Blackfeather Woods take it in your heart now

forgive caiapants for being huffy - i still like you guys

for perhaps the first time in her life, caiaphas felt a sliver of disappointment. these wolves were not the hardened mercenaries she believed them to be: they quaffed and crumbled at her suggestions, hemming and hawing with a collective ineffectiveness that caused the siren queen to scoff in disgust.

their impotence in times of war caused her mind to reel -- she made her own assumptions there about their abilities. perhaps it was better they stayed, so she did not face disappointment and defeat on her own soil.

when kjalarr appeared, caiaphas felt something close to joy in her heart -- until she witnessed the manner in which he coldly spoke to his son. this was not the kjalarr she had known - he had never shown so much as a contrary hair to her, and yet here he was, lambasting his own blood with a derision fit only for a profligate. caiaphas realized kjalarr had changed.

perhaps irrevocably so.

her tail lashed against her hips and her long, mule length ears pulled back in a grimace as she stepped in front of arrille protectively. she would have crafted her own crippling riposte had vaati not callously dismissed kjalarr. "he did no such thing." caiaphas growled, lifting her muzzle high as she looked kjalarr straight in the eye without fear. "he had no idea i would enact on this knowledge. perhaps it is you who betrayed him - and me. you are not the wolf i came for." she finished cuttingly, eyeing potema with a rueful glance that seemed to infer she could keep him for all the siren queen cared. her tone carried a keen finality to it that almost harmed her to utter.

she turned to vaati then, her wicked yellow gaze lacking remorse. he was young, perhaps that was his only flaw -- he lacked the experience to lead effectively, or to know which battles were worth picking or leaving in the dust. perhaps his advisors were to blame. perhaps, the fault was in caiaphas -- expecting any inland wolf to be as cold or ruthless as a sea-wolf. "it is no trick. i do not beg. stay here and die, it means very little to me." she cut a discouraging look to kove, who suggested use of her land at a later date -- the notion caused a crooked sneer to appear -- what use would they be to her later? after the drageda and red hawk wolves had eviscerated their numbers? caiaphas suspected none knew how war worked. an opportunity was to be seized -- not squandered.

"no. this is not an extended offer. when i leave, it dies here - just like you."  with that she nudged arrille roughly, motioning for him to step quickly. she would not linger here -- the woods carried a doomed and spectral quality to them -- and she had many duties to attend to back home.