<div class="floatleft">(http://i980.photobucket.com/albums/ae282/caela_ecub/Brunettes/da38251a-f295-4cd0-bed4-5bcc718adfae_zps23deb5af.jpg) (http://s980.photobucket.com/user/caela_ecub/media/Brunettes/da38251a-f295-4cd0-bed4-5bcc718adfae_zps23deb5af.jpg.html)</div><strong>Character Name:</strong>Eira<br/><strong>Who:</strong>Ts'udzagha Zhergan<br/><strong>Where:</strong>In a Cave<br/><strong>When:</strong>Evening, 8th day of the Hunger Moon<br/><hr/><br/>When he spoke, she jumped slightly, but only slightly. If you weren't looking directly at her, you'd have missed it. His voice was loud in the small space and had been unexpected; she'd thought he was simply going to remain silent all night! Still she was glad to hear that the wind would die down during the night. She'd been with the Pack long enough to trust to Zhergan's weather sense. When he said a storm would pass, it passed.<br/><br/>Then he kept talking, telling her about herself, and her eyes narrowed the more he spoke, anger darkening and flashing through those dark pools like lightening on a moonless night. As he continued, talking about her beauty punishing her, she pushed herself upright, her body tight as a bowstring and fists clenched at her sides as if resisting the urge to lash out at him. When he asked his final question, her entire body was all but vibrating with pure fury and only the knowledge that she had no hope of actually harming him kept her where she sat.<br/><br/>There were hopeless causes, and there were stupid causes. Her flight from the village might be hopeless (especially since he'd already found her) but hitting him, no matter how much she wanted to, would be stupid...no one had ever accused Eira of being stupid.<br/><br/>It wasn't much but she drew herself up to her full height where she sat, her face a cool mask that would have been fitting on a grand Lady, the Lady she would have been had she been allowed to marry.<br/><br/><em>She</em>thought she owned him but hers was a political match and she couldn't accept it. He had done his duty to his House through her, and was seeking a second wife, a romantic match this time, sought for love, or at least caring and respect, instead of duty and politics.  She didn't love him, but she didn't want anyone else too either. My Mother was thrilled with the match. His rank was far higher than I could have hoped for as a First Wife and I liked him. I respected him. I was attracted to him as well. Given time I might have come to love him, who knows. I never go the chance to find out because a jealous bitch wanted to<em>own</em>her husband instead of being paired with him," she added, a low growl in her throat and her face as dark and cold as the night outside the cave.<br/><br/>Drawing a breath she held Zhergan's gaze squarely as she finally answered his question with one of her own, "Is there a reason I can't want both? A reason I can't despise the fact that I was shipped off to be nothing more than a slave for a people I didn't know? A reason I can't want the freedom to choose my own path, my own life, my own mate, to see what little is left of my family again...and to plunge a dagger into that soulless bitch's heart, all at the same time?"