08-11-2009, 05:49 AM
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| http://digital-bonsai.com/katew/rp/kae/kae_disorder.jpg); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat:no-repeat;"> The rain tumbled from the sky endlessly, pelting the elder woman along her shoulders and her back, soaking her through and through. She was soaked to the core; there was no part of her that was not sodden and dripping with water. She blinked it out of her single eye a few times, but beyond that made no effort to keep dry. It would have been an exercise in futility anyway; there was no way the woman would have been able to make so much as a dent in the amount of water she was covered in. The coyote did not seek shelter, however; if rain kept canines indoors they would quickly starve to death. It wasn't as if they had refrigerators to raid or stockpiles to devour. The tawny coyote spoke, and the elder woman smiled at him faintly, her coal lips curving as best they could through the scars crossing her muzzle. She shook her gray head firmly, her ears at half-mast through the rain. "You came back," she said, simply enough. The hybrid could hold no grudge against wanderers; sometimes life threw a wrench into the cogs. Kaena knew this better than any creature; she had been alive a long time and she had never seemed to remain anywhere for a terribly long time. She had always returned here, but the longest she'd been here consecutively had probably been about two years, perhaps just a touch more. "That's what matters," the woman offered. It was true—leaving wasn't such a big deal if you came back. There were too many others which had not returned, too many who were mere passing ghosts in Inferni's history. Kaena could not have named even a fraction of them; in her long, long life she had seen too many pass through their ranks briefly. There was a difference, though—most of them did not come back. There were a choice few which left and returned, and in Kaena's mind that spoke volumes. It was strange that she did not hold initial departure against coyotes who chose to wander, but then again, Kaena herself had the shoddy record to bear. The hybrid woman peered at the younger canine again, interest flaring across her scarred features. "Kaena," she said, introducing herself the shorter way. It wasn't often necessary to deploy the surname within Inferni's territory; she had never known any other Kaena inside its borders or outside of them, for that matter. |