Outside of Sacramento, there is a lake called Folsom. So named for the dam that created it, Folsom Lake is a favored recreation area for the citizens of Sacramento and Northern California. At night, it becomes deserted but for a few boats and night-walkers, enjoying the beach and the cool spring air. It is beautiful and peaceful. By day, it is fun and enjoyable, without a single monster in sight.

Of course, by night, there could be monsters. They could even look like people.

This night, there was one such monster, who had parked his ride in a convenient parking lot and strolled the beach for an hour away from the polished silver motor-bicycle, looking for a secluded place to meditate and to think. He wore light, breezy sweatpants and a sweater bearing a UBC insignia, just to blend in. He didn't look particularly old, and if he ran into anybody, he wanted to just be another graduate student-aged guy taking a walk alone on a secluded beach.

But it was very late, and he only passed no kine. Once he had found his secluded, covered location, in the total dark, the Gangrel removed his clothing, and sought to become one with the Beast. He listened for a while, making sure he was alone. Naked in the near-perfect dark of the overcast night, James laid down beneath a blanket amongst some driftwood, and he concentrated, his eyes closed. He was as alone as any being could be, and covered. The Masquerade was safe. His Blood stirred, and where James once laid, now something else was there.

Life in that other form felt closer to the Beast, and that was what he wished to conquer tonight, to embrace the closeness of the Savage to the Beast, contain it, and to render it civilized. He wished to gain control, to be a stronger monster through tempering the will by fire. He strolled out toward the water, his paws feeling good in the dry sand, his tail dragging behind to obscure any prints that might be there.

Utterly alone in the night, the tawny, brownhaired canine trotted into the surf. The cold felt good against its fur. His sharpened senses could smell the surf. He rolled over once in the water to get used to the coolness and then kept walking into the water, his tongue lolling out slightly. The salt brine tasted unpleasant, but it was such a freeing experience nonetheless, to take the form of a beast when facing the Beast Within.

The water level rose as he went deeper, and a cloud passed over the moon, leaving him in the pitch black waters. He was submerged entirely, and he continued to dog-paddle and walk along the bottom. His lungs needed no air, so he was not particularly buoyant. Eventually, the darkness became calm as what little disturbances there were in the lake were rendered moot by the depths.

And there, in the quiet of the lake, James was well and truly alone. And there, he contemplated the Beast and its nature, and reflected upon its massive explosion at the Temple of the Crone. He had defeated it there, and he reflected on that victory. As the cool water held him, his mind expanded further, recalling all of the victories and the defeats, the dangers and the safeties, the friends and the detractors, that his Requiem had given him since he arrived in Sacramento. The thoughts were not about the Invictus and the Carthians, nor about tenancy or feeding rights. No, this was simple, pure reflection, of events and men and women and lessons learned. And the Beast surged within. This sort of poise and rationality was not its nature, but it was his.

The wolf had no idea how long he was down there, but when he exited, James understood better the control he had learned, the strength of will that this city had tempered in him. He had entered in the form of the Beast, but he exited a stronger Man. It was not that the Beast had been conquered. It was simply that a greater equilibrium had been forged between the two. And in that, greater power had been gained.

As he stood there in his human form once more, as naked as he had been when he was born, the Taifa simply smiled to himself. He dried himself and put on his clothes, the moon finally peeked out from behind the cloud, and all was peaceful and beautiful. It would be an enjoyable trip home.