[Vtoleni]

The strange denizens of their stranger lands had requested four healthy little bundles of joy and he was here to provide. Well, the other mercenaries had helped as well, supposed Vtoleni. It had certainly been nice to let them take care of the more dangerous parents so he could... take his time with the old couple. Why had little Irene been in their care, rather than that of her mummy and daddy? Maybe he'd wondered once, in careless passing.

He didn't pay any mind to the other children as he moved, almost gliding across the distance that separated he and the reserved girl. Ice-blue eyes slitted halfway, a serene, unlikeable smile stretching over his pointed muzzle like a glasgow scar. The coyote drifted close, as though this was a hunt and she was the crippled rabbit with nowhere to go.

"Hello again, mausi."

[Vtoleni]

One, two, three, four, five...

Why bother counting them?

With a sullen sigh the girl closed her eyes, her small form folded up into itself. Perhaps if she curled up tight enough she could disappear within herself, poofing into nothing. Or, at least, anywhere but here. The other three found some comfort in being with each other; Irene felt such envy over it. She only felt more unsettled by it all. Their collective grief was overwhelming, and how could she properly mourn the loss of two generations of family when coupled with three others who lost their parents?

What gave them the right to mourn when she had lost more?

But that was a selfish thought. She should not be selfish.

She squinted her eyes shut, now.

His pawsteps were distinct, though. She heard him approach. She smelled him. Knew it was him. And so she tensed her muscles, her body coiled and trying harder than ever to fold into itself. Peeking one soft pink eye open, she saw that crooked smile, those blackened teeth, and she knew it didn't work.

"Hello again, mausi."

Her neck fur stiffened at his voice, its thick accent and cruel tone. Swallowing the lump in her throat, Irene unfolded her limbs, trying to tell herself to look him in the eyes as she sat up, but failing to do so. Instead her gaze was locked at the ground, at her own paws, her lips pursed as she desperately attempted to deny a frown. Grandmother and Grandfather never said it would be this hard to be a lady, she thought, but then again, they never said anything about being a captive... She'd have to adapt, keep composed, keep true.

"Sir."

Her throat itched, hot and flushed. Words were snagged before she could say more.

What more was there to say?

[Vtoleni]

He let his eyes soften, the lids falling slack as if with the weight of his sympathy for the girl... but the farce was ruined by his mouth, which widened just a touch further toward the angle of his jaw when he saw her hackles prickle, smelled the hot sour reek of a sudden rush of fear. A vile little sadist, the worst kind, who favors those so helpless they might as well have been chew toys for all the power they had against him. There was a reason Vtoleni had honed in on her, the passive and composed one, over a spitfire like Angel.

“Ve look at people vhen ve speak to zem here, mausi,” the coyote chided her, his accented coo of a voice like the pretty shine on a sharp switchblade. “Don’t be shy, ve are, h-heh, ve are not strangers, right?”

He ran his tongue over his top teeth, leaving a wet trail in its wake, blue eyes leering.

“Are you hungry, my dear? Hmm? Du hungrig?”