Log edited with Logedit 2.6.6pl on Fri Jul 31 16:51:57 EDT 1998

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Dana walks with greater confidence from the woods surrounding the lake, picking her way towards the rocky shoreline carefully. A duffel bag which has become her constant companion is again slung over her shoulder.

Andrea takes a short time to appear, this time rowing across the lake. As usual, Dana felt the prickle of unseen eyes touch the back of her neck, but Andrea's pack stuck to the undergrowth and notified their alpha of the guest. The theurge wades to the shore, pulling the boat up behind her. Her eyes are smudged with lack of sleep, but her brow is smooth and her eyes meet Dana's squarely without the nervous betrayal of being ill at ease. She smiles at the kin as she approaches.

Dana has, in the intervening time, climbed up on one of the larger rocks and pulled out a small double-ended drum and begun playing it experimentally, very quietly but the sound probably travels a little ways over the water. Feathers attached to the binding leather flutter in the breeze mottle brown and white and iridescent black. When Andrea approaches, she cuts off and smiles, climbing back down. "Hi, Andrea, how are you?" she asks, while looking over the theurge and catching the tired look.

Andrea finds a shorter sun-warmed seat, using her hands to balance herself as she sits. Her smile widens a fraction. "Fine. Things are still quiet, waiting. We sent the cubs on their rite of adulthood last night. I haven't slept yet, but I get good feelings so far."

"You have cubs?" the mage asks curiously, re-finding a seat on a lower rock as well.

Andrea's eyelids flicker. "I do," she says quietly. "But those weren't the ones I was talking about. My children aren't Garou, only kin." She shakes her head and she shock wave carries down to her torso, like a halfhearted attempt to shed water. "No, these are the cubs of the tribe. Young Garou, in their teens."

Dana blinks at the first admission, in surprise, seeming stuck on mulling this over for a few seconds longer than she perhaps should be. A second blink brings her back to herself, followed by a quick nod. "Scott told me about them. I didn't know..." she says softly, then breaks into a rueful, self-deprecating smile, "well, I guess I really wouldn't know. Are they good cubs?"

Andrea's smile returns, playing on her lips briefly. "Which?"

Dana looks momentarily taken aback, then laughs softly as she gets it. "I'd meant the Garou, but, either, I guess. I didn't know you had any children."

Andrea shakes her head. "My children aren't children any more. They were moved to Wyoming, because the woods were getting so overpopulated here." Her expression shows a mixture of worry and longing as she looks toward the lake, away from the kin. "Since then, they've been talking about revoking the Yellowstone wolves' protected status, but people like David are fighting it."

Dana blinks rapidly as she follows that explantion. "You had /cubs/. Like, cub-cubs? Wolf cubs?"

Andrea looks back at the kin and nods. "It's why I've fallen out of touch with human life. Once I made enough rank to protect them, I chose the next spring. Did you know I used to work at the Knight's Rest?" Her lips twist again, in a crooked grin. "A Garou that has a human child pretty much has to accept that other people will raise him or her. I had to have help to raise my children, but I was able to share their lives as they grew up. I might still have a human child in a few years, and David will take the raising of it. But at least he gave me that, first."

Dana's eyes grow wide as she tries to take that all in. Unsuccessfully by the look of things. She makes a softly strangled sound, before she gives up and tries again. "I...wow." Another long pause, then, "Couldn't you, don't you...want to go back to work, or something?"

Andrea's lips curve in a gentle smile. "It's easy to forget we're not human, sometimes. Don't worry about it." She looks across the lake again as she considers the question. "Sometimes. But my life has changed, since then. I guess you can't take so many years from one lifestyle, and then return to it without a beat. I have new responsibilities that keep me here." Her lips soften into a real smile. "And every once in a while, one of my packmates remembers how I crave pasta, and brings me some."

Dana grins at this admission. "Maybe I can bring you some sometime, then."

Andrea smiles in return. "That would be great." She lifts one shoulder in a shrug. "I go in the city maybe four times a month now. I see David about as often. But I have a strong pack, and other people I love." She looks directly in Dana's eyes as she says the last, then glances away politely as she goes on. "It all works out. And the cubs on their rite are good cubs, yes. A bit too..." She trails off, then pulls her arms close to her body. "Focused on self. But loosening up comes with time."

Dana looks away self-consciously at the direct look, with the air of the shy rather than true uncomfortableness. The change in topic seems to ease the brief mood. "Are you having another moot soon?"

Andrea considers the question. "Yes. When the cubs come back."

Dana flashes a quick smile, then pulls her legs up towards her chest, heels resting on the edge of the rock. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Andrea tilts her head to look sideways at the younger woman. "Have you talked to Arlen, about the shelter?"

Dana takes a moment to catch up to the change in topic, but nods. "I mentioned wanting to work there, maybe...but she hasn't said anything since, if that's what you mean," she adds a trifle slowly, as if uncertain it's the right answer. "I've been talking to her, though."

You say "Keep on that. That's a big help to me."

Dana smiles suddenly with warmth, nodding once. "I will, then. Oh. I should tell you about the river. We helped with that."

Andrea motions with her right hand, a go-ahead gesture. She returns her gaze to Dana's face, though she doesn't stare for more than a heartbeat or two at a time at the young woman's eyes.

Dana chews on her lower lip in consideration. "The others have told you about it already, right?" she asks before really starting.

You say "In sketchy detail. I know that the binding was successful and that several of the fighters nearly lost their lives to water spirits."

Dana pales at the mention of the latter, but she stoically nods anyway. "It was...very messy," she agrees. "Chloe was there," she offers, looking at Andrea briefly to gauge her reaction. "Nicodemus and I were, too, although...Arlen knew we were there, but doesn't know about Nicodemus exactly. We weren't able to do much, but I think we helped keep one of the bigger spirits away from them, and maybe helped one of them...Arlen said she was Fianna? who looked really hurt."

Andrea nods, "Good. You were able to hide, somehow?"

Dana's mouth twitches with the beginning of a smile. "Yes. I think Chloe knew we were there, but I don't think anyone knew, who didn't know beforehand."

Andrea's smile again resurfaces. "I won't force you to answer how, though that's an interesting trick."

Dana's smile turns a touch sheepish, then pensive as she considers. "Thank you, for not making me tell. Just...I guess know that if you ever need my help, I can do some good over distances. I'm going to work on getting better at it, sometime. I'm trying to learn more about the side of spirits right now."

Andrea nods again. She pauses, then asks, "Does Nicodemus ever say anything about my decision to not take him as a student?"

Dana shakes her head, expression turning curious. "No, not really. He asked? You?"

Andrea waves a hand, seeming oddly rueful. "He didn't ask, no. He demanded it, as payment for giving us that fetish that he had. I told him I would consider him, but I would not teach him if I judged him too much a danger." She shrugs, the answer to that judgement evident. "I never have gotten to meet the other woman he wanted teaching for. He knew I would teach you, as far as I could."

Dana scowls faintly, but then sighs. "That sounds like Nicodemus." She rests her chin on the tops of her arms draped across her knees. "I'm sort of glad you didn't, for either of them. I like them, but...well. I just don't think it'd be the best idea, for you."

Andrea chuckles softly. "I would have wished a lot of other demands first. At the time, I thought he knew that, and did it just to spite me."

Dana smiles. "He might have. Not out of spite, but because he probably didn't expect you to say yes."

Andrea shakes her head, still wryly amused. "I didn't, I guess. Oh, I gave him consideration, but I told him that first night what I thought of him. I didn't really believe in my heart of hearts that I would change my mind." She changes the subject again, after letting her eyes follow something invisible across the sky. "Do you still want to come to our moots?"

Dana blinks, and straightens. "I'd like to." Getting more flustered, she adds, "Unless you'd rather I not. I'd understand, if...well, if you didn't."

Andrea shakes her head. "I don't have a problem," she stays firmly. "But some of the others might, now that they know. I don't think they will, but I have to know how you feel before I talk to them about it. Especially one of them named Nightflash. I don't think he realizes you are yet, but he doesn't trust those that can change the world. Wolf-born." She shrugs as she finishes. "I could not tell him, but I'm afraid he'd feel betrayed if he found out--and too many know now. But it's your decision, on what to do."

Dana sighs with obvious disappointment, dropping her chin back to her arms again. A sudden smile tugs up the corners of her mouth. "I don't want him to not know, since so many do, now. But, what's wrong with wanting to change the world? If it makes it a better place."

Andrea pushes back a stray strand of hair. Her face is shadowed by a thoughtful frown as she frames a reply. "To some, it's the danger. A single mage can be far more dangerous in our fight than a single Garou, or even a single vampire. But I don't think that's what it was, for him. To him, changing the world by thinking about it was breaking Gaia's laws."

Dana can't help but laugh merrily, although the sound is soft. When she's in control of herself again, she says "I'm sorry, I mean no disrespect to...Nightflash? I suppose it would be true, for some of us. But, aren't so much of the environmental campaigns based on the idea that one person's opinion and actions /can/ make a difference, can change the world? My feelings aren't much different than that, Andrea. I hope you know that."

Andrea also smiles, though she reminds the kinfolk that Nightflash was born wolf. "And you do have more power to change things than normal humans. But I don't worry overmuch about you, and our tribe's responsibility to watch you."

Dana continues to smile as she leans forward. "Does being wolf-born make that big a difference?"

Andrea nods. "Even after being Garou for years, what you were when you were young still affects you. I remember learning in a class on developmental psychology that a person's psyche is set by the time she's four or five. Nightflash was old enough to sire cubs before he ever shifted."

Dana nods slowly in agreement. "That's true. But, why would being wolf-born make him not like us?"

Andrea shakes her head. "It makes him even less trusting. Humans grow up with stories of magic. We accept the idea that some of the people that can do magic can be 'good' and others 'bad.' To a lupus, they don't see that. They see someone that break the natural ways that is all they know by just thinking about it. Not because of spirits and their gifts, but because of twisting Gaia to their will." She raises a hand. "I don't feel this way. If you like, if he will, I can see if he'll talk to you about it."

"Or maybe it's just another facet of the Mother?" Dana murmurs musingly, with a faint grin playing across her face, before she shakes her head and raises her voice to her usual soft-spoken level. "I you like, if it might make things easier. I may need you, or someone, to help me, though. It's very hard for me, sometimes, to explain myself anymore."

Andrea nods. "I can be there, if you like. Sometimes it's hard for even a Garou to explain something to one of a different breed." She smiles again. "Maybe next week. The moon will be thinner."

Dana grins again. "If it's hard for you to make him understand, then it would be even more difficult for me to. If I was a little better, I might be able to /show/ him, but...well, if wishes were horses, we all would ride."

Andrea shakes her head, smiling. "I read a story once," she begins in an apparent non-sequitor. "About people that could read minds. They hated most humans, because they couldn't control it, and most people don't have nice minds. But one day, on a train, two of them caught each other on the edge of their range. They spent the rest of the story trying to find each other."

Dana is settled on one of the lower lying rocks along the shoreline, knees drawn up to her chest with the heels of her shoes resting via friction to keep her balance. She begins grinning at something Andrea has just said. "Did they?" she asks with keen curiousity.

Cassandra makes her way up the beach, her stride just a little intimidating until she gets close enough to see who it is. She slows down, then, greeting the two with a jaunty wave. "Yo."

Andrea nods. "They'd spent so much time and effort to find each other, because they were surrounded by the head blind. But through luck and chance, they managed it." She sobers slightly as she remembers the ending, "Thing is, they read each others minds like they did a normal humans. All the dirty things that people hide from each other. They thought sharing the power would make them soulmates. But instead, they hated each other down to their bones." She shakes her head, turning to smile a greeting at Cassandra. She finishes softly, "Sometimes powers don't work out like we think they will."

Cassandra looks between the two women and parks on a nearby rock, listening to get the gist of the conversation before saying anything else.

"Hi, Cassandra," the blonde mage greets the Fury softly during Quiet's short story, then grimaces at the ending. "I could see that happening if someone knew it better than I do. Maybe," she adds conditionally. She muses on it, then grins over at Cassandra. "How've you been?"

Cassandra shrugs a shoulder flippantly. "Same old same old. Bored. USual shit. You?"

Dana's mouth twitches. "Busy. Always something new to discover. I've been trying to let Andrea know some of what I've been up to, since I haven't seen her for a while. Or you," she adds with the twitching finally becoming a smile.

Cassandra snorts softly. "It has, ain't it?" She looks over at Andrea, andfrowns. "What?

Andrea shakes her head again, the same smile tugging on her lips. "Life would be boring without you, Cass."

"Can't have that, now can we?" the Fury asks airily, her concern over Andrea's expression forgotten. "So how'd the whatever-it-was go last night?"

Andrea adjusts her seat on the rock, digging her toes into the ground. "Fine. They're still sleeping in the back of the cave. I'm sure you noticed." Her voice holds faint amusement. "You may see Robert's black unicorn around. He's helping keep watch."

Cassandra lets otu a strangled snort at that. "I crashed at Patrick's pad las' night. I figured he wouldn't mind and didn't wanna be around anyways."

Andrea shrugs slightly, still smiling as if at a private joke. "Well, the masses are gone now, anyway."

"That's a relief," Cassandra admits freely. "Nice people an' all, but it was gettin' kinda cramped."

Andrea nods. "A lot of the tribe came. Even Touch Deer left to go see Joseph."

Dana sits quietly for a while, listening to the banter, then breaks into a smile. "Speaking of which...I should probably get going. You don't mind if I find a place to sit for a while, do you?" she asks, looking at the packmates.

Andrea shakes her head, but she glances toward Cassandra rather than adding anything aloud.

Cassandra nods, looking up at the afternoon sky. "Cool," she mutters. "Long as it went good." She looks over at Dana as the girl speaks, and shrugs. "Sure, long as you don't throw no kegger parties out here. Much as I wanna see TD get trashed, this ain't the place for it."

Dana frowns mildly with a flash of hurt flitting through her expression, but her response is still soft. "I haven't yet, and don't intend to start." She forces a slight smile, tacking up the webbed strap of her duffel bag and slinging it over her shoulder. "Thanks. It was nice seeing you again, Cass. I'll talk to you later, Andrea?"

Cassandra blinks, then shrugs. "You too." She stands up and stretches luxuriantly. "I oughta keep goin', though."

Andrea nods to the kinfolk. Her voice is warm as she says her goodbyes. "You know where to find me. Mother watch you, Dana." She then turns to her packmate. "You want company?"

Dana's smile warms. "You, too, Andrea. Let me know when's a good time to talk to Nightflash." She heads out after that, heading diagonal deeper into the woods.

Cassandra turns around, and shrugs. "Sure, if ya want." The moody Fury seems to have lost a lot of the flippant good humor she had a few minutes ago.

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