02-16-2014, 12:59 AM
Once the others who have been more involved have finished answering Ingrid's question, Thomas shifts to homid to take a turn telling a story. There may yet come a day he doesn't do that, but it still isn't today.
His stories have overwhelmingly been stories about their sept. About the Garou here he has fought beside. He tells those stories almost as if he had no part in them, but he tells stories about things that he has seen. About Denver.
Until tonight.
The night is dark and cold. Things like dawn and spring seem far away. The end of the world seems to be close enough they can feel its breath in every stirring wind. There will be a verdict but no true harmonious consensus on who will lead Cold Crescent and what exactly their role should be. There are unearthly alien creatures who are not of the Wyrm and who are not of Gaia and who lurk and wait and dream uncertain dreams.
There are no new dramatic stories about how they have driven back the dark to offer them. Less legendary things, after the discussion of the creatures that live beyond the nightmare gate beneath Cold Crescent and what one can only assume are siblings or cousins or perhaps neighbors seem to fall shy of conjuring things like hope. And sunlight.
"Long ago, when even the snow felt young and the Veil that came to separate flesh and spirit had yet to become so difficult to step through as it is now, there was a Garou who came to be known as Guardian of the Forgotten Gate, but like the snow and the Veil between worlds she was young then too and did not yet have that name.
"There were terrible creatures who walked the earth then, who were not so hindered by the divide between flesh and spirit. One of these creatures, a great serpentine beast that some remember as a dragon with four legs, or a true serpent with no legs at all, or even as a beast with countless scuttling legs was feasting on villages near her sept. It was an unknown creature, possessed of no known desire but hunger. What is remembered, as the few who saw it all remembered, is that shadowy tendrils trailed outward from where its eyes should be.
"It was not hunting the Garou, it stayed well clear of the caerns and places where Gaian spirits were strong. Some thought that they should hide their kin and let it move past them. At the rate it was sweeping across the country to feast it would not linger long. It could be left alone, they reasoned. Others wanted to chase it, to drive it toward their enemies and let it devour them. But Guardian of the Forgotten Gate knew that if the creature was left to its feasting, it would devour everything it could easily devour and then turn, now well fed and even more dangerous, back to try to devour their caerns.
"She stalked the creature for weeks, over ground seared by cold and hung heavy with shadow. She spoke to the few who had seen the creature and escaped. She learned when and how it fed easily enough, but she kept stalking it until at last she learned what it feared.
"Fire. So she ran and ran until she passed by the creature and when she reached the next place it come she sang. She started at the first hint of dawn and she kept singing until the clouds let go of the last traces of color after sunset and when she stopped singing there was a wolf of flame standing ready her side.
"They waited until the creature came and they attacked. The fire wolf drove at the creature, blinding it and driving into Guardian of the Forgotten Gate's claws.
"They fought all night and as the sun rose and the creature tried to flee into shadows they drove it further into the open. It burned where the sun touched it, sizzled and blackened and eventually crumbled into nothing but charcoal dust. Guardian of the Forgotten Gate was bloodied and the fire wolf was more embers than crackling flames, but they stood victorious.
"The name Guardian of the Forgotten Gate came later, after she had gathered more secrets and was known more for her knowledge than for slaying great beasts, but everything she would be began there when she triumphed over that creature by learning its secrets."
His stories have overwhelmingly been stories about their sept. About the Garou here he has fought beside. He tells those stories almost as if he had no part in them, but he tells stories about things that he has seen. About Denver.
Until tonight.
The night is dark and cold. Things like dawn and spring seem far away. The end of the world seems to be close enough they can feel its breath in every stirring wind. There will be a verdict but no true harmonious consensus on who will lead Cold Crescent and what exactly their role should be. There are unearthly alien creatures who are not of the Wyrm and who are not of Gaia and who lurk and wait and dream uncertain dreams.
There are no new dramatic stories about how they have driven back the dark to offer them. Less legendary things, after the discussion of the creatures that live beyond the nightmare gate beneath Cold Crescent and what one can only assume are siblings or cousins or perhaps neighbors seem to fall shy of conjuring things like hope. And sunlight.
"Long ago, when even the snow felt young and the Veil that came to separate flesh and spirit had yet to become so difficult to step through as it is now, there was a Garou who came to be known as Guardian of the Forgotten Gate, but like the snow and the Veil between worlds she was young then too and did not yet have that name.
"There were terrible creatures who walked the earth then, who were not so hindered by the divide between flesh and spirit. One of these creatures, a great serpentine beast that some remember as a dragon with four legs, or a true serpent with no legs at all, or even as a beast with countless scuttling legs was feasting on villages near her sept. It was an unknown creature, possessed of no known desire but hunger. What is remembered, as the few who saw it all remembered, is that shadowy tendrils trailed outward from where its eyes should be.
"It was not hunting the Garou, it stayed well clear of the caerns and places where Gaian spirits were strong. Some thought that they should hide their kin and let it move past them. At the rate it was sweeping across the country to feast it would not linger long. It could be left alone, they reasoned. Others wanted to chase it, to drive it toward their enemies and let it devour them. But Guardian of the Forgotten Gate knew that if the creature was left to its feasting, it would devour everything it could easily devour and then turn, now well fed and even more dangerous, back to try to devour their caerns.
"She stalked the creature for weeks, over ground seared by cold and hung heavy with shadow. She spoke to the few who had seen the creature and escaped. She learned when and how it fed easily enough, but she kept stalking it until at last she learned what it feared.
"Fire. So she ran and ran until she passed by the creature and when she reached the next place it come she sang. She started at the first hint of dawn and she kept singing until the clouds let go of the last traces of color after sunset and when she stopped singing there was a wolf of flame standing ready her side.
"They waited until the creature came and they attacked. The fire wolf drove at the creature, blinding it and driving into Guardian of the Forgotten Gate's claws.
"They fought all night and as the sun rose and the creature tried to flee into shadows they drove it further into the open. It burned where the sun touched it, sizzled and blackened and eventually crumbled into nothing but charcoal dust. Guardian of the Forgotten Gate was bloodied and the fire wolf was more embers than crackling flames, but they stood victorious.
"The name Guardian of the Forgotten Gate came later, after she had gathered more secrets and was known more for her knowledge than for slaying great beasts, but everything she would be began there when she triumphed over that creature by learning its secrets."