[html]  I'm adding in a personal bit into this post, just for record purposes of how Rachias is coming along, since I can't seem to find anyone interested in the thread I was going to have based off of it.
The creature had been there, chewing at the sparse grasses of the winter, when Rachias had come upon it. A small brown hare, certainly still an adolescent. Now, she'd been told that she would need to learn to hunt on her own, which she'd been practicing for some time now. Fish, small critters such a mice that were easily killed with a single bite. This creature, though, would be more of a challenge than those had. The chase was on as soon as the cream and caramel swirled child darted forward. Or, it was supposed to be, but the rabbit faltered when he tried to run, skittered and slid, obviously injured.
She was on the creature in no time, paws at it's back legs to pin it, staring down. Usually she just stepped on a creature to kill it but this time she figured it wouldn't be so easy. White teeth flashed for a moment and sunk into flesh, quite softly as she was still unsure how to go about it. The rabbit screamed beneath her, a sound that she wasn't expecting, and Rachias jerked her head back suddenly. It didn't startle her like it might have done for another creature killing in such a way for the first time. It didn't make her feel bad and let the creature go. Instead, Rachias tilted her head and watched it, an unsure grin spreading across her lips. It was a wondrous sound, honestly, one that sent chills of pleasure across the length of her spine.
Rachias stayed with the rabbit, biting and nipping, until the point that the creature was to exhausted to scream, and she promptly left it there to bleed out and went on her marry way. Licking the blood from her muzzle as she went, the girl didn't stop as she reached Inferni's borders. Instead, she simply made her way in, walking in the direction of the house. Sweet little Rachias, who found it almost painful that her brother hated her, was suddenly not so worried about it anymore. Besides, if she could make a rabbit scream like that then she couldn't even imagine how wonderful it would be to hear Andre scream in such a fashion. |
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indent It would not startle Gabriel to hear that his siblings took delight pain and were born sadists. It would not startle him if they turned on one another and cut their family down. He was indifferent to them, in that respect, and would remain so because that was how he had to treat them. This he had seen with his own siblings, and he had learned not to care. As long as he could rise above the carnage at the end of the world, nothing would matter but that. Selfish, this thought was, but he had long ago disconnected himself from the family that fell apart at the seams.
indent For now though, Gabriel was dreaming. It was the sort of thing that came often, the same dream that was always with him. The day of his brother’s murder. So in that nightmare he ran, he stumbled, and he was drowning in blood as his brother screamed and cried and begged for help. Guilt was a complex all Catholics carry well. Still, though, his dreams did not leave him screaming as he woke. No, there was nothing to show he was dreaming of that thing. Pushing himself up from the bed, he brushed his hair from his face and moved down the steps and onto the porch. And constantly, like the nightmares, he was breathing in smoke again.
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[html]  Rachias was rounding the side of the house at just about the moment that Gabriel had stepped outside. She could hear his steps, smell the plain as day scent that drifted toward her nose, and for a moment this caused her to slow. Perhaps it would have been better to find Faolin first, to have her take her to see her brother. The girl knew it was to late now though, and instead of faltering back she continued forward. Bright blue eyes searched the porch immediately as she finally came to the front of the house, spotting him there. The girl had grown quite a bit, almost six months now, and soon enough she would be able to shift and seem less like the little girl that she was portrayed as now.
"Gabby." She spoke quietly as she neared the porch, taking the few small steps up the stairs to bring her atop the porch also. She should have been more respectful perhaps, should have stayed off of the porch, but how else was she supposed to show him that she still considered Inferni a home, even if it wasn't her current one. "How are you?" She asked suddenly, situating herself on the porch so that she was seated, tail curled around her haunches and staring up at her older brother. |
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indent She might have grown larger, but she was far from her final size. Her eyes had remained blue, the same bright blue as Corona’s. It was a Lykoi color, even though she carried his name, something that Gabriel would always resent. Things like that, though, he never showed. Gabriel had long ago taught himself how to hide his emotions. “Fine,” he said shortly. When he looked at her, he saw a stranger. Rachias had long ago left their home, even though he would never chase her away. Not like her brother. “I’m going to be a father,” he said quite suddenly, as though even he didn’t believe it.
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[html] "I'm sorry I didn't come sooner." She said quietly, shifting her eyes away from him to gaze out across the lands. It was because I was afraid, she could have said, but it wasn't something that she quite wanted to tell him. Perhaps he'd already figured it out, even, since she'd come into the lands once or twice before. His next words came as a surprise. Bright eyes widened and her ears thrust upward, snapping her head back around to look at him once again. "Really?" It was louder this time, almost excited. "Faoly never said anything! That means we'll be aunts and uncles.." Her voice faded off though, the excitement suddenly drained. It meant that Andre would be an uncle too, which wasn't a good thing. |
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indent He did not offer her any response, good or bad. She was not his daughter, she was not his problem. If she never came back, he would have to accept it. His family, as large as it was, shrank and whittled away over time. It was natural selection; only the strong survive. “You’re forgetting Empusa,” he reminded gently. “But yes. We haven’t know about it for very long, so she probably didn’t know when she saw you.”
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It did make sense that perhaps she hadn't known when they last spoke. Rachias was almost certain that Faolin would've given her the news. "Yeah but I don't see Empusa much." She'd only seen her in passing really. Rachias grew quiet then, thinking, wondering if it was the right time to change subjects or whether it was to soon. "I came here before." She said quietly, turning her head from her brother to gaze around a moment. "Andre tried to kill me. Said if I ever come back that he'd do it." But I ran away. She couldn't bring herself to say it, but she did. Arkham was the one that gave her the strength to not stay away, though.
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indent Gabriel’s face turned dark, though his eyes began to glimmer with an old, well oiled fury. “That’s his second strike,” he said, not elaborating further. Another deep drag on the cigarette. Another moment in which he shifted his weight and studied the far distant sea. “Don’t worry about him. Even if you live with wolves, you’re still welcome here.” He did not explain that if she came back he would use her for information. He did not explain that even now, he would use her as a decoy, a weapon. What a terrible thing, to think such thoughts all ready.
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The girl wasn't at all surprised to hear to Andre had been causing other trouble, not just with her and Arkham, at least that was what she assumed by the way that Gabriel spoke. Rachias felt she shouldn't question further though, the look on her brother's face was more than frightening, really. His next words brought a very faint smile to her, a content sort of 'weight off the shoulders' feeling. Arkham would be delighted to hear that, even though he firmly believed that was the case anyways. "I'll come every day to check on Faolin!" She tried to keep the excitement out of her voice, both glad that she was able to come and go and that she was soon to be an aunt. It wasn't often that she saw pups smaller than herself.
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