Chapter One:
"Have you finished packing yet?" Called a voice from downstairs very familiar to the brunette teen. An exasperated sigh rolled past her full lips, but despite Riley's growing frustration with her grandmother's constant queries a grin plucked the corners of her lips up crookedly.
"If I say yes will you quit asking?" Was the sixteen year old's taunting response, the obvious teasing mirth in her voice keeping her from sounding like the usual snotty teenager. Many thudding footsteps and a few seconds later, a silver haired woman named Jessie appeared in Riley's doorway. She stepped over the threshold with a bemused expression, the cause her hardly filled suitcase. "Good lord Riley, it isn't as if you're packing for an entire expedition. Here, let me help,"The elderly woman tsked lightly, shuffling past her granddaughter and rummaging through a decent size closet without any prodding or pleading from the younger woman. Laughing lightly at her grandmother's bossiness, the girl plopped down upon her bed and began to absently fold the clothes she had already picked out for her suitcase. She was in the process of folding a lacy cami tank top only to look up at the sound of a 'hmph!' coming from Riley.
A giggle spilled past Riley's lips as the fifty seven year old poorly pretended to be completely buried in the task of picking out clothing for her granddaughter."What now?"The young woman inquired with a tilt of her head, glancing at the tank top she held in her hand with a raised brow. "Nothing, nothing. It's just...that shirt, it's rather revealing,"Was her grandmother's all-knowing response, and as though she expected to be mauled she jokingly hid behind a large coat on a rack, her pale blue eyes peering over the material. Riley burst into laughter, folding the article of clothing and putting the tank top in her suitcase. "Gram, it isn't the eighteen hundreds anymore. It is okay to show your wrists," Jennifer replied in a falsely reassuring tone, "Besides, it's only an undershirt,"The young woman added as her grandmother approached, showing her the gray sweater that went with it.
"You win, dear,"Replied Jessie, sitting down beside her granddaughter, the twin bed sinking underneath their combined weight and causing Riley to lean into her grandmother. Riley placed her head upon Jessie's shoulder, and in response she began to run her fingers through her granddaughter's brown hair. "I'm going to miss you, you know that right?" Riley murmured as she placed her chin atop Riley's head, her arms wrapping around her shoulders in a family hug. "Even your old grump of a grandpa will,"Jessie stated, fondly brushing out Riley's hair with her fingers,"I think,"She added after a second, obviously teasing as she laughed slightly. "I know both of you will,"The fifteen year old stated with a small laugh, hugging her grandmother tighter. "I'll be careful, I promise," The younger assured her grandmother, glancing up and smiling lightly as she met her grandmother's blue eyes with her own.
Riley glanced out of the window of the large airplane, remembering her earlier discussion with her grandmother. She smiled fondly at the thought of the silver haired woman and her husband. Her grandma had been heartbroken that she'd been leaving, even if only for one summer, but was worse is why she was leaving. There was little known about where, or even HOW Riley was going to get anywhere from her grandparent's side, but the clever girl knew her ways. She was a Werewolf, afterall, and the people she was working for paid her a respectable amount for a plane ticket to get her ass over to New Jersey for someone to teach her some new tricks-- no big deal, right?
She allowed her thoughts to roam idly, and inevitable her mind wound upon what her summer in New Jersey would be like. She hadn't spoken to her pupils yet, but she knew it only consisted of a woman and a male wolf who was around her age and her tutor was a female as well. She was a fairly optimistic person, so she didn't assume the worst. She supposed they'd be fairly decent people, and she wasn't that hard to get along with. There wouldn't be a language barrier between them either, she'd rather diligently made sure she was absolutely fluent in English in her usual way, when most kids her age would have merely spent the entire summer playing an endless game of charades with their friends back in Australia. Besides, English wasn't a particularly hard language to her, and the many accents were relatively fun to speak in. God, she was a dweeb. She laughed at herself lightly, the slight shaking of her shoulders stirring the husky man who'd apparently fallen unconscious upon her shoulder. He mumbled something incoherent while burrowing deeper into her shoulder. Riley glanced over, more amused than disgusted, shaking her head lightly as she turned back to look out the window.
She should've been exhausted, but instead she was filled with a sort of nervous energy that left her unable to get even a wink of sleep. The sixteen year old could hardly even shut her eyes for a few seconds, her dark blue eyes wide open for the entire flight. Perhaps that was just a talent of hers, being able to run off a few hours of sleep perfectly. She wasn't good at much else. She couldn't dance or sing because she hated the spotlight ( though many people thought she had an decent voice). She was mediocre at sports, much too short to be a decent trackstar as a human or a basketball M.V.P at her measly height of five foot four. All in all, she was pretty normal person when it came to talents despite she was a very magically little wolf for her age, The only thing she had any had on her appearance, was withher naturally athletic body and smooth tanned skin. She had some decent facial features too, but her altogether appearance was hardly enough to turn heads. She was pretty, but in a way that did not stand out, atleast to her, but what did turn many heads was her amazing ways of magic . She necessarily was no bad at fighting herself, using her agility as a werewolf and her adrenaline thinking proved to be useful, but her way of working with magic in combat was very impressive to some of the higher-ups.
Riley was unsure how much time had passed, but apparently she'd been fairly oblivious during most of the plane ride. The flight attendants were coming down, informing everyone they had landed in America. She bit down on her lower lip to suppress a smile, glancing down at the man who'd apparently dubbed her shoulder as his pillow. She shrugged lightly, stirring him briefly. "We've landed," She informed the man quietly on English, and he mumbled what might've been a thanks or a short blurt of profanities and shuffled to retrieve his carry on bag. She followed clumsily, yawning into the sleeve of her oversized mickey mouse hoody. She stretched upwards, attempting to grab her bag and failing miserably. Being vertically challenged definitely had it's drawbacks, she thought as she glanced around hopefully for someone to help. Spotting a particularly tall man, she tapped him lightly on the shoulder. In retaliation he began blurting out in some language that was not one she understood. She smiled in what she hoped was a friendly fashion, gesturing toward her carry on bag. The man seemed to understand, making a gruff sort of noise and grabbing her bag for her. Her inclined his head and she bowed hers in thanks. With freedom mere meters away she exited the plane, she entered the somewhat crowded airport with a tiny sigh. Her first mission was to grab her other piece of luggage, a single rolling suitcase slightly large in size. She ambled off the baggage claim, finding her suitcase with relative ease. It wasn't much, black and brown with her name written across the top in some loopy calligraphy.
Her second mission was of almost as much difficulty, for their were many people in the airport, but how many would be holding a sign with her name on it? As normal as her first name was, her last name was usually pronounced wrong. It was actually pronounced Ben-wall, not Ben-noitas many people assumed. The latter pronunciation was usually enough to get a giggle out of most people, though she hardly minded. She trotted towards where most of the people were waiting for whoever was exiting the plane they knew, finding a sign withher name written on it. Bingo, she thought, quickening her pace. A crowd was blocking her ability to see the holder's of the sign, but when she approached it was enough to make her heart stop. There was a girl and a boy holding the sign, but that wasn't the cause for alarm. She wasn't a much of a lover at first sight, she'd dated a few guys before but nothing ever serious or even worth it came out of it... but the sight of this girl's eyes was enough to make her reconsider her status of a straight gal into a lesbian in a heartbeat.
" N.. name's Riley, but you can call me by my real name.. call me Skye, Guardian of Fate, nice to met you--"
"Keitha, Moonshaft, nice to see that you know english."
" I... I'm still learning."
"Really? I couldn't tell."
Riley nodded coyly in response, her teeth grabbing her pale lips tightly as she peered toward the older wolf once more. She seemed to be on the uncaring side from her slightly slumped posture, and from the way she crossed her arms, Riley knew she wouldn't put with anyone's crap. She gulped lightly, her head slightly ducked before looking into her ocean-blessed eyes once more. The young female did not mean for the vision to come, but it happened as a quick flux of images of Spirals and other unearthly troubles raged through her vision. Her breath ceased for a little moment and her eyes flashed a soft color of silver while she watched such adventures of untold stories. Maybe it was then she realized that this Moonshaft person may be even more scary than she thought, but the odd sense of a trouble soul told her otherwise. Suddenly, reality snapped back like a whip to her cheek. Her mind reeled quickly, but it was too late to recover from this vision.
"What are you staring at?" Her thin eyebrows narrowed down at her, but Riley shrugged lightly and stepped a few footsteps backward to stand next to the boy. Keitha shook her head quickly with a brief sigh, attempting to forget about the strange happening that had occured earlier. The boy shrugged mildly, obviously not phase by anything at the moment as he removed his hand from her black hair and placed his hand on Riley's shoulder and whispered close to her ear.
" Don't worry, chicka, I've trained with Moonshaft before, I'll help ya out. Name's Derek, Destoryer of Beasts, Silent Strider." He grinned in a friendly way, his brown eyes shimmering with the want to help, almost like the too-friendly people at school that would help you to get to a certianclassroom. Riley nodded lightly with a tiny huff, her stomach curling inward from being too nervous and shy around these new people. She thought to herself lightly, attempting to gather enough courage to continue She turned her face toward the boy, her eyes now changing a complete silver by performing another ability she had obtained from her heritage to learn more about these people. This girl is cute.. hm.. she has rather big boobs for being so short.
Riley's eyes narrowed dangerously almost instantaneously, but she corrected herself quickly and turned toward Keitha with a mild smile to distract herself. Moonshaft was looking around, as if concentrated on something, but she whipped back into shape went she noticed Riley looking at her again. The girl whipped her head to the side and carefully pulled her brown hair behind her ears.
You know, you are rather shy around Keitha more so than you are with Derek. Riley rolled her eyes at the voice in the back of her mind, soon replying to the one of the two spirits that lived within her.
And? It's not everyday I have visions when I see people... and she probably already thinks I'm crazy.. I mean LOOK, I do have voices inside my head.
Ha, I highly doubt I could consider myself 'just a voice', Skye.
" Alright, we are leaving, you two," Keitha barked quickly as she started to walk away, not even gesturing the two to follow her so Riley was stuck in her mind for a second until Derek grabbed her wrist and forced her forward. The girl's eyes bugled as she stumbled toward the two, her converse squeaking on the floor. Derek laughed as he raced faster toward Moonshaft. Riley finally caught up with him as he reached Keitha's side, all three of them walking together through the airport.
"Where are we going?" Riley asked quietly, her head cocking to the side.
" Training grounds. I want to see what you two can do."
Oh god... I'm in for a long day.
Riley about it quickly, her mind racing withimages of her "butt getting handed to her" by both of the wolves walking in front of her, which didn't seem to pleasant. She grunted lowly to herself, fists clinched as she quickly peered toward the massive crowds of the airports, her eyelids clinched tightly before striding faster to catch up. Derek's tight grip didn't give her mercy, it was just getting tighter as their long legs strode faster. Riley groaned lightly, finally lengthening her stride to equalize her to the male. He smiled cheerfully as he looked toward the airport's exit, relieved that they were finally leaving the human ridden building. "Soooo, are we taking the taxi, or are we going to walk, or do we have a ride..? I don't really like walking."
Keitharolled her eyes quickly, her long fingers pointing toward the taxi cab. Derek nodded twice, released Riley's arm, and sprinted toward the taxi with her hands gripping his backpack on his shoulders. Riley blinked several times, her multi-colored irises twinkling in the sun as she strode closer to where Keitha pointed. She ducked her head slightly and carefully ambled passed the white-haired werewolf with ease, the only sound coming from her small suitcase. Keitha quickly lowered her finger as she watched the younger one pass her by, her legs moving quickly as everyone finally moved into the small taxi.
" Is it me, or does this car smell weird?" Derek asked as he sniffed the automobile, " smells like crap and barf."
" Maybe it is just you," Keitha snapped before looking out the window.
Riley looked at both of them curiously with a swift left and right glance and sighed before comfortably snuggling in the middle seat and peered out the window, ignoring Derek's disgusted look.
" Oh yeah? Maybe it is just you! You ARE a white howler, maybe it is the stench of the wyr-"
Moonshaft's eyes glittered with a massive amount of hatred as she reached over Riley and unsheathed a dagger, holding it extremely close to his neck as the car drove on. Derek gulped lightly, but his expression was fixed on his man-pride, showing absolutely no fear except a tiny glitter in his eyes, " I'm not afraid of you, Moonshaft."
A growl rippled through the taxi cab as the blade was placed closer toward his neck, delicately slicing some skin until a hand was placed over Keitha's wrist. She growled once more, but Riley increased her strength in a feeble attempt to pull the dagger away from Derek's neck, " Well, you better get scari--"
" All right, that is enough!" She finally managed to bark as she glared cautiously at Moonshaft, " I think he gets your point."
Derek nodded quickly, his body shaking slightly from the image of an angered female White Howler. Keitha snarled once more before removing the blade away and placed it back in its hiding place. There was a small cut wound on his neck, but nothing it wasn not enough to even cause a small amount of pain, just some stinging.
" Now, Derek, apologize."
" No." he shook his head and glared out the window. Riley's eyebrows furrowed as she huffed a large amount through her nose and grabbed his upper wrist, striking a pressure point with her thumb .
" Now," she hissed in his ear, pressing harder on the vein with her short fingernail.
" All right! All Right! Sorry for saying that! Now let go of my arm, Riley!" Derek yelped while yanking his arm from her small hands, rubbing the area thoroughly, " damn, that hurt more than the knife."
Keitha huffed gruffly, her head pulling from the site of speeding cars and glare at him quickly, " Apology accepted..."
Riley smiled briefly, but the angered werewolf had turned back to the window before she could notice. Riley sighed to herself before staring out Keitha's window, her mind wondering in small daydreams about the two finally getting along.
For the next thirty minutes, the three passengers sat in silence aside from the radio slightly singing some new hits. Some had caught Keitha's attention, her mouth carefully lipped them as if she knew all the words, and some to Derek, whom bobbled a little bit to the beat. However, Riley listened intently to each of the songs, finding most of them new to her. This excited her to the point of no end; music was one of many joys and the variety was wonderful to her ears. She quietly tapped her converse shoes to the many beats, her eyes closed to indulge herself in peace. At one point, all three of them had found a song they had liked, all of them doing something to the song. It wasn't long until they noticed what they were doing, so their small unity vanished as Keitha and Derek stopped what they were doing. Riley, on the other hand, continued to tap her foot until she felt the odd sensation of someone staring at her. She blinked while staring back at Keitha, her head tilted lightly to the side with a cute grin. She looked back at Riley and quickly smiled back before looking back at the window, shaking her head.
Riley giggled to herself, feeling more comfortable even with the tension between the others, and lightly nudged Moonshaft's side with her elbow. She looked back at Riley once again, finding that she had fixed her face to where her nose wrinkled and her lips where twisted into a funny face. Keitha blinked a few times, chuckling with her eyebrows quirked upward in a sign of curiosity. Riley winked before sticking out her tongue in a childish way. The elder werewolf rolled her eyes, blowing some air through her nose as to laugh. The teenager then fixed herself into a very innocent expression, looking almost identical to a lost puppy, which caught the Great White Howler in a small amount of surprise. Finally, Riley fixed herself back to her normal grin, finding herself laughing girlishly. Moonshaft shook her head once more, holding a small smile until she noticed where they were.
" We are here," she stated firmly, all accounts of being a small bit playful disappearing as the car slid to a stop. The driver yawned soon waving his hand greedily for the money he had earned to the back seats. Keitha sighed gruffly and placed the money in his hand before stepping out of the car. The wind picked up quickly, causing her white strands of short chopped hair to flutter wildly before it was tucked behind her ear. Derek was the second to leave the taxi, his full 6'1 length stretching out as he yawned loudly, his long legs amping toward the area which seemed to resemble an abandoned track field.
" Wow, this place just looks fantastic!" he chirped while fixing the straps on his backpack. Keitharolled her eyes quickly as she strode toward the area, ushering them to follow even though Riley had not even climbed out of the car completely. Her eyes glowered at her suitcase as she managed to pull it out within several seconds, her body falling back from the force and landed on the gravel with a tiny "oof!". Derek turned around and called out to her with waving arms, laughing." Come on, Slow Poke!"
Riley grumbled to herself, cursing lightly as she lifted the small case and struggled toward the duo, " I'm coming, I'm coming."
" Well, you better hurry, Speedy, over here, won't slow down!" Derek smirked as he peered toward the now steaming white howler. He chuckled once again before finally running over and grabbing Riley's suitcase from her with a single swing on his arm. The teenager moaned to herself once more as the elder male jogged toward the "training grounds" with her by his side.
Nervous?
Slightly.
Why?
I'm only 15... both of them exceed a hundred, Riku. Riley winced as she spoke the words in her mind.
The male spirit then thought to himself before finally answering. It seems you are ranked sort of high by American standards.
I suppose but-- I am SO going to fail this. Riley kicked several stones at the thought, her stomach slightly squeezing as they started to enter the arena. She gulped to herself before looking back toward the disappeared taxi, pausing for a moment before listening in again.
Have faith within yourself, Riley, show them what a Child of Gaia can do! Rhea's voice seemed happier than usual, but it never failed to gather some confidence. Riley smiled quickly at both of the spirit before finally walking into the area and disappearing into the grasses.