candleburn

[Lockeheed]

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Locke stood, one hand resting on the skull, with the other hanging over his knife in the event the coyotes saw fit to run him off. The bleached bones resembled his facial structure, save for his larger ears, and slender muzzle; he looked the part of a thief, not a brute. Wiry, lean and with the agility of a fleet-footed youth... well, when he wasn't intoxicated. It was all by the grace of his mother than he inherited her coyote genes, however diluted they were now. Though he had been nursing the bottle for the better part of the morning, Locke could safely say he was still in the green. His limbs moved accurately, and his legs didn't tremble or sway. Maybe being in such close proximity to the warring packs lent him a bit more reason to be sure of himself. There was no other choice; he was a loner, but if he was caught in the crossfire, he didn't want to be shouting drunken hallelujahs to the heavens as they mowed him down in their rush to rip each other apart. That would not be a glorious death, after all. Not that he wanted to actually die, or anything of the sort.


Suddenly a tawny figure materialized from the woodwork, appearing before him in the form of an adolescent coyote. Locke straightened slowly, and the muscles of his back tensed with apprehension. He was dangerously close to crossing the line here, and it was now in the hands of the youth to judge whether or not to send up the alarm. Though Locke was confident he could outrun them with a head start, he was not keen on having a clan of twenty-odd, angry coyotes biting at his heels. But the young man remained perpetually neutral, and so Locke was inclined to do the same. He wasn't sure how the kid saw him; wolf or hybrid. The hybrid then wondered how obvious it was, or if at all, that he wasn't all brawn. Admittedly he knew of the preconceived views on wolves were, from a coyote standpoint. At least by the majority, anyway.


"Oh yeah?" Locke replied, giving another glance to the skull before removing his hand out of respect. "Good story behind it, or did you really just find it lying around the forest?" He questioned with a tight smile.

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