Time to Breathe

[Tenzin]

This city was unkind, its people closed off in a way to which Tenzin was unaccustomed. She had discovered quickly that something bad had happened to the Athari before she got here, and now she knew that the Regus was gone and the old head quarters reduced to ash. Everything had splintered, and with little beyond basic tech to her name Tenzin was almost completely isolated. Her people usually worked alone; it didn't bother her, exactly, to be cast adrift. But she had travelled the long distance to Russia for a reason, and the absence of her wolves made her want to howl her frustration at the empty moon. She'd never been so alone.

Instead, in the weeks that followed, she sniffed around and began to learn her new territory. The hunting was different; she was used to wide spaces and endless tundra, where half the hunt was simply surviving the terrain, but here everything clustered together amongst the dregs of society. The Athari were not respected nor welcomed; they were a secret - or had been. Now that festering wound was in the open and her brothers and sisters were just as swift to bare their teeth at one another. She'd seen evidence of Athari work. Evidence too that her brethren had drifted far from Alchi's teachings. Some of the killing was unnecessary. Worse, she scented the promise of war, a slavering for it, and it shivered through her hackles. This was all so wrong.

Home became various safe houses in the city. Her instincts longed for a permanent den, but it was habit to keep moving. Various caches replenished the weapons she'd left behind in India, though not quite what she was used to. She'd grown more comfortable, though, and routine laid the foundation she needed to begin investigating the wolves' fears. Tonight darkness touched the world outside, but Tenzin waited for the early hours to begin her prowl. She'd been reading in one of the chairs when her sharp ears picked up the approach of an intruder. Scent followed; the sharp tang of blood and pain. The hand straying toward her knife relaxed a fraction, though she didn't take a blink from the entrance. Mostly she avoided the other Athari. With the Regus gone she did not want to risk becoming ensnared in the conflicts of the remaining factions.

"Jullay,"
she called out in answer. Belatedly remembered to speak English. "Welcome, sister. You are hurt?"