Werewolf: Appalachian Moonrise, Ch 1

[LadyTevar]

"Well struck, Younglin'!" a gravelly female voice howled out, before the aged elder Garou started to grow like a balloon inflating, doubling in size as she activated one of her Gifts ... then vanishing from sight in a flash like moonlight.

By the burning Boar-Fomor, another flash of moonlight, and the gigantic Garou plunged her enlarged claws deep into the wounded boar's side, lifting it up and sending it flying from the blow.

[rhoenix]

With an almost echoing growl, Sees-Faces-In-Stars slashed downward, letting his Rage fuel him with speed. His claws sank into the defiled pig, but he knew it still lived.

[LadyTevar]

Arianne howled as her claws sliced into the same boar Sees-Faces had struck, yet the remaining hide of the boar deflected the blow, doing little damage.

[Cynical Cat]

Stormwalker's blow sliced the Bane's material body apart in a spray of green ichor that dissolved before striking the ground. The Bane vanished, along with its blood, falling back into the Umbra.

[Charon]

Adahy had driven the jeep a ways, trying to keep close to where he thought the others were, but mostly watching for any cars that might be following. Adahy's eyes caught a yellow volkswagon. Very bright, maybe the were trying to get his attention? But they'd been following closely behind for a mile or so. They were likely a decoy if...

Adahy closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths. No, they weren't following him. He had more important things to worry about now. He opened his eyes to the sound of honking and realized he had been drifting into the other lane. He pulled the car right and tramped on the breaks, slowing down fast and getting off the road.

Joe was staring at Adahy in shock and horror.

"I'm going to go find the others. You keep it up."

Without letting time for Joe to respond, Adahy lept out of the Jeep and ran off and up into the woods. As soon as he was out of sight he shifted with ease into his lupus form and bounded upwards as fast as he could. It didnt take long for him to catch the trail of the others and he was on his way.

[General Havoc]

Bullets had not worked. Fire had. That much was obvious enough just on the face of things. She had literally blown the boar's head off with her first shot, only to see it regenerate like a tape played backwards. Yet when she had tried fire, the thing had screeched like... well... like a stuck pig. Flailing around on the ground trying to stamp the flames out, the pig had been unable to continue its assault, and Sophie decided to follow up with another strike. She called out to the spirits around here, requesting fire, lots of fire. They were alien spirits to her, but this was a wyrm-spawned horror, as offensive to them as it was to her more familiar weaverkin spirits. The spirits responded with fire.

... indeed, that was sort of the problem.

Woodland spirits did not react the way she had anticipated. They were less concerned with precision, with delineation, with classification. She had asked for fire under the expectation that she would have to then modulate her request with explanations as to why she wanted it, and how much she wanted. She did not realize that the spirits of the area already knew why she wanted the fire, and did not stop to wait for her to tell her what limits she was after. She called for fire, and fire she received.

A huge fireball exploded in the midst of the clearing like a thermite bomb, sending a plume of smoke and flame towering into the air. Sophie yelped involuntarily and inadvertently inhaled flame, scorching her throat and knocking her over even as fire swirled over her and sent the fur on one arm withering and blistering. She cried out in surprise and pain, and only belatedly managed to get the fire back under control, having consumed most of the immediate vicinity in savage gouts of flame. Blinded and choking on smoke and fumes, all she could hope for right now is that she'd burned the pigs worse than she'd just burned herself.

Or everyone else.

[Devonie]

Arianne ducked as she felt the heat from the fireball pass overhead, but didn't pause as she sunk her claws into the pig-shaped nastiness in front of her. With a heave of her muscles she practically ripped it in two as she howled.

[rhoenix]

His claw half a second behind Arianne's, Sees-Faces-In-Stars missed with his open-clawed slash - but to his relief, he would have only struck dead flesh anyway.

Looking around immediately, Sees-Faces-In-Stars took stock of his surroundings.

[LadyTevar]

The oversized female Garou shivered and shrunk back to normal, gasping as if such an expenditure of power had exhausted her. The flashfire has set small fires about the clearing where dead leaves of past years caught, while the burnt BaneBoar struggled to again to rise to its feet, a circle of burning ground around it where it had put itself out.

The boar let out a squealing roar before lowering its head and charging Sophie and the aged Fianna.

Sees-Faces was looking around, and so he did not see the ghastly green glow that shown around the Boar Arianne had just slaughtered. Like the first, the Fomori pulled itself back together, the Bane preventing its death. With a swipe of it's head, it slashed at the unwary Stargazer.

[rhoenix]

Some hidden otherworldly instinct told Sees-Faces-In-Stars to dodge to his left - so, he did so. It was only afterward that he saw the Baneboar's goring tusk barely miss impaling his side.

[General Havoc]

Biting the pain back, Sophie managed to force her eyes open in time to see the enormous raging boar bearing down on her like a freight train. She had no time to dodge left or right, and thus she took the only course laid open. She jumped forward.

She was not a gymnast by any means, but she did know how to move when needed. Being small had advantages after all, and she'd spent much of her childhood playing dogpile or other wrestling games with her uncles, werewolves all. She knew a few things about how to get out of the damned way.

And this time, she simply acted without thinking, and everything fell into place.

She jumped into the air as the boar neared her, and pushed off the thing's head, her foot touching it for only an instant before she sprang into the air over it. The boar ran right below her as she turned a two complete flips in midair and landed on her feet behind it, sticking her landing like an Olympic gymnast, her CZ-75 still held in one hand, and held out to the side like the title character of a John Woo film.

The boar never had a chance to figure out what had happened to its intended quarry before Sophie was behind it, and turning around with her gun at the ready.

[Cynical Cat]

Charging Sophie was a very bad idea. Not because she wasn't a legitimate target, but because she was agile and when she moved out of the way with an acrobat's grace that set the boar up for taking Stormwalker.

No Shadow Lord inducted into the tribe turned down an easy shot.

Stormtalon cleaved through the air and through the boar's spine, striking just behind the hump of muscle. The Grand Klaive cut the boar in half, blood spraying and entrails spilling out into the ground. The Bane inside howled, momentarily exposed. In a moment or two, it would be able to rebuild the boar body that housed it.

It didn't have a moment.

Stormwalker lunged and drove his father's Klaive through the Bane and then ripped the blade to the right. The Bane came apart in a spray of ectoplasmic blood and tissue, dissolving as it fell out of material universe and into the Umbra.

[LadyTevar]

"That gives new meanin' tha th' term 'pig-sticker'," the aged female Fianna drawled, slowly drawing herself up again. "One more, young'uns... let's get 'em."

[Cynical Cat]

Sophie's bullet tore up the remaining boar and Stormwalker's blade opened a long cut in it's side. Snorting with rage the boar swung its massive head towards the Shadow Lord and charged.

Alex stood with the Grand Klaive outstretched, which did not deter the boar at all. It was quite willing to impale itself for an opportunity to gore and trample Stormwalker. It came straight at him.

Stormwalker kept the blade leveled at the boar with his extended arm and sidestepped. The Bane possessed monstrosity had its gaze and attention focused more on the Klaive than Alexander's body and was slow to change direction. Like a bull chasing a red cape it rushed by Stormwalker, missing him by a whisker.

[rhoenix]

Though he was a little tired from dealing with the Bane Pigs, they weren't done - and so, neither was Sees Faces. Moving his limbs, he moved with the efficient grace of two sorts of predator, though mostly with Wolf. Man had useful points too, though.

Alex had the creature momentarily distracted, which allowed Sees-Faces-In-Stars to stalk around the creature, waiting for the right moment to strike with another Fur Gnarl. With planning, this would be over soon.

[Devonie]

Arianne gave a blood-curdling howl as her claws sunk deep into the side of the bane-possessed boar. With a mighty heave she lifted it over her head and ripped it literally in half, the blood of the animal pouring over her like a waterfall. The bane pulled itself from the sundered flesh, glowing a sickly green. With a scream of frustration it fled to the Umbra.

Arianne stood for a second before throwing the body of the boar to either side. “Ugh!â€

[LadyTevar]

"A righ' youn'uns...," the aged Fianna said as she slipped back to human -- a wizened old woman bent over from her years, with wispy grey hair under a knitted cap. Over denim overhauls that had seen better days, she wore a battered once-green peacoat. "Iffen yer chasin' them things a'cross, Ah'd get ta movin'. Elsewise... we migh' wanna put out these fires afore they spread."

Her face was flushed from the fight, and she was breathing a little harder than any of the younger wolves. Age had its price.

[Charon]

Breathes-the-Winds came to a stop from his headlong rush as he closed on the fight. He stayed far back for awhile, watching this old Fianna closely before finally and very carefully coming out of the underbrush, he stayed in his lupus form, his eyes weren't on his pack, they were on the old Fianna.

[LadyTevar]

The older Fianna looked over at the horned wolf sneaking in. "Lil' late fer th' fight, ain'cha boy?" she said, still breathing heavily.

[Cynical Cat]

Alexander kicked dirt on the nearest fires. "Are you injured?" he asked in the Garou tongue.

[Charon]

Breathes-the-Winds watched the Fianna closely for a few more seconds. "Lil' old to be in these woods alone, ain'cha Fianna?" It was clear he was copying her dialect while he was taking a few deep sniffs to get an idea on the area.

[LadyTevar]

"N'thin tha' won't heal with time, young ShadowLord," she answered. "Gaia ain't ready to take me home jis' yet. And you, pup," she added, giving Breaths a hard look that carried the full weight of her years as an Elder, ".. need to remember to be respectful. I am Caitlyn Dougal, once called Caitlyn the Red, Elder of the Tribe of Fianna. Now who might you be, pup?"

[Charon]

Breathes-the-Winds took a few steps back from the glare, but didn't retreat. "I am Breathes-the-Winds, Uktena Songkeeper of the Sept of the Moon's Blessing. We were following a trail of taint."

[rhoenix]

Watching the others, especially the lady who had revealed herself to be an Elder, Sees-Faces-In-Stars' form seemed to melt into his homid form, being "Joe-Smith" once again.

Once he was done changing, he waved to Breathes-The-Winds (he might be paranoid, but the winds liked him - he couldn't be all bad), and returned his attention to the elder. He remembered what Galileo had told him about what he should do if he met an Elder: "Oh, you'll know, young 'un - you'll know. t'Elder could be an ancient walker-assisted geriatric, and that Elder would still kick your ass up and down the Cairn for hours, complaining the whole time about kids these days and their manners."

Though he had only really understood one word in three at the time, now it made more sense. This elder may be old, but she was once an Elder of the entire tribe of Fianna - and she was still able to hold her own until he and the others of his...pack! Yes, they were becoming a pack now. Until he and his pack got there. He was silently thankful for his nose, that they had found the Elder in time.

He walked forward slowly, with calm toward the elder a few steps before stopping. Second-guessing himself, he reverted back to his lupus form to "talk" to her properly. He addressed her in a low voice using the Garou tongue, being respectful to one her with age and experience. "Gaia's and Luna's blessings to you - I am honored to meet you, Elder Kite-Lan Dug-all - I am Sees-Faces-In-Stars, a Theurge of the tribe that gazes at stars and chases winds. We wish to chase the last of our prey in the world of mists. Come with us, see that the last of the prey is gone."

[General Havoc]

Sophie had already decided that this had to be some kind of Elder, but then she up and declared herself to be a Fianna Elder, and upbraided Breathes-the-Winds for being disrespectful...

... well some things did not change between tribes.

She slid her handgun back into its holster, shrinking back down to her Homid form as she did so, and checking to ensure that the inadvertent pyroclastic eruption she had triggered hadn't damaged her laptop or other gear. He arm still throbbed, but there was no major damage done, at least so it appeared.

"Sophia Aran," she said to the Fianna by way of introduction, stepping around the broken carcass of the boar that Arianne had literally torn in half. She wondered for a moment if she was supposed to be more excited or afraid than she was. This was, after all, the first time she'd ever actually... fought something. Really fought that was, not play or trial or some kind of pecking order snarl. Actually fought to kill. Yet right now all she could think of was that she definitely needed a bigger gun.

As in an anti-tank gun.

"Sorry about the fire," she said. "What happened? Are these things common around here?" She didn't need to have seen these before to know what they were. Banes did not go out of their way to make themselves un-noticeable.