Log edited with Logedit 2.6.6pl on Thu Aug 6 20:47:33 EDT 1998

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Jade is coiled up in loose lazy loops over the cave's mouth. She raises her head and gazes sharply towards Quiet, eyes a-glitter, when she comes into view.

Quiet comes back from a round of the island as the moon starts to sink, her body bulked into the dire wolf form, despite being at the heart of her territory. She gives the Uktena spirit a shallow dip of her muzzle, a respectful greeting.

Jade gives a flick of the tail in greeting and is suddenly hovering in that disconcerting place just ahead and above Quiet's eye-level, a foot from her muzzle. She circles in air slowly, casually. *We are together one circle of time.*

Quiet cranes her neck slightly, attempting to keep eye contact with the spirit. *In this circle,* she agrees.

The serpent jerks sideways as if striking something, fangs exposed for a moment. Then she fixes yellow eyes intently on the wolf, matching and holding her gaze. The enigmatic toothless smile contains alien humor as words seep into you mind: What do you see?

Reflected in the snake's eyes is a scene more substantial than where you now stand. It is a miniature image of the valley of the caern, every detail perfectly realized. You can see the puffs of steam rising up from the cracked ground. You can see the half-frozen waterfall tumbling like snow into the pool below. You can see every line and lichen on the sharp facets of rock, and even the footprints on the thin trails snaking up into the mist.

Quiet locks into this stare with the spirit, appearing all the world on the outside like a wolf exerting her dominance, except that her tail has stiffened with intensity rather than raising in authority. She answers briefly, *The caern.*

Jade moves in close and brushes against the wolf's neck, coiling around it once with a whisper of scales and feathers. Sliding off again, she falls back to hovering before Quiet's eyes, and her jaws drop open, baring moon-crescent fangs. She looks at the theurge coolly and expectantly.

Quiet's posture, on the other hand, is silent question. Her muscles have tensed subtly, as if prepared to spring from cover.

Jade's body goes quite still, so that for a moment the scene to an observer would be that of a puppet snake, wolf figure frozen in an odd tableau. Jade hisses softly, an unhurried note of challenge in its tone. *Does knowledge come without risk?*

Quiet raises her tail slightly, instinctive response to that tone. *No. Even the tamest knowledge bears the risk of failure. For deeper knowledge, the dangers are more.*

The snake opens her mouth a little wider, more ominously. *Choose.* The golden eyes flick to Quiet's paw and back to hold her gaze again. Dim and faint, the caern-scene remains reflected there instead of Quiet herself as should be.

Quiet's tail quivers and her tone harshens. *I will not risk the caern, even for knowledge. Not again.*

The serpents' faint hiss sounds amused. *Wisdom,* it notes. After a long silence, Jade concedes, *You are ours. The caern is not ours. The risk is yours only.*

Quiet gives that the consideration of two breaths. She then answers, pack alpha to totem protector. *If it is knowledge that will serve the War, serve what we do for you and Gaia, I accept the risk.* She raises her tail and eyes again, locking eyes with the spirit snake. *I accept.*

In a quick darting motion Jade strikes out and latches onto Quiet's leg with her fangs, digging in deeply. A leaden coldness creeps out from the wound, taking with it all sensations of your own body, which falls in slow motion like a puppet stripped of strings. As the numbness creeps over you and your vision dwindles to a point--no, two points, the mirrored scene still reflected in Jade's eyes.

Your blood pounds in your ears with a threshing sound, and in rhythm with each heartbeat, the view before your eyes seems to pulse. One moment it is the solid, physical caern. The next is the shimmering, shadow-world of the same valley, where the mist and fog coils like a living creature, the lunes flutter, the glade spirits lean close over the canyon rim like huddled children warming their hands around a campfire, and the ley lines and currents and power of the place are palpable tastes and smells.

Quiet's body falls, though the theurge is completely unaware of it, the housing of flesh and bone having nothing to do with the double vision pulsing in her eyes. She still breathes, eyes fixed on the distance, but is otherwise locked in a world apart.

Touch Deer appears in a glimmer of light.

Jade is lying on top of Quiet in a languid heap of coils, apparently dozing. However, there is a faint gleam of her yellow eyes glittering under her lids.

Quiet lies on her side, eyes staring into nothingness. If Jade didn't rise and fall slightly with the theurge's breath, Touch Deer might think Quiet dead.

Touch Deer stops...no, freezes once he is on the other side. After a short moment spent staring at his alpha and Totem, he quietly speaks towards Jade. "Jade...what are you doing?"

Jade uncurls a little, stretching. *Keeping watch,* she replies coolly.

Touch Deer sighs heavilly and winces. "If I could only /understand/ you..." he half-whispers to himself. He steps cautiously towards both of you. "Jade, is Quiet allright?"

Pack> Touch Deer's voice floats across the link: Quick, is anyone there? Pack> Soren seems to wake up from a trance. Yes?

The snake lofts up into the air, sliding from side to side in the back-and-forth plowing motion of a kite in a slow wind. Jade doesn't answer, but seems untroubled, and calm.

Pack> Touch Deer sounds slightly worried: Soren, Jade is on top of Quiet in the Umbra, and Quiet seems unconscious...like she is in a trance. I can't understand Jade...can you come?

Touch Deer takes a step back, glancing worriedly down to Quiet and then raising his gaze back up to meet Jade's. "Do you...need anything?"

Pack> Soren says "On my way... Where are you?" Pack> Quiet's mind doesn't answer. But it isn't as if she's gone, exactly. More as if she is far, far too distracted to form words over the link.

Jade stops before and a little above Touch Deer's head, inscrutable reptilian smile leering down at him. Touch Deer can't quite make out its 'words', but gets the distinct impression that Jade fires the question right back at -him-.

Touch Deer swallows and concentrates on keeping calm. He looks back at Jade's yellow eyes, and slowly says, "This is the same as what happened last year...I need to know what I need..."

Pack> Touch Deer says "At the Cave, Umbra-side. Hurry."

Soren appears in a glimmer of light. Soren resettles his satchel as he quickly regains his equilibrium umbra-side. The Get looks about to see if he catches sight of the others?

Jade fixes her eyes fully on Touch Deer, still hovering before his face like a small kite linked to him by an invisible thread. *What do you need?* she echoes again, agreeably.

Quiet, abandoned briefly by her spirit watcher, continues to lay like the dead. She stares off into the darkness, her breath raspy.

Soren frowns as he sees the situation, quickly walking over to stand beside Touch Deer. He lowers his satchel, walking over squat down beside Quiet, a hand going out to touch her throat. "What's going on?"

Touch Deer speaks slowly, eyes still on Jade. "I think she is allright, Soren. Jade wants to know what I need...because sometimes she teaches her children things; Gifts for them, when they need something. That is what is happening to Quiet now..." Touch Deer directs his next set of words at Jade. "I need to be closer to the Mother than I am...and I need to know the way of the Spirits better than I do now."

Quiet doesn't pull back from the touch, not even the healthy instinctive ducking down of her chin to protect her lifeblood. Her pulse is slow and strong under Soren's hand, and her eyes are glassy and unfocused.

Soren mmms and nods as he stands back up, looking over at Jade and Touch Deer.

Jade considers Touch Deer searchingly. *Your Circle* she hisses softly. *Close to the mother. Close to the spirits.* More intently, she adds, *Some are more one. Some more the other. Both part of whole.* Jade whirls in place and freezes, fixing Touch Deer with her gaze sharply. The words are almost palpable, like hammer-blows. Jade asks: What do you see?

Touch Deer peers into Jade's eyes, enraptured by something he sees there. "I see us...from above, like a bird."

Soren's eyes track over to Touch Deer and then back to Quiet before settling again on Jade, a smile ripe on his mouth.

The serpent opens her mouth lazily, baring her fangs. Just now they seem to be tipped with red blood. *More* she commands. *What do you see?*

Touch Deer tries again, nervousness edging his voice. "Myself, Soren, you, and Quiet..."

Jade's tail gives out an impatient lash, and then she goes still again. *Not who. What.* She edges closer, eyes dropping to Touch Deer's left hand and back to his eyes. *Do you want to see?*

Touch Deer swallows, but hesitates only a little. "Yes."

Jade falls back from his face a foot, and drops down to shoulder level, still meeting his gaze, and with mouth still wide open, expectant, like a moray eel waiting for its prey to pass by.

Touch Deer takes a moment to decide something, and then he reaches out to Jade with his left hand; open, palm down.

Soren smiles as he watches, that same ripe smile that seems so ready for plucking... or a chuckle.

Even expected, Jade's flashing movement forward is startling. She strikes deep into Touch Deer's hand with her fangs, then darts back, leaving two red pinpricks.

Touch Deer crumples like a ragdoll, and falls onto his side where he remains in a trance, eyes staring out into nothing.

Jade rises back into the air, and resumes her default shimmering over nothingness, with a touch of smugness, perhaps. Her yellow eyes wink at Soren, but she doesn't ask him any more questions.

*You will let me know if they need me, won't you Mysterious One?* asks Soren as his smile fades slightly.

Jade hisses, *Keep watch. Shadow is not a safe place.* She floats back over to Quiet and curls up on her fur again, apparently observing her own dictate.

Soren gives a simple nod as he walks over to Touch Deer. Without too much care, the Get drags Touch Deer over not too far from Quiet, squatting down beside him. *What are you teaching them?*

Jade replies succinctly: *How to see better.*

*Very valuable lesson,* says Soren quietly as he reaches over to get his satchel. *I have a question for you, Jade.*

Jade turns her cool gaze on Soren expectantly, simply waiting.

Soren leans back on his hands, casual. *I want to make a forge here, on the island. A place to do my work.*

Jade accepts this with a blink, and an unspoken, And...?

*I want to know if you are ok with that? If you think it is a good idea,* says Soren quietly as he looks over at the pack totem. *I want your blessing.*

Jade seems bemused. *Ideas are not good or bad. How they are used: deeds are good or bad.* The snake is quiet for a moment, then replies, *You have my blessing to Make. Use it well.* Jade adds, cautioningly, *But it is not my permission to give. Ask your packmates. When they wake.*

Soren nods slowly, looking off into the distance.

Jade closes her eyes halfway, but eventually poses a question. *What have you learned, since joining our circle?*

Soren looks over at the dark totem. *What have I learned? I know more about my weakness, less about my visions, and nothing about when the End will come.*

Jade returns, *Does it help or harm the Spirit, to know the End?*

Soren mmms as he looks over at Jade. *More likely to Harm than Help. Especially if knowing the End forces inaction.*

The snake lets the ramifications of this sink in for a while, then probes, *Your weaknesses?*

Soren scratches at an ear, pulling it. *Intolerance. Tradition. Ego.*

Jade raises her head curiously, intrigued by a thought. *Tradition?* she latches onto.

*Following blindly the traditions of my fathers,* says Soren with a shake of his head. *It leads me to a place with too few choices.*

As if playing devil's advocate, the snake inquires, *What is tradition for?*

Soren leans back again, his lips puzzling at the question. *To keep us from repeating mistakes.*

The snakes returns smoothly, *Yet to you: it teaches to repeat mistakes. A contradiction to be solved?*

Soren reaches up both hands to scratch at his hair, nodding. *Exactly.*

Jade will be interested to watch the Maker solve it.

Soren shakes his head with a smirk at Jade. *You would.*

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