Soulcatcher doesn't risk drawing near the thing until the rest of the pack has formed up again: his ears flatten at the keening, but he continues to will the thing to be still while the healers work. Finds-the-Lost navigates by sound, smell, and memory of the previous day. He's along for backup, another set of senses to scout with, and he's hoping to hell that whatever 'trick' the Wendigo is up to works. Rides-Fire's wounds stop bleeding beneath the Gaian's hands and flesh begins to regrow a bit. Satisfied, Nightflash turns to follow in the direction that Soulcatcher and Finds-The-Lost went. Steven, too, finds breathing a little easier under the unwelcome ministrations of a mule, and he and Rides also rejoin the group.
The spirit remains held, more or less; it seems to strain at non-existent bonds, stalking the top of the cliff angrily.
Nightflash walks up to the spirit, looking between it and Soulcatcher. ~Command it to tell us what it knows of the Black Spiral Dancers, or their pack totem.~
Jarred has left.
Soulcatcher inclines his head fractionally, but the bleeding Strider steps in so that the Wendigo can concentrate on keeping it from escaping. ~Tells us of the Dancers who defiled this island,~ the little theurge hisses, lingering fury over the state of Thorn's cave adding unusual force to her commands. ~Tell us about them, and the totem they follow.~
*They follow Salamander,* answers the spirit, hatefully. It volunteers nothing more.
Heart-of-Fury moves a touch unsteadily, his wounds still sending biting pain through him. Even so, he still looks intently at the spirit with his single good eye. He throws out a volume diminished, but no less menacing growl.
Chloe has arrived.
Finds-the-Lost doesn't pay a lot of attention to the held spirit. Instead, he sticks to the periphery of the group and keeps a watch -- both visual and otherwise -- for anything creeping about in the stillness of the Umbra.
Sepdet lunges at it with a snarl. ~We know they follow Salamander. Tell us their -names- you pathetic lump of gravel!~
*No,* the spirit answers, more smugly. Evidently the gift isn't foolproof.
Nightflash looks from the spirit to Sepdet, his anger beginning to rise once more.
Rides-Fire's growl increases in volume, though he remains where he is on the outskirts of the pack, opposite Ethan.
Nightflash pages to the room: Is Chloe here ICly? If so, is she in the Umbra or the realm?
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "She's so dead."
From afar, to the room, Chloe is working on it, had to get a little info from Lys first.
Pack> Sepdet told her I'd have to kill her if she showed up tonight. Siiiiigh.
Long distance to Chloe: Sepdet hopes to gods the Gauntlet's too thick for you. Joe's had to log out, and i'd really like him here if I have to decide whether to defend Chloe against my own packmates.
Heart-of-Fury edges forward anxious, eager now, despite the wounds, waiting on some signal from Nightflash that it's time to finish this foe.
Chloe stumbles to the edge of the trees, catching herself on one of them, a hand clutching at her side. She watches from the shadows.
Sepdet bristles and locks eyes with the Wendigo, making a suggestion before she throws out another command, this time joined with Soulcatcher, who steps right up to the thing bristling. ~Their hiding place. Tell us where the Dancers' lair is!~
Pack> Finds-the-Lost says "We can happily assume we don't see her since she's in shadow?"
This time the corrupt earth elemental is compelled to answer. *I do not know,* it grates out. *For a time they laired in the cave, not far from here. But then they left the island. I do not know where they lair now.*
Pack> Nightflash says "Her pose doesn't even say which side of the gauntlet she's on."
Pack> Sepdet says "She's injured. That means she's in the umbra. :P"
You paged Chloe with 'Are you in the umbra?'.
Chloe pages: You betcha.
Long distance to Chloe: Sepdet sniffles. Nice knowing you. :(
Too many questions. Finds-the-Lost flickers attention back to the spirit now and then, though most of his focus is on keeping watch. Impatience drives him pace, just a few short strides in either direction.
Chloe pages to the room: Are any of the Garou on the umbral side injured?
Heart-of-Fury pages to the room: Most of us.
Sepdet is barely keeping her anger in check. ~What is the name of the Salamander spirit?~ she growls out, using the last of her spirit-strength to command it.
Long distance to Lysander: Sepdet throws a WP or 2 at that, just in case it helps.
From afar, to the room, Chloe will run if she has to. For now she's staying at the edge of the trees.
Rides-Fire just waits, distracted by pain and anger from following the half he can understand very closely. Occasionally he scans the surrounding darkness with eyes and nose, but all his senses operate at half-strength due to the wounds on his head.
To the pack, Sepdet's frustration is easy enough for her packmates to detect, even if she's not translating its responses. It's clear she's not getting much.
The spirit hesitates, unwilling to divulge this information; nonetheless, the gift pulls the answer from it. *Yssss-krssss,* it says, the sound like the hiss of fire consuming newsprint. *That is what it calls itself.*
A look of satisfaction crosses Nightflash's face as the Garou get something they can use.
Sepdet slumps, her gnosis spent, but there's a cruel curl of satisfaction on her lips as she looks to Nightflash, the flexing of her claws an eloquent question.
Finds-the-Lost misses all the commentary from the spirit, its speech lost to the ragabash. ~How many more questions?~ he asks impatiently.
Nightflash motions toward the spirit with one hand.
Pack> Nightflash sends, -Finish it.-
You paged Finds-the-Lost with 'I think so.'.
Heart-of-Fury at the sign, the Galliard charges forward, lunging with his jaws gaping.
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "Blah. Stupid."
A mental affirmative from Nightflash is all it takes. The Strider hurls herself at the thing with both claws and a howl for the Purity spirit that belongs here.
Pack> Sepdet is feeling stupid too.
Finds-the-Lost pages to the room: Lys, how many people can attack this thing at once, given its size?
Lysander pages to the room: It's a lot smaller now that it's had the crap beat out of it. Two or three, tops.
Rides-Fire moves too late to get in on the kill. Snarling in frustration, the ahroun paces just outside the circle of fighters.
It takes shockingly little effort for the Garou to dispatch the tattered remnantes of the spirit -- evidently it had expended most of its essence maintaining its physical form, and with that disrupted, it has little left with which to defend itself. Heart-of-Fury strikes first, ripping into the midst of it, while Hope-Star rakes claws through its face and shoulders. The spirit dissipates.
Nightflash watches as his packmates finish of the spirit, his tail twitching in silent fury.
Finds-the-Lost allows the older Garou to make their claim on the kill, but that's more because of his distance on the outskirts of the group than any lack of eagerness. The young Get was expecting a tougher fight than this. As the spirit dissipates he draws back in surprise.
Pack> Finds-the-Lost says "Now we just need to get out of here without encountering Chloe."
Sepdet snarls a bloodcurdling curse on the emptiness where it once stood. ~May your dust never feed the maggots of the abyss, and may your name be forgotten forever.~
Pack> Nightflash says "If everyone's up for it, I'll pose leading us back to the cave and leading us across."
Pack> Finds-the-Lost says "Sounds good to me."
Pack> Sepdet amens.
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "Man. I really like to kill her."
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "But okay."
Rides-Fire gives the theurge a long look but does not ask if she merely curses or does something stronger.
Lysander pages to the room: My work is done, here. Please let me know if anyone has any followup questions; I'll do my best to answer them. I hope everyone had fun.<BR>
Nightflash turns back toward the cave. ~We have the name of the totem. Yssss-krssss.~ The name doesn't sound the same as when the stone pronounced it. ~We can summon it, or we can track it. But we have something.~ With that, he heads off.
Lysander goes home.
Lysander has left.
Rides-Fire pages to the room: Go tud?
Chloe limps from the edge of the woods, hand still held to her side. "Hope?" she calls out. "If anyone needs healing--"
Finds-the-Lost drops down into hispo, shaking out his fur. Uninjured throughout the night's battles, he follows his packmates back toward the cave.
Pack> Finds-the-Lost says "There you go, Steven."
Pack> Nightflash says "Fuck."
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "Oh cool. Unless you're on the East Coast."
Pack> Rides-Fire hates you all.
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "Sorry, babe."
Nightflash whines in surprise, his head whipping in the direction of the voice.
Rides-Fire also rivets toward the voice, bloody ruff stiffening outward in wary shock.
Sepdet turns and freezes, letting out a snarl barely less angry than that delivered towards the spirit a moment ago.
Heart-of-Fury doesn't even take the time to shift down. Once he hears the voice in the Umbra, he's charging for the voice, pell mell, wounds be damned. ~Die, Warper!~
Finds-the-Lost's nerves are already running on a raw edge here in the darkened Umbra. First instinct is to spring, attack and maim and kill the unknown; it's been one of those nights. Some safety catch manages to click, though, enough so that he catches the familiarity that Chloe addresses Sepdet with, the use of a name. He hesitates uncertainly even as the Fianna attacks, looking to Nightflash, the pack's alpha, for a decision.
Sepdet throws herself after Steven after a dangerous moment of hesitation, with every last ounce of strength she has.
Outside the circle of light, the mage leaps straight into the air, black feathers arrowing upward into the branches of a tall fir. Somewhere above, she is perfectly still. "I came to heal. Not to die."
Pack> Sepdet says "Oh, goodie. AFTER I commit political suicide. (Not that Steven thought much of me anyhow, but. ;)"
Pack> Finds-the-Lost isn't ICly sure if you're attacking or preventing attack, Sepdet. Heck, I'm not sure OOCly.
Pack> Sepdet says "Sepdet's trying to deck Steven. Preventing attack. She's just furious that Chloe was stupid enough to show herself. "
Pack> Sepdet says "Again, this is very awkward without Joe here. I guess he reached across just before she spoke. Because he'd be here. He -does- claim her as kinfolk."
Finds-the-Lost moves on some seemingly unvoiced direction, so far as the edge of light at least. A low growl sounds, a deeper rumble in hispo. ~How? Do we kill her?~
Rides-Fire, confused and angry, paces up next to Finds-the-Lost. He too looks to Nightflash for direction.
Nightflash hesitates a moment before responding. ~If necessary.~
From afar, to the room, Rides-Fire gets Eric frustrated because she keeps falling asleep. As much as I hate it, night.
Rides-Fire has disconnected.
Heart-of-Fury is lividly furious, his anger surpassing even that for the spirits they destroyed tonight. ~This is not your place, you twisted thing. Not your fight. Leave now or I swear I will taste your blood this night.~ He tumbles over as Hope-Star barrels into him. As he rights himself, he immediately swipes at the Strider. ~She has consorted with our sept's enemies in the past and you /defend/ her?~ He honestly cannot comprehend this decision, but he does know how to settle it.
Sepdet snarls back at Steven, all the anger of the evening channelled into her bristling form, right back at the Fianna. ~She fights for Gaia, and she is -your- -alpha's- MATE!~ The Strider is desperate, claws braced to attack.
From afar, Chloe figures she can magick Sepdet easier than other people.
From afar, Heart-of-Fury is already attacking you, incidentally.
You paged Heart-of-Fury with 'Ack. I misread pose.'.
Heart-of-Fury pages: S'alright. It's late.
Sepdet goes down under Steven's lunge: face to face, he's larger and stronger than she is. Her hindlegs slash upwards, tearing at the very wounds she helped heal only a few moments ago.
Nightflash says, ~Call her down, Finds-The-Lost. Tell her that if she does not come down we will tear down the very trees to reach her.~
Finds-the-Lost has little clue on how he's supposed to untree a mage, or what constitutes necessity in the kill, for that matter. Agitation mounts, and he leaves the circle of light to trot over toward the fir, the area that Chloe was last scene. There, in the darkness, while his packmates are clawing and biting at one another, he shifts so far as glabro. "Come down," he calls up to the young woman, short, tense, and angry. "Or we'll tear down the tree to reach you."
The claws connect, and fresh blood spills out of the Fianna. Suddenly, as he bears down on the prone form, aiming to throat her soundly, the Garou's form goes stock limp, falling, as if dead.
Chloe drops from a branch to the ground, black eyes riveted on the two fighting Garou. "Stop," she whispers. There is an odd shimmer in those eyes, in the pitch darkness. "Please stop. I don't want to die. Just sleep."
Sepdet twitches once and goes still, buried under half a ton of Fianna.
Pack> Sepdet thinks by this time Joe on the other side of the Gauntlet would be going, "Guys? Guys? What the fuck are you doing over there?" :)
Pack> Ethan says "We sent him for milk."
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "He's breaking teacups."
Ethan isn't in glabro for long. A rage-fueled shift draws him back up into crinos, and unless Chloe moved before dropping to ground level he's very near her. Call it the length of a lunge.
Ethan contorts and blurs as he is transformed.
Ethan shifts into Crinos form.
Nightflash listens to the sounds of the girl climbing down and the sounds of his packmates killing each other behind him. Coincidentally, both stop around the same time. ~Tell her,~ he says as he turns back to check on Steven and Sepdet, ~to leave this place. This was our fight. There is nothing for her here.~
Chloe holds both hands out from her sides, and stands quite still. Along her left side, the suede tunic is dark and wet with blood. "I came," she whispers, "to heal anyone who was hurt. I bled to come here. Knowing /he/ would be here, and you, Nightflash. Please at least let me heal my friend, even if no one else will--"
Finds-the-Lost only now notices the unnatural stillness of his two packmates, and that causes his hackles rise. Somehow, this is connected to Chloe, and it's with visible restraint that he doesn't simply leap now. There's no shifting back to his birthform for translation. Instead, a terse observation followed by an equally curt question. ~I think she killed them. Do I kill her?~ He's ready to spring at a word from Nightflash. That, or a twitchy feeling.
The Fianna /is/ breathing. The perceptive will note that much, at least.
Nightflash kneels by the pair to see if they've killed each other, or if the mage did it. He rises again slowly and turns. ~Both live. There are none here in need of her healing. If any /wish/ it,~ the ahroun practically spits out the word, ~they may make arrangements once we have left. We came here as a pack. We leave as a pack. And she is not pack.~
Chloe's breathing is shallow, uneven with fear. She swallows, audibly--understanding at least the sound of it, if not the sense.
Finds-the-Lost studies Heart-of-Fury and Hope-Star from a distance, reluctant to divert too much attention from Chloe. Now she's been moved from the status of 'enemy' to 'wild card'; it's not that much of an improvement, but it does mean that Ethan slides back down as far as glabro again. He looks pretty dangerously close to the edge of control, too much chaos and conflict this evening. "Leave," he states, and gestures. "Heal them later, I don't care, but leave now or we attack. You're not wanted here."
Pack> Sepdet says "Steven and Sepdet both tore large pieces out of each other but were knocked unconscious. (Right, HoF?)"
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "Yeah, we're probably another tick down the chart, I suppose."
Pack> Sepdet says "Well, I'll take damage, anyway. It'll make Steven feel a little better that he got a bead on me. :)
"I understand," she answers, her voice hoarse but steady. "Tell them--" She takes a careful breath, then. "I'm sorry." Ducking her head, she walks out to the circle of light--or rather limps, pausing for a moment by the two fallen Garou and dropping to one knee.
Pack> Sepdet says "ARGH."
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "Jesus fookin' Christ."
Nightflash reaches down and closes one hand over the back of Chloe's neck.
Chloe kneels. Nightflash reaches down. And Ethan, following good on his threat, attacks. First comes the rage-fueled shift to crinos. Next, the lunge. Claws come into play.
Ethan contorts and blurs as he is transformed.
Ethan shifts into Crinos form.
Chloe freezes, her head bowed. Her hand is open, her eyes closed.
Heart-of-Fury pages to the room: Sorry it has to come to that.
Chloe pages to the room: She was leaving, though.
Heart-of-Fury pages to the room: It was certainly not at all clear what the hell she was doing.
Nightflash pages to the room: She wasn't leaving. She walked /into/ the circle of light. That's in, not out.
Nightflash's claws dig in and he pulls back suddenly, taking a good portion of the woman's neck with him.
Just as Nightflash reaches down, tearing at the woman's throat, the Get is also on her with a slash of claws. A held target is easy to strike, and those claws tear a jagged path through the woman's side, tearing through flesh and into the vital organs underneath.
Soulcatcher has connected.
Pack> Soulcatcher says "Guys!"
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "That's some pretty fucking awful timing."
Pack> Soulcatcher ? Uh oh?
Chloe falls instantly, eyes wide, slumping beside the Strider's body. There is a handful of blood and flesh and dark hair. A faint sound of denial comes from the human's throat, and a hand clutches at the sudden welling of blood, the tattered suede and self at her side. Then the hand goes slack.
Pack> Heart-of-Fury says "See Chloe. See Chloe die."
Long distance to Soulcatcher: Sepdet cries on your shoulder. I had Joseph go through the umbra back to the island. And he'd be saying "Stop!" but I feel too biased to pose him.
Nightflash drops what remains of Chloe's spine and sighs. He rolls Heart-of-Fury off of Sepdet and kneels down beside the two to wake them.
Finds-the-Lost still has little clue who, or even what, Chloe is. If he was keyed up before it's even worse now. Just the one claw strike, just until she falls, but that combined with Nightflash is enough. ~Are they all right?~ he asks Nightflash, tensely. He's just waiting for something to come out of the shadow.
Chloe pages: Sepdet's healed. That's why she stopped.
Heart-of-Fury is apparently pretty deep in slumber. He does not wake up immediately but the Fianna does come around, eventually, new wounds and all. The bulky hispo shakes out his ruff and doesn't even pretend to understand what the hell is going on.
Sepdet is asleep, still, but Chloe's touch has done its work as well as ever: the Strider is uninjured beneath the matted blood.
The mage lies still in a growing pool of blood, and certainly does not appear to be breathing.
A raven lands at the edge of the light, and watches.
Finds-the-Lost watches the surrounding shadows and the sky, restless as ever. He just wants out, period, right now. The raven gets rounded on, claws at the ready once again until he realizes what it is, just a bird. ~Do you think it was calling something before we killed it, the rock spirit?~
The raven's wings flip back, and it watches the Garou, unblinking.
Nightflash shoves Heart-of-Fury roughly once he has awakened. ~Wake up. We must return. It is still dangerous here.~ Still looking upset and disguested, he picks up Hope-Star and prepares to carry her unconscious body back to the cave.
Heart-of-Fury, groggy, still takes a mild snap in the air, shakes himself out, and then checks the carnage. A short note of approval is given at the dead mage and he follows after the ahroun.
Nightflash leads the pack back to the cave and then takes everyone across the Gauntlet together.
Pack> Sepdet ehs. Sepdet -should- be waking up, but I'll leave her unconscious til they get across to the realm, so we can go to bed. Ugh ugh ugh.
From afar, to the room, Chloe waves. And will leave the body here, for now.
Pack> Sepdet thinks she would wake up and bolt back to the umbra without a word. -if- that doesn't mean you guys would follow, since i don't want to prolong this.