither warmth nor aggression to the stranger, regarding her with an interested golden eye.

    The silver-furred hybrid regarded the younger canine before her with that curious golden eye, already sizing her up. The coyote had lived too long to mistake the young canine for anything but a vagrant in search of a home; she was thin from months of travel and her body appeared worn, ragged. Still, that was the condition most of the newcomers arrived in, and it showed little of their potential once well-rested and well-fed. The hybrid woman herself had dragged her carcass to these borders, lagging and starving half to death from the long months on the road.



    Kaena didn't figure there was anything particularly unique about this coyote before her at that immediate moment. Clearly, she was a coyote—if she was a hybrid, her percentage of wolf or dog or other canine was quite low (or negligible). There was still something vaguely familiar about the canine that Kaena could not place, some structural echo of someone she had once known in the girl's face, but the canine could hardly identify it, and she simply gazed at the tawny canid for the moment, trying to determine where that vague tingle of familiarity had originated. Her ears swept forward to listen to the coyote's words.



    The younger coyote spoke the Centurion's name, which definitely drew her attention. Immediately her posture changed; the silver-furred hybrid leaned forward, wondering what madness this was—she was utterly confused at the ash-dusted canine's words at first. There was clear nervousness in the canine, and the words sounded almost... scripted, as if she had been instructed to say them. Bewildered, the hybrid stepped forward to examine the other coyote closely. "Eris sent you? As a gift?" she asked, bewildered. That was the more important connection.



    The canine did not think for a moment this was Eris's child; Kae was almost certain this coyote was older than her coal-furred daughter. Even then, the stranger's percentage of wolf was either not present or negligible. It was clear to Kae she was looking at a mostly or wholly purebred coyote, and the strange, tingling familiarity was most certainly that of Astaroth. The coyote almost expected rage or hurt at the mention of that man, but none came. He had paid his debt to the hybrid with his life. "Who are you?" the coyote asked, a hint of gruffness creeping into her voice with her confusion. There were too many new things to deal with in those simplistic statements, and they had given the hybrid too many answers to questions she did not know how to begin asking.

    The mention of her daughter had spurned a flame of hatred in the hybrid's heart, and Kaena remembered waking up, half-dead, to an empty meadow and a corpse. Eris should have been there—no, instead she was gone. The hybrid woman had only given hate to her daughter from that moment on, though she had expected some form of contact eventually. This was entirely unexpected, some child of Eris's kidnapper sent to appease her in some way? The hybrid couldn't understand yet how this canine could be a gift; that concept perplexed her entirely and her brain hadn't even begun to wrap around that yet.



    The other canine's submission did not go unnoticed by Kaena, who recognized the aversion of the eyes. Her confirmation was of little use to Kaena, who shook her head, trying to straighten the jumble of thoughts bouncing around inside of it. "Eris left me to die. Why would she give a shit about me?" the hybrid demanded, not realizing this was a question Vieira might not be able to answer. The coyote still did not comprehend the nature of their relationship, not until the coyote again spoke, answering the woman's question with her name. It was Kaena's immediate assumption that Eris would be so brash as to extend the surname to a canine not of their blood, and it made her strangely angry, almost violated.



    "Serve me? Are you certain it's not to kill me in my sleep or poison our water?" the hybrid said. She did not know her daughter beyond the small puppy she'd been when Astaroth first took her, and the momentary image of her on the edge of the meadow where she'd fought Astaroth were no insight into the coal-furred woman's personality. Kaena suspected some foul play here. The coyote could not help but think badly of her daughter; as far as Kaena knew, she was a simple traitor, and that was all. "You're a slave?" The question was sudden, and the tone far less barbed than either of the previous ones. The tone had reverted to incredulous, then—it was a sudden realization to the hybrid.

    The hybrid woman watched the canine carefully, her single yellow eye scrutinizing her every movement. There was only nervousness, tiny movements and those carefully downcast eyes. Her answers were almost mechanical, and they did not provide any insight to the canine's personality. She answered what was asked and nothing more, and the hybrid's anger was fading, replaced by a dawning realization of what the hell was going on here. This was an elder child of Astaroth's, then—Kaena had figured that much out. There was virtually no possibility that Vieira had been conceived while Astaroth was on the run for Kaena, thus it was most sensible she had been spawned in the time between when Kaena had bore his children and when he had returned to seduce her. The idea that her mother was unimportant was rather familiar to Kaena; in hindsight the hybrid saw that Astaroth viewed her as nothing more than a womb through which to conceive his children.



    A grin that was both delighted and sinister spread across the hybrid's face. This was three times, then, that she'd triumphed over the dead man—Samael, Razekiel, and Ahemait were to be his, but he failed to return to him, and they were her children alone, hardly carrying a memory of their father amongst them. He had tried to steal Eris from her, and if this canine was genuine in her intentions then he had failed on that end, as well. Finally, there was this new, unexpected canine—a Lykoi possession without actually containing Lykoi blood, intended to help the hybrid woman? No, help was too weak a word—intended to, as Vieira herself had put it, serve Kaena? "So, you'll do as I say, then? No questions, no complaints?" the hybrid queried. That was too good, then; Astaroth was a miserable failure in every way, and this strange twist had brought two more to light to Kaena. She had never expected to hear the man's name from anyone else's mouth but her own family, and it was almost hilarious to her now that his child would be her property.

    This was a lovely turn of events for Kaena, if it was truth and not some wild scheme concocted by Eris to try and rid the world of her mother. The hybrid knew who the sable-eyed child's father was; she was not stupid enough to believe Eris had completely escaped the illness and evil that had plagued both sides of her genes. Kae didn't know a damn thing about Salvaged's extended family, but he himself was vile enough to contaminate her, wasn't he? And yet, here was this creature, soft-spoken and offering the hybrid woman nothing other than what she asked and nothing more.



    Kaena had never studied a lick of psychology but she recognized this behavior and realized it must have come from some kind of conditioning. There was something broken about this individual, beaten or bred out of her in some manner; the coyote did not know. Kaena was not a moral creature; she did not question this gift beyond its intent now that she had ascertained its value. What was the harm in slavery anyway? She was old, to have someone to help her and do as she asked... someone unlike Samael, whom she certainly still cared for despite recent events. "Shift to your four-legged body," the hybrid said, trying a command on the canine. The hybrid couldn't find herself caring about what form the woman was in, she simply wanted to test the creature before her and see what would happen.



    The silvery coyote looked at the creature before her with interest in her scarred features, no longer bewildered by the situation but having come to understand it almost completely—she still did not understand why Eris might have sent this creature instead of returning herself if she wished to seek the grizzled matron's forgiveness, but for now, that could be overlooked. Later, maybe Vieira would be able to reveal more about what the sable-furred child had become, if it was not a betrayer and a traitor to the blood.

--



    Perhaps the hybrid should have expected Viei to know so little. The hybrid certainly hadn't kept anything remotely similar to a slave before, but she supposed it involved a certain amount of distancing oneself. Eris wouldn't have shared her darkest thoughts and secrets with Viei if the sable-furred child viewed her only as chattel. The coyote listened with interest, trying to discern the exact nature of this coyote's relationship with her hybrid daughter. The Centurion was highly intrigued by the possibility of learning more about her lost daughter, now that it was possible Eris was not the black sheep Kaena had thought she was.



    The hybrid was shocked by the admission that this canine was Eris's sister. Kae knew it was not true; she knew the truth of the sable-furred child's parentage. It was highly convenient for Kaena, however, that Eris believed Astaroth to be her father. The hybrid supposed it made sense; their coats were similar in color, though Astaroth was not solidly black. His coat was more or less a deep shade of chocolate interspersed with both silver and coal shading in places, certainly a coyote from a mountainous region. There was no point in spoiling that illusion for Kaena, so she offered half of a smile and a nod. "Indeed. Eris is Astaroth's child," the coyote said. It was enough to fool most; the hybrid assumeed most canines would not be able to infer Eris's exact percentage. "Makes you her half-sibling. You got two more of those here in Inferni—Samael and Razekiel are Astaroth's children as well."



    Perhaps if Viei had actually been a Lykoi, Kaena might have been inclined to care about her plight, but the hybrid now understood who this child belonged to, and in a way, that justified whatever happened to her. Astaroth had been a liar and a terrible canine, and his kin deserved what became of them. "Well...come with me, then," the hybrid said, tossing her head and turning abruptly, heading toward the center of the territory. She supposed she could feed Viei and settle her in. The hybrid wished to find Gabriel and receive his input. The coyote did not have to turn her head and look to insure Viei was following.

---



    As the hybrid walked, she had expected something from the younger canine, not necessarily a thanks or a sense of relief, but some kind of speech, at the least. Instead, the coyote remained quiet, walking along behind Kaena in her new four-legged form. The silvery Centurion was somewhat disoriented by this, finding it rather disconcerting to have a subservient creature unwilling to offer anything personal beyond what she had been instructed to say or asked. Kaena found herself wondering if the creature had a personality at all; her golden eye stole glances backward at the tawny-furred coyote as they walked, still marveling at this turn of events. She could hardly fathom that Eris would seek her forgiveness; the silvery matron had it in her head for so long that the child of Salvaged Eternity hated her, wished to be away from her—at least, her actions had seemed that way.



    They headed toward the caves in silence at first, and finally the hybrid was so momentarily weirded out by the creature's silence that she had to speak. "What can you do? Read? Write? Fight? Hunt?" the coyote asked, wondering what this coyote was capable of. She was smaller in size and though she appeared exhausted and starved, the hybrid was confident she would be of use. At the very least it was quite nice to have a creature around to do her bidding if she willed it. Samael was like that, but Kaena viewed Sam as more of a personal soldier than anything else, and anyway, after the other night's indiscretion, she was not certain she wished to be around him as much. The possibility of bad things happening was far too great. The coyote was curious to know just what the younger canine could do for her—there was little question in the hybrid's mind that she was keeping Viei. It was too interesting a development, Vieira too great an asset to simply send her away.