Enter the Wolf

[Cerulaen]

((Well. Let's see how the first RP of the site goes. Cue Ri in a particularly bad mood.))

  Daquiri Laurens immediately unsheathed her dagger when she heard the wolf's growl. It was funny how she'd managed to start picking up on the wolves' language after spending so much time with them--not just their yips and howls, but the flicks of their tails or ears, or the bristling of their fur. She supposed that's what happened when you traipsed across the entire United Freaking States with a pack of them.

  The red-head could sense that the growl was one of warning, but... not necessarily a warning of threat. Or at least, she didn't think so. She warily looked at her surroundings before glancing at the canine. "What is it, Balto?" she muttered. Yes. Balto, the Siberian Husky. As it turned out, the stories about the famous 1925 serum run with the dog sleds and all that weren't just known to people; apparently, canines everywhere knew the story. Including... Lupa the Wolf Goddess. Daquiri was still rather skeptical about the whole thing, but being turned on by wolves right after they helped you defeat crazy-a** vampire ladies, then getting solicited--against her will, she might add--into a journey from Virginia to California tended to be pretty d*** convincing. So, needless to say, Balto was the only non-wolf to be accepted into the immortal pack of Lupa's followers. Props to him, she supposed.

  Balto gave her another growl, then nipped at her side. The red-head sent him a glare and made to whack him back, but he made a low guttural noise in the back of his throat and looked at her steadily, a rather stern look in his cold blue eyes. This is no play-fight, child, she seemed to hear him say. It wasn't so much an audible voice, like Lupa's, as it was something she sensed inside of her. The words didn't make her any less irritated with him about the teeth marks in her hip, but she relented him her attention. However, he didn't seem to require much of it. He gave her a series of low growls and yips, then turned his head in the direction they were headed through the trees--they had avoided Jack London Park's main path. After all, a pack of wolves probably wouldn't be considered "normal" by most people.

  Yes. Wolf families were normal. Welcome to her life.

  It would appear that the wolves wouldn't be accompanying her any further. They each gave her a yip or growl of farewell, and then they disappeared into the woods. Rubbing her thumb against the dagger hilt that had become so familiar to her in the past several months, Daquiri paused for a moment to compose herself. She had already passed the initial test of the pack, and Lupa had coached her and trained her as her "cub"--seriously demeaning term. She wasn't a huge fan--on her long journey. As hardened a character that she already had, she had learned a lot. Now, though, came the actual meeting of the goddess--and more tests that Daquiri knew were to come.

  Closing her eyes for a brief moment, Daquiri inhaled and exhaled steadily before continuing on. She sheathed her dagger, but she kept her hand brushing up against the hilt; a child of Rome was always wary, always prepared for what was next, she had been told. A child of Rome... Daquiri still wasn't sure of the full meaning of that. But since she was here, and turning away really wasn't an option now, she made an executive decision to ignore it and move forward.

  She hadn't paid much attention under the cover of the trees, but walking out into the open she realized it was evening. The Wolf House loomed before her, the rough-hewn stone stone skeleton rather foreboding in the night air. Daquiri had never been a fan of the dark, and it was anything but well-lit inside the structure, but she forced herself not to think about it. Walking up steadily, she made her way up the stone steps and through the arch. The time had come.

  ...d*** cliche lines.

[GeneralArin]

Lupa sat straight and tall as she waited for the girl to approach. 

The girl was fierce, and was no stranger to hardship. However, she was unfamiliar with working within a pack, and her temperament often struck allies as well as opponents. She resisted any authority that wasn't her own, and refused to bend to anything less than her ideals. She had learned much over the long journey westward, but still had much to learn yet. However, this leg of her life was completed, and the final test to enter New Rome was at hand. 

"Who are you, child?" She said plainly. It wasn't simply a question of name as several humans insisted it was. It reflected a much deeper understanding of who one was, and what they set out to be.

[Cerulaen]

At first, Daquiri found it too dark to see among the shadows of the house, despite the fact that it had no roof. However, she found she didn't need her eyes to sense that someone--or something--was there. The presence was strong and, while not foreboding, not exactly friendly, either. Which was all very well, seeing as the red-head wasn't the most friendly person herself. However, she couldn't mistake the presence for anyone else when a voice spoke.

"Who are you, child?" Lupas' voice had helped guide and train her throughout her journey here to Sonoma Valley; while she may have been a wolf, she was the closest thing Daquiri had ever had to a legitimate parent figure. She could never forget her voice. And while she resented her in part for bringing her here against her own choice, she at the same time held some degree of respect for the Wolf Mother. Daquiri related much more to her than to any person she had ever met.

The red-head stood still, considering her answer. Lupa was not one to be concerned with trivial matters, and Daquiri knew her named was already known to the wolf; no, she sensed there was much more weight to the question. "I've been told I'm a lot of things," she started carefully, albeit keeping her voice steady. She wasn't going to pack away her confident composure just because she was talking to a wolf. Especially because she was talking to a wolf. She narrowed her eyes as they adjusted to the darkness and began to make out a dark form among the shadows. A rather large form, she might add. Her hand tightened around the still-sheathed hilt of her dagger. "But I've never let other people define me," she continued defiantly. "For one, I am not a child. I've seen far too much to hold onto that kind of innocence. If anything..." Daquiri looked away for a moment. "I'm a lot less put together than people think I am," she finished quietly. Her gaze hardened, however, and she turned back to Lupa with a fierce look in her eye. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

[GeneralArin]

Lupa examined her for a long moment. A wise answer, and a fair self-assessment. She still continued her determination to stand unimpaired, which was good to have when engaged in struggles against an enemy. A certain amount of independence was required of any child of Rome. However, without a degree of flexibility, things shattered. And that flexibility was not something that could be taught here. 
"It is time for you to move on, child," the she-wolf said, continuing her usage of the term. Regardless of what the girl believed, she was not mature yet. "Seek out New Rome. You will know the way."

[Cerulaen]

Daquiri's jaw tightened at Lupa's words. She took a few reckless steps forward, further into the darkness of the ruins. "I didn't go trucking across the entire country to your stupid Wolf Lodge just to get sent off again," she growled. "People have been avoiding giving me answers my entire life. You're the only one who really knows something; I can tell." She crossed her arms and planted her feet firmly on the stone floor. "And I'm not leaving until you shed a little light on things."

[GeneralArin]

"You are a child of Rome," Lupa said, giving the girl a hard look. "Here is not the place where you will get your answers," The she-wolf said. "If you are worthy of Rome, then you will arrive at New Rome and receive your answers. You will get nothing otherwise."  

These children, always expecting something from nothing.

[Cerulaen]

"Then what the h*** was the point of coming here?" the red-head snapped, the exasperation plain in her voice. "The Detour Badge? Brownie points?" Angry, tired, and perhaps a little bit hungry, Daquiri unsheathed her dagger and in one swift motion drove it into one of the stones in the wall out of frustration. Any normal blade would have shattered against the impact, but the Imperial gold sliced through the stone until it swallowed up half her dagger. Not bothering to pull it back out, she rounded back on Lupa. "If you gods are so intent on not telling me anything, why the h*** go to the trouble of finding me? Why not just leave me alone?" Daquiri was pretty sure she hadn't been this angry since the wolves first pulled her into this. As in, with teeth.

[GeneralArin]

Lupa continued her hard stare. 
"The point, child, is for you to learn," the she-wolf said firmly. "You have learned all you can from here, and now is time for you to move on." There was a time and place for everything-- whether it be teaching, testing, or fighting. A child would only learn so much apart from their kind, and they would be of little use to Rome if they didn't know how to be human as well. 
Lupa rose from where she was seated. 
"You are finished with this place. Be strong, child." 
With that, the ancient wolf simply turned and walked away, clearly indicating the conversation was over.

[Cerulaen]

Daquiri debated trying to continue her protests with the Wolf Goddess, but even she had to admit that there would be no convincing Lupa any further. She watched for a moment, the fiery glint dying down from her eyes, as the form of the she-wolf disappeared into the blackness. Whether it was the natural shadows that had swallowed her up or magic that materialized her into thin air, Daquiri wasn't sure. But either way, she was gone.

  Silently, the red-head took a long inhale and exhale. She stood there; she wasn't sure for how long. But by the time she retrieved her dagger from the wall, moonlight was pouring into the roofless house. Daquiri wondered if it was just a coincidence that it was full that night. For some reason, she doubted it.

  Looking into the faint reflection of her dagger, a face she'd grown accustomed to stared back at her. Piercing blue eyes. Heart-shaped mouth. Skin paler than lilies. She knew she was pretty--beautiful, even. But the cold look that was almost constantly frozen over her features seemed to turn her looks into something... scary. Powerful. It hadn't always been like that, but now it was the only thing she could rely on anymore. Beauty.

  Beauty, d***it.

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