I cursed the sun

[Kaena Lykoi]

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http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_bloody.jpg); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; background-position:fixed; padding-top:230px; padding-left:15px; padding-right:15px; padding-bottom:10px;">     The hybrid woman wondered if the rain would ever stop. It had been coming what seemed like daily for weeks now—and even on those rare days that there had not been actual precipitation there were clouds threatening it. Though Kaena had never been bothered by the rain, she had grown extremely tired of it. Even most of the caves that were normally dry had begun to grow moist and damp, and Kaena wondered if maybe the whole world was flooding. The hybrid woman was not so much wandering as she was skulking through the flooded plainsland, her feet sinking into muck the whole way. The weather made some things impossible and others just annoying; heading to ring around the borders again was just one of those things she supposed she had to suck up and deal with.     The grizzled coyote could not smell much of anything in the drizzle, and the water on the ground made things even more difficult to navigate. The going wasn't terribly slow, but the coyote woman did feel as if she was bogged down in all of this water just like the usually upright grasses of the plainsland, most of them far too waterlogged to stand up on their own. She began close to the coast, and she was perhaps halfway through her swing of the perimeter when she noticed a strange thing. There was a tawny and honey-brown coyote on Inferni's territory; though she did not recognize him, there was immediate and swift familiarity. He moved like her, with the swinging and elongated trot of the coyote, though he seemed to encounter the same minor difficulty she had in traversing their newly founded swamp.     The silvery coyote trailed him absently, navigating through the wetland as best she could. Some parts were deceptively deep where there had been hollow spots. The coyote lost the stranger for a moment in the trees before a flash of dulled gold through the rain caught her eye, and she discovered his hiding space. There was a hollowed tree in their forest, some forgotten spot that had been used in other times by other unfortunate coyotes—but why, if he belonged here, did he seek out the furthest reaches of their territory? There was little question they were related somehow; her glittering eye peered forward into the dimness of the hollow and she took him in, scarred face and brilliant golden eyes. He had most of the appearance of a coyote, with certain hybridization of his blood. He was too large, too lanky. "You belong here," she said. It was certainly not a question. Even if it were not for their almost certain relation, he had been too casual in crossing their borders and he seemed to know the land too well.

thanks to james for the header image[/html]