Winter was nearly here. Alone the vibrantly marked she wolf walked, her sharpened claws clicking quietly on the damp stone of the Grotto. Light from the water danced and rippled over the walls, much as the scars on hte female's body rippled over her pelt of black, silver, and white. Cicatrice had done some thinking, during her months here in this most strange of lands. There were no pureblood coyotes, only the children of a wolf parent and a coyote, or in some diluted cases, a hybrid. She'd fought with, and essentially come to a draw with the hybrid leader of the Inferni, a hybrid pack who tried to pass themselves off as coyotes. Had he been a coyote, she likely would have killed him, alpha or no. Her hatred for coyotes was only for the adults, for pups could not defend themselves. The coyotes who had murdered her littermates and stolen her had no such lofty idealism, and as there had been so many, they'd even turned against the few hybrids they'd come across. This place was different though, and it was the first place Cicatrice might stay, though to stay, she knew she would eventually need to join a pack... but... not yet. She wasn't ready for that yet, for beneath her tough exterior was a core of insecurity, a subtle fear of being rejected by her own kind that was something even the she did not truely recognize.
DaVinci had made certain that his children had stayed behind this time. There was no reason for them to be following him everywhere and there was enough in the pack to keep them busy. Since Iskata had granted Tyrone as Jefferson's apprentice he'd alteast known that slipping away from his son was made easier, and all he had to do was suggest that she practice stalking her brother. Skylar was smart and she'd realized just what her father was up to but she'd just pounced on his head and roughed his ear up once or twice before searching out her brother's scent and heading out the door. DaVinci smiled at the memory as he chuckled.
Lowering his nose to the ground he sighed and wondered just what he was doing out here. He should be just where his kids were but he wasn't. DaVinci still hadn't worked all the wandering from his system and this was just another walk down that road only to get halfway there and run on home again. He knew his travelling days were obviously over but that didn't mean he couldn't enough the world around him in this territory atleast.
Blah, sorry for the wait, I've got so much on my plate right now
Some time later, the big she wolf exited the cave as a scent came to her. The scent caused both irritation and interest in Cicatrice. Irritation because it was the scent of a hybrid, interest because it was not the scent of the Inferni, but the scent of the pack the female hybrid had belonged to. What the hell, the female thought, was with all of these bloody hybrids? Cicatrice looked skyward, as if the Gods would answer her, then sighed and shook her head. She did not get it, What self respecting Wolf would have children with one of those sneaky, thieving, murderous, excuses for canines? She knew, logically that the hybrids themselves couldn't help their lineage, just as she could not help her birth as a Luperci, still, she had yet to meet one of the mongrels she could like, much less tolerate. She considered her path, and the path of the male hybrid. Theirs would converge soon enough.
The winds shifted and the male caught the scent of another on the breeze, lifting his head high the male bared his fangs slight, worried for his children, but just a moment later the male realized that his puppies weren't even with him this day. Shaking his head at how suddenly it seemed those two had changed him he grinned and moved on through the brush. His paws padded on towards the owner of the scent as he realized that she was somewhere before him. Within moments she came into sight and the male paused to stare at the scarred up lass before him.
His bushy tail flicked back and forth as he nodded to the woman, his deep voice greeting her as he kept his distance, "Hello.." he called out. There was no reason to trust the stranger yet there was no reason not to. He would sit back and let her control how this was going to be handled since they were on neutral grounds and he had no problems offhand with the strange, just a mild wonder where the scars had come from.
(OC: I suck XD End of semester/college business) I'm feeling less stressed and it seems my creative muse is pokeing me again.
IC:
Hybrids... What the hell? Was her first thought when the grey male came upon her. There seemed to be more of the halfbred than the full bred here, or at least it was beginning to look that way. She mentally sighed, not feeling in a rude frame of mind that day, and gave her ruff a quick shake as her silvery blue eyes studied the male. He wasn't an Inferni, so she could tolerate him, she supposed. Cicatrice nodded in response to his greeting. Conversation was so often awkard and tedious. What was to say? Talk of the weather, the local food game? Aside from knowledge of the packs and any pureblood coyotes, there wasn't much the she wolf could reallly think to ask about, and neither of those seemed to be any adequate conversation starter. The male did belong to a pack, and she was but a loner, which in itself caused her to answer the male. "Ah... I'm Cicatrice." She flicked her ears. Nice one, 'Rice, now this hybrid is going to think some pack has lost its idiot... As if you of all wolves should give a damn what a hybrid thinks... Still, he's not an Inferni... More or less assured she was looking like an idiot, as she wasn't the most socially talented individual, in no part due to her childhood with the coyotes, Cicatrice mentally threw her paws up in the air, in digust at herself.
DaVinci had already contributed to populating the world of the horrible mix between the wolves and coyotes. Not that he cared what anyone thought of how he came to be, that didn't even matter to him anymore as long as he was up and living. He had come across a few loners here ano there but not many quite so scarred up. His cousin and mother perhaps, but they were strange enough as it was. She had offered her name strangely enough along with an action towards his greeting. "And I'm DaVinci.." he said in return as his bottlebrush tail flicked back and forth.
Staring off towards the way she came for a moment he turned his gaze back and asked, "What happened to you.." the words were rude but he figured she heard it all the time. Her appearance wasn't disturbing but it was interesting enough to draw attention to.
Well, this one was direct, wasn't he? Cicatrice usually wasn't asked in such a direct manner, but she appreciated directness, which put this hybrid, despite his genetics, gave him a + as far as she was concerned. "Coyotes," She said the word with an inflection of utter loathing, old hatreds and pain all wrapped up into those two syllables. "I was a pup when they took me and killed my littermates... I don't know why, but nonetheless, my childhood and freed ended there, That is, until I learned to fight, and kill. I have a dislike, you might say, of them and they that follow their ways." She regarded this hybrid, DaVinci, cooly, though not with the hostility that she had infused into her tale. Cicatrice cocked her grizzled head, silvery blue eyes flicking over him. "As you do not carry the Inferni scent, I can assume you are not such." The large she wolf didn't care, not really, if he took it wrong, she had her opinions, and wasn't afraid to back them up.
The hybrid had no use for tiptoeing around questions and things that were right infront of you. Normally it just lead to irritation and annoyance when the other knew you were trying to be gentle and ease around the facts. That wasn't his real reason, he was just gruff with a mouthful of hot shots and comebacks to ruffle the fur if his mood was right. Today it seemed his mood was perfectly set. With her answer he just raised a brow and shrugged. "Doesn't surprise me, but I've seen worse done by your own kind too." he said with blunt honestly.
She had narrowed her eyes as she'd continued and watched hom cooly though he had heard her sob story before from one end of the world to the other, even his own had the same undertones. He grinned at her comments on Inferni and just shook his head. "You could say it's in my blood to opose the clan.." In all truths his mother would let him do whatever he wanted, she might not like it but she'd watch him go with those sad eyes like she did time and time before with the rest of the Sadira line.
Stretching out his long legs he yawned as though the conversation bored him as he moved it along. "So why are you hiding out here? Got no place to call home?" he asked, the taunt and tease trying to find someway to get beneith her skin and yet learn more about her at the same time.
Cicatrice doubted that this male had truely seen her kind do worse, but she knew her kind were capable of their own brand of viciousness, though as they were typically the more dominant of the two species, the she wolf saw it almost as more acceptable. Wolves drove out coyotes. It was the way of things. She made a noncommital noise of acknowledgement. "And that is justification?" She asked mildly, posing the question as a rhetorical, one she wasn't truely seeking the answer to.
Flicking her ears, she smirked at his next comment. Rebellious, was he? Well, she could identify with that well enough. Before she had been taken she'd often broken her parents' rules, which in the end, had both saved her life and thrust her into captivity.
She shrugged when he tried to bait her. "Hiding? No, I am where I choose to be. As for the home bit, the answer is also no, though I haven't had one of those in a while," She canted her head to the side, "And you? You are from a pack, why are you not with them?"
DaVinci grinned at her words, though the whole gesture was sour. He was so use to the arguments of wolves and coyotes that it didn't phase mine anymore unless someone was using the whole of the argument against him. He shook his head and chuckled as he shrugged. "No, it's just the truth." He realy hated how everything always had to come down to one or the other and how it couldn't just be a degree of who gives a damn and let the whole thing rest. He felt that atleast while he was within the comforts of Phoenix Valley with his family that there was no hatred for who he was by what he was. He knew it was a false joy for he could still see the look that lingered in other's eyes when they saw him in the packlands, new members were the worst.. but over time they would adjust or disappear from the lands while he remained.
He watched her as she granted him some little slight on her life, not enough to give away anything but enough to let him know what he needed. When she turned the tables on him he just wrinkled his nose slightly and threw out one of the excuses he often used when he wasn't within his packlands. "Scouting, always have to know who else is out there. We'd be pretty blind to just assume that others will stop at our borders, so we might as well know just who's out there overstepping the boundries.." He flicked his tail slightly as he grinned. "So now atleast I'd know if you've been nosing about our lands lady.." He shrugged and rewrapped his tail around his paws as his stormy orbs gazed at the woman again. "But then again, I don't know a thing about you stil, except that once you had a pack and you don't seem to like half of what makes me who I am."
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