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Jade is accompanying the pack on their trek back from Pangaea--it's hard
to say when, exactly, the little spirit chose to show itself. It
coasts along serenely a few yards off, carrying a flat, glittering
object in its mouth.

Touch Deer turns towards the spirit, tilting his head in the process.
"Hey...."

Jade observes vaguely, for all the pack to hear, //We have missing
pieces.//

Andrea is also distracted by the appearance of her pack's totem. She
exchanges a word with Past-Walker, then moves from Dana's side toward
Touch Deer. She asks through the pack link, //Do you speak of Hayes?//
Midnight, distracted as well by Jade, begins to gravitate toward the
forming pack cluster.

Patrick glances over at Jade and smiles, commenting, "Yeah, that's what
people keep telling us. I think I'm pretty much all there, but I won't
vouch for Andrea there."

Andrea shoots Patrick a narrow-eyed gaze. Only the quirk of her lips
gives away her amusement.

Jade's eyes narrow slightly. //And the empty space where Mark-of-Thorn
gleamed// the snake adds starkly, turning a slow circle in air without
quite touching her tail. Then she adds, //And the answers to certain
questions. That piece is this piece. It came from here.// The snake
opens its jaws slightly, and the calcite-encrusted scale flutters free
like a piece of paper, tumbling towards what passes for "ground" here.

Touch Deer doesn't smile at anything, but moves towards the feather. "I
almost forgot about that."

Andrea's amusement fades as Jade mentions the dead ragabash. She allows
Touch Deer to stoop for the scale. Her back straightens, and she
regards the floating snake soberly.

Jade meets Andrea's gaze expectantly. //It is not far from here. Another
missing piece. It may be of some value to you.//

Patrick sighs melodramatically, putting a hand to his head.
"Gallivanting all over the Near Umbra again."

Andrea spreads her hands and ducks her eyes to the spirit. She speaks
aloud this time. "We are at your service, Jade. The time has come that
we can do what you ask." She pulls back, then, and goes to find Brian
and Dana to make her pack's excuses to the others.

Jade swirls in place patiently until Quiet returns, giving Patrick a
smug look.

Touch Deer turns the scale over in his hands, eventually handing it over
to Patrick.

Patrick raises an eyebrow and looks over the scale for a bit, even to
the point of sniffing at it.

Andrea walks back after handling the assurances. She speaks to Arlen on
the way back to her pack. Finally, though, the theuge stands behind
Patrick.

Jade takes the scale back from Patrick gently, resettling it in her
teeth, and then begins to move off from the main group of Garou. The
umbral wind picks up slightly as you move away from the beaten track,
buffeting in uneasy gusts.

Andrea shifts down to follow. She lowers her head into the Umbral
breeze, sniffing to tell the tales it speaks. Her light fur ripples
under the protective shroud that covers its yellow color.

Touch Deer shifts as well, scenting the air with his keen senses and
generally scouting the path.

It's a particularly dark and restless part of the umbra, where even
"down" feels arbitrary and scents and colors seem to have been
designed by committee. They tend toward dark greens, purples, shadows,
and the terrain is lumpy, craggy, with strips of what feel like sand
or jelly-like areas that are sluggish to move through. Jade is the one
certain part of it, glimmering along like a will-o-the-wisp as she
leads the way, sniffing out the path. Eventually, something seems to
materialize out of the dark.

Umbra- Mouth(#1296RJ$)

Tapered pillars of stone loom out of the darkness, fencing in a shadowy
opening in the umbra's insubstantial fabric like the bars of a cage,
or perhaps ghostly teeth. It is the entrance to a cave, a dark fold in
the umbra barely perceptible in the greater darkness. A dry wind blows
from it, neither warm nor cold, bearing the faint acrid scent of
sunburned sage. Embedded in the piled-up pillows of translucent rock
are huge copper scales, burnished feathers that look to be made of
tarnished metal, and the glyphs of names in Uktena, not Garou, that
appear to have been formed by the natural process of dripping rock
rather than carved.

One solitary pillar stands within the shadowed entrance of the cave, its
strange lumpy form almost human in shape. In fact, a glassy tendril
connecting the pillar with the wall defies gravity in such a fashion
as to look like an arm.

Jade wafts its way up to the foreboding-looking structure almost airily,
with the casual manner of a tourist trying not to seem impressed by
Michaelangelo's David. //Worth a look?//

Quiet's dark eyes take in the cave mouth in an unwavering stare, her
tail raising a few inches as she stops on the rough path. Yes, she
answers her totem, though her attention seems far away. Inside,
perhaps.

Touch Deer would agree to a look, it seems. He pads up next to Quiet and
stares ahead.

Having shifted earlier to his birth form, the Get crescent stops beside
Patrick. "I would expect to see, 'Abandon hope all ye who enter here,'
somewhere around here."

Patrick looks over the entire structure with awe and reverence.
"Gaaaaah," he breathes. "It's fucking incredible." He gives Midnight
only a slightly irritated look, noting, "Kinda. It's an entrance to
the underworld, Uktena's realm. More like Taenarum, honestly."

Quiet blinks in surprise and takes three steps forward. ~The cave is a
spirit.~

Jade drops the scale she was carrying against the jumble of flowstone
outside, setting it back in place. It is clearly the same as the many
embedded in the landscape here. //Older cousin.//

Touch Deer moves forward half a step. One smells death in there, like a
burial mound. And that pillar there is a Crinos, but one doesn't know
if it is alive or rock-formed.

Patrick looks questioningly at Quiet, then at the cave. "Uh ... oh,
boy."

Soren looks sharply over at Quiet after nothing more than a simple shrug
to Patrick. He then turns back to re-assess the cave entry.

Jade adds calmly, //Copper Snake, missing a long time. Old Totem. Old
caern. Caern destroyed long ago.//

Touch Deer shivers slightly and flips his ears, yelping suddenly and
licking his shoulder.

Patrick looks closely at the cave, looking at the scales and the pillar
without really getting close enough to touch either. "Where?"

Soren angles a few steps to give himself a different view on the pillar.
"And how?"

Quiet, like one that walks in her sleep, walks slowly toward the column.
She circles it without touching it, as if it is prey she is not
certain she wishes to touch. As she circles, she goes under the mouth
of the cave, where the column separates her from her packmates' view.

Jade considers, then sends a non-verbal image: a vague impression of a
vast lake, a warm and somewhat humid place, a lushly-forested shore,
stone pyramids, and the smell of volcanic ash. It must be someplace in
central America, but the spirit's idea of geography doesn't match up
well to human place-names. //Wyrm destroyed, during the invasions of
this land. It was Uktena.//

Touch Deer follows quickly, whining quietly as he catches up, likewise
inspecting the pillar. His shoulder seems to have stopped bothering
him. Uktena lands, amazon probably.

Soren's eyes slam shut of a sudden, the Get squatting down on the
ground, one hand going down to steady himself. He takes an audible
intake of breath, a sudden rush of air in followed by a slow
exhalation.

Quiet walks back out again, so that now she stands between her pack and
the glassy stone. She tilts her head back, then shifts upward until
she stands in the war-form. ~There are lights, below, in the belly.~
Her tone remains distracted, and she reaches up her arm to touch the
outstretched hand of the frozen crinos, as if she mirrored the
reflection within the stone.

Touch Deer turns to Soren, quickly shifting as well to Crinos.

Patrick frowns at Touch Deer and starts to say something, then spins at
Soren's gasp, though he doesn't even go into any sort of ready
position yet.

Jade hisses softly as Quiet's fingers close over the stone-encased hand.

Pack> Soren's connection to the link seems momentarily muffled, distant,
in a fog.

Scab-Survivor seems distracted for a moment, communicating through the
link to try and determine what happened to Soren, but once he realizes
what Quiet seem to be doing, he rushes towards her. Quiet, wait...!

Quiet's sides still rise and fall with breath, but she does not turn
toward her rushing packmate. She studies her hand where it touches the
stone with a distant, numb curiosity. Her tailtip, which had been
twitching, stills.

Soren shakes his head as suddenly as his eyes shut, opening them as he
stand. He holds out a hand toward Scab-Survivor, a gesture that he's
'ok'. The one-eyed Get's eyes are now wide open, even the milky white
left eye, and he looks around the cave, searching for something... or
someone.

Patrick automatically reacts by cutting communication to pack-link only.
-TD, get Quiet. I'll ... never mind, he's at least half-awake. Soren,
what's up?-

Scab-Survivor moves to grasp Quiet's wrist and jerk it away from the
statue, quick as he can manage. ~Quiet, hey, hey, you okay?~

Soren sends back across the link. --The Sight. We're being watched. It
is ancient of days. Timeless.-- The Get does not move, though, still
looking. --It is not hostile. But it is not friendly.--

Quiet's presence snaps into full awareness as soon as her contact with
the stone is broken, as if Touch Deer has broken something stretching
her from the pack. She takes a step backwards, startled, though she
does not jerk her hand from Touch Deer's grasp.

Patrick snorts, replying, -No shit, Sherlock. It's an Uktena spirit,
old, powerful, and mostly asleep. It's beyond hostile or friendly.- He
does turn back around towards Quiet and Touch Deer, though, and asks
out loud, "Whassup?"

Scab-Survivor tries to walk Quiet away from the statue, towards Patrick
and Soren. ~Well what about the statue. What's it?~

Quiet walks with the Wendigo, still not pulling her hand away until he
drops the hold. Her eyes, however, remain on the column even as he
pulls her away from it. ~It's not carved,~ she says. ~That's a Garou
in there, covered with a skin of rock. I touched it, and my whole
being seemed to go numb. The hand covers a glyph, but I couldn't make
it out.~

Jade snakes up close to the figure and hovers over its head, sniffing
around. //She was not here before. Interesting.//

Scab-Survivor lets go of Quiet and sniffs the air, gazing at the statue.
~Do we continue, or investigate him...or her?"

Quiet listens to Jade, then says, ~That answers whether it was a willing
sacrifice to open this place. Though what a Garou would do here,
alone, I'm not certain. Perhaps the stone couldn't be broken, and a
pack abandoned the Garou.~ She looks toward Patrick as she says this.

Soren takes a few steps over toward Patrick, looking now beyond the
pillar and into the cave. "To state the obvious again, we need to be
careful about going in there. The Spirit notices us now... barely."

Patrick frowns in thought, looking at the pillar again. "Okay, this
one's here,covering a glyph of some sort. The spirit has its eyes on
us. And yes, Quiet, it's possible, depending on the pack and why it's
encased in stone, and what it's doing here."

Scab-Survivor peers into the darkness as well.

Patrick looks back at Quiet, asking, "You said something about lights in
the belly?"

Jade disengages frin the oukkar and begins to drift deeper into the maw
of the cave mouth, curiousity rather than fear foremost in this
particular spirit's personality.

Quiet inclines her furry head. ~I did not see them well. They glow like
the moss in the deepest of caves, deep in the belly, on the walls. I
felt also the energy of the Wyld.~ She then calls through the pack
link, //Jade, can the stone be broken?//

Jade turns in place, considering. //It feels thin, not set. We could
ask.//

Scab-Survivor says, ~Onwards, then?~

Soren moves now closer to Quiet and the pillar, his attention though is
with Jade and the cave maw itself. //Do we go in there to ask?//

Jade shoots back, //What is the answer to a cave?//

Patrick smirks. //Beware?//

Quiet turns her attention on the nearest cave wall, as her packmates
discuss what Jade says.

Patrick shakes his head. "Inward and onward, ladies and gents. Maybe we
can get a clue about what's up with Stony here from the inside."

Jade pages: Something from a Yucatan language that translates to Copper
Snake. But after it, dimly, you get the names of several others:
Corkwood. Stonescales. Birdcatcher. Chews-Txacha-Roots. They sound
like old Uktena deednames.

Soren looks over at Quiet after a moment and then opens a palm outwards
toward the cave mouth. "We won't learn much more here it seems."

Jade's thoughts drift back with a teasing hiss that's fond, not mocking.
//Brave children of Uktena. Not afraid of the dark.//

Scab-Survivor moves silently around and seems ready to venture forth.

Quiet reaches out her hands toward the wall she studies, though she
carefully does not touch them. Her taloned fingertips quiver from
several inches away. ~The names I see here sound like Garou. There is
the main that does not, but others are behind him. Corkwood.
Stonescales. Birdcatcher. Chews-Txacha-Roots.~ She lowers her hands
and turns toward Patrick. ~The spirits of Uktena dead.~

Patrick nods at Quiet. "Guessed at that when Jade mentioned the
long-fallen caern. I'm not certain if a Gathering would do anything at
this point or not." He frowns again, then looks back into the cave.
"I'll go first? I'm scout."

Quiet nods in answer. She gives the column a last look, then says to
Jade. ~We will ask, within.~ Falling to four paws, she shifts into
hispo. ~Touch Deer, pair with Soren for the rear. Your senses will
keep any from sneaking behind us, and a theurge should walk with
both.~

Scab-Survivor follows the orders and takes up a rear position with
Soren.

Soren glances over at Touch Deer, nodding with a slight smile, before
re-shouldering his satchel.

Whitestreak thinks that if we are going first, at least one of us should
be in this form to smell. If we have any trouble, it is also easier to
move in a confined cave.

Quiet's ears flick. ~You speak truth,~ she admits. ~I smell no overt
threat of danger.~ Her form wavers and shrinks in on itself, returning
her to lupus form.

Scab-Survivor shifts down, as well.

Inside, the cave is ribbed by stalagmites and stalagtites and curtains
of dripping stone. The floor is cobbled by overlapping pillows of
frozen rock that resemble the wide scales of a snake's underbelly.
Patches of wall, ceiling, and floor are interrupted at random by
shimmering, bewildering patches of light that illuminate the cave but
hurt the eyes like the flashes signalling a migraine.

Quiet gives a low whine, then says quietly to Whitestreak. I had never
before had reason to be grateful that this form does not depend so
much on the eyes.

Soren remains in his birth form, walking beside Touch Deer into the
passageway. He reaches a hand to touch one wet stone.

Scab-Survivor simply shuts his eyes, apparently trusting the other
senses to guide him.

Whitestreak pays as little attention as possible to the flashes of
light, having gotten used to depending on other senses in lupus,
though he still hesitates just a little with each one. He stops to
agree with Quiet, then goes back to tentatively sniffing the air and
the rock as they go forward cautiously.

It slopes down and down, unevenly, so that the cave seems to coil back
on itself. The patches of light quiver like the northern lights,
fickle and insubstantial. At one point, a stray step plants one of
Touch Deer's feet on one of these glittering surfaces. Suddenly his
paw is a hand.

Scab-Survivor opens his eyes, startled suddenly by the change as he
scampers back from the light.

Soren frowns as he looks at his spelunking companion. "Interesting."

Jade observes unhelpfully, //Flux not far from here.//

At the sound of scampering and the comment from the trailing pair,
Whitestreak stops. What is it? he asks, not even fully turning around.

Scab-Survivor whines over the link, a 'whathefuck' sound. After a few
moments, he seems to calm down and his hand shifts back to a paw. He
moves on, giving the light a wary look as he keeps a distance from it.
His eyes stay open. Through the link: --Nothing, just stepped on one
of the lights and my paw shifted on it's own; I'm fine now.--

Quiet's ears swivel. ~If you have talens or fetishes, don't let them
touch the light,~ she says, as she presses on. ~I have heard tales of
the Flux Realm, and many that have lost such there.~ She steps with
more caution, her tail raised half an inch further than before Touch
Deer's incident.

Soren is doubly cautious as well, though obviously intrigued by what he
just saw.

Ahead, the corridor lunges downwards abruptly, and the way is barred by
smooth black water, unbroken even by drips from above. It is dark,
opaque, mirroring nothing. Jade, sniffing it, reports: //The Depths.//
Then, without further explanation, she dives in without a splash or a
ripple.

Scab-Survivor approaches the subterraneon water-way with a lowered tail.

Soren stops at the downward lunge, a few steps behind Quiet and Patrick.

Whitestreak looks at the waters, expression satisfied as if he expected
something like this. Usually, it is a cavern inside the water, but it
is the same pair. I just wish I had learned how to breathe water.

Quiet's tail twitches as she leans her head down to sniff. I wish we all
had. Do we swim, then?

"Apparently so," says Soren as he squats down beside the water, reaching
a hand out to touch it.

Soren hmmms and shrugs as he pulls his hand back. "Just like the stone
and the other water. Not hot. Not cold. In between."

Patrick shifts back into homid form, then eyes the water again.
"Personally, I swim better like this, but I'm not all that eager to
get my clothes all soaked. Crinos?"

Quiet draws back from the water, as if unwilling to drink it. She then
shifts instantly back to her birth form. Pulling herself into a
kneeling postion, she unties her shoes and secures them to the belt
that holds her brightly-woven pouch. Once her feet are bare, she
stands. "Never got the hang of keeping my head under in lupus either,"
she admits. "Are we likely to get to a passage too small for a
crinos?"

Soren shakes his head to Patrick. "I'll go ahead and get wet. I'm afraid
I'd sink like a stone in crinos." He strips himself down to just about
what's needed, stuffing what needs to be in his satchel and slinging
it around behind his back. "Jade went in without much caution. Let's
do it."

Patrick thinks for a bit. "Dunno," he admits. "Most of the legends are
of humans, but also in most of the, Uktena was a pretty large puppy."
With a grin at Soren, he says, "Oh, I'm not too concerned about, say,
breathing. I just don't want to wander around in cold, wet clothes."
Finally, he shrugs and strips down to just his boxers, his
characteristic white streak through his hair visible, uncovered for
once by a hat.

Andrea glances at Soren. "You have room in that satchel for more
clothes?"

Scab-Survivor quietly shifts to homid, and tosses his shirt and leggings
against a near wall. "We'll probably be right back."

Soren looks at Andrea and nods. "You need me to squeeze something in?"

Andrea turns to Touch Deer and nods. She then nods and begins to strip
off her clothes. "Touch Deer's probably right," she says. "We need to
try to come back out this way anyway, in case we get an answer to the
stone." She does hand Soren her pouch to carry into the water, but
leaves the rest of her clothes in a pile with the Wenigo's. Dressed
only in a grey sports bra and thin white cotton panties, the Gaian
takes a running start. Three steps, a deep breath, and she's dove into
the water.

Touch Deer dives last, after Soren.

As you swim, you feel an iron-cold prick of teeth biting down, then
numbness gathering around the wound (which luckily doesn't seem to be
spreading, for now).

Jade pages to Andrea and Soren: The water is not cold, yet your bones
ache like it's freezing, and your lungs and chest are squeezed as if a
thousand tons of rock weigh down upon you. A question seems to pound
all around you: What is the bridge unmade by hands, untrod by feet,
yet seen by every eye? Not stone nor rope nor wood, only water, sun,
and sky?

The heavy, almost sluggish water pushes against your ears, as if you had
fallen into the immeasurable depths of ocean. No light, heat, nor yet
cold touches you, but you can still hear sounds--albeit slightly
muffled, distorted, and hollow. There is nothing underfoot, and the
constant movement of water all around makes it difficult to tell
whether you are moving or standing still. Suspended in space, perhaps
suspended in time, this umbral path feels like nothing so much as the
boundary between sleeping and waking.

Soren likes the idea as well, piling his clothes to a side, leaving
himself in nothing but an old and worn pair of tight-white Calvin's
(and I do mean worn). Satchel slung over his back, in he goes...

Andrea's mental voice through the pack link is a struggle, but she says
the two words very loud, as if forcing them past the pack into the
water itself. //The Rainbow.//

You all bob up in a well-like pool into the next chamber. Quiet and
Soren take a moment longer to emerge.
You have reached a great vaulted chamber with its ceiling arching high
above and out of sight, except for the numerous flickering eyesores
that cast lurid purple, red, green and other garish colors across the
nearby stones. The great hall seems roughly egg-shaped, tipped
slightly downwards with its narrow end on the far side, some fifteen
feet lower and over a hundred feet away. Delicate curtains and
straw-like structures of rock stretch from floor to ceiling at
irregular intervals. But a great yawning gulf, a chasm, spans the
middle of the room.

Touch Deer takes a quick look around, treading water. "Someone spoke to
me in the water."

Soren strokes his way to the edge once he came up, looking over at Touch
Deer. "Did it ask you the riddle?"

Touch Deer climbs ashore after a moment of gazing about. "No, seemed to
wonder who I was is all. You heard a riddle?"

Soren nods to the Wendigo as he too climbs ashore, water streaming off
him. "The riddle of the bridge untrod."

Andrea takes several deep breaths, shuddering as her lungs are freed of
the iron weight of the water. She treads water where she is until her
packmates are ashore, then does the breaststroke over to the side.
Goosebumps cover her skin. "Same one I heard."

Touch Deer says "I've never heard it; how does it go?"

Patrick shakes his head as he climbs out of the water, pulling on his
boxers a bit to keep them from sticking to his body. "No riddle here,
either. Seemed more questioning of my bloodline than anything. Kinda
... wondering, not really accusing."

Soren looks over at Andrea, brow furrowing slightly. "What is the bridge
unmade by hands, untrod by feet, yet seen by every eye? Not stone nor
rope nor wood, only water, sun, and sky?" The Get adds extra emphasis
as if to ask Andrea if it was the same.

Andrea nods, in answer. She stretches her arms up, then pulls on the wet
cloth of her own soaked underthings. "The weight was harsh, like the
depths of the ocean."

Soren shakes his head, letting water flip loose from the short hair.
"And the water was colder than it felt to the touch before." The Get
pulls his satchel around, handing Andrea her things, for the most part
dry.

Touch Deer rings out his loint clout while nodding. "What's the meaning
of the riddle?"

Soren shrugs, shaking his head. "A test?" With a frown, he bends down
and strips off his ancient and worn Calvins, leaving himself to air
dry (page for details) as he twists the water from the butt-huggers.
"Hard to tell. And apparently we passed."

Touch Deer peers towards the chasm. "Oh my."
Touch Deer says "There's something sticking out of the chasm."

Patrick, looking around modestly as the others wring out their
underthings, suddenly frowns and shushes his pack. "Peoples. There's
something out in the big mondo crack, and I don't mean Soren's."

Andrea walks toward the edge of the chasm, but she stops a good ten feet
short of it as Patrick calls out his warning. Water drips down her
back from her braid as she holds her breath and listens.

Almost invisible against the shadowy blackness of the chasm, coiled over
it as if sleeping on midair, is the massive shape of a serpent,
roughly halfway across the huge chamber. A regular domed profile of
darkness against the distant flickering patches of light beyond is the
first sign that anything's there. Then comes a glitter of eyes slowly
opening on the sides of a huge reptilian head pointed end-on towards
you. One eye is turquoise with a deep red pupil, the other obsidian
with a pupil of pearl or abalone.

Soren walks forward as well, twisted briefs hanging freely in one hand.

Touch Deer moves to join, keeping a way eye on the snake.

Andrea straightens her shoulders, but instinctively drops her eyes with
respect from the vast multicolored gaze of the serpent. After the
dipping of eyes, she looks back at the spirit, though without the
challenging edge of a stare.

The head raises slowly and ponderously. Then, moving in the
lightning-fast sinuous curves of a much smaller cousin, it begins to
barrel towards the quartet of Garou, scales flashing a lurid
greenish-blue as it passes under reflected light. It makes no sound.

Patrick goes down on one knee and bows to the large spirit, staying in
place heedless of its speed and direction.

Touch Deer quickly follows Patrick's motion with something very similar,
dropping to both knees and closing his eyes, arms stretched outwards.

Soren's eyes widen, mouth opening to whisper 'Herregud' before lowering
his head, right hand forming a fist that he pressed to his chest over
his heart. The left still clutches the briefs.

The spirit looms over Patrick for a moment, then twists, large head
batting at Quiet like a huge cat's paw. //Uktena?// it demands, the
force of its mental touch squeezing like a vise, compared to Jade's
airy jests and mysterious quips. //Or Other?//

Andrea's back tightens instinctively as the spirit heads for the group,
but she does not shift into a more defensive form. Instead, she rolls
her head to the right, which shows the clean line of her throat toward
the charging spirit. She stumbles, her strength unable to keep her
form upright under the strong push of the snake's thrust. *Children of
Uktena. Uktena binds us, though only one of us was born to the way.*

Patrick speaks up confidently, still on one knee. *I am Nightstorm
Whitestreak, son of the Lakota, twice-born child of Uktena. All those
here are bound to the Water Serpent, by choice even more closely than
some by blood.*

The snake hovers for a moment, the rest of its body drawing up onto the
ledge of solid ground, several fathoms of great mass that clank and
rattle softly as it draws close. //Prove// it commands bluntly, and
pounces at Soren, jaws opening.

Soren remains perfectly still, head turning away with a slight cringe as
the great snakes pounces on him.

The massive Get is hoisted into the air by the scruff of his neck like a
monstrous kitten, legs dangling freely.

Touch Deer tightens, watching.

Andrea raises her chin. Though she does not activate the gift, there is
something of the edge of command in her voice. *If you swallow him, he
can no longer seek the hidden for Uktena, as our pack is bound to do.
We can tell you our stories as proof, or you can demand another thing
of us. We are here at the behest of our totem, who has sent us to seek
the missing.*

Patrick sends over the pack link, //Y'know, you could just call for
Jade, people.//

*And I don't taste good,* the Get manages to say from his position,
naked and dangling in the air, altogether unlike a kitten.

Jade observes primly from the safety of a stalagtite, but does at least
chime in at this point. //These are Ours. We were curious.//

Mismatched eyes flicker to the smaller snake and back to the Garou,
warily. //The years have grown long. The world has changed. These must
show they know Uktena's ways.// It gives Soren a shake.

Jade's sugggestion drifts thoughtfully across the pack link. //What do
you know, which only children of Uktena know?//

Patrick replies quite seriously over the link, //All sorts of stuff,
some of which I shouldn't repeat even in front of the pack.//

Andrea takes in breath to answer, but her body jumps and she glances
toward Patrick. Her voice keeps that strong edge of command. *We have
learned that the way of Uktena is wisdom, not force. Set down our
packmate, and the twice-born of Uktena shall speak for the pack.*

After a long moment, there is a faint grating hiss of amusement. The
snake sets Soren down, a little sore, but otherwise unharmed.

Soren gasps out, the shaking having taken his breath, *We know you are
the Keen-Eyed one, the One who sees the Hidden and Lost.* The Get
remains on his knees, calming his breathing.

Patrick sighs very slightly as he straightens from his kneeling position
and turns to sit on the cold stone floor. *I will speak of one of
Uktena's oldest secrets, one which I would not share except before
those who are bound to him and by him.*
Patrick adds over the pack link, //And if any of you ever mention this
publicly, I swear I'll deny it, and then you will be killed.//

A tail-tip flickers lazily at the compliments from the winded Get. It
pricks its eyes with interest towards Patrick.

Touch Deer lets out a breath as Soren is let down, and turns to watch
Parick.

Patrick licks his lips and continues, *Long, long ago, back before the
world was shattered and the Gauntlet arose, back when the Triat worked
together in harmony, the Finder of Secrets did his duty for the Wyrm.
He found everything he could about everything possible, and reported
it to the Wyrm, which could use this knowledge to destroy it, and make
room for something new. In this way did Uktens contribute to the
balance of the Triat.* He is silent for a moment before adding, *Of
course, after the Wyrm went mad, Uktena mourned and offered his
services to Gaia, as she needed his strengths. But still he sometimes
sorrows, and wishes that his former lord could be redeemed.*

Andrea answers back over the pack link, with a hint of coldness. //We
are your chosen brothers and sisters, Patrick, as close to your tribe
as one born.// Her back stays straight during the telling, and only
the flicker of her eyelashes betrays that she did not know this story
before.

The Copper Serpent edges back onto its nest of empty space over the
abyss. //You speak truth. We remember.// It watches the other three
intently in the silence following Patrick's words.

Touch Deer's eyes meet the serpent's; he doesn't display any overt
emotion regarding Patrick's secret.

Soren looks up, finally, at the Copper Serpent, his milky blind eye
moist. *We are yours, Keen-Eyed One.*

The serpent addresses the pack again. //A secret is returned. There was
a caern deep in the mountains, the green lands, the lake lands, the
backbone of fire to the south that runs between two oceans. The
Wyrmcomers filled the north with lamentation. The Caern of the Sun's
Tears sent warriors to aid the battles. Some returned; some did not.
Garou of fallen caerns fled to the Caern of Sun's Tears nurse wounds.
But the battles followed them. The Wyrm came to its borders, besieged
it. As the Wards fell, the elders chose to extinguish themselves,
rather than let the Wyrmcomers discover their secrets: where many lost
caerns lie, moonpaths and lore now forgotten, the last road taken by
Brother Turtle.// The snake's mouth opens slightly. //They Summoned
the Copper Snake. I devoured them. They are in my belly, as are you.//

Patrick smiles somewhat sadly at the story. *Better to have such
knowledge lost to most than have it spread to the wrong people,
especially of the last road taken by Middle Brother.*

Touch Deer seems humbled by this whole experience. He sighs softly and
looks the spirit up and down several times.

Andrea nods once. *Though there is again the strength in Uktena's
children to seek out such lore, and hide it from those that should not
know.* The Voice's expression unlaces enough for a tight smile,
exchanging a look with Patrick.

The copper snaketurns. //Yes. You are Uktena. You are permitted to
explore the paths I keep.//
The patches of luminescence flare brighter, whiter, closer to normal
sunlight, and they no longer hurt the eyes quite so much. Beneath this
illumination, the cavern walls of ropy, ribbed rock resolve themselves
into sharp relief, and between the whorls and streaks of stone are a
number of dark openings like irregular doorways. Embedded in the
glistening stone around each opening are garou-sized bones: a skull
above one arch, with the two halves of the jaw at the lower corners;
another doorway has ribs for a lintel; a third has a split wolf-skull
with the two eye sockets glaring inwards from either side of the door.

Touch Deer takes a step in Quiet's direction, gazing around as the scene
changes in unmasked wonder.

Soren lowers his head again. *Grant us the Wisdom to keep hidden that
which needs remain in darkness, and the knowledge to use what we learn
to serve the Mother.*

The lights slowly begin to dim again, echoing Soren's words. //You must
use your own wisdom.// the huge spirit cautions impassively.
//Children of Uktena must know how to keep secrets.//

Andrea nods again, looking from door to door as the lights fade. *Our
own feet, to do the searching. Our own lips, to ask the questions. Our
own minds, to understand the answers.* As the lights fade out, she
turns toward the Copper Snake. *And our own wisdom, to hold what must
be held and to share what can be known.*

Soren stands slowly, stepping up beside Andrea. The Get gestures at the
middle doorway. //Into the heart?//

Jade rises up and does an odd little dip in the air to salute its big
brother. Then, wryly, the little snake points out to its Garou
companions, //What about the missing piece?//
Jade pages to the room: There are a lot more than 3 openings; I was just
describing representative examples of a few .They got bones stuck
around all of them. A lot of Garou were "buried" here.

Andrea sends through the pack link, //I have no questions for the
missing pieces, Jade. Cassandra has gone to be reborn, and Hayes
watches the territory.//

The Copper Serpent's eyes narrow. //Not of Uktena// it replies grimly.
//Tresspasser. It touched a secret. Uktena protects its own.//

Andrea, after a quick look at Jade, returns her gaze to the great snake.
*Release her, and we will take her from this place,* requests the
Gaian. *If you require an atonement, we will ensure that it is carried
out. Those not of blood or bond should not see the secrets, but she
defends Gaia not at all while locked in stone's heart.*

The Copper Snake considers this unblinkingly, and then commands, //Break
the stone that holds her, and she will be freed. Take her away with
you. Do not touch the Name of the Croatan elder which lies under her
hand.//

Andrea bows her head. *It will be done.*

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