Kairos was as intrigued by the small male who approached her as he was with her, his scent strange and yet bearing a hint of familiarity, as though the soul he harbored contained something recognizable in its depths. She watched him coolly through flinty black and blue eyes, judging him for his puppyish mixture of exuberance and insecurity. When the being flicked out a tongue to wet his questing nose, she was startled by the motion, and realized he had been drawn by the scent of the bat she had killed, it's blood still adorning her fur in crimson drops that glittered like red diamonds in the darkness, catching what little light filtered through the cave roof. He had not returned the nod she had given him, and she wondered whether he lacked insight like the other pup she had met a few moons before. The memory excited her, and she found herself wanting to be near the stranger, whose silence suddenly erred on the side of Zagan.

Without warning or provocation, the young female leaped forward to bowl over the approaching stranger, his chubby, infantile body hitting the ground with a satisfying slap. Swiftly she placed a paw on his throat, holding him down, strangely excited by the hot blood pulsing in his throat. She could feel the rhythm so easily, the way the skin rippled in response to both his breathing and his being, and she wasn't sure how to react. Unaware of her inner turmoil, the young boy pushed upwards against her weight, essentially choking himself, before relaxing his muscles. He attempted this feat a few times, although it was more like he was experiencing the pressure of her than trying to escape her grasp, before she spoke, her voice echoing commandingly throughout the broad cave. The youngster paused in his efforts to listen before he belched a rather toneless reply into being, punctuated as it was by the vicious growling of his belly.

Kairos knew he could smell the metallic tang of death on her lips, and she was strangely aroused by the thought. Leaning in close to one ear, she played at being sexy like the Milk-Giver did with Tall Protector on occasion, and whispered her words softly into being, “Right answer.” It was not a very profound sentence, but then, she could sense the wolf was as unversed in speech as the last one she had met. The one she had named after a funny noise he had made upon first seeing her. Lonhro wasn't it? The recollection brought a grin to her lips. To stifle it, she gripped the soft skin of her companion's ear in her mouth and bit into it, hard enough to draw blood but leave no lasting damage. Any passing watched would be unable to tell whether her actions were out of play, hunger, spitefulness or the simple desire to experience all parts of life but, either way, the stranger seemed to get it. Quick as a snake, he lunged for her and managed to grab a mouthful of the loose folds of flesh that hung from her neck. She made no move to prevent him from this and, instead, continued to chew absently while he did the same to her. Had they been older, it may have resembled an unusual and twisted sexual encounter and yet, both were too young to feel the effects of adult hormones on their systems.

Around them the dark was rolling like an ocean, warm with the residual body heat of the bats that had abandoned it and yet dank, musty, a place of unimaginable age. It crawled its way into the pups' fur and clawed up Kairos' nostrils so that she was forced to reluctantly release her prize in order to cough. Saliva wet the face of the one who gripped her and she pulled her ruff free of his jaws, ignoring whatever pain there might have been had he failed to release her when she did so, and moved off of him to let him rise, now be-smudged as she with guano.

“Who are you?”