| Details for Roar |
| Summary: | Josie helps out with dinner while Camilla coaches Lucian through an important lesson. |
| Date: | August 31, 1938 |
| Location: | Fawley Farm, Hogsmeade |
| Related: | The Beast Within |
| Characters |
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It is the last day of Summer Break. The Fawley 'family' has set up a picnic out in one of the back fields. For some reason Cami has kept food from Lucian today, so his chores and the daily grind has all been done on an empty stomach. So one can only imagine how good the things in the still closed picnic basket smell to the poor starved teen. Oddly there's also a fire-pit and grill set up several feet away from the large picnic blanket. As for Cami she's perched on top of one of the fences with the picnic set up behind her. Josie has been asked to start and tend the fire for grilling. While she's facing Lucian who's standing a few feet in front of her on the far side of the fenced off picnic. "Alright Lucian. There's dinner." She gestures towards a Yearling Cow. "Breath deep, hungry, aren't you? She looks very good, doesn't she? She'd fill your belly up real good, and provide for your family. Wouldn't she? Listen to the Beast Within. Feel him, be him. Eat, provide for your family. Get out all that aggression towards me for starving you today on her…not me." She grins and winks but then gets serious again and nods her head. "You can do this."
Lucian has been scowly and growly all day. All work and no food makes Lucian a grumpy boy. He gives Camilla an irritated sigh, "Cami, I'm starving. Can we not do this right now?" His eyes are drawn to the picnic basket like magnets. His stomach complains loudly enough for the others to hear, eliciting a hungry grimace from the lad.
Starting and tending fires, without magic, is a skill that Josie probably never thought she'd need to learn before coming to this farm. Now, though, she doesn't seem to have any problem getting the fire started, occasionally poking it with a longer stick to help the fire catch air. She looks up to Lucian and Camilla as the lesson begins, but doesn't say anything for the moment.
Camilla shakes her head and points to the cow. "We don't eat Lucian until we've got the main entree on the fire. So focus. You can do this. Take that hunger, use it. You an I both know it's a predator growling inside of you. Don't look at me…look at the cow, hunt."
Lucian rolls his head back in an exasperated huff. "We've been trying to make this happen for weeks, Cami." It's been fairly plain to anyone how distracted Lucian has been, and how his training has faltered, ever since Arlo Sykes took the wrecking ball to Lucian's relationship with Ria. The boy's fire has been little more than smoldering coals. "Maybe we were wrong. Maybe I haven't got this in me."
Camilla blinks at Lucian and she hops down from the fence, "You quitting Lucian?" She tilts her head and gives him a challenging expression. "Some girl's father tells you you aren't good enough and you curl up and believe him? Was he right? Are you not good enough? Or are you Lucian Proudmore, a better man than his father and Arlo Sykes? A man that has a tenacity for what is right and what is good in this world. You are a protector of creatures great and small Lucian. You aren't Ria's boyfriend. You are a young man that could be something fantastic. A young man that would make any girl's parents happy and secure in knowing that when you do find the right girl with the right family, that she will be taken care of and provided for. Now, look at the bloody cow and listen to your voice in your head, not Arlo, not your father, you. Don't quit Lucian. Listen, prove those bastards wrong."
Looking up from her fire, Josie frowns slightly with a confused look, "'Course you do, something's just wrong. You're holding back. You stood up to my dad, Professor Dumbledore, your own dad, even a bunch of dark wizards, why are you letting Ria's dad tell you what to do?"
Lucian glares back at Camilla, bristling at the verbal onslaught. His fingers clench into fists, his arms stiff at his sides. "I'm…not…QUITTING!" His hackles raised, he looks ready for a fight. But Josie's words pull him back to earth, and he gives her a quizzical frown. "Look…it's different, alright? I don't give a damn what Arlo Sykes says. It's just…Ria won't stand up to him. I'm not worth fighting for, in her eyes." The anger has settled, but still visibly simmers behind his eyes.
Josie shrugs a little to Lucian, "Maybe she doesn't know she can fight her father, some people in normal families are like that. Maybe she's waiting 'til she knows you're there for backup. Maybe she's just not that brave, not everybody's brave enough to fight for themselves. But everybody knows she loves you. Maybe it's just up to you to do the fighting."
Camilla looks so very proudly towards Josie, she nods along with what her ward is saying. "Well you know, wasn't she interested in all this? Good way to prove yourself. Girls like a guy with power and something unique. Nothing like being an Animagi to bring out the swoon…" She trails off with a shrug and a smile as she returns to her perch on the fence. A gesture is given to the cow. "Maybe we should call her, Arlo-ette?"
Lucian grumbles. "She hasn't responded to any of my letters. She's totally cut me off. She knows I'll fight for her. I'd stand up to him if she actually wanted me to." She shakes his head, his anger starting to give way to despair. Camilla's attempt at a joke about the cow's name earns her a skeptical lift of his eyebrow. "Look, I get what you're trying to do. You want me to channel everything I'm feeling into a change. I just…I barely feel anything."
Josieasks, because of course she has enough imagination to see the possibility, "What if she's locked up? What if he's not letting her get your letters, or not letting her send any to you? What if you need to rescue her?" She stops, though, looking even more confused as Lucian says he feels almost nothing.
Camilla gestures to his belly, "Besides starving. I'm sure she's not locked up. Ria is very much about her family. We'll find out soon enough when it's time to be back in school. It's a bit late to launch a rescue…though I'm sure one isn't needed. Now, I'm getting hungry and would like a nice steak with my goodies on the side. Bend over, dig your fingers into the dirt, smell it, feel it, close your eyes and breath it in. The wilds around you, focus and reach into yourself. You're feeling plenty. Just not what you want to be feeling. You can do this Lucian. Focus. We've done this plenty of times before."
Lucian looks over at Josie, and through his hard stares, he can't help a slight smirk. Just like a Gryffindor to turn it into a fairy tale adventure, but somehow from Josie it doesn't seem pretentious. "I wish that were true, Jo." He looks down at his feet, to the dirt Camilla describes. His face hardens, steely resolve forming even as he gives in to the lesson. "Fine. But I don't know how you expect this to be any different than before." He crouches down, shutting his eyes as he sinks his fingers into soft earth.
Not looking entirely convinced by Camilla's reassurances, Josie does nod and, after poking the fire a couple more times, sits down on the ground and watches the lesson, once again not saying anything more.
Camilla as usual isn't ruffled by all the gruff aimed at her by Lucian. "Because you are ready. You just need to get out of your own way Lucian. Now, feel your blood rushing through your veins. Take deep breathes and feel your lungs. Swelling and deflating. All your blood rushing to your heart. Listen to your heart beat. Listen to it as it changes, becomes stronger, faster, it must to accommodate your new form." Her Hogsmeade tones soothing and soft, hypnotic almost. As she talks she reaches out a hand behind her for Josie, beckoning her over so they can cuddle up on top of the fence as she gives what she hopes will be Lucian's final lesson in becoming an Animagus.
Lucian has let his hair grow out a bit over the summer, so the golden mane hangs down around his eyes when he bends down. It creates a sort of curtain, shutting out the world, so it's just him, the earth, and Camilla's voice. Ten months of lessons swirl around in his mind; memories of raging over his father, getting in touch with the beast he could feel clawing inside him, learning to visualize his anger and make it work for him. His breathes grow deeper, louder. His fingers claw at the earth under him. "It's…still…right there. Just out of reach."
Josie puts down the stick and stands back up, stepping quickly over to the fence and climbing up to sit by Camilla easily. She looks to Lucian curiously, but this is something she doesn't even have a guess about, so for the time being she keeps her mouth shut, just glancing up to Camilla and back to Lucian.
Camilla drapes her arms around Josie and gives her a squeeze and a kiss to the top of her head. Still holding onto her ward who's becomes so much more than just some foster kid she looks to her other foster. "Don't reach. Be. Dig. There's nothing to become, you already are. Just be. Listen to the cows breathing, to her own heartbeat, stalk her, hunt."
Lucian takes a long drink of air, filling his lungs. "Don't reach…be," he echoes. For a long time, he's silent; just listening to the world. Birds chirping, insects scuttling in the grass, the breeze dancing through the leaves…then his own breath, his heart beating in ears. "I don't thi-…" He cuts himself off. There is a second heartbeat. His own seems to change to match it. "Cami," he voice quavers fearfully. His muscles tense, his gut clenches, and suddenly he can feel every part of his body. To the eyes of the ladies, he twitches, and hunches suddenly, his breaths coming in laboured huffs.
Josie smiles back up to Camilla, and then leans against her a little as she watches the lesson. When Lucian suddenly seems to be in pain, however, she tenses and straightens up, wanting to try to help even if she has no clue how to. She has to ask, "Is that supposed to happen?"
Camilla moves so that her wand in hand is on her lap, calmly. "It's alright honey. Just be, there's nothing to fear. Don't fight, it goes really quick, just let it." The arm around Josie still gives her back a rub whispering, "It is, he's doing wonderfully. It's just a little shocking the first few times. Any moment now…we'll finally get to see Lucian's spirit in the flesh." Her smile is warm and encouraging, eyes never leaving Lucian. "Any moment now…"
The moment comes without any further warning. Lucian throws his head back, his growls bursting into a roar to the sky. But the roar of the boy evolves into the mighty, bestial roar of a lion! Where moments before there was a blond haired Slytherin, now a young lion lifts his head, baring his fangs to announce his arrival to the world.
Josie bites her lip, watching nervously, but when Lucian finally transforms she cheers, clapping. And, she has to hold in a giggle. Lucian, who so mistrusts and dislikes Gryffindors, a lion. Still, she manages to keep that supressed and just gives another cheer.
Camilla tears run down her cheeks as she looks in awed pride as the young man turns into a young lion. "There you are." Is whispered and then there's a moments glance back towards the mile away House as Godric gives a roar in response to the new lion. She joins in on the clapping and cheering for the transformation. Arlo-ette however does not seem as happy with one of her caretakers suddenly turning into a lion. The cow bolts.
Instinct is a powerful thing, even in the mind of an Animagus. Lucian the lion springs into a run after the cow, bounding across the grass with powerful leg muscles. Penned in as Arlo-ette is, the poor creature doesn't stand a chance. What follows isn't the most appetizing scene. Minutes later, Lucian is dragging the bovine carcass back toward Camilla and Josie in his blood-stained jaws.
Josie has spent two summers feeding Thestrals on a daily basis, and has likely seen Godric eat a few times. Blood and gore no longer seems to bother her, at least animal blood and gore. She just grins as Lucian returns with the cow, "Brilliant."
Camilla is not one of those parents that hides the truth of the world from their kids, hell she just had her foster son hunt and kill their dinner and let Josie watch the whole bloody ordeal. She hops off the fence and just to be the kind person she is makes sure that the cow is dead dead by placing her wand at the back of the cows head and casting a spell that will quickly euthenize the creature. Then she comes around to give the messy lion a pet-rub down. "Wonderful! So proud of you!" She does make sure that Josie keeps back enough to make sure that Lucian's come down from being so instinctual.
Lucian sits on his haunches, flinches at first at the touch from Cami. But then, Lucian's never been very touchy-feely. But in a moment he gives in, nuzzling against her hands, purring loudly and lifting his chin with pride.
Camilla bends over and kisses the top of the lion's nose, one little final test to make sure that there won't be problems when she calls over Josie. "Let's get Arlo-ette cleaned and butchered and all that grill. I'm hungry!" Using her wand in deft very practiced maneuvers she uses spells to remove the skin of the cow and lands the heart and lungs down in front of Lucian. "I know you're hungry…when you're done with those, we can work on the turning back. So you can help." When Cami kills - or has a creature killed it's a pretty serious choice. Snout to Tail is her way of life, using everything. She passes Josie her boot knife so she can start to quarter the animal. Cami takes the most unpleasant of butchering jobs and the guts are removed and cleaned and placed in a tin tub she summons over from beside the blanket. The intestines are taken and cleaned using her wand again to send water jetting through them. This is all done several feet away from the carcass and in her use everything mentality sends the contents out to fertilize this back field.
Josie does, indeed, wait back on the fence until Camilla's petting Lucian, and then finally steps forward as well. "That was great! See, knew ya could do it." She looks up to Camilla and nods quickly, taking the knife, getting to work as she's given the task. As usual, she does her chores without complaint.
Lucian gives Josie an appreciative rumble, dipping his regal head. But then there's food. Ravenously, Lucian digs into the viscera, gnawing and making a bloody mess. It's probably a good thing Ria isn't here to see this.
Camilla leads her 'kids' through the process. When Lucian is done chowing down he gets another pet, "Feeling better? Now focus on how good it would feel to stand up. Use a fork. Sit and talk with us while we have a nice family dinner."
Lucian stares up at Camilla with…mischief in his eyes? He shakes his head, tossing his mane back and forth. Suddenly he springs up, and with a happy roar and a few bounding steps, he springs over the fence to run off toward the now deserted campground.