Werewolf Chapter 2: Tennesse Waltz

[rhoenix]

The sudden motion of the Stinking Metal Weaver Box along with the strong feeling of something...unnatural conspired to wake Sees-Faces-In-Stars up rapidly, sitting up to see Alex grimly maintaining control of the Metal Box they were all riding in, and another one that had nearly struck them, that felt...wrong. Not Wyrm wrong, but not-connected-to-Gaia-but-is-supposed-to-be wrong.

Sees-Faces looked all around them to check his surroundings, given what had just awoken him. "That didn't feel right," he said with a low, quick bark.

[LadyTevar]

As the Jeep made it safely into the breakdown lane, the rolling wreck of the tractor-trailer hit the guardrail behind them in a fiery crash.

And then it vanished silently into mist, leaving behind no sign of damage, either to the grassy median, the guardrail, or the small wooden cross that stood just on the other side of the guardrail.

[Cynical Cat]

"Okay," said Alex as he checked the traffic before pulling back onto the road, "that was a sign that what we've got is the real deal. Everyone alright?"

[rhoenix]

Looking above the seat of the car that had come to a stop, thanks to Alex' driving, Sees-Faces-In-Stars stared right at where the truck had been just a few seconds ago.

"A ghost!" he said excitedly to the others. "Can we go check it out?"

[General Havoc]

"What the hell was that?" exclaimed Sophie, startled out of her research session by the swerving car. She had been cross-referencing items found in the ledgers that they had retrieved from Smoky Mountain Futures online, to no real purpose, but half of investigatory work was disparate fact sorting, filing bits of information away in search of eventual revelation.

She looked up in time to watch the semi truck explode, and then vanish into nothing. She was hardly a shaman, but she knew that wasn't supposed to happen. Personally, she was all for getting the hell out of here, but Sees-Faces seemed excited by the prospect of "checking out" the ghost, and in matters spiritual (at least non-Weaver spiritual), he had a hell of a headstart on her, she well knew.

"Do... you think that's a good idea?" she asked hesitantly, intentionally posing the question to anyone who cared to answer it.

[Cynical Cat]

"I think it's a terrible idea," said Alex as he drove away. "Job one is to get this elusive fucking fetish back to where it belongs before it adds another leg to our journey. Then we can talk about spirit hunts."

He concentrated on driving for a minute. "Joseph-Bones-of-Steel used to tell a few stories he had from when he was just a pup. Back in the Nineteenth Century, one of the Warders of Men received a spirit vision of a great iron road that would connect all the roads of men. This vision spread and the tribe embraced the power of the vision and the new totem. They became the Iron Riders. Time sped by and the Iron Riders became the Glasswalkers, but Garou live for a long time. Some of the Iron Riders were around when Joseph made his first change and he heard their stories first hand. If a totem can be a train, then I guess a spirit can be a truck."

[LadyTevar]

The rest of the trip was uneventful, and they pulled into the Cairn's living area just in time to see Hattie directing kinfolks setting up the breakfast tables.

The Sept leader turned and looked at the pups as they walked in, hands on hips. "So... yer back."

[Cynical Cat]

"Yes," said Alex, holding up the fetish. "Two days and a Wyrm tainted moonshine addicted Ronin, several Banes, one endangered Elder, silver armed fomori, a Weaver spirit, and a possible Wyrm cultist later and we have it."

[LadyTevar]

"Are ya braggin' or compl'nin?" another voice asked, as Caitlyn rose slowly from one of the picnic tables. It was clear the foggy weather was not kind to her old bones, as she moved with the limp of the arthritic who had yet to warm up. She joined Hattie as the two moved forward to look at the fetish held in Alex's hand. Neither made a move to take it from him at this point.

Hattie whistled through her teeth. "Those markin's... they're ..."
"... they're ancient, and they're Garou," Caitlyn finished, her eyes shining as she grinned up at Alex. "It's a true fetish."

[Cynical Cat]

"Both, of course," said Alex with a grin. He held out the fetish. "Doe someone want to take it? Because we went to considerable effort to get it."

[rhoenix]

Though he didn't say anything, Sees-Faces-In-Stars had never taken his eyes off the fetish since they got back. At first, Alex's question didn't quite register, but Sees-Faces-In-Stars responded a few seconds later. "May I take a look?"

[Cynical Cat]

When you can snatch the pebble from my hand grasshopper, were the first words that came to mind. A pity they would be lost on the Lupus. "Sure," said Alex.

[General Havoc]

The elders seemed sufficiently impressed with the Fetish, though Sophie still had no idea what the hell it was beyond an old bone with spiritual attachments. If this was some kind of Black Spiral superweapon, she was relatively unimpressed.

"We also dug up a bunch of dirt on a land developer in Knoxville," she said. "The local sept made us promise to turn the documents over to them once we were through. If it's all right, I think we ought to go and do that."

[LadyTevar]

Hattie looked over to Sophie with a frown. "Why din't ya'll do that afore ya'll left?"

[General Havoc]

Sophie frowned. "We got jumped by Spiders inside the office, and attacked by some kind of spirit-18-wheeler on the road back here. Just finding this thing involved shooting through a sludge monster, half a dozen wyrmshine runners with silver-buck street brooms, and a trio of Bane-possessed boars. Whoever stole this thing wanted it badly enough to come at us three times in two nights. We figured it was a good idea to get this thing to safety first."

Frankly, she hadn't wanted to leave before turning the documents in either, but the others had made some compelling arguments, and she was a little tired of being second-guessed on rules she didn't know about.

"We can head back to Knoxville now if it's all right."

[LadyTevar]

"Ya'll look like yer plum-tucker'd," Caitlyn said wryly, looking over all the wolves.

Adahy had finally resumed homid as Luna set behind the mountains and Helios shone the first pinkish-gold rays of sunrise onto the clouds. Breakfast preparations continued behind them, sausage and bacon sizzling in iron skillets as the smell of baking biscuits wafted on the wind. "I"m going no where but to bed," Ahady growled.

[rhoenix]

Though he was getting more used to the Homid ways of things, Sees-Faces-In-Stars still usually couldn't catch Homid slang unless he was concentrating. In this case, the amused smirk on Alex's face as Sees-Faces-in-Stars stared at the fetish barely registered, his senses focused entirely on the object.

In more subtle terms, Sees-Faces-In-Stars was offering a bit of spiritual power to the spirit within the fetish, while he was singing softly to gently wake the spirit. "Wake gently, spirit - you are in no danger; you are with Garou chosen of Gaia and Luna. Wake gently, spirit, for we can help each other."

[LadyTevar]

There was no reaction from the fetish, no sign that the gift of gnosis was even received. Hattie and Caitlyn frowned at Sees Faces for his impudence, but he was far away, frozen in place ....

Fire was all around, creeping up the wooden walls of the small building like living creatures. Voices came from outside, jeering, demanding. "No! Never!" Smoke stung the back of the throat, filled the lungs, blurred vision. "Children! Where are you?"

The fire reached out, clawing for purchase, scorching hair and skin. Outside, the angry voices faded away, replace by other voices, voices full of neighborly worry and concern. Sounds of water splashing against wood, hissing into the fire, but no sound of the children. "Children! Where are you?!" A blistered hand touches the thong around the throat, the last gift, the final duty....

"Cub!! Wake up!" Hattie shouted at him, the frown now one of worry and concern, a look shared by Caitlyn and his packmates.

[rhoenix]

Shaking himself, Sees-Faces-In-Stars got up, though somewhat unsteadily. "Fire, eating wooden walls of a house. Panic, looking for their children..."

He shook himself harder this time, looking like his usual self when he'd finished. "I've gotta try that again. Hattie?", the cub said, turning to look at her with a pleading grin, "can we have hamburgers tonight?"

Though Sees-Faces was certainly smart enough to hold two thoughts in his head at once, the smell and feel of the fire and burning meat from the vision made him hungry.

[Cynical Cat]

"Well if I didn't already know the pup was a theurge," said Alexander.

[General Havoc]

What exactly had just happened?

Something had happened, plainly, if invisibly. Sufficient for the elders here to get worried. She was about to ask what was happening when he appeared to snap out of it and began asking about hamburgers.

She shook her head, trying to clear it of the thought that hamburgers sounded really good right about now. Something else was pressing at the back of her mind, and she repeated her request, yet more insistently.

"We need to get the data back to Knoxville," she said. "If you guys can hold onto the fetish, we'll be back as soon as we can."

[Cynical Cat]

Alex passed the fetish to Hattie. "We gotta go. Things to finish. Sof, you up to driving the first leg?"

[rhoenix]

Looking utterly crestfallen for a moment, Sees-Faces-In-Stars followed after Sophia and Alexander, looking back once longingly at the fetish he so wanted another try with.

Even so, he couldn't help but drool a little bit as the other thought was still in his fertile mind. Mmmm, hamburgers. Maybe we can have Hamburgers when we get back, and I can try again on that fetish with a stomach full of delicious, succulent hamburgers. Mmmm...

Very nearly walking into a pole as his mind wandered, he resolved to think happily about hamburgers once he was in the farting metal beast. Even so, his tongue lolled out as he panted.

[LadyTevar]

Hattie stepped backwards, not taking the offered fetish, which seemed to be getting warm in Alex' hand.

"Fer a Shadowlord, ya ain't too bright," Caitlyn snorted, crossing her arms before he offered it to her. "Th' pup jis' tried som'thin wit' it, an' it smack'd 'em down." Caitlyn's eyes narrowed. "Tain't done that wit' you, has it."

And the conversation, before it got deeper, was interrupted by the sound of music... a rocking tune that came from Sophie's backpack and made the young female blush as she wondered if any of the Garou would recognize the song.

[Cynical Cat]

"I am bright enough to know my place," said Alexander. "My father was a great theurge. I'm a young Ahroun who packs a lot of silver. That fetish is beyond my competency elder and I'm not fool enough to deny it. So I leave it in your hands, or the hands you, with your greater knowledge, choose. I have fulfilled the obligation you have placed on me, but those papers need to be delivered to the right hands. That I can do."