even angels learn how to fly

Talitha de le Poer · 04-09-2011, 11:33 AM

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Date: 09Apr2011

Setting: Inferni → Grimwell Caverns

Time: Dusk

Character Form: Optime

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Assumed that Gabriel was at home, with his injuries; feel free to ask me to change it! 500+

It was finished. Fragile russet hands raised a treasure into the fading light of the setting sun, as crimson eyes hoped to find the imperfections that existed. It was going to be a gift. A peace offering, perhaps, to her handsome prince; guilt rested inside of poorly healing ribs. Though she hadn't accepted the indiscretions of her nocturnal GodKing, Ezekiel hadn't deserved the fury that she'd presented. He couldn't help the bond he felt. He had lived with others outside of Inferni, and he had learned new ways. His ignorance could be forgiven, if it meant he'd love her again. How she hated the thought that her precious brother could stop loving her, like Gabriel had. He promised he would never be capable.

Maybe he'd lied.

Her grip on the painted skull turned crushing, but she didn't destroy it as she wanted to. Something inside of her mind, something new and undiscovered, pulled at the guilt. He deserved his gift, though it was incomplete. As simple as she was, Talitha could think of nothing better for a warrior brother. Yes, she'd heard rumors on the wind about changes in position, and it seemed her brother had surpassed older Hydras to reach new position. When Halo ascended, Tirarii was snatched back up. Her brother held purpose.

They had taken such different paths, and she found herself unable to talk to the prince about her insecurities. Without Ezekiel, she had no confidant. Caillen was not part of her world; she couldn't go out of her way to trouble him with such things. Connecting just wasn't her forte, at least not without the end result of gaining new lovers. She had no friends. It left her with one option.

Turning her thoughts from her warrior-prince, the dark princess stood in one elegant motion. It hurt, with healed fractures having smashed again; she hadn't sought help from Enkiel, as she found herself unable to ask. It was fitting. The man she sought for comfort was wounded in a similar way, albeit more severely. Gabriel had done something stupid. Though he hadn't spoken about it openly to the pack, his daughter was not stupid. The news of the collapsing pass couldn't be coincidence.

She shook her head, and assumed to know where her father might be. Unwilling to face him alone, she gathered twine and wire and teeth that had fallen from the smashed muzzle of her corpse, carrying them with difficulty as she crossed the land. He wouldn't be wandering in his condition. At least, she hoped not. Her path was certain, following an invisible road to the den she had once called home; something in her memory made her miss the warmth of his home. It would be strange to ask to return now, as she was an adult, but she could wish.

Like blood-stained diamonds, her eyes sought familiar fur in the darkness while delicate hands grappled with the task of holding what would soon make a gift for the male who had tried to raise her. "Are you home?" It was a soft voice that escaped her. She didn't want to intrude. Perhaps he was still angry.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-12-2011, 06:44 PM

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+3 :: Gabe has been living with Enkiel, but hurhur he is derp. <3

Nine days had passed with little improvement. The swelling in his shoulder had gone down severely, but it still ached with each passing storm. He found comfort in the pain relief that Enkiel provided, though he sorely wished to be better. Despite the jackal’s insistence he remain within the confines of the Guest House, the Aquila did not answer to anyone without some rebellion. His healer had earned the coy-wolf’s respect, but that did not change the fact that the five-year-old would ultimately do as he pleased. This was what had led him back to his cave, on the premise he would gather supplies and return.

His walk had been arduous and lonesome. Gabriel had not realized how much he had come to rely on Marlowe for friendship, and missed the raven dearly. Ezekiel often left the two younger ones with him, but they were not fluent in high-speech and often more confused than they were insightful. Still, it kept him busy. Enkiel was a good medic but his companionship was lacking, just as his son’s duties kept him busy. Kaena was an obvious choice if not for the secret of her descent in the ranks, and Gabriel’s own fear to face her. He knew she would find the irony of his situation laughable, and detested thinking she would mock him for it.

Yet for all his stubbornness, by the time Gabriel made it to his cave his shoulder had begun the familiar and hateful ache. He had laid down in a huff, sore and in pain, and slept fretfully. The next time he woke he had begun to nose through his things, hoping to find something that would justify his walk this far. When a familiar voice called from behind him, the Aquila almost expected such a thing. “Back here,” he called out, using his good arm to paw at the collection of books his son had left behind. Ezekiel had read many during his own injury, but left with only one in tow. Perhaps that would be a believable explanation for his unnecessary walk.

Talitha de le Poer · 04-12-2011, 07:08 PM

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Pfft. Naughty Gabe.
300+

For the briefest moment, she hoped he wouldn't be there. The last meeting had been disgraceful to the family. Tempers flared, things had been said. She didn't regret her accusations — Gabriel had committed a grievous error in judgement within the dark eyes of his daughter — but she wished the scarce love she'd coveted had survived the battle. As it stood, Talitha felt she had lost more than she deserved. Respect, family, pride. Something was missing that couldn't be determined, and Gabriel could only set it right. Yet, she still hoped he wouldn't be there; of course, she was wrong.

He called out from some dark corner of the den she'd once called home and she took it as an invitation inside. On awkward legs, she moved forward, clutching the teeth and strings and wire as if they'd somehow save her from her own unease. Crimson eyes scanned the area; Enkiel, much to her slight disappointment, was not there. "Shouldn't you be resting, instead of searching your things?" she chastised. Like any adult male, she expected he wouldn't care that she showed any sort of concern. He would do what he wanted to do. Everyone else could sod off.

She kept her distance. "I wanted to talk to you." The simple sentence sounded as though an apology was in order, but the younger woman was stubborn and felt nothing of regret. She only needed him to listen. At one point in time, she would have sought out her blue-eyed aunt, Corona; now, she was left with few options. Faintly trembling legs carried her across the expanse of his home in a straight pace, fingers twisting leather around the bases of teeth to form a chain. The silence around her was stifling and uncomfortable, but she wasn't willing to speak unless he said she could.

Despite their differences, Talitha wasn't willing to forcibly burden the dark Aquila with anything trivial, and it was a display of trust that she went to him at all. He was cold, he was hard, but he was still her father. Slowly, she had begun to take the words of the strange Niro to heart: she couldn't be replaced in the eyes of Gabriel. Or so she hoped. Maybe her own opinion was correct, that he couldn't love enough to fit everyone into his world. If that was the case, she was sure to be the first one cast out.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-14-2011, 05:13 PM

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Gabriel did not regret what he had told her, just as he did not regret what he had told his mother. He was a man that live with very little room for such a thing. Yet he recognized there had been a fault made, perhaps out of his own ignorance for the ways of women. They were such flighty, temperamental things. Even now, he knew that Alaine would no doubt ream him out for having left the Mansion, but she was less threatening than Enkiel, who was cold in his treatment and rarely amused by Gabriel’s complaints. At least Alaine had some sympathy for him. He hoped that her scent would go unnoticed on his pelt, and was glad for the distance his daughter kept.

Even now, he worried what she might do. “Likely, yes,” he replied, knocking over a book to see what was below it. Many of these were unfamiliar things, having been brought for his son but abandoned since then. Gabriel had not read in months. Turning to face his daughter, the Aquila eyed her quietly and studied the thing in her hands. She was such a peculiar girl; he wondered if she would have turned out differently if her mother had been around but dismissed this thought quickly. Faolin was dead to him, and she was a no-good traitor to begin with. Talitha had done better without her. “You can always talk to me,” Gabriel finally said, his voice lacking its gruff bite if only for the moment. He was her father, after all, and he still loved her dearly.

Talitha de le Poer · 04-14-2011, 05:30 PM

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She watched from her place, turning her eyes between his large body and her project; an unpleasant, vaguely familiar scent was clouding her sense, but she tried to ignore it. The last time she had tried to express her distaste for her father's choices, the world had broken into many little pieces. She'd only just picked them back up. The cording wrapped around one finger tightly, cutting off the circulation of blood there as she sought for the words she'd wanted to say to him. She had, after all, wanted to talk to him and his voice had softened in turn as he waited. "Sometimes I wonder," she murmured, primarily to herself.

Looping the leather around another tooth, she let her eyes travel toward the top of the den; how life had changed since her hunts of invisible buffalo under his patient gaze. Now they had secrets that were best left undisturbed. She hoped that would fade. Even if he kept all the secrets in the world, she would rather not hide things from him. With uncomfortable hesitation, she cleared her throat, taking an inelegant seat on the ground; spindly legs crossed before her, and her hands fell to the hollow space made by her knees.

"Usually I wouldn't come to you; you don't need to worry about stupid things from...stupid people...but I feel like Ezekiel wouldn't want to listen anymore. Maybe it's for the best; I did ruin most of his childhood." She referred to his chase across the wilds in search of his missing twin, of course, though their childhood had ended before that time came. Somehow, she still felt the blame, even if he had never complained. "I don't forgive you for what you did. I don't think it's right, and I don't understand the workings of God, but I can't condemn you for it. I make my own mistakes. But you're supposed to be better than us; I've always thought you were better than us." Each new word came with a deeper coating of distress. She would always love her father, but he didn't make it easy.

A sigh ended her short explanation, and though it wasn't what she wanted to speak about, it did need to be addressed. They couldn't continue seeming blind hatred and inhabit the same world. Lifting one hand to cover an eye, the disturbed princess turned her eyes to the entrance of the Aquila's home. "I'm confused. I don't like it."

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-15-2011, 07:26 PM

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+3 :: I have no idea where this went, sorry ;-;

Each word brought with it a new expression, for her body and her eyes betrayed her true thoughts all too well. She did not lie, but she was a torrent of should-have and could-have’s that the Aquila did not wish to think of. His life was much simpler when he stepped back and put it in God’s Hands. He hoped his children would learn this too, but they were so different than him—they did not know of the Voice, they had not seen His Work in the desert. Perhaps they did not even truly believe as Gabriel did, but faith was not something that could be forced.

He remained silent and still, a painted gargoyle made to look like a wolf, and listened to her worries and her anger. At her conclusion, he remained quiet for several long moments. “I’m mortal,” he finally said quietly, well aware of how apparent this had become in the past few days. “Mortals were cursed with weakness because God gave us the power of choice. Humans were cursed with sin, and they destroyed themselves because of it. I have witnessed much evil, Talitha, and I have tried to do good in the world…but there’s wickedness in me as well.” He advanced, limping, and leaned against her taller frame reassuringly.

“My God is the God of love, but He is also the God of Wrath. So in each of us there has to be such things; but if you believe, He’ll show you the way. Your path may not be clear, but you have a purpose here.” This he believed, for if not, her damned uncle would have killed her years ago. God had kept her alive, even if she had to suffer in order to survive. It was cruel, but this too was truth; God was cruel.

Talitha de le Poer · 04-16-2011, 12:15 AM

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Crazy-lady tangents about love. -.- Gabe is totally right.

Though he might not have realized the impact of his words on his daughter's view of himself and the world, Gabriel always seemed to know the perfect thing to say in her times of crisis. As he gave response to her belief of his own perfection, she knew he was right. The Aquila may have been her view of God, but he was the same as she. He bled, he fought, he loved and like his daughter, he succumbed to temptations that had the power to destroy what he had built. Perhaps he was wicked. Perhaps she was as well. Whatever they were during normal hours of their life, for a moment they were merely a father and his daughter. Her eyes didn't leave the ground, even as she felt the reassuring pressure of his larger body against her own.

A fragile fingertip pressed against the root of the next tooth in line for the necklace. Like Ezekiel, Gabriel seemed so sure that a path was defined for her. How could she say she disagreed? "All he does is punish me, and all I do is try to make you proud of me." Somehow she had deviated from her goals. It seemed each new step toward her future left her in lower standing with him. The effect was devastating. Allowing the remaining teeth to turn over in her palm, she lifted a hand and grasped the fur at his shoulder. It brought back memories of a night not long before, sitting in the darkness of the forest. With all their differences, they always returned to the same situation.

"I don't understand everyone's desire to find another that they can be close to. All I've seen it bring is hurt. Mother left, and now you're not the same. Why should anyone be put through that? Why should I be made to suffer simply because I care for someone else? It's foolhardy. It's dangerous." A quick shake of her head jostled the auburn curls that rolled down her back, and the subtle weight of her body leaned into the Aquila's leaning frame. "Even family. I've put love into you and Ezekiel and now it hurts to see you leave me. I can't do anything about you. You'll go regardless of my complaints, but I can't lose him to someone else. I don't want to lose him to someone else, especially not some other woman." She was his sister, and she deserved Ezekiel's love over any other creature. Or so she believed.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-20-2011, 05:34 PM

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+3 ::

Doubt had the potential to be more powerful than faith. It was reasonable, of course, and this gave it strength. How could Gabriel put so much trust into an unseen hand when the world was so real and its absence of love so widely felt? He had been called mad before, by a long-gone brother, and he knew this was how it would seem to those who did not know as he knew. Talitha saw nothing but darkness because she sought it out; he could recognize this as certainly as he could recognize new wounds and the ever-present hint of alcohol in her fur. His poor daughter suffered needlessly.

The anger she had displayed was out of fear. Fear that one day she would be replaced, forgotten, cast aside. Oh how well he knew that. Kaena had birthed not one but two litters after his own, and each time he had felt the sting of jealousy rise. This might have made it easier to detach from the children; he had grown to despise Andre, after all. Ahemait alone he loved purely, for she had never looked at him different for the way he behaved. Arkham and Rachias had shown him nothing but contempt. Eris was a stranger. Razekiel lived in a world so far from his own, and what of the others, then? He had been nothing to his parents and now he alone remained. Inferni existed because of Gabriel and Gabriel alone. This was the truth.

“No one has left you, Talitha,” he reminded her firmly. “You are my first-born daughter, and nothing will change that. Regardless of what has happened to me, or to you, blood cannot be broken.” Yet Gabriel had shown he was capable of harming his own kin, capable of killing them. Blood was powerful, but Gabriel’s will stronger yet. “I have no plans of leaving here anytime soon. If a mountain couldn’t move me, no woman will.” A joke, though one he felt in every bone. The rockslide had almost killed him. “As for your brother,” Gabriel went on, lifting his voice to a lighter tone. “I don’t think he’s got enough time for a woman. Between his duties and his animals, you’re probably the only girl he has time for.” He smiled and wagged his tail, doing his best to reassure her that this was true.

Talitha de le Poer · 04-20-2011, 06:18 PM

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Just made up something in regards to the skulls. Figure it's pretty typical. This is a bit rambly. Sorry...

The words of her father were reassuring, but the woman still couldn't look past her own beliefs. No one had left her, this was true enough, but she expected it would occur soon. Faolin was gone, and Ezekiel was slipping through her fingers like sand from the beach. Gabriel was for Inferni, not for her. Blood was thick, but did not create a valid case for their ties. She had seen death to family at the hands of her father. Andrezej had suffered. Had she done enough wrong to suffer the same fate? Certainly not. At least not in the golden eyes of her father. His first-born daughter, the younger of legitimate twins and heirs, felt as if she sat upon the bottom of the world. Outcasted.

She mulled over his words in silence. Inferni was Gabriel's legacy, and she knew truth behind his words that he would not be leaving. He was also correct in his beliefs on Ezekiel. Talitha had no doubts that she would lose the golden prince to a mate, but this collie woman was another story. He had liked the puppies. He had liked her. The russet princess pulled herself away from the warmth of her father's shoulder, shaking her head. "I don't believe you would leave Inferni," she started, twisting the leather around yet another tooth. "But I don't believe it is not because of her. I know men, daddy. I'm not stupid. You're all so easy to pull around and use." Another shake of her head jostled her curls in every direction.

The mountain couldn't move him, but what if the woman relocated? She had seen wolves within Inferni in the past; Lucia Cabriel had suffered the hatred of the dark princess at one moment in time, because she was a wolf. Somehow his words did not give her comfort. Instead, they left her colder. She had never had to suffer in silence with the presence of siblings she did not acknowledge, but she would be left with no other choice were things to go the way she assumed that they would. Gabriel had made it clear that she would have no place in her home if she continued her bitter anger at these new obstacles that she believed would replace her.

And it would be so easy, as she felt she held no stock in her own family, labelled a Lykoi in respect for her grandmother. Unlike so many others, there was no pride to Talitha in the Lykoi name. Her pride came from the name de le Poer; the irony went unnoticed for the most part. A heavy sigh escaped her lungs and her weight rested against her father's side once again. "I feel like you placed me outside of yourself and Ezekiel, by giving me a name that doesn't title me your daughter. I'm more like Grandfather than either of you, so why am I a Lykoi instead?" She clung to the knowledge that Gabriel's father was an artist, information passed on by Corona when she learned her niece had forsaken the piano to play a stringed instrument like one Laurel Booth. Ahren de le Poer was a mystery to her otherwise, yet she felt a closeness that few other members of her family received. Her pride was in the name de le Poer, a family of wolves that she might otherwise have hated.

It was silly to feel distress over a simple name, though, and she was sure Gabriel had his reasons. She didn't want an answer, really. It was better not to know. "Something has been knocking our skulls to the ground. I found a few broken." Blurting out the facts was her way of cutting off Gabriel's response. Their conversation had become uncomfortable otherwise. "And someone is here who shouldn't be." Faolin's eyes, worn by their daughter, moved to watch the face of the dark King. She knew as well as he who she spoke of: a golden collie from the pack of dogs along the Shattered Coast.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 05:13 PM

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+3

A foreign feeling—resentment—grew in his chest. Did she think him so weak as to fall for a woman? After what her mother had done? After what Jezebel had done? Anu was all but a shadow to him now, for neither she nor his sons belonged to Gabriel any longer. Alaine was different, in many ways, but she was not capable of moving the dark king. He had suffered far too much to allow that. Nor did he believe that she would leave her kingdom, for he had seen the way she spoke of it, seen her love for the place. Gabriel knew that Alaine feared Inferni, but not simply for herself.

His face twisted into a frown at her talk of the surname he had chosen for her, further darkening as she spoke of his father, and then of Alaine. Gabriel’s face did not betray him, not after so many years of practice. It remained still, eyes hawkish, indifferent to her feelings about the perceived threat. “She came back with your brother to inspect my wounds. She will not be staying.” The subject, then, was finished. His eyes fell to the tattoo on her hip, the same as the one on his shoulder, and he continued speaking. “I gave you the Lykoi name for the same reason we named the other child Mogotsi. There were three families that went into making you, and the goal was to share them. You can call yourself whatever you like. If you’d rather go by de le Poer, then use it.” Gabriel was only distantly aware of the implications of the name, for it belonged to his father and that branch of a forgotten family. It was a name that belonged to wolves. His eyes trailed to the skull, then back to Talitha’s; how much like her mother those eyes were.

Talitha de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 05:58 PM

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How could she know that her father's heart had suffered at the hands of more than one stupid woman? All she knew was Faolin, of her faults and her betrayal, and now of this pretty little bitch from the pack along the sea. Other bodies, other females, other children, these were unknown variables that she preferred not to see; her chosen ignorance left dark spots on her own knowledge of her father, however. Perhaps it was for the better. They had seen how this collie's presence had caused a rift between the three de le Poers. Was this how Talitha would see everything Gabriel had done in the past? If that was so, then secrets were best buried under skeletons that could hide them. There was no reason for the princess to ruin her views of the King any more than she already had.

He acknowledged her claims that there was a trespasser with an explanation: the woman had come with her brother, a fact that stung viciously in the heart of the woman. They had Enkiel — her handsome cousin was clearly adept in his abilities — so why did they need an outsider? He hadn't rushed to find someone else after the accident in the forest. Was she less deserving of the best care, if that was not Enkiel? Unlike her father, she could not hide the dark feelings that welled up in her chest. They seeped through her eyes like water into ground, and allowed the world to know just what went through the mind of the strange first daughter at all times. A curse in the moment, as she knew Gabriel would see, even if he made no mention.

Quickly, so as not to be berated for her continued hatred, her eyes fell to the tattooed brand upon her hip. So many wore the same marking, from her father to her grandmother to cousins, but somehow she saw less meaning in the family crest. It was a physical representation of who she was, of what she was. Her blood ran thick with Kaena's genetics, with the genetics of family that had suffered through years of unspoken life. It was Kaena who was prided, not the grandfather she wished she had known — the wolf at the door, hiding in the shadows of her heredity. Gabriel had explanations for that as well, of course. She was Lykoi for the family that made her. Lykoi, de le Poer, Mogotsi. But Mogotsi was wrong, as she had met Asphyxia and she knew Hybrid and both bore the surname of Holocaust.

Her mother no longer mattered. Faolin was a door closed to Talitha and, though she did still dwell on the red coyote, it was a door that would not be opened again. Much to her surprise, however, Gabriel opened a new one. Her eyes returned to his familiar face as if expecting him to be playing some sort of cruel joke. She would never have asked to transfer her name from the honorable Lykoi to the tainted de le Poer line, yet he offered it to her anyways. She could be who she wanted, a wolf in name while she claimed coyote blood. Queen of hypocrisy and princess of contradiction. An identity she was keen on keeping.

"Thank you." It was simple, but conveyed all he needed. She was grateful for his offer, and she loved him for the leniency she herself could not have. Gently, her nose pressed against his cheek, but it only lingered briefly before she held up her finished piece of work. A necklace of teeth, stained red from the paint she had been using in her den. "I didn't know what to do with them, and I felt you deserved a present. You don't receive the appreciation you deserve, at least not from me." She didn't speak of the murder she had committed, feeling it unnecessary to tell him where the teeth had come from, but tried to offer a smile. How she loved her father.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 06:15 PM

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For all she claimed to share with his father, Gabriel knew she had not been exposed to the truth. Whatever she had learned, either from his mother or from Corona, was likely only half-truth. In those last months his father had been mad and spoke in riddles, a murderous thing that Gabriel feared. He saw parts of the dead man in his children; each time Ezekiel shot his bow, and each time Talitha showed more of her talent. Heaven help them if that madness came, for it had turned his father into something terrible.

She seemed pleased with the thought of taking his name, and Gabriel was glad for it. Anything to keep her content. It was the least he could do, after everything she suffered, and everything she continued to suffer for her own pride. “It’s very pretty,” he told her genuinely, appreciating the craftsmanship she had put into it. Having once been capable of such things himself, seeing artistry always satisfied him. “We can hang it up here. I’m coming home as soon as Enkiel allows it,” he added, grimacing at the thought of his shoulder. “Not really a fan of that open space. Scintilla was a lot of open space, and that never felt safe."

Talitha de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 06:40 PM

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She knew his appreciation of her work was genuine, and smiled brightly as he spoke of hanging it up. It was strange to see joy on the face of the princess, but Gabriel had pulled it to the surface and Talitha had allowed it to stay. Her eyes sought for a suitable place to put it as he continued to speak, raising from her seated position to better inspect the walls. "I didn't think Enkiel was in control of your welfare right now." She didn't look back to him as she spoke. It wasn't necessary. Fragile fingers followed the contours of the wall and found a place to hang the jewelry, slipping the worn leather over the rock. She didn't return to his side, instead taking an interest in the books on the floor. She still couldn't read them. After her fight with Ezekiel, she had not desired to learn. She expected he didn't want to teach her either.

An unknown name reached her ears and she turned her head in the direction of the Aquila. She had never thought of her father outside of Inferni. In her mind, he was ever present, without a history that didn't include the coyote clan. The fact that he had been somewhere else piqued her interest. "Scintilla, what's Scintilla?" As her hands sifted through the old literature, her mind elaborated on some silly fantasy. Even in her daydreams, her father was a king, but in her daydreams, he was a better man. Silent guilt spread through her chest as she closed the door on her thoughts. "You don't tell us about who you were before mother."

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 06:53 PM

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Though she stabbed low at him in regards to Alaine’s involvement in his health, Gabriel ignored this. He was in no mood to repeat their last fight. Gabriel moved towards another corner of the cave as she began to search for a suitable place for her artwork, lifting his head at the familiar name. His eyes went distant and his body settled onto his haunches, knowing the story would be long. It was part of the reason he had never told them about the war.

“Well,” he began, tilting his head slightly as he sorted through the memories. “A lot of that’s due to what I did. When I left Inferni the second time, I left to find God. So I wandered, and I eventually found my way south. Scintilla was a place that belonged to coyotes and dogs, most of whom shared our faith. One of my closest friends, he was a preacher—oh, you should have seen him talk. That coyote could move mountains with his words,” Gabriel laughed lightly at the idea, picturing the small coyote.

“Unfortunately, Scintilla was not a peaceful place. They allowed me to stay because I could fight. War belonged in the desert, you see.” Gabriel shifted uneasily and settled onto his belly, giving his shoulder a rest. “Wolves had come from the north, and they thought they had a right to the place. It was brutal. In the end we chased the wolves all the way to the sea on the other side of the world.” Then came the fire. He hesitated speaking of this, knowing his daughter was sharp and would potentially see the connection between the first fire and the one that had struck their old home.

Talitha de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 07:12 PM

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She only listened as he spoke of the world outside of Inferni. Talitha had experienced new places, but nothing like the lands her father had seen. Her eyes watched as he approached, ears following each new world that left his jaws. Scintilla had been like Inferni in many ways, though dogs had been allowed within their ranks like they would not be allowed in her home. And all of them, or most of them, had believed as she believed. It seemed better than her home as Gabriel spoke of it. Would she have fit in there any better than she did here, surrounded by her family? Had Gabriel? Her thoughts were destroyed as he began to speak of peace and how Scintilla had none, and he was a warrior who was allowed to stay for the purpose of fighting. It was clear that she herself would not have survived.

The wolves had ruined that as well. "It seems they're the same across the world. It's a shame the fire didn't rid them all." Though she did not know the truth of the fire in her youth, she remembered it and saw it as divine intervention in life. God had struck down upon them to rid the world of the vile filth that claimed cousin-species to them, and He had allowed Gabriel's family safety. She could still smell the smoke and ash if the wind blew the right way, though it had been so long ago. A heavy sigh parted her jaws. "Did you like it there, in Scintilla? Was it better than being here?" She had never found a place that warranted her love as much as Inferni, but she had never truly left the miles that sat around Nova Scotia. Maybe someday she would be so lucky.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 07:27 PM

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The fire. Oh he remembered the fire. It had begun with matches and gasoline and the Will of an angry, loving God. God had started that fire. God had touched Gabriel and made him holy. Since that day he had not heard the Voice. It was better that way. When the Lord spoke, Gabriel had to obey. Once he had left, and twice he had burned. Neither of these outcomes would have settled well with him now.

“I liked it,” he answered honestly. “The days were hot and the nights freezing. We spent a lot of time waiting, and a lot of time fighting. When we did relax it was fun, but there wasn’t much of that.” He had enjoyed his time there with Eli and Jezebel, but they were fleeting ghosts and he feared they might have since passed on. Ignoring this doubt, he flicked one ear dismissively. “I like Scintilla, but it wasn’t home. When I came back things had changed very little—I fought another war under your grandmother, and took her place when she went chasing after Eris. You were born not long after that, though I doubt you and your brother remember the old territory. It wasn’t all that different than here, though.”

Talitha de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 07:40 PM

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He had liked Scintilla, but it was not his home now. She tried to imagine a world where Gabriel was not the leading force. A world of war. She had lived through war. She had seen death, but she was certain it was nothing like what Gabriel had experienced across the world. Oh, how she wished she could have been there. How she wished she could have know the world before her birth. All she knew now was Inferni, the new land and not the old. The furthest back she knew was the fire, in bits and pieces rather than a whole. Her childhood was mostly ignored — could she remember a time when they were a happy family? Everything now was scattered into ash, much like the old territory.

Scintilla had not been home, as all the places she had found would never replace Inferni as a home. He had fought more war beneath Kaena, leaving when the old woman had chased for her daughter, a Lykoi that Talitha had condemned alongside so many. Talitha had not fought a war. She had suffered the pains of being an innocent amongst warriors. She should have stayed away, but she hadn't. She wanted to be there for Gabriel. She'd only managed to make everything wrong.

A shake of her head dispelled her distress and she sat herself back on the ground beneath her feet. "I don't remember much. The fire — the colors and the smell — is it. Before that, and sometimes after that, it's all empty." Empty seemed wrong. Was there something wrong with her inability to know? "Does that make it worse for me, because I can't remember the old Inferni? Halo says I don't belong here, that I don't deserve your forgiveness when I leave." She hadn't spoken of the argument with her cousin in the past, or the girl's beliefs of her status in the clan, and it was difficult now that the outsider-turned-member was Centurion. Somehow, she felt childish, as if tattling on a sibling who had pulled her hair.

"I belong here just as much as anyone else. I was born before here was even claimed, and where were they born? Outside, to other packs and places," she whispered, speaking only for herself.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 07:52 PM

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Amber eyes refocused, sharpening, as she spoke of her own childhood. She did not remember the house they had lived in, did not remember that shore. It was for the best. Gabriel knew that Hell’s Coast would have recovered by now, but there was no reason to cross the mountain again. At the talk of Halo’s assertion of her own superiority, Gabriel snorted bullishly, baring his teeth in the process. “Halo and her brothers are the sons of a blood traitor, who defended a wolf and attacked his own family. She has proved herself to us since then, and she has no right to expect you would do any less.”

The coy-wolf turned his face back to her, those hawkish eyes betraying the cruelty within him. “Lykoi’s have a tendency to wander. Your grandmother left many times, and I left as well. It’s narrow-minded to believe someone would remain in one place their whole life—we are not bound until something makes it so.” In his case, Kaena’s final departure to chase down a child. It might have saved many if she had just let the girl leave.

Talitha de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 08:09 PM

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The news of Halo's parentage caused a snarl of distaste to tear from the chest of the older female. It hadn't been so long before that the now-Centurion had berated her cousin for flagrant disrespect of Inferni, and now new knowledge came to light. Talitha had been born to Inferni soil, to their unwavering Aquila and the sister of their most loyal warrior. What had Halo done? Halo had been born outside. That was bad enough, but to a traitor? A traitor who had put a wolf over his family. She rose from her seat, unable to stay still as she tried to keep herself calm.

Naturally, it didn't work.

The books were scattered in one fell kick and the russet female twisted in the most uncomfortable way as she turned her back to Gabriel. "That bitch! That horrible, vile, evil bitch!" She had put Talitha through so much stress, leaving the woman believing she didn't deserve the home she held, and for what? For nothing. The urge to drown her cousin in the Saltbrooke came down hard on the mind of Gabriel's daughter, hands clenching into fists. "After all of her words about how she remained loyal above others, and she can't even claim to worthwhile parents! At least I can say my father is something to die for, even if I have left for selfish reasons!" Oh, Halo would hear her cousin's rage, Talitha promised herself that. Months had passed with suffering the thought that she wasn't deserving of Inferni. Months of needless self-loathing.

"I suffered for nothing. This is bullshit."

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-21-2011, 08:37 PM

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Oh and just when things seemed to be going well, Talitha flew into another one of her fits. Startled, Gabriel rose to his feet, hackles following suit. The Aquila frowned, ears falling back, and listened to the woman all about lose her mind over the revelation about Halo’s father. “Talitha, stop it,” he barked, unwilling to deal with her attitude further. “If you lose your head over everything you’ll just leave openings for your enemies.” Tactical, cold. This was how he sought to focus her attention elsewhere. “Your cousin has a sharp tongue. She’s always been that way. Don’t let her bother you.”

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