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_____The area around the mansion was the next thing to garner her attention, partially because the area around it was overgrown and had its own mystic appeal. But it was also the racket in the air of the general direction she went in that got her attention. In the thick of the territory it was far too easy to pick out the things that didn't belong. Whether it was a stray coyote or a wolf, it didn't belong there. It made her wary, especially when the taint of war hadn't totally faded out of the air. It was like the blood that she had seen some ways into Inferni, where the fights had taken place, it had stained the ground.
_____But the grumble of thunder overhead and the tall, monolithic clouds that were rolling in meant rain. With rain, the blood would be washed from the ground and the smells that she had memorised would be gone with it. Around the side of the house was the old shed, a mix of wood and steel and that was where the strongest of the out of place smells came. It was the locks on the door that grasped her attention first and as she quietly approached with a grumble of thunder overhead, Corona peered in through a crack in the wood. “So you're the one,” she murmured, spying out the wolf that was Inferni's so-called hostage.
_____An eye for an eye…
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She'd been listening to the thunder roll for a while, her eyes half closed as she laid in a corner of the confinements, she'd finally decided to clean up the place she'd destroyed in her boredom, but now it seemed to empty with the pile of ruins in one far corner and her pathedic little nest in the far reaches from the door. She'd been spending the morning pacing and circling the room just because she'd been able to, but once the winds had begun to howl and the thunder sounded she'd stopped her fidgetting and sat back to listen to nature rage her own little war on the lands she'd created. Now it seemed that the show was about to begin.
She'd been waiting for the crash of lightning that would announce the coming of the storm once it hit land but it never came, instead there was nothing but a soft voice that seemed to creep under her skin as she opened her emerald eyes. Turning her head quietly to gaze towards the window, yet nothing was there. It took her a moment to realize that the owner of the voice was at the door to the prison and was spying at her through a crack in the old but still solid wood.
She almost wanted to be rude to the owner of that eye and turn her back on the visitor but it seemed that this was going to be the only form of entertainment she would be receiving, peers and murmurs from beyond her reaches. Groaning to herself she raised her head off her paws and finally addressed the stranger at her door. "It depends, which -one- are you looking for.." She was being a little sassy, but the child had every right to be. Not even a yearling yet and she'd already caught herself up in something out of the history books, or atleast one day it would be, if anyone wrote about it. Somewhere in the back of her mind a little voice laughed softly reminding her that she'd wished she'd had a life worth writing about, atleast she had that now.
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_____She was young, there was no doubt about it. Old enough to fend for herself and be away from her parents, but young enough that she still had a lot to learn about the world. Her sass didn't merit any change in Corona's expression, though inwardly she pondered how old Talitha was. It was hard to figure how long she had been gone, because it hadn't felt like that long. It felt like she had been gone a week or two, when it had been months. Her brother had taken a mate, he had children, and those children had grown up some. A fire had turned up and they had all been forced to move, and then the war broke out.
_____And she had returned on the heels of its end, it seemed. “Are you hungry?” Had they been giving her food? Corona didn't see why they wouldn't, judging by the fact that she still had strength left to stand. The sky let loose another low rumble of thunder, and the trees overhead swayed with the gust of wind that seemed to follow. It wouldn't have been long now before the rain started to fall, but it wouldn't deter Corona that much from playing her own little game of investigation. Gabriel hadn't told her to stay away from the shed, anyway.
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The yearling watched the eye watch her quietly. Wondering who or what the eye belonged to and why they were still there. Normally the clan members came and disappeared just to ensure she was still in there. She'd grown use to the tauntings and the pathedic comments that were thrown her way, atleast now she knew how her brother must feel being in the public eye for being a halfblood and not hating either party for the hand life had dealt him. She finally gave in and closed her eyes again, the thunder rolling overhead reminding her of the brewing storm.
The lady asked her if she was hungry and Firefly just flicked an ear but was silent a moment longer, thinking of another storm she'd spoken to a fellow packmember about recently. Now the storm was upon them and she wandered just what Alexey thought about this storm they were in the mists of. Opening her eyes back up she said softly. "Yeah.." then after a moment of nothing but the wind and thunder she asked. "That was an actual question right?" She really didn't feel like being taunted right now, she was already alone in the middle of a clan that hated her for her deeds and involvement in a war that had been waging long before she was born.
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_____“Yes,” it had been a real question, a real concern of hers. Corona would not have been surprised to know that the prisoner was being taunted and poked with things. Even she was inclined to swing that low on the chain, but didn't. Instead she pulled her face back from the crack and fiddled momentarily, reaching into a small pouch she had with her and pulled a strip of jerky from it. Originally had been what she had been giving to Marlowe, but seeing how he was more or less fastened to pulling on Gabriel's hair the last time she had seen him, she had no reason why not to make use of it.
_____So she held it through the thin crack. “This is deer meat that I turned into jerky,” she told her, expecting her to be wary of anything the enemy offered. In the same sense, Corona wouldn't have been offended if she didn't take any of it either, though she would have left some of it behind. Hunger always got to those who were used to eating regularly, hunger made them crack and go mad sometimes. Lack of vital things did that to any of them.
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A brow was raised as the girl answered her. She was actually rather surprised that the one staring at her didn't want to make her into stew. She growled softly as she watched the face disappear, her words were spoken too soon as she spat. "Yeah.. really." Almost as soon as the words were out of her maw it seemed that she was swollowing them suddenly.
The newcomer was right back in the space she'd just left and was explaining something to Firefly. Her ears pressed back against her skull as she watched the lass with a wary eye. She wasn't for certain if she should even accept the offer, but in a quickly flash her paw reached out and snatched the meat from the girl and dragged it across to her patch in the corner. Hulking over the meat but not eating of it she grumbled. "You don't smell like the clan, what did they offer you for your soul?" she asked with spite in her voice as she paws at the meat a moment before seriously asking. "Why should I trust you anyways.." her own tummy rumbled in protest of the scents rising from the dried meats but there wasn't much she could do, she wasn't about to touch the treat until the truth came out.
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_____Though she did not smell anything like the rest of the clan, Corona knew that it would only be a matter of time before that changed. Eventually that smell would be something like a second skin, an easy way to identify her from the hundreds of other homeless wanderers. But she left the first question unanswered, not wanting to reveal herself any more or less than she already had. “I don't expect you to trust anyone here,” she said, “but letting you go hungry won't do either.” Turning her back to the door, she leaned against it and slid down the length of the door. No one was watching her, so Corona thought she'd do the job.
_____Maybe it was just an effortless attempt and making her realise that they weren't exactly whatever they were. Evil, bad, unclean, rude little piles of crap, she didn't know what exactly Dahlia de Mai thought of them. She didn't have the whole story either, but things weren't really looking favourable for the prisoner in her mind. “Besides, who knows how long you'll be here. Things are quiet now the dead have been buried.” Just maybe she wanted get inside of her head too, make her consider things that she may have not have been thinking about. After all, not all damsels in distress were rescued by knights in shining armour.
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Firefly sat quietly as she watched the shadow of the female's back sliding down the doorframe. She bared her fangs slightly, not liking this feeling of a caged animal, but knowing there was nothing she could do in this personal hell she'd fallen into. Dipping her head down to silently gnaw on the strip of meat she sat there thinking for a moment as she listened to the other's steady breathing. Dropping a half eaten piece of meat she walked softly to where she was standing just behind the hybrid, her words drifting down upon the elder girl as she spoke. "I wouldn't trust anyone here either..." her irish accent soft as she let her nail slid across the scarred up wood before stepping back from the only entrance to the prison.
Her fur prickled at the words the other said before she decided to ignore them for the most part. She knew that her pack had escaped the lands alive, she wasn't stupid. When she knew she wouldn't be making her escape alongside those she'd grown close to she made certain that she was the only one who was left behind. Her voice rose darkly, "If Gabriel values his daughter's life he won't tempt fate.." Her words weren't said out of hatred, more or less just the truth. She didn't trust Haku to let the child live with him alone to ward over the Inferni youth.
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_____The younger girl's words was enough to send anger prickling up her spine, but she also knew that it was true. Gabriel wouldn't do anything until he was sure of what it was that needed to be done in depth. It was the way that they had been raised, even if they acted rash, their actions were calculated and precise. Even if Corona hadn't been underneath her mother's thumb for that long, it was one thing that Kaena had instilled in them all from the start. The ones who didn't learn that lesson had died. But there was no real way to be certain of anything, not with the way things were. The prisoner may have spoken like she knew what she knew, but there was always that chance…
_____“But what happens if neither life is very valuable?” she decided to ask. Now of course, she assumed that both lives were important. They were children belonging to someone, she believed. “I mean, have you considered that in depth? How important are our lives in the eyes of others?” Corona didn't doubt in the least that the Irish-tongued girl was intelligent. She clearly tempted fate herself. But it was something she had often wondered, when it all boiled down to it. Would they save themselves, or each other? Even though she was very much on the side of her collective family, Corona didn't have an abundant regard for others most of the time.
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Firefly sat there boredly and went back to gnawing on the meat as though she didn't care if she really had it or not. She wasn't savoring the taste or really doing much except exercising her jaw muscles while watching the creature through the crack in the door. She'd spent so much of her time on all fours in the shack that she was starting to really get use to it. Most of her life, atleast, since she was able to shift had been spent in her luperci form.. but now she had reverted back to her primal form and had grown to like the savage barbaric nature that was instincts to a wolf.
She moved about in her prison quietly as the other girl spoke. Stopping along the corner closer to the entrance she snorted softly and giggled, the sound sounding so out of place. "One soul is only as important as the other in these instances.. If Gabriel didn't care for his daughter.. I'd be dead already.." She was silent a moment before adding. "Perhaps it's just luck someone in the pack cares for me.." She really didn't know that over time she'd actually developed friends in the pack that cared for her, no matter how strange and twisted her little mind may be.
Raising her hindleg up she began to dig for a flea that had found itsway into her pelt since she'd been so far from the packlands and the fleabane plants that seemed to crowd the meadow near her den. The fur began to fly about the pen as she growled softly, the pest finally uprooted as she settled back down and stated. "All of use are worthless except in our own eyes.. or when someone actually stops to give a damn. Oddly enough, even a stranger can care enough for your soul to make it worth wild.." She had taken the time to care for the small kid who'd had so much to prove on the doorstep of Dahlia de Mai, she only wondered how the child was fairing now with the anger of the pack at her heels.
Hope it's okay if I end it here, just seemed like a good ending. :3
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_____Maybe that was true, but at the same time she knew exactly what she would have done in her brother's place. She knew the words that her mother spoke and they were always in the back of her mind. Her father had given her the ability to distinguish right from wrong on a much more broad scale, but her mother had taught her that there were circumstances when right and wrong didn't matter. What was right was necessarily what they were doing, what was right wasn't necessarily what the world thought was right. But she would have wanted to keep her locked in that shed until she died.
_____And perhaps it was her father's blood in her veins that also made her have to urge to sooner want to set her on fire for what she said, for possessing such a smart tongue and what seemed like foolish bravado; the belief that she would be saved by her knights in shining armour. Another skull to decorate their guarded border. Another skeleton to throw in the closet. But for the time, the eldest daughter simply sat there in silence to mull it all over. In all due time, things would pan out, whether it ended peacefully or in another battle would be determined by the other side. The side that the prisoner was no doubt thinking praises for.
_____Rising up to her feet then, Corona cast a gaze at the warped wood, knowing that the girl was no doubt alert by her moving again. “I'm going to head off for now, maybe try and find you something better to eat.” They were keeping her well-fed, dry, and most of all, safe from the ones who had no self-control, no sense of right and wrong or morals. The first few raindrops started to fall down from the sky, and Corona only lingered for a moment more, before heading off towards the mansion.
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Firefly sat there quietly watching the woman who'd showed her kindness. She smiled in the darkness at the stranger who didn't seem to belong to the clan that was so dark, but then again she had to think about the fact that few knew the darkness that lingered in her soul either. If Corona had come to know the prisoner on better terms perhaps they might have found a strange friendship outside the borders of the worlds they belonged to. They hadn't though, and they probably would never know now.
She shook her head slightly and settled down to stare at the scraps of jerky that was left. Nudging the pieces along with her nose she sighed as the girl began to move again. Narrowing her eyes slightly she stayed quiet while the other began to speak. She stood up and walked to the door, watching the woman walk away towards freedom while she stayed locked up with no knowledge of how long she'd be a guest in the cell.
The girl strolled off in the distance and Firefly quietly spoke, "Thank you.." She wasn't even for certain if the woman had heard her or not but it really didn't matter. They probably would never see one another again if she made this out again, and if they did who's to say what the circumstances would be then.. the world was always changing.
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