06-13-2009, 06:10 AM
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mall-caps;">In Character The hybrid appeared livelier than she had since her arrival just then, her gaze still intently focused on Zana. There was a something akin to joy in her face, none of the bitterness or anxiousness the youth's eyes held. Zana seemed hesitant to put away her weapon, and Kaena was intrigued, thinking perhaps she had suffered some trauma in her youth. The thought rammed a knife of guilt into Kaena's throat, and whatever joy had been in her face vanished in a flash. Maybe it was something she could have prevented if she had been here. Zana gaped open-mouthed at Kaena, and questioned her legitimacy, shades of doubt creeping across her cinnamon-colored face. She holstered her strange weapon, and after a long moment asked another question, one Kaena had been almost dreading since she arrived. It was a tale of repeated failure and nearly fatal failure: just an inch deeper and Astaroth would have spilled her organs out into the sunny afternoon, and she would have been haunting Inferni instead of returning to it. The coyote had not expected to avoid that question as long as she did, and she was surprised she had dodged it thus far. It ought to have been the first thing demanded of her, but Kaena was glad it wasn't. Gabriel remained silent, which was somehow more comforting than anything he could have said at that moment—no matter the words he chose, Kaena thought it might come out derisively. It damn well should have, but it was the last thing she wanted to hear at that moment. She had left him and Inferni to chase a purebred monster conceived of rape and violence, a monster who had left Kaena to die in a dingy yellow field thousands of miles from home. Kae owed her other children more than that, especially Gabriel—she had already lost him once, and she was lucky he had come back at all. Kaena considered for a moment, drawing in a breath slowly and exhaling it quietly. Her single raptor's eye shut almost completely, just the thinnest slit of brilliant gold shining from beneath its charcoal outline. Her heart grew heavy with memory, and when she reopened her eye all the way again, Kaena's head was in a far-away place. Though she knew Zana was unlikely to know either Astaroth or Eris, she offered only the shortest version of the story—details could always be provided upon request. "I chased Astaroth after he took my daughter from me." Her voice was rather low and gravelly, and she paused again after speaking, spiraling through the past in her head. The smoke-colored hybrid still did not know why Astaroth had kidnapped her child or where they were headed; when she caught up with them, she had asked for no explanation, she only demanded blood. Perhaps she should have spoke first—then she might have been able to secure even a general idea of where they were headed, and she could have continued tracking Eris. But in her vast anger, she wanted Astaroth's life and her daughter returned, nothing more—and she'd gotten the lesser half what she wanted. Her face twisted then, fiery red anger flashing across her features for a brief moment before that same distance settled into her eyes again and her expression left her entirely. "When I caught up with them, Astaroth and I fought, and both of us almost died. One of us did." Her presence made it obvious which that was, and almost mechanically, the silver canine's fingers traced the newest scar added to her ever-growing collection, the thick, jagged one slashed horizontally across her belly. She'd nearly been eviscerated by the blow, and she was dumb lucky that the wound was relatively shallow and missed her organs. The ashen canine took in another breath, and her exhalation was ragged this time, a shudder that dropped her shoulders and sent her ears flat against her head. Her eye darted away from either of her family members, instead drawn to the ground, the dirt, the grass, the trees—anything but the piercing gazes which regarded her. "When I came to, Eris had already left me on her own." Cold bitterness had crept into her tone, and her muzzle writhed into something like a snarl, though it was utterly lifeless, devoid of any of the fire and spark Kaena's usual menacing expression might hold, flat and lifeless as the charred wastelands they had once called home. She hadn't needed nor expected to be saved by Eris, but her daughter could have at least stuck around—after all, Kaena had only trailed her across the country. "I took some time to mend and look for her, but she was long gone." Eris's voluntary departure had set two opposing emotions into Kaena, and both were lingering ones she had pondered since the event. She was at once immensely relieved at Eris's absence, yet an alarm in her head screamed she had made a terrible mistake in letting her daughter slip away. The outpost and Rangi were miles and months behind her, but they were the freshest details on her mind—she vividly recalled finding the bar and drinking herself halfway to death, trying in vain to drown the memories of Eris from her head. The youth haunted her still. "I couldn't find my way home at first, but after a while, I found someone who could point me in the right direction," she finished, her single eye finally turning back to the canines before her, focusing on Zana for a moment before turning to Gabriel. It had grown almost misty, clouded with memories of the past, but beneath that thin film shone a new light, one that had been absent for too long. There was still a new purpose yet to her life, standing on two paws not five feet away from her. |