The young Slayer girl had been careful every step of the way. She had taken precautions to hide her tracks in case her father decided to break his promise to let her wander on her own. She had warned her mother that she might not return and told her not to come searching. The woman cloaked in white was ready for a new life away from her overprotective parents. Her mother had seemed to respect her choice, which made the young girl curious as to why she would allow that. Her mother had always smothered her. In fact, both of her parent’s reactions to her request to leave seemed to be underneath their character. She would have written it off as them accepting the fact that she was grown up now, but she was not naïve.

The emerald eyed girl grinned as she ran through the water that lapped over the shore of the lake. The cold water felt good against her paws as the sun started to set. Her stomach rumbled but it was a dull hunger that came from a steady diet of rabbits and voles. She closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath as she looked up towards the skies. “I’m out here adventuring, just like we planned.” She whispered as she stared at one small, insignificant star. She would never forget her brother. She would remove herself from the water as she noticed the storm clouds that now covered the forest. This only made her hold her grin as she looked at them. She loved rain!

CRACK! The roar of thunder and the sight of lightning made her nearly jump out of her skin until she realized she had nothing to worry about. Slowly, the water started to fall from the sky, making Valeria run towards the forest to find cover from the storm. She liked the rain but it always made her fur seem musty and sticky. She eventually found cover underneath a fallen tree.

The young Slayer girl had been busy shaking her pelt of the loose water droplets when she heard a voice. Val would look up to see a russet wolf standing under a nearby tree in the rain; all Val could do was offer a warm smile and a kind tone to the woman.  The white woman would speak with a care free tone without sounding overly hippie. “Hello! I wouldn’t mind company if you need more cover!” She would call out. She was not one to be aggressive or rude to wolves, especially when she was a loner and they made it clear that they were in a pack. The ivory woman would move over towards the side to make room for the woman if she chose to join her underneath the decent shelter.

If there was one thing that Valeria was confident in, it was her survival skills as a lone wolf. She had been on her own since she was a mere 8 months, which left her 4 months of lonerdom when she left her parents behind. She had heard of the rest of her family, Night’s side down to James (no knowledge of Isardis, Karpos, or Adsila and their respective parents) but she had never thought to seek them out and she did not know of their history in the Lore. It was probably a good thing she did not often introduce herself with the Slayer name. Her emerald eyes remained stoical despite her carefree nature that she often expressed. She was naturally a proper and stiff woman with the heart of a naïve, carefree adventurer. Part of her wondered if this would get her killed one day.

“My name is Valeria but you can call me Val.” She left it a casual meeting by leaving out her full name. She felt self-conscious with her two middle names and last name. Part of her mind ran through the idea of joining a pack but she was far from done with her exploration. She would have to wait but it would never hurt to start gathering Intel on what these lands had to offer before she was to make a decision. She had a feeling that the tawny wolf would be able to help her with this. If not information on her pack, then standings and opinions and locations she might have for other packs. She knew some liked to keep their secrets from others.

Val had been graced with the severe training that came with the last name Slayer. Titana and Avalon had not let her work to extremes because they cared about their little princess but she had become a skilled hunter which kept her alive. When the woman introduced herself as Raela and then offered a nickname, Val opted for the name ‘Rae’. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Rae.” She dipped her head in an official greeting to the woman. Raela would ask where she is from and being who she was, she answered but she was vague about it. Her ivory pelt would lay neat against her skin and bones as she turned, sitting to face the woman to allow more of a conversation between the two of them.

She thought carefully about how much information she was to give. “I’m from a pack far north of here named Terras Fortem.” She left her answer unclear as to where it was, just in case she knew of the place or some of the harsher rumors around it, which were just that, rumors. Her mind fell into a defensive mode as she remembered her training. She liked to think she was a soldier with a soul but she could not go as far to say that. There was no way she’d hurt an innocent and she was terrible in battle anyway. “What about you? You said you were from a pack, doing some scouting.” She pondered these words aloud as she looked at the tawny female, interested in what the woman had to say. The woman was double, if not triple her age now that Val was getting a good look at her. She was around her size and seemed to have a decent muscle build to her. Perhaps she was a hunter or, more realistically given what she was out in strange lands doing, a scout.

Intrigue was one thing that the young Slayer child did not lack. There was also the matter of how she overthought everything, which explained her constant wondering and her stoical expressions. She was kind but sometimes she worried that if she did show emotion, it would reflect badly on her. She feared others would mistake her curiosity and intrigue for more sinister tones. She knew that the world was dark and full of terrors. Myths and legends made men cringe with fear over the supernatural and unknown. She had to be careful.

Her answer proved to reap some rewards as the woman gave a general direction, a time as to how long it would take to get back there, and a name for the pack. Carefully, Valeria would store this information and return to her thoughts once more. She was pulled out as she was asked a question: what was she doing here? Should she answer this? She told her mother she wouldn’t even give the pack name out… but she was also four months away from her mother right now. “I’m out here to find myself: soul searching if you will. I was tired of living under the shadow of my brother and I needed to find a place that would take me that would not know of my esteemed former soon-to-be leader Nahilus.” She didn’t sound bitter; she just spoke in a calm tone.

Her emerald eyes watched as the rain fell outside. “Most of the time I love the rain but I was taught that being out when lightning was out was dangerous.” She shrugged, looking towards the sky for any indication that the storm would let up anytime soon. The clouds were still dark grey, almost black, overhead as the wind whipped around her white fur. She would grin as another flash of lightning appeared in the sky and CRACK! The sound made her calm almost. It was times like this when she could relate back to fun times with her siblings before all of the heir nonsense rivalry. She would remember back to when Nahilus had dared her to climb the big rocks while it was raining and how she had done it just to prove she could.

Her mother had been mad at her for that, but it had so been worth it. She would turn her attention to Raela and ask a question. “So do you like the rain?” The question was innocent enough as she looked at the tawny fae who sat there, avoiding the rain such as she did. “Not necessarily being in the rain, just the rain in general.”

When the woman spoke about the beauty of lightning but the frightening roar of thunder, the girl would ponder about the cohabitation that the two beasts shared in the sky. After thinking about it for a few long seconds, she would speak to the other woman. “It is impossible to have beauty without fear. Beauty is a frightening thing in itself.” She would turn her head towards the older woman with a soft smile. There was nothing to be afraid of now that they were bundled down and sheltered in for the storm. They were dry while others were getting soaked by rain water. She felt good for once in her life and that was not going to change. She also felt a certain ubiety for what was happening around her. She knew that no matter where she ended up, she was her and no one would judge her for it.

The other woman would ask her how long she had been out on her own and quickly, Valeria would respond to Raela’s question. “I’ve been on my own for about four moon cycles. I told my parents I was going out to scout and never returned. I think they knew when I told them, since my brother Absyrtus was the scouter, and I was more of a hunter. They let me go anyway.” She would say as she looked between the soothing storm and the tawny female. She had been forced out of her pack while Val had left willingly. This surprised her but she made no comment about it. It was strange because in all her time, she had never seen anyone forced out of Terras Fortem.

Sure, she had seen people turned away, but never forced out.