Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 12:15 pm

Aim

Carefully listening to Theo's introduction, Chime slipped the food she got for Toby in front of him, a generous smile to return his.

Taking her seat again, she found herself a little lost, though enjoyed Theo's explanation of his former packs Flower Festival. Silently she wondered what it would be like to attend such an event, and decided she would like it.

As Sabrina begin, she too noticed Theo's discomforted, abit perhaps from what he had previously mentioned, but the even more personal questions.. feeling for her peer, she hoped for a distraction of some sort, and it was answered with Levi.

As her shoulders relax, Chime offered him a smile and she listened. She could picture the peaceful trails, and the thought of the woods and rocks telling stories amused her. Quietly, she was a bit confused. How did he change from an escaped prisoner to guest? It was a happy confusion, but.. the length they took to secure him..

Shivering, she eyed Logan before quickly looking away. It was her wolf, she was still learning.. As the ball was passed to her, she found herself a kin to a deer in highlights. Shoot, she should of been thinking of what she was going to say!

"Ah, yeah. Well.. I'm Chime, ah, Chime Slyer and, uh, I haven't been in a pack before this one. It was just my mother and me. But yeah, I like to sew and bake, and hang out with people. Aah.. that's about it, I guess."

It was her turn to look a little pink, immediately she begin to pick at her dish.

"Oh! I forgot to say, you're up Toby."

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 12:16 pm

Cat

Toby made no motion or sound as each pack member took turns sharing a little about themselves. Though he wanted to remember every word in hopes that these descriptions would better help him remember who was in the pack and who wasn't, he was only partially listening to each person that spoke. The main focus of his mind was trying to figure out what he would say when his turn came and on whether or not he actually deserved the plate of food that was now set before him. Considering he had some meat stashed away up stairs, would this be considered taking someone else's portion? He didn't want to do that. He didn't want to go hungry, but it would even worse to let someone else go hungry! To be extra sure that no harm came to the pack because of his selfish greed, he resolved not to touch his food at all until everyone else had eaten.

Just then, Chime called his name and passed the dreaded puck to him. I-- he began confidently, but fell silent. The words he had predetermined were mercilessly disintegrated by the invisible laser vision of everyone's gaze.

I'm Toby Buttermilk. He resolved, I'm 17-- No, 18?.. No, I'm 17... I think... Anyway, I live with my Granny in Reknab Bend. I've lived here my whole life just like my dad, and Granny before him, and my great-grandpa before her, and-- Well, ect. ect. My family has been here for generations actually. I think one of my ancestors founded the town. Granny likes to say the Buttermilks are as much a part of this land as the mountain itself-- But I don't know if she means in general, or werewolf wise... Then again, I don't think it matters either way because all the Buttermilks were werewolves right up to the first Buttermilk! It's a heritage a lot of the family was very proud of, or so I've gathered from what I've heard Granny say- She doesn't talk much about the past. We were mostly full-bloods until recently, I think. I'm a half-blood though because my mom was a human. he said, rubbing his shoulder awkwardly. Then he continued, speaking faster as he did so. I like, uhhh... Reading and.. uhm... Running. I really like running-- But that's the only part of being a werewolf that I actually like because I never really wanted to be a werewolf since my wolf form is ugly and weak and good for nothing except running and I actually hoped I would make a better human and be respected for my brains and maybe go into law one day. I've never been a part of a pack before but Granny insisted I join this one because she was once the alpha of her own pack, which means she has experience, and she said I should..

Now at last, he took a breath and smiled broadly, looking to the next person expectantly.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 12:16 pm

Mae

That next person, it seemed, as all others save Logan had gone on before him, was Ulric. He had been slow to relinquish his secondary form as was customary at the dinner table, so although he had made up his mind formerly on where to sit, he had yet to take a place in the company of the others.

Ulric's long ears were inclined in the direction of everyone who spoke, each in turn, all while he ate and thus he finished ahead of everyone. But when it came his turn to speak, as must be assumed, he looked up simply and smiled in a wolfish way.

"Don't look at me yet," he laughed, "I'm not done eating."
And so he wasn't, for Ulric went to get more for his plate.

Still however, Ulric's interest was captured by these new acquaintances from former acquaintances and he spoke as he picked out another cut.

"I didn't know there was a werewolf pack in this area before Kratos took up place here, Toby. I seem to recall someone said something about ehh... Gorrun'uch, though." The word which was most certainly not understood by those in company was not in fact a word at all, Ulric had lowered his head and made something of a growling-garble to pronounce it, a sound which could not be repeated in any human form.
"That is, Stone Arch, or a Stone Door. I seem to have gotten the idea that it was the name of a pack of some sort, but I never asked, since the name was spoken like that."

Ulric looked around at his companions and felt the need to explain.

"You see, the names sound different in {Low}, also sometimes spoken {La'owl}." Ulric said, again those strange sounds tumbled out of his mouth. "Its a language, I suppose, that my pack would use. Some names in Low can only be pronounced with the feelings intended to accompany it, for example; Properly speaking the name 'Svalnaglas' immediately alerts others to its presence, thus commanding fear, respect, authority and wonder all at once. With other words and names, it just depends on how you say it, but there are some designed, such as "Fangs Beneath Earth's Moon" - the name of the Pack of Pinerich, - to only be spoken one way..."

Ulric fell short of telling all of them that when he had heard the name "Stone Arch" spoken that it had some disapproval associated with it, he felt his explanation was sufficient and went on to remark on another topic of interest.

"So, do you know about many species in the plant genus, Theo? I've never heard of a flower festival as a commemoration before." Ulric returned to the wall where he had previously stood to eat his food, and had in mind another reason in asking this question.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 12:16 pm

Mae

The door to the bedroom was closed. A darkness stilled the hall, and in it the rise and fall of his breath could be heard - the breathing of the beast. How strange to see his eyes gleaming though there be so little light, a pale yellow glint, as downward he stared on Melinda's face.

His voice rumbled, though it was but a whisper. "When last we spoke I asked you regarding your relation to Jacqueline Ryder... I hope you are ready to answer concisely."

Melinda would not hear his steps as he drew near, yet his presence would move her into the room across the hall without a touch or speaking a word. When then she was within, the door was left ajar as he moved past her, deeper into the room, he drew the curtains aside. The morning light entered and leaked out into the black hallway, only then at last was the man's face again revealed, but no different than before.

Reality had once more contorted when the door to the previous room had been shut, but Kratos had all this time been a man, and no changes had taken place...

*******

Tammy's coughing fit had quieted some time after the door was closed. She had heard the great werewolf speak beyond the door, but then it seemed that both he and the woman left the hallway, for things fell eerily quiet... Tammy waited a long time in the silence before she at last ventured to the dresser drawer.

Carefully, quietly, Tammy slipped the drawer open and saw the roll of socks inside, she took the small devise out of them gingerly in her hands and closed the drawer without a sound.

Tammy held the object in her hand as she quietly sat down on the bedside. For a long time she did nothing with it, but let it rest in her palm like an illegal drug - It was a lifeline, a way for rescue... or so it might have seemed to someone who did not know better. Tammy lifted her eyes to the door again, and how great was her wariness within that glance. Who was this woman who the werewolves had captured? Why had they kept her here? And why hadn't she already called for help?

At length, Tammy's eyes were again drawn to the cell phone the woman had intentionally left behind, and when at the touch of a button the screen lit up she finally knew how much time had passed since her dark encounter... but what was more, Tammy looked to find out what numbers the phone had dialed, for at five percent, the battery was nearly spent.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 12:16 pm

Indy

Theo listened quietly as Ulric spoke, not only appreciating that the attention was no longer on him, but also the information that was being shared. His own pack never had language like this – or at least, none that anyone had shared with him. But there had been many things he never knew about his own pack, that no one really knew. It had just been too big and too... chaotic. And it had been so easy to be forgotten. So eagerly Theo listened, trying to commit that fact to memory the best he could.

His head jerked slightly from the pensive consideration of his empty plate. He was startled that Ulric had addressed him, but he wasn’t alarmed. Somehow, talking seemed easier when someone invited you to talk first; he could easily pretend the rest of the pack wasn’t listening. Theo smiled shyly, but with eagerness, at Ulric.

“Well, I don’t know about a genus, exactly…” Theo trailed, considering how to explain it, “ But we called it ‘Woman’s face’ or sometimes ‘Tears of the First’.

It’s based on a legend of a woman, who was married to er… the first werewolf. The First had angered the spirits, so as penance, he became the first werewolf. You can um, ask Toby on the details, I wrote it down for him a while ago…”

Suddenly a confidence came over his voice and he no longer remembered anyone was in the room; now he was recounting a story that had been told many times before

“But anyways, he disappeared for a few years while he was learning how to be a werewolf and his wife didn’t know what happened to him. When he finally came from the woods, and told her what he was, she wasn’t very happy. He wasn’t quite a man anymore, and his control wasn’t very good. In those early days, he kinda ran rampant through the town on full moons and the villagers were scared of him.

His wife was desperate so one night she decided she would burn down the woods that took him. She grabbed a torch and a company of close friends, and set blaze to deep in the heart of the woods. She got separated from her friends and she could not find a way out from the blaze… finally the spirits appeared before her, angered, and demanded she would pay with her life.

The woman accepted these terms, yet pleaded that her husband could be set free from his curse in exchange. The spirits denied her, yet were so moved by her dedication, that they agreed her life might be used to make his wolf gentler, and all those like him.

From her ashes, white flowers grew, and soon spread all throughout the forest. Finally the First went to the woods to look for his wife, and when he saw the flowers, cried over them for he knew what happened… from that day onward, any that ate those flowers found control easier.”

“And that’s uh, what we celebrate in the Flower Festival. They can only be harvested at certain times of the year, so it’s a big celebration”

---

Melinda merely sighed as she was pushed along the darkened room without a single touch upon her, and listening to the sound of heavy breath. Certainly with imagination it was a dreadful sound, and had she not calmed her mind carefully, she might have found herself in a state of panic. Yet as the curtains were drawn and Kratos spoke, Melinda maintained her annoyance over the entire ordeal.

At last she shook her head and sighed breathlessly, “Careless, all of it careless…”

Her voice rose sharply, not with any anger, but with a certain force nonetheless, “Alpha Kratos, I do not appreciate these fear tactics. If you wish for a conversation, than so be it, yet you best either make a better friend of me or a better enemy. This in-between place of friend-and-foe only speaks to inexperience”.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 12:16 pm

Mae

"I am determining that myself," said the Alpha. The room was a mess of few belongings, the bed was unmade and there was a backpack against the bedside that had not been unpacked.

So far the Alpha treated Melinda's presence with indifference, he straightened the blinds of the window so that light might more easily pour in, and noticed a vase on the window sill with a single flower that had been left to sit in darkness. Kratos moved the vase back into the sunlight.

"You are a stranger here, yet you would not be if not for Jackie's grace; she believes you are family. But if that were so... you would not feel I were a danger to you."

There was something implied in those few words that warned Melinda that her very attitude and posture were betraying her, but was it a conscious warning, or one imagined?

Now at length the Alpha turned and the light poured brightly over his features. The rest of him must need remain silhouetted against the window for the light, yet his eyes shown with unnatural clarity as he looked on Melinda.

"I lay bare my intentions." He said. "You do not understand the ways of my kind, but let me assure you that the terms at present that brought you here are agreeable to you. There would be no doubt in either your mind nor mine should you become my enemy. Yet if that is privilege enough in your eyes that I should give a loose to you, to let you walk on ground where your footing shall lead you amid the sinkholes, then you are mistaken."

*****

Ulric listened to Theo with an ever growing interest and he even furrowed his brow.

"I have never heard of any story relating to the first werewolf or how it all began..." He muttered. "The eldest werewolf I know of is called by the Svalnaglas Mávros Yiós, but no one knows where he came from before the land was settled."

Ulric was contemplative for a moment, before at last he lifted his eyes. "I wonder if it has anything to do with the strange bush-weed I found the night you guys were shot. ... And just before Jackie and I were caught. I found it that night we were looking for Toby, and then again when I came up to find Logan and Jackie... I guess I had walked through the stuff and it had caused me to black out."

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 12:16 pm

Deseree

Logan had only acknowledged Levi's kindly smile with a brief nod of her head. She proceeded to eat in silence as each member was introduced and payed heed to them, but particularly interesting to her was the conversation Ulric brought up. Her attention had been given to him fully, her plate now empty, as he went on in a tongue so strange and yet, not entirely foreign in it's manner.

Bianca might have grown anxious that the conversation had derailed from her initial intentions, if she wasn't too caught up in the side tangent between Theo and Ulric to notice. Instead she was leaning in on her chair towards the latter and listening with gusto - as an aspiring teacher, it was something she would be ashamed not to make note of. In any case, the responses - or lack thereof - gave her quite a greater idea of the pack than she had initially hoped to obtain, and she was satisfied regardless.. perhaps.

The moment the conversation lulled, and Logan's name was mentioned, she couldn't help but look in the direction of the woman across the table, who seemed to Bianca to be feigning interest. The young girl noticed the way the woman's arms were crossed over her chest; a sign of defensiveness or otherwise an unwillingness to to engage, if her college textbooks knew anything on the matter. It wasn't something to deter her however, and now with renewed vigor she decided to conclude what she had set forth to accomplish.

"Shot at? Ahhh.. wait, we'll have to go back to that." she muttered, adjusting her position slightly now. "But, ah, did you want to make an introduction?" turning to Logan, the blonde looked on inquisitively. Logan caught her gaze and glanced around at the others in the room. Being put on the spot was the last thing she wanted, and Bianca was not oblivious to this when she first addressed her. When the girl did not relent her gaze, Logan shifted very subtly, leaning back in her chair and lowering her eyes. The silence went on much longer than Bianca would have liked.

"Ooor.. not." she uttered under her breath sheepishly, feeling a bit flushed.

"Logan Ash Geronimo." she stated plainly, and firmly - it was something she intended to say this one time only in such a manner, and it was clear by the way it was spoken.

"My past is of no importance here. You will decide for yourself who I am... I will not hold it against you."

With that, she stood and retrieved her dish, cleaning it and leaving it in the sink before dismissing herself upstairs, to her room.

Bianca meanwhile shrunk down in her chair a little, her pride wounded if only slightly. She glanced to Ulric briefly with a dry chuckle, "Uhm.. you were saying?"

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 12:16 pm

Mae

Ulric watched Logan warily as she left the room and for a time said nothing. He thought about what little he had seen outside the dens prior to the meal and wondered what might have transpired after everyone save Logan had been dismissed. Not for the last time Ulric felt solemn, like a great big grumbling cloud was looming over the pack.

At length with a short sigh Ulric looked back at Bianca again and quietly, almost pensively, he corrected her. "Shot, not shot at. Theo and Toby both were shot the same night, last full moon. I'm afraid the town isn't as quiet as it lets on."

Ulric might have meant to explain a little better, but somehow his thoughts vanished from mind as he looked over his shoulder once more with concern for Logan.
*****

Meanwhile, things even at that moment were stirring in town, but far away on the old Trodder homestead everything was quiet.

When Mildred's truck reached the small cottage house sitting in its own corner of the world everything appeared rightly enough. Mildred had a keen eye to observe everything that needed to be done, in town, on the ranch, at home or in the yard, so she knew almost by instinct when she arrived at the Trodder homestead that things had been looked after. Not far afield there was a head of cattle grazing, but though they were out some distance they still seemed to be keeping close to the barn.

As for Jenn, she had never been to visit Tammy's grandfather since Tammy herself was skilled to look after him, and even now Jenn had never seen anything that looked quite like that little cottage surrounded by oak trees sitting on the field. It was a perfectly round structure, that is, its walls ran in a circle and its roof was pointed like a gazebo pavilion. Jenn might have noticed with some intrigue also that the fences surrounding the fields were branches crossed through and over one another, likely from the very same trees that dotted the property, something she thought very rustic and enchanting. Yet as the truck rumbled to a stop and Jenn was obliged to step out she felt like she had landed on some foreign soil across the sea. She felt like a stranger looking whimsically around too timid to enjoy the sight but unable to contain her enthusiasm...
"Perhaps tourist is a better word for it." Jenn thought to herself.

Mildred meanwhile slowly looked around, taking notice of how quiet everything appeared to be, and seeing what only she herself might see and understand. After doing just so, the older of the two in company continued up to the house and knocked on the door. The younger, still full of wonder and amusement found herself, however unbid, gliding over the grass to look at the vines intricately grown through the mortar between the stones of the house.

So it was that while Mildred waited for a reply at the door, Jenn noticed a large praying mantis perched on a leaf at eye-level on the side of the house, and she was too caught up in it to notice someone come around the side of the barn behind her.

"Why are you here?"

Jenn started near out of her skin and had turned around in a jiffy, hand on heart and eyes wide!
"J-Joshua!" She gasped when she found the breath for it, and looking at the broadly built young man who was come from some work she guessed, for he wore no shirt though his hands were gloved and the long rim of his hat shaded his face from the sun, Jenn breathed a gasp again. "You scared me to death!"

Joshua made no reply but Mildred had heard Jenn's exclamation and came around the house into the yard. "Hello Joshua," she said, "Is your grandaddy around?"

"He's gone out." Joshua said. "A trouble-making calf got stuck in some bramble north of here."

"I see you're headin' up to help." Mildred said, she brushed the sides of her coat back and rested her thumbs under her belt as she made a motion toward the coil of rope Joshua held.

Joshua nodded affirmatively and Mildred said that she would come along to see Mister Trodder and lend a hand to his calf, but Jenn stepped forward and gave her sympathies.
"That poor thing," she said. "Is Tammy around here somewhere, Joshua?"

Joshua, never too fond of Jenn, gave her the vaguest of glances and now shuffled back to his work, which had been saddling a horse before the visitors had come. But Jenn was oblivious and-or persistent, so she shadowed him to the barn and asked again, commenting also that she thought the white patch and brown spots on his Appaloosa were beautiful.
This time Joshua gestured with a hand and said gruffly, "Tammy is with him."
So that being the only thing he said, he mounted his horse and rode out of the barn.

Quote from Adriana on August 25, 2018, 12:17 pm

Indy

As Tammy opened the cell phone to determine it’s last messages, she would find it remarkably little. No text messages were sent. In the call log, there were a total of five calls, and three phone numbers. The first three was to her insurance company, two made on the first day and a third made that morning, and the fourth phone call had been made shortly before Tammy entered. The fifth was an unknown number, yet in the area, and had been made her first night.

Yet Tammy would need to decide what she would do next quickly – the phone abruptly dropped to 4% battery.

---

Melinda stood where she was, observing the space she was in. Her eyes did not miss the unpacked backpack and the few contents of the room with all but a single rose in decoration… it was clear these cabins were new. As her eyes traced upward at last to the man who inhabited this space, his form silhouetted against the sunlight, she returned the unnatural gaze that held her.

Her hair was undone, for the her hair-tie had snapped a few nights ago. It spread over her shoulders, reaching midway down her back in loose waves that had not altogether been combed out with her fingers that morning. Her face was paler, perhaps, from her nights at the cabin and it was blanched paler yet in the direct sunlight. And her clothing was the same as it was when she had first been taken to the cabin-- though now wrinkled and crumbled, no matter the care she had taken to it. But all appearances she was at a disadvantage, in the clutches of a foe which had her completely captive and her basic comforts unmet so she were in such a disheveled state. Yet the gaze which returned the unnatural glint of yellow from the shadows was unfaltered and unwavering, and her lips steeled themselves in such an expression that suggested either a smile without mirth or a quiet resolution.

Melinda let a silence settle over the air, as though she were composing her thoughts before speaking. Once the silence fell away, and Melinda cleared her throat to speak, and there was no hesitation in her tone.

“Do not tell me you have done me a great kindness, and think me pleased for it. You have left me alone for three days without so much a word of explanation and under the watch of your own, and left me to my own devices save for the occasion trip to the restroom. You have held me in your clutches for three days without knowing much about me, nor the dangers such an action could pose. I am not a child that needs the guidance of the more experienced. I have scoured for sinkholes, and I know where many are… Samuel.

And yet, I have seen you fall into one of your own. If I wished desperately to leave, I had that in my power – a cell phone, which I was surprised you did not take from me. It is by my patience I am here now. Yet do not think my pleased.

Let me lay bare my own intentions: I am here because I think we make better allies than enemies. And I promised I would help where Jackie’s welfare was concerned, and for that you will find me very helpful. But some things I am not at liberty to discuss, and I will not regardless of threat.”