{-}{-}{-} -- Territory South

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Date Posted: 20:09:35 06/08/04 Tue
Author: Kaw
Subject: {-}{-}{-}
In reply to: Ajiki, Miteli, Kemeru 's message, "Ph33r the power of teamwork." on 17:52:49 06/08/04 Tue

Kaw and Kisiniyama had watched the battle for some minutes, the male enjoying his newfound health and wholeness and the female torn between gladness for his recovery and fear for her own life. They crouched side-by-side like companions, like the kindred that they were, both furred in shades of blood and fire--but in truth, they were enemies, set at odds by the roll of fate's dice.

Orange-red fur, the color of fire, rippled as the gargantuan female pushed herself upright and faced the older male fully. "You're here for a reason, son of blood," she murmured, no fear tainting her quiet tone. He had said the same to her when they met, when she had felt such inner pain at knowing she would cause this noble beast's death. (Now, the tables have turned. He will kill me. I will die for Eciwis and my pack... the pack that never really accepted me... the unforgiven one.)

One razor-keen emerald eye settled on the beautiful red, and blackened ruby--the color, indeed, of singed blood--rippled with the movement of equally impressive muscles underneath the thick pelt as Kaw stood as well. He wrinkled his black nose, a faint grey scar all that remained of a gash that once nearly sliced his jaws open, but no fear shivered in the depths of his gaze. He was Kaw, once Shucho, the most powerful red on all of Handak--and though he had come to Penyns, the more dangerous of the two main continents, he had regained his health and so was still one of the best. This peridot-eyed female, as strong and as swift and as skilled as she was, stood little chance of winning against him.

And they both knew it.

"You remind me of my daughter, Unforgiven One," he murmured in a very quiet voice. "She stood strong against Wureshi when he came, searching for a black who was born in my pack but had long since departed. She fought him and died well." He paused, ears slowly flattening with excruciating tautness to his heavy skull. "Wureshi destroyed my pack that day and nearly killed me. I came here to find the frante for whom he'd been searching." His strong, proud muzzle jerked upwards in the direction of the masses of energy. "Blast Atumi's soul. But Wureshi came here, too, tracking him."

"Why are you telling me this?" Kisiniyama asked, straining against the sinking feeling in her chest. She felt as though something great and terrible would be revealed to her by the old warrior's words, and she feared that more than the promise of her own impending death.

"Because you must know." Kaw's lone eye bored into her two, but she did not shiver. "Wureshi came here with two hundred of his skilled, well-trained offspring. His own army of his spawn. They slaughtered all of the preybeasts in this area so that, on the off chance they lost, this pack would starve, unable to travel to hunt with such wounds and casualties."

Everything in the flame-furred huntress froze, and she stared at Kaw in disbelief. He nodded slowly, never dropping her gaze. "We won with but one death--we destroyed them, chased some off but killed the majority. Erashun, that big white you see tearing into your pack's big red, fought Wureshi himself to a draw. Everyone in this pack nearly died, from adolescents to beasts as old as I. We as a pack are not yet recovered from that horrific battle. Shula, his tan pack second, and myself forged the neighboring territories to bring back food for the cubs and parents in the depths of our lands. We three brought down a Quomai alone and dragged it a dozen leagues home. Everyone else fished and hunted the small birds in our trees, desperate to feed the wounded and the young.

Unforgiven One, your pack fights on a lie."

Kisiniyama rocked backwards as though struck full-force by a charging red, black-rimmed lips taut against her thick muzzle and ears flattened defiantly to her skull. "No," she hissed, a mixture of rage and horror in her voice. She sank to her haunches, every hair on her body standing on end, little tremors of shock racing down powerful limbs and an equally powerful tail.

Kaw stepped forward until no distance separated the two reds, tilted his muzzle up, and touched nose to nose.

Silence stretched between them while Kisiniyama struggled to cope with the horror welling up in her breast. "No," she breathed again, a new set of emotions painting her baritone voice, then jerked away from Kaw. "Mri'nohs!" she bellowed, her voice returning in full force as she leapt onto a higher branch, and then to another. "Mri'nohs, this must stop!"

Kaw watched her go and seated himself on the rock-hard bark that had become damp and sticky with drying blood, most of it his. Her pack had been halved in numbers; he would not engage any more if the other pack leader would call a halt to the fighting soon.

He wondered how, or even if, Shula would accept a truce.

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