Memories of the fire remained branded upon the backsides of his eyelids, that when he closed his eyes the flames licked up around him. Not nightmares, no, but reminders that weren't entirely welcome in their stay.
He had never informed them that they were allowed to be there, had never signed a consent form saying, "let the fire remain for me." No. He had wanted nothing to do with the ugly raging beast, though he held nothing but admiration for it.
Fire was not a canine's friend, controlled or not.
But oh, the rage of that blaze had been incomparable. He had felt it, had wanted it, yearned for that kind of power.
The power to kill vast numbers without doing anything but existing. The power to drive a whole group of packs from their homeland, to uproot them and move them elsewhere, simply by being in that place. He giggled madly at the thought even as he stepped over a sharp rock to avoid puncturing his foot.
Andre wasn't supposed to be in that place, he knew; it smelled of Gabriel and Faolin, which meant Inferni had come here. That was all there was to it. He wasn't on their territory yet, but his blatant disregard for it was quite obvious in his flat yellow gaze. Perhaps he would daringly shift his way across that dotted line in the sand where his family hoped to rebuild what they had, see what punishment they exacted.
For he was but a traitor, was that not true?
A traitor who would be their end someday. Another bout of mad cackles wracked the boy as he shook his head and turned, shorts swaying gently around his powerful legs, and walked away from Inferni's borders, back in the direction of the sharp beach he had already been on, toward the water that was so low from there.