Ren panted heavily as she sprinted around the perimiter of the city, keepinghe reyes open for anything strange. She followed the path she had worn into the sand from her previous patrols, follwing the curves and dips as if it was second nature. She was 3/4 of the the way done and she slowly her pace slightly, feeling her paws hit the ground rythmicly. Her large heaed swiveled back and forth, ears flicking, trying to pick up some alien sound. She heard nothing and looked forward, towards the entrance to the city. As she neared, she noticed a lone figure standing in the light. Ren growled and sped up enough to get close before moving in a stalking stance. It wasn't until she was within fifty yards that she realized who it was a rise to her four legs and trot forward.
It was Spirit, the Death Sythe. He checked in every night on Lord Deaths orders. Spirit had noticed her before, it was hard to miss a two story black and red wolf. "Did you find anything?" He asked, turning fully to her. Ren stopped infront of him and shook her massive head slowly. "Lord Death requested that you expand your route to a hundred yards out." Spirit relayed to her. Ren sighed a deep sigh, blowing the sand at her feet in all directions. Spirit walked to her and placed a hand on her foreleg. "I know, I know, if you'd like I could talk with Lord Death and have your school days every other day as well." Spirit suggested warmly. He saw Ren as a second daughter, and Ren saw him as the father she always wanted.
Ren closed her eyes and imagined her human form down the last minute detail before she felt her insides turning. She felt her ribs realining and her bones shrinking, she became cold as her fur left her and was replaced by milky human skin. Her clothes were appearing from ehr skin, falling away from it as they came. Spirit respectivly turned his eyes away since he knew sometimes her clothes didn't appear correctly and a small flash usually happened if Ren didn't pay attention.
When Ren was all settle she grunted to Spirit, signalling it was safe for him to look. Spirit turned to her and smiled brightly. "Here, I brought you snack." He said, holding a bag up for her.
"Thanks, what time is it?" Ren asked, her mouth dry now. It was fine when she sweated as a wolf, her mouth didn't get dry, but as a human her sweat went from her mouth to her skin, taking the moisture with it. Ren dug in the bag and pulled out a bottle of chocolate milk, chugging half of it quickly before looking for the food. Looks like Spirit went to Death Burger and got her her favorite burger. She sat down on the cool sand and ate gratefully.
"Three int he morning, Lord Death said four more laps and you'll be done." Spirit said, pulling his soda from the bag. "Is school going well for you?"
"Same as always, I guess, I"ve just been sleeping alot."
"I'm telling you I can arrange it so your patrol days don't interfere with your school to much." Spirit offered again.
"Then I'd be getting special treatment, and you know how I am about 'special treatment'..." Ren said for the hundreth time that week.
"If you say so, I"m just trying to help you out." He said, taking a few gulps of his soda, sighing deeply. Spirit did love Ren like a daughter and he wanted to do all the things Maka wouldn't let him do for her. But Ren was almost as stubborn as Maka. Ren never wanted any of the perks Spirit could give her in school or in life itself.
"Why do I have to patrol?" Ren asked absentmindedly.
"To protect the people of Death City, Renny, you know that." Spirit said, glancing at her, "why? do you not like it?"
"Don't know any other girl my age who does this."
"Well, most girls your age don't turn into giant wolfs." Spirit laughed. Ren only smiled as she stared up into the sky, looking at all the stars that could be seen. Sometimes she wondered what her real parents would think of her now. If they were to see how important she was, that she helped defend a major city and worked for Lord Death himself. But she knew they would only scoff at her. They never cared for her, they were only interested in their image. They had her only to make their family 'perfect'. She had an older brother, Nicolas, whom she hated. Her parents were freaks about being perfect. Nicolas was ont he football team and was its captain, he was an honor student, he sang in the church choir, he helped little old ladies cross the street. He was everything Ren wasn't.
Ren was bred to be prefect. In the years she was with ehr family, her hair was long and always in braids. She word sweater and jerseys to show her team spirit. But she was a problem child. She would get detention nearly every single day in the first grade. She wasn't honor roll since she failed pretty much everything except science classes, and in those she was always playing with scalples and beakers, being very 'unlady like'. Her parents put up with it until their camping trip. Ren had been runnign around and felt something inside her. She felt like nature was something she could connect with and felt a deep feeling within her explode. She had been frightened when it happened. Her skin broke out in thick black hair that was red around her hands, feet and newly formed muzzle. She screamed at the sudden feeling of her bones morphing, some growing and some shrinking. Her fmaily heard her screams and ran to her aid, only to find her halfway into her transformation. Her spine bending into that of a wolf, her legs twisted and her face elongating. She was already ten feet tall and her eyes, now becoming as red as blood pleaded with them to help her. But they screamed and ran from her. She was left alone.
She does not remember what she did after she had fully transformed. She has brief memories of running through the woods, of chasing down a deer, but nothign more. When she came to she was int he middle of the woods, in her normal clothes, laying in the dirt by a creek. She was alone, scared and cold. It took her three days to find someone and get back to her family. When she returned, thanks to the police, her 'family' told the police she had an episode and had run off, that she had a history of misbehavior. The police looked into it and her record confirmed she was a bit of a problem child. Ren had pleaded with them to take her back, but they claimed she had a drug problem and she would be sent to an institution to correct her behavior.
Ren hated it. They treated her like an animal there, and so that's how she behaved. When they tried to shove pills down her throat she bit their fingers, drawing blood on occasion. When they locked her in a solitary confinement room, she howled her heart out, the noise carrying over the entire building, causing many of the other patients to have emotional breakdowns. The only way she would calm down was to be outside. Then she stood int eh sun and breathed in the smell of the world. On her third trip outside, she diecided she'd had enough of this. She walked tot he fence line as the orderlies yelled at her and felt that same feeling she had gotten in the woods come back. This time, she wasn't afraid and let it pour out of her soul. She remembered mostly screaming and panicing, but when she had gained her full consentration, she only remembered sprinting. Sprinting on four paws, feeling the wind through her fur, the sting of the cold morning air in her lungs. She ran for a long time, changing into her normal self to fool people who believed they were guardian angels into feeding her, then she would disappear in the morning.
A year later she had come across two blondes, making their way west. Ren tried to play them for food, but the one shorter blonde said she could see more than she was letting on, and told her of a place she would be excepted. Ren had agreed to come, but in her mind she was going to try and take whatever they had when they had their guard down. When they made it to Death City, Ren couldn't believe it was real. She couldn't believe that Lord Death himself took an interest in her abilities and gave her the responsibility of patroling the city.
When she had met Spirit, she found him annoying, but after the time they spent together int eh Death Room, Ren had slowly accepted him as a father figure, and he saw her as a second daughter.
Ren liked it here. She didn't wanna leave.
