Howl With The Wolves

-Silver Wolf Guild Hall, Phoenix Mountains-

Wearing her white winter camouflage coat over her green-and-gold outfit, Leona stood in the foyer checking over her gear. In addition to the coat over her outfit, she also wore her Argent Gloves and carried her Nightshade Machete to chop wood to build the fire for the guild ritual called "Howl With The Wolves." It was a ritual used to "officially" induct new members into the guild and welcome them into the group. in all her time in Silver Wolf Leona had not yet performed the ritual, which was more than a little odd considering that she was the Guild Mistress. Tonight she hoped to rectify that mistake and finally howl with the wolves to be considered an "official" guild member.

Leona realized that she was missing something and went back to her room to get her backpack of supplies. She would need it because she would not be alone in performing this task. The newest guild member, a young woman by the name of Lorelei Laguna, would be joining the Guild Mistress in howling with the wolves. The blonde stepped into her room and opened the backpack, making sure to add a second winter camouflage coat in case Lorelei needed something a little more substantial than her parka to wear. Leona then added three long strips of orange reflective tape to the front flap of her old brown backpack to form a shining rectangle: she did this so that Lorelei would have an easier time of finding Leona should they get separated and to give Lorelei something to follow as they walked up the mountain to the site they would use for the ceremony.

Once the backpack was ready Leona closed it up and put it onto her back, then walked into the foyer and checked her gear one last time. This time everything was in place, so she took a breath of warm air and stepped outside into the slightly chilly air outside to wait for her guildmate.

-Outside the guild hall-

Leona shut the guild hall door behind herself and stood a short distance away from the front steps to wait for Lorelei. Leona would not leave her guildmate behind because the latter had no knowledge of the mountains and was not nearly as strong as the Guild Mistress. As the Guild Mistress, it was Leona's responsibility to help and protect her guild members.

[Word Count: 406]
[Total Word Count: 406/500]

Why was she being brought along for this? She wasn't looking to be a part of another guild. She was talked in to it though. She didn't put up much of a fight. Maybe she wanted to be a part of something again? Maybe she wanted to have some people she could trust? Who knew? Lorelei seemed to know, deep down, she knew what she wanted. She didn't reveal anything about it though. Lorelei was more concerned with keeping to herself. Well, that was a bit of a fallacy. She had a supreme issue with expressing any sort of emotion, which gave the impression of utter indifference to the situation.

She was wearing long stockings today, with garter belts strapped around the thighs and up in to the seams of the short shorts she had on. Boots coming up to her knees instead of those summer shoes she arrived in. A sleeveless blue top with the white word NAVY printed on the front of it. In her hair was that anchor shaped hair clip, keeping her raven hair from hanging in front of her vision at all times. SHe was getting ready to go outside, but couldn't without a proper coat.

So she would be lying down in front of the entrance to the guild, on the inside mind you. Lying down on her side, just staring at the door. When Leona came down, she was nearly stepped on, thankfully stepped over. And she would just lazily lift her hand and wave to the guild mistress, "Hello Boss." She said in that constant sigh tone of hers, as if she couldn't really be bothered. The wind of the door opening caused her to roll over, not wanting the icy gale to blister her face.

If she was offered one of those high end coats, she would put it on, along with a hunter's cap, tying the flaps on around in to a chin strap, walking outside with Leona, heading off to wherever it was that they were going to be howling with wolves. "Why do we do this? Like. Why howling?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

WC: 368
TWC: 774

Slowly waking up with a groan, Erebus let his eyes adjust to the candle that radiated a steady light next to his face. He'd fallen asleep at his desk again and judging by the now shattered object in front of him, he had yet another failed attempt to sweep into the garbage.

Figuring that the best way to wake up would be a nice walk around the guild, he threw on some clothes and went on his way. Reaching the entrance first, he saw Leona and a girl he'd never seen before walk outside. After asking the man at the desk where they were headed he was told about the rite of passage that Silver Wolf members did to "join the pack". Erebus raised his eyebrow a bit, thinking that it was strange, but if the guild's leaders did it, then it couldn't have been that bad.

Choosing to follow them, Erebus darted back to his room, throwing on his red and black hoodie and a new pair of sturdy winter boots that he'd gotten while he was down the mountain before heading outside. He made his way behind them in a sort of half jog while yelling past the falling snow "I hope you two don't mind a bit of company!". By the time he got close enough to where he could walk normally, he'd be panting to catch his breath as the tracks he'd made before were now gone as if someone had been erasing them with each new step he took.

Word Count: 254

Leona had expected Lorelei's company, but she did not expect Eros to come along for the ritual as well. She had not seen the red-haired youth in quite some time, not since she had inducted him into the guild several weeks ago. His presence was unexpected but not unwelcome. The blonde was glad to see that he was still around and that he had gotten a bit stronger in the meantime.

"Hey Eros! We were about to go up a mountain path to do the Howl With The Wolves ceremony. It'll be a bit of a hike, but you're welcome to come with us if you like." Leona told Eros. She hoped that Lorelei would not take umbrage at Eros' unexpected joining of the ritual. Perhaps Leona should ask the dark-haired girl how she felt about the redhead joining them.

"Lorelei, would you be upset if Eros joined us for the ceremony?" Leona asked Lorelei. She wanted to give Lorelei a say in the matter, but she was concerned about how Eros would feel if the former did not want him to come along. As Guild Mistress, it would be Leona's responsibility to find a satisfactory solution to the issue if it came up.

[Word Count: 210]
[Total Word Count: 616/500]

No one seemed to care that she was lying on the floor, in front of the door no less. Though, that was fine, the less people asked her about stuff, the less talking she had to do. She didn't like how people thought she had some sort of an emotional problem. SO she tried to avoid talking as much as possible. Speaking when spoken to. When asked if Eros could come along, there was no reason to say no. SO naturally, she responded, "You're the boss. I don't mind." She would comment after getting her jacket, tucking herself away in to it for warmth out in the snow.

ALready walking off on her own, Lorelei was heading possibly in the wrong direction. The girl didn't have a lot of sense for self preservation, judging by how she came to the guild in beach clothes, and was now walking off without the guild master. She simply needed to be pointed in teh right direction, "Oh, right, my bad." She would say with a smile, though the tone was still listless, as was the look on her face.

And so, Lorelei, after being directed, would be walking off to wherever it was they were headed off to. "Do either of you know why we do this ceremony?" SHe would ask on the way there, crunching her feet through the snow.

WC: 241
TWC (all participants) : 1479

Trudging his boot-clad feet through the several inches of snow on the ground, Erebus finally managed to catch up with the others. Feeling the bite in the air, he finally had the sense to throw up his hood to get some semblance of cover from the snowflakes battering the side of his face.

The constant stabbing of the winter air was a feeling that Erebus was slowly starting to get used to as the fog of his breath disappeared into the night, lost in the white of the Phoenix Mountains. At this rate, he wondered if he would be a frozen statue by the time they arrived at their destination.

Lifting his gaze, he still saw the Master of his guild walking tall, her coat asway in the harsh gale. Spurred on by her example, he widened his stride as he heard Lorelei ask why they were doing this.

Raising his voice enough to cut through the wind, Erebus repeated what he was told "It's sort of like this bonding experience that new members are put through. It's kind of tough to explain, but I'm sure the older members understand it better than me.".

wc: 195 total wc: 449

Leona trudged up the hill just slightly ahead of the other mages to make sure that the path was safe for them to traverse. So far, so good. The blonde listened to Eros explain the significance of the ceremony to Lorelei and was impressed that the redhead managed to figure out the point behind the ceremony. Since Leona was one of the "older members" that Eros had touted as having a greater understanding of Howl With The Wolves, the blonde felt compelled to add to the conversation.

"Eros is right, Lorelei. It's a ceremony where new members bond with each other and with the older members who sometimes attend. I believe that it was started by Leila Vergious, the first Guild Mistress and founder of Silver Wolf." Leona explained to Lorelei and to Eros. Now came the hard part. She would have to admit to them that this was the first time that the current Guild Mistress had ever participated in the ceremony. But first she stopped at the halfway point of the mountain they were climbing up and saw some precariously perched trees capped with snow that would be perfect for use in the bonfire that was the centerpiece of Howl With The Wolves. She then turned to face them and made her admission.

"This is my first time participating in the ceremony. I've tried to take part a couple of times in the past but things never seemed to quite pan out." Leona admitted to the pair. She would spare them the details of the rapid change in leadership from Leila Vergious to Poko Monstar to Leona Jarnefeldt. if they hung around long enough, they would learn about that one day. For now the blonde wanted to focus on the present. Leona's green eyes met Lorelei's before the blonde spoke to her and tried to answer an earlier question.

"As far as howling goes, that's another thing that Leila's responsible for. Since wolves live in a pack and they communicate by howling, I guess that Leila wanted group members to feel like they're part of a pack when they join." Leona offered the best answer she could give to Lorelei. Leona needed to either go to the library and read about the ceremony or ask Leila herself for the details. The blonde would ask Leila about the details some day soon.

[Word Count: 400]
[Total Word Count: 1,016/500]

"Oh, okay." Well, she was easily convinced. Agreeing with them ever so effortlessly while they went up through the path, already seeing the breath on the air. She rectified this by putting her hands together, spreading them apart while she spoke the word "Warmth" As soon as she did, the letters would form between her gloved hands, glowing red as they enveloped her body. Warming her up a bit while they continued to walk up toward the designated area was.

"If Leila was the first Guild Mistress, where is she now? You're the guild mistress yourself. Aren't you?" SHe wasn't really well versed on guilds, not that she was never really exposed to them. But, she had only experienced one change of a guild master once, and it resulted in why she fled her home country, not that she would tell anyone about that just yet.

When they finally reached the area, an open space in a circle of trees, with several logs turned over and sawed in half, they provided excellent seating. A little fire pit in the center. The tropical weather suited girl would plonk herself down on one of the logs, and look to make several pieces of wood with her magic, followed by some fire to stoke up a nice camp fire. Every little ember that would fleck off of it was the word CRACKLE in little pieces. Solid Script was nice to have around, especially when you didn't want to chop a tree down just to warm up.

"Awoo." SHe would start, completely without any emotion behind it.

WC: 276
TWC: 2350

Pushing onward, Erebus could make out a clearing up ahead while the flurry of snow seemed to finally start calming down. Reaching there destination at long last, the young red headed man took a seat on one of the logs to rest his feet.

"The former Master is still around, you might not have just caught her walking around yet. I still catch a glimpse of her magical signature every now and then." he spoke up, answering Lorelei's other question.

Though when it came time to start howling, Eros' mouth clenched, staying wired shut with embarrassment. Maybe it was by underestimation or false confidence, but the idea of opening howling, even in front of just two people, make Erebus' make start to go red. Thankfully, the cold air was his friend on this occasion, able to hide his embarrassment by already having his blood rush to his cheeks from the cold.

wc: 151 twc: 600

Leona arrived with Lorelei and Eros taking the lead, but she did not mind because it was not a race to the top of the mountain. Well, for her anyway. She was bundled in warm clothing and slowly growing used to the cold climate. Lorelei and Eros did not share those advantages just yet, so they might be in a slightly bigger hurry to perform the ceremony than she was. Leona would be happy to oblige them.

Making sure that her two guildmates had made it to the top safely, Leona arrived at the site last. She watched as Lorelei used her magic to create some logs that were already sawed in half and then use her magic to ignite the logs. Leona was not sure what exactly the magic was called, but it appeared to have a wide variety of uses outside of combat. While the Guild Mistress' magic was powerful, most of it was limited to combat alone. Wind Summon Magic was more versatile than Wind Strike Magic because it gave Leona and her companions a means of quick travel, but it was still primarily combat-oriented.

Seeing that both mages had started howling at the moon, Leona soon followed suit.

"Awoooooo!" Leona howled in a high-pitched "howl" that made her recoil from how off-kilter it was.

Leona did her best to howl, but it sounded more like a high-pitched yelp than a steady howl. The blonde's face turned beet red before she tried again, but the outcome of this attempt was exactly the same as the first attempt... a high-pitched failure. Leona tried a third time and messed up again, so after that she just gave up on the endeavor. She had tried her best three times and had come up short each time, so Lorelei and Eros could not blame her for trying. Now Leona could say that she had howled with the wolves.

[Word Count: 323]
[Total Word Count: 1,339/500]

While Leona's attempts were earnest, and valid, Lorelei was really phoning it in. SHe just had that listless look in her eye as she monotone spoke the word, awoo. Again and again. Until she finally had gotten just cold enough that she had sneezed. Of course, a sneeze like that, while trying to say awoo, just meant that your sneeze was noisy and sounded like a banshee howling. Not exactly a wolf howling, but, that wasn't anything to nitpick today, was it?

"Sorry, I'm not used to the cold very much." She said, while scooching closer to the fire she made. "Where I'm from, everyone rides around on the waves on boats, and you have tropical air constantly. So, this is a bit different for me." She said, her voice still devoid of much emotion on the matter.

"How well does everyone in the guild know each other by the way? I, well, my old guild, everyone knew each other, but, it was a small guild, enough to fit on a galleon at least." SHe said, one of the rare moments when Lorelei revealed something about her past, maybe something that Leona might have been looking for in the times they interacted?

WC: 215
TWC: 1000

Letting his nerves settle, Erebus looked up to the shrouded sky where the full moon was exposed, filled with the sounds of other wolves. The echoes carried throughout the mountain almost as if they were the wind that carried the snow. It was enough to give him a chill in more than one sense of the word.

And despite his lack of a howl, it seemed that the others didn't really do much better. That made him feel a little bit better, even if they didn't do it on purpose.

Over the next couple of minutes he'd start whispering small, inaudible howls to himself to work past his self concious wall until

"AWOOOOOOO!!!"

A howl escaped him at last! A proper howl to answer the others! And in that moment he could feel the worries built in the moment wash away. But in his moment of patting himself on the back, he accidentaly ignored Lorelei and her question apart from a vague understanding. But since he' only joined about a week or so ago, he wasn't in much of a place to answer anyway.

wc: 184  twc: 784

"I'm not used to the cold either, Lorelei. I'm from Desierto, which is hot most of the time. Except at night, then it gets kinda cold." Leona shared her dislike of cold temperatures with the dark-haired mage. Eros finally managed to howl and it was a better howl than the Guild Mistress did. It sounded a lot closer to a wolf than Leona could manage. She then thought of a response to Lorelei's query about how close the guild members of Silver Wolf were to each other.

"The guild members here are kinda close. It mainly depends on how close a guild member wants to be with others. Me, I'm not very close to anyone in particular because I've been too busy doing jobs and filing paperwork to really get to know members, but I'm trying to change that before it's too late." Leona admitted to Lorelei with a slight tone of regret. The blonde had been so busy with jobs to put the guild's name out in the public eye that she had forgotten to really try to bond with any of the guild members. Leona had taken advantage of Leila's return to try and make a connection with her, but the blonde needed to try and expand her contacts in the guild.

"I know Yuvon Mu-Myu, Mizumi Aiyama, Haley Halcyon Musea, and Kitalpha Aurence. They were here long before I joined and helped me get on my feet. I knew Poko Monstar before she left because I was a Guild Ace under her leadership. Leila Vergious was the one who brought me into Silver Wolf and gave me my start. I'm trying to learn more about her and the other guild members like Song Talea and Inkormine Talea, a brother-and-sister team who also came from the desert." Leona listed some of the guild members she knew and had come to know over her tenure as Guild Mistress. She hoped that she came close to giving an answer that would satisfy Lorelei. If that one did not suffice, Leona would try to come up with another, more satisfactory answer.

[Word Count: 364]
[Total Word Count: 1,703/500]

She just sat there, giving a half hearted awoo now and then. It sounded like she wasn't putting her all in to it, in fact, she was, but, that's only because she never really did much in the lines of raising her tone beyond the one she used. So, her voice fell dead on the wind every time. Lorelei just sat back while listening to what the other two were doing and saying.

While Leona's story helped assuage her fears a little bit, she just seemed to clam up a little more. Lorelei just nodded in response to what Leona said, "Okay, thank you for that. I just don't want to lose anyone again. Forgive me if I don't readily make friends, I feel like I would lose them almost immediately." She said, letting another little fact slip.

She then focused, and took in a deep breath. Sitting up straight as she let one out, a louder AWOOOOOO, a little more emphasis in it as she hugged her knees to her chest the whole time. She did it well enough that it echoed out on to the wind throughout the next few seconds. She sat back after that, content with her little howl.

WC: 211
TWC: 1211

With the night sky growing somewhat calmer over time, Erebus was content with his howl, feeling like he could finally open up at least a little to his guild-mates. He felt less...contained than he was before. Like he could actually go through a few conversations with someone without resembling a socially awkward block of ice. He wasn't exactly planning on being a social butterfly, but he was hoping that he could have some kind of presence within the guild apart from being that new guy that doesn't talk too much.

"Well I'm ready to go if you guys are." he said, getting up to stretch his legs for a bit. He went over to lean against a tree, preferably on a side that shielded him from the cold wind, while Lorelei and Leona finished their talk.

WC:136  TWC: 920

Leona had no room to complain about anyone's social skills. Her own were sorely lacking because she was used to doing so much on her own. They had not improved even after joining Silver Wolf, something she regretted because she had put her own interests before building connections with guild members like Leila, Kitalpha, Yuvon, Mizumi, and all the others. Leona was not sure if it was too late to try and change that, but she would try to do better.

"I'm ready to go as well. If you guys are ready, that is." Leona said to Lorelei and Eros while basking in what moonlight there was. She did not want to rush them if they wanted to stay and admire the scenery. At that moment something else she needed to say came to mind, something she needed to tell them.

"Welcome to Silver Wolf." Leona told both the dark-haired girl and the red-haired boy as the wind blew her short blonde hair about. They were already "official" members by virtue of bearing the guild tattoo, but now that they had completed Howl With The Wolves they were now "real" members. So was Leona, for that matter. The third Guild Mistress was now a "real" member of Silver Wolf.

[Word Count: 213]
[Total Word Count: 1,916/500]