Mobian Daylife #8: Renfri Loveless, the Maned Wolf

 Renfri Loveless had started that morning with a brisk, quick hop in the shower. Drying herself off in her spacious studio apartment, two storeys above the streets of the busiest city in Starlight Zone, time of day notwithstanding.
Her fur appearing darker than usual when laden with moisture, she ran the towel up her arms, across her shoulders and chest before using what little of the towel hadn’t absorbed moisture to dry her long hair.
Sitting on the small kitchen table like a decorative plastic fruit tray was none other than the Phantom Ruby, tossed haphazardly aside like it was an everyday piece of jewelry. The stone’s unique, incomprehensible surface pattern, if one could call it that, pulsed with an unusual rhythm this evening. Moreso than usual, the maned wolf thought as she tossed the towel aside and approached the stone.
Renfri Loveless, or simply Ren the Maned Wolf, was not of this universe. She’d found her way not just across worlds, but time and a whole other layer of reality, thanks to the Phantom Ruby. 
The air was chilled inside Ren’s apartment, much colder than even the cooled city streets of Starlight Zone, and certain features showed themselves as a result of the chill as she walked around in only a pair of underwear, prepping herself for a night out on the city.

The maned wolf came face-to-face with herself in the large mirror near her bed. Smoldering, golden eyes atop a deep, burnt sienna muzzle created a marvelously devilish contrast. She flicked both ears one last time, removing any final drops of water that may have clung to the soft fur inside, then took a step back.
Ren was much taller than the average canid Mobian. Being of the Maned Wolf variety, her appearance was much lankier than a wolf or fox, with her having a solid foot over most, thanks to her longer legs.
The black fur that covered all but her muzzle and chest was as deep as the night and helped to sell the woman’s sultry personality. Her voice was deep and smooth, words flowing as if each were covered in a dark, luxurious chocolate.
She ran a hand up her leg, across her hip, her claw hooking the band of her underwear that hugged her hip so tightly, trailing up her torso as she ran it through her thick hair. Never brushing it, she found the natural, unkempt look to suit her overall appearance just nicely.
Retrieving a simple crop top and her favorite pair of pants, the maned wolf had dressed and was out the door in mere minutes, leaving behind the Phantom Ruby is it were an unimportant accessory.

Renfri’s strides were big, long, accentuating her impressive legs. She covered two to three steps for every one a typical Mobian made, and that caught eyes. It wasn’t the sight of a tall Mobian that was unusual in her case, as larger Mobian species were a thing. You just didn’t see canines so large.
She drove legmen wild.
“The Starlight Zone of this universe is so much more impressive than the one from my own; They actually finished the construction here.” She thought as her head turned, taking in the sights and sounds. 
Millions upon millions of tiny stars twinkled high overhead in a sky that was impressively still visible despite the city lights. 
Slipping her hands into her pockets, Ren started down the street, headed nowhere in particular, just wanting to take a night to herself instead of guiding that wolf on another off-world adventure.
How she’d ever got herself tangled up in this mess was about as big a mystery as her sudden disappearance from her own universe had been.

A heated argument with her partner, a slammed door and a brisk run into the wilds of Green Hill Zone later, and bam! Next thing she knew, she had come into possession of the Phantom Ruby.
The maned wolf parted foot traffic as she made her way down the sidewalk, lost in thought over the recent past. 
It’d only been a year, but already she’d mastered how to use the Phantom Ruby and had used it to not only travel to different worlds in her own universe, but somehow—at the disdain of Those Who Exist Between, as she’d come to learn—even managed to hop into a different universe entirely using the stone’s power.
A shorter fox Mobian wasn’t quick enough and had bumped Ren’s hip with her elbow. “I’m sorry, ma’am!” The pink fox bowed in apology. Ren nodded and told her it was okay.
“The people of this universe are actually quite kind; it’s refreshing.”

Life had been bad back in her universe. Dead-end office job. A loveless union with her longtime girlfriend, whom she suspected was cheating on her anyway. She had lost her entire family when Perfect Chaos flooded Station Square prior to that. Everything was just wrong in that old life, and so she not only welcomed the freedom the Ruby had given her—once she mastered it—but all the new lives she could take on, unhindered by her past.
It had been more than a year since that time, and she’d been to over a dozen worlds already, mingling with locals, learning their customs, just living the best lives across the cosmos.
And then she breached the veil between universes, and things began to go awry.

The usual purple and pink wormholes she fell through turned to a violent black and blue as she was tossed about like a napkin in a hurricane. 
Coming to a stop on a singular floating platform in an odd space, its vista looked as if two planets were colliding with one another. 
She met Those Who Exist Between there. A group of supreme beings charged with the management of the universe and their timelines, ensuring they remain clean cut and never, ever blur.
The creatures, neither Mobian, human, nor animal-based, but something entirely different, unlike anything she’d seen at that point in her travels. Seven in all descended upon her at once in a flurry of garbled speech that she couldn’t understand—yet.
The creatures floated about, circling her in a ring, the purple-pink pattern on their robes shifting endlessly as they went. Their faces void of features, heads shaped like eggs. They had bodies beneath the robes from the impressions they gave when they did stop moving.
The longer the ritual went on, the more the garbled noises they made seemed to make sense. Turning to her own language, the otherworldly creatures began making sense.
“GUIDE HIM.”
“SAVE US.”
“SAVE REALITY.”
“UNIVERSE IN DANGER.”
“GUIDE HIM.”

As the creatures spoke, the vista surrounding her faded away, replaced by an impossibly large giant. Covered in green, gnarled skin like the bark of a tree. Gigantic red eyes beset in its skull as a mass of horrific tentacles wiggled and writhed where its mouth should be.
“CTHULHU.”
“MORTALS AWAKENING.”
“MUST GUIDE THE INFUSED ONE”
The image of the cosmic horror quickly faded out, replaced by the image of a brown wolf Mobian, running along, hopping over giant mushrooms and talking with a princess-like character clad in pink.
“EVENTS IN MOTION.”
“DISPERSE EMERALDS. GUIDE HIM.”
To say the maned wolf was confused would have been an understatement; Assuming she hadn’t hit her head at some point and this was a nightmare resulting from a concussion, her impression was that they needed her to do something important for them.
“IF THE GREAT OLD ONE AWAKENS,”
“DESTROY NOT ONLY LINES BETWEEN UNIVERSES,”
“BUT REKNIT FABRIC OF EXISTENCE ENTIRELY.”
“That doesn’t sound good at all,” She thought, and one of the creatures nodded as if it read her mind. She shivered at that.
A box appeared before her, floating in the air. A simple affair, appearing as if to be made of wood but clearly not. The material was indescribable, not metal, nor wood, nor any known crafting material.
Inside were seven brightly colored stones. Distinctly Chaos Emerald in appearance, but with subtle differences to each that one had to look closely at to find.
One of the creatures broke from the ring, floating beside Ren and the box of emeralds. The egg-shaped dome that was its head suddenly had lines cutting across it, chiseling out facial features. A few seconds later, the face resembled her own, making her feel more than a little ill at the sight.

“You must wait until the time is right,” the creature said, “Follow the being we showed you, for he is destined to face the hardships to come that have resulted from his infusion with the Phantom Ruby.”
Ren removed the stone from her pocket. “You mean this thing?” The Renfri-faced creature nodded.
“Artificial as it was, the being had seen his very blood infused with the essence of the ruby very recently, but unlike you, he has yet to learn how to use the power of the ruby.”
“What is it you want me to do, exactly?” She asked, placing the stone back into her pocket.
“A series of events is about to unfold that We have already seen play out. This being you see behind us needs to be directed in order for the vision we’ve seen to come to pass; we cannot simply hope that this one narrow timeline is the one that plays out.
“…So, what are you guys, like the physical manifestation of Fate or something like that? Why do I have to do this, exactly?”
“You have already come into possession of the Phantom Ruby. You understand its capabilities and use it for good. You can ensure that the future where Cthulhu is defeated comes to pass.” The creature lazily lifted away, rejoining the six other beings, its features returning to the smooth oval shape.

Ren sipped at an ice-cold milkshake from an outdoor vendor, savoring the chocolate malt flavor as little bits and pieces of chocolate slipped through the straw.
She leaned against the building, watching an aerial show play out high above. The Babylon Rogues were performing tonight, a group she hadn’t heard about since her early teens. Jet, Storm and Wave, names that had faded into obscurity following a particularly devastating and ill-received performance years ago.
She wondered if they were still thieves here as well.
Renfri had become a guardian of fate of sorts. Her task was to ensure one Laik the Wolf was to follow a specific plan, a written path that—regardless of how he achieved the goals and overcame the hardships—needed to play out, for it was seemingly the only way existence was going to be saved.
“I guess it beats a loveless marriage and office job,” She shrugged, starting off down the street. The chill of the milkshake and the cooled summer air did little to affect the maned wolf.
Luckily for her, she only needed to send the wolf off-world at specific times, be it to save a group of people or retrieve one of the odd Chaos Emeralds she’d been tasked with hiding.
She chuckled at the last easter egg hunt she set up. She hadn’t expected that fish to just leap out of the water like that and snatch the emerald out of her hand.
The sight of it turning into a giant red dragon immediately after cemented in her mind that she’d never be coming back to this world if a stupid fish could turn into a monster like THAT.

She’d sent Laik and that otter girl there last night, following the attack on the Restoration building. Hopefully, no one had seen her there, but considering the chaos the Kuthul and that Gonk-dude were causing, she doubted it really mattered.
Finishing the last of her shake, she tossed the cup into a nearby recycling bin and patted her fluffy cheeks. 
“Okay then, Renny, it’s time you had yourself some fun!” She stood outside of a dojo, where multiple students dressed in their school’s garbs trained or meditated despite the ruckus of the city.
Renfri liked to fight.