This winter had not been nearly as hard as the last - the canines in her pack were all fed, and it seemed that all was well for the most part. Naniko had been up to her normal task of keeping the pack safe when her mind had wandered and she had gone away with it, straying from the border and traveling toward Halifax. She'd been thinking of investing in some ladders to use for the new territory that Alaki had discovered deep within the caverns - there were giant holes in the ground near the back of the cave system and she planned on using them to the pack's advantage. Most canines might have looked at the holes and not though much of them...but she could see a hidden use in them. They'd had instances of intruders in Anathema, and Naniko hadn't known what to do with them at the time. It would be great to have somewhere to house criminals where they could be questioned and kept watch over.
But they would need ladders to put down into the holes so that when they were done with their questioning and holding of the canine, they could eventually release them or do away with them. It would depend on their crimes, really. She took threats to her pack very seriously; if the canine Amy came back around her borders, she would be happy to capture her and stick her down in the tunnels for a while until she learned how to respect Anathema and its leader. The last time she'd met the girl she'd been flippantly arrogant, a trait that Naniko had not found amusing in the least. Her pack members hadn't either, and they had threatened to chase the girl from the lands unless she left peacefully.
She stood in front of a tall red-bricked building, staring up at the ladders that held a rusted fire escape together. Could she manage to get any of them apart to take home with her? They were rusty...but still, they appeared to have been melted together. How the humans could melt metal was beyond her, but she knew that the welding would make the two pieces nearly impossible to get apart even if they were rather rusty. She looked about on the ground around there for pieces that may have fallen off over the years, taking a drag off of her pipe absentmindedly as she observed the area. Hmm. There were some broken pieces...maybe the thing was in worse a state than she'd thought. She went back around to the front of the building, intent on getting inside to check the fire escape herself.
Image courtesy of steppelandstock
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