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He stood on the rise of a slope and felt the cold wind try and cut through his fur. It did not breach the thick wolf-pelt of a coat that he wore, but it stung at the exposed scars that spattered his body like constellations. His eyes roamed the empty landscape below, a field of tall tan-brown grass, and saw nothing out of the ordinary. From behind him came the smell of salt-water, masking anything from below. It didn’t matter. Inferni had once more fallen into pattern. It had fallen into repetition. For Gabriel, that was hell—he despised repetition as much as he despised stupidity.
It had been three months since Haku’s death. His body had been destroyed, and all that remained scattered amongst those who deserved the pieces. Conor had asked for the peculiar necklace, which Gabriel had allowed him. After all, he too wore the sign of his dead father and no one would deny that Ahren had been a monster. For his mother went the jawbone, and all that remained was what was intended for his sister. Gabriel kept nothing. He had the scars, and they were enough.
He had retreated within himself for the past few weeks. The only living being he saw much of was Enkiel, who had been pestering him about medical knowledge. Gabriel had taught him how to set broken bones and how to stop bleeding. Beyond that, he had taught the boy how to fight. Though small, the jackal was fast—he was not strong enough to be a fighter, but it was clear to Gabriel what his role within the clan would be.
The black and tan coat (which was becoming more black then it had been during the summer) was ruffled in the wind, and Gabriel pinned his ears against the rush of cold air. He exhaled into it, realizing as he had weeks ago that things were back to normal. This repetition, this hell, it stung as bitterly as the autumn wind.
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Omg I totally don't need more threads but I so wanted to reply to this. q__q! <3
Since you mentioned the rise of a slope, I assumed this was set near the foot of the mountain. I hope that's okay! (501)
Halcyon Mountain: Tayui had not ventured this far north in a very long time. The last time she had been in this area was when she had visited Kaena and had been out for blood. But Ocèane’s return had not cleansed her of her bloodthirst or her desire for vengeance, so she had tried to pacify it by visiting the place of her old pack. Somehow, it did not help: she still felt like there was something significant missing – but at least now she knew what it was. She did not have closure. She had found out of Haku’s death through the grapevine and whispers as they slowly floated down to AniWaya. Unlike the news of Noir’s death, the news of Haku’s had been impersonal and unfulfilling. She had expected she would rejoice, but it had brought her no comfort. She had tried to ignore the emotions, but that had not worked either. So now, she would try her best to at least understand them.
As she had made her way through the old Shadowed Sun territory, she saw the familiar traces of vestiges of a home. This had once been a place of comfort, and the old tree in the centre of the territory had been a favourite haunt of hers. Now, it seemed as though even the old residents were gone: Zexion’s scent was absent. Even he had abandoned this place.
Somehow, her paws brought her to the edge of Inferni’s territory. She had been thinking all this time and had wandered down the mountain, but instead of heading south – home – she had headed north, to Inferni. As she lingered near the edges, she tried to see if she could pick up Kaena’s scent, but it seemed as though the old matriarch had not been this far south in a while. She began to head farther north, climbing higher up the mountain. She slowed as she picked up Inferni’s scent – fainter this time, but still present. She frowned as she realized that Inferni had shifted the pack east, claiming a part of the mountain to replace the lost burned territory. She paused, weighed her options, and decided to return home. She took a different route this time, skirting closer to the clan’s land. As she made her way down, she picked up a new scent: a familiar one, but rather old. It was Gabriel.
She descended further and soon saw him, watching over the clan. Tayui hovered awkwardly at the borders, wondering where exactly the territory began. Here, there were no skulls to mark the edge and the scent was not as strong, so the borders were somewhat vague. Nonetheless, Tayui trotted a little closer and shouted out to the Aquila.
“Gabriel,” she greeted him, trying to put some warmth into her voice. She hoped it carried: the wind made it hard to hear properly, but she knew he would notice her by her scent if not her voice. “It’s Tayui,” she added, more out of politeness than necessity
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The mountain had been silent for a long time now. Gabriel had crossed it several times—four times alone, and once with his clan. The first time had been with fear in his heart. The second with spite. The third with God guiding him, the forth knowing there was nowhere left for him to go. He breathed in cold air and tasted smoke. His eyes opened, narrowed at the sensation, and he shut his mouth smartly. Gabriel had not smelled smoke without reason since the last fire. This meant something, though he did not know what.
A voice spoke to him, riding the wind. His ears swiveled, face following suit. Approaching was a woman older then he was, with a pale coat and mismatched eyes. Her scent drew out a memory. They had spoken once, during the first war. Tayui. Right. Without rising to meet her, he kept his head bent over one scarred shoulder. “Hello,” he replied shortly. “A bit far from home, hm?” She carried the smell of scented smoke with her, something he associated with AniWaya. Still, he did not think she would attack him. There was nothing in her eyes that told him this.
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(333)
Tayui nodded, returning Gabriel’s acknowledgment with the subtlety and grace she had once possessed. It felt like it had been a former life for all of the violent and crass anger that was brewing beneath the surface. She hated it and she loathed how she could hate hate. She hated how these negative emotions only bred more and how she longed to return to what she had once been. Again, she returned to the same conclusion: she was conceited.
She took a few steps closer, wishing her legs would let her move in more eloquent way. She wished her movements could again echo the words she read, but most certainly not the words in her head. She was a bitter, raging mess. She glanced away for a moment and tried to offer Gabriel some semblance of respect with a lightly bowed head and averted eyes. She pulled her head back up after a moment to see a storm raging in the leader’s eyes. This sparked a new kind of jealousy in Tayui she had all but forgotten: a desire to lead again. If only she were in her right mind. If only she were peaceful.
She frowned and shook her head in response to Gabriel’s question.
“Perhaps,” she replied. “Home is feeling farther and farther away lately. But my daughter returned home.” She added the last almost to invalidate her original statement. In the last three months, home felt wrong. But suddenly, with the chance for a real home with her daughter returning only hours ago, it seemed like there was a possibility for her den to become real again. A home, not just a den or a hole in the dirt; but she didn’t really believe it. She just wished she could, like she had believed in so much when she had first joined Jaded Shadows. She’d been scorned, but a fool; and now, she had been once again scorned, but she knew she was a fool. What a difference that made.
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Dominance, like the pride, was a part of his blood. It had come from his father, and his father before him. So in a way, Gabriel himself was made up of ghosts. When his mother died, she would live through his eyes. The bloodline of both families had been secured through other means. Coyotes, wolves, it no longer mattered. Some children would not carry the name. His bastard sons were an example. He had abandoned them to their mother long before they were born, and he did not doubt she would make them her own. Even he could see that need in her.
He could not read Tayui’s eyes. The coy-wolf frowned at this, though it might have been at her response, and turned his head back to the landscape below them. “As has mine. It must be the wind,” he added semi-sarcastically. His daughter had returned, yes, but she was not the girl he remembered. None of his family was these days. Yet they slunk into patterns that made them avoidable, slunk into the roles that required nothing from them and prospered. Gabriel’s face twisted, exposing one eye-tooth to the world, and he exhaled in a sigh that was almost a growl.
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When Gabriel glanced away, Tayui saw how his golden eyes burned, how his one ear had a very distinct rip in it, and how his profile was framed so perfectly by the landscape behind him. She envied Gabriel, for it always seemed like his purpose in life was so clearly defined. He was the Aquila of Inferni, the leader of his clan and the decision-maker in his life. He killed and had lost, but Tayui had only lost. She was the Moon card, and he, the Emperor. Where he was stability, she was uncertainty. Or, perhaps, she was the Fool and Haku was the Moon, bringing uncertainty wherever he wandered.
Gabriel returned his gaze to Tayui, making her slightly uncomfortable. She was not used to such intense attention, even though Gabriel was certainly thinking about something else. As he spoke, she could see him remembering his daughter’s return. His eyes peered into the distance, but his body and movements were all watching Tayui. His face changed and he exhaled; Tayui flinched. Having been holed up in her den for so long, with only her almost-mute for company, she had forgotten what it was like to converse with another. She was forgetting.
“I–” she began, and then stopped. She frowned, and then shook her head, giving up a small, bitter laugh. “I wish it were just the wind. It’s something else. One daughter dies and the other returns home.” She was so bitter now.
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Lengthy conversations often failed Gabriel. He had no patience for people, no need for them. He could speak to his mother for periods of time but would then shun her, believing their business done. The best conversations he had were often in silence. This was why he liked Snake. Even though a small part of him was still repulsed by the things Hybrid did (and had done) he found that his former brother-in-law was most agreeable company. There was purpose in what they did, even if they did not speak for more than a few moments during those times. Patrol, hunt, kill, fight. Gabriel believed this was how simple Hybrid was, and he liked this quality about him.
A bubbling noise that sounded like a crow startled him. She was laughing. Laughing with contempt. For an instance, and only an instance, he was reminded of his father. The she-wolf had lost one and gained another. There was something bitterly egalitarian about that, and it made the corners of his mouth twitch. “God is cruel,” he offered indifferently. “Sometimes He takes. Sometimes He makes us live.” Give him a daughter but leave him doubting if his son was alive. Rape his mother rather than kill her. Destroy Gabriel from the inside out and then leave him in silence.
Oh yes, God was cruel.
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She saw his movements change when she laughed, possibly out of surprise or recognition. Whatever the reason, Gabriel froze for a moment before relaxing again. She had not realized her laugh had been so harsh, but that was who she was now: harsh, uncouth, and vengeful. She supposed the negative demeanour came with it. Her neutral expression quickly soured when Gabriel spoke again. She was torn between being horribly offended and darkly amused. God! What a concept. She knew Nayati believed in many spirits and romantic ideas, but Tayui had always balked at the suggestion that there was something out there. She believed in luperci and nature and life.
“God didn’t do this; Haku did,” he replied harshly. She wanted everyone to know what a monster Haku had been, especially now that he was dead. It made her feel more real knowing there might be others out there who hated him and knowing that Gabriel had led the campaign against this monster. Even if she disagreed with his beliefs, and felt a deep sense of sorrow for the Dahlians that had lost their lives in his campaign for the monster, she knew the purpose had been just. He was the only monster left to rule out the wicked. Perhaps one day she would become that kind of monster, rather than the pitiful kind she was now: full of directionless anger.
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He was not surprised. Haku had killed so many people in his quest for blood, for power, for whatever it was that drove demons. Gabriel could not fully understand his Shadow despite knowing that they were ultimately the same. Yet he had done what was needed and destroyed it because this was the only way he would survive and be whole. Only one of them would be able to live, and in the end, it had been Gabriel.
Her response only made his lips pull away and expose ivory fangs in an expression caught somewhere between a snarl and a grin. He did not look at her. His eyes were laughing. “And Haku is dead. People are made to suffer. That is the way of things.” Gabriel did not apologize for her loss, nor did he really empathize with it. His daughter was alive, however damaged she was. That was a greater pain, to see the life within her die and be replaced by demons of the flesh. He did not really meet others in this world on even grounds—God had, after all, chosen him. He had done terrible things and felt nothing but righteous about them. He had killed his own blood and knew he was capable of doing so again.
His scars itched, as if to remind him of this, and his face fell to stone once more.
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Tayui clenched her jaw down even harder when she saw him pull back his lips and let out a small laugh. This was not humorous – not at all. What was humorous, she thought bitterly, was that he believed more in this foolish god of his than he did death. It seemed as though she wasn’t the only idiot believer here. Where she believed in words and knowledge and emotions, he followed ideas passed down to him by… what? What was religion? It was just another way to explain something and to place your hopes when you had nothing else. She refused to give herself that luxury of believing things would ultimately follow some path or had a reason. Haku murdered, Noir died, and she grieved. There was no god in that.
He spoke and she mimicked his action of laughing. There was no god, he was no god, and there would never be a god.
“Luperci bring suffering onto others and themselves. No god can do anything about it, even if he were real,” she replied harshly. Believing anything else would only lead one astray from the realities of life.
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Gabriel too, was bitter. This was why he did not flinch at the words that had once cut into his skin and did not show that she had struck something close to his heart. Many wolves before her had denied God. Many more would do so before he died. He had become used to it. He sometimes felt pity for these strangers, but often, he felt nothing. Those righteous would be saved, and those who did not believe…well, they had a thousand worlds beyond the Kingdom of Heaven. One of them would be suitable, he supposed.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said quietly, almost to himself. Then he turned and raised his voice, eyeing her as if he might an opponent in battle. “If that’s the case, then you should be happy Haku’s dead. Your daughter’s been avenged.” In a way, it was that simple. Even so Gabriel braced himself for what he was certain would come. She was, after all, a woman—and they were such emotional creatures.
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306.
“You killed Haku. Not any god or thing or fantasy. You did it,” she explained fiercely, wishing she could better convey her ideas. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to anger him or just express her thoughts, so her wording was awkward and fragmented. Did she want to hurt him, or just prove him wrong? Could she? Did it even matter? Probably not. She shouldn’t try so hard to disprove something she couldn’t prove didn’t exist anyways; she just hated knowing that Gabriel, one she respected, had such beliefs. It wasn’t his killing or anger toward wolves that bothered her: it was his faith in something he did not know existed.
“You’re responsible for getting rid of that monster. Don’t try to pretend you’re not. You did a good thing. Attributing it to something else only lessens that.” After she said the last few words, she realized how controversial her words were. She realized how he might easily interpret that as a verbal attack against his beliefs – and maybe it was. Maybe she wanted to convert him. She just wished she knew why. Before, she suspected she would have been more tolerant – let him believe what he wished, as long as it did not hurt her. Let him live his life as he wanted. But now, she felt such anger within herself that she couldn’t let this slide by.
“But you didn’t avenge her. I still have that to do,” she concluded. She would fight and bring justice in the memory of her daughter to avenge her death. Even though Tayui had not been there to save her daughter’s innocence, she would try her best to ensure it did not happen to anyone else. There was far too much suffering in this world, and she did not need a god or faith to tell her that.
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She was right. Gabriel, not God, had killed Haku. Gabriel, and no one else, had ripped apart a still-warm body and scattered it to the wind. Yet he knew that without his faith and without the strength given to him, he would have fallen. Many others had done so. He believed this was why he alone had been able to kill the beast. Yet his face was calm, even as she lashed out and tried to brand him a creature of ego. Gabriel smiled sadly. Once, a long time ago, he had thought that way.
The scar on his muzzle and a dead man had proved him wrong. Pride was a sin that had almost cost him his life. Pride and vanity were worthless when the world was a cannibal. To hear her proclaim, as so many others had before her, that there was still vengeance in her path only made that same pity wretch in his stomach. Vigilantes always believed themselves just. “What I did,” he explained quietly. “, was not done simply for myself.” Did she not see how arrogant that belief was? The wolf in him would have proclaimed his victory to the sky, but there had been only silence in that murder. And it was murder, even if it was right. Gabriel was no hero. Not when the smoke had transposed itself onto his skin.
He recalled the voices of those lost in the fires and his eyes went dark. “Tell me then, what do you propose to do?”
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451. I think Gabe is helping Tayui figure things out! Yay! And one day maybe she'll realize "blood" actually means "closure." 
He said he humbled himself before a god, but he reeked of desperation. Father, forgive me for I have sinned and forgive so I may sin again. His sad smile made her flinch, but she could not place why. She could not place why it hurt her so to hear him say this: he believed so strongly in the invisible that he ignored the truths around him. She wondered if he could even see her. Did what she say have a meaning, even? Fanatics were always too wrapped up in their own causes that they forgot why they had started their holy wars to begin with. She only hoped his war against Dahlia de Mai had not been a Crusade: it would make her question her faith in him as a leader.
What I did was not done simply for myself, he noted. She nodded as she confirmed her suspicions: so she would doubt him. He did it for god, for righteousness, for something else. She wished he hadn’t. It was easier seeing him as a self-driven creature, like everyone. It was easier when she did not suspect him of placing himself on a pedestal and claiming divine intervention. She smirked: perhaps he was the greatest trickster of them all. He was just like her, wasn’t he? They were both motivated by their desires, but he claimed humility and that he was a god-fearing creature so no one would suspect his true motives. She claimed solipsism, that only her mind was certain to exist, and observed the basic principles of altruism. She was real because she thought she was real, but she could not say for certain if anyone else was. And ethical altruism was the reason she was here: to make sure nothing happened to anyone like what happened to her daughter. Maybe she could satisfy her bloodlust with peace.
“I’m still figuring that out. For me, I want blood. But Haku is dead and I cannot take his son’s blood – never. I’ll have to take it another way – from anyone who tries to hurt my family,” she replied, smirking. Her family had diminished significantly, so the chances were rather slim. Nonetheless, she added: “and with healing. No one deserves what was done to my daughter. I will do what I can.” She could not heal with plants or herbs, but she could help a grieving luperci communicate with the ghost of a loved one, or help a dead soul move forward. She didn’t have the physical strength or the omniscience to prevent a tragedy, but after the fact, she supposed maybe she could ease her suffering and that of others by doing her part.
But she still wanted blood.
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Yaaaay. They should totally hang out. So should Gabe and Hybrid but they're BFFs so that is obvious.
She reminded him, in a small way, of Laruku. Even when the bastard wasn’t possessed by whatever it was his darker half was, he was spouting off the woes of the world, dismissing that anything greater then himself could exist. This was an arrogant belief. Gabriel would never try and explain himself to those sort of people. He believed in good and in evil, and he believed in the Voice, and he believed that destiny was something that had to be seized and fought for. He believed in looking at what had been lost and recognizing the arrogance there. Men had been arrogant. If wolves sought to do the same, they too would fall.
He had killed Haku for himself, but also for many others. He had killed strangers with each fire. He had destroyed an entire world and felt no ill in doing so. There was morality in the way he killed, but he had shown time and time again he was capable of dismissing his own beliefs in order to achieve a goal. Perhaps this is why he felt so close to God—he too was a hypocrite every now and then.
As predicted the woman was typical. She was weak. Gabriel laughed, though there was no cruelty in it. He was not laughing at her, at least. “Believe that and you will never do enough.” It would not heal the hole in her heart. The trinity of holy signs around his neck tinkled as they settled, but the noise was familiar to him and ignored. “I’ve killed those who have hurt my family. It isn’t enough.”
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They could grab a frappucino machiato latte at the Starbucks and chillaxxxxx. Also, y/y to Hybrid + Gabe.
She flinched when he laughed, wondering why in the world what she was saying could be humorous. She was baring everything here -- things she had not even realized, herself, until this moment to him and he laughed. She supposed she had been foolish to trust a stranger, especially when she had exalted him so much in her mind. For, every time someone mentioned Inferni, Tayui had thought of Gabriel as the strong decision-maker and the philosopher king among men. She now realized why later authors had criticized this model of governance, and she now began to understand the flaws with a single, unflinching and unquestionable leader. She also realized that she had built the image of him and Inferni so strongly in her mind that the truth was crushing. He was a fanatic and the Second Dahlian War had been his Crusade. And he was vicious, as he quickly revealed.
“I don’t want to be like you,” she replied. She was beginning to understand this. She had thought if she emulated him and Inferni, she would achieve her peace. That was foolish, for she would never achieve peace through war. I’ve killed those who have hurt my family. It isn’t enough. She would have to consider these words again later.
“But I need to find a way. I still have to live for my other children,” she added. Even if Noir was dead and Tayui mourned her, she still had two children with her. She still had her brother Honoré, who was grieving the death of Noir, and Aurèle, even if they had not spoken in months. She could still live, after all.
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I totally think Gabe/Hybrid should have philosophical discussions. +3
A long time ago, a plethora of strangers had expected Gabriel to be a savior. When he had abandoned them, when he had turned on them, they too had felt the same bitter wretch of disappointment that he saw in her face. This meant nothing to him. Even if Gabriel would never admit it, he was a beast just as Haku was, if not worse. He had slaughtered his kin, just as his Shadow had, and he had made a personal war one of total annihilation. Had he been able to, Gabriel would have burnt Dahlia de Mai and all who lived there to the ground.
“No,” he replied, his eyes dark. “I don’t think you do.” Who would want to carry the burden of murderers and thieves and useless simpletons on their back? Who could selflessly destroy so many lives so that they might be saved in another one? What kind of man would kill his own brother and consider doing so again? If there was anything within Gabriel to be admired it was that he had not yet gone mad as his father had done.
Yet he understood, as she did not, that peace would never be attained without stabbing the weak through the heart and reminding them what the cost of foolishness was. He had to remind them what mistakes had been made, even as they made their own and called them just. The coy-wolf turned one ear to the wind, as if he sought something in it, and smiled sadly. “You will. My mother managed it. Others before and after her have done the same. But don’t think that washing your feet in the blood of the wicked will help,” he added darkly, the words of the prophet a dire warning. <“It will corrupt you.” He had seen his mother crush the skulls of children. He had broken a crippled man and laughed about it.
Fighting monsters had turned them into something equally terrible.
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We could definitely give it a go!  (367).
His reply did not surprise her; she doubted he would want anyone to be like him now that she began to realize who he was. He was not the luperci she thought he was, but he was everything she deserved. Although one didn’t always get what they wanted or needed, they got what they deserved, somehow in the end. She supposed it was like this for her, too – you get what you give and she wanted to give pain, so she got Gabriel. It was ineloquent, but this phrasing, too, was what she deserved.
When he had replied, she had noticed how his expression had become grimmer and how his posture had changed, ever so slightly. She saw the small movement in his body and recognized that there had been a lot of thought behind the words, but could not determine what exactly it meant. He continued to speak and his words – and expression – darkened. She perked her ears forward in recognition when he mentioned Kaena, only then realizing how many times over Kaena was a mother. She had Gabriel and a few other children from what Tayui knew. Although she had not met many of them, she wondered how Kaena had managed to continue functioning when her life had changed so many times. There had even been that time when Kaena had no longer headed Inferni – how had she dealt with that?
And now, Gabriel was the leader, which Tayui supposed was right in some way – there was a distinct succession down the family line that followed their more feral routes. Perhaps that was why Inferni had been so feared: because they had not deviated from their true canine pack – or clan – life as the wolves had. It was certainly worth considering. But it didn’t explain the trail of destruction they left behind.
“It might not help, but it’s what I want right now,” she replied quietly. He could say that it would corrupt her, and she knew she should heed his warning, but like anyone, she could not know until she was corrupted. Was that what she wanted?
“I need… something. Nothing feels real anymore. That’s the only thing that does…” she added, trailing off.
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Awesomesauce
When he did read—and these times had become few and far between—Gabriel read about the follies of the past. He did not consider himself much like men. Their ego and their desire to become master of the world around them had destroyed them. Wolves had been stupid before the disease. They lacked any thought beyond the here and now. So with disease came a mutation that made wolves conscious as the old dogs had not been. Certainly, they knew of pain, and sorrow, and joy, but they lacked the linear thinking that made Luperci like men.
And while Gabriel was not a man, he saw how men behaved. More ferarum. This was how they were able to slaughter their own kin and kind so ruthlessly. So Gabriel had studied these things, he had learned and studied and brought on men thought’s as a shade to his own. War was more deception then it was bloodshed. If he could avoid this, he could ensure the safety of Inferni. Hostility would breed fear. Fear would breed hate. He accepted the hate because it ensured his enemies would carry doubt.
Gabriel too, understood the meaning of symbolism and of its power. This was why he carried holy signs. This was why Inferni was scattered with the bones of their enemies. “Haku’s blood runs only in his children,” he reminded her. “All that’s left of him beyond that is bone.”
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Maybe after this thread finishes? Just so you don't get sick of me, haha.  (320).
Where she wanted to slay someone to know she was still mortal, she did not however wish to throw herself to the rocks to see if she was still alive. She wanted to know she was still alive, living, and capable of seeking out the closure she so desperately needed – and she did need this confirmation of sorts to validate her continued existence. She also knew she was the only one who could justify her reasons to live, even if Gabriel seemed to think there was another way around it. She needed to feel real again, and she anticipated his reply to be just as scathing as his last replies. She wondered what he might think of that – that maybe she wanted to be corrupted, or that she wanted to see how much she would withstand before she would be corrupted. Of course, that wasn’t saying much since she had lost her innocence long ago. She did not completely understand how the world worked, but she had seen enough injustices to surmise a conclusion.
She did not, however, anticipate his reply. She stiffened at the mention of his children, her children. She did not want Gabriel to know it had been Haku who fathered her children, but she wanted to see that look of shock when she revealed the sordid truth – and the reason she so desperately needed this closure. The father of her children had also been the murderer. It still made her go cold when she thought about it.
“If all that’s left are his children, I will become a monster,” she replied coldly. She would not harm his children – Conor was a brilliant boy and he had a brother who was probably just as innocent as he was – but she would get her justice. His other words made her smirk: she couldn’t harm bone, but she could certainly destroy it – or better, keep it out of spite.
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