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 Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:21 pm
 Kamiya was honestly rather relieved to be free of the company of the others for awhile, although a very annoying little voice in her mind kept insisting she should go back to them. Why she felt she owed them any loyalty whatsoever was beyond her. They were all worthless fools, and had done nothing but weigh her down since she started.
Well, except Mercury maybe. He was alright.
But even he had done a piss-poor job of keeping Mars in line, and the incessant chatter of the hallucinatory wolf -- and Marion's subsequent inability to say anything of value -- had given her a constant headache, and she'd been in a rather bad mood because of it.
Not that Kami was ever in a particularly good mood, and she had to admit, truthfully, that maybe she got just a little enjoyment from her grumpiness. It was kind of fun to be able to push around her authority -- if it could be called that -- without fear of reprobation from her alpha. That part of being alone, well...she could get behind that.
But at the end of the day, Kamiya was still desperately homesick. As much as she'd waxed philosophical to Marion about seeing the bigger world, the truth of the matter was she really just wanted to go back to Kapu'Moana, snooze on the beach, and enjoy the sizable reward she would garner for bringing back the alpha's son.
And so, with these thoughts on her mind, she'd set out following a trail she'd picked up the day before. She had told everyone she was out on a solo hunting trip, and headed out early in the morning, nose to earth, following the warmest, freshest scent she'd caught in all these long months of chasing the damn wolf around.
Could it be? For once, in her journey, had she succeeded in actually finding Kailani's trail?
Excited at the prospect of finally bringing an end to all this, the petite orange-and-black wolf picked up her pace and trotted forward, still furiously sniffing at a trail that was now hardly more than a day old.
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:39 pm
To keep from being a mindless drone damned to walk a straight line laid out for them by an alpha, Wren had left. Her freedom was all around her but it meant nothing now. No wolf decided her steps or told her when to take them, but fate still seemed to be weighing her down like she'd swallowed a rock.
Steal, hide, eat, sleep.
Steal, hide, eat, sleep.
Steal, hide, eat--
Her schedule was going to differ a bit today. Wren would never admit she felt something when other wolves happened across her (because she would never say she happened across them either). Some part of her expected something more. Some piece of hope buried beneath layers and layers of cynicism and spite waited for something else.
Maybe it would be Kai to help her, save her.
It wasn't.
Wren had already forgotten him, though he crossed her mind at the scent of a stranger on her turf. --No, nevermind that. This land wasn't anything she cared about and she did intend to move soon. If two wolves barging up here wasn't a sign to get a move on she didn't know what was.
Parked in front of the very same den she had been when Kai found her, Wren gnawed on the leg of a rabbit and hoped this one would just leave her alone.
Because this one would not help her. No one would help her.
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 7:56 pm
Kami slowed her pace, brow furrowing. She was not, by nature, a cautious wolf, but she wasn't burdened with the overall lack-of-sense her blue one-time packmate had. She, after all, had lived the life of a commoner. She, after all, had worked for her sustenance. And so she knew better than to stumble blindly into a situation that was foreign to her.
Best to skirt around, just until she knew what was happening.
She paused, sniffing. Kai's smell was still here, still unmistakable -- but there was another scent, stronger, omnipresent. The scent of a wolf that lived here. That was, in fact, here right now. A female scent, in point of fact.
A wry smile touched her maw at the concept of Kai interacting with an unknown female. She hoped the lady in question had given him hell. Gods knew the Princeling deserved it.
Crouching down as though stalking prey, prepared to bolt or fight at the first sign of trouble, the smaller-than-average, brightly-colored wolf crept into sight of the other, eyeballing the loner thoughtfully, sizing her up with piercing blue eyes.
She looked...scrappy, she decided. But Kami relaxed immediately.
She could take her.
Feeling rather confident, the closed the distance between them, her posture still wary as she came across the other and paused, silent, a few yards away.
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 8:18 pm
First thought? Moron. Some moron had gotten lost and was awaiting the night. For the night would bring the stars, and to this day Wren believed they were nothing more than a way to guide. She had looked to them in times when she had somewhere to be. The lost need be led, but a lone is only a lone for as long as the stars are useless to them.
Wren snorted. She couldn't remember who had imparted that poetic drivel, foolish whether or not there was a ring of truth to be heard in reciting it. She'd have wandered if her attention was not captivated by the stranger.
When she didn't leave, Wren considered there was something amiss in her prediction. "I don't have any directions to give you," she said. If not for the volume of her voice she could have been mistaken as talking to herself. "If you're lost, I can't help you."
So go away.
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 8:31 pm
Kamiya's ears swept back. "I'm not lost," she said, simply. "I am, however, looking for someone, and that someone has been here recently. His smell is all over this place."
It annoyed her that the smell was almost comforting, in its familiarity. A whiff of home. A smell that brought with it memories of salt-sea breezes and crying gulls and long hours dozing in the sun when the alphas were looking the other way.
She forced her thoughts away from that and back to the conversation at hand.
"Blue. Carries himself like he owns the world. Name's Kailani. Have you seen him?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 8:47 pm
Wren paused in her gnawing for longer than she realized and too long to keep from being suspicious. She was a stealer of treasures with no shame or remorse for her crimes. Even the part of her that longed for company was not innocent of selfishness. Wasn't wanting to take someone's affections the same as wanting anything else? Wren never felt like she had enough.
And yet, she had witnessed with her own eyes the fate of a wolf that demanded too much. No prize was worth chasing if you ended up dead in a ditch pursuing it. So while her first thought was what's in it for me?, her second was wiser: don't get involved.
"Never heard of him."
It was obvious she had.
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:00 pm
Her brow raised. What could possibly inspire a wolf such as this to have any sort of loyalty toward the prince? Why bother to lie for him? Because the lie, after all, was obvious, and it intrigued Kamiya -- who had never had occasion to lie in her life. Not that she was inherently honest, or honorable...but only because she saw little to be gained in it.
Perhaps she had just never found the right situation for it.
"I see." she said, and took a step forward, nose to ground. "Well, sorry to have troubled you, then," she said. "I suppose it won't bother you, then, if I continue following his trail?"
She wasn't precisely baiting a trap, but close enough. She wanted to know. She wanted to know if he was being hidden, or if there was another secret to unearth...
...speaking of secrets to unearth. Her eyes caught on recently-churned dirt, a hole, clearly of some kind, and her attention focused upon it. Too small for a shallow grave, she thought, taking a tentative step toward this intriguing new find. Didn't smell of meat, she didn't think. No, not a food cache. Something else. Something worth covering.
Cover-ups and lies. Were the two related?
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:31 pm
Wren dedicated every sense but her sight to the meal and felt that was answer enough. She inhaled the scent of blood; she tasted the flesh; she listened to the bones crack and felt them splinter beneath her teeth. But her eyes, far too pretty to be fairly granted to such a tarnished wolf like her, kept to Kamiya. She could have been a hawk and the stranger a mouse.
That snarl, however, was all wolf, sounding when she dared approach the buried treasures. Just the intent to move toward them was enough to rouse a growl or two. "He's--"
He's over that way somewhere. That's where I lost saw him.
Wren could have said that. She almost had. She had no reason to be loyal to that uppity idiot or this bothersome little girl. (Kamiya could have very well been older, but Wren felt so crotchety and jaded in a way only age could bestow she assumed every one younger until proven otherwise.)
If she sent her after him and they were enemies, what if he won? What if he came back with that pack of his to reap vengeance on the one responsible for him being found? She'd track him if given enough time on her own -- right?
Ugh.
This was exactly why she wanted nothing to do with these things.
"Why do you want to know?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:37 pm
He's...what? Kamiya paused, diverting her blue-blue eyes to the other wolf, considering her thoughtfully. What was she close to, that made the other so defensive? And what was the end of that sentence, that the other wolf felt so keen to leave unspoken?
Even if she had no desire to find Kai, now she was intrigued.
"I was sent to look for him," she said, truthfully. "There is a handsome reward for his return," well, at least she was hoping such, "and I'm planning to collect on it."
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 9:47 pm
The lone wolf decided, for now, she hated this stranger. With or without any offense against Wren's hoarded goods, the traits her personality comprised of were too consistent with things she saw in Yura. Of all her siblings, Yura she hated the most. The arrogant b***h would have gladly surrendered any piece of information to anyone, confident that no one would bring her down no matter what she said. (What infuriated Wren more was that no one had.)
A reward...
Wren knew asking what this reward was would be too suspicious. As it was, what she did ask was pushing it. She did her best to play it off as if she were dismissing the entire agenda, but only time would tell if she'd succeeded. "Who would give something away just for another wolf? There are countless wolves around here."
Probably some lackey to his parents sent to drag home their stupid prince. This whole thing just disgusted her so much the meat was starting to taste bitter.
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:01 pm
"I think I'll be getting the better deal, honestly," she said, and shrugged, edging away though still keeping her eyes on the cache. She knew she was being conspicuous. That was, indeed, rather the point. She wasn't even sure why she was bothering to play games. She wasn't very good at them, and she had no patience for them. Yet...well, perhaps part of her was delaying the inevitable. Perhaps she was wrestling, in her heart, with whether she truly wanted to find him or not -- whether the quest was worth bringing to a close. "He's not worth much. Not to me, anyway. But he is worth a great deal to someone in power."
Her eyes lifted again, to meet the other, and she said rather abruptly, "If you've killed him, I wouldn't mind. So long as you left a scrap I might take back to his parents."
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Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2010 10:14 pm
Wren didn't much like games herself. She had a bad history with them ever since she was a pup, excluded from all her sister's fun. Three was a circle, four was a square, less we forget. No one cared about squares, which was probably where the "fair and square" bit had come from. Not a damn soul in this god forsaken land gave a thought to fairness either, after all.
Whether she wanted to be or not -- and she didn't, for Wren was but part of a dull square -- she was involved now. Her choices were limited but not short of variety:
a) She could tell her which way he had gone. That could work out best if she managed to drag him away. He did seem like a sorry fighter, but then again, her alpha had trained his children well. Who was to say his hadn't? The issue of coming back to attack her reared its ugly head again.
Wren knew she could just pack up and leave, but could she do it fast enough? Moving her things took so long...
b) She could leave her stuff. A last resort.
c) She could guide her in a direction that was believable, but not quite correct, then go the right way and find this lost prince on her own; somehow, con him back to his pack where she would be bestowed this "reward".
Too much effort, that one. Too many hazards as well. In her youth, she would have done it, but knowing what she did now? There was just no way she could be so foolish. Lying was a tricky thing.
"I didn't kill him, but I know who took him, and they might have."
Lying was a tricky thing, but she was involved. She had to do something.
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Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 12:34 am
Now, that caught her off-guard, and her brow furrowed, eyes narrowing shrewdly. She'd been bluffing -- joking, even -- about the idea of him having been killed. It had never occurred to her that he might have been kidnapped. He'd run away on a fool's errand, a silly quest to see the world -- that was all.
After all, who would want him? Who could possibly....
...Well, except, it made sense. After all, the wolves of Kapu'Moana were well-accustomed to kidnapping. It was pretty much the only way they could swell their numbers without succumbing to the threat of in-breeding. Indeed, Kamiya's own mother had been stolen from a neighboring pack.
Perhaps other packs operated the same way. Wouldn't that be deliciously ironic?
"Truly?" She asked, her expression impassive, not sure whether she should believe this or not. Though, the more she thought about it, the more plausible the whole thing seemed. "And who was that?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 8:43 am
"They were... Let's see..." Wren lifted her gaze skyward, supposedly trying to recall the names and faces of these captors. What she really did was quickly run through her options again. She would have no sooner chosen to be swept away by these political problems than to be swept away by a raging river. (Wren was a bad swimmer, you see.) "I didn't catch her name, but she was black. Except for around the eye. She had white around her eye. She was terribly frightening. I'm sorry to say she may have killed him already. I haven't seen someone so aggressive toward another wolf since my alpha as a pup was taken away into enemy paws."
She felt lucky to have thought at the lost second to add that in; she felt lucky to have not staggered in her words, and to sound as someone absentmindedly recalling details of a situation they paid little attention to would. Just to make sure her motives were clear, she went on to say, "She told me not to tell anyone. I'm a simple wolf. I didn't want involved with whatever it was. I just live here peacefully with my things."
Craaack.
Wren gnawed on the rabbit. "She took him that way." A nod in the almost-but-not-quite-correct direction. "Since I'm telling you I want my reward to be me being left alone. I'm already much more involved than I want to be."
The last line was true.
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Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2010 6:34 pm
Her brows raised. "I see," she said, and settled piercing blue eyes on the other for a long, uncomfortable moment, before reiterating, deadpan, "And this terribly frightening, aggressive female" wasn't that a lovely image in her mind "just so happened to take him and leave you here without any problem."
Somehow, she called bullshit on this whole thing.
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