[Vtoleni]

The wilderness here was unclaimed, too rough and sprawling to be anything but neutral ground, but that did not mean there was no darwinian social order at work. Strong animals trampled the weak as they did everywhere else on this mudball planet. Those who lacked in strength or wits or just luck were snapped up for whatever use the mouth seizing them had, and unlike in an established pack, there was often nobody to care when some wayward wolf didn’t come home one night.

Vtoleni was born of this brutal element, one of its purest epicenters in fact, and he took to it like a duck to water. Discovering his trade had been a magnificent event, for it meant he would never go hungry, that he could amass gems and bones and pelts and trinkets and more and MORE... that he could have an endless supply of toys to play with between commissions and payments. Life was good, more so than he deserved, anyone decent would grouse.

He prowled, restless, as the sun was just starting to think about rising over the distant horizon. Ice-blue eyes settled upon a dozing little bundle of white fluff, her thorny leash secured to a massive boulder nearby. That mouthy one. Angel. The coyote moved in, all slick oil, and leaned down casual as can be, hissing into one velvet ear.

“Do you know vhat’s going to happen to you, schatzi?”

[Vtoleni]

When she was asleep, things were different. She could feel the warm fur of her mother and father, hear them breathing softly. When she was asleep, things were comfortable. Like they used to be. Like she hoped they still would be when she woke up from this terrible dream.

Every morning, one of their voices crushed her dreams. This time it was the slimy one with the dirty mouth - she jolted awake suddenly when she heard his voice so close to her ear, pink eyes roving wildly until they locked on to him, wide and afraid. And then they narrowed. She was disappointed in herself for reacting in such a weak manner....but above that, she was angry. Angry at the ugly creature who harassed her, angry at the thorns that dug into her soft neck, and there were times....where she nearly allowed herself to be angry at her father. Why was he taking so long to save them?

What an ungrateful thought. She felt sick to her stomach every time she doubted him. He would come for her, and for her new siblings, and soon everything would be back to the way it used to be. Sleepy eyes clouded over by rage stared into Vtoleni's unfeeling blue ones, and she hoped he could feel the hatred burning into his skin. She wished she could weaponize her anger and pain, but she was so small, not like her father. "Get away from me!" she snarled, baring needle-sharp baby teeth.

"How about you go clean your teeth!" It wasn't as strong an insult as she wanted, but it was hard to think when all she wanted to do was tear into his face and destroy every inch of his smug expression. "How about what's going to happen to YOU!" Even as she spoke the threat, she curled into herself, pressing up against the boulder she was tied to, as if she could shrink and shrink until she disappeared. "Just stay away!"

[Vtoleni]

Sweetheart, he’d called her, though the word could also be translated as treasure, which nicely summed up the nature of their relationship. This girl and the other three orphans tossed by happenstance into the same cage were just something valuable to dig up and tear from their natural place in the world, objects to be exchanged for his own benefit. Then again... was that outlook truly limited to the children? The coyote would probably sell his own mother for something shiny enough.

Such was the loathsome creature who faced Angel now, rattling her bars and giggling, a sound shrill as a dentist’s drill and just as pleasant, at her helpless rage. Rather than do as she’d snarled, Vtoleni simply lay on his belly, crisscrossing his front paws at the wrists, just barely out of her reach.

“To me? Heh, you’re being, h-heh heh, very silly, mein schatzi. I’m not going vith you!” He smiled big, an expression that didn’t touch his eyes, the better for her to see the black teeth she was so concerned with. “Ve are taking you und your friends to ze fringe. Zhere is a pack vith a monster in its lowest point, a bad beastie vith eight legs... zhey ask us for itty babies, you know vhy?”

The slave trader tilted his head, looking down at Angel imperially, the low light casting shadows beneath his sunken-in eyes.

“So it vill get full on you, und not zem.”

[Vtoleni]

She was shaking with rage now, an anger too big for her tiny body, too big for any body to contain really. Her pink nose crinkled with disgust as the terrible creature lounged before her. He laughed at her, and each syllable stung like a slap to the face. She knew he was too far away to do anything. She knew it. But maybe if she could just...gather enough force... the puppy lunged forward as fast as she could, again stopped by her leash just out of reach.

Her forepaws flailed in front of her for a moment before she allowed them to drop back to the gorund with obvious disappointment. Her neck was already being rubbed raw in the spot where she strained against the thorns, but she didn't care. She would endure any pain in the world if it meant she could inflict the same onto her captors. And when this whole mess was over, she had a father to lick her wounds, unlike the unloved rat before her.

With a surprising air of calm, Angel raised one foreleg and used it to wipe some of the accumlating foam away from her mouth, all the while glaring at the coyote through glowing pink eyes. "Just wait till I get off this leash," she grumbled. "I don't care if you leave. I'll hunt you down. I'll NEVER stop looking for you." That was a promise.

He spoke of a pack beyond the Fringe - a place she'd heard her parents mention a few times with a sense of foreboding. An eight legged beast? That sounded like something from one of father's stories of Hell, which reminded her - "Once I kill you, you're going to go to Hell. That's where you belong. You'll be there forever. Then you can deal with the monsters." She hoped some part of this threat was getting to him. She just wanted him to hurt.

[Vtoleni]

Avarice drove him, but this oiled the wheels. There was no reason for him to be here, poking the girl until she was whipped into a frenzy; it was more sensible rather to keep their merchandise calm and well-behaved. Like any form of torture, it did not work in the captor’s favor, and so the motives left were either ignorance... or pleasure.

Vtoleni’s smile became nastier, the narrowing of his eyes more smug, as Angel strained and thrashed in her bonds to get at him. He could feel the swipes of her paws moving just shy of his face. “Almoooost,” he goaded, clicking in mock disappointment when she fell back. What a pity.

“Zat isn’t very nice,” tsked the coyote of her death threats, seeming infuriatingly unthreatened. “Vat might your papa think, his little girl using such rough language, hm?” The jibe was obvious as it was uncalled for and cruel.

But she was saying something interesting now; it made his brows rise slowly in amusement. It wasn’t every day a child threatened him with eternal damnation, being hunted forever, just as her always hunted puppies like her. How incongruous! Vtoleni did not much care for what children thought they knew of crime and punishment, but he decided to humor this one.

“Oh?” asked he, chinning his bony wrists conspiratorially. “Und vat sort of monsters are these?”