19/02/2006
Rainbow Lake(#2713RJ)
Long and narrow, the lake stretches a mile to the north and south, right at the heart of the woodland. Tall, silver beech trunks mix with the even taller evergreens and dominate the mountain valley. Where the canopy has been broken by a fallen tree, a riot of brambles and nettles have erupted, clinging to anything and everything and fighting for light among the thick forest. Underfoot there is a deep bed of mulch and last year's leaves, muffling any footfall.
Other plants have found a foothold where the beeches make way for the line of water. The edges of the lake are overhung by a wall of dark myrtle, their scent hanging sweet and heavy in the air, giving the place a dreamlike quality. The waters of the lake itself are a clear, unruffled indigo, dropping into bottomless darkness, with otherworldly reflections of the sky floating above the depths. Rainbow flashes of light play about the reeds and weeds that break the surface here and there, throwing colors into the air.
Part of the valley around the lakeside to the south is clear of trees, and often here in the brush and grass a small herd of woods buffalo can be seen.
A nice, sunny day has brought Veronica back from the Farmhouse, to the edge of Rainbow Lake. She's actually closer to the Longhouse at the moment, eating some dryfish with an expression of happy calm. The cub is sitting cross-legged on her jacket, looking out over the lake with a somewhat dopey expression.
There are some sounds coming from the Longhouse before a figure steps out of the flap. Standing up and stretching her arms above her her head, Jordan scans the horizon idly until she spies the other figure by the Lake. The kin immediately tenses before starting to make her way towards the other girl cautiously; "Are you Veronica?"
Veronica's head snaps around at the sound of her name. She studies the other woman for an overlong moment, then gives a quick nod. "Yeah," she says without caution, turning her body more to face Jordan. "Are you family?" she asks, all limbs as she gets to her feet. She doesn't dust off hands or jeans, too interested in the new stranger.
A slow nod is given from the kin, "Ciuraq told me about you. That we have a new cub..." That thought causes the corner of Jordan's lips to quirk upwards. "I suppose you can say that," continues the girl, "Where are you from then?" Her eyes narrow, as if trying to place Veronica, "Did you know about your heritage or did it come as a surprise?"
Veronica now dusts off her pants. "I'm from...um...my family lives in Yakima, but we're from someplace to the east, originally. I was...um...marked, but my parents didn't know. I didn't know." She scrapes her foot on the ground, looking a little embarrassed. "My grandmother did, but she died when I was little."
A slow wince etches its way across Jordan's features as she shifts her weight. Then she glances towards the lake and starts to make her way towards it, "And you only just found out? How long have you been a cub? It must be...Exhilerating, isn't it?"
"A month ago," Veronica confirms, starting to follow the kinswoman. "It was...amazing. I just..." She drops her eyes, wandering a bit to one side as she does. "My dad always wanted us to be so white, but it always felt wrong. It was like coming home. Like...it feels so real out here and everything."
At the mention of wanting to be white, Jordan snaps her eyes towards Veronica, "/Really/? Wow. And here I thought my dad was a bit weird for wanting me to be a boy." Shaking her head, Jordan crouches by the side of the lake and pulls out a little wooden cup. Dipping it into the water, she continues idly, "I suppose we do belong here, kind of. How does it feel like? To be a wolf, I mean." With that, she takes a long drink.
Veronica frowns, watching the kinswoman drink. "He wanted us to be like the indians in the movies, always the white guy's good buddy, noble savage and all that. It was stupid. We used to have to do this forgiveness ceremony thing..." She shakes her head, pulling her braid over her shoulder. "Sorry. It feel so good, like running into the wind all the time. You can smell everything, and it all smells so, like, full. Rich. Y'know? Like poems, and really good songs. And the things you hear are so cool."
Blinking back up at Veronica, Jordan tilts her head to one side, "Oh no, he wanted you to be Tonto?" She snorts at that, trying to hide back her laughter, "Okay yea, you had it worse." She dips the cup again and this time offers it to Veronica as Jordan bobs her head, "That sounds...Wow. I can't imagine what it would be like. I haven't heard the radio in a year. Have you met everyone? Horace?" Her lips finally twitch into a small smile in recollection; "He is an odd man."
The cub takes the cup, sipping the water with that same blissful smile. "Quyana. I met Horace. He told me about Potlatch. And I met Circle Keeper, and Noisy Ghost, and Desiree, and...ummm...Cries-No-More, and Jacinta-rhya, of course. She's taught me like, everything. She gave me a real name."
A snicker finally escapes from Jordan as she quirks her eyebrows, "Really? What was your fake name then? And what is your real name?" Shifting a bit away from the lake, Jordan folds her feet underneath herself and lowers to the ground until she is seated. "Cries-No-More, I've only met him once." She leans backwards to rest against the palms of her hands, "Who do you think is the strongest?"
Veronica sticks her tongue out at Jordan. "My really, really fake name? And if you tell anyone, I'll be really mad and...um...probably get yelled at, but I'll be upset. It was Cherokee Princess Laughing Doe. That's what dad called me, because it was like, 'good marketing' or something. It was cheerful. And then...Eaglefeather. I think that's probably made up too, same reason. And..." She flops onto her backside with less grace than the kin. "My real name, I think, is Ingtaq Cetaaq. Fledgling Little-Bird, the name Jacinta-rhya gave me." She licks her lips. "And I think Cries-No-More is probably better in a fight. He has all those scars."
At the admittance of Veronica's name, Jordan's eyes grow -wide- and she bursts out laughing. Slapping her hand over her mouth to try and shut herself up, Jordan continues to shake silently in laughter; although part of her is trying to scowl at the same time, obviously not -wanting- to laugh. Finally managing to compose herself, the kin wipes the expression from her face and simply scowls instead, yes, scowling is much better, much safer. "Fledgling Little-Bird sounds far better, I have to admit. As for Cries-No-More, well, he is a Fostern, longer than any of them, right?" She shrugs her shoulders, smirking, "Did he seriously call you Cherokee Princess Laughing Doe?"
"Seriously. And we're not even Cherokee," Veronica adds, as though it's insulting. "He ran this healing center, and we helped him do these cleansing ceremonies, and sweat lodges and stuff, but...none of it was like this. It was all, 'sit in this small room with incense and try to reconnect with your totem', which was always something big and manly like Stag, or Wolf, or Eagle."
Shaking her head and trying to hide back more of her laughter, Jordan clears her throat before murmuring, "Oh man, I am /so/ sorry. But I promise I won't tell, even I can't be that cruel." She smirks once more and and stretches her legs out before her. "Capitalism touches all of us, I guess. No wonder you like it here, here it's actually, well, /real/. What is your Auspice?"
"It was stupid," Veronica says, pouting a bit. She can see the humor, but it's fairly clear it's sort of a sore spot. "I'm a Galliard. A singer and a dancer. I...um...was gonna be on American Idol, when I was old enough, but this kinda changed that."
Quirking her eyebrows, Jordan just stares at Veronica before shaking her head, "American Idol?" It takes her a moment or two to remember what it was before actually sitting up, "You're serious? Wow. Hah, you must be a Galliard then. Didn't you end up beating half the kids around you or felt angered and compelled to be mean?"
"I had lots of friends," Veronica protests, with a heavy subtext of 'I had lots of people who followed me around and worshipped me out of fear'. "I was really popular, even had a couple of boyfriends. I just...yeah, had a temper sometimes. I didn't hurt anyone, though, I just, y'know...did stuff to make them leave me alone."
That causes Jordan to stop, blinking up at Veronica; "What...sort of things?" She sits up a bit straighter, indian-style as she curls up her hands into her lap, leveling her eyes with Veronica's briefly before looking away; as if suddenly reminded that this girl is a Garou and the moon is no where near small enough.
Veronica offers her the cup back. "Just...stuff. Y'know. Um...rumors. And, um...y'know. Stuff. Just stuff." She looks around, as though she's expecting someone to emerge and smack her. "Names, and rumors...sometimes other stuff, y'know. I might've gone a little too far...just a couple of times."
Jordan continues to stare at the lake before giving Veronica a long sidelong glance. Accepting the cup, Jordan slides up to her feet and moves towards the lake once more, dipping it in and taking a long drink. Only when she is done does Jordan turn to look back at Veronica, "So by gossip and reputation? You are a Galliard." She smirks lightly, as if to show that she isn't holding it up against the girl.
Veronica nods. "Yup. Mostly. I got one girl kicked out of school last year. One suspended this year. It was just stuff, though. Dumb stuff." She smiles back at Jordan. "Seems like forever. Like...years ago."
Blinking, Jordan quirks her eyebrows, "Daamn. Okay yea, those had to be some rumors to get them kicked out...Seems so petty after you realize you need to save the world, doesn't it? Not only that, but you have to give birth to future heroes as well."
Veronica shrugs a shoulder. "It does. Like I said, it's just dumb stuff. Nothing important now, not compared to this. I mean...I actually learned to fight here. And like, Noisy Ghost hit me. Nobody would've even thought about hitting me at school." She pauses, then stares off over the lake. "I never really think about guys that much here. Circle Keeper got mad at me cause he thought I was flirting with him."
Lifting her cup up and taking a long sip, Jordan sputters and spits her drink back into the cup at the mention of Veronica flirting with Circle Keeper. It takes her a moment or two to comprehend the conversation before her face colors oddly enough, "Oh shit, he would get mad, wouldn't he?" She laughs at that, shaking her head, "He isn't one to joke with easily is he? You ask him to break one rule and he might combust."
Veronica shakes her head. "He was freaking out. Like, not angry, just...confused, I think. Because I kept being happy to see him, and being nice and stuff. It was so weird." She gives a nervous laugh. "Funny though, y'know, later."
Snickering softly, Jordan looks away as she nods, "Yea, he is an odd one. I think he suspected you should be mean, and when you're not, it worried him. I can never understand his thought process; he's so...alien." With that she tips her cup over and pours out the contents.
"He should be though, right? I mean, he's wolf-born." Veronica leans over and gets some water in her hand. "Circles is like that too. Puffy and huffy and stuff. And some things they don't understand."
"Not...exactly," murmurs Jordan as she again reaches over to dip her cup into the lake. Returning to seat herself next to Veronica, Jordan brings her knees up and crosses them at the ankle before drapping her arms lazily on top. "He was a Glass Walker actually; but that part of him died or something and he was reborn as an Uktena. He acts more wolf than the wolves do. Total and complete rejection of his past, it's weird."
Veronica turns towards Jordan with wide eyes. "You're joking. He was a Glass Walker? Seriously? One of the city tribes? That's crazy. Wow. And now he's...this different." She blinks, shakes her head. "Seriously. Wow. That's just so...wow." She shakes her head again. "Huh."
"Just..." Jordan lifts up her finger and places it against her lips, "Just keep it on the down low, okay? It is not something he is proud of, and he has proven himself time and time again. He is more Wendigo than I am when it comes to everything else but blood. But yea...It can change people I suppose..." She trails off before shaking her head and taking a long sip from the cup.
Veronica nods quickly. "You keep my secret, I'll keep his," she says with a bit of a grin. "God, stupid dad. I really admire him and everything. He's so intense, and he's so good at everything, but he's hard to understand sometimes." She grins. "But if it wasn't for him I wouldn'tve figured out I can speak to the Ancestors."
That causes Jordan to blink and tilt her head, "You can speak to your ancestors? No way...I've always wondered what they would say, or if they'd just bicker all day like most old people I know." Shaking her head, Jordan slides her eyes towards the longhouse, "Yea, here I go giving people's secrets away. But I don't think he has ever told me not to tell anyone, it's just a sore spot."
Veronica can't help but beam at that idea. "I'd talk to them all the time, but I'm not allowed. I've just got one that I know for sure. He was a dancer, and the way he makes it sound, he was really hot. He bugs me in my dreams sometimes. He's cool." She follows the kinswoman's gaze. "I promise, I won't say anything."
A smirk plays across Jordan's lips once more before she comments, "Alright, you're weird as well. I think it comes with the territory of bein' a Garou. But hey, I wouldn't mind having a hot ancestor dance in my dreams, might make them a bit more interesting. Unfortunately we are lacking in the Hot Wendigo Guys currently; well, except for Touch Deer but he is sorta off limits too."
"All the kin I've met are girls," Veronica pouts. "Even if I wasn't busy all the time with lessons and stuff, I don't have even like, prospects. No chance." Her eyes turn to the sky, and she inhales deeply. "But, I should go and see if I can find Kaz-rhya. I'm supposed to be learning Galliard stuff from her. Nice to meet you, though."
A bob of her head is given, "You never know," Jordan's lips twitch lightly before she moves to stand up herself. She brushes off her back as she nods; "Alright, good luck then. And hey, we have Kin coming over all the time, just wait until we have a potlatch."
"Cool. I really can't wait," the cub replies, already running towards the woods to the west. "Bye!"
Waving her hand, Jordan smirks once more before tossing the remainder of the water in her cup out. She then pockets the cup and turns towards the Lonhouse, moving to disappear back inside.
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