Word Count :: 419 :: OOC
Keen eyes watched her nimble hand pull out of the bag something that Zalen had not seen in quite some time. A cigarette he believed they were called. With puppy-like curiosity he cocked his head to the side as he watched her light it and take a drag. His nose wrinkled as the smell hit him, it was strong but not that unpleasant in this weather. The smoke mingled in the misty air and then dissipated. Something about it was calming and Zalen felt his eyes droop.
He only half paid attention to her next words, his ear slanted lazily in her direction. But when the topic of motherhood once again came up Zalen closed his eyes. He let the wave of emotion run over him, pain, anger, hatred, the need for revenge that he knew would never come. He tried to stay away from these dark thoughts, the thoughts that made him realize that not only could he not save his mother’s life, he couldn’t save Keylo or Cody either. Everyone close to him was dead.
He looked up at Lucia with fierce eyes, “My mother was murdered when I was just a pup.” He closed his eyes angrily and turned his head away from her, feeling that in some way she could see how shameful he was.
A growl rose in his throat as he remembered that fateful night, a dark moonless night in the dead of winter. He remembered how his mother had stood over him, hackles raised, becoming a fiery demon he had never imagined she could become, all so she could protect him from the horde that had them surrounded. There had been a flurry of movement, snarls and barks and yips of violence all around him. He could smell blood, and over the fray he heard his mother telling him to run… and like a coward he did. The biggest regret of his life was that he had run. He should have stayed by her side to the bitter end. Zalen felt hot liquid press behind his eyes and his blood boil. Those goddamn coyotes. He hated them. He wished he could wipe their kind from the face of the earth.
The sky above them broke again with a burst of violent thunder and this snapped Zalen back to the here and now. He looked up at Lucia with a face that barely hid the emotions roiling within him. He grunted out a sigh and a part of him wished for a cigarette.
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