Werewolf: Appalachian Moonrise, Ch 1

[Cynical Cat]

"You're doing great," said Alexander. "If you need to slow down or take a break, go ahead and do it." He patted Sees's fur affectionately, appearing to all the world to be a proud dog owner.

[General Havoc]

As Sophie fed the information into her computer, she began trying to plot where exactly the killings had occurred.



The information was spotty, at least from a digital remove. She managed to plot out directions to the most recent killing.

[Devonie]

Arianne glanced over at the information Sophie brought up; the plots of the killings, the path of their quarry.

She shook her head, "I got nothing. It looks like this guy's running blind." She frowned. "I wish we knew more about Crier." She pondered for a moment, weighing choices, then pulled out her cell phone and punched in a number.

After a moment she said, "This is Ari Johnson. I need to speak with Galileo, please."

[LadyTevar]

The screen door opened, and a young woman with a bandaged arm stuck her head out. "Galileo! It's Arianne."

Galileo looked to Hattie and smiled in an 'I told you so' way. As Hattie snorted Galileo rose. "That would be one of the other fosterlings," he explained to Joe. "I'll try to get them to meet you somewhere."

He quickly walked inside the cabin and picked up the phone. "So... did he open the window first?"

[Devonie]

Arianne grinned, "Nae, he jumped right through. He's nursing a sore paw, but he's still on the scent."

She lowered her voice, "Gal, we think this might be Neil Crier. It fits what Adahy and I know about him, but there's a lot of holes. What can you tell me?"

[LadyTevar]

"Finding the thief by scent is going to be a lot to hope for," Galileo cautioned. "I hope you have a backup plan to find this tainted wolf."

[Cynical Cat]

Alexander darted behind a bush. A very large black wolf with a thick mane came out the other side, trotting rapidly toward Sees-Faces-In-Stars and falling in beside him.

[rhoenix]

Panting, Sees-Faces-In-Stars looked at Alex coming back out of the bushes as a lupus, blinked, and grinned. Though he was panting a bit at keeping his weight off of his right forepaw, he was still within the scent.

Pointing with his nose at the trail invisible to non-lupus noses, Sees-Faces quietly spoke in the Garou Tongue with the wolfish equivalent of a chuckle. "Price to track taint is nose full of taint smell!"

Seeing Alex beside him, Sees-Faces-In-Stars continued following the trail.

[LadyTevar]

The scent trail ran out of town, rushing across a highway and over a fence into farmland. It crossed a field dotted with rolled stacks of hay and up into the forested top of the ridge, too steep to plow or farm.

Winding amongst the trees, the scent scrambled up the steep slope, wiggling through rhodendron bushes and brushing against crimson-streaked ivy. Over the slightly rounded top of the ridge, no more than a wolf-length across, then it was down into the holler on the other side, the slope as steep down as it was up.

At the bottom of the holler was a good-sized creek. There the trail ended at a single pawprint captured by a wet patch of sand. It was a large print, showing the one that made it was one of the larger breeds of wolves.

Splashing through the creek finds nothing on the other side, no trace of scent nor pawprints. The trail ended here.

[Cynical Cat]

"Scent tracking is something I don't do well," replied Stormwalker. "Cost of growing up with a human nose." His tongue lolled out on the right side of his muzzle in a crazy grin before he retracted it and sniffed the ground by Sees-Faces. "Only solution to that is practice practice practice."

Then they hit the creek and the trail ended. Stormwalker looked around, but the trail was gone. He trotted over to the tracks made in the soft creek bed. Stormwalker was a big wolf, even by Garou standards, although Alexander was no Gogol Fangsfirst. He carefully placed his paw by the found print to establish a size comparison.

[rhoenix]

His lupine voice making itself known in an irritated snarl, Sees-Faces-In-Stars looked back at Alex, obviously not happy. "Trail Ends."

However, he did grin back at the other lupine. "Practice, yes. I help you learn nose, you help me learn homid, maybe. But now," he said, sitting on his haunches and looking somewhat annoyed, "do we just go back to Others?"

[Cynical Cat]

Stormwalker examined the paw prints. The other Garou, if it was Crier, was about his size in Lupus, which was pretty damn big. "Yes," said Alexander, "we go back. We lost him, but we learned more about him. A success, even if not the one that we wanted. We should change back to homid, which will allow you to rest your injured limb while you're walking." He checked for observers and then trotted for cover to change behind. Alexander stepped out.

[rhoenix]

Nodding (a new homid custom!), Sees-Faces-In-Stars trotted behind a small group of rocks, and emerged as Joe-Smith once again, holding his right arm delicately. "Ok. We tell others, then. We walk, yes?"

[Cynical Cat]

"Yes," said Alexander. "Until we get back to the jeep. Your nodding was good. You're catching on quick Joe."

[Devonie]

"Yeah," Arianne said. "We have a couple of leads, but nothing solid. We'll be looking around.

"Information, Gal. We need to know what we're up against here if it is Crier."

[Charon]

Breathes-the-Winds tried his best to keep the others in sight, but it was getting hard, when they went further away from the roads, he lost them altogether. "Damn, I've lost our pair." I hope Sees-Faces comes back alive. "How are we doing? Any closer to that farm where the mutilations happened?" He looked over at Sophie.

[rhoenix]

"Yes," said Alexander. "Until we get back to the jeep. Your nodding was good. You're catching on quick Joe."

Joe-Smith grinned at this, but said nothing as they walked. Watching helped, but there were still things homids did that made no sense. They even ate grass when their innards weren't blocked up!

Already, his arm was beginning to feel better. Even so, he still held onto it gently with his other paw. No, "hand," homids have long paws called "hands" for grabbing and poking - he'd have to remember. It was getting easier.

[LadyTevar]

"Yeah," Arianne said. "We have a couple of leads, but nothing solid. We'll be looking around.

"Information, Gal. We need to know what we're up against here if it is Crier."

"Unfortunately, if it is Crier, there is not much for me to say," Galileo answered truthfully. "I was not even in the country when he was banished. As for what he did, you know your Litany well enough to take a few guesses." Somethings he knew, others he'd guessed. The cubs didn't need to know everything done.

"Where are you right now," Galileo asked, changing the subject. "The Wendigo I was expecting to join us last night finally got here. You may be able to use an extra set of eyes." Or claws.

[Cynical Cat]

"There's the jeep," said Alexander pointing. He raised his hand to wave and attract their attention.

[rhoenix]

Joe-Smith immediately perked up when Alex mentioned the jeep, and answered right away. "That means back to camp! Hattie may have breck-fasso-sage again!"

This thought made his eyes light up, and a tiny bit of drool at one corner of his mouth before he made an instant decision, and began to move at a dead run for the jeep, waving with his good arm.

[Cynical Cat]

"Whoa. Easy boy," said Alexander. "By the way, the middle of the day meal is called 'lunch' and the end of day meal is called 'dinner.' If your hungry, we can stop some place and grab a bite to eat."

[rhoenix]

Skidding to a stop, Joe-Smith looked back to Alex, looking slightly pained, but listening. In his mind's eye, he could see those hot, delicious tiny animal parts fading away as the morning mist, but he listened, nodding when Alex finished. "Yes, very hungry. Food please, good."

[Cynical Cat]

"Yo Adrianne," Alex called out. "Where's a good place around here to grab a bite to eat? Joe's hungry."

[Devonie]

Arianne waved and indicated that she was on the phone.

"Sounds like the troops are hungry, so we're gonna go eat. Is he on foot or does he have a vehicle?" She calculated how long it will take him to get to Berea. "How about you have him meet us at the Pantry restaurant on Paint Lick Road? We should be finished eating by the time he gets there." She gave him directions.

"We have a couple of places to check out - there's been some livestock mutilated around here, we're thinking it's the same Garou who stole the bone."

[Charon]

Breathes-the-Winds own protests against stopping to eat now were silenced by his own rumbling stomach. The Garou glanced down at his treacherous gut and then back up at Arianne. "Tell him to hurry up though, we don't want the leads we have to get too cold."