A Blank Slate

2/4/2009

06:28 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.

Currently the moon is in the waxing Gibbous Moon phase (66% full).
It is currently 18:25 Pacific Time on Wed Feb 4 2009.
Currently in Saint Claire, it is mostly cloudy. The temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the east at 3 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 29.92 and steady, and the relative humidity is 50 percent. The dewpoint is 37 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius.)

Thunder Cave(#1410RA)
Once you enter this cave, you see it is much larger than you originally thought. From the small opening it widens and takes a sharp turn, providing a natural windbreak. Looking around, you see a spacious chamber, long ago carved from the limestone by running water. Quartz veins scintillate in the light. In the center of the room, a small fire burns, more for light than heat, as the room is quite well insulated. Looking up, you see the smoke drawn through small cracks and holes that allow for more than adequate ventilation. This cave used to be the home of Distant Thunder, a Shadow Lord Galliard, and some say that his spirit still lingers here, protecting this spot.
You can leave the cave by crawling out the cave entrance to the south that leads down to the clearing below. A passageway leads deeper into the cave. No one is sure how deep it goes.
Contents:
Amaya
Obvious exits:
Clearing

The fire in Thunder Cave is burning brighter to provide illumination in the darkness within, made more brilliant by the play of the lights against the veins of quartz and limestone within the naturally carved edifice. Staked out over top is a spitted rabbit which slowly roasts in the heat. For now, it is unattended, but soon Kenneth is returning to the mouth of the cave with some sticks of firewood in his arms. It's a little tricky, maneuvering around the small entrance without dropping the bundle, but he manages it. His first order of business, however, is not to drop off the firewood but to peer around for the newest resident.

Amaya is curled up into one of the sleeping bags but not sleeping. The soft scritch-scritch of a pencil on paper can be heard from within but stops quickly. A head peeks out and she looks toward the Halfmoon. "Is this where you live?" she asks with a little bit of disbelief. "All the time?"

Kenneth looks a little dirtied and sweaty from the work, though hardly tired from it. "Yep," comes his curt answer as he sets the firewood off to a protected side away from the vicinity of the flame. "Well, no. Not all the time. Sometimes, I stay on my pack's territory. Sometimes, I'm out somewhere else tending to wolf kin." She gets a passing glance before Kenneth comes a few steps closer to peer at what she's doing. "Something wrong with that?"

Amaya shakes her head, "It's." She pauses a moment to find the right word. "Very earthy." She sits up a little more and the lavendar suede of what looks to be a diary can be seen. "Were you born in Japan?" she asks him with a sideways cant of her head.

Kenneth immediately turns his gaze off from the diary book, moving back to the fire side with a few sticks to feed it. "No, I was born in North Carolina here in the States. My father..." He pauses with a stick half stuck into the flames, "He immigrated from Osaka. Learned English by watching lots of movies." The rest of the twig is shoved in. "So, you'll have to forgive my Japanese. It... hasn't seen much use."

Amaya perks up a little, "I could practice with you. If you wanted to improve it?" She slips free of the sleeping bag and moves over to sit nearer the fire. "What happens next Kenneth-sa .. Kenneth-rhya? These past few days have happened too fast to think about."

Kenneth doesn't look up as she moves closer, but his tone sounds acknowledging. "If you want. But everyone 'round here speaks English." A beat. "Almost everyone." There's a lack of explanation for that as he continues, "What happens next is to see you through your First Change. Sooner or later, you'll learn to change your shape. You'll learn about what we call them, and how to use them to the best of your advantage." He glances from the fire to the girl. "What happened these past few days?"

"I fainted when Mouse-sama first did that. I won't again though. I won't be surprised." She holds her hands out to the fire then as she recollects the events. "We had always moved around a lot. But when we came here, it was different. I could tell Shin-sama was anxious. Then he took me to see Mouse and they said I was a..." she squints at this, "What is the proper word?"

"Garou," Kenneth fills in, "A werewolf. Mister Shin is not, but his blood carries it. You, though, have the gift to change." After a second pause he adds, "Mouse is... different. She bears a curse. But she's a Garou all the same. Her tribe and Shin's is different from yours and mine."

"He didn't tell me about these tribes. Are they like families? And which are we then?" Her stomach growls at about that point and she looks down with a slightly embarassed blush, "Sorry."

Kenneth looks down to the cub's stomach as well for the growl, looking over towards the roasting rabbit. Before he answers her questions, he reaches over to pluck the spit from the fire and tests the meat with a few squeezes of his fingers. And it appears to be satisfactory, so the entire thing is offered in Amaya's direction. No civilized objects like plates or forks or knives here, only finger food. "They're more like... Clans. But they do act as families, complete with the infighting."

Amaya takes the spit and looks over to him in thanks, "I think I have a lot to learn with all of this. Thank you." She holds the meal at bay a moment longer, testing it to see whether or not she will burn her mouth on it. "So there are tribes, which are like Clans, and then you said you had a pack earlier. Like a real wolf pack?"

The meat is definitely hot off the fire, though Kenneth makes no warning of it. "Something like it," he replies with a slow nod, "but more like... we share a bond with each other. A wolf pack is usually mother, father, younger generations. With Garou, it is more of being of one spirit, one purpose, together." He rubs at his face as it twitches with an awkwardness presenting. "Getting ahead of ourselves, maybe. But the point is, Amaya, even if you weren't with family before... you've got another one now."

Amaya looks to him now, eyes narrowing to study his features as he says this. "I do?" A little bit of meat is pulled off and eaten. "How long will it be before it starts /feeling/ like I am with family?"

Kenneth lifts his gaze from the fire to peer back at her, and in there is a counter-studying. "I don't know. Maybe within the next day, maybe never. Depends on what you feel is family," he answers honestly. "I am not just your teacher, Amaya, but elder. And that makes me... responsible, for you. I will see that you are safe, but at the same time, I will not shield you from what you have to learn to deal with. Understand?"

Amaya picks off another piece from the rabbit, glancing up to him and nodding. "Yes. I'm strong. I'll learn well for you Kenneth-rhya." A little sigh escapes her, "I would learn faster if I had a bed." The look she gives is tipped with a slight grin though, suggesting she knows the answer to this wishful thought already.

Kenneth's gaze twitches at the corners. "You have to earn it," comes his gruff response. He sighs as well though, clearly working around an addendum to it. "Out here, I will teach you what I know. But you'll learn better about what we are once you are exposed to your own instincts. And we start that today, with that." He gestures to the rabbit in her hands. A little longer of a pause, and he settles further. "Well. At least you eat meat."

Amaya looks up again, "Eat meat? Of course I do. Actually, I love hotdogs. But I'm told they are not really meat. Or not good meat." Now that the meal is less scalding, she puts the spit to her lips and treats it more like a drumstick. "Outside of not leaving this area, is there anything very important I need to learn and know right now?"

Watching the consumption of the rabbit, Kenneth clears his throat and tosses a couple more twigs into the fire. He thinks over his response only to answer, "Yes. You know that this is all a huge secret. We've kept the secret that werewolves, Garou, exist a secret for a very long time - and this invisible protection we call 'The Veil'. It is against our laws - Garou laws - to break this. And it also means you must be careful when you see strangers here. None should approach without first introducing themselves fully. Like my introduction: I am Kenneth, called Far-Cry, fostern philodox and tribal elder of the Shadow Lords." He gives it a moment to sink in before adding, "It's just better if you don't talk to strangers without someone you know around. In general."

Amaya nods to this, "Alright. Everything should be kept secret. And you said that no one would come here, except for those that are you friends and have been invited. So if I ask them for their names, they will be able to prove that." She stops half way through the meal and looks over, "You haven't had any. Here." The rest of the rabbit is handed back toward him.

"Right," Kenneth says with a nod regarding the friends. As the rabbit is passed back to him, he accepts to pull off a whole hind leg with a dull crack of the bones separating. "The other thing," he says to her, "is that I've got a schedule. And starting tomorrow you'll come with me on that. It starts a little after sunrise." The halfmoon glances up to her, a brow arching. "Do you have other clothes and belongings besides those?"

"I have only a spare outfit packed, and some personal things. Shin-sama told me I should not bring much with me." Amaya draws her legs up now and wraps both arms around her knees. "What will the schedule be?"

Kenneth sticks the spit at a small distance from the flames to keep it warm, but his attention remains on the cub. "Tomorrow, I'll be patrolling the territories. Here, and my pack's. If they are not busy, perhaps you can meet with them then. It is some distance from here though, so I suggest you wear comfortable shoes and warm clothes. Hope you enjoyed exercise days before at school," he says with a mild suggestion towards the nature of their travel.

Amaya brushes one of her braids behind her and opens her eyes a little wider. "I'll do my best to keep up Kenneth-rhya." She looks back toward the sleeping bag, "Maybe I should sleep now then. Would that be alright?"

Kenneth weakens in his tension with a long exhale and nod. "Go ahead. I'll keep watch," he bids, finally tucking in with the leg of rabbit he's got in hand.

Amaya gives the other a little bow of her head, "Thank you for the dinner." She scoots back to that sleeping bag, then tugs it a little closer to the fire and slips deep inside it. A zip follows, leaving just her nose peeking out, and the bag goes still.

Back | Next | 2009 Logs | Main