But in Meela’s character page is written, that she is ORPHANED lupian. So… I guess her mommy isn’t alive.
Neveko
You can be an orphan with your parents still alive. Being “orphaned” can simply mean being separated (though, implicitly in a more permanent way) from your parents.
Naria Nexis
but remember in Meelas dream a couple pages back, there was blood and violence and…I can’t explain it very well :-/
but anyway, she might be alive but I dont think so https://www.straysonline.com/2007/11/page-07/
Bluerosebud
She wasn’t there in that flashback, at least she wasn’t in any of the panels. You see Connor, Tannor, and Rollin, but not her.
Naria Nexis
OH!
the panel after the next panel!!!
Feral killed Meela’s parents!!!
my guess anyway :-)
Awesome!!!! Love this page! And daddy is wearing THE Bracelete!!!! lol! I was surprised that meela has…had twin older brothers!It’s getting interesting… I bet pretty soon we’ll know how they died and… came back to life!!!! or something! dun…dun…duuuuun… Just my speculation though.
Maybe whoever gave her the job after Meela’s dad found out he was still alive, so….. I don’t know. He had to get Meela’s mom away from them or something lol
…….Was she killed on the job? Or was the fact that she fell in love with her target discovered? Will Meela ever not look adorable?! These questions MUST BE ANSWERED!!!!!!
Hold up…twins???!!! Ok now this makes me think…in the first pages of the comic only Tannor is shown, then when Meela is dreaming about the night (I’m assuming) her family is murdered, the figure with the sinister grin looks like a Tannor-like figure…is it the brother? Oh I hope not but it makes some sense! This is getting more and more intense, but I loved the cute little kids:)
Omg! OoO! Never saw that!
I absolutely HATE it when people kill twins in stories!
Bethy
So… Fred and George…?
VickyLynn
Omg! Doesn’t matter if I ONLY see that scene in the movie, it makes me cry. & me & my sis both cried when we read the book (we’re twins too :p)
Aww now I’m missing her >.<…
Poor Tannor QnQ
Oooooo… please make a desktop of the 3rd panel! I <3 your work! Don't EVER worry about being late with an update, the uber-coolness of your work has racked up many a brownie point ;)
Is Meela’s mother part dog, then? I’m not sure how Lupians work, but real pure-blooded wolves never have blue eyes because that mutation arose from inbreeding when they became domestic dogs, where it’s a pretty dominant genetic trait (IE if one parent has at least one blue eyes, or even had an ancestor with blue eyes, their pups commonly come out with a blue eye or eyes).
Some breeders try to get selectively breed pups who come out looking like pure wolves with blue eyes, but it’s really difficult, I’ve only ever seen a wolf with gray eyes before, and that was exceptionally rare as it is.
Bluerosebud
Well, blue eyes are possible in humans, right? They’re not completely wolf, so the human part would be where the blue eyes come from while the wolf part accounts for it being rare. Like how humans don’t generally have gold eyes but wolves do.
Amanda
I understand your reasoning, but Lupians in this world are their own race, like humans, elves and demons. If I remember correctly, they can interbreed with humans, but nothing is stated in the comic to imply that this is necessary in order to result in blue eyes, just that blue eyes are rare. So, I think purebred Lupians can have blue eyes, but perhaps it’s like a genetic mutation or something, so that’s why it’s so uncommon.
Bluerosebud
Actually, female mules are occasionally able to have a child, but it has to be with (I think) a horse or a donkey. Only the males are completely infertile. Unless I’m completely wrong.
Amanda
First of all, thank you for that info! Really, I love wolves but never knew that about their eyes. Cool stuff, yo. :3
That being said, I think we can safely rule out Jira being part dog. From what I’ve read on the site, interbreeding seems to be quite limited. (Lupians can have children with humans and demons, for example, but not Vulpians, Cervians, etc. I can’t remember if it’s possible with elves.) So, even if there were “dog people” (I’m pretty sure there aren’t), Lupians wouldn’t be able to mate with them. I think it is most likely that blue eyes are just a rare genetic mutation or something, kind of like heterochromia iridis (bi-coloured eyes) in humans, though that CAN be inherited….
*random fact* I just realized I have a mild case of central heterochromia… I’ve learned TWO things today! :o
Really? You don’t think that Lupians would be able to mix with the dog equivalent of a Lupian, if it does or doesn’t exist?
How would that be so, when wolves and dogs (canis lupus lupus, and canis lupus familiaris) are the exact same species, just different subspecies (like a timber wolf compared to an arctic wolf)?
It’s technically improper to use the term “hybrid” when referring to a wolfdog, because they’re not a mix of two species — like a horse with a zebra, or a lion with a tiger or leopard, for example, which are genuine hybrids — just two different kinds of the same species.
They’re so genetically identical that DNA tests cannot tell the difference, although some breeders who try to make their animals seem more special will throw lies at you like “these ‘cubs’ are DNA tested 99% wolf”…when wolf puppies aren’t even called cubs.
Congrats on the slight heterochromia, it’s really awesome. I have a siberian husky/gray wolf mix who has bi-eyes (one of each color), but parti-color (more than one color in the same eye) is beautiful too.
Amanda
@Dember (no reply button) I know that wolves and dogs have the same DNA. So do coyotes and even foxes, it’s just arranged differently. It’s quite fascinating stuff, really, don’t you think? :)
However, it is clearly stated in the FAQ that the animal-type races are genetically designed to ONLY breed with their own race. Lupians can’t even interbreed with Vulpians, so they certainly couldn’t breed with dog people. In fact, having reread the FAQ, I just realized I made a mistake earlier. Apparently, humans and elves can interbreed, but none of the animal-type races can interbreed with humans or elves, anymore than they can with any animal-type races besides their own. The absolute ONLY race that can interbreed with anyone is demons. Hence why Meela asked Feral if he was a demon Lupian. Half-demons and Human-elf crosses are the only hybrids possible in Meoley.
In fact, knowing that you can’t even tell the difference between a dog and a Lupian in a genetic test, and considering how dogs came to exist at all in our own world’s history, it wouldn’t even make sense for dog people to exist in Meoley (even if regular dogs do). :/
Actually, coyotes are a different species altogether, not just a different subspecies (canis latrans, as opposed to canis lupus), although they can hybridize with wolves and dogs.
Foxes however are of an entirely different genus (Vulpes vulpes) and despite still being canines, they cannot hybridize with anything except other foxes (red fox, arctic fox, gray fox, fennec fox, etc.)
Wolves and dogs are the same species, but foxes are genetically much different — heck, just look at their eyes, they have vertical pupils like a cat.
So, a Lupian being able to mix with some kind of domestic equivalent would make perfect sense to me (because, again, it is NOT an actual hybrid at all), but I agree, mixing with a Vulpian would be like trying to breed a rabbit with a mouse, or a horse with a deer or something, just not physically possible.
I only asked because real wolves physically can’t have blue eyes without generations and generations of selective breeding, and inbreeding, so I was wondering if it was “rare” because her ancestors might have taken up with the domestic dog equivalent of a Lupian.
You can actually domesticate foxes and after a few decades, you’ll get offspring with blue eyes, odd colors like silvers or even dalmatian-like spots, sometimes even floppy ears — and they also wag their tails and bark.
Amanda
I understand, but like I said, the FAQ basically states that hybrids, aside from the two I’ve mentioned, are impossible. They are, after all, not really “wolves”–they are just people who can change into wolves, basically. :)
Concerning the real animals, the concept of species is actually very foggy and I don’t think the way humans classify animals is always correct. For example, a true hybrid, like a liger or mule, is unable to breed itself–it’s sterile. To get a mule, you MUST breed a mare and a male donkey. You can’t breed two mules. However, a cross between a wolf and coyote is not sterile. In fact, the vast majority of “wolves” in Canada are actually crossed with coyotes. So, no, they are not different species, in spite of the way we’ve classified them and some of their genetic differences.
As for foxes, I’m admittedly less certain about that, but the fact that they can basically become “dogs” as you yourself said, makes me think that they are not as different from other canines as we think. I mentioned that their DNA is arranged differently. I’m not sure if you know what I mean by that? It’s pretty cool stuff, actually.
Tenshi
I just read that entire chat between you Amanda and Dember and I don’t think I have learnt so much about canines and genetics any where other than here xD Not even in my Biology class at school Ehhe.. but wow, you have both made me think about multiple things with in the interbreeding and the different species aspects.
I always knew that wolves were Canis lupus lupus but I honestly would have thought foxes would have been Canis vulpes or some thing like that, not Vulpes vulpes.. All that is insane xD
Oh and sorry about replying half way through your conversation, it was the last post with a reply button Ehhe.. x]
Tenshi
And as it turns out, replies go to the bottom any way.. xD
Of course humans don’t flawlessly categorize animals; many are changed around as science and debates confirm this or that.
As for coyote/wolf hybrids, that’s not unheard of at all, no. In fact, the Red Wolf has long been suspected as being a mix between a coyote and a wolf, and coyotes hybridize with domestic dogs (which is basically a coyote and wolf hybrid also) all the time, which can be pretty dangerous because coydogs are just as feral as a wild coyote, with even less human-shyness than a coyote has.
No, not all hybrids are fertile, but how would that imply that just because the hybrid offspring of two different species of canines would have to be infertile?
Consider that hybrids between horses and zebras aren’t sterile, despite definitely being hybrids just like a horse with a donkey, or a even zebra with a donkey.
Yet somehow, only the horse-donkey mule comes out infertile. How would that indicate that all hybrids should either turn out to be infertile, or they must not be hybrids at all?
As for lion-tiger hybrids, what about lion-leopards, or tiger-leopards? Chances are, not every single feline hybrid is going to happen to be sterile (nor any other hybrid of any species), just because some combinations, for some reason, are.
Foxes definitely do not “turn into dogs”, they simply domesticate in the same way that a wolf does, since they’re both canines.
Obviously, domesticating a fox will not change its DNA from “vulpes vulpes” to “canis lupus familiaris”, nor would it make it possible for doglike foxes to interbreed with dogs, because they’re not the same genus.
Ahah, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, Tenshi. I hope I haven’t started too big of a discussion, I was just curious about the blue eyes and the genetics of why they’re so rare or what significance they might have, if any.
Amanda
“Obviously, domesticating a fox will not change its DNA from “vulpes vulpes” to “canis lupus familiaris”, nor would it make it possible for doglike foxes to interbreed with dogs, because they’re not the same genus.”
Sorry, I didn’t quite mean it that way. XD They do, as you said, change their appearance when domesticated, just as wolves did when they domesticated, without any human interference. This is not something other animals generally do. It’s because of a shared trait amongst canines where the genes that relate to certain aspects of personality (docility, etc.) also affect certain aspects of appearance. I’ve never heard of any other family of animals having such a trait (though I could be wrong, of course). It does bear the question, then, how much of their DNA and appearance changed for other reasons? Of course, some of this is coming from stuff I learned in a (rather long) lecture a while ago, so perhaps my memory is a little bit off. :/
I was under the impression that all wild cat hybrids are indeed sterile. Was I mistaken? I once read a list of all known feline hybrids, and I’m pretty sure all the ones listed were sterile… it’s been some time, mind you….
I admit, though, that I didn’t know the zebra could hybridize without infertility. That’s fascinating! You’re a wealth of knowledge. :D
… You didn’t answer my question about DNA rearranging, though. *sadface*
Still, I really don’t think that the reason blue eyes are rare amongst Lupians is necessarily the same reason it’s rare amongst wolves. I imagine that the people of Meoley would know better than anyone that a blue-eyed Lupian must be a hybrid, yet Holland says nothing to suggest this. He only says it’s rare in Lupians. He doesn’t even give Meela a speculative look or anything like that. I see this as reason enough to assume that, while rare, blue eyes in Lupians is still perfectly natural. Like an Asian person with curly or wavy hair. It does actually happen, and they are still pure-blooded Asians, but it’s very very rare. It’s just a recessive gene, basically.
Bluerosebud
Uh, accidentally posted above. Yeah, female mules can give birth to a child, but male mules can’t sire one. That’s neither here nor there, though.
Amanda
Huh. I kinda wonder how they discovered that. Put an “infertile” mule in with a stallion and then… oops!? XD I wonder what they call that? A mare with a jack gives you a mule. A stallion with a jenny produces a hinny. But what if it’s only a quarter horse/donkey? o_O
on page 9 we see 2 dead bodies, and the one in the background looks like their dad since I think I see the headband. Then that would make the body on the foreground the other brother :c
Awwww! Cute family scenes! Gotta love ’em!
So sad! The last two panels are heartbreaking!!!! :'(
Totally worth the wait!
I FOUND THE BRACELET! Rollin has it on in the third panel and on down from there.
the dad is wearing his bracelet that he gave to tannor and then to meela
i think either its the older brother that was the killer, because of his size and the grin.. or its the mother, because of the hair swish.. maybe she got involved with demons, or something, or someone the mother got involed with went to kill meela and everyone cause of revenge…
Well Connor is dead, and I’m pretty sure he died after the Dad, you can see him cowering in the corner on page 7 panel 4. As well as his corpse behind the shadowy killer on pg 9 panel 1. You can tell it’s him because of the hair style.
LOOK AT MEELA’S TAIL IN THE SECOND PANEL!!!!! ADORABLE!!!!!
I really need to condense all my comments into one, but I KEEP NOTICING THINGS!!!
I LOVE THIS COMIC!!!
I don’t know if any bothered to try and calculate this yet, but we are roughly 140ish pages to the end of the comic; not including title pages and that is if the girls still want to keep it to three volumes. However that will take around 140 weeks which is a smig over two and a half years.
So, trying to tell the brothers apart, one of them has swishy bangs, the other one has straight bangs…. now, which one is Tannor….?
Straight bangs is Tannor, looking back at older pages.
Rereading to now, I’m very certain it was Feral that killed her brother and father. I’m thinking that because her father was suppose to be killed but wasn’t, he and now his family were being killed. For whatever reason. Now why doesn’t Feral know her? Well he doesn’t even remember his childhood let alone his past. And the old man that died in the fire in the first story, I’m very certain knows all that happened and why. Hmm I wonder how true everything I said is LOL
Well, I think Feral doesn’t remember his past up until the point that Holland found him when he was running away from home (page 152). He would have been too young at that point to have killed her family. No way would he have been able to take Rollin. I don’t think it was Feral.
Couldn’t he have just killed Meela’s family before loosing his memories? You say he’d be too young, but really there’s only a 7 yr difference between her and Holland. Yes Holland looks young in the flashback but so does Meela when we see her bloodied hands so it’s possible that their murders happened around the same time.
As for not being able to take Rollin (& @Amanda saying it’s not Feral’s style to grin like a maniac) who’s to say he didn’t go crazy off dark demon magic? We’ve already seen what Feral can do against trees, if he went into a crazy-evil trance he’d probably be able to kill everyone.
Just needed to get some conspiracy theories out. XD Hope you don’t think I’m being disrespectful.
Bluerosebud
My only issue with this is that the tall and muscular form that killed Meela’s family is not that of a scrawny teenager, which Feral definitely looked like when he met Holland, as well as the fact that the bandage over his demon eye implies he didn’t have the demon magic for very long before losing his memories and so wouldn’t have had it as an advantage over Rollin.
I worked out the math in one of my much older comments, and it is possible for Feral to have killed Meela’s family afterwards, but the demon magic thing would have to account for ALL the discrepancies with that theory (why he wasn’t with Holland, why he was grinning like a maniac, etc.) I personally think Feral or someone he knows must be responsible for it, but that’s just because the killer was a lupian and there was no reason to make him one otherwise.
Amanda
Actually, I recall that Meela, after the dream where she sees Terin, Feral’s/Yuen’s dad, killed, she wonders to herself if Korin might just be…? This thought process is quickly interrupted, so it’s vague, but the impression I got was that she was wondering if he could have been the one to kill Rollin and Connor as well. She never even briefly wonders if it could have been Feral, though.
That being said, the glowing red eyes in Meela’s dream could either be the result of Meela’s abject terror at the time or they could have really been glowing. Does this mean it was Feral? Or did the author’s do it on purpose? Red herring! Ha, pun! Haha… ha… ha?
Seriously, though, like you yourself said, the demon magic thing would be the absolute only reason he could have pulled it off at that age, when you consider that Rollin could take on a world-class bounty hunter like Jira with no trouble, not to mention having pups to defend (extra motivation). Not saying that wouldn’t have worked (in fact, it seems likely that it could have totally overwhelmed him right after he obtained the magic eye thing and that is how he ended up injured with no memories).
At the same time, it doesn’t make much sense. It seems as if Rollin was hunted for a reason, and his family was to be killed along with him (hence why Tannor saw a need to go into hiding). If it was just a case of Feral going nuts, there would be no reason to assume they were still being hunted (because they weren’t) and even less reason for Tannor to refer to their pursuers in the plural (pg 202). Plus, Meela said that they had been hunted for some time before they were finally killed.
Ooooon the other hand, maybe Meela’s dreams were because of some memories of Feral’s somehow being “transferred” to her during that event (once again, because he couldn’t control his newly acquired magical abilities), but she didn’t actually have the dreams until she met Feral, because it took his close proximity to, shall we say, “activate” those latent memories.
Maybe. (I personally have a different theory, but I’ve been too long-winded as it is! o_o)
…And none of this explains either the human who knew Meela or Jyaku. Sigh~
Bluerosebud
Amanda, (Want to reply to your excellent comment but there’s no button)
I think most people are speculating that it’s Feral because he’s a bounty hunter by trade. He might have been hired to do it, but that also weakens the theory that he was semi-possessed. It’s pretty hard to fit him in there without it clashing with his character and circumstances (when did he become a bounty hunter, for example–surely long after meeting Holland? and he certainly would have remembered Meela. It would be almost funny, though, if Meela describes her dad’s death in the next few pages and Feral gets an “oh crap, that mission” look.)
To be honest, I’d completely forgotten Korin. It’s entirely possible that he was the one in the flashback–he matches up almost perfectly with the shadowy form and maniac grin. We’d have to wonder why he went after Meela’s family though, as the reason why she was killed must certainly come from Rollin. Maybe the reason explains the connection between Feral and Meela–or maybe she’s not remembering him at all, maybe she’s dreaming about Korin, her family’s killer, in a roundabout way.
Amanda
I guess the replies are limited (to prevent too much cascading in the comments or something).
I agree with you that the theory that it was Feral tends to clash with known facts about him (though there is, admittedly, not many of those!), but yeah, that would be pretty funny to see. Feral has some funny faces. >:3
I have been thinking that it might have something to do with Rollin’s own family/clan. There was something special about them, perhaps? But he… I don’t know, betrayed/abandoned them and they are the ones who basically put a hit out on him, maybe because they were afraid he’d let their “dark secret” out or something. And it’s something genetic, so that would explain why Meela’s upcoming birthday would be a problem.
And I have no idea, but somehow there is maybe a connection between Feral’s old clan (i.e. Korin’s) and Rollin’s? It might even be the same clan and kind of explains the similarity in names. (All the males in that clan had names that ended in ‘n,’ did you notice? But then Rollin abandons this when naming his own children.) Or perhaps like one was an off-shoot of the main clan, or something, and that’s why Korin got involved with the business. Or maybe it had to do with a last-ditch effort to save their clan from ruin, making some kind of deal with the people who were after Rollin, family or not.
Then again, it just might be that names ending in ‘n’ is common amongst Lupians and has no hidden meaning… and Korin may have nothing to do with it and Meela’s reaction was just another red herring… Theories are such tricky things. XD
Bluerosebud
Gahhh, one more reply please! I kind of figured Rollin was a demon/half demon (as several other people are now prescribing to–whether he’s a full demon or not depends on if demons can assume different forms, since I doubt people would WANT to mate with that dragon thing we saw in the first dream unless they’re kind of kinky) and, you know, there were demons in Yuen’s childhood. Also want to point out that one of Korin’s cronies has grey hair too, although he doesn’t look like Rollin. Tentative connections. Unfortunately, Mal and Yuen are sort of the exceptions to that naming rule, though.
Amanda
Well, I imagine that, if he has any demon blood at all, it’s only half (even if they can assume a human-like form, it seems unlikely that they’d actually look just like a normal Lupian, or any other race). I agree that it would be really strange to mate with basically a monster… though we have to consider that not all half-demons are necessarily… ah, wanted children. Know what I mean? Whether that kinda stuff will ever enter this comic, I have no idea, but I don’t see the authors shying away from difficult topics so far, so long as they are relevant to the story.
Yuen still ends in ‘n’ and Mal seems to have been from a different clan, so… it still seems like the ‘n’ thing might have been either a clan tradition or like a feature of that old dialect Feral writes in.
Unfortunately, it’s kinda hard to make connections based on colour, since we have so far only seen three colours in Lupians – brown, black, and grey. There are different shades and sometimes mixtures of these, but it seems like they’re all basically one of these colours. :/
If Rollin is part demon, though, aside from Mr. Psycho’s skills being that much more impressive (in which case it definitely WASN’T Korin, ’cause he was a coward), it makes Meela’s expression when asking if Feral was part demon strange. She looks all suspicious, like it’d be bad if he was, and she seems genuinely surprised when Holland says he thinks half-demons are generally harmless. If she knew herself to have demon blood, you’d think she’d be agreeing with him…
Bluerosebud
Well, I had an explanation for that last part (although Feral showed a stronger reaction to be being called one than Meela did to asking him about it.) If Meela felt guilty about her heritage, of if her dad did, or if she thought everyone hated demons, she would be initially surprised that Holland was lumping them together with other minorities that need protecting.
Amanda
This is a good point! Certainly, I think there is plenty of evidence to suggest Meela has demon blood (it would explain why she sometimes has difficulty controlling her magic). It does seem strange, though, that she’s still trying to hide it, even after Holland has stated frankly that he’s okay with half-demons and sees them as generally peaceful. Why not just get it off her chest, then? She already confessed that she had bounty hunters after her to him, so aside from his obvious skill at extracting information, I think she must trust him well enough.
Then again, I suppose it could just be a matter of being so well-trained from pup-hood not to tell anyone, she just never even thought to do so. And maybe she’s about to spill all the beans now? Though I doubt it. XD Gotta keep up SOME suspense for the climax!
What’s really interesting is figuring out which parent had the demon blood. It seems as if it’d most likely be Rollin, but is it really him, for sure? Hard to say. :P
Bluerosebud
Technically, Meela told Holland about her family under fevered exhaustion from the poison, though she’s telling them practically everything right now so…
As for who might be the demon, well, on the other hand is Jira–who has good evidence for her too. She’s called a “blue-eyed devil” and everything, with a rare lupian eye color (also if she’s the real part demon it explains why Rollin got murdered so relatively easily,) but her talent seems more martial arts related.
158 thoughts on “Page 250”
lillianblaze
Because of her just not coming back, it makes me wonder if she is still alive.
SileniaTheLupian
I was thinking that too.I don’t see any indication that she is dead in the rest of the comic.
Mirza
But in Meela’s character page is written, that she is ORPHANED lupian. So… I guess her mommy isn’t alive.
Neveko
You can be an orphan with your parents still alive. Being “orphaned” can simply mean being separated (though, implicitly in a more permanent way) from your parents.
Naria Nexis
but remember in Meelas dream a couple pages back, there was blood and violence and…I can’t explain it very well :-/
but anyway, she might be alive but I dont think so
https://www.straysonline.com/2007/11/page-07/
Bluerosebud
She wasn’t there in that flashback, at least she wasn’t in any of the panels. You see Connor, Tannor, and Rollin, but not her.
Naria Nexis
OH!
the panel after the next panel!!!
Feral killed Meela’s parents!!!
my guess anyway :-)
koala
maybe she’s the one after meela…. dun dun duuuun
fishgrul
Awesome!!!! Love this page! And daddy is wearing THE Bracelete!!!! lol! I was surprised that meela has…had twin older brothers!It’s getting interesting… I bet pretty soon we’ll know how they died and… came back to life!!!! or something! dun…dun…duuuuun… Just my speculation though.
Tigerfur
Maybe whoever gave her the job after Meela’s dad found out he was still alive, so….. I don’t know. He had to get Meela’s mom away from them or something lol
mavee
its said that Tannor dies….but there are TWO brothers…so uhhh wheres the second?
Darkcanine
Maybe she was sent to prison for marking him dead instead of actually killing him? Nevermind loving him, that must be a crime!
Darkcanine
Maybe she was sent to prison for marking him dead instead of actually killing him? Never mind loving him, that must be a crime!
Seren
Hold on…brothers…we only met Tannor. So they were twins!
Sofy
Yeah she revealed that in her gallery about Conner being a twin a loooong time ago xD
Safiyah
And on top of that, Tannor did mention him once on page 203.
Ebeth+Bliza
That last panel is so adorible!
This page was worth more than the wait! XD
Persephone93
d’aaaaw the cuteness….makes me all sad everyone dies. :(
Purplefire
Cuteness abounds!!! The babies are so adorable. The first panel with the squalling baby pulling on Meela’s daddy’s mouth just makes me grin.
dragonia
That 3rd panel kills me, too much cute.
Alvara101/Panda
Awwwww!!!!!!!! SO cute! and so sad!! This page is conflicting!!
Persephone93
Does he REALLY need the armor at home? Methinks Rollin’s got a bald spot…
Swiftsnowpack
…….Was she killed on the job? Or was the fact that she fell in love with her target discovered? Will Meela ever not look adorable?! These questions MUST BE ANSWERED!!!!!!
SileniaTheLupian
The only way Meela could not look adorable is……I can’t think of anything D:
Mia
Love this. Love it so much.
Desktop wallpaper of the third panal pweasy-please!
Keenawolfwoman
Agreedagreedagreed!!! Pups soo CUUUUTE!!!!
freedomrider5
Hold up…twins???!!! Ok now this makes me think…in the first pages of the comic only Tannor is shown, then when Meela is dreaming about the night (I’m assuming) her family is murdered, the figure with the sinister grin looks like a Tannor-like figure…is it the brother? Oh I hope not but it makes some sense! This is getting more and more intense, but I loved the cute little kids:)
Irishxlily
..no, Conner is dead in the background in that dream sequence behind the murderer.
VickyLynn
Omg! OoO! Never saw that!
I absolutely HATE it when people kill twins in stories!
Bethy
So… Fred and George…?
VickyLynn
Omg! Doesn’t matter if I ONLY see that scene in the movie, it makes me cry. & me & my sis both cried when we read the book (we’re twins too :p)
Aww now I’m missing her >.<…
Poor Tannor QnQ
Moon
Brothers?! As in PLURAL? wtf
Julia Balcom
Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!!! They are so cute. Its sad though that there mom didn’t come back
zwaan-cride
Oooooo… please make a desktop of the 3rd panel! I <3 your work! Don't EVER worry about being late with an update, the uber-coolness of your work has racked up many a brownie point ;)
Shinto
Awe,
Does that mean none of them go their mothers eyes?
Algy
Yep, blue eyes are very very very rare in Lupians.
Dember
Is Meela’s mother part dog, then? I’m not sure how Lupians work, but real pure-blooded wolves never have blue eyes because that mutation arose from inbreeding when they became domestic dogs, where it’s a pretty dominant genetic trait (IE if one parent has at least one blue eyes, or even had an ancestor with blue eyes, their pups commonly come out with a blue eye or eyes).
Some breeders try to get selectively breed pups who come out looking like pure wolves with blue eyes, but it’s really difficult, I’ve only ever seen a wolf with gray eyes before, and that was exceptionally rare as it is.
Bluerosebud
Well, blue eyes are possible in humans, right? They’re not completely wolf, so the human part would be where the blue eyes come from while the wolf part accounts for it being rare. Like how humans don’t generally have gold eyes but wolves do.
Amanda
I understand your reasoning, but Lupians in this world are their own race, like humans, elves and demons. If I remember correctly, they can interbreed with humans, but nothing is stated in the comic to imply that this is necessary in order to result in blue eyes, just that blue eyes are rare. So, I think purebred Lupians can have blue eyes, but perhaps it’s like a genetic mutation or something, so that’s why it’s so uncommon.
Bluerosebud
Actually, female mules are occasionally able to have a child, but it has to be with (I think) a horse or a donkey. Only the males are completely infertile. Unless I’m completely wrong.
Amanda
First of all, thank you for that info! Really, I love wolves but never knew that about their eyes. Cool stuff, yo. :3
That being said, I think we can safely rule out Jira being part dog. From what I’ve read on the site, interbreeding seems to be quite limited. (Lupians can have children with humans and demons, for example, but not Vulpians, Cervians, etc. I can’t remember if it’s possible with elves.) So, even if there were “dog people” (I’m pretty sure there aren’t), Lupians wouldn’t be able to mate with them. I think it is most likely that blue eyes are just a rare genetic mutation or something, kind of like heterochromia iridis (bi-coloured eyes) in humans, though that CAN be inherited….
*random fact* I just realized I have a mild case of central heterochromia… I’ve learned TWO things today! :o
Dember
Really? You don’t think that Lupians would be able to mix with the dog equivalent of a Lupian, if it does or doesn’t exist?
How would that be so, when wolves and dogs (canis lupus lupus, and canis lupus familiaris) are the exact same species, just different subspecies (like a timber wolf compared to an arctic wolf)?
It’s technically improper to use the term “hybrid” when referring to a wolfdog, because they’re not a mix of two species — like a horse with a zebra, or a lion with a tiger or leopard, for example, which are genuine hybrids — just two different kinds of the same species.
They’re so genetically identical that DNA tests cannot tell the difference, although some breeders who try to make their animals seem more special will throw lies at you like “these ‘cubs’ are DNA tested 99% wolf”…when wolf puppies aren’t even called cubs.
Congrats on the slight heterochromia, it’s really awesome. I have a siberian husky/gray wolf mix who has bi-eyes (one of each color), but parti-color (more than one color in the same eye) is beautiful too.
Amanda
@Dember (no reply button) I know that wolves and dogs have the same DNA. So do coyotes and even foxes, it’s just arranged differently. It’s quite fascinating stuff, really, don’t you think? :)
However, it is clearly stated in the FAQ that the animal-type races are genetically designed to ONLY breed with their own race. Lupians can’t even interbreed with Vulpians, so they certainly couldn’t breed with dog people. In fact, having reread the FAQ, I just realized I made a mistake earlier. Apparently, humans and elves can interbreed, but none of the animal-type races can interbreed with humans or elves, anymore than they can with any animal-type races besides their own. The absolute ONLY race that can interbreed with anyone is demons. Hence why Meela asked Feral if he was a demon Lupian. Half-demons and Human-elf crosses are the only hybrids possible in Meoley.
In fact, knowing that you can’t even tell the difference between a dog and a Lupian in a genetic test, and considering how dogs came to exist at all in our own world’s history, it wouldn’t even make sense for dog people to exist in Meoley (even if regular dogs do). :/
And thank you! =^_^= I do rather like my eyes.
Dember
Actually, coyotes are a different species altogether, not just a different subspecies (canis latrans, as opposed to canis lupus), although they can hybridize with wolves and dogs.
Foxes however are of an entirely different genus (Vulpes vulpes) and despite still being canines, they cannot hybridize with anything except other foxes (red fox, arctic fox, gray fox, fennec fox, etc.)
Wolves and dogs are the same species, but foxes are genetically much different — heck, just look at their eyes, they have vertical pupils like a cat.
So, a Lupian being able to mix with some kind of domestic equivalent would make perfect sense to me (because, again, it is NOT an actual hybrid at all), but I agree, mixing with a Vulpian would be like trying to breed a rabbit with a mouse, or a horse with a deer or something, just not physically possible.
I only asked because real wolves physically can’t have blue eyes without generations and generations of selective breeding, and inbreeding, so I was wondering if it was “rare” because her ancestors might have taken up with the domestic dog equivalent of a Lupian.
You can actually domesticate foxes and after a few decades, you’ll get offspring with blue eyes, odd colors like silvers or even dalmatian-like spots, sometimes even floppy ears — and they also wag their tails and bark.
Amanda
I understand, but like I said, the FAQ basically states that hybrids, aside from the two I’ve mentioned, are impossible. They are, after all, not really “wolves”–they are just people who can change into wolves, basically. :)
Concerning the real animals, the concept of species is actually very foggy and I don’t think the way humans classify animals is always correct. For example, a true hybrid, like a liger or mule, is unable to breed itself–it’s sterile. To get a mule, you MUST breed a mare and a male donkey. You can’t breed two mules. However, a cross between a wolf and coyote is not sterile. In fact, the vast majority of “wolves” in Canada are actually crossed with coyotes. So, no, they are not different species, in spite of the way we’ve classified them and some of their genetic differences.
As for foxes, I’m admittedly less certain about that, but the fact that they can basically become “dogs” as you yourself said, makes me think that they are not as different from other canines as we think. I mentioned that their DNA is arranged differently. I’m not sure if you know what I mean by that? It’s pretty cool stuff, actually.
Tenshi
I just read that entire chat between you Amanda and Dember and I don’t think I have learnt so much about canines and genetics any where other than here xD Not even in my Biology class at school Ehhe.. but wow, you have both made me think about multiple things with in the interbreeding and the different species aspects.
I always knew that wolves were Canis lupus lupus but I honestly would have thought foxes would have been Canis vulpes or some thing like that, not Vulpes vulpes.. All that is insane xD
Oh and sorry about replying half way through your conversation, it was the last post with a reply button Ehhe.. x]
Tenshi
And as it turns out, replies go to the bottom any way.. xD
Dember
Of course humans don’t flawlessly categorize animals; many are changed around as science and debates confirm this or that.
As for coyote/wolf hybrids, that’s not unheard of at all, no. In fact, the Red Wolf has long been suspected as being a mix between a coyote and a wolf, and coyotes hybridize with domestic dogs (which is basically a coyote and wolf hybrid also) all the time, which can be pretty dangerous because coydogs are just as feral as a wild coyote, with even less human-shyness than a coyote has.
No, not all hybrids are fertile, but how would that imply that just because the hybrid offspring of two different species of canines would have to be infertile?
Consider that hybrids between horses and zebras aren’t sterile, despite definitely being hybrids just like a horse with a donkey, or a even zebra with a donkey.
Yet somehow, only the horse-donkey mule comes out infertile. How would that indicate that all hybrids should either turn out to be infertile, or they must not be hybrids at all?
As for lion-tiger hybrids, what about lion-leopards, or tiger-leopards? Chances are, not every single feline hybrid is going to happen to be sterile (nor any other hybrid of any species), just because some combinations, for some reason, are.
Foxes definitely do not “turn into dogs”, they simply domesticate in the same way that a wolf does, since they’re both canines.
Obviously, domesticating a fox will not change its DNA from “vulpes vulpes” to “canis lupus familiaris”, nor would it make it possible for doglike foxes to interbreed with dogs, because they’re not the same genus.
Ahah, I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself, Tenshi. I hope I haven’t started too big of a discussion, I was just curious about the blue eyes and the genetics of why they’re so rare or what significance they might have, if any.
Amanda
“Obviously, domesticating a fox will not change its DNA from “vulpes vulpes” to “canis lupus familiaris”, nor would it make it possible for doglike foxes to interbreed with dogs, because they’re not the same genus.”
Sorry, I didn’t quite mean it that way. XD They do, as you said, change their appearance when domesticated, just as wolves did when they domesticated, without any human interference. This is not something other animals generally do. It’s because of a shared trait amongst canines where the genes that relate to certain aspects of personality (docility, etc.) also affect certain aspects of appearance. I’ve never heard of any other family of animals having such a trait (though I could be wrong, of course). It does bear the question, then, how much of their DNA and appearance changed for other reasons? Of course, some of this is coming from stuff I learned in a (rather long) lecture a while ago, so perhaps my memory is a little bit off. :/
I was under the impression that all wild cat hybrids are indeed sterile. Was I mistaken? I once read a list of all known feline hybrids, and I’m pretty sure all the ones listed were sterile… it’s been some time, mind you….
I admit, though, that I didn’t know the zebra could hybridize without infertility. That’s fascinating! You’re a wealth of knowledge. :D
… You didn’t answer my question about DNA rearranging, though. *sadface*
Still, I really don’t think that the reason blue eyes are rare amongst Lupians is necessarily the same reason it’s rare amongst wolves. I imagine that the people of Meoley would know better than anyone that a blue-eyed Lupian must be a hybrid, yet Holland says nothing to suggest this. He only says it’s rare in Lupians. He doesn’t even give Meela a speculative look or anything like that. I see this as reason enough to assume that, while rare, blue eyes in Lupians is still perfectly natural. Like an Asian person with curly or wavy hair. It does actually happen, and they are still pure-blooded Asians, but it’s very very rare. It’s just a recessive gene, basically.
Bluerosebud
Uh, accidentally posted above. Yeah, female mules can give birth to a child, but male mules can’t sire one. That’s neither here nor there, though.
Amanda
Huh. I kinda wonder how they discovered that. Put an “infertile” mule in with a stallion and then… oops!? XD I wonder what they call that? A mare with a jack gives you a mule. A stallion with a jenny produces a hinny. But what if it’s only a quarter horse/donkey? o_O
Lunabob
on page 9 we see 2 dead bodies, and the one in the background looks like their dad since I think I see the headband. Then that would make the body on the foreground the other brother :c
KaelinaLuvsLomaris
I don’t see the headband…
The body in the front looks more adult than the one in the back. I think Dad’s in the front and Connor is in the back.
monica
omfg this is just so cute i d’awwwed when i saw it <3 keep it up
KaelinaLuvsLomaris
Awwww! Cute family scenes! Gotta love ’em!
So sad! The last two panels are heartbreaking!!!! :'(
Totally worth the wait!
I FOUND THE BRACELET! Rollin has it on in the third panel and on down from there.
Arthwaya
Oooh, good eye!
Annie
the dad is wearing his bracelet that he gave to tannor and then to meela
i think either its the older brother that was the killer, because of his size and the grin.. or its the mother, because of the hair swish.. maybe she got involved with demons, or something, or someone the mother got involed with went to kill meela and everyone cause of revenge…
I dont see how the dad would have gotten killed..
Chelsea
Well Connor is dead, and I’m pretty sure he died after the Dad, you can see him cowering in the corner on page 7 panel 4. As well as his corpse behind the shadowy killer on pg 9 panel 1. You can tell it’s him because of the hair style.
KaelinaLuvsLomaris
LOOK AT MEELA’S TAIL IN THE SECOND PANEL!!!!! ADORABLE!!!!!
I really need to condense all my comments into one, but I KEEP NOTICING THINGS!!!
I LOVE THIS COMIC!!!
Chelsea
I don’t know if any bothered to try and calculate this yet, but we are roughly 140ish pages to the end of the comic; not including title pages and that is if the girls still want to keep it to three volumes. However that will take around 140 weeks which is a smig over two and a half years.
KaelinaLuvsLomaris
So, trying to tell the brothers apart, one of them has swishy bangs, the other one has straight bangs…. now, which one is Tannor….?
Straight bangs is Tannor, looking back at older pages.
Cheesegoddess
Rereading to now, I’m very certain it was Feral that killed her brother and father. I’m thinking that because her father was suppose to be killed but wasn’t, he and now his family were being killed. For whatever reason. Now why doesn’t Feral know her? Well he doesn’t even remember his childhood let alone his past. And the old man that died in the fire in the first story, I’m very certain knows all that happened and why. Hmm I wonder how true everything I said is LOL
KaelinaLuvsLomaris
Well, I think Feral doesn’t remember his past up until the point that Holland found him when he was running away from home (page 152). He would have been too young at that point to have killed her family. No way would he have been able to take Rollin. I don’t think it was Feral.
Amanda
Additionally, the killer is grinning like a maniac and that’s just not Feral’s style. He’s more the DOOM face type. XD
DawnStar
Couldn’t he have just killed Meela’s family before loosing his memories? You say he’d be too young, but really there’s only a 7 yr difference between her and Holland. Yes Holland looks young in the flashback but so does Meela when we see her bloodied hands so it’s possible that their murders happened around the same time.
As for not being able to take Rollin (& @Amanda saying it’s not Feral’s style to grin like a maniac) who’s to say he didn’t go crazy off dark demon magic? We’ve already seen what Feral can do against trees, if he went into a crazy-evil trance he’d probably be able to kill everyone.
Just needed to get some conspiracy theories out. XD Hope you don’t think I’m being disrespectful.
Bluerosebud
My only issue with this is that the tall and muscular form that killed Meela’s family is not that of a scrawny teenager, which Feral definitely looked like when he met Holland, as well as the fact that the bandage over his demon eye implies he didn’t have the demon magic for very long before losing his memories and so wouldn’t have had it as an advantage over Rollin.
I worked out the math in one of my much older comments, and it is possible for Feral to have killed Meela’s family afterwards, but the demon magic thing would have to account for ALL the discrepancies with that theory (why he wasn’t with Holland, why he was grinning like a maniac, etc.) I personally think Feral or someone he knows must be responsible for it, but that’s just because the killer was a lupian and there was no reason to make him one otherwise.
Amanda
Actually, I recall that Meela, after the dream where she sees Terin, Feral’s/Yuen’s dad, killed, she wonders to herself if Korin might just be…? This thought process is quickly interrupted, so it’s vague, but the impression I got was that she was wondering if he could have been the one to kill Rollin and Connor as well. She never even briefly wonders if it could have been Feral, though.
That being said, the glowing red eyes in Meela’s dream could either be the result of Meela’s abject terror at the time or they could have really been glowing. Does this mean it was Feral? Or did the author’s do it on purpose? Red herring! Ha, pun! Haha… ha… ha?
Seriously, though, like you yourself said, the demon magic thing would be the absolute only reason he could have pulled it off at that age, when you consider that Rollin could take on a world-class bounty hunter like Jira with no trouble, not to mention having pups to defend (extra motivation). Not saying that wouldn’t have worked (in fact, it seems likely that it could have totally overwhelmed him right after he obtained the magic eye thing and that is how he ended up injured with no memories).
At the same time, it doesn’t make much sense. It seems as if Rollin was hunted for a reason, and his family was to be killed along with him (hence why Tannor saw a need to go into hiding). If it was just a case of Feral going nuts, there would be no reason to assume they were still being hunted (because they weren’t) and even less reason for Tannor to refer to their pursuers in the plural (pg 202). Plus, Meela said that they had been hunted for some time before they were finally killed.
Ooooon the other hand, maybe Meela’s dreams were because of some memories of Feral’s somehow being “transferred” to her during that event (once again, because he couldn’t control his newly acquired magical abilities), but she didn’t actually have the dreams until she met Feral, because it took his close proximity to, shall we say, “activate” those latent memories.
Maybe. (I personally have a different theory, but I’ve been too long-winded as it is! o_o)
…And none of this explains either the human who knew Meela or Jyaku. Sigh~
Bluerosebud
Amanda, (Want to reply to your excellent comment but there’s no button)
I think most people are speculating that it’s Feral because he’s a bounty hunter by trade. He might have been hired to do it, but that also weakens the theory that he was semi-possessed. It’s pretty hard to fit him in there without it clashing with his character and circumstances (when did he become a bounty hunter, for example–surely long after meeting Holland? and he certainly would have remembered Meela. It would be almost funny, though, if Meela describes her dad’s death in the next few pages and Feral gets an “oh crap, that mission” look.)
To be honest, I’d completely forgotten Korin. It’s entirely possible that he was the one in the flashback–he matches up almost perfectly with the shadowy form and maniac grin. We’d have to wonder why he went after Meela’s family though, as the reason why she was killed must certainly come from Rollin. Maybe the reason explains the connection between Feral and Meela–or maybe she’s not remembering him at all, maybe she’s dreaming about Korin, her family’s killer, in a roundabout way.
Amanda
I guess the replies are limited (to prevent too much cascading in the comments or something).
I agree with you that the theory that it was Feral tends to clash with known facts about him (though there is, admittedly, not many of those!), but yeah, that would be pretty funny to see. Feral has some funny faces. >:3
I have been thinking that it might have something to do with Rollin’s own family/clan. There was something special about them, perhaps? But he… I don’t know, betrayed/abandoned them and they are the ones who basically put a hit out on him, maybe because they were afraid he’d let their “dark secret” out or something. And it’s something genetic, so that would explain why Meela’s upcoming birthday would be a problem.
And I have no idea, but somehow there is maybe a connection between Feral’s old clan (i.e. Korin’s) and Rollin’s? It might even be the same clan and kind of explains the similarity in names. (All the males in that clan had names that ended in ‘n,’ did you notice? But then Rollin abandons this when naming his own children.) Or perhaps like one was an off-shoot of the main clan, or something, and that’s why Korin got involved with the business. Or maybe it had to do with a last-ditch effort to save their clan from ruin, making some kind of deal with the people who were after Rollin, family or not.
Then again, it just might be that names ending in ‘n’ is common amongst Lupians and has no hidden meaning… and Korin may have nothing to do with it and Meela’s reaction was just another red herring… Theories are such tricky things. XD
Bluerosebud
Gahhh, one more reply please! I kind of figured Rollin was a demon/half demon (as several other people are now prescribing to–whether he’s a full demon or not depends on if demons can assume different forms, since I doubt people would WANT to mate with that dragon thing we saw in the first dream unless they’re kind of kinky) and, you know, there were demons in Yuen’s childhood. Also want to point out that one of Korin’s cronies has grey hair too, although he doesn’t look like Rollin. Tentative connections. Unfortunately, Mal and Yuen are sort of the exceptions to that naming rule, though.
Amanda
Well, I imagine that, if he has any demon blood at all, it’s only half (even if they can assume a human-like form, it seems unlikely that they’d actually look just like a normal Lupian, or any other race). I agree that it would be really strange to mate with basically a monster… though we have to consider that not all half-demons are necessarily… ah, wanted children. Know what I mean? Whether that kinda stuff will ever enter this comic, I have no idea, but I don’t see the authors shying away from difficult topics so far, so long as they are relevant to the story.
Yuen still ends in ‘n’ and Mal seems to have been from a different clan, so… it still seems like the ‘n’ thing might have been either a clan tradition or like a feature of that old dialect Feral writes in.
Unfortunately, it’s kinda hard to make connections based on colour, since we have so far only seen three colours in Lupians – brown, black, and grey. There are different shades and sometimes mixtures of these, but it seems like they’re all basically one of these colours. :/
If Rollin is part demon, though, aside from Mr. Psycho’s skills being that much more impressive (in which case it definitely WASN’T Korin, ’cause he was a coward), it makes Meela’s expression when asking if Feral was part demon strange. She looks all suspicious, like it’d be bad if he was, and she seems genuinely surprised when Holland says he thinks half-demons are generally harmless. If she knew herself to have demon blood, you’d think she’d be agreeing with him…
Bluerosebud
Well, I had an explanation for that last part (although Feral showed a stronger reaction to be being called one than Meela did to asking him about it.) If Meela felt guilty about her heritage, of if her dad did, or if she thought everyone hated demons, she would be initially surprised that Holland was lumping them together with other minorities that need protecting.
Amanda
This is a good point! Certainly, I think there is plenty of evidence to suggest Meela has demon blood (it would explain why she sometimes has difficulty controlling her magic). It does seem strange, though, that she’s still trying to hide it, even after Holland has stated frankly that he’s okay with half-demons and sees them as generally peaceful. Why not just get it off her chest, then? She already confessed that she had bounty hunters after her to him, so aside from his obvious skill at extracting information, I think she must trust him well enough.
Then again, I suppose it could just be a matter of being so well-trained from pup-hood not to tell anyone, she just never even thought to do so. And maybe she’s about to spill all the beans now? Though I doubt it. XD Gotta keep up SOME suspense for the climax!
What’s really interesting is figuring out which parent had the demon blood. It seems as if it’d most likely be Rollin, but is it really him, for sure? Hard to say. :P
Bluerosebud
Technically, Meela told Holland about her family under fevered exhaustion from the poison, though she’s telling them practically everything right now so…
As for who might be the demon, well, on the other hand is Jira–who has good evidence for her too. She’s called a “blue-eyed devil” and everything, with a rare lupian eye color (also if she’s the real part demon it explains why Rollin got murdered so relatively easily,) but her talent seems more martial arts related.