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[/html]She had crossed three rivers to find Kaena, and still, there was no one here. Or, she had not seen anyone. It was highly possible that one of Inferni's warriors had followed her all this way, but Tayui had not seen anyone yet. It would have made plenty of sense; after all, she had howled at the borders, and stalked up and down along the row of pikes. She had waited and waited, but no one had found her. Perhaps they had seen she was a wolf and decided to ignore her, or perhaps she had been too impatient. Whatever the reason, Tayui didn't care anymore. Her daughter was dead and Kaena was nowhere in sight. She refused to let this crush her, so she had taken a huge risk: she had breached the borders of Inferni. Although she had promised Gabriel years ago there would never be any problems between them, she longer represented a pack and no longer felt like she had any ties. AniWaya was a home, yes; but never in the sense the Shadows' lands had been. She still had her family, but suddenly, it had meant so much less.
She was a fool. She knew this now as she picked her way along the rocky lands, squinting in the damp mist. She stopped suddenly, scuffling awkwardly on the rocks. She could see someone not too far away: a reddish-brown coyote with a strange ribbon on her tail. Tayui squinted harder, trying to figure out if this was an illusion, since it was certainly strange. No, it was real – this girl was real and everything about her was real. Tayui did not know what to do. She stared at the coyote girl for a few more seconds before making a rash decision.
“Have you seen Kaena? My name is Tayui Aston. I… I need to speak with her, I… please don’t attack,” she added as a last thought, lowering her eyes and flattening her ears. She prayed silently that she would not regret this as the reasons for her adventure came flooding back.