Quote from Adriana on August 24, 2018, 5:51 pm

Deseree

She remained still, even until Timothy's figure became an indiscernible shadow in the distance. Lowering her arm at last, her eyes turned on the image as she examined it again.

The wind picked up, licking at the photograph and sending it flicking in Logan's grasp. It seemed almost alive, she observed, the way it thrust about as though trying to escape. Slowly she lifted the image to her face, and spoke four soft words, placing a kiss on the paper before lifting her arm again just so. Another howling gust passed over the ranch, and her grasp was loosed; the picture was sent away on the wisp of wind...

Logan turned and went into Zeit's cottage, where she began to search the cupboards and closets for something that could aid her if she were to find trouble while seeking Ulric and Jackie.

She emerged the cabin a few minutes later, a rifle lugged over her shoulder and a new resolution about her - to make sure her pack members were found and brought home safely.

Quote from Adriana on August 24, 2018, 5:51 pm

Mae

Mercy Danbrook took a sweeping glance out toward Harvey and the parked vehicles.

Of all the hunters, Mercy stood furthest north and quite a ways from the others. She was positioned at the east corner of the perimeter where her vantage point would be the most advantageous in the overseeing of the rendezvous with Harvey's client.

Mercy casually paced east of Jon Dugston's truck, having just come away from a conversation with Douglas Hampshire to look out toward the road. Facing south, Mercy could see Hal and Mary watching the parked car down the road with Harvey and Alfred alongside them. Further south still, Mercy saw Calerry Christensen seated in his vehicle and Miles Cook pacing just outside it...

Unlike the trucks, Calerry's van faced directly east, away from the garage. He had parked a good way out in front and slightly adjacent of Paul Reginald in order to have a view of the road leading in. The position was intentionally strategic, and had been assigned to him previously, but it was also a position he had desired to have...
Mercy could see that the two men seemed to be conversing about the general moral character of the woman who would shortly be arriving, and by the gestures they made to each other, Mercy knew that they were speculating about the car flashing hazard lights, and if it was indeed the client.

Not alike Miles and Calerry however, Mercy had no interest in seeing what kind of a person Harvey's business associate turned out to be. Mercy had her job to do, and then a more important obligation waited at home; The sun had gone down, and if this appointment took too long, then dinner would be late getting on the table.

A heavy group of clouds had rolled into the sky just as the sun had set under the western horizon, darkness was quickly gathering upon the fields, and in the vicinity of Harvey's garage there were no streetlamps. The wind was picking up steadily and blowing the grass.
Mercy stepped down off the gravel into the wheat and weed that surrounded the road, wheat and weed that in some places stood as tall as the hip or higher, nonetheless Mercy brushed into it.

Quote from Adriana on August 24, 2018, 5:59 pm

Kaqurei

It did seem at first as though the on-coming vehicle had no intention of stopping, but apparently when Miss Channing's waving of her blazer became more rousing, it caught the attention of the driver after all. The vehicle's growling engine calmed more to a steady purr as it pulled up parallel to Miss Channing, gravel crunching under its wheels as it stopped. It was clearly a very new car, the make and paint was sleek and a shiny silver, with deeply tinted windows so that even had it been broad daylight it would have been hard to see the man behind the wheel. That is, until the driver's side door opened and he exited the vehicle.

He was a young man, couldn't have been much older than his early twenties, and very well dressed for a native to little old Reknab Bend. Donning a smart black trench coat, a grey woolen scarf at his throat and tucked up right to his chin, black slacks, and even dress shoes as it appeared--he didn't much look like a casual anybody, at that. His overall appearance was very European, with a pale complexion, slender face, straight nose, and short black hair.

"Pardon me, miss," he said in a striking Irish accent, "I couldn't help but notice yer hazard lights. Are yeh in a spot o' trouble?"

Quote from Adriana on August 24, 2018, 5:59 pm

Aim

It would be lie, and a rather oblivious one at that, to say Chime wasn't scared. Worried for her two captive pack mates no doubt, and a bit for herself as well. But the small werewolf ventured out, trying to judge between being quiet and being quick, though her size and natural nimbleness helped in both regards.

As she neared the hunters group, she slowed, seeking cover before attempting to get closer. She must be very, very careful... And she did indeed feel her caution renew as she looked over them, noting the numbers she could see from her position.

Quote from Adriana on August 24, 2018, 6:00 pm

Indy

Jackie was in the back of a truck. It was pitch-black with only the vibrations of the engine and the muffled sounds from outside indicating her present location. She supposed somewhere in the darkness, Ulric must be there too; though she hadn't caught much of a glance of him since he had managed to temporarily shake the stupor of the sedative and feebly intone 'Don't give up'.

She had wanted to laugh then. That's what she thought she had been doing when she grabbed the stick to beat back the hound and later when she tried to keep Harvey from taking Ulric as well. However, she'd had a lot of time time to think in the back of the truck; enough time to realize her best efforts hadn't exactly worked out very well.

What efforts?, she thought, it wasn't exactly crafty thinking on your end to hit a dog with a stick.

And she knew better than to enter so deep into the woods that morning assuming they were secure. And in any case, even if she were to assume no matter what her moves had been that the end result had always been the same, she'd been captured quietly. She hadn't even been able to gather a few hundred pounds of hulking-wolf-monster to make the fight more fair. Ulric was right. She had given up and dragged him down with her.

She shifted abruptly in the netting, harsh air coming out of her nose. These thoughts weren't going to get her far.

Think what's at your disposal, then use it, a wise man, the man she'd once called father, had once told her. She'd thought he was wise once, at least. Now she wasn't so sure, given that all she had at her disposal was the ability to breathe and think.

"Then think", she growled to herself quietly

She thought. She was alone, the pack didn't know she'd been taken -- except for Ulric, and that was only because he'd been taken too. She was glad the pack wasn't a part of this equation; she wasn't sure if their numbers would even be enough to subdue Harvey's well-crafted plan, whatever that exactly was. She was wound securely in a mesh netting. Earlier attempts to find any weaknesses in it had failed. She closed her eyes and tried to extrapolate a plan, but for the first time in her life realized she had nothing.

"Ulric... I'm sorry"

---

Melinda realized maybe a minute into her waving that she'd made a mistake. She couldn't exactly place the instinct until the cars neared -- the convoy that was approaching was too small from what she'd been told or would have expected. In fact it only appeared to be… one car. Still, Melinda wasn't yet uncertain enough to think her efforts futile. Perhaps this was only part of Harvey's group. For that alone she stayed on the road, waiting for the vehicle to stop. Though she did stop waving around her jacket and instead retreated closer to her car.

Melinda eyed the stranger in apprehension, taking enough of his appearance and accent in at once to conclude she had made a mistake. The plan she had outlined had gone awry; unlike her sister, she was not a good improviser. She could, perhaps, send the man away or come up with some excuse of a stalled engine. Though ultimately this would push back her time tables more than she could afford. It would only take minutes for things to go terribly wrong.

She was going to have to take a gamble.

"I... yes. You see I was meant to meet up a group of friends," she summoned a quick and somewhat pained smile.

"We were going to go... hiking," she prayed the stranger wouldn't look too closely at her heels or her crisply ironed blouse. She sunk more into the shadows cast by her car," I don't suppose you've encountered them? You would have recognized them, they're a large group of cars meant to be heading in this direction."

---

Zander's intrigue in the conversation piqued once the woman started talking about all the 'social strays'. He tried desperately to hide the glimmer of interest in his eyes, but to no avail. Before he knew entirely what he was doing a wry and knowing smile and a single raised eyebrow had taken his features.

"You don't say. When would you say all this started all up?"

Quote from Adriana on August 24, 2018, 6:00 pm

Kaqurei

The stranger got a funny look in his face, and for a moment was torn, weighing the possible outcomes of playing along or not. After all, even in the dark it was clear this woman was not properly equipped to hike--at night no less! Nor did she look much like the mountaineering type, at that. "Large group o' cars, yeh say?" he asked, "Well, if yeh mean the same group as I think you do, tha' o' Mr. Bolt and his lot, you're a bit lost. I'm on my way ta meet up with them m'self, actually. They're on back towards town. If you'd like, I can show yeh the way."

Nonchalantly he glanced over his shoulder back at his own vehicle. He furrowed his brow and looked most discontent with something. No, no, no, this must be remedied at once. He reached into his chest pocket and pulled out a little handkerchief, which he hurriedly applied to his rearview mirror, swiping it and adjusting it. Once or twice the mirror caught the gleam of Miss Channing's headlights, but that was a minor detail. Ah. Done. Spick and span, just the way he liked it.

***

Now, Levi had not quite said what his signal would be... Sabrina guessed he would either improvise something, or she would move in when Channing moved out. The glinting of the headlights from her vantage point was a bit obvious in her opinion, but it was something.

There was a delicate order, a check and balance system in the universe. In nature, the pattern was often referred to as the Hunter and the Hunted, predator and prey. Sometimes people did stupid things to disturb that balance--werewolves would go rogue and terrorize or massacre whole towns, for instance--and another party would need become involved. The pack known as Sabres Mac Tíre, existent since at least the Medieval Ages, considered it part of their duty to restore that balance where their kind was concerned. There was another sort of disturbance they were often called to rectify... that of when the Hunter became the Hunted.

This was a new breed of Werewolf Hunter, admittedly, and that called for some departure from the traditional methods of how to deal with their ilk. Of course it was inevitable that eventually they would have to modernize. But, for Sabrina, this was also very personal.

She made a motion to her driver, the go ahead to proceed. And so he did. The sleek black limo set at once toward the not-so distant fields and garage owned by Mr. Harvey Bolt.

Quote from Adriana on August 24, 2018, 6:01 pm

Mae

"Unseen in the wild wheat and straw of the rural pasture whereon sat Harvey's isolated garage, (one of many places for his refuge,) a phantom had long awaited in Reknab Bend. Among the weeds her eyes, piercing green, looked out on the hunters while raven black locks danced freely about her neck and shoulders in the growing wind...

[Sometime earlier]That morning, in the corn field of Zeit Chandler's homestead, the visitor had concealed herself. Her presence was, for the most part, undetected... until two members of the Calagathorm pack had come traipsing down the road out of the mountains, and one absentminded glimpse had nearly given her away.

Only a few feet from where Ulric had stood by the horse corrals, the shadow of tall corn stalks hid the visitor's face. She watched him as he gazed over the Chandler Ranch, and she held her breath listening as he steadied his.
Beneath his dark, hazy-blond brow, Ulric's brilliant auburn eyes scanned the fields. A horse neighed in the nearby corral, a wind rushed through the grass... The visitor watched the young man as he searched for her, but she never came out to reveal herself.
Then, after only a few minutes, Ulric took one last look around and left. He never knew that his eyes had met hers within that brief, sweeping glance.
Shortly thereafter, Diane had stepped out from among the corn stalks and stared after her former packmate... But that had all been this morning, before she had followed him into the mountains.

Diane had been too late to witness the capture, but she knew what had transpired the moment she had found the scene. Now, lying in wait, nothing betrayed her as the sun still looked on from the western sky. She had been quick to call those others who had been in the area and quicker still to track Harvey's hunters to the garage. All that then remained, was to abide until sundown for the ample opportunity.

"That day in Middlecrest was not the first time I have encountered this, Jaqueline Ryder." Diane had whispered to Silas and his group after a brief while. The hunters had been gathering in the clearing by the garage some ways ahead, and as the Svalnaglas scouts were quick to position themselves, Diane found a moment in which to speak.

"It was several months ago, at their little emergency place. A man, not a werewolf, came to see her. His name was Tom Felton. - I did look into the name afterward, but found only very little information; evidently he is a man who lives behind-the-scenes, as it were. - They kept their exchange confidential, for let's just say, this little werewolf has always had ulterior loyalties." All while Diane spoke, the sun sank steadily lower and a storm began creeping up from the north over the mountians.
"I have no doubt the woman from the mall who she met that night is involved with the man, and they have made this arrangement with the hunters. The Svalnaglas have been aware of these hunters for a long time - we have encountered them before; It is easy to capture a loner, especially one unaccustomed to living outside the safety of the pack, but capturing two members on claimed territory seems quite bold."

"The Svalnaglas has never lost anyone we ever wanted to have back," Diane had explained, "But even without a quarrel, its always best to know the other players in the game."

There came a time after that when talking had to be put aside, as all the hunters had arrived at the garage and Diane had estimated an opportune moment to advance. So, the Svalnaglas werewolves crept slowly through the field until they were very near the hunters, and there they lie in wait as the sun went down and the storm blotted out both star and moon overhead...

[Back to the present]The wind had increased greatly since that afternoon, and the night had grown nearly black from the waning light. Harvey's hunters seemed undeterred by the constant wind, but they were growing convinced that the car they had sighted some distance off was not Harvey's client after all, and each one began to exhibit various signs of anxiety and frustration.

Diane could sense the uneasiness, and she accounted it a thing of concern rather than an advantage, for she rightly esteemed each hunter to bea threat, and she knew the risks of heightening their agitation. But the time to act was not yet, and so Diane was obliged to wait with her team.

At this point, however, Diane knew the wind would now drown out her voice, and she took the chance to get near enough Silas to mention a thing of importance.

"Look there." Diane whispered, "That van is their resource; the greater supply of their weapons is likely to be stored there - not all of these men and women are armed. Get near to it from the southern side, both windows are open, you will be able to disengage the driver at short range."

That was when another car began up the road, heading directly toward the garage on the field. Harvey's hunters each looked up, at last feeling quite certain that the other vehicle they had watched flag down the truck was not the person they were waiting for at all.

"Here it comes." Diane whispered, and she knew the opportunity they were waiting for was close at hand.

Quote from Adriana on August 24, 2018, 6:01 pm

Cat

Toby considered the description Theo had given of the girl, and searched his memory for someone who matched it, in hopes of giving his friend's heroine a name. Unfortunately, dark hair was very poor in singling out anyone in particular. He'd never realized it before, but there were a lot of people in Reknab Bend who had dark hair.

As Theo revealed the humble gift he intended to give the girl, Toby craned his neck forward slightly to get a better look at it: It was clear a lot of skill and care had gone into it's crafting, and the sight of the wolf on the front made Toby smile. After a moment of admiring the necklace, he glanced up at Theo.

I can do that. Sure! He said with a pleasant nod, thinking the whole idea to be a very agreeable one. But what are you going to tell her about it? I mean, if she asks why you're giving it to her.. Does she know she saved your life?

Quote from Adriana on August 24, 2018, 6:02 pm

Deseree

Bianca, nearly bubbling over with excitement at everything she was learning from Jen - and thoroughly enjoying the company of the woman just as well - listened with full interest, only breaking her eyes from the other once Zander spoke. She seemed briefly off put by his asking a question amid their rolling conversation. "Oh, hey, you must be exhausted? Lets not stand around here all night.. I'd hate to keep them from closing; is there a diner or restaurant open? We could get something to eat." she commented, beginning to gather up the books from her table.

She cleared her throat as she regained her trail of thought, recovering from Zander's abrupt inquiry, and went immediately back to her previous conversation.

"Grandma Eleanor would have loved to move here but, she was really already so established in Middlecrest. You know how it is, friends and family and such." now holding a stack of books from her mid torso to her neck, she turned around and waited for Zander and Jen to follow suite. She didn't seemed bothered by the weight and continued the conversation easily.

"You know, I tried - initially, a friend of mine who was an officer had convinced me into taking a six month course to become an EMT - which I did. But by the time it came down to getting my certification, I couldn't go through with it. There's only so much I can handle and on top of that, I didn't really want to be the face people saw while, well, you know. So I turned around and started work to be a teacher."

Shifting the weight of the books in her arms, and resting one hand atop the stack, she continued still.

"It's really great that you can peg newcomers so easily! I love small towns. In Middlecrest, nobody bats an eye at strangers. Except, well, there was this one incident at the mall recently - remind me to tell you about that. A shame about the outcasts, though, and it must be hard on the ranchers with help coming and going so easily. I wonder why they don't settle here? Is the housing expensive or hard to find? You know, actually, I might look into moving here in the near future."