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Soren eases his way into the cave, running a hand over his short hair to
cast off a some dust. "Are you awake, Quiet?"
Quiet looks up from where she sits next to the two sleeping Gaian cubs.
Three--Adam, Lawrence and Louisa--began their Rite of Passage
dreamquest here, much to Cassandra's disgruntlement. There's the faint
odor of body wastes from the two boys that remain, still deep and
locked in dream. The theurge answers, I am.
"I see they are still deep... That's good," says the Get with a faint
smile. "I got my answer last night. I thought you should know."
Quiet's ears prick forward and she picks her way through the cave over
to the Get's side. Her body posture radiates a pleased air at that
news as she sits down nearer the other theurge.
Soren gives a nod as he sits himself down, injun-style. "The answer was
no." Soren takes a deep, cleansing breath and smiles. "And I have
accepted it. The time for building the forge is not here. Not yet."
Quiet whuffs acknowledgement. Her ears swivel thoughtfully, then she
adds, It is good to know what path is not yet right.
"Yes, it is, I suppose. But it is hell coming to accept the fact,"
replies Soren with a scratch to his left thigh. "I need to speak with
Jade now. Find a new path."
Quiet says with a certain wry amusement that Jade may have advice, but I
see her with no answers. She does not like to lead, that way.
"True," nods Soren with a vague smile. "But there is usually direction
in her indirection."
Quiet chuffs a laugh. That is sometimes so. In the times when I do not
despair at our dealings with the great bane, I look forward to seeking
out the old snake that she wishes us to find.
Soren reaches out a hand to scratch at the Gaians ruff. "Don't worry too
much about old Stone Eater. His days are numbered."
Quiet breathes in and out under the touch. I worry the bone long after
the meat is gone, she admits, but it seems to be the way once one
leads. You may not guess who came to offer his services to our pack in
that fight.
From the outside world, Patrick climbs toward you from the cliffs to the
southeast.
"That big Gnawer, Pete Barlow?" asks Soren, continuing his ministration
of the Gaian's fur.
Patrick clambers through the brush and down into the cave to join you.
Quiet flicks her ear in a negative. I haven't seen him in some time,
though I know city things are busy. No, the Talon. Stormcloud.
Soren glances a smile over at Patrick and then looks back at Quiet.
"Stormcloud might be useful, actually."
Patrick scrambles in just to hear Sroen's comment, then snorts. "We
needing cannon fodder for something in particular?"
Quiet looks up from where she sits next to Soren and thumps her tail on
the ground at her Uktena packmate. He might be, she says. If we need a
truth-teller. He does not seem to me one that can bear the paths we
walk in general, but aid is welcome in some things.
Patrick raises an eyebrow, obviously somewhat confused at having missed
the earlier part of the conversation. "If we're talking packmates, I'm
vetoing him right now. If we're nt, what's the cannon fodder /for/?"
Soren chuckles as he leans back, hands resting on his thighs. "Just
heard that Stormcloud offered to help with the EAter of Stones."
Patrick grimaces slightly, then asks, "He planning on trying to sit on
it or what?"
Quiet says she also does not think he fits as pack. I...am not sure why
he offered, except I think he feels unbound by pack or duty. It is
hard on the lupus to be without pack, and he says that others make him
no longer welcome in the nearby woods where Talons have always run.
Soren shakes his head. "He's got to be good for something... besides
fodder."
Patrick shrugs again noncommittally, then notes, "By the way, JJ and I
have been talking again. Probably need to talk yet again sometime
soon. Got some more info, and they're supposed to be doing a little
B&E to get some more, sometime in the near future."
"B&E?" asks Soren.
Patrick rolls his eyes and explains, "Breaking and entering."
Soren smiles as he shakes his head. "Never was good with that part of
American slang."
Quiet pricks her ears forward. Anything we can use? she asks, and then
pulls away from Soren with a brief nuzzle with her wet nose. She then
shifts instantly back to her birth form, to better join the
conversation. Her knee touch Soren's as she duplicates his
cross-legged sitting in the limited floor space of the cave.
Patrick snorts and comments, "Well, I've not been too acquainted with it
from the 'getting caught' side, if you know what I mean. Anyways,
while we don't have anything definite still, we're positive this
Turner woman's a leech. Dunno how she avoided detection the first
time, but she's a leech. And she has something on the Seattle Walkers,
since they won't do anything about her, or even give much info on
request."
Soren tenses slightly at the mention of the leech
Andrea frowns, leaning forward. "A leech? I knew they could slip the
gift of detecting Wyrm, but I wasn't aware of more. Damn." Her hands
begin to work her jeans restlessly, plucking at her legs.
Patrick continues, "Guess when the railroads went through here."
"Is she connected to the Eater at all?" asks Soren quietly.
Patrick shrugs. "Dunno for certain. Lemme finish, though. There's a lot
of circumstantial evidence."
Andrea shakes her head. "You talking about the pack vision, when we saw
the woman that turned out to be her ancestor?"
Patrick finally goes on, "At any rate, her company was behind the
railroads going through here. They started back when we saw her, at
least I'm again thinking it was her, in the pack vision. Then it
stopped suddenly, and wasn't picked up until decades later, in the
40's. Guess why the '40's."
Soren shakes his head, listening.
Andrea also shakes her head. "History was never my strong suit," she
adds wryly.
Patrick grins, then ansewrs his own question. "Ice King. The Wendigo
packed up & left town."
Andrea sucks in her breath. "That was the 40s? Ouch."
Patrick nods. "Yup. And as soon as they were gone, railroad construction
resumed. Interesting coincidence, no?"
You say "Interesting that they hadn't given up on it before that. When
the Wendigo left, they stopped harrassing the railroad people, so the
construction isn't as surprising as the fact that they hadn't left a
losing venture long before."
Patrick shrugs. "They /had/ left a losing venture long before. It
stopped utterly, no work done at all, from sometime in the late 1880's
or so until the 1940's."
Andrea shakes her head. "Odd that they knew, then. Unless...unless the
Ice King also was working with her, or she could tell that something
like that had happened. I have never even heard a breath of story of
leeches and banes together before this, but the path seems to lead
that way."
Patrick shrugs. "It's most likely that she spied on 'em regularly, and
made her move as soon as she saw they were outta there. But I think
she does seem to be working with Consumer. She /knew/ what she was
looking for when she sponsored that archaeological dig."
Andrea tilts her head. "Any hint of that in official correspondance?"
Patrick shrugs. "No telling. That's one of the things the Walkers were
going on their B&E expedition for. I've been schmoozing with that
chick in arch recently, though, so I want to see if Turner had any
direct contact with the prof in charge. Even if there's no official
correspondence, she may have other methods of directing him there. And
again, there are more a few small things that are strething
coincidence."
Andrea nods again, "Like what?"
Patrick says "First of all, Turner approached the prof like a day or so
before it was even public knowledge he was going to be seeking
sponsors and funding for this dig."
Andrea frowns thoughtfully. "Like maybe she was pulling strings to get
it done in the first place? I don't know much about archeology, but I
know how universities bow to patrons."
Patrick nods. "Possible, though if the prof didn't think it was worth
it, he wouldn't have done a whole lot, admittedly. But that was one
little thing I remember."
Andrea nods, chewing on her lower lip.
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