Teeth, claws, bearing down.
Ripping flesh, hitting ground.
Falling falling, wounded, bare.
Breathing deep, but no air.
Blackness, death, hear the call,
Pulling me away from Gaia's Realm.
Ancestor's' scream, another's fall,
I must not die, but I have no choice.
Hands, dragging, pulling me forth,
Is this Shu-Heru, bringing me home?
More hands, touching, giving life-force.
It is Renee, saving my life.
My wounds close, and again I feel
hands stroking my fur, reasuring me.
Her hands, her touch, becoming one,
merging with me her life, a mating.
"Now you will rest, rest in me.
For of Gaia I am and always shall be.
As your spirit loves her, your body shall love me,
and forever paired we will be."
The image fades for I now know,
this is but a dream.
But how I wish it was real.
Would that I could, this life I would lead.
The pain, the wounds, they are real.
But the other? Heal me she did,
and close we have become, but I dare not believe.
Wolves mate for life, and how could she love me?
But enough, my feelings must wait.
I must remember, recollect, understand.
This lucid dream shall replay
these day's events, and I will be ... whole.
The night before Samhain, was the beginning.
AS a group we could not agree,
about what to do with the Weather Machine.
Reuben and Kacee wished it to go to Forteau.
The rest of us dissented, agreeing instead
that Master Porthos should dismantle it,
and free Coyote, trapped inside.
The dreams and visions held us firm.
Samhain day passed quietly.
Reuben left to be with Forteau,
Renee worked ritual while I explored the city,
and Paradox was abundant.
I talked to many who may be of help,
and learned much of the city area.
Renee changed herself to appear as a ...
vampire, but is was just a costume, thank Gaia.
The Goblins were out, ready for their yearly havoc,
It is their place, so disturb them I did not.
At the "Chantry" we talked but resolved
Answers would come at their own time.
But one thing did occurr, that amazed me.
Mary spoke, when I asked if she wanted to be with
She said no, and that she would be alright. She has a pretty voice.
I gave her Daedalus' pager, if she needed us.
All but Kacee and I drove to the Park for the party.
We two reached the Umbra and I took the Hispo,
she riding me to our destination.
Our separate approaches gave no aid, at first.
When we arrived, we met the others
as well as "Betsy's group."
While the talked, I scanned the Umbra,
and then I saw the Wraiths.
Majestic in their silence,
unfortunate in their existence,
Some of the restless dead had come here,
to the same spot as the gathering.
This was a problem I could not ignore.
We saw the Verbena, STaN, building a wall,
minor in the realm, substantial in the Umbra.
I ran to aid the Wraiths - they should not be shut in.
Then it happened, all Mafeas broke loose.
As the wall was completed, I leapt,
but a room that should not have been there appeared
and I passed through it and emerged next to the Wraiths.
The room disappeared, but the Wraiths remained.
For that I was glad, but I needed to understand
so that I could ensure no conflict of interests occurred.
The Wraiths, however, were not very talkative.
After some time, they spoke to me,
asking me why I was interfering.
I told them of the ceremony, and of my worries.
The told me to stop it, immediately.
So I, filled with purpose, returned to the Realm.
My tactics failed me, and my rage won out.
I could not convince them while I spoke hostily
and they assaulted me for it.
After being slammed into the wall,
I decided a new tactic would be wise.
I approached Nicole and spoke calmly
and told her my concerns.
The Wraiths, she said, were with her,
and I need not worry. Then I was invited to join them.
I was quite confused, but for some reason, I trusted her.
Silly me.
Then the police arrived, three men, with women along.
They first wanted to come in, and Nicole objected.
Then they became hostile, ordering all to leave
and dragging Nicole away.
I interceded, and fought them for her.
The first went down easy (the Glabro is quite strong),
and the second I barely hit (Renee finished him, I found out).
Then a girl jumped on me, and clawed.
I was displeased, and plucked her off,
throwing her into the standing man.
They both fell, and neither rose,
and simple victory, and they had weapons.
Then, as I later found out, was when Kacee
flipped some switches on the Weather Machine.
Renee grabbed me and said to run, so we did,
and an explosion occurred.
We returned to find Kacee and Eric injured,
and the tree that had grown on the machine, burning.
While attending to the wounded,
Ogre grabbed the Machine and disappeared.
This was too much, and Nicole and the other Verbena left.
Most of the other guests had fled during the fight,
so few remained. The tree turned into a girl like the one I fought,
and then the Wraiths acted.
The police got up so I went to deal with them,
but one touched me, stripping some of my gnosis away.
I tried to follow, but when Renee and I arrived we saw
the Wraiths embody and become stools, nooses, and
executioners.
They then executed the police.
This was their ritual, and I think that
STaN's ceremony was interfering.
I regret that I took part against the Wraiths.
In the confusion, Cab had chased after Ogre,
but Daedalus knew where he was going,
so he opened a gate to the mall
and to it we travelled.
Inside we were,
and so we went to Betsy's home.
A security guard caught us,
but the delerium made him leave.
We waited, we watched,
and nothing happened.
Cab arrived,
and still, nothing happened.
I tried the rite of the questing stone,
and it said Betsy was to the south.
We traveled back to the park,
but found no one.
Eventually, it was too late, and we gave up.
After sleep and contemplation, we would start anew.
Daedalus, Kacee, and Eric remained,
so that Daedalus could continue to search ... his way.
As we left, real police arrived,
and asked what we were doing.
Renee said going home, and left with Cab.
I shifted to Lupus and stayed.
The police questioned Eric and Daedalus,
and asked them to go with them.
Kacee had vanished, and I went to find her.
I think that she let me find her.
We called Renee, who kindly picked us up.
Then we told her what happened,
and we all went to sleep.
But not for long.
Daedulus woke Renee, and myself,
since I slept on her bed that night,
to tell her that Mary had called and was in trouble.
There was no question - off we went.
She was near the bell-tower,
where we met before the party,
and she was staring at it, at Ogre,
burning and staked to it by a lamppost.
When we looked again, he was gone,
but the lamppost and scorch marks remained.
Mary was confused, and said only that she
was searching for her friend, who was in trouble.
Daedalus kept asking, and upset Mary,
who used magic against him. That's my girl.
Renee and I took Mary home,
but Daedelus stayed to find out more.
I talked to Mary while Renee meditated.
She said that her friend had called and asked for help
and that he was still in trouble.
I asked if I could help her to help him.
She said yes, so I decided that we would go then.
I wrote a note to Renee to let her know and left it beside her.
But before we could leave, someone came to the door.
He was odd, a mage, and asked who was in charge.
I said that I was, not a total lie,
and asked his purpose.
This Maxwell Blake, of Internal Affairs - for mages,
had come for Mary.
He would take her for training,
supervise her, and keep her safe from
predatory influences, namely me,
but as I seemed to care, I could come and visit.
Renee came in and he looked into a device
and knew who she was, just as he knew I am Garou.
He asked why she was involved and
I told him that she was Mary's mother figure.
Still he insisted that she go with him,
so I asked Mary what she thought.
She said she would go if he
could help her find her friend.
I told him to come back the next morning
and we would have his answer.
I do not want to let her go,
I have grown fond of her.
After he left, Renee wanted to go visit Mr. Forteau.
I was going to try to find Mary's friend,
but she said she thought we should have more help,
so we should wait.
I asked Renee if we could come with her instead,
and she readily agreed.
As we drove we tried to
work out the events of the last night.
Our efforts were wasted though,
because we came to an accident
and were attacked by a frenzied Red Talon.
This day was not going well, at all.
I told Renee to leave, and reached the Umbra,
quickly returning to the realm wearing the Crinos.
The Talon had attacked the car,
but had not gotten through.
I attacked it, in defense of Renee and Mary,
but I hate to fight my cousins, no matter their tribe.
I was not succeeding, but I was not losing,
when suddenly he faded away.
Renee said that Mary had done something to it,
and that paradox had blinded her for it.
I moved a truck, a very heavy truck,
out of the way, and we left.
The delerium caused all around to flee,
so we were able to leave quickly.
The car had no windshield,
but they were both mostly well, thank Gaia.
We went to Forteau's, but could do little.
He mind was in the Umbra battling himself
while his body lay on a couch.
I do not pretend to understand.
On the way back, we stopped
and Renee rented a van so that
we could all travel together,
even Reuben, who was again with us.
Once we were all back at the Chantry together
we decided to look for Mary's friend,
whom Daedalus thought was Ogre.
I believed it to be a spirit.
We picked up Cab from work
and also brought Betsy along,
and we followed Mary's instinct to her friend.
It was in a closed building.
After unsuccessful tries to sneak in
I reached the Umbra and went inside,
scouted the place,
and then opened the door for the rest.
Then I showed them what I had found...
the Weather Machine,
which Mary also identified as her friend.
I love it when I'm right.
Eric contacted Master Porthos
and tried to set up a meeting.
The best we could do was to get
Daedalus to take us to a bridge or portal to Porthos' realm.
Before we left, we were
interrupted by a security guard.
I tried to subdue him, but it took a minute
since I didn't want to kill him.
We then went through the gate
and arrived in a library,
nearly running over an attendant
who then told us to leave.
Daedalus distracted her, and we went
to another part of the room.
Eric tried to get some help
and came back with another of his kind.
We took the machine down the elevator,
but it stopped, then it fell to the bottom.
I took the Crinos and opened the doors,
and we followed this new Mage.
Renee saw a fire in the elevator as we left
and pulled the fire alarm.
We the went into a secret room
with a vortex for a wall.
Eric called Daedalus, who then teleported to us.
My shapeshifting and Daedalus' appearance
did not sit well with the new mage, Remus.
But we all went through the portal.
We appeared in a strange place
that turned out to be the Umbral realm of Porthos.
He had us bring the machine into a spacious room
where he Eric, and Remus began a ritual.
It took several hours to prepare,
so the rest of us talked and shared information.
I thought about what had happened
when we first found the weather machine.
When Eric was talking to Porthos
about how to get the machine to him,
Porthos asked how we had gotten it
away from the werewolf.
Eric said that "he," meaning me, was "with us."
But what Porthos meant was how
we got it away from whoever had it,
who was a werewolf.
Then I connected the fact that another werewolf
had taken the machine from Ogre
with the last part of Cab's dream -
the wolf-headed snake.
This makes me believe that the person
whom we stole the weather machine from
is a black spiral dancer.
Life has just gotten very, very bad.
Eventually, the ritual took place,
and the machine broke down in pieces,
releasing metal, stone, and spirit.
Then there was a blinding light.
Then there was Coyote.
Not a totem avatar,
not a Nuwisha,
not even a dream.
It was the Incarna, Coyote.
I was overjoyed, and showed submission.
He seemed pleased, and smiled.
He graced Mary with his touch,
and then nodded to Porthos. Then he left.
Porthos then directed us to leave.
The was little else to say,
but so many questions to ask.
We left, for it is his realm.
Upon returning, we met up with
Reuben and Kacee, who had stayed behind.
We decided to look for Ogre,
like we promised Betsy.
I told the others that afterwards,
they were to take Mary to a safe place,
and that I would face Blake alone,
for Mary no longer wanted to go with him.
We left, with Reuben staying behind to look after Mary.
Betsy did not come along,
for she went to attend to something else.
We went to the tunnels under the place where we last saw Ogre.
It was raining quite heavily,
but the tunnels were not flooded.
We tracked the blood trail but it lead nowhere.
Then we saw the man.
He was leaning over one of the girls
like we saw at the party.
He noticed us and threw a lantern at us,
and then ran away.
Kacee followed him, so I followed her.
Halfway down a tunnel, I smelled the Wyrm.
As I turned to see, the man grabbed Daedalus
and told me to back off.
I didn't, even though he tried to force me to.
Daedalus teleported away,
but then the man grabbed Eric.
He ran off, dragging Eric, and I followed.
They ran through the others, but did not hurt them.
I did likewise, I hope.
To stop him and make him release Eric,
I hit him from behind. He stopped.
I bit, I clawed, I used my rage.
All he did was grin.
I know I had wounded him,
but it did not seem to matter.
Then I knew what I was facing...
A leech. A vampire.
I was about to frenzy, but contained myself
For I was afraid for the others.
Eric had hit it with an electric bolt
and it had let him go.
It was good, since the Vampire frenzied,
and tore out my throat.
I remember the pain,
I remember falling,
I remember not being able to breath,
I remember dying.
Then there were the hands,
Daedalus dragging me away.
Then there were the other hands,
Renee healing me.
We left quickly, and I remember little.
Betsy appeared, but that is all a blur.
We went home, and I undressed.
My clothes needed washing, as did I.
I smelled of the sewer,
so I washed long in the hot water.
Though no matter how hard I scrubbed
I still felt her hands, and I was glad.
I wrapped in a towel to appease human custom
and went to tell the others to remember that
Blake would be returning in the morning.
My voice was weak, but it worked.
Renee took me to bed - I had little choice -
and I slipped under the covers.
Odd, but a bed in homid form
does feel as good as the ground in lupus.
I told her about this, and she told me to sleep.
I felt myself reverting to Lupus
even before she got in the bed.
Then this ... tortured ... sleep.
No, not for the memories of pain,
but for the questions that I cannot answer,
After all that has happened,
my greatest concern is for Renee.
I feel with her as I have felt with no other.
The lupus mate, for life, true,
and we care for and respect our mates.
But this goes beyond that.
I do not think that I can live without her.
For a Silent Strider
such a dependence
is unheard of.
But it ... pleases ... me.
We must talk. Ah, I feel .. pulled ... from .... sleep .....