Rosa Walz (rosawolf) wrote in light_of_may, @ 2010-07-29 21:20:00 |
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Entry tags: | 2009-07-21 |
There are werechipmunks?
WHO: Rosa and Alanna
WHERE: Bargain Books
WHEN: Early evening
Rosa had been coming to Bargain Books for as long as she could remember.
Even back when her parents had been alive, the used bookshop was a regular stop whenever they’d come to Scarlet Oak to visit her grandparents. There had always been something special about the place, with its wood floors, old tin ceiling, and shelves upon shelves of books stretching wall to wall and floor to ceiling, covering nearly every available space with inventory.
Her affection for the bookshop had only increased over the years, especially during high school and college and she had to pay for books with her own money instead of her grandparents buying for her. Some girls spent their allowances and later money from part time jobs on the latest fashions or gossip magazines, Rosa had spent hers on art supplies and books.
Now that she was out of college and running the Mudhouse, she didn’t have as much free time as she used to, but she still made a point to swing by Bargin Books every so often. Even a busy small businesswoman/artist needed the occasional guilty pleasure romance novel or thriller now and again.
It was, in Alanna’s mind, a very successful day so far. She had gone outside without having any run-ins with the local snakes (a huge plus, maybe that meant it was all in her head and there was not an abnormal abundance and she was not being stalked) and had a nice normal - if running around the woods with a wolf while she was a chipmunk could be considered that - day without a single freak out. Every day needed to be a whole lot more like today and life would be perfect. It was never going to happen but hey, a girl could hope.
That hope was exactly what lent her the inspiration to go to the local used bookstore instead of scurrying back home. Well, that and she knew that Roxy was having her mermaid (right, she was a mermaid?) over for a date and she wanted to give them some privacy. So now she was just perusing the shelves to try and find a book that would tide her over until she took herself home. Definitely nothing in the horror genre or that even touched on the subject of snakes because, um, no. She was out and about and did not need to think about that much less than pleasant subject. But nothing seemed - wolf! Instantly Alanna’s eyes were wide and she turned towards where the scent was coming from. A young woman, maybe around her age? who smelled of a predator beyond any doubt.
Exposure to Kiley had helped Alanna not run immediately but that did not mean she did not instantly jump back into the bookshelf, trembling from head to toe as she judged how far to the nearest exit. Which happened to involve going past the were. Just when everything was going so well I have to come across another predator. Amazing. Her luck needed a recharge.
Rosa turned at the noise, wondering what the hell was going on. She saw a vaguely familiar redhead about her own age cowering against a bookshelf as if she were in mortal peril. It took her a minute to place the other woman, and her eyes widened. “Alanna?!” She took a step closer toward the woman, a puzzled smile on her face as it had been some time since she’d seen her. Then the scent washed over her: chipmunk, and a terrified one at that. It was coming from Alanna, without a doubt. “What on earth?” She didn’t even know there was such a thing as a were-chipmunk, but unless there was a rodent in the other woman’s purse that was what she was dealing with.
Oh god, oh god she knew her name... wait. Alanna fought to override the terror that stemmed from her chipmunk nature and focus on why this particular wolf might know her name. “Oh!” it was quiet exclamation and Alanna covered her mouth, humiliated by how she reacted. Even moreso because she still had that undercurrent of terror at being around a new wolf. Who was not actually that new. “Hi Rosa,” she said in a quiet, sheepish tone, brushing her hair back behind her ear. “I, umm... hey, sorry about that. Little jumpy I guess.” And you’re a wolf! Is that a new development?
“Yeah, I guess so!” Rosa’s smile was a bit warmer now that the other woman seemed to remember who she was, but no less puzzled. She’d heard of all kinds of crazy things since the Light of May, but a were-chipmunk?! The gods must have a strange sense of humor.
She was dying to ask Alanna what had happened and when she’d been bitten, but they were out in public and she didn’t know if the other woman was open about her condition.
She took a step closer and put what she hoped was a calming expression on her face. Looking around to see if anyone else was close enough to listen in and satisfied that they were practically alone, she leaned in. “What happened?” The wolf asked quietly. “You never smelled like this before.”
Alanna’s heart dropped into the pit of her stomach at the revelation that Rosa was more than likely a born wolf. Well, if she knew that Alanna smelled differently than the last time she had seen her. That meant she had at least been bitten longer than Alanna either way. So not quite like Kiley. Shifting Alanna shrugged uncomfortably and looked away. “Had a run-in with a chipmunk,” she said in a voice that was practically a whisper. Not the sort of thing she really wanted everyone to know about. She held up her hand and tried to grin, showing the little mark. “About a year ago, I guess. You’re, um, naturally, aren’t you?”
Rosa looked at the mark with wide eyes. That must have been one hell of a chipmunk. She couldn’t quite imagine how someone could go from a normal sized human to something the size of a chipmunk, but it obviously happened.
“All my life,” she responded to her friend’s question in the same quiet tone. “My grandparents are ordinary humans, my furry side came from my dad’s part of the family.”
A born indeed. Just wonderful. It was easier to get along with Kiley who understood the trauma of the change and being unable to control it when her temper blew or the full moon came. Imagine having the choice of becoming just the animal or having actual control of the hybrid... so not fair. “Well that’s something,” there was a hint of wistfulness in her tone. Because at least if she had been born that way then she would not have to deal with all of this. Or the change. “Guess it must be weird for someone to smell different, huh? Did I smell better before? Less... food-y?”
“Different,” Rosa corrected. “Not better or worse, just different.” Alanna did smell like prey, a little. She would never say it to a bitten were’s face, but she felt a little sorry for them. Not being able to control their change during the full moon or if they really lost their temper, it had to be a constant worry in the back of their minds that they’d hurt someone. “It is a little weird, I haven’t run into it that often. Are you going to be all right?” She had no idea exactly how chipmunk-y Alanna was in terms of instincts, having never run into this kind of were. “I’m sorry I scared you.”
Probably like an afternoon snack. Just a snack though, because Alanna knew how big her chipmunk form was and that was not much of anything. Plus she was a bitten and she had a really, really strong feeling that born weres thought they were some sort of inferior. She wondered if Rosa would tell her the truth if she asked. “My friend, she’s a family of were rodents... mostly chipmunk. Her and her bro-...” Alanna’s face paled at the thought of Aaron and she quickly had to steer her mind away from that before she touched a nerve she thought was healing. “I’ll be just fine. Just really jumpy and flighty, comes with the territory.” Adding that on top of her natural aversion to being close to people and it was like asking for trouble. “People scare me all the time. So - how’re you?”
It sounded like there was more to the story than what the other woman was willing to tell, but Rosa wasn’t going to pry. Not yet anyway. She couldn’t comprehend the idea of being scared of people all the time given that she had the blood of two top level predators, wolves and humans, running through her veins. But a were-chipmunk? That would have to provide a completely different outlook on the world.
“I’m pretty busy,” Rosa tucked a stray strand of hair behind one ear and smiled at the thought of her crazy life. “I took over the family business from my grandmother after I graduated, so running that keeps me hopping, and I still try for art commissions on the side. No rest for this wolf I guess.” She shrugged. At least she didn’t have a lot of time to stop and think about some of the more difficult aspects of her nature, such as only having one mate for life. “What about you? What are you doing these days?”
At moments like this Alanna could not help but wonder what her life would be like now if she was like Kiley and had gotten her bite from something more fierce and predator-centered. Maybe then she would not jump at every other noise that she was not expecting. Must have been nice to be so high on the food-chain that you never needed to worry about what was going to eat you. As a human Alanna should have felt pretty safe but, well, her chipmunk nature tainted how she viewed the world. Instead of other people she saw vampires who would feed from her or predators who wanted to make her a snack. Good thing she was not a depressed personality. “Sounds pretty cool that you’ve got yourself a business.” Not everyone could claim something like that. “And I’m interning at one of the local dentist offices, pretty cool really. Getting my doctorate so that I can maybe open my own practice specializing in vampire teeth or something that... you know, goes with the new supernatural thing.”
At the mention of vampires a brief look of distaste flashed across Rosa’s face. Maybe there was something to the old saw about wolves and vampires being mortal enemies, because as far as she was concerned the only good vampire was a decapitated vampire. All this talk about ‘good’ vampires that didn’t kill or force themselves on humans was just that, talk. She didn’t believe it for a second.
Still she should support Alanna in going for her PHD, especially if she had such people troubles. “So you’re gonna be Dr. Alanna DDS one day? That’s pretty cool, I could never do something like that. Any math above simple algebra or geometry goes straight over my head.” She made a ‘wooshing’ motion, sweeping her hand up over her head for emphasis.
Understanding the whole weres against vampires thing was something that Alanna was likely never going to understand. Yes they made her jumpy and she was afraid that one was going to eat her sometime, but she also thought that about a lot of weres who happened to have predatory natures. Occasionally she still caught herself edging away from Kiley and she still knew exactly how long it would take her to get out the door from her current location. But she hardly noticed the expression that crossed Rosa’s face at the mention of vampires, she could be a little unobservant like that. Instead she grinned brightly, bouncing a little on her toes and nodding. “Yep that’ll be me one of these days. Then you can come in and I can make sure you’re not like, drinking too much pop or eating candy or breaking your teeth on bones if you go... umm... hunting?” If she did that. If not Alanna had just stuck her foot right back in her mouth.
It really seemed to belong there most days.
“Can I get a discount since I know you?” Rosa grinned at her, more joking than anything else. She ran a business and knew what it took to make payroll and keep the lights on every week. “I hunt, it can be a lot of fun to chase rabbits or team up and go after a deer.” Her face lit up as she described it. The thrill of the chase was instinctive in her, she couldn’t help it. “It gets the blood pumping like nothing else I know.” Well, there was sex, but she hadn’t actually had sex yet technically so she couldn’t speak to that.
Alanna grinned right back, her bouncing calming down a little. “Yeah, totally! All my friends can, especially the ones who are weres because that is just cool.” And they were like her, that made it even better in her mind. Although her grin started to fade when she heard Rosa talk about hunting and watched her face light up at the mention of hunting. Fidgeting, the redhead brushed her hair back again and glanced down at the floor. “Yeah... ummm... lots of fun right there. Hunting and jumping and tearing...” No, she was not trembling or thinking about what side of that she would be on. “No, I totally don’t get that.”
Rosa’s grin disappeared at Alanna’s reaction. “I’m sorry, I should’ve just agreed with you and kept my mouth shut. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
This was why Alanna was never sure how to act around the more predatory sort of weres, because they liked things that she could not even hope to understand. And then she felt bad because Rosa was no longer smiling and it seemed like she had taken something away from her. “I’m not uncomfortable,” she tried to lie, hoping she was somewhat successful. “It’s just your nature. Nothing wrong with that, it’s just... you know, opposite of me. Now. Clearly. Fiercest thing I’ve ever hunted is the bag of peanuts that fell behind the couch. Or Callalily.”
Rosa could still smell the fear rolling off Alanna, but at least it wasn’t as bad as it had been. She accepted the other woman’s words at face value, and moved on. “Well, that can be a challenge all by itself,” she said with a bit of false cheer. “Trying to get at something that’s fallen behind the couch without, you know, actually moving the couch isn’t all that easy.”
Moving the couch. Alanna’s expressive face showed the thought process and she raised a hand to point at Rosa, nodding as she did. “You know, that would have been an awesome idea if I had actually been able to like, think of it.” Talking too fast was one of her problems and another was that she tended to act before she actually thought things through. “See, yeah, no I’d rather just do the hard thing because it popped into mind first. Plus it was kinda funny to see... or so I’m guessing going off of how hard Roxy was laughing.”
“We’ve all been there,” Rosa smiled at her, feeling a bit more relaxed as Alanna calmed down. “Sometimes you just don’t wanna get off the couch. It does sound like it would have been amusing to watch though.” She glanced around the bookstore. “What were you looking for before I scared you half to death earlier?”
That was totally it, getting off of the couch was a chore that Alanna just did not want to expend the energy to achieve. Sometimes though she wished that she had a camera set up somewhere so that she could laugh at herself too. Surely it would cheer her up as much as it did everyone else. “Oh, umm... nothing in particular really,” Alanna admitted. “I just figured I’d try to find a book to read while I was out since I don’t come out all that often right now. Guess I was hoping something would just jump out at me.” And instead a wolf does just that. Fun. “What are you here for?”
“Um,” Rosa pinked up a bit. “Something to disengage the brain with, either a good romance novel or a techno-thriller. Kinda contradictory I know, but I read so many industry publications and business books that sometimes I just want some good escapist fun, you know?” She almost hated admitting it, since part of the chore of her chosen professions was just to be taken seriously due to her young age and her looks. Rosa didn’t consider herself drop dead gorgeous or anything, but she wasn’t so self effacing as to think she needed to put a bag over her head either.
“Something brainless, no need to be embarrassed about that,” Alanna assured. Sure that wasn’t her sort of thing, especially not romance because it continuously seemed to be getting her into trouble, but she got the idea. “I think I’m going to end up passing on a book and just go for a movie or something because my brain isn’t going to accept any sort of material after getting scared. No offense! It’s just totally true, that’s all. Though what have you gotten?” Curious, Alanna could not help but want to know. Maybe it would sound more interesting if she actually saw a title.
“Crocodile on the Sandbank” Rosa replied, holding the book up for Alanna’s inspection. “It’s the first book in a series about a family of archaeologists in Egypt back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One of the regulars over at the Mudhouse recommended the series, they loved it.”
Nodding, Alanna had never heard the title and she automatically assumed it would be about crocodiles not archaeologists. Sure she was intelligent but she just... did not catch things like that all of the time. “Cool, cool,” the redhead bobbed her head for a moment. “Hopefully you’ll enjoy it and maybe there will be some crocodiles in there. But I should probably get headed out, I try not to be outside much after dark.” Because being a chipmunk meant that every noise scared her that much more.
“Ouch.” Rosa winced despite her best intentions not to show too much sympathy for Alanna’s condition. To be scared of everything out in the dark, well, that would just suck. “Why don’t I give you my phone number? We should get together sometime.”
Used to people’s sympathy when it came to her inability to do certain things thanks to what she was, Alanna just shrugged and pulled out her cell phone to plug in Rosa’s number. “I’m pretty used to it by now so there’s nothing to worry about. I just know when I need to bolt. I’ll totally fire you a text sometime, they can be a little rambly so be prepared for that. No, seriously, they are.” Usually to multiple people too.
Rosa rattled off her number and pulled out her iPhone from her purse. “I don’t mind, I like getting texts. What’s your number?”
Okay, Alanna had to admit that she was totally jealous of the iPhone. There was nothing wrong with hers though and she already had an iPod so she could not very well justify spending all of the money on one of those. Not yet. Maybe when she was a dentist with her own office she would, but not until then. “Here you go,” Alanna chirped off her number and slipped her phone back into her bag. “Hope to hear from you soon, Rosa, be well!”