Werewolf: Appalachian Moonrise, Ch 1

[Devonie]

Arianne scoops up the cash from the table, adds it up and puts in enough to cover the balance plus a decent tip for Patty, then rises.

"Let's get on the road," she says. "I'm using the bathroom, y'all can meet me at the Jeep." She tosses Alex the keys so he can unlock the doors.

[Charon]

Adahy sighed as he looked out at Galileo's missing vehicle. "I'd like to say that's a surprise..."

The Garou got out thirteen dollars and put them in the 'pot'. Then he started towards the bathroom. "I'm gonna wash my hands before we head out again."

[Cynical Cat]

Alexander plucked the keys out of mid air and headed towards the vehicle. He was singing softly as he walked.

"Tweeter and the Monkey Man were hard up for cash
They stayed up all night selling cocaine and hash
To an undercover cop who had a sister named Jan
For reasons unexplained she loved the Monkey Man.

Tweeter was a boy scout before she went to Vietnam
And found out the hard way nobody gives a damn
They knew that they found freedom just across the Jersey line
So they hopped into a stolen car took Highway 99.

And the walls came down
All the way to hell
Never saw them when they were standing
Never saw them when they fell."

[Cynical Cat]

"Yo Soph," Alexander called back. "Can you pull up a map on your lap top with the stables?"

[General Havoc]

"Way ahead of you," said Sophie, who was already bringing the map back up on her laptop. She took a second to feed the coordinates of the diner in and plot what passed for the "most efficient course". It was time to see if her homemade directional algorithms were worth anything out here.

[Cynical Cat]

"Excellent," said Alexander. "Good work."

[LadyTevar]

By the map, they were about 20miles away from the farm.

The noon-time sun shown down, gifting the land with warmth of a mild summer day. The sunlight soaked into the greens and first bright reds and crimsons of the forested mountains, and reflected brightly off farm ponds as the jeep sped along. With Arianne driving, the 20miles burned away under the tires, as she straightened the curves of the twisty backroads as if she were one of the Duke cousins out for a spin.

They reached the Cameron Stables without incident, pulling under a wrought-iron archway that announced the name of the stable and that it was "Breeding Champions since 1834". The long driveway passed between wood-fenced pastures, where a few of these champions were out grazing on the autumn grasses. On one side, two foals raced the jeep for a short distance before breaking off in their own game of follow the leader, kicking and bucking for the sheer joy of it as their dams watched, lazily chewing mouthfuls of grass beneath the shade of large trees.

The driveway opened out into a large parking lot. One side was a large pre-CivilWar farmhouse, painted bright white with a wrap-around porch set with rocking chairs and porch swings. The other side was a large barn, one of three that dotted the rolling hillside, each one with wooden fences stretching out from it. A small side section of the barn had a door clearly marked "Office" on front.

A couple of men dressed in faded jeans and plaid long-sleeve shirts were out in the parking lot, lifting and toting large plastic bags of feed out of the back of a full-ton pickup. They looked at the jeep curiously as it pulled in.

[Charon]

Breathes-the-Winds looked over to Sees-Faces quickly as they were pulling in. "Stay human, no matter how tempting it might be to change back. Humans won't take kindly to seeing a wolf in this area, especially not with recent maulings."

[Cynical Cat]

Alex jumped out of the Jeep as it came to a halt. "Howdy," he called out in a friendly manner. "How are you folks?"

[LadyTevar]

One of the farm hands nodded back politely, taking a moment to set down his load. "Right well, you?" He looked about Alex's age, with dusty brown hair and blue eyes. Those eyes looked the group over carefully. "How kin we help you?"

[rhoenix]

Upon hearing Breathes-the-Winds' warning, Sees-Faces-In-Stars stayed in his homid form of "Joe-Smith," but said nothing as they approached the other people. However, he did grin as they approached.

He was also beginning to feel the need to visit and "water" a tree, and fidgeted slightly. He hoped they wouldn't be long.

[Cynical Cat]

"Pretty good," said Alex. "We're here about the animal mutilations. We might be able to help you."

[LadyTevar]

The brown-haired man looked to his partner, who simply shrugged and grabbed another bag of feed. The brown-haired man looked back at Alex. "I'll get Miz Cameron for ya, jis' wait a moment."

The farmhand turned and walked the short distance to the door marked "Office" and stepped inside.

[General Havoc]

"What exactly are we gonna tell these people?" asked Sophie quietly once the farmhands were out of earshot. "We don't have any government or press credentials."

[Cynical Cat]

"We don't need them," said Alex. "Who asks for government ID from a bunch of university students and we do look like a bunch of university students. Ones who might be collecting data for and thus interested in unusual predator activity."

[General Havoc]

"It's a criminal investigation," replied Sophie. "For all they know, drunk college kids are to blame in the first place."

She didn't have a better idea though. "I'll see if I can find anything that might convince them," she said, and opened her laptop, searching for any kinds of studies or research grants that were even tangentially related to the subject of cattle mutilations. She didn't have a means to print press passes, but a flash of her PDA might convince the locals that they had SOME authority.

[Cynical Cat]

"Sophie Sophie Sophie," said Alexander softly. "Cops investigate all sorts of things that aren't necessarily crimes. There's no way we could fake being cops or press, but students is another matter. All we need is a half way believable reason for being here and the potential to be helpful and we have both. As long as we seem like nice, potentially helpful young people they'll be glad to have us. As for weirdness, " his eyes flickered to Sees-Faces, "that won't attract much attention either. College kids you know." He smiled. "And there are gifts to make it all go down smoother and easier."

[Charon]

"I agree with Alex." unfortunately, where is he planning on leading us? "But I've got nothing for dealing with humans in terms of gifts, beyond my usual charm." The garou smiled a bit.

[General Havoc]

The others seemed to be of the opinion that this would work. All Sophie knew is that it would not have flown in Chicago, but perhaps they did things differently down here.

"All right," she said, "I hope you guys know what you're talking about."

She quickly transfered what few research projects she had found to her laptop screen. "I found a couple sociology and zoology grants that deal with cattle mutilations. Should we claim to be with any of them?"

[LadyTevar]

The Office Door opened and the farm hand walked out. "She'll be right out, she's on the phone." He gave Alex a wry look as he picked up his bag of feed again. "I'll tell ya'll now... if yer thrill-seekin', ferget it." The Office door opened again, and the farm hand ducked his head and walked into the barn with his burden.

The woman who walked out was dressed in riding tweeds of high quality. Clearly the Stable made good money. She was an no older than the farm hand, but she moved with confidence and grace. Her hair was pulled back in a sharply neat bun, which did little to help her face. Miz Cameron had the look of one of the horses she bred.

"Hello, I'm Judith Cameron," she introduced herself, walking close and holding her hand out with stiff politeness. "Donnie said you were asking about ... the mutilations?" The hesitation was clear, but she continued on. "May I ask why you're interested?"

[Cynical Cat]

Alex shook her hand, a friendly smile on his face. "Thanks for taking the time to meet with us," said Alex. "I'm Alexander Karolyi and my colleagues and I read about your difficulties in the paper. We're doing a study on the habits of predatory animals in the region, well we're really doing the grunt data collection work, and well, we thought maybe we should take a look and if it is a sick animal or something like that we might be able to help you with it. If that's alright with you ma'am. "

[LadyTevar]

She blinked a couple of times, looking over the gathered group curiously, before looking back to Alex. Something about his manner, or his words, was very persuasive. "I.. I guess that's alright. I would like to know what killed my mares. Let me show you where it happened. You may follow in your jeep."

Ms. Cameron gave them time to get back in the jeep, then got Donnie to drive the pickup along the well-worn access roads around the farm. The farm was much bigger than it seemed, built where three hollers converged into a wide bottomland. Small creeks trickled from the three hollers, joining to make a wide stream that gurgled to the mouth of the holler, passing by the main barn and under the road. The access roads went to each barn, and on out each holler to ease the job of feeding the small herds that occupied each fenced pasture.

The pasture Ms. Cameron led them to was the deepest back, a sloping hillside that backed against the wild growth of the forest. As they emerged, the scent of blood was still lingering in the air, the grass in the pasture painted with it. Simply looking over the fence, huge gashes in the earth could be seen, where the horses had fled, fought, and died against whatever attacked them. The bodies were gone, but death remained here.

"Three broodmares... and two of them in foal," Judith said sadly, her face troubled as she looked over the field. "Do you know how much this cost me?" she asked, looking over at Alex, then back to the field.

Donnie quietly came over and touched her arm, causing her to look up at him. With a slight sigh, she looked back at the young college students. "If you need anything, please let Donnie know. I have to get back to the office ... have to fight with the insurance companies some more...."

Donnie helped her into the truck and gave the group a nod as he walked around to the driver's side. "I've gotta stock the barn at the bottom, so if ya'll need me, I'll be there," he said helpfully. "Let me know when ya'll're done, a-right?"

The pickup drove off, leaving the Garou alone in the pasture.

[Charon]

Adahy looked back to watch the pickup drive off. "Well, good job Alex. Someone should probably keep watch while some of us go wolf to get good scents."

[rhoenix]

This caused "Joe-Smith" to perk up instantly, and to begin looking around craftily for any potential eyes. After looking carefully all around him and the rest of the group, he spoke up. "Horse-lady gone? Where horse-lady's friends?"

[General Havoc]

Sophie was not, under any circumstances, about to shift forms in the middle of a wide-open pasture in broad daylight. Perhaps the others were. She didn't know how it worked for wolves with the protection of the Veil. All she knew is that there was no damned way she was going to do it.

"I'll keep watch here if the rest of you want to go scent-hunting," she said. "I'll see what I can find like this."

With that, she crouched down at the what appeared to be the most promising-looking site and began to inspect it for any fur, fibers, or clues that she might be able to detect.

((Perception + Investigation))