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Date Posted: 20:42:14 03/20/04 Sat
Author: Kaw
Subject: {-}{-}{-}
In reply to: Eciwis, Ejiro, Kyval, Bameduth, Cesaz 's message, "Trained in Speed" on 22:15:26 03/12/04 Fri

Late. It had taken the old warrior a considerable amount of time to reach the southern part of the territory. He was tired, and what Shula had said to him before they hunted still rang in his head with the ironic flavor of truth: You don't have claws, teeth, or a blade. Half of you is warped scar tissue. All that's left in that husk that you call a body is your mind and your senses... but you can't win a battle with those. Kaw had been the most powerful Korat for leagues upon leagues before Wureshi had destroyed his pack and his body. He felt this weakness, alien and new as it was, keenly at the onset of this current battle.

Finally coming to a halt below much of the fight, the red's mutilated muzzle twisted into a dry grin as his lone emerald eye rose to watch the swift antics of Korats above his rather low tree branch. They were fast, some of them incredibly so, but his senses could keep track of them no matter what they did. Something teacheresque in the back of his mind urged him to train Tew in such sensory mastery at some point -if they all survived this battle, that is- and he laughed gutturally at the thought. Such whimsical musings for an old, battle-hardened ex-pack leader. He had listened in on the empassioned back-and-forth conversation between Shula and the tan female, and he knew them both for idiots, but for once, Shula was not the one worse off. It amused him, that a red would be keener than a tan.

Lidless milky eye permanently round and giving him a lopsided look, the male cast his razor-keen gaze about for a suitable target. A lumbering red, absolutely huge at five and a half feet and well-clawed but bladeless, seemed ill at ease at her high altitudes and was discreetly charging to a lower level. Kaw snorted through a scar-split black nose, catching her attention, and he watched with detached patience as her peridot eyes widened and she sped up. She really was a beautiful beast, in the prime of her life and amazingly fast for breed and bulk, and he was able to appreciate what a fine warrior she was as she drew closer. The best red he'd seen in a good while, barring that one female of Shula's and (unfortunately) Shula himself.

The red female paused in her racing charge, slowing and finally halting a few leaps away from the old male. She eyed him, some instinct causing her orange-red fur to rise in a stiff, bristly row down her spine. Kaw laughed again at her hesitation, knowing he would die in this last fight, and wickedly glad that he would be killed by a true warrior. "I am Kaw, stranger."

"I am Kisiniyama," she returned cautiously, ears flickering uncertainly as she continued watching the old beast. Neither had Koratian names; her mental digging finally unearthed the translation of 'kaw' in a distant dialect. A flare of empathic pain burned the back of her throat, and she flattened her ears with more sadness than battle fury.

"Well met, Unforgiven One." Kaw's voice was harsh and gravelly, but an undertone of kindred-sense could still be heard. He knew many languages, even the obscurest in which she was named... or, more likely, had renamed herself.

"Well met, Pain." Her voice, too, was deep and dangerous, but a bit smoother than his. She really was a fine beast, he mused -- one he would have been proud to have in his own pack. She reminded him of one of his daughters... one of the many that Wureshi's spawn had slaughtered. Chyko had fought well before she died. Kaw cocked his head slightly and studied the massive female: he would have liked to meet her on better terms and share the history of his name with her in exchange for the reciprocal. Such days, though, found him pitted against every Korat he came across, it seemed.

The dropping of a mutilated, yet living, body through the trees caught both reds' attentions, and they turned to look at the bloodied, shattered tan. Kisiniyama snarled thickly at her packmate's defeat, and Kaw nodded as her gaze settled again on his heavily scarred frame. "You're here for a reason, daughter of blood." That was all the red-orange mammoth needed -- she met the male's eye briefly, and the knowledge of both their kinship and their enmity tore at her shadowed mind. But she'll fight for her pack leader, no matter what else. She'll die for Eciwis, and she'll kill for Eciwis.

Kaw knew it, and he couldn't help but admire her loyalty in the fashion of one who knows what loyalty is. As the femme lunged like a lightning-swift powerhouse of flesh and bone, the old male twisted away and struck out as hard as he could with his tail, naught but the root of the blade left. Kisiniyama didn't bother to dodge the blow, which landed on her muscular shoulder and barely left a bruise, but her own thick tail swung and caught Kaw's chest. The long-legged red crashed into a tree trunk several leaps distant and slid bloodily down the greyblue bark, scrabbling weakly for purchase with naught but pawpads and clutching toes.

Kisiniyama watched him slide and finally come to rest on a lower branch, silently refusing to go into a healing trance -- the pain that radiated hotly from her shoulder was a just punishment for what she's about to do. This male does not deserve to die...

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