Continued from here.
[html] The day that Corona would ever resort to attacking family would be the day that she no longer considered them family. It had been hard-coded in all of them to be that way, to always look out for one another despite the distaste. If someone lied a hand on any of them that bore half a tie to either parent, Corona would see fit to make sure they did not do it again. She was just as capable as Gabriel was to make someone regret their fatal choice. The distant look in his eyes made her wonder just what was going through his head, but the revelation was almost confusing at first.
But it was the way that he said it, in which made Corona bow her head for a moment. It just wasn't any she he had said. That word had weight in it, one that disturbed the surface of stoicism like a blow. “Is that so,” she said, lacking energy to reform it to a question. It served as a rejoiner, albeit almost bitterly. Maybe there had been a reason for her wraith actions, but what if she was misunderstanding? “I'm surprised.” Surprised in that lack of emotion way, of course. Levelling her gaze out with Gabriel for a moment, she frowned. “She didn't say anything, I'm assuming. It would be like her to do that, I think.” She didn't voice it, but Corona would have rather seen her mother die than abandon the coast. [/html]
[html] Only Samael, mad with the love for an angel he did not see, had come at Gabriel. It had been one blow, one sharp slap to the face that had ended that battle. They had not spoken since that day. It seemed just as well. Despite the families distance, the siblings remained bound tight. Gabriel had nearly killed for the siblings he had initially hated, and he would not hesitate to do so again for any of them.
He regarded Corona quietly, studying her reaction. The same sort of distant realization that perhaps Kaena had this plan all along. “No, she didn’t. From what I gathered, she just took off.” It also appeared that Eris must have followed her—Gabriel could find neither hide nor hair of the dark colored monster child on the coast. [/html]
[html] The mixture of emotions that twisted around inside of her it was enough to make her feel sick for just a moment. Corona could not fathom just how their mother could just take off without a word. She doubted that she was drug off, because Kaena would never have left such a thing happen. A sudden feeling of resent seemingly sparked in Corona, but she contained it immediately. She had no good reason to be resentful, because she had flipped sides too many times. What timing. “She's never really done this before when we were around,” thought that was somewhat untrue. Kaena had no problem wandering away for a few hours here and there. Maybe a day. But she had always been around like a hawk watching over things. Staying out of sight was one of her better traits, or so Corona had always thought. “I wonder why all of a sudden… you don't think something was wrong with her, do you?” [/html]
[html] The thought had occurred to him initially. Corona’s voicing of his concerns made a dull, cold knot grow in his stomach. His gold-yellow eyes darkened slightly, growing cloudy with the terrible idea. “I don’t know,” he said quietly, filled with terrible dread. “I’ve seen it happen before. People go off to die.” He frowned, and fumbled with his hands, instinctively going for the bag that hung around his hip. The issue made him uncomfortable, and the smoke calmed his nerves.
Striking the match and lighting the drawn, hand rolled article, Gabriel took a breath and exhaled, left hand going up to scratch behind his right ear. “One of her kids is gone too. I don’t know if they left together or if she wandered off on her own.” [/html]
[html] Corona had not out ruled the possibility that perhaps Kaena had wandered away to die. It was tempting to think, or perhaps even believe that they were all immortal because some folks were outliving their ancestors, but she knew that they were. Logical overruled desire. Her head swam through the thoughts that gathered like a thick fog. “They're probably out looking for her,” Corona though, not wanting to deal with the idea that perhaps Kaena had picked a puppy to go away with her. There had been times when even she had tried to trail after the gold-eyed queen to no avail.
“I guess that means you're in charge now,” because Corona did not seen anyone else who would try and usurp the power from him. If everyone else were truly children aside from him, then she had a sense of dread waiting in the wings. But for now, she could only refuse to think that perhaps Kaena had gone away to die. The time didn't seem right, but who said when they were all going to die? It had been so long since she had seen her mother that maybe she had been sick. “How are the others handling it?” Or did they know? [/html]
[html] If there had been a struggle, the signs would have been obvious. They all could see, from experience in tracking and hunting. No, the trail and just gone off and eventually faded away. It was not a great loss, in so far as his family was concerned. It had been the siblings that had really taken care of each other during those dark times, when father would leave for days and mother left in the dark of night without explanation. Maybe she would be gone for a day or maybe two, but never more.
Would Eris leave to find her mother? Possibly. If she had gone alone, she would have a one in a million chance to live. Perhaps she would find someone like he had, and if not, she would more then likely die. “Decently. No one here isn’t bound by blood or marriage,” he said, finding the human phrase on his tongue. [/html]
[html] “I suppose that's true, and there really isn't anything we can do about what's already happened,” Corona said, never really putting that much thought into it. Things changed, that was always a given. The very earth they were standing on was changing right underneath their feet. Perhaps it should have been expected, that one day she would have simply walked away from the coast, never to return or something befitting like that. She knew all too well how easily it was to burn out on a place, especially when the place was something of a burnt out area to begin with. One day the buildings would simply cease to stand and the ocean would devour the shore. She pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind for now, opting to go with a different set of conversation.
“So I heard that Inferni claimed the house that Syemv had.” [/html]
[html] There would be a day when everything ended. The world would stop and the dead would rise from their graves. He believed this, but Gabriel believed many things. While he had once worn his faith openly, this place did not care which higher power he followed or what he thought was wrong or right. “Yes, we did. I live there with Faolin. Her kids live there too,” he added, almost as an afterthought. “So we can watch them. It’s not a bad setup. Beats sleeping in sand.” [/html]
[html] She managed to smile at the thought—anything did beat sleeping on sand, concrete, or even the cold, hard earth. The finer things were certainly worth being spoiled on, but she figured that they probably extended their lives a little bit by staying out of the elements and in a house. “I didn't know Faolin had kids though,” she said, trying to think of the last time she had really seen Faolin. It had been so long, and more importantly (and likely) in passing. “Though I can imagine you're keeping track of the others, unless I have my wires crossed.” [/html]
[html] A bark of a laugh escaped Gabriel, and he shook his head quickly. “No, no, Kaena’s kids, not Faolin. She and I don’t have any,” yet. Maybe sometime they would, but not yet. Not until the Land of Wuffluvers was more stable, as it was starting to prove able. Watching his sister for a moment more, Gabriel found himself speaking again. “Have you thought about coming back here?” [/html]
[html] Her smile spread, albeit thinly at the brief connection of just who it was that Gabriel wanted her to meet. She answered him at first with a quiet “ah” and brushed it off for the next question that he gave her. She was ever as divided as she had been, albeit slowly feeling her way in either direction. “I haven't really thought about it any more than the last time you asked me,” she told him, not wanting to dance around the subject. “There's been a lot to catch up on, and I'm not sure where is it that I want to be now that I'm back here.” Her indecision had always been there, always interrupting the natural flow with important things. She knew that he wanted her to be there, just as she knew that she probably should have been there. Yet at the same time, she was also attached to the freedom in not declaring a side. “You aren't giving me a deadline to make up my mind already, are you?” she asked, only half-joking. [/html]
[html] Oooh, that new avatar is shiny.
It was not a pressing issue, but it was one he wanted to have answered. Corona was his sister, and he wanted her back in his life. On top of that, she was intelligent and would be another able body for the clan. Still, he knew better then to push—there was danger in forcing ideas on others. “No, of course not,” he answered with a smile. The mask of apathy always seemed to leave him around her. “You haven’t heard or seen any of our siblings, have you?” Considering they were so estranged, Gabriel really doubted it. Still, he wanted to know. Vitium’s head had a price on it, that much was for certain. [/html]
[html] They had always been an estranged crowd, even at the beginning. Some were naturally aloof, others overly obedient. Some had clung to the side of their mother like the children they were, only to finally flee the nest at a moment's notice. Her brow knotted in thought briefly, her shoulders rolling into a nondescript shrug. “I probably haven't seen any of them for at least a year. Maybe long than that. Conway stayed in France to the best of my knowledge,” she said, only really having an idea about his whereabouts. She figured he had settled down and had children by now, the way he had been hung on some girl. “I wonder where they've all gone to, sometimes.” [/html]
[html] As much wolf blood course through their veins and asked for companionship, the coyote instinct was stronger—living alone, obeying wanderlust even they did not understand. They had all left at least once. “I don’t know. Vitium was exiled for treason. Last I heard he had raped some woman. Her daughter is with us now,” he added, shrugging with both shoulders. It didn’t matter to him. Empusa had been a mystery since the day she arrived. “I haven’t seen or heard from Molochai or Rikka in over a year.” They could be dead, for all he knew. [/html]
[html] “Treason? That's surprising. He was one of the first to shun me after I left here to stay in Chimera. I thought he had more love for his happy home than that,” she said bitterly, but passively in a sense. Who knew what had driven him over the edge to do something like that, but then again, who really cared? Others had considered her to be useful, being able to switch sides like that. She could have helped Inferni—and would have—in a heartbeat. “But I didn't know he had a daughter though. How old?” Perhaps putting things into some sort of perspective timeline would sort out the mess of things. [/html]
[html] “I’m not quite sure,” he said, in regards to their niece’s age. “I’d say maybe five months. Maybe more.” He really didn’t know. It wasn’t something he had ever made a point to find out. Returning to the first comment she offered, he flicked one ear passively. “Who knows? He’s fucked up,” the dark-faced male nearly snapped. “It’s probably better for her that he isn’t around.” [/html]
[html] “It's probably better for all of us that a lot of the others aren't around. Hopefully there won't be any more after this,” she said, in faint reference to piles of siblings they already had. Kaena she imagined would be getting well over having them, but she could never said much for her father. Seven twice in a row was bad enough. “We were quite a mixed bunch,” she said humorously, biting her lip. Just a look back on the first few months of their lives explained just how fucked up they all were. [/html]
[html] He smiled a little at her attempt at humor. If there were no more children it would be too soon. “Yeah. Molochai attached to Kaena, Rikka always glued to the straight and narrow…though that’s just what I remember from before I left,” he added somberly. His left hand twitched slightly, the perfect circular mark obvious even now. A lot had occurred between then and now. More then he would like to admit. [/html]
[html] “It never really did change much from there on,” she said, able to recall up those memories faster than she would have liked. Being homesick was one thing, but she had fallen into the pitfall of chasing after the past. It was easy to see that just by how she was beginning to feel; overwhelmed by indecision, ever with the looming pressure to make a crucial decision. But she wasn't a child any more, and quite capable of figuring out what it was that she wanted, she supposed. “I guess we all haven't changed that much from where we started. That old saying that the humans used; ‘The apple does not fall far from the tree,’ seems almost too fitting, I think.” [/html]
[html] Gabriel’s odd smile faded slightly as he listened to her words, studying the structure of her face. Even though she looked like their father, she was built like Kaena. “Which one are you more like?” He asked, debating the truth of this argument when there were so many variables that could change the answer. [/html]
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