07-21-2009, 08:24 AM
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mall-caps;">In Character Whether it was a literal monster like Salvaged Eternity or simply the passage of time like with Ahren, there was always something waiting just a few feet behind her, the jaws of death waiting to snatch happiness from under her nose the moment she turned her head. Salvaged had stolen Zulifer from her, cut him down before he'd even reached the prime of his life. He had made sure she wouldn't find peace so long as he continued to walk the earth... and now that Salvaged was dead, what was there? Contentedness. A strange calm had settled over the hybrid's life, and she felt complete. Things had come full circle, and she'd put him in the ground just as certainly as he had killed Zulifer that afternoon on the beach. The hybrid woman's head swung toward Jael, though it was a tired motion. There was a strange look in that normally brilliant eye; a dullness had overtaken its shining gold and she appeared far older for a moment, her ears drooping halfway. "Then why bother living in peace if someone's just going to snatch it from you? I'll take it when I get it, but I won't seek it," she affirmed. She hadn't ever, really—stumbling on Zulifer and stumbling on Ahren, and Fatin and anyone else who'd ever made her happy, it had been purely accidental. For certain, she hadn't even planned any of the roots of her happiness, her children, save that litter of Astaroth's. And that hadn't even been her goddamn idea. Naturally, the grizzled Lykoi did not regret a single one of them, but still. She couldn't remember a time aside from founding Inferni when she'd actively tried to better her life; the improvements to it merely seemed to filter in at random. That was just fine by her; it meant eventual loss was far easier to deal with. Bitterness was again apparent in her features, and she altered the subject abruptly, focusing in on Jael with her laser energy, that golden eye shining again. "I was meant for hatred and cruelty," she said, speaking a truth she knew from the very depths of her soul. "I wouldn't have been born to my mother. She made sure I am who I am," she added. If not, she wouldn't have survived her mother's torment, either. Kaena would have died in that den, and it would have become her birthplace and her grave all at once—just another tiny skeleton rotted to dust by now. Kaena felt nothing for her sisters, for she had never known them aside from vaguely warm figures that slowly grew cold and immobile beside her. There was no hint of accusation in her tone; sometimes parents intended for children to turn out a certain way and they obeyed, and sometimes children bucked their parents heritage entirely, revolting hard against the core of their nature. Besides, she had no idea what her son had intended in stealing children to flood their minds with lies and half-truth about Inferni. There was no sense in that, and at once Kaena wished she could stare Vitium in the eyes and ask him why he had done what he had done. Why had he gone and raped a wolf, when it was a defending a wolf which got him exiled from his clan of birth? Why had he taught his children of this very clan, neglecting to mention his own treachery? Her scarred muzzle wrinkled, and her brow furrowed in thought. There was no logic or reason behind her traitor son's actions. |