Shelby, the Fianna, and the rock
Jul. 22nd, 2010 08:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shelbyrouIt is currently 13:29 Pacific Time on Thu Jul 22 2010.
Currently the moon is in the waxing Gibbous (Galliard) Moon phase (74% full).
Around the Lone Boulder
Early afternoon finds Shelby facing down the boulder, scowling at it as though it should be impressed with her. After a moment she approaches it again and resumes trying to scale it - not using the relatively simple path, but the more rugged opposite side. It seems to be the first step she's having trouble with, and the transition from standing on something horizontal to vertical.
It's not entirely normal to find Jacey out this way, the girl's scent and track usually bypassing the boulder except on days when class is in session. Yet indeed the Fianna cub is jogging along from the northern edge, steadily making her way toward the large rock. She isn't breathing too heavily yet, perhaps having just started running, but already she's perspiring slightly in the relative heat and humidity she's still acclimating to.
Shelby can get her foot up or her hands in place but not both, and after a minute of scrabbling just stops, resting her forehead against the stone. "I -will- get this," she tells it (it remains unimpressed) before turning away and blowing out her breath. It's as she's bending for her water bottle that she catches sight of Jacey, and lifts an arm in greeting to the younger girl.
Jacey slows to a walk at the sight of Shelby, raising a hand to wave back. She glances toward the sky, seeming as though to mark the place of the sun in her mind, then veers off her path and toward the boulder itself. "H'lo, Shelby," she calls out as she approaches. "What are you doing today?"
The child before you stands at four feet and seven inches. At eleven years old, she's skinny in a way that's only reserved for youth, and seems to be made up of knees and elbows and limbs she's yet to grow into. Her curves aren't easy or smooth, but the lanky frame yet to come into adulthood.
She's not unpleasant to look on, most might even consider her cute despite the short cut hair. After all, when she offers a rare smile her cheeks dimple. Her shortly cropped hair is a strawberry blonde, perhaps more blonde than strawberry in its lesser state and in the right light. And green eyes to boot.
Typically the child can be found wearing any assortment of jeans and T-shirt, most of which look like hand-me-downs and have an appearance of being worn for several days before being changed. Dust, mud, and damp are a constant upon her shoes and lower pantlegs. Her jacket is much the same, dusty and well used out of doors.
"Practicing," the older girl sighs, and runs both hands through her hair. "Chandini-rhya has a thing about this rock, and I'm tired of not being able to do what she asks. So I figured I'd come out here and the rock and I could have a little chat. Only it's not very talkative."
"Yeah, rocks are good listeners but not good talkers." The younger cub trails a hand along the rock's surface before coming to stand near the older. "What are you practicing, though? Just the climbing you and Free did that one day?"
"Well, when I tell it I'm going to climb it it just laughs at me." Shelby shoots the boulder a dirty look and takes a long pull from her bottle. She wipes off the rim and offers it over. "Sort of. She's asked us to climb all over it and race to the top. I can climb it in Crinos, but in homid? I suck."
Jacey looks up at the boulder, frowning slightly. "Why would you need to climb a boulder in homid," she asks, tone rhetorical. "Don't know that even I can climb it without being in a different form, but if Chandini-rhya tells me to I'll try."
"To keep the Veil, maybe," the Ragabash shrugs. "I think her pack has city territory, so that makes sense. Besides, most of us are homid-born, so it makes sense to get us doing things in a form we're already used to. And can you imagine a wolf trying to climb a boulder?"
Jacey shrugs slightly, then grins suddenly. "I doubt Earth-Whisperer-rhya would be able to climb the rock. I don't think he even knows how to shift to homid." The Galliard pauses and considers the boulder again, reaching out to touch a hand to its surface. "I guess it makes sense, though, but I don't know I'll ever be climbing boulders in the city."
Shelby takes the water back and recaps it, tossing the metal bottle to the ground. "Boulders, walls - they're the same thing, I guess. Are you planning on spending most of your time in the city, once you've Rited?"
"I can't," Jacey replies, losing some of that energy she'd had while jogging. Her arms fold across her chest and her head tilts back to look up at the sky. "Zosia-rhya and August-rhya took me from the city just before I firsted, and I've been here since. It would be trouble if I went back and my family found me. Especially if they aren't clued in."
"But you said," Shelby starts, and stops to think about it. "--Oh." Then again: "Oh - were you a lost cub? You family are probably at least kin, aren't they?"
Jacey shakes her head. "No, I wasn't lost, just didn't know. August-rhya and Zosia-rhya saw this deer spirit and it led them to me." She turns toward Shelby, offering a small smile and a shrug. "Even if they are, we might not be able to tell them anything. Especially if my step-dad or his spawn are around."
Shelby says, "Stag spirit, you mean." She returns to the boulder and frowns at it, stretches out her arms and considers the Fianna. "So you're stuck in the forest whether you want to or not, huh? But Saint Claire's a pretty big place. You might not have to worry about them finding you."
"Right, stag spirit." Jacey nods, confirming she meant that. "Yeah, I can go to the city, but I don't think I could live there anymore. And I probably can't go alone. I'm eleven and a Galliard."
"You changed really early, and I changed really late," the Silver Fang says wryly. "You went to school, though, didn't you? What grade were you in?"
"Sixth." A fact that Jacey seems quite proud of. "Going to talk to my Elder and see if I can homeschool after I Rite. So I can finish high school. We have a kin who's a teacher."
"Oh, yeah?" She gives Jacey another look before returning her attention to the boulder. "I graduated high school. Most Garou don't. I suppose they don't even have a GED. That's going to take a lot of time, and a lot of work."
Jacey shrugs and steps up to the rock, reaching her hands up as high as she can to finger the upper reaches. She even stretches onto her toes and shuffles, trying to find a suitable handhold. "I know. But cubhood is taking a long time, too. And I want to get through high school. Without recess or summer vacation now," she pauses, giving a pull on a particular part of the rock. "I bet I could finish everything in three years. Maybe two if I really, really, really try." With a grunt, the Fianna cub pulls her feet up off the ground and gets one on the rock to act as leverage to push her lower end upward.
Shelby stays firmly on the ground, watching Jacey like she's not sure daisies aren't going to suddenly spring from her ears. "--Maybe," she agrees after a few seconds, and drifts a few feet farther from the other cub, there to study her own possible path. "Most people take six years."
"But most people also have recess and vacations and things," Jacey counters. She gives a push with that one foot, throwing a hand upward to grope for another hold to catch. A second later, she's back to her previous position, shifting slightly to get both feet on the rock. "But I just have the Garou thing. I don't think your elder, or mine, spends all their time patroling or fighting the wyrm physically or anything like that. I'm sure they have some time for themselves. And Cliaths might have more."
"Not three years' worth," Shelby replies mildly, but lets the topic slip away while she stretches to find fingerholds. "How long have you lived in Saint Claire? All your life, or...?"
"Two weeks I think," Jace returns. She pushes herself upward again and, in doing so, releases the hand hold to get a foot there instead. She all but throws herself against the boulder, trying to use friction to keep herself off the ground. "We moved during winter break and school had just started again when I got there."
Shelby asks, "You think? You're not sure?" She curls her fingers around the jut of stone and tests its strength, nods to herself and searches for a foothold to accompany. "I was only in town a week before I shifted. Which makes me glad I didn't shift the week before. Except the moon would have been small then, so I suppose that's why I didn't."
Jacey scrabbles through Shelby's question and comment until her fingers find something to hold onto, a small lip on the boulder's face. However, she's stretched out and looks somewhat stuck. "I'm a kid," she reminds the older cub. "I was in school like a week before I got taken, and we were living in Saint Claire like a week before that. So I think it was two weeks."
Shelby looks, for a moment, as though she'd say something, but after the moment passes she only shrugs and returns her attention to the boulder. "So you don't think your Mom... your mother? knows about Garou?"
"She might," Jacey conceeds. "But she never told me or my older brothers." She pulls with her arms, fingers and hands straining to draw her upward and beyond the stretch of her toes. "But you knew, right? Being a Silver Fang, everyone probably knows about the Nation growing up."
The Ragabash doesn't answer at first, being more concerned with trying to leap up to the foothold and not bounce off the rock. She mutters something under hear breath that doesn't sound English and glares at the boulder, then resumes her search for a different path. "I grew up at the Sept of Sunlit Waters, yes, so everybody knew. They thought I was kin, though. The Baptism of Fire was wrong."
Jacey settles back onto her previous position and drops one hand from the hold. "Didn't know that could go wrong," She says as she rubs the freed hand across her brow. "I thought spirits were never wrong."
"Rites can fail," Shelby shrugs, just as casual as though she didn't have personal experience. "Spirits only know what they know, too - you wouldn't expect a Falcon to know everything that happens in a lake, would you? Besides, I get the feeling from Zosia that spirits can lie if they want."
Jacey looks at Shelby, though not rudely and without trying to meet her gaze, but definitely appraisingly. "That's.. actually really interesting. I didn't know that." Looking thoughtful, the Galliard studies the rock within arm and leg reach of her body, searching for an easier handhold or foothold.
The Silver Fang is studying the rock, not watching the other cub, so Jacey will have plenty of opportunity to look. "What? That spirits can lie, or that Rites can fail?" She finds and tries out a different foothold, one not so high so she doesn't have to jump for it. With that, she manages to actually start climbinb.
"That spirits can lie," the Fianna returns. "I didn't know they could, just that they were sometimes tricky." One hand tightly gripping the upper surface of the rock, the other placed against its face for balance, Jace reaches out with a foot to test a potential step. "So, spirits somehow made a mistake with you, or the Rite didn't work. But you still grew up knowing." There's no accusation in her tone, just casual comment, maybe even awe.
"I grew up knowing about the Garou, yes," Shelby agrees, her voice sometimes muffled as she makes her slow way up the boulder. She seems to be searching for every hand- or foot-hold she can reach from each location, not just the ones that are directly above. "But knowing what Kin know and how the Garou see things is a lot different."
Jacey seems to agree, or that grunt might be just her trying to get higher onto the boulder. But it sounds confirming. "I might, after I come back from my Rite of Passage, see if Cole-rhya or someone were able to go with and find out about my family. Charlene was going to go, but I think she's been too busy and I don't want to bother her. It's not her Tribe anyway."
"Wouldn't be appropriate." Of course, the Silver Fang would probably think so. "I'm not even sure where to start looking. We all got basic courses in genealogy, and how to read family trees, but that's with a known entity."
"Well, I can start with finding my mom," Jacey replies, using that formerly free hand to reach upward. "Might know something, because my real dad died before I was born." The words again are completely casual, the Galliard could have been talking about the weather or baking a pie rather than talking about her deceased father.
Shelby asks, "You didn't live with your mom? Your step-father had custody?"
"We all lived together." Jace frowns slightly, looking at Shelby as though the older girl might have missed something. "My mom married this other guy when I was a little kid, and then we all moved here last winter."
"Oh," Shelby says vaguely, most of her attention on the rock-climbing. "I lived with my grandparents. Shouldn't be too hard to find her though, right? Just look in the phone book, or where you lived before you changed."
Jacey nods and looks upward. She gives a sigh and drops back to the ground, settling backward until she's on her bum. "That's really hard to do. Maybe Chandini-rhya just wants us to use those muscles."
"--Maybe," the older girl agrees, still not paying much attention. "I don't even want to think what my nails look like. I've given up trying to grow them."
"Why not go into war form and have someone paint them," the Galliard offers as she watches the Ragabash. Then have it so it sticks when you shift forms."
That causes Shelby to stop and turn her head - carefully! - to peer down at the Fianna. "Dedicate... nail polish," she repeats, disbelieving. "You're joking, right? Because that's not very honorable."
Jacey shrugs slightly, looking for a brief second uncertain. "Why wouldn't it be honorable? We do it to our clothes."
Shelby says, "It's... It's nail polish," as though this should make everything clear. Before pulling herself to the next handhold she adds, "Clothing's necessary, in homid form. Nail polish isn't. It's like those stories you hear of Bone Gnawers and Glass Walkers, dedicating bits of technology to themselves."
"But it's not dishonorable to Gnawers or Walkers to do that," Jace replies, possibly more confused than before. "Why should nail polish be any different. Unless you don't wear it..?"
Shelby's head shakes, barely, as she clings to the wall. "Yes, it is. Even if they're urrah." She sends her right hand out to quest for the next crevice, snaking it along the stone. "Of course I do. Did. There's just no point in - ugh - wearing it. These days."
Jacey shrugs slowly and seems to let the subject drop. "I ran into more fomori," she says, unboastful. "Want to see the scars they left?"
Shelby's fingers manage to find a crack and snug into it, leaving the rest of her splayed out on the rock. "Not really," she says, sounding apologetic, and manages to twist around to send a rueful smile down. "Sorry. I've seen too many movies where that's a cheesy pickup line."
Jacey makes such a face that words cannot describe. Clearly that wasn't what the younger cub had meant and the very thought of it meaning anything beyond what she'd said never occurred to her.
Shelby chuckles, turning back to the rock. "I thought they weren't going to leave scars anyway, unless you died and came back? If you've got that many scars, Gaia must really love you."
Jacey shakes her head. "Things still scar. Or there's a Rite that will make things leave battle scars," she explains, looking over her left arm. "But these scars go away over time and are just like normal scars. Like what happens when you pick a scab."
The Silver Fang says, "Huh," and a few seconds later, gently teasing, "I still don't want to see them." She's quiet for a few more ticks of the clock while she gains another foot or so in height before adding, "What did you want to do? Before you found out you were Garou?"
"I don't know," the Galliard returns, still making a face over the earlier comment. "Maybe be a teacher or something like that."
"I was going to be a lawyer," Shelby says. "That's why I came to Saint Claire: pre-law. --Can you tell how far I am from the top? Am I halfway there, or what?"
Jacey leans over to one side, flattening out on the grass to take stock of how far the Ragabash has climbed. The younger girl makes a big deal about this, too, standing after the leaning to take in another view and even moving beneath Shelby for a final look. "More than half. You got maybe another mile to go, though."
"Another mile," Shelby repeats with an amused huff. "I'd throw something at you, if I had anything." She does have a rock to hand, but... well. It's a pretty big rock. "All right, that helps. You want to head up the easy side, maybe?"
"There's an easy side," the Fianna asks, dubious. But she circles around the rock in search of an easier way to the top. "Let's see... Where can I climb up at?"
There is, in fact, a relatively easy path to the top - at least, it isn't the near-vertical side Shelby is scaling. "Other side," she says unhelpfully, through her teeth, and gasps as one foot slips. She regains the rest after a few flailing seconds, and rather than push her luck any farther, hurriedly searches for a way off.
It isn't difficult to find that way up, and soon the Fianna cub is squirreling her way toward the top. Seems she very well might have made it up the more difficult path if she'd wanted to. "So, what are you going to do after you Rite," she calls out to Shelby.
"Don't, ngh, know. Ow!" Were she anywhere else, Shelby would likely jerk her hand from the offending painful item, but just now the painful item - namely, fingers jammed into a crack in the rock - is what's keeping her from falling several feet. "Pack'd be nice. Some days don't think I'll make it. Be culled."
"What makes you think you'll be culled," Jacey asks, very honest in the question. She shimmies her way toward the edge, using her legs as leverage to keep from slipping back down. "Did Zosia-rhya give you reason to think you will be?"
Shelby says without any self-pity, "She doesn't like me. I think it'd be easier for her if I weren't here." She's pulling her fingers free, having found a stable footing, when she adds quickly, "/Not that I'm suggesting she'd cull me just because she wanted to!"
Jacey leans out over the edge, reaching her hands down for the Fang to grab. "Where do you get that Zosia-rhya doesn't like you? She's hardcore and scary sometimes, but I don't think she hates you."
"Ow," Shelby says again, and spares a moment to shake her poor abused fingers before sending them questing higher. She hasn't looked up, so hasn't - yet - seen Jacey's offer. "I can tell. It's all sorts of little things, nothing big. It's not like she pushed me over in the playground and yelled that she hated me, or anything. She's not four."
"Well like what," Jace presses, though gently. For a kid. Her hands remain hanging, for when the older girl notices.
"It doesn't matter, Jacey," the Ragabash says firmly. "It's between me and Zosia-rhya, if it matters at all." Now she does look up, catches sight of dangling fingers, and manages a smile. "Your arm's going to fall asleep, if you keep it hanging. Besides, won't I pull you off? Or are you in Glabro?"
"There's a ledge here, kind of." Jace edges back slightly so that her arms are hooked at the hinge of her armpits and upper body. "Besides, if you slip I'll shift so neither of us fall. Just try."
"In a little bit," promises Shelby. "I don't think I can reach you yet." She checks for more footholds before adding, amused, "Nor do I want to practice shifting in the middle of climbing this thing. It'd give me a few more inches, though."
Jacey seems quite content to wait. Even amused. So she lets her arms hang and watches Shelby's progress from the new vantage point.
It isn't that much longer before Shelby is able to grasp Jacey's wrist, and after that, the rest of the climb proceeds much more swiftly. "Thanks," she says once she's safely atop the boulder, flat on her back to watch the branches overhead. "Why do you think Chandini has us climbing this thing?"
There's a short moment, where the Fianna feels like she might slip, but she catches a snag with her foot and manages to hold her ground. From atop the boulder, Shelby can see the younger girl is as flat as she can get, legs spread and feet pressed against a rise that, from the other side, might make a decent hand hold. "Probably teamwork," Jace replies. "Plus to use muscles and brain together."
"Teamwork, maybe." Shelby doesn't sound convinced. "I don't know. It seems like every week she has us doing something new. You left, last time, before she had me walking Michael through handholds."
"Maybe following directions then," Jace suggests, sitting upright. "Sometimes we need to learn to follow, not just lead."
"Oh, always following directions." Shelby tucks her hands behind her head, elbows splayed. "Remember? If we don't do what she tells us, we have to do it over. Freedom's getting better at it though, I think. What about you?"
Jacey nods in agreement. "Yeah, he's doing good. I think once he accepts things he'll be a really good Garou."
Shelby lifts her head just far enough to try and catch Jacey's eye. "Are there any cubs you don't think will be a really good Garou?" she teases.
Jacey shakes her head slowly. "Nope. None that matter, and I shouldn't judge anyway. I'm still a cub." She grins, glancing toward Shelby.
"Doesn't stop you from making judgments," Shelby points out, still smiling. "You mean you don't want to make bad ones." After a moment she sits up and brushes off her clothing. "Right. I bet Chandini wants us to climb down the boulder next, so I'm going to try."
Jacey stands and brushes herself off. "Why not jump and roll," she says. "Like Chandini-rhya does jumping out of trees."
The Ragabash asks, "Because that's not climbing down the rock?" in the tone of voice that isn't a question. "I might climb down in Glabro, though, just in case I do fall. I can just see something stupid happening, and me hitting my head or something."
Jacey nods slowly, but also shrugs. She walks to that easy side again and slides down a good portion of it, half climbing as well. It's much faster going and, rather than waste too much time, she jumps the remaining distance with the intent of rolling upon hitting the ground.
Currently the moon is in the waxing Gibbous (Galliard) Moon phase (74% full).
Around the Lone Boulder
Early afternoon finds Shelby facing down the boulder, scowling at it as though it should be impressed with her. After a moment she approaches it again and resumes trying to scale it - not using the relatively simple path, but the more rugged opposite side. It seems to be the first step she's having trouble with, and the transition from standing on something horizontal to vertical.
It's not entirely normal to find Jacey out this way, the girl's scent and track usually bypassing the boulder except on days when class is in session. Yet indeed the Fianna cub is jogging along from the northern edge, steadily making her way toward the large rock. She isn't breathing too heavily yet, perhaps having just started running, but already she's perspiring slightly in the relative heat and humidity she's still acclimating to.
Shelby can get her foot up or her hands in place but not both, and after a minute of scrabbling just stops, resting her forehead against the stone. "I -will- get this," she tells it (it remains unimpressed) before turning away and blowing out her breath. It's as she's bending for her water bottle that she catches sight of Jacey, and lifts an arm in greeting to the younger girl.
Jacey slows to a walk at the sight of Shelby, raising a hand to wave back. She glances toward the sky, seeming as though to mark the place of the sun in her mind, then veers off her path and toward the boulder itself. "H'lo, Shelby," she calls out as she approaches. "What are you doing today?"
The child before you stands at four feet and seven inches. At eleven years old, she's skinny in a way that's only reserved for youth, and seems to be made up of knees and elbows and limbs she's yet to grow into. Her curves aren't easy or smooth, but the lanky frame yet to come into adulthood.
She's not unpleasant to look on, most might even consider her cute despite the short cut hair. After all, when she offers a rare smile her cheeks dimple. Her shortly cropped hair is a strawberry blonde, perhaps more blonde than strawberry in its lesser state and in the right light. And green eyes to boot.
Typically the child can be found wearing any assortment of jeans and T-shirt, most of which look like hand-me-downs and have an appearance of being worn for several days before being changed. Dust, mud, and damp are a constant upon her shoes and lower pantlegs. Her jacket is much the same, dusty and well used out of doors.
"Practicing," the older girl sighs, and runs both hands through her hair. "Chandini-rhya has a thing about this rock, and I'm tired of not being able to do what she asks. So I figured I'd come out here and the rock and I could have a little chat. Only it's not very talkative."
"Yeah, rocks are good listeners but not good talkers." The younger cub trails a hand along the rock's surface before coming to stand near the older. "What are you practicing, though? Just the climbing you and Free did that one day?"
"Well, when I tell it I'm going to climb it it just laughs at me." Shelby shoots the boulder a dirty look and takes a long pull from her bottle. She wipes off the rim and offers it over. "Sort of. She's asked us to climb all over it and race to the top. I can climb it in Crinos, but in homid? I suck."
Jacey looks up at the boulder, frowning slightly. "Why would you need to climb a boulder in homid," she asks, tone rhetorical. "Don't know that even I can climb it without being in a different form, but if Chandini-rhya tells me to I'll try."
"To keep the Veil, maybe," the Ragabash shrugs. "I think her pack has city territory, so that makes sense. Besides, most of us are homid-born, so it makes sense to get us doing things in a form we're already used to. And can you imagine a wolf trying to climb a boulder?"
Jacey shrugs slightly, then grins suddenly. "I doubt Earth-Whisperer-rhya would be able to climb the rock. I don't think he even knows how to shift to homid." The Galliard pauses and considers the boulder again, reaching out to touch a hand to its surface. "I guess it makes sense, though, but I don't know I'll ever be climbing boulders in the city."
Shelby takes the water back and recaps it, tossing the metal bottle to the ground. "Boulders, walls - they're the same thing, I guess. Are you planning on spending most of your time in the city, once you've Rited?"
"I can't," Jacey replies, losing some of that energy she'd had while jogging. Her arms fold across her chest and her head tilts back to look up at the sky. "Zosia-rhya and August-rhya took me from the city just before I firsted, and I've been here since. It would be trouble if I went back and my family found me. Especially if they aren't clued in."
"But you said," Shelby starts, and stops to think about it. "--Oh." Then again: "Oh - were you a lost cub? You family are probably at least kin, aren't they?"
Jacey shakes her head. "No, I wasn't lost, just didn't know. August-rhya and Zosia-rhya saw this deer spirit and it led them to me." She turns toward Shelby, offering a small smile and a shrug. "Even if they are, we might not be able to tell them anything. Especially if my step-dad or his spawn are around."
Shelby says, "Stag spirit, you mean." She returns to the boulder and frowns at it, stretches out her arms and considers the Fianna. "So you're stuck in the forest whether you want to or not, huh? But Saint Claire's a pretty big place. You might not have to worry about them finding you."
"Right, stag spirit." Jacey nods, confirming she meant that. "Yeah, I can go to the city, but I don't think I could live there anymore. And I probably can't go alone. I'm eleven and a Galliard."
"You changed really early, and I changed really late," the Silver Fang says wryly. "You went to school, though, didn't you? What grade were you in?"
"Sixth." A fact that Jacey seems quite proud of. "Going to talk to my Elder and see if I can homeschool after I Rite. So I can finish high school. We have a kin who's a teacher."
"Oh, yeah?" She gives Jacey another look before returning her attention to the boulder. "I graduated high school. Most Garou don't. I suppose they don't even have a GED. That's going to take a lot of time, and a lot of work."
Jacey shrugs and steps up to the rock, reaching her hands up as high as she can to finger the upper reaches. She even stretches onto her toes and shuffles, trying to find a suitable handhold. "I know. But cubhood is taking a long time, too. And I want to get through high school. Without recess or summer vacation now," she pauses, giving a pull on a particular part of the rock. "I bet I could finish everything in three years. Maybe two if I really, really, really try." With a grunt, the Fianna cub pulls her feet up off the ground and gets one on the rock to act as leverage to push her lower end upward.
Shelby stays firmly on the ground, watching Jacey like she's not sure daisies aren't going to suddenly spring from her ears. "--Maybe," she agrees after a few seconds, and drifts a few feet farther from the other cub, there to study her own possible path. "Most people take six years."
"But most people also have recess and vacations and things," Jacey counters. She gives a push with that one foot, throwing a hand upward to grope for another hold to catch. A second later, she's back to her previous position, shifting slightly to get both feet on the rock. "But I just have the Garou thing. I don't think your elder, or mine, spends all their time patroling or fighting the wyrm physically or anything like that. I'm sure they have some time for themselves. And Cliaths might have more."
"Not three years' worth," Shelby replies mildly, but lets the topic slip away while she stretches to find fingerholds. "How long have you lived in Saint Claire? All your life, or...?"
"Two weeks I think," Jace returns. She pushes herself upward again and, in doing so, releases the hand hold to get a foot there instead. She all but throws herself against the boulder, trying to use friction to keep herself off the ground. "We moved during winter break and school had just started again when I got there."
Shelby asks, "You think? You're not sure?" She curls her fingers around the jut of stone and tests its strength, nods to herself and searches for a foothold to accompany. "I was only in town a week before I shifted. Which makes me glad I didn't shift the week before. Except the moon would have been small then, so I suppose that's why I didn't."
Jacey scrabbles through Shelby's question and comment until her fingers find something to hold onto, a small lip on the boulder's face. However, she's stretched out and looks somewhat stuck. "I'm a kid," she reminds the older cub. "I was in school like a week before I got taken, and we were living in Saint Claire like a week before that. So I think it was two weeks."
Shelby looks, for a moment, as though she'd say something, but after the moment passes she only shrugs and returns her attention to the boulder. "So you don't think your Mom... your mother? knows about Garou?"
"She might," Jacey conceeds. "But she never told me or my older brothers." She pulls with her arms, fingers and hands straining to draw her upward and beyond the stretch of her toes. "But you knew, right? Being a Silver Fang, everyone probably knows about the Nation growing up."
The Ragabash doesn't answer at first, being more concerned with trying to leap up to the foothold and not bounce off the rock. She mutters something under hear breath that doesn't sound English and glares at the boulder, then resumes her search for a different path. "I grew up at the Sept of Sunlit Waters, yes, so everybody knew. They thought I was kin, though. The Baptism of Fire was wrong."
Jacey settles back onto her previous position and drops one hand from the hold. "Didn't know that could go wrong," She says as she rubs the freed hand across her brow. "I thought spirits were never wrong."
"Rites can fail," Shelby shrugs, just as casual as though she didn't have personal experience. "Spirits only know what they know, too - you wouldn't expect a Falcon to know everything that happens in a lake, would you? Besides, I get the feeling from Zosia that spirits can lie if they want."
Jacey looks at Shelby, though not rudely and without trying to meet her gaze, but definitely appraisingly. "That's.. actually really interesting. I didn't know that." Looking thoughtful, the Galliard studies the rock within arm and leg reach of her body, searching for an easier handhold or foothold.
The Silver Fang is studying the rock, not watching the other cub, so Jacey will have plenty of opportunity to look. "What? That spirits can lie, or that Rites can fail?" She finds and tries out a different foothold, one not so high so she doesn't have to jump for it. With that, she manages to actually start climbinb.
"That spirits can lie," the Fianna returns. "I didn't know they could, just that they were sometimes tricky." One hand tightly gripping the upper surface of the rock, the other placed against its face for balance, Jace reaches out with a foot to test a potential step. "So, spirits somehow made a mistake with you, or the Rite didn't work. But you still grew up knowing." There's no accusation in her tone, just casual comment, maybe even awe.
"I grew up knowing about the Garou, yes," Shelby agrees, her voice sometimes muffled as she makes her slow way up the boulder. She seems to be searching for every hand- or foot-hold she can reach from each location, not just the ones that are directly above. "But knowing what Kin know and how the Garou see things is a lot different."
Jacey seems to agree, or that grunt might be just her trying to get higher onto the boulder. But it sounds confirming. "I might, after I come back from my Rite of Passage, see if Cole-rhya or someone were able to go with and find out about my family. Charlene was going to go, but I think she's been too busy and I don't want to bother her. It's not her Tribe anyway."
"Wouldn't be appropriate." Of course, the Silver Fang would probably think so. "I'm not even sure where to start looking. We all got basic courses in genealogy, and how to read family trees, but that's with a known entity."
"Well, I can start with finding my mom," Jacey replies, using that formerly free hand to reach upward. "Might know something, because my real dad died before I was born." The words again are completely casual, the Galliard could have been talking about the weather or baking a pie rather than talking about her deceased father.
Shelby asks, "You didn't live with your mom? Your step-father had custody?"
"We all lived together." Jace frowns slightly, looking at Shelby as though the older girl might have missed something. "My mom married this other guy when I was a little kid, and then we all moved here last winter."
"Oh," Shelby says vaguely, most of her attention on the rock-climbing. "I lived with my grandparents. Shouldn't be too hard to find her though, right? Just look in the phone book, or where you lived before you changed."
Jacey nods and looks upward. She gives a sigh and drops back to the ground, settling backward until she's on her bum. "That's really hard to do. Maybe Chandini-rhya just wants us to use those muscles."
"--Maybe," the older girl agrees, still not paying much attention. "I don't even want to think what my nails look like. I've given up trying to grow them."
"Why not go into war form and have someone paint them," the Galliard offers as she watches the Ragabash. Then have it so it sticks when you shift forms."
That causes Shelby to stop and turn her head - carefully! - to peer down at the Fianna. "Dedicate... nail polish," she repeats, disbelieving. "You're joking, right? Because that's not very honorable."
Jacey shrugs slightly, looking for a brief second uncertain. "Why wouldn't it be honorable? We do it to our clothes."
Shelby says, "It's... It's nail polish," as though this should make everything clear. Before pulling herself to the next handhold she adds, "Clothing's necessary, in homid form. Nail polish isn't. It's like those stories you hear of Bone Gnawers and Glass Walkers, dedicating bits of technology to themselves."
"But it's not dishonorable to Gnawers or Walkers to do that," Jace replies, possibly more confused than before. "Why should nail polish be any different. Unless you don't wear it..?"
Shelby's head shakes, barely, as she clings to the wall. "Yes, it is. Even if they're urrah." She sends her right hand out to quest for the next crevice, snaking it along the stone. "Of course I do. Did. There's just no point in - ugh - wearing it. These days."
Jacey shrugs slowly and seems to let the subject drop. "I ran into more fomori," she says, unboastful. "Want to see the scars they left?"
Shelby's fingers manage to find a crack and snug into it, leaving the rest of her splayed out on the rock. "Not really," she says, sounding apologetic, and manages to twist around to send a rueful smile down. "Sorry. I've seen too many movies where that's a cheesy pickup line."
Jacey makes such a face that words cannot describe. Clearly that wasn't what the younger cub had meant and the very thought of it meaning anything beyond what she'd said never occurred to her.
Shelby chuckles, turning back to the rock. "I thought they weren't going to leave scars anyway, unless you died and came back? If you've got that many scars, Gaia must really love you."
Jacey shakes her head. "Things still scar. Or there's a Rite that will make things leave battle scars," she explains, looking over her left arm. "But these scars go away over time and are just like normal scars. Like what happens when you pick a scab."
The Silver Fang says, "Huh," and a few seconds later, gently teasing, "I still don't want to see them." She's quiet for a few more ticks of the clock while she gains another foot or so in height before adding, "What did you want to do? Before you found out you were Garou?"
"I don't know," the Galliard returns, still making a face over the earlier comment. "Maybe be a teacher or something like that."
"I was going to be a lawyer," Shelby says. "That's why I came to Saint Claire: pre-law. --Can you tell how far I am from the top? Am I halfway there, or what?"
Jacey leans over to one side, flattening out on the grass to take stock of how far the Ragabash has climbed. The younger girl makes a big deal about this, too, standing after the leaning to take in another view and even moving beneath Shelby for a final look. "More than half. You got maybe another mile to go, though."
"Another mile," Shelby repeats with an amused huff. "I'd throw something at you, if I had anything." She does have a rock to hand, but... well. It's a pretty big rock. "All right, that helps. You want to head up the easy side, maybe?"
"There's an easy side," the Fianna asks, dubious. But she circles around the rock in search of an easier way to the top. "Let's see... Where can I climb up at?"
There is, in fact, a relatively easy path to the top - at least, it isn't the near-vertical side Shelby is scaling. "Other side," she says unhelpfully, through her teeth, and gasps as one foot slips. She regains the rest after a few flailing seconds, and rather than push her luck any farther, hurriedly searches for a way off.
It isn't difficult to find that way up, and soon the Fianna cub is squirreling her way toward the top. Seems she very well might have made it up the more difficult path if she'd wanted to. "So, what are you going to do after you Rite," she calls out to Shelby.
"Don't, ngh, know. Ow!" Were she anywhere else, Shelby would likely jerk her hand from the offending painful item, but just now the painful item - namely, fingers jammed into a crack in the rock - is what's keeping her from falling several feet. "Pack'd be nice. Some days don't think I'll make it. Be culled."
"What makes you think you'll be culled," Jacey asks, very honest in the question. She shimmies her way toward the edge, using her legs as leverage to keep from slipping back down. "Did Zosia-rhya give you reason to think you will be?"
Shelby says without any self-pity, "She doesn't like me. I think it'd be easier for her if I weren't here." She's pulling her fingers free, having found a stable footing, when she adds quickly, "/Not that I'm suggesting she'd cull me just because she wanted to!"
Jacey leans out over the edge, reaching her hands down for the Fang to grab. "Where do you get that Zosia-rhya doesn't like you? She's hardcore and scary sometimes, but I don't think she hates you."
"Ow," Shelby says again, and spares a moment to shake her poor abused fingers before sending them questing higher. She hasn't looked up, so hasn't - yet - seen Jacey's offer. "I can tell. It's all sorts of little things, nothing big. It's not like she pushed me over in the playground and yelled that she hated me, or anything. She's not four."
"Well like what," Jace presses, though gently. For a kid. Her hands remain hanging, for when the older girl notices.
"It doesn't matter, Jacey," the Ragabash says firmly. "It's between me and Zosia-rhya, if it matters at all." Now she does look up, catches sight of dangling fingers, and manages a smile. "Your arm's going to fall asleep, if you keep it hanging. Besides, won't I pull you off? Or are you in Glabro?"
"There's a ledge here, kind of." Jace edges back slightly so that her arms are hooked at the hinge of her armpits and upper body. "Besides, if you slip I'll shift so neither of us fall. Just try."
"In a little bit," promises Shelby. "I don't think I can reach you yet." She checks for more footholds before adding, amused, "Nor do I want to practice shifting in the middle of climbing this thing. It'd give me a few more inches, though."
Jacey seems quite content to wait. Even amused. So she lets her arms hang and watches Shelby's progress from the new vantage point.
It isn't that much longer before Shelby is able to grasp Jacey's wrist, and after that, the rest of the climb proceeds much more swiftly. "Thanks," she says once she's safely atop the boulder, flat on her back to watch the branches overhead. "Why do you think Chandini has us climbing this thing?"
There's a short moment, where the Fianna feels like she might slip, but she catches a snag with her foot and manages to hold her ground. From atop the boulder, Shelby can see the younger girl is as flat as she can get, legs spread and feet pressed against a rise that, from the other side, might make a decent hand hold. "Probably teamwork," Jace replies. "Plus to use muscles and brain together."
"Teamwork, maybe." Shelby doesn't sound convinced. "I don't know. It seems like every week she has us doing something new. You left, last time, before she had me walking Michael through handholds."
"Maybe following directions then," Jace suggests, sitting upright. "Sometimes we need to learn to follow, not just lead."
"Oh, always following directions." Shelby tucks her hands behind her head, elbows splayed. "Remember? If we don't do what she tells us, we have to do it over. Freedom's getting better at it though, I think. What about you?"
Jacey nods in agreement. "Yeah, he's doing good. I think once he accepts things he'll be a really good Garou."
Shelby lifts her head just far enough to try and catch Jacey's eye. "Are there any cubs you don't think will be a really good Garou?" she teases.
Jacey shakes her head slowly. "Nope. None that matter, and I shouldn't judge anyway. I'm still a cub." She grins, glancing toward Shelby.
"Doesn't stop you from making judgments," Shelby points out, still smiling. "You mean you don't want to make bad ones." After a moment she sits up and brushes off her clothing. "Right. I bet Chandini wants us to climb down the boulder next, so I'm going to try."
Jacey stands and brushes herself off. "Why not jump and roll," she says. "Like Chandini-rhya does jumping out of trees."
The Ragabash asks, "Because that's not climbing down the rock?" in the tone of voice that isn't a question. "I might climb down in Glabro, though, just in case I do fall. I can just see something stupid happening, and me hitting my head or something."
Jacey nods slowly, but also shrugs. She walks to that easy side again and slides down a good portion of it, half climbing as well. It's much faster going and, rather than waste too much time, she jumps the remaining distance with the intent of rolling upon hitting the ground.