Can I call them that? News? Rookies? Patrick calls them cubs. I can see Aurora and Kira as cubs, i suppose, but Jeff and Sophia? I just can't wrap my brain around that terminology, no matter how much I sometimes think I hear Fahr reminding me of it in the back of my mind.
First week past the Dark Moon. Glad it is past. I am still shaking from the sense of it, the night terrors that rouse me. I am glad for the sleeping pills I can sometimes get from Patrick and know that I can't make a habit of them. I just didn't want to wake everyone with my screams while they are so new to the shocks and changes they have gone through. I also am far from ready for the questions they might ask.
My instincts bade me stay, learn, help. My training urged me to run, get away, both for their safety and mine. No... no... I am not cursed. What happened... happened. I try to tell myself it is not my fault. No, I will not run... because it was my fault, my neglect. People died because I didn't do the right thing. These people here need me. Patrick and I are the only ones really familiar with shifting and the shifting world, even if i am not very well versed, i sure know more than they do!
Then there is Moon. He is like a quiet wild card. Like a slow sleeping bear. Like the rumble of the very earth. He is a bear with on eye missing, replaced with just a silver ball. But will he stay and help or just leave?
If I am staying, then I need to know this new territory. This is my training talking. Or is it my natural instincts. I have a hard time telling the difference these days as one day runs into the next. So I explore and I observe. I walk the whole of the grounds and find it not symmetrical at all. It is as if Marchettus grabbed up random plots of land here and there as he went. It does have a long stream with a waterfall on one end, many barrows and hedges. There is good hunting here. Decent places to run and hide. It could Definitely be made defensible, if only for its size. However there are no current defenses in place. Supposedly the gauntlet is thinner here like at a cairn. Patrick claims it once was an old cairn long abandoned or forgotten.
I still haven't entirely decided to stay. I have a safehouse... compromised, but still. There is cat magic in it still. This is wolf magic here... and I am finding I like it... damn Fahr. Damn me... I must be going soft.
On the grounds are so many animals, exotic and wild and domestic alike. The pride of domestic cats are lead by a queen maincoon. Man is she a bitch! Well this is her territory I am treading on. I am not fighting a domestic cat for it. It is not my den, not going to be my den... or... is it... It is like bloody Noah's Arc here.And they all kowtow to the maincoon bitch. Well... not me! Not unless she is some serious spirit totem figure thingy.
Back to my observations. Sophia now that she has changed has yet to come into her gifts. She's been acting all twitchy outside as if she keeps seeing things that aren't there. Maybe she is. Maybe that is her gift? Someone should tell her such. Or not. Not like she is going to listen. I wonder how much wine she can have before she is too inebriated to function? I bet a vampire could get drunk on her blood she seems so pickled. Nah... too sour... practically vinegar. *pardon while I snicker to myself for 20 minutes about that*
Ok... I have recovered. Patrick has to plan the rites of passage for people. I know there are many steps involved. I've been present for a few rites, but not the whole process. I am curious. This is a great opportunity to learn something new that I doubt I would ever get to learn otherwise. Will the token kitty be allowed to? I can hope. But then I would have to commit to this pack if it becomes one. Do I want to do that? Dare I?
WOAH! Sohpia is talking to the nothings that are there. Yup, I would say that is a gift of some sort. I bet she feels like she's going mad. Short trip for her I think. *snicker* It is kind of fun to watch everyone come into their gifts. Kira can speak to the living animals and seem to understand and be understood. Like any girl her age, she finds this cool. Hell, so would I?! Aurora... all I have noted so far about her gifts is that she can glow. That might just be because she is Silver Fang. I vaguely recall they can all do that. I might be wrong though.
We've been moved from the... "The Privy" to the main house completely now. Part of my scouting about was also to smell out for taint. I will never forget the smell of the wyrm. The taint stuck in my nose from that incident. Burned into my memory as the scars will forever mark my face, my body, my soul. And yet... the taint is practically non-existent here on these grounds or even with Marchettus directly. I don't know what that means. I wish I could ask Fahr. While I know Patrick, we haven't really been considered friends. Would he know? Should I ask? Maybe I should talk to him, not just of this, but also of the state of the garou. Rats are migrating onto the property... they smell of the taint from the city. That too I should speak to Patrick about. if the rats flee the city, what is the state of the city turning to? What does it all mean? Why do I feel like we are on the edge of war... a big war?
I will continue to lay low, observe. I hear the vampire prince of the city is names Capone. I thought he was some mob boss. Apparently from what I overhear, he too is not doing well with the mess in the city. I am tempted to find out how bad it is. See if I can infiltrate.
First though is to ensure we can survive here for a time. Thankfully the hunting game is good and there is lots to forage. Berries. Herbs. Even fish. I take the young girls out hunting to teach them how to identify things in the wild and how to hunt for themselves. In case no one is here to provide for them in the near future. Moon helps. He knows the plants better than I do. We must. There are living residents on the grounds now. A vampire may not need to eat regularly, but the rest of us do. And the newly shifted most of all. They will need more meats to help them adjust till they have gone through their rites. I quietly hide in the kitchens when no one is looking and cook. I like cooking. I just don't tell anyone in case I get stuck with the task all the time. I make preserves and salt the meats we have, cut them to freeze. Stock pile. We'll need more. Seeing a whole pantry full of canned dog food seems a crime for Aurora. Even if she never changed... feeding a wolf canned dog food?! Ugh... I mean. I've lived off the stuff for a week once... but still... ugh...
Paolo! I finally learned the name of the servant on the premises. What an odd man who cannot seem to speak with the same accident from one day to the next. I wonder who he is. I worry who he is. And the other living servant here is named Puckerman, he manages the pool. And he is quite nice to look at. And I should NOT be looking! I may be far from ready for a relationship, but I am not dead. sometimes under stress... you just want to fuck, just to reaffirm life.*SIGH*
With the grounds completely mapped (and sometimes managing to sleep out there where my night terrors wake no one), I turn my attention to the main house. There is so much alcohol. What does Marchettus live off of? Blood and Alcohol? Can he? I am sure that would make even a vampire crazy... oh... well... that explains a lot now, doesn't it. I discover attics with greenhouses and storage rooms and paintings from as far back as 600AD. Paintings of Marchettus with the Mona Lisa, with Jefferson, with Joan of Arc (did she really look like that or is this a scam?)... and more. Well if you want photos of fame of you with celebrities and you can't have your picture taken... or the camera was not yet invented, I suppose paintings are the way to go. House mapped... and.. OH! secret passages! Pardon me... MUST map those. *GRIN* When I was little, I used to dream of finding a house like this and exploring the secret passages. Then I grew up and stopped believing people had those anymore. I never found any in my line of work unless it was some old castle or manor I was infiltrating. Ah... I guess this qualifies. Fun! About the only fun I think I will get. I can still feel like a kid with no one looking, can't I? I memorize them and find the wine cellar.
More alcohol... vintage alcohol. And a door. A basement door in the cellar. It leads to a door. They are very old and a bitch to open. I am filthy and dusty by the time i get through a long dark series of stairs and doors and tunnels and more doors. I get the others because this... I have no idea why I get the others. Well Aurora can glow so that helps. She leads the way along a long long dark tunnel that eventual begins to rise again till we end up in a cave behind a waterfall. It must be the waterfall by that lake that leads into the stream. Sophia declares that there are spirits here. She has finally accepted i think that she can speak to ghosts or spirits. I draw my klaive because it sometimes is helpful in moments like this. Sigils for Spirit beings... Spirit Bear, Coyote Ancestor, and... and what the fuck? A heart? What the hell? I shake the klaive hoping to shake the symbols into something that makes more sense. Who am I kidding? Why would it make sense? I think it is playing tricks on me again. But only with the heart... or is it? I have no idea what it means.
The gauntlet is extremely thin here like this is a holy place. Patrick and Sophia are pulled through the reflective surface of the waterfall into the umbra. And a coyote materializes before us. So much happens at this point that I can't hardly lock it down. We too travel to the umbra.
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