Shining Like A God, Like A Leader(Open)

[Sythe]

Barely audible foot steps, padded against the ground. It had been that odd time, just before sun rise and moon set.Where it seemed the earth had been confused weather or not if it was night or if it was day. Had the moon wished to set or stay, the sun didn’t seem to care. This time... everything had been slow. Ever so slow. It seemed that fog danced around this area, and the smell of dew had been in the ground. It was as if, dew was natures way of becoming fresh. Being clean.

Blue eyes seemed to glow through the confusion of night and day, and across the sky was a ink, then it faded into purple, and purple to dark blue, and dark blue into black. It was really beautiful with all the stars splattered through out the sky. The foot steps stopped, and a girl sat down next to the lake, the woman was pale and short, she stared into the lake with blank eyes. She was the one that was suppose to be strong. She yanked off her trench coat, and set it next to her. Her hair had been pitch black and bobby pins pinned back her bangs that would have been wildly in her face.

She rested her head on her palm, and she had been thinking to herself. She was the suppose to be the strong one. She stood up and walked towards the water, and looking down at her reflection. A pitch black wolf stood there, with noble markings on her face, decorated over her forehead under her eyes. She looked down, before grabbing a handful of water and drinking it, and they would not need her when she falls, and they would stay with her even if shes wrong. She let out a sigh before sitting back. What was she suppose to do?

She looked around, no one was here within miles. She closed her eyes, and crossed her arms firmly against her chest. She let out a soft sigh in relief. She would have to not care for what happens. Like the sun and moon, even though they both die every day, they shine. They come back to life. There would be more like her, and they’d have pack members who didn’t need them. She’d be like the sun and moon, shining like a god, like a leader.

[Shimakuro]

It was around that time that Sythe would feel two hands pressed against her back, followed shortly by a sensation of a cold wet sensation along the entire front-side of her body. Indeed, someone sprang up from out of nowhere amidst the space in which there “was no one around for miles,” and then pushed Sythe into the water when she least expected it… which was probably any time at all given how unaware she seemed to be.

Now what was impressive was that this person had not only managed to detect Sythe, but had apparently completely evaded nearly every sense that the wolf possessed and actually got close enough to push the wolf-woman (or woman-wolf; she wasn’t quite sure what the term was, not that she knew Sythe was a wolf. Or did she?) face first into a body of water. Well, that’s assuming she didn’t somehow dodge.

If Sythe turned around, she would have found a strange… what was it? Was it a man? A woman? It seemed to be a relatively androgynous creature, a sword sheathed at its hips (some sort of saber most likely, given the shape of the scabbard) and a particularly concealing selection of clothing covered him-her from neck to toe. The choice of clothing was strange for sure; some sort of navy blue high-collared shirt framed the individual’s torso (and evidently the very defined muscular structure on its arms… or at least the shirt seemed particularly tight) followed by some selection of tight fitting (around the legs, but not the crotch) black pair of pants that revealed a particularly defined set of leg muscles. Were the clothes too tight or were the muscles just really defined?

None of this answered the question as to just what it was. A wolf’s senses would have revealed that this individual was… well whatever it was, it wasn’t a beast, but no smell gave any hint as to what gender this creature possessed.

“Would you happen to know just how difficult it was for one such as myself to sneak up on you?” He/she/it coughed into a gloved fist, “Not very difficult at all. You should pay more attention to your surroundings. What if I happened to be a... well no I suppose even a rapist would prefer more of a challenge.”

“What brings you to this section of untouched territory?”

Interesting to note, this whole speech might have occurred before Sythe even got out of the water. This individual didn’t even entirely seem to be paying attention before interrogating her prey.

[Sythe]

A splash echoed through the area, as the girl went face first into the waters, her senses became confused, and she turned around sitting in the shallow end of the water. The water having pressed down on her hair,having it stick to her face. Her makeup didn’t smear, or smudge. She stood up, and glared to the creature, a fine frown carved into her pale face. She looked that of a pouting porcelain doll, she stood her ground not leaving from the water. It didn’t help that the scent of water blocked out her main senses, aka her nose and ears. She stood there...but even before she had been pushed into the water(seriously..who does that!) she didn’t hear a thing.

”I can take care of myself.” the girl spoke, as she slowly walked out of the lake, but keeping her distance from the creature. They had been skilled enough to sneak up behind the girl. Luckily for them she couldn’t snap back, for she went face first into the waters. She rubbed her nose with the back of her hand, before staring to the creature. Maybe it would be rude to ask for the gender? She scoffed, it’s also rude to push people you don’t know into lakes. She rolled her eyes.

She stood there, her eyes seemed to look bored to the creature, but it didn’t even appear as if the creature was staring at her, she blinked..her bobby pin had fallen out of her bangs, and her bangs covered a good part of her eyes, she took a step back, and kept her free eye on the creature before grabbing the bobby pin and pinning back her bangs. She grabbed the bottom part of her shirt and ringed it out.

”Well isn’t that obvious? I was getting something to drink.” she replied crossing her arms over her torso, and looking to the creature. She walked up, and sniffed before grabbing her coat, that she had taken off before being pushed into the waters. She stared to the creature as she took a few steps back.

(OOC*cough,wrong,cough,account,cough,cough,cough*)

[Lord Oakum]

“You should boil the water first; I hear water from the wild can give most humans… I believe the colloquial term is ‘the runs.’ Something about the proteins that human bodies aren’t used to interfering with their digestive tract. I’ve heard that some people die from this condition. …Or was that because of mobilized metals like copper in the water?”

This other person almost seemed to be lost in another train of thought already, a finger rhythmically tapping on her chin in the process. “Honestly, I meant what brings you out here, not what brings you to this location specifically. Oh, by the way, my name’s Jo’anne Arclite, but I prefer the name Joan.”

Oh, so it was a woman.

“You don’t ever see any people this far out in the middle of nowhere anymore, even animals tend to stay closer to the cities these days.”

…Then what was this woman doing way out here?

“Oh, certainly. That might explain it,” apparently she hit some other bizarre train of thought, “You wanted to confess your love to someone? Given the whole local legend I wouldn’t really be surprised but… wait, I don’t see anyone else here?” She looked around and then down at her feet for a moment, “Unless…” a rush of fake surprise seemed to wash over her face, “I’m flattered, but we barely know each other and we’re both women. At least I think you’re a woman anyway, it’s kind of hard to tell… no offense.”

[Sythe]

She stared at the women, an annoyed look clearly played on her face.. She paused and then sniffed.. a...a it seemed as if a chill ran down her spine, as her eyes narrowed. A noble. Not just any noble.. An Oakum noble. She clenched her fist. She could kill the women..but that just wouldn’t make sense. The girl took a step from the waters, hoping the women would think it was because of her statement of the illness that could be taken, she took the step back until she was sure her reflection couldn’t be seen through the waters, and she placed her trench coat over her shoulders.

She looked to the women. She looked away. Annoyed..disgusted. You value yourself too much human. she thought darkly, before turning her back to the women. ”I have better things to deal with then being annoyed by the likes of you.” she spoke her back to the women, but her senses up if the women saw her face she would see that her teeth had grown into bared fangs.

She wanted to turn around and stare into that oakums soul, with her blue eyes and cause her to feel the pain that many of her kind have. She glanced to her, then snorted. She was surprised there wasn’t a posse of guards around the women...man...bitch.. Okay so she was a little angry...a little...she wanted to rip out the womens throat and watch her gag on her own blood. Even though she didn’t know if it was that oakums fault of her parents and siblings death..she was still an oakum noble.

She blinked, and held her fore head, as the blue shined brightly. She calmed down and started to walk off.

[Lord Oakum]

And if she turned around again, Sythe would find a bunch of empty scenery, no Joan in sight where she was just moments before. And if Sythe turned her head back to face the front, she would have noticed a strange new (or strangely familiar, rather) figure walking along beside her.

Somehow Joan had managed to instantaneously and quite stealthily approach Sythe yet again, and apparently without giving any warning this time either, luckily there wasn’t another body of water to push her into at this very moment.

“It’s not my fault if you’re getting annoyed by a little sound advice. And stop looking at me like I’m food. I mean really, you’d think you weren’t even human or something with the kind of emotion on your face right now.”

She sniffed the air a few times, her nose wrinkling into an expression of disgust, “No personal offense intended, but you smell like a wet dog.”

Of course that was her fault, but it didn’t seem like she was consciously aware of that. “So, where are we going now? Some other place that’s in the middle of nowhere? To the Emerald City to meet the Wizard of Oz? I’ve always wanted to meet that guy. I always theorized that he could give me a heart, or a brain, or a banana; I figured any one of those would be just as effective at choking my enemies to death. Oh wait I know, are we going someplace where you can take a bath?”

Interesting to note, Joan smelled like a lot of different kinds of… what was that smell? Plastic? It smelled something like plastic.

[Sythe]

She glanced to the women, this was unbelievable... something was not right at all. She stopped, and shook her head, the drops of water falling out in the air. She glared to the women. ”I wouldn’t smell like wet anything, if a rude stalker would have never pushed me into a lake...” she spoke darkly, as she held back a growl. She didn’t like this... not one bit. She looked to the women. Before staring back to the horizon.

All nobles had been the same... all of them. She stopped abruptly, her eyes narrowing. The woman was a noble, and it was clear she was pointing out that Sythe wasn’t human. She stared to the human. Then grinned, fine then.. she was up for game. Especially since it was an Oakum.. it wasn’t Lord Oakum, or Osyrhyss... but... one miniscule Oakum noble would be fun. She turned her back to the woman, expecting her to disappear, before running off, at a human speed at first.. but then she picked it up.

The ground was soon nothing at the bottom of her paws, well.. soles of her human feet, her hair had been following her body like a dark shadow, she soon found herself running at the shore of the lake, and the reflection of the wolf seemed to follow her, a serious gaze in the wolves eyes. Her eyes narrowed, the woman was probably a doctor... that would explain the smell of plastic.. but... why would an oakum doctor be all the way out here. She would just have to find out..now wouldn’t she.

Black eyes faded to blue a shining blue, that seemed to illuminate the darkness.

[Lord Oakum]

Now that was a pretty strange choice. Had Joan somehow frightened the other woman? Could she have said something that was a bit frightening? Well, she doubted it was the part about choking an enemy to death with a brain or heart or banana, but it could have been the part about smelling like a wet dog. Some people were afraid of dogs, or bad smells, or a bad smelling dog. Or hey, who knows, maybe some people were just afraid of wet dogs?

Nahhh, that couldn’t be it. The woman clearly just wanted to go for a run to dry off. Most women liked to blow-dry their hair or some such thing right? And Joan supposed that in the absence of wind or an electronic air-propelling device the next best thing would be to run in order to emulate wind. Yes, yes, this seemed like the most reasonable reasoning, and certainly not the most unreasonable unreasoning.

Hmh, perhaps Joan could speed up the drying off process? Yes, that seemed unreasonably reasonable. Or was the term ‘reasonably unreasonable’? Maybe ‘Rationally irrational’? In any case, she was losing time and had given this other woman far too much of a head-start.

Just like that, Joan caught up to the dark haired and strangely animalistic woman within the amount of time it would take to make a sandwich out of a human head, the ground and a vehicle tire, or any kind of tire for that matter - even the kind that trees used for moving humans, instead of the kind that humans used for moving trees. Joan didn’t stop at simply catching up to Sythe, no, she passed her, ran ahead of her, turned around and continued running at that speed backwards and then started blowing in Sythe’s direction. Clearly this would dry her hair faster.

[Sythe]

She ran, the ground meant nothing to her, the sky was the limit. She had been running even quicker, her hair falling back behind her, she wanted to see what was going to happen. Suddenly a gust of wind hit her, she paused as she saw the woman, she skidded to a stop. Noble technology disgusted her. Fine then. She would play this noble’s game. She had a feeling the noble had known what she was. Or maybe she had just been a paranoid wolf; well then again.. a wolf who wasn’t paranoid .. was a dead one, and even though the color fit her as a human, and plagued her as a wolf. She did not like to be dead, not that she ever experienced it, but she would assume it was a rather annoying thing.

She stood there, her hand resting on her hip as she watched as the noble showed off. Her went hair clinging to her head. Fine enough, no more playing. She growled, and it echoed through the area. ”Noble enough of your games.” she ordered, as her black eyes faded into a blue, and she broke through her cover. A small dark wolf standing there, on its head bearing it crown of blue. Oakum insignia; there was once upon a time, where this wolf hunted other wolves. She stood there, with her fur perched up, her fur resembled spilled ink. She glared to the noble.

”You can either continue to mock me and die, or leave me be.” she growled. No wonder why it smelled like wet dog. Her claws had been gripping the ground tightly, as the scratching noise could be heard.

[Lord Oakum]

Joan stared at the wolf for a good long while before glancing around, a hand over her eyes to block the sunlight, “What? Where’d she go? I’m impressed if she was fast enough to use a substitution technique with a wolf.”

Who would have guessed this other woman was a ninja? Well, maybe she was a ninja, maybe she wasn’t. It seemed like the only logical explanation though. Unless of course this was some kind of magical wolf that could appear human. The wolf did smell familiar.

After squatting down in front of the wolf she squinted her eyes, “This dog smells bad,” it was settled, the dog couldn’t be magical. A magical dog wouldn’t smell bad. This dog needed a bath. With both hands she grabbed the canine and sent it flying through the air into the lake, or at least tried to.

“Now where’d that woman go?” She couldn’t have gotten fair. Sure she could run fast and sure she knew ninja techniques, but that didn’t make her super human. Or did it? Eh, whatever, if it did she’d just deal with it either way, she wasn’t too bad a fighter herself after all. Not to mention she had a nifty sword of her own.

“Where’d you go?” she called out.