Take me back- (Tavie)

Why did things always have to be so complicated? This was the ultimate unanswered question for Ralph. He wished life was simple but unfortunately it wasn't and he always seemed to be in the middle of life's most complex puzzles. Like the one where he's falling for his best friend but doesn't want to tell her in case she doesn't feel the same and the potential to destroy their great friendship. Ralph wished things could go back to how it was last summer, to how thing were before Vegas. Ralph was walking along the lake shore deep in thought, he didn't know when things took a turn for the worst but Ralph had never felt more alone even when Raven was away in New York he felt closer to her than he did now. As Ralph walked along he thought about Vegas and those happy memories wishing he could back and just relive that awesome weekend. He wished he could make thing okay again with Dani, Gem and everyone else.

Octavia was never one for the great outdoors. Sure, she liked the whole tree hugging idea with the LSD and the hippie hair, but she just never got in to sitting in the mud and singing along with bongo drums pretending like she was one with the universe. Despite this aversion, though, her drug induced haze made something out on the water of Yellowstone Lake look like a big, glittering diamond. Throwing on a leather jacket, Octavia pushed through her dorm door and jumped down the stairs two at a time, nearly tripping at the bottom and barely catching herself from an embarrassing and probably painful face plant against the RA counter.

It wasn't long before she was by the water, on her stomach in the mud. Despite the fact that it was now late May, it was still chilly outside, the Lake still sporting a border of ice along the edges. Whatever it was that glittered and glowed was just outside of her finger's reach, but she scooted a little further out on to the precariously thin ice and tried again, desperate to reach it. The problem was, the glitter got further away the closer she got to it, and her power was wearing down, suddenly less entertained by her inability to get what she wanted to badly.

As her power flickered away, so did the glittery glow. If the ecstasy would have last even a moment longer, she swore she would have captured whatever it was. But it was gone now and, in disappointed, she let her head fall against the ground. Which, she realized as she fell into frigid lake water, was not ground at all, but a thin sheet of ice that had been cracked beneath her weight. She felt herself sinking and couldn't tell which way was up. The ice on the surface of the water made everything dark and Octavia was suddenly stricken with the fear of drowning.

Ralph had caught the scent of the female nearby, it was a slightly familiar one but not necessarily one that Ralph could place. From the scent he was picking up the person didn't exactly have a very clear mind. He wanted to know who it was and his curiosity got the better of him as followed the scent and soon found the person behind it. Again familiar but Ralph couldn't place her, he just recognised the blonde. His suspicions of her not being entirely sane were confirmed by the fact that she was lying on her stomach on the freezing cold ground. She appeared to be reaching for something or trying to anyway and was just grabbing thin air. "Hey are you okay?" he asked as he made his way close to her.

As Ralph walked a little closer to her, he noticed that she was now on a thin sheet of ice that was still on the lake even though it was well into the spring. He also saw it crack beneath her, "Hey, come back the ice isn't strong enough to ..." But before he could finish his sentence the inevitable happened and the girl was underneath the water and ice. Ralph froze with fear for a moment for her sake. Ralph wasn't sure what to do, he hated getting wet it was something that he avoided at all costs but at the cost of someone else's life? After just another beat the Wolf made the choice for him, instincts kicked in overpowering any thought Ralph was giving the situation. The Wolf ran and dove into the icy water, its thick fur meant it hardly felt the cold and it managed to grab a hold of the back of the girls shirt and pulled her out of the water and back onto land.

Coughing and sputtering, Octavia shook her head and tried to get the water out of her lungs. She could feel her body rejecting the fluids and forcing them up her throat as she coughed them all over the sandy, gravel that bordered this edge of the lake. Well, that was one way to sober up really fast. She could feel the mildly chilly air permeating her now soaked through jacket and making her entire body shiver violently. It took her longer than it should have to realize that she couldn't have possible pulled herself from the frigid water. She wrapped her arms around her torso, trying to hold in the last of the warmth before she finally laid eyes on her savior. Yep, she'd been doing too many drugs. It was official. Unless a wolf really had just saved her...

Tilting her head to one side, Octavia said between shivers, "Thank you?" Like she wasn't sure that's what the creature wanted.

The girl wasn't that high, she had actually been rescued by a Wolf, of course it wouldn't be expected of anyone to accept that as a fact straight away. Usually wolves didn't save humans in fact they hardly came near them, however this Wolf had some identity crisis and deep down human nature and instincts control it just as much the Wolf instincts control Ralph. The Wolf simply watched as the girl struggled to get rid of the water in her lungs, this wasn't something that the Wolf understood so he figured it might be about time to hand back over to him human, who would know what to do.

The Wolf looked at the dripping wet girl and tipped its head when she thanked him. It didn't understand but clearly it was time to relinquish control and let the human take over. It didn't take long before the Wolf form dissappeared and Ralph's human form took its place. "Are you okay?"

Octavia couldn't help but shake in the chill of the wind, frosting her soaked hair and causing ice to form at the ends of the tresses, "I think so." She giggled, letting her power seeping into her blood steam and the air around her as she hugging her legs to her chest, shivering. Watching a dog...wolf...thing transform into a mostly naked man had been weird, but it definitely wasn't the weirdest thing she had seen in a drug infused vision, "And you?" She asked, not realizing her shirt was basically see through at this point.

The woman shivered which meant she was cold, Ralph felt the chill himself it wasn't to bad since the Wolf blood inside him keeping warm. Ralph watched the woman, "I'm good. Just wet and cold." Ralph said he was trying not to look at her chest or any part of her that was being revealed by her almost transparent shirt."What were you doing on the frozen lake?"

Octavia looked out at the lake, a large hole in the ice was now marking where she had stupidly crawled across the thinly frozen lake, "You know..." She started, giggling as she tried to release more of the drugs into her blood system but for some reason her power seemed to be out of reach at the moment, "...I'm not completely sure." Octavia closed her eyes hard and laughed, trying to seem what she had seen before, but it wasn't happening, "Thank you, though!"

Ralph wasn't sure if the girl was completely sane or if she was a little bit mad. He didn't say anything though, "You know for future reference, thin ice isn't safe." Ralph joked. The girl looked very familiar but he couldn't place her, he remembered her and somewhere Gem was involved but the it was a blur.Ralph saw the girl close her eyes and he smiled when she thanked him again. "You're welcome but we really should get out of the cold." Ralph said, he realised they probably looked very odd, both were dripping wet and he was currently just in his underwear. He had no idea what passerby may have thought. That when he caught it, the girls scent, while Ralph's facial recognition could use some work, his scent recognition was unmatched by anyone. "It's you...from Vegas." Ralph's eyes lit up with recognition. This was the girl that Gem almost married right after both of them had gotten drunk beyond belief.

Octavia raised her eye brows and blinked a few times, trying to understand what he was saying, "I am from Vegas..." She said slowly, not knowing the relevance of his statement. She chewed on the inside of her cheek as she considered the man in front of her. He was a student here, obviously, which meant that maybe he was there that night with Dani and the blonde chick. She tilted her head from side to side, trying to think clearly, "You're that dog boy! The one who picked me up!" She burst in to laughter and shook her head, "No way! Small world!"

Ralph gave her a moment to see if she connected the dots in her mind. Ralph had to laugh when she called him a dog boy. "Uhm yes that was me." he was pretty sure he'd picked the girl up and then proceeded to drop her. "Sorry about that by the way, I wasn't exactly sober." Ralph said with a chuckle. It was definitely Gem's fault. "Yes definitely a small world." Ralph agreed. He didn't expect to ever see those people again. He just hoped she wasn't there for the whole stripping debacle that occurred while Ralph was drunk.

Octavia just burst into fits of giggled and laughter as she sat on the beach of the frozen lake, shivering. She shook her head and finally got a grasp on her power letting the ecstasy flow through her blood and infect the air around her, "Oh no worries, bro. Just another story, am I right?" She said between chuckles.

Ralph saw the girl shivering and realised that they really should get somewhere warm. While he might've been alright, the girl looked frozen. Ralph chuckled too, "I guess so, so what brings you to Ashford? If you don't mind me asking." Ralph said, he smiled at the girl feeling himself relax even though he didn't realise how tense he actually was.