From afar, Andrea starts preparing to summon. :)
Andrea pages: We're one room north of the caern.
You cross the caern to the opening in the trees and walk down the path. After a short while, you come out into another, much smaller clearing.
Umbra: Light Woods
Contents:
Rheen
Peggy
Dove
Andrea
Robert
Nightflash
Obvious exits:
South Northwest North
Andrea again lets Robert field the questions, dealing with her preparations to the side.
Long distance to the room: Gibbs whoops. Not here /quite/ yet. ;)
Robert shakes his head. "He's still around," the Warder answers. "Watching."
Dove starts to breathe again. "Thank Gaia, I thought I scared him off.." He glances around the area.
Andrea laughs. "Unicorns are hard to scare," she speaks at last. "They are elusive, but only a few are truly timid, and none of them are black." She gestures around the group, adding, "I mean to call an ancestor tonight, to tell us a story of the times before, and to request from it teaching. But I want to make sure that all of you are familiar with each other first. Are there any here that do not know our cub by name, and are not known by them in turn?"
Nightflash has not met all of the cubs.
Rheen looks around at those gathered, her grin fading as she realizes she falls into this category. She doesn't want to hold things up, and looks relived when the wolf indicates he hasn't met her.
The white wolf looks at the new cubs. I am called Nightflash, born to Her Children when the moon was brightest.
Peggy looks from Nightflash to Andrea, hoping for some sign as to how she should respond.
Dove nudges Peggy. "Like, give him your name and stuff," he whispers.
Peggy sucks in a breath. "Peggy Bunting, called Tumbleweed amongst the Garou, homid Theurge cub of Her Children," she spills in the space of three seconds.
Rheen swallows and adresses Nightflash in something between a mumble and an excited jitter. "I'm Rheen, or Riverstone, um, Galliard cub of the Children." She fidgets with the flap of a pocket.
Dove, just to be complete, clear his throat for the benefit of the other two. "Dove Lovepeace, Rushes-In, No-Moon of her Children."
Nightflash tilts his head. Pleased to meet you both. Dove gets a perplexed look. You and I have met many times.
Andrea's smile, quickly supressed, comes unbidden at Nightflash's look.
Dove smiles at Nightflash. "I know, sir. One of the others might not know my full name. Or something."
Rheen casts a glance toward Dove, then she's back to studying the landscape, watching a Lune as it goes about its buisness.
Andrea gives the introductions a moment, then asks the others, "Is there any tribal business before I call?"
Nightflash has none.
From afar, Andrea slowly inches it toward calling you. Inch. Inch.
Long distance to Andrea: Gibbs dozes absently while Bo waits for his cue, kicking away stage fright.
Dove shakes his head.
Peggy shakes her head almost imperceptibly.
Rheen blinks, looking away from the dancing lights. She shakes her head.
Andrea inclines her head. She then begins to scatter herbs into a rough circle around the group. *Spirits of the past,* she begins to intone, after she completes the circle the first time. *Spirits of our blood and bone, of our heart and spirit. Hear my call. Come to us, and share with us your wisdom. Come, ancestor spirit of the Children of Gaia!*
Nightflash raises his and howls, joining in the call, inviting the spirit to come.
Dove watches the rite with rapt attention, eyes wide and fidgeting forgotten.
The first sign of an answer is the dim twinkling of lights gliding through the trees. The flickers resolve themselves into a pair old lanterns, hanging from posts on an incongrous craft that's drifting towards them. A boat? In the forest? Well, this is the spirit world.
You paged Andrea with '. o O (Too lazy to make up a new entrance when i realized you weren't at Lake Arthur. ;)'.
From afar, Andrea laughs.
Andrea tilts her head, almost wolfishly, as she notes the lights. She steps closer to Robert as she waits.
Rheen stares at the approching... ship, unable to say anything more than a low drawn out "Ohh?" Something's not connecting right up there, but she's too busy experiencing something which by all rights shouldn't be happening to care how stupid she may sound to anyone else. This may be a first for her.
Peggy shifts her weight from her left foot to her right, eyes following the twin lanterns in the moonlit night.
It's a modest wooden raft, poled by a doughty figure of a man. How he's navigating the shadows and not running into trees is anyone's guess, but the ghostly vision is abruptly brought down to earth as he slows to a halt, props the pole against a handy tree, and bounds foward as if leaping ashore. "Hi! The man's here, if you're looking for the ferry. Well, well. Let's have a look at you." He holds up a lantern, inspecting them one by one with a broad grin.
Peggy shrinks away slightly at the scrutiny of the peculiar figure, but stands her ground, expression tightly stoic.
Andrea dips her head in a welcoming nod. "Greetings," she says pleasantly. "Thank you for answering."
Dove's eyes are so wide, they look like they might just fall out and roll around at any time. He stands and looks to the others, then to the ferryman. "Wow. Charon?" he says in a soft voice, lookng to Andrea.
Alicia comes up the trail from the south.
Alicia has arrived.
Gibbs lowers the lantern a fraction and touches his temple in a humble gesture, as if tipping an invisible cap. "Ma'am," he says pleasantly. "I wouldn't keep a lady waitin'." Robert also receives a friendly nod. Last, he waves a hand towards Peggy and booms at Nightflash, "I see you trainin' that one to be the strong, silent type."
Rheen gapes, trying to take everything in at the same time. She's trying not to stare at the man, that would be rude of course, so she tries to pretend she's /not/ staring at the man. She shuts her mouth with a click as he speaks.
Nightflash's head cants to one side and he looks at the stranger without comprehension.
Alicia heads through the woods to the gathering, running a bit late herself. But, she's here, finally.
"Wolfborn," Andrea explains briefly, still smiling. "I assume you are not named as the cub asks, though? I am Andrea Drinks-Deeply-from-the-Bitter-Cup."
Peggy, by contrast, makes no attempt to conceal her careful examination of the strange man, reciprocating his scrutiny once he moves on past her. She does avoid making direct eye contact, however.
"Well," the spirit drawls, taking a seat and stretching big legs out before him. Most hear his speech in English, but, taking note of the present company, he starts telling what their ears need to hear. For some, it's Mothers' Tongue. "Some people have called me names, but I'm Bo Gibbs, alpha of Chicksaw Bluffs twenty years and two. Most folk called me Ferryman, on account of my gettin' people about. I worked on the Railroad before the war."
Andrea comes closer, sitting on the ground nearby. "Which war?" she asks, as she settles.
Gibbs heaves a sigh. "War between the states. I reckon I was lucky not to make it through."
Dove blushes furiously and stays quiet, hands behind his back.
Andrea invites, "Tell us your story." She smiles reassuringly at Dove, then turns back to the spirit.
Alicia dips her head to everyone as she sinks down next to the two cubs, turning her eyes upon the small group.
Nightflash sits down on the ground, his tail swishing through the grass behind him.
Peggy pages to the room: Bler, I have to jet. Peggy will likely remain silent and attentive unless called upon to act, in which case she'll do so in the manner expected of her. Can someone send me a log come tomorrow?
Rheen follows suit, sitting cross-legged on the ground.
Peggy sits as well, crossing her legs and running her hands across the moist grass at her sides.
Long distance to Peggy: Gibbs will if they don't. :)
"By your ladyship's leave and the master's indulgence." This, apparently, to Robert. The old spirit pulls out an insubstantial pipe and commences to light it on a moonbeam. "I saw what some died callin' the Apocalypse. I learned as much about Gaia, and people, and courage an' kindness, between December and February of eighteen-hundred-and-eleven as I did protectin' passengers on the railroad for Jimmy Crow an' Miss Tubman."
You say "I was a cub, like all you pretty children. For Rite, they gave us a message to bring to an Indian caern, askin' them to come down and parley before things between our kin got unbearable. The Fangs called it a fool's errand, but you know, we had to try. Or so I saw later. At the time, me and my lads wanted battle and glory. But orders were orders, so upriver we went."
Andrea just listens, smiling wryly at the comments about glory. She laces her fingers together, arms around her knees.
The pipe's smoke is odorless and white, curling around his face in a slow circle as he puffs away. "December. It were a cold night, and we'd pulled up our boat and made camp. Suddenly we were thrown up in the air, and the ground was shakin' so hard you couldn't hold onto a friend. Trees were crackin' and the river was roarin'. While we were attemptin' to lift a tree off Halfwit Tom, the banks started fallin' in-- you could hear the water comin' toward us-- and I'm ashamed to say we ran for our lives."
Dove settles down, fascinated.
Andrea does glance over and smile a greeting to Alicia as she continues to listen to the tale.
[break so people could sleep]
You say "I can't begin to describe the terror of that night, the noxious fumes in the air, the black mist, the ground heavin', the wreck an' ruin we found the next morning. We staggered back to the river to see what had become of it and our friends. Cottonwoods down everywhere, muddy water boilin and goin' /backwards/ upriver, lands sunk and lands risen, and big cracks in the fields and marshes with sand boiling up out of 'em. It was sheer de-mo-lation."
Dove is on the edge of his seat, so to speak, mouth hanging open a bit in utter fascination.
Andrea shakes her head slightly, frowning as her imagination paints the scene.
You say "We searched all day, all nerves and teeth with the ground throwin' us off our feet every five minutes. We found simple Tom up in a tree, dead, and had to bury him right quick--metis, you know. Poor lad. No sign of the others. There was nothin' to do but go on or go back, so we went on. All along the river, we foundhomesteads wrecked, fields torn up like they'd been clawed by giants, livestock runnin' loose everywhere that they weren't dead, and terrified, terrified folk. I think if we'd walked the whole way in crinos they'd never seen it."
Nightflash, perhaps the least imaginative, has a more difficult time picturing everything the spirit describes.
You say "We finally got to the Indian caern, some two weeks later. The Uktena that met us laughed dark laughs, and said it was too late now, but thanked us for our care. We went home with our tails betwen our legs, but our elders didn't have much time for us. "Apocalypse" was on everyone's lips, and then it came out that some big Indian chief Tecumseh had prophesied that quake months ago, right down to the day. We heard it was a signal for the Indians to attack and take back their land. It was war."
Andrea's lips thin as her dark eyes become shadowed with some memory. She continues to listen.
You say "King McHenry said 'I told you so' and set out with the best and boldest warriors to beat the Indians back, and it was a sick business. All the time through those years the ground heaved and shook, the air was full of reeking black fume, rivers changed their beds, landslides came tumblin' down, and good farmland and prairie turned into swamp and broken land fit for no plough. The Children tried to help the suffering while the Fangs and Uktena and their kin had at it."
You say "Humans thought it was the Devil's or God's punishment. Garou said it was Wyrm, and maybe the Uktena had started the quakes a-purpose, with their pet banes. But it weren't any o' those things. It was Gaia. People forget: she's not a human mother, and she don't always coddle. The Wyrm was part of the balance, they say, at the beginning, and I think now the Wyld's doin' double duty. So while the Garou were lookin' for reasons to fight, Gaia was doin' her housecleaning. Maybe she was buckin' off the Wyrmcomers, like the Indians said, but I don't know. Sometimes when Gaia fluffs out the sheets, folks get hurt. That's how it is."
Dove nods quietly, taking this in.
You say "But there was a deal of good from it, too. We saw it in the lands we passed through on the way north and back. I saw a young lad risk his life to pull some fishermen ashore. I saw neighbors that had been enemies knockin' on each others' doors, to say, "I found your cow; he's tied up around back." I saw a mother cookin' for ten kids not her own, after losin' hers. People came together. If we'd had half the heart those brave folk did those three years for each other, the Wyrm'd be healed, and our job would be done. That's also how it is, when disaster hits. Gaia brings us together stronger 'n ever, even if afterwards sometimes we blame and bicker worse than before."
Nightflash chuffs softly, well-pleased with the story.
Gibbs spreads his hands. "Well, that's my story. I've fought battles and banes the storytellers sing about. I've carried a lot of folks on my riverboat out of harm's way. But that was when I saw the face of Gaia. Make of it what you will."
Dove sighs, letting out a breath he had not quite realizes he held. "A wonderful story; thank you."
Andrea adds softly. "Indeed. Well told, Ferryman." She pauses, dipping her head in respect. "Would you stay at our shores for a few weeks?" she asks, when she raises her eyes again. "I would learn from one of our ancestors that understands the lands as you do. There are rites for the seasons that have gone too long ignored."
Gibbs lets out one more insubstantial puff of smoke, taps his pipe on his knee, and tucks it away. "That, I'd be pleased and willin' to do, Ma'am. For a lady of your rank."
Outlaw pages to the room: Doh. Mav, sort of.
The Voice smiles, pleased. "Thank you," she says again. "Perhaps while you are here, you can tell other stories to my cubs. They are a very rapt audience."
Dove nods energetically!
Gibbs grins crookedly. "Late as th' hour seems to be. Of course. 'Twas my moon."
Andrea laughs aloud, then pushes to her feet. "This moot is ended," she says formally. "And you are welcome, Ferryman. Mother walk with you all."
Nightflash gets up to follow Andrea out, though not before dipping his head respectfully to the spirit. My thanks for the story. It was well-told.
Gibbs takes up his lantern and bows low. "Most welcome. Mother's peace on your dreams tonight, children." He turns and sets off into the night, dwindling and vanishing.
Dove smiles. "That," says the young cub, "was the coolest thing I ever saw."
Dove blushes. "Except for the unicorn."
Nightflash snorts softly, amused.
Andrea grins and tussles Dove's hair. "There are many cool things in the spirit world," she says to the cub. "You will see more."
Long distance to the room: Gibbs awwws.
From afar, to the room, Dove manfully restrains the urge to giggle.
Dove smiles at the Alpha's touch. "I hope so. That was...amazing."