The Sentinels A Shadow in the Moonlight.

It took no effort for the scarred man to call her bluff. Something that despite her facade, seemed to resonate with her and drew back her resistance. She was stubborn, always had been. It was hard to accept facts even when she knew them to be true. There was always a sting with a metallic taste that coated her tongue like blood, but similar to sleeping, eating, it was necessary to accept at the end of the day. Insisting her strength, her will that this had been her path, that it was her decision would get her nowhere. She would still be alone if she had.

The man's voice came in a whisper, and for a moment she thought she had imagined his voice until he continued. A short scoff escaped her as she finished the remains of her meal. Of course, he had been young before. To get old you had to be young at some point, she was wise enough to listen to her elders though that didn't mean she always acted on their word. Still, she fell quiet as Akai filled the echoes of the storm once more.

For just a moment she allowed her mind to wander to her own family. She never had the comfort of a sibling, though she did have friends close enough to once be considered such. In a way, it seemed that the old man might have more in common with her than she originally thought, though she doubted he would ever understand her pain. He must have come far though to be raised where the snow piles high. She too had traveled for some distance, though never to where snow grew debilitating.

Kali kept her eyes downcast to her muddied form as she too picked at the clumps that had formed. Every now and then she would make a face if she caught a particularly large glob, the taste bitter and earthy along her tongue. As Akai came to a close, she pulled away scraping the mud off her tongue with her teeth as she had before, her amber gaze drifting to the dreary outside as the heavens stormed.

Without missing a beat, Kali gave the first bit of something personal since their meeting, My dad died when I was a pup. Her words were monotoned as if the event never impacted her, though in some ways it hadn't. She never really knew him well, she could only recall a few memories from when he was still around. A silence followed, something that felt it should be filled by the next part of her story though the page remained blank.