Disclaimer: This is all mine (except for Seifer). Nobody steal anything. read and review. thanks. Jess
The story
"...I was born at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1878. I was born in a place you would never believe, in a way you'd never believe. I was born in the dead of winter in the very center of my home state, Vampatia, in the southern part of Transylvania.
"I wasn't born human though. I am a werewolf. I've heard real Lycanthropia described as an animal in human form and that's just it. I was born a solid white wolf and I never really knew I was any more than that.
"It wasn't until my sixth year that i realized i could change my form. My mother, who had taken the form of a wolf to birth me, went down the river and I followed. I watched her transform into a human. I guess I just followed along. I had no idea what form I took or what i looked like. An animal-like form of telepathy connects all wolf minds so I knew what she looked like.
"I don't know if she heard my first human gasp or felt my transformation but she turned to me, tears in her eyes and whispered in her beautiful human voice, 'my sweet, sweet baby, why?'
"I had no idea what the heck she was talking about. I had just changed my shape from a well-known one to something I didn't even have a name for. I didn't know how to talk with he human vocal cords yet so I said telepathically, 'What is it mother? What have i done?'
"She turned away from me and said, 'now you have transformed. I hoped you would never get to this stage of your life. Now you must go live with the shifters. You have transformed into a human.'
"I was, quite frankly, afraid, scared out of my wits. I had become something even worse than any predator in the forest. I had become a human, disruptor of the balance of nature and destroyer of my whole world.
"I screamed, my human voice cracking with disuse. I had no idea what a shifter was but it scared me to be one. Wolves like unity and order, not chaos and differentiation. But now that i knew deep inside that I was different than my brothers and sisters, I could never go home. I had to go, whether I wanted to or not, to the camp of the shifters.
"It wasn't so bad going cause my mother was with me but there were all these six and seven year olds running around with animal characteristics that it scared me.
"That and my lupine traits and emotions were still intact. Some of them were cats of the jungle and dogs of the savanna and some where predator birds and some looked vaguely like snakes. Some where my enemies from the forest like the puma and the lynx and they realized what i was when they saw me. Some scared me so bad with their animal characteristics that I felt i was gonna be sick.
"There were only four houses in the entire village. Long ones like the Native Americans used to live in and each one was a different color. Soon I would learn the meaning of these but not now.
"Now I would be handed to a woman in red cotton and my mother would leave me forever.
"I remember causing a huge commotion with my screaming and crying. Then I remembered that I was the daughter of the leader of the pack and if she ordained me to go to this place I would and I would be happy while hiding my sadness. I would act like a grown wolf and not like a pup.
""I was led to the southern most building, the one painted red and was bathed and dressed in red. I don't know why I didn't try to fight more but she sort of smelled like my mother. I guess she smelled like everyone's mother cause all the red dressed ones deferred to her.
"But anyhow, I was taken to the stone and gold tower in the middle of the square made of the fronts of the four buildings. They declared me a lycanthrope, like i knew what that was at the time, and said I was a wolf and therefore go with Mistress Topaz, caretaker of the Southern, or Canine building.
"After that I spent 12 years there, learning how to fight and how to transform into my original form at will. I had a good number of friends when i left Vampatia in 1896 to traverse the world and learn all sorts of languages and mythologies. One such was my best friend in the whole wide world, Draco Darkpanther who was a cheetah. Him and two others of the red, Deber Darkhyena and Ruxandra Darkfox, were my constant friends through my tasks for my wolf medallion and up until I left. They protected me from many evils and I miss them terribly but now onto the orient and my meeting with my brother and Genesis's family.
"I traversed Russia, Europe and Africa for 17 years until I found China. It was a lot different back then, definitely more honorable. They're still honorable but not like back then.
"Then I went through Japan and into India by boat. Now this was a place I liked. Lots of insane, bloodthirsty gods and goddesses. Then I met by brother.
"Ares, Greek god of war. Not that's a bloodthirsty and insane god. I ran into him, literally in an alley running from some Old World gangster monk dudes. I hated his smugness and still do but he has his moments.
" 'Hmmm...' he said, pulling me off the ground with a strong hand, 'what do we have here?' I wasn't scared. Even though I should've been. A group of death dealing mafia dudes at my back and a smug guy in front. No, i wasn't scared... much.
" 'None of ya damn business.' I said trying to push past him but he was unmovable. Then matters got worse. The gangsters followed their leader, Gen's grandpa or dad, and grabbed my upper arms and I couldn't get away. 'Ah, Lord Ares, thank you for stalling this riff-raff. She has stole a sacred pearl necklace from the temple of our Lord Krishna.'
"Ares reached down and lifted my chin, revealing the huge gray pearl and my wolf head medallion. He sighed as if to scold a sibling. I only stole that stupid necklace because the sign said not to. And hey, I always have and always will like a challenge.
"But anyway, as I was saying, Ares unhooked the necklace and handed it back to the insane monk gangsters and said, 'My sister will never go near Lord Krishna's temple again, will you Raven?'
"I just stared at him in surprise and stammered out, 'Y-yeah, sure.' he clapped his hands and said 'Capitol.' And don't you ever think he looks cute clapping his hands cause, heh, i don't think so. I've been trying to put that out of my mind for almost 88 years and I can tell you it isn't working very well.
"But when they left, bowing like this guy was a god, and at the time I had no idea. He just smiled until they were around the corner and out of sight. Then his smile faded.
" 'Now,' he said, grabbing my upper arm in a very tight embrace, 'Were going to have a little talk.' He spun me around pulled me along after him.
"I can tell you I was mad. I didn't even know who this guy was and he was forcing me to follow him. He was such a jerk but I followed him anyway. I guess I was curious to see who he was and why he had called me his sister and knew my name. I tried to jerk away form him a few times but he just looked at me with his weird gaze, picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.
"That was extremely embarrassing, really. But you should have seen where he was staying. I mean, you'd think a god didn't need food or sleep or anything that smacked of humanity but he literally rolled in it. It was a really nice mansion, very plushy. Lots of precious metals and silk.
"He put me down and I nearly kicked him in the shin when he smiled his usual sarcastic and know-it-all smile. 'What the heck do you think your doing? I don't even know you. Who are you?' i said trying to walk by him but he pushed me back down on the couch.
" 'I am trying to talk to my sister, I know you don' t and I'm your brother, Ares. Nice to meet you.' he said, answering all three questions at once and I nearly fell off the couch. My brother? I laughed at the thought. Then I said to this irritant 'i don't have a brother.'
" 'Oh really?' he asked and I told him, 'yeah really, I am an only child so that would mean I have no brother.' I guess he finally understood cause the sarcastic smile went by the wayside. I think he thought I already knew about him and that Id welcome him with open arms.
"I can tell you form experience that if he wants something, he gets it. I know that sounds sort of like incest but I don't think so. I'm taking about jewelry, drugs, or anything material. Sometimes girls, if they act the way he does. To that Id be scared though. If anybody acted like him, they should be locked up.
"But anyway, I stayed with him for maybe 7 years learning all he could teach me in the matters of fighting and i left. I I decided Id go to America and explore the entire of the American continent. Into South America and back up north and then to Canada. That entire trip took maybe 40 years.
"It was 1960 by then and in the '60's there was a lot going on within the United States. Drugs and liquor. And the war in Vietnam. I really didn't care for this stuff so I went back home to Vampatia. I didn't know what kind of reception I'd get so I took it easy for a while. Lots of walking and thinking.
"I guess it could be called a period of remembrance but I remember anything else but Draco and my friends. It had been along time since Id seen them and i wondered what they'd been doing. When I walked into the village and there were all these people running around like something big had happened. What i saw amazed me.
"There weren't just four buildings anymore; there were many small huts. And there were many, many people, most of whom I didn't recognize. And then there was Draco. In my younger years I would have run up and hugged him but we were older, maybe not wiser, but older nonetheless. He was lugging a box from one hut to another when he saw me. I don't think he recognized me at first but then he looked further. Then he smiled, handed the box to the guy beside him and ran over to hug me.
"I hadn't seen him since we were both eighteen and I guess he missed me. That's how I spent the next 35 years. I had missed everybody so much...."
There was a knock at the door and Seifer got up to answer it. It was Gen and Squall.
"You guys comin' down to the party?" Squall asked, looking slightly sloshed.
Seifer looked at me and I said, "Yeah."
"Okay." Gen said, winking as Seifer closed the door. "And then what happened?"
"Oh, um, well, everybody was so nice but I hated being in the same spot surrounded by people and it started to get tiring so i decided to go to Greece to see Ares. He said that I should go to Balamb Garden to study and that's about everything. You know what happened next. I went to the garden for a couple of years with Gen, came back, came to the school Ares created and then you came so that's the end."
*
They walked down the stairs and sat down to talk about little things, every so often to get a beer. Soon it was time to start counting down to the New Year.
"5...4...3...2...1 happy New Year!" Said everybody in the room but Seifer and Raven were in their own world.
"Happy birthday." Seifer said and kissed her.
The story
"...I was born at the stroke of midnight on January 1, 1878. I was born in a place you would never believe, in a way you'd never believe. I was born in the dead of winter in the very center of my home state, Vampatia, in the southern part of Transylvania.
"I wasn't born human though. I am a werewolf. I've heard real Lycanthropia described as an animal in human form and that's just it. I was born a solid white wolf and I never really knew I was any more than that.
"It wasn't until my sixth year that i realized i could change my form. My mother, who had taken the form of a wolf to birth me, went down the river and I followed. I watched her transform into a human. I guess I just followed along. I had no idea what form I took or what i looked like. An animal-like form of telepathy connects all wolf minds so I knew what she looked like.
"I don't know if she heard my first human gasp or felt my transformation but she turned to me, tears in her eyes and whispered in her beautiful human voice, 'my sweet, sweet baby, why?'
"I had no idea what the heck she was talking about. I had just changed my shape from a well-known one to something I didn't even have a name for. I didn't know how to talk with he human vocal cords yet so I said telepathically, 'What is it mother? What have i done?'
"She turned away from me and said, 'now you have transformed. I hoped you would never get to this stage of your life. Now you must go live with the shifters. You have transformed into a human.'
"I was, quite frankly, afraid, scared out of my wits. I had become something even worse than any predator in the forest. I had become a human, disruptor of the balance of nature and destroyer of my whole world.
"I screamed, my human voice cracking with disuse. I had no idea what a shifter was but it scared me to be one. Wolves like unity and order, not chaos and differentiation. But now that i knew deep inside that I was different than my brothers and sisters, I could never go home. I had to go, whether I wanted to or not, to the camp of the shifters.
"It wasn't so bad going cause my mother was with me but there were all these six and seven year olds running around with animal characteristics that it scared me.
"That and my lupine traits and emotions were still intact. Some of them were cats of the jungle and dogs of the savanna and some where predator birds and some looked vaguely like snakes. Some where my enemies from the forest like the puma and the lynx and they realized what i was when they saw me. Some scared me so bad with their animal characteristics that I felt i was gonna be sick.
"There were only four houses in the entire village. Long ones like the Native Americans used to live in and each one was a different color. Soon I would learn the meaning of these but not now.
"Now I would be handed to a woman in red cotton and my mother would leave me forever.
"I remember causing a huge commotion with my screaming and crying. Then I remembered that I was the daughter of the leader of the pack and if she ordained me to go to this place I would and I would be happy while hiding my sadness. I would act like a grown wolf and not like a pup.
""I was led to the southern most building, the one painted red and was bathed and dressed in red. I don't know why I didn't try to fight more but she sort of smelled like my mother. I guess she smelled like everyone's mother cause all the red dressed ones deferred to her.
"But anyhow, I was taken to the stone and gold tower in the middle of the square made of the fronts of the four buildings. They declared me a lycanthrope, like i knew what that was at the time, and said I was a wolf and therefore go with Mistress Topaz, caretaker of the Southern, or Canine building.
"After that I spent 12 years there, learning how to fight and how to transform into my original form at will. I had a good number of friends when i left Vampatia in 1896 to traverse the world and learn all sorts of languages and mythologies. One such was my best friend in the whole wide world, Draco Darkpanther who was a cheetah. Him and two others of the red, Deber Darkhyena and Ruxandra Darkfox, were my constant friends through my tasks for my wolf medallion and up until I left. They protected me from many evils and I miss them terribly but now onto the orient and my meeting with my brother and Genesis's family.
"I traversed Russia, Europe and Africa for 17 years until I found China. It was a lot different back then, definitely more honorable. They're still honorable but not like back then.
"Then I went through Japan and into India by boat. Now this was a place I liked. Lots of insane, bloodthirsty gods and goddesses. Then I met by brother.
"Ares, Greek god of war. Not that's a bloodthirsty and insane god. I ran into him, literally in an alley running from some Old World gangster monk dudes. I hated his smugness and still do but he has his moments.
" 'Hmmm...' he said, pulling me off the ground with a strong hand, 'what do we have here?' I wasn't scared. Even though I should've been. A group of death dealing mafia dudes at my back and a smug guy in front. No, i wasn't scared... much.
" 'None of ya damn business.' I said trying to push past him but he was unmovable. Then matters got worse. The gangsters followed their leader, Gen's grandpa or dad, and grabbed my upper arms and I couldn't get away. 'Ah, Lord Ares, thank you for stalling this riff-raff. She has stole a sacred pearl necklace from the temple of our Lord Krishna.'
"Ares reached down and lifted my chin, revealing the huge gray pearl and my wolf head medallion. He sighed as if to scold a sibling. I only stole that stupid necklace because the sign said not to. And hey, I always have and always will like a challenge.
"But anyway, as I was saying, Ares unhooked the necklace and handed it back to the insane monk gangsters and said, 'My sister will never go near Lord Krishna's temple again, will you Raven?'
"I just stared at him in surprise and stammered out, 'Y-yeah, sure.' he clapped his hands and said 'Capitol.' And don't you ever think he looks cute clapping his hands cause, heh, i don't think so. I've been trying to put that out of my mind for almost 88 years and I can tell you it isn't working very well.
"But when they left, bowing like this guy was a god, and at the time I had no idea. He just smiled until they were around the corner and out of sight. Then his smile faded.
" 'Now,' he said, grabbing my upper arm in a very tight embrace, 'Were going to have a little talk.' He spun me around pulled me along after him.
"I can tell you I was mad. I didn't even know who this guy was and he was forcing me to follow him. He was such a jerk but I followed him anyway. I guess I was curious to see who he was and why he had called me his sister and knew my name. I tried to jerk away form him a few times but he just looked at me with his weird gaze, picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.
"That was extremely embarrassing, really. But you should have seen where he was staying. I mean, you'd think a god didn't need food or sleep or anything that smacked of humanity but he literally rolled in it. It was a really nice mansion, very plushy. Lots of precious metals and silk.
"He put me down and I nearly kicked him in the shin when he smiled his usual sarcastic and know-it-all smile. 'What the heck do you think your doing? I don't even know you. Who are you?' i said trying to walk by him but he pushed me back down on the couch.
" 'I am trying to talk to my sister, I know you don' t and I'm your brother, Ares. Nice to meet you.' he said, answering all three questions at once and I nearly fell off the couch. My brother? I laughed at the thought. Then I said to this irritant 'i don't have a brother.'
" 'Oh really?' he asked and I told him, 'yeah really, I am an only child so that would mean I have no brother.' I guess he finally understood cause the sarcastic smile went by the wayside. I think he thought I already knew about him and that Id welcome him with open arms.
"I can tell you form experience that if he wants something, he gets it. I know that sounds sort of like incest but I don't think so. I'm taking about jewelry, drugs, or anything material. Sometimes girls, if they act the way he does. To that Id be scared though. If anybody acted like him, they should be locked up.
"But anyway, I stayed with him for maybe 7 years learning all he could teach me in the matters of fighting and i left. I I decided Id go to America and explore the entire of the American continent. Into South America and back up north and then to Canada. That entire trip took maybe 40 years.
"It was 1960 by then and in the '60's there was a lot going on within the United States. Drugs and liquor. And the war in Vietnam. I really didn't care for this stuff so I went back home to Vampatia. I didn't know what kind of reception I'd get so I took it easy for a while. Lots of walking and thinking.
"I guess it could be called a period of remembrance but I remember anything else but Draco and my friends. It had been along time since Id seen them and i wondered what they'd been doing. When I walked into the village and there were all these people running around like something big had happened. What i saw amazed me.
"There weren't just four buildings anymore; there were many small huts. And there were many, many people, most of whom I didn't recognize. And then there was Draco. In my younger years I would have run up and hugged him but we were older, maybe not wiser, but older nonetheless. He was lugging a box from one hut to another when he saw me. I don't think he recognized me at first but then he looked further. Then he smiled, handed the box to the guy beside him and ran over to hug me.
"I hadn't seen him since we were both eighteen and I guess he missed me. That's how I spent the next 35 years. I had missed everybody so much...."
There was a knock at the door and Seifer got up to answer it. It was Gen and Squall.
"You guys comin' down to the party?" Squall asked, looking slightly sloshed.
Seifer looked at me and I said, "Yeah."
"Okay." Gen said, winking as Seifer closed the door. "And then what happened?"
"Oh, um, well, everybody was so nice but I hated being in the same spot surrounded by people and it started to get tiring so i decided to go to Greece to see Ares. He said that I should go to Balamb Garden to study and that's about everything. You know what happened next. I went to the garden for a couple of years with Gen, came back, came to the school Ares created and then you came so that's the end."
*
They walked down the stairs and sat down to talk about little things, every so often to get a beer. Soon it was time to start counting down to the New Year.
"5...4...3...2...1 happy New Year!" Said everybody in the room but Seifer and Raven were in their own world.
"Happy birthday." Seifer said and kissed her.