Arrrroooooo! A howl, followed with three yips comes floating up the bluff to announce the Gnawer nomoon as she resumes her pacing up towards the bluff. She looks back towards Anneka, and chuffs with a flick of her ears to the cub. You aren't tired, are you?

Leonard glances up from his carving and gives a howl back, in human form so it doesn't carry far, welcoming them onto the bluff.

Anneka's tongue is lolling out, her ears held back for a moment as she scrambles along after Three-Blades, toes splayed out on oversized paws. Her tail, curled in a fashion a wolf's never quite is wags about, exhausted and cheerful and just a little confused as well, for though the cub has been aware of what she was for a month now, this form, the lupus form, is the one still newest to her. She calls out to the no-moon, a high howl with a scatter of yips, like breaking waves. Tired, yes, this is fun!

A high shimmering howl from the direction of the lake carries farther, a yipping song not unlike that of coyotes. The Strider trots up to the bluff with her usual effortless speed, a small black shape threading its way between the trees that give way to bushes and low grasses.

Three-Blades whuffs with a jaunty little splay of her ears, and circles back around the cub a few times. Have to get used to it, if you're going to come here a lot to swim, she lolls her tongue at the cub and breaks into a short sprint up towards Leonard. Rarr!

Leonard stands, smiling down at the Gnawer nomoon and bracing himself for a leap. "You're in a good mood."

The cub laughs in the lupine fashion, something shown in the cant of ears and tail, and then she's bunching her gangly legs under her, gets them moving her in the right direction with a burst of speed. She chases after Three-Blades in a scramble of limbs. Rar!

Hope-Star quickens her own pace, shooting between cub and teacher and skidding to a stop past them with a soft whuff.

Three-Blades charges headlong towards the Wendigo, then dodges aside at the last moment, barking for the Otter to take him down!

Otter, thusly named, hesitates for a moment in her headling charge up the bluff, towards Leonard. Then there's something of a shrug, an ear flicked back, and she does just that, gathering her hind legs together into a pounce! There is a lot of potential behind this pounce, an agile body that could grow out of the tangle of gangly limbs, but there's not a lot of experience behind it at all. So, it's something of a messy pounce, paws out and tongue lolling! Hi!

Leonard isn't prepared for a messy pounce and is promptly bowled over by a good 80lbs of wolf. "Ooof. Hi."

Hope-Star trots over to them and perches near Leonard's head. Do I need to perform last rites?

Leonard rubs the back of his head, turning it to look at Sepdet. "I think I'll live."

The cub ends up sprawled nearby, legs in the air and tongue lolled out. One ear splays, then flicks as an ant crawls dutifully along its edge. Her tail wags around, wildly, thumping on the ground. There's so much energy there, the half moon a heavy weight on her brow. She howls, high and loud. Arrrrooooo! It sounds kind of odd, given that she's on her back.

Three-Blades plops onto her haunches beside Otter and gives her a congratulatory lick on the side of her cheek. Her head tilts to Leonard and brows lift in question. Hope she wasn't too much for you. Something about the gesture shines with humor.

Hope-Star licks her nose. Oh good. I'm fresh out of little blue stones.

Leonard hmphs, sitting up. He promptly puts Yi in a headlock.

There's a certain amount of scrambling as the cub rights herself, sitting on her haunches with her fur stuck about in various directions. She shakes, scattering bits of dirt and even a leaf about, then settles down to scratch at an ear with a hind leg. What happened to that ant? Her ears splay out, then perk up again as she looks about for it. The tiny insect, meanwhile, crawls about in the forest of sandy fur that is also a cub's shoulder.

Three-Blades scrabbles with a yip, pushing with a forepaw at Leonard. Leggo! Rarr! After some struggle, she instead simply bowls Leonard back over with her body and tries to pin him.

Anneka shakes vigorously, once, twice then thrice, her fur puffing out in tufts and frazzles. The ant, slow and patient, clings to a strand of fur until the cub is satisfied that it has been ejected. She chuffs, then scrambles to all fours and-- starts to slink towards Three-Blades, using the tall grass she can find to hide herself.

Leonard oofs yet again as he's smooshed under a wiggly Gnawer for the second time tonight. "Okay, okay, you win."

Hope-Star observes Anneka's approach with an ear tilted warily, although she otherwise doesn't give the cub away. The ahroun can defeat the no-moon, but the no-moon can steal his clothing.

Three-Blades thumps her tail twice on Leonard's stomach, getting off with a hop and glancing around for the cub. Aroo? Her nose raises to sniff the air, ears turning for the sound of paws beyond Sepdet's. Her eyes catch the direction which Sepdet's ear is tilted, and she turns away from the cub, looking in a different direction purposely. Where oh where did that cub disappear to...

Leonard sits up again, brushing the grass and twigs and everything else that gets in a wolf's fur from his chest and poor abused sweats. "Hey, I wanted to ask you a question."

There's something of an internal struggle going on in the mind of the Gnawer cub. On the one hand, there's the moon above like a bowl tipping light onto the earth, huge and distracting. It's so hard to sit still-- no, that's not right either, to move low to the ground, swift and stealthy. The grass shusses against her underside and her tail wags about, stills, then wags some more. Closer, closer-- Amber eyes are locked on Three-Blade's tail.

Three-Blades' tail starts to wag, slowly, enticingly around the caps of her backwards turned knees. Her ears and eyes turn towards Leonard. Question? What's that? Leonard crosses his legs, lotus-style. "I want to know how you get a job."

Hope-Star sits back on her haunches, amused.

The cub has many names floating about her head, but she holds to Otter, for it fits at the moment. She hunkers down, watching the tail as it wags about, eyes darting to and fro. Then she moves closer, closer. The ant has worked its way out onto the edge of an ear again.

Three-Blades tilts her head in full tilt surprise. You want to ...work? Her back end slowly sits down, the cub's position noted only subconsciously with a back turn of an ear. You ask someone who has work for you, she answers the Wendigo.

Leonard frowns at that. "How do you know who has work for you?"

There's a flurry of gangly limbs and paws, a glimpse of yellow eyes and upturned ears, and then Otter's pouncing out in a scrambling leap towards that tail. She yaps! Gotcha!

Three-Blades yips with surprise, half-surprised more than as her tail finds itself trapped under first a pair of paws and then in a set of jaws. Aiee! She turns and gives Anneka a nip on her shoulder. My wonderful tail, woe is it! The furry 'snake' twitches. Let go, silly Otter, the nomoon butts her muzzle at the cub's side in a gentle statement.

Hope-Star hitches up to her feet and backs away half a pace, her own tail skipping behind her. The mongoose bites the snake, but the scorpion ambushes the mongoose. How quickly the dance turns back on itself.

There's laughter in the cub's eyes, in the way her tail wags about in crazy loops. She growlfs, muffledly, then lets go of the tail, nudged along by the nip. She sits on her haunches a short reach away and scratches at an ear with a hind leg. Three-Blades and her tail get something of a sidelong glance.

Three-Blades whuffs playfully at the cub, then turns back on Hope with a tilted ear. Her confusion is fleeting, until her eyes go back to Leonard. She hasn't forgotten his question yet. You ask, Little Bear. Or, you read the human ~newspaper~. She sits, and shifts as she does, passing through forms with fluidity. A hand reaches out to scritch at the area around Anneka's ears, and her hand pauses as she sets an ant down on a blade of grass. "The newspapers have advertisements. People looking for other people, to do jobs for them."

You have shifted to Homid form.

Leonard pulls his knees up to his chest, resting his chin on them. "Huh." He looks a little intimidated at the thought of a newspaper.

Hope-Star remembers going down to the docks, sometimes, with the Gnawers who first adopted me after I was banished. They offered to carry and move heavy boxes. But sometimes the men did not give what they promised in return.

Yi nods slowly, finding that Spot behind the ear that most dogs have, and scritches around it. "Sometimes. It depends on the employer. I searched for jobs I knew I could do, here. When I was young, in Hong Kong, I worked on fishing docks. I was moving fish every morning before school, getting them ready to ship in big boxes full of ice. After school, I took tourists around the city with Xiao Li." The name is said with an endearing, reminiscent tone. She looks down a moment, then back up at the Wendigo. "I can cook as well. I did so for.. much of my childhood. My mother came back from work too tired to do much more, sometimes. So now I cook at the restaurant in the city. Not the Oriental Regency.. they wouldn't hire me. But the Tin-Yen, the manager only pays me half of what I would get if I were here legally."

Anneka looks down at the ant, ears swiveling forward. The ant! She hunkers down close to watch it trundle down a blade of grass, only a few inches from her black nose, until it finally returns to earth after its long, strange journey. When she lifts her head again, her form starts to blur-- slow at first then faster until a sandy-haired girl is sitting in the grass with her legs pulled up and her arms wrapped about them. She smiles to Hope-Star and Leonard, then glances back to Yi.

Hope-Star sniffs curiously at Anneka. You are a patient one. All the world set aside for an ant's crossing?

The early evening carries along the fleeting scent of an approach that hasn't been accompanied by a querying howl. Human. And for those who are familiar with Black Rabbit's mate's scent -- Robin. She still hasn't reached the base of the bluff and the range of sight of the keen-eyed lupes, but she's in the vicinity, somewhere nearby.

Leonard cocks his head, listening to Yi's story. "So am I legal or not? I came here from Canada but noone knows that."

Furrowed brow comes with that question, Yi rather ignorant at policies of the INS. "Do you have legal papers? Somewhere, tucked away?" Her attention strays momentarily to Anneka and Hope-Star before returning to the Wendigo. "Who brought you here?"

Leonard blinks. "Um, no papers. Noone brought me here. I crossed the border by myself, through the woods. I didn't even know I'd done it."

Anneka glances to Hope-Star and blinks twice. The wolf in her is so close to the surface, watching the world from behind her eyes-- caught in the moment, the elation found in running on all fours through the forest, in drawing the world in through myriad senses-- Even in watching an ant trundle along a blaed of grass. She glances about at the grass around her. "Ants are really cool," she says, quietly, once she's found her voice again.

Hope-Star's ears prick abruptly. Are they? Then I will have to watch them more closely. But now I will set aside the world for something dearer. Tail flagging behind her, she pops to her feet and bounds away and down the hill. She makes no effort to silence her careening approach, circling the human at the last second before barrelling into her.

Yi wipes off her hands on her pants, lips tightening into a firm line of thought. "Then you probably are not here legally. I don't know what more to do... but perhaps I can ask John. The Walkers have a lawyer in their kin." For a moment, she looks troubled, but a look away towards the cub softens, and turns to curiosity as Sepdet bounds away. She glances over at Anneka again, then up in the direction of the running Strider. "Another visitor? I thought this bluff was secluded," she murmurs with hints of a smile.

Leonard watches Sepdet as she bounds away. "Either Joe or Robin, I think."

Caught rustling in the trees at the base of the bluff, Robin stops short and narrows her eyes to catch a glimpse of the familiar, slight jackal-wolf that streams toward her. There is an audible catch of her breath before she drops to the ground to avoid the inevitable tumble that would have come otherwise. Her voice drifts up the bluff in tenor but not in syllable.

"Or both," Yi nods. "But yes. I might have to ask John of another favor, on your behalf. Perhaps to get his kin to make copies of some legal things anyway. I will be a lot more convenient for us both." She glances back down the bluff side again.

Anneka glances up at the moon after a long look at earth and grass, a smile growing on her pale, freckled face. She changes quickly like that, a skinny girl one moment, then a blur that resolves into a gangly, adolescent wolf. Her tail wags as she draws herself to all fours, touches one of Yi's elbows with a cold nose. I'm going to run to the Caern, the cub says, with a certain determination that suggests she will, no matter what may be in the way. Then her tail's wagging, her countenance the wolf's laughter. It's a good night to run!

Sepdet's own voice drifts up from below, as she changes back to her own shape to accompany the kin woman up the hill. She gives a sort of bark of farewell-- "Good running, cub!" when Anneka careens past.

Anneka barks, a quick goodbye, then with a wag of her curled tail she's racing down the trail, to the caern beyond. Well, as soon as she finds the right way.

Leonard watches Anneka go with amusement and not some measure of longing. Cliath or no, he's not too old and respectable for a careen through the woods.

Yi seems to catch the look in Leonard's eyes, and chuckles. "Well if you feel like running, I'll race you to our visitor." And with that, she's up and away! In the human form though, her hair streaks behind her in a wild black mane, sprinting towards Robin and Sepdet. "Hey!" she manages to call out with a wave.

Leonard blinks, then is up and off in a flash, racing after Yi with a grin on his face.

Sepdet is holding Robin's hand lightly and trundling back up the hill as the welcome brigade barrels down to meet them. "Goodness. I started a landslide."

Robin stops several times on the climb up the bluff, and once again as Yi and Leonard approach. "Hello, Yi." Where some might register aloofness from the greeting, perhaps

Yi has seen Robin enough times now to guess otherwise. "Enapay," the kinswoman breathes, peering at the cliath in the moonlight. "You are taller when you stand on the high side of the bluff."

Yi sprints down just steps ahead of Leonard, and while it seems like she's about to win, her foot catches on a simple twig and she trips face first. Her body curls as she falls, and the nomoon ends up tumbling to a stop not too far away from the group. Uncurling like an armadillo, she lies breathless for a moment, looking up at Robin and Sepdet. "Hello," comes her panted reply before she gets up and brushes herself off.

Leonard skid/stumbles to a halt before running into Robin, grabbing Yi around the waist to make sure she does likewise. He grins at Robin and points to his pantlegs, which are up around his knees. "I'm still growing!"

Sepdet's thin brows trickle upwards at the abrupt dogpile.

Robin's laughter shows mostly in her eyes, the sparkle. "I'll call you Sequoia, soon enough." Then, with a glance to Sepdet that stretches a few moments out, she murmurs, "I will be a mouse and share your fire." She runs light fingers over her belly and adds, dryly, "Maybe two mice."

Yi slips out from Leo's grasp, and tilts her head to the kin. "Have you thought of a name for your daughter yet?" she queries with interest, glancing from the large belly to the kinwoman's face.

Leonard fairly beams at Robin, letting Yi go after he's sure she's found her feet and walking behind the kin to make sure he's there to catch her if she falls. He says teasingly, "Maybe even three."

Sepdet chuckles with a strained smile. "Dear Gaia, not twins."

Robin casts a glance over her shoulder at Leonard. "If you had it your way, Enapay, it would be no less than six." The kinswoman heads the rest of the way up the bluff's steep slope, her dark eyes finding the fire as she crests it and heads over toward the fire with a quiet, tired exhalation that is, at the least, pleased.

"Wah," Yi utters with an equally teasing and perhaps exaggerated oriental tone. "Soulcatcher might be father to a whole litter of babies, you say." She shakes off some grass from her hair. "It's fine by me, but Leonard has to change the diapers." She laughs and skips a couple of steps away from the galliard and hanging on the outfringe of the group.

Sepdet remembers her feet and follows mutely, after a moment's pause.

Leonard hmphs, eyeing Yi good-humoredly. "I can count on my packmates to help, I'm sure, no matter how many there are." He glances at Robin with a twinkle in his eye at her pronouncement and doesn't contradict her, instead going to fetch her a cup of water.

Robin slips off her shoes and socks and stretches her feet out toward the fire with a subvocal sigh. Then she pulls off the bag that she wore hanging at her hip, the strap diagonal across her upper torso. Wearing her hair in two braids, Robin looks somewhat younger tonight despite the lines of fatigue around her eyes and mouth.

Yi slips down to a spot by the fire. Eyes moving from the flames to the kin, and then to her packmates, she hums softly at first. The song is light, happy in tones and melody. Eventually she sings under her breath to keep from interrupting any possible conversation opportunities amongst the others.

Sepdet gets a twinkle in her eye and whispers a word, quite unnecessarily, to make the fire flare and burn suddenly brighter and hotter. Then she settles down into a crouch on the opposite site of Robin from Little Bear. "You sought fire. What else, Satshu't, and what will this night bring?"

Robin's lips tip upward as the fire flares and she lifts her gaze to Sepdet. "I came to burn away the old." She slides her hand into the flap of the crude, hide bag and pulls out some grasses tied in a bunch. "What does Salmon think of fire and smoke?"

Sepdet's brows knit. "I think by the time she reaches that point she's already thought, 'Oh, I am to be food for my neighbors' and is no longer thinking anything at all." She is babbling; her eyes follow Robin's hands and seek other meanings in the earlier words.

"That it would taste very good?" Yi volunteers, said in all respects jokingly, but she quickly ducks her head as if her inner conscience just berated her for being out of line. Sepdet's comment though, brings a short smirk withheld on the nomoon's face.

Leonard hands Robin the water, taking his seat next to her and generally looking s if he wants to fuss over her, but instead he looks over at Yi. "So, what kind of jobs could I do?"

Robin looks from Sepdet to Yi and back again, a strange smile flickering over her lips. She takes the cup and an obligatory sip before setting it down and looking back to the flames. She promised to be a mouse.

Sepdet seems to have forgotten the Lakota woman's promises all too quickly, and, after letting the fire she goosed die down somewhat, turns her attention back to the woman. "What is old?"

Yi tilts her head towards Leonard, sitting up a bit straighter now. She looks him over appraisingly. "What do you do well?" she returns the question for question. "You... know these woods. You can survive out here in the woods no problem. You can, move things, but I don't know how it would be for you in the city. Wouldn't exactly want a.. fish-out-of-water." She smiles up at the Wendigo. "What about finding a job within this park here? I heard there are many wolf packs around some area here, and there are people who watch over them."

Leonard blinks. He clearly hadn't though of that. "What would they do, exactly? I mean, wolves can take care of themselves."

Robin lifts the tied bunch of dried, fragrant grasses to her nose and watches Sepdet over them. A song rolls over the back of her throat, rhythmic and subtle, now and then catching on emphasized, syncopated syllables that slip over her tongue and lips. The song is quiet, a good background, and not at all invasive of Yi and Leonard's conversation. Robin flicks her wrist and the grasses whisper like an odd tambourine. Her song continues as she flicks the grasses in different directions, for awhile holding Sepdet's eyes, looking away, looking back again.

Yi glances off for a moment at the song from the kinwoman, then answers softly, "I don't know, to be honest. I could ask someone who knows." Her brows slip upward. "Why are you interested in getting a job suddenly?"

Sepdet holds the human's gaze when it comes her way as if she could bridge the barrier of language through them. Her lips twitch in a fleeting smile at Yi's question.

Leonard shrugs, looking into the fire and ducking his head. "Just...because." His face reddens slightly.

Yi grins at Leonard's answer. A guessing game, eh? She then sighs with a teasing 'aiya' and leans back a little in her spot, looking up at the sky. "Mmm, Leonard found a girlfriend during the short while he was in the city? Or... he needs money for a gift... Or..." The Gnawer's mind runs through possibilities.

Sepdet goes as quiet as only a Strider can.

Leonard just blushes further and ducks his head. "I just do, okay?"

Yi licks her lips a bit in contemplation. Then she sits back up straight, and regards the galliard. "You need it quickly, or are you going to work for a long time? Regardless, there are some restrictions to where you can go, not being a citizen of America, or even a legal resident. That, and the police are still looking for us though they do not have much to go on."

Sepdet listens to both conversations, strange human words on one side and music's mysteries on heo ther. Finally, when she has some feel for the currents behind Robin's song, she adds a soft hum beneath it like the supporting drone behind a certain sort of pipes.

Leonard blinks, looking up at that. "The police? Why?" He then remembers and glances at Robin, a tad embarrased. "Oh. Um. Just a little while. Quick is good."

Robin continues her quiet song, serenading the fire, flicking the grasses. Now and then she casts a glance to Leonard or Yi, but she's mostly background, mostly wound in whatever she is doing. Abruptly, Robin tosses the bundle of dried grasses into the fire and the song cuts off in her throat as she drops her head back to look up at the sky, watching the smoke drift upward toward the silent moon.

Yi runs a hand through her hair, sighing again though this time it is real and without exaggerations. "Quick money is easy to get. What happens after, is the problem. There are many darker ways of going about it. I'll admit I know those ways better than the honest ways." Her voice lowers almost conspiratorily, despite it's already soft tone. The toss of the brush stops her in mid-speech, making her blink a couple of times at the smoke. Then she continues, "How much?"

Sepdet falls silent again, expecting the gesture when it comes: she knows the rhythm of ritual well enough to swim in unfamiliar rivers.

Leonard blinks at the question. "Um, I don't know. As much as I can, I guess. And I think I should probably stay away from the city if the police are looking for me."

"They are looking for Rotem first," Yi notes as she leans back to prop herself on her elbows and stretch. "I can get it for you. But, I want to know why." Her eyes stray towards the galliard's, searching.

Leonard shakes his head at this, firmly. "No. I do it myself. I'll ask at the park. I think one of the kinfolk works there. Summer?"

Sepdet's expression sags belatedly at the mention of police, or perhaps Rotem, but these are areas at the edge of her ken. "I think so," she says distractedly, voice still carrying a trace of spirit-music.

Yi shrugs. "I don't know her very well. You can ask, I suppose. But working at the park, is likely a government job." She sits up, drawing her knees in. "I can help get you money. Maybe not much, a couple hundred or so. It's easy really." An idea forms around in her head, and she nods again, this time firmly. "In fact, very easy." In the firelight dancing off her eyes, is a plan forming already.

Leonard shakes his head again. "No. I have to do it, myself. Please."

Robin eventually lower her chin once again, her dark eyes full of moonlight. She reaches into her bag once again, and this time pulls out an apple. She begins humming once more, this time a more melodic tune, her lips closed. When her gaze flickers back to Sepdet, it glimmers.

Yi looks back over at Leonard. "Well, then you'll just have to come with me and we will stop a few drug deals from happening. Plenty of money there. The drugs can be turned over to the police, but we will not show our faces. Just leave them the packages." Her tongue moves a slow swipe over her lip. "Or, if you want to ask Summer, you can. I can look for something for you too, maybe around the docks. Moving things, na." For all her ideas, she shrugs. "I will respect your honest work."

Sepdet finds something to bring laughter to her eyes from the exchange between Yi and Leonard, and once again makes herself busy serving as seashell's echo to Robin's sea, picking up the deeper notes and weaving them back to her. She seems to understand the 'rebuilding' part better.

Leonard frowns at the idea of doing anything involving the police. "Better to burn the drugs. But... I think I like honest work better. I don't know." He shrugs. "I never had a job before."

With a crisp sounding -crunch- Robin bites into the apple and settles back a little awkwardly, propped by one hand. Her attention turns to the conversation between Leonard and Yi.

Yi rubs a hand on her neck. "I doubt I have had any 'honest' job. If not for my body, the men on the fishing docks would not have wanted me around them. If not for my friend and her way with people, I would not have been leading strangers around Hong Kong. If not for the greed of my manager to save money on his employees..." she glances to Robin briefly, then finishes, "I wouldn't even have this job. I'd be shipped back to Hong Kong, likely thrown into prison for running out." Yi swallows at the image of that, shaking her head to get it out of mind. "Probably better to find some honest work. You are good at carving, aren't you? Maybe you can sell your carvings. Or, work with a carpenter, if they can withstand the atmosphere of having a Garou around."

Sepdet licks her lips and pulls her mind back to the others with a sigh. "You could offer to cubsit for kinfolk. A simple thing, but a useful one."

Leonard looks from Yi to Sepdet, then back at Yi, concerned. "They would put you in jail just for leaving?"

Robin smiles faintly, then takes another bite of her apple.

Yi shrugs slightly. "I don't really plan on finding out," comes her answer, light in tone as if making a joke of it. "No jail can hold a ragabash who knows what she's doing." There's a testing glint in her eye.

Leonard frowns and seems a lot less sure than Yi appears to be. He looks down at his hands, troubled.

Sepdet explains to Leonard, "There are odd laws about leaving a country, sometimes. It took me two tries to come to America myself, and they only let me go because I had no family, no papers, no human life they could point to."

Leonard shakes his head. "I don't know much about it. But I should probably not work somewhere they're going to ask for things like papers."

Yi smirks over at Leonard, standing up briefly. She runs over to the stream, kneeling down and dipping her face into the flowing water. For a minute or so, she doesn't come up to breathe. Then her head flips back out with a big 'Ahhh' and sprays water around from her lips like a whale. Then she wipes her face with her sleeve, and strolls back with a smile and slightly dripping hair. "They will almost always ask for papers. If they don't, then something's not right." Her form plops back down by the fire in her same spot. "Don't worry, Little Bear. I'll come back."

Leonard glances at Yi and nods. "You just be careful."

Sepdet looks between the two of them fondly, but tonight the habit of silence seems to have caught her too much to speak half the thoughts sparking behind her eyes. She settles at last upon, "Or we will corrupt your cub Anneka into a Gnawdigo, and whatever would your tribe say to that?"

Leonard smiles a little at that, glancing at Sepdet. "Every time they come out here they say they want to stay."

Yi grins. "Who wouldn't? Just look at this place. Water, clear and fresh. Animals all around. Wood, for fire if your fur isn't enough. Even the cave over there, and a sweatlodge. Everything one needs to just survive." Her eyes gaze around, then up at the skies. "But I will always call the city, home."

Sepdet relaxes. "Good. This is haven. But someone must keep ties to the humans, to the hard places of steel and glass, for that's where the hardest work often lies." Leonard nods, lying down on his side near the fire and cradling his head on his arm. He glances over at Yi. "How long do you think you'll be gone?"

Yi lowers her eyes from the stars to the fire. For a few minutes, she watches the dancing flames, as if searching for some answer in the licking tongues. "I'm not sure. If I must come back by boat, it will be another month on the ocean. I have to help protect my home. How long it will take, I cannot say." Her brow furrows slightly, expression turning serious at the thought. Her hand instinctively reaches into one of her vest pockets, but she remembers the letter was left at her apartment and closes her eyes like the characters are already imprinted into her mind. "-No spirit suckers are going to take my home, my family-," she utters softly in her native language. "-I swear it. Or I will die taking them with me.-"

Sepdet asks Yi quietly, "Have you any idea how much a plane ticket would cost? It seems to me that speed may help you, both directions."

Yi shakes her head. "I'm finding out first, about legal papers. The more smoothly I can travel between, the better yes." She looks down towards the base of the fire, half-lidding her eyes. "Money is no problem. The problem is... what I will find over the great waters." She swallows dryly, rubbing a bit at the bridge of her nose. Her hand pauses there, shielding her eyes from view. "I am scared, what I will find there. If, if I arrive too late. I know there will be Garou to fight. I know there will be. But -my- home. -My- family." Her hand comes away, expression serious in a gameface. "If any of the triads think of using my sept to be their front ranks while they play their games..." Her lips tighten.

Leonard says "What's a triad?"

Sepdet growls softly. "The battle shall not be fought with tooth and claw alone, but in the hearts and minds of the Garou."

Yi glances up. Her look first is one of incredulous expression, then she shakes that off. "Ah, silly of me. Triads. They are the gangs, but they are more elite. Lords of the dark underworld, so to speak. Most of them now, have Walkers and Shadow Lords in their midst, all trying to climb up the heirarchy ranks and become the top Garou. The one who oversees all. The alpha. And some, I admit, are ruthless... some have fallen to the Wyrm before, and were removed. Or, some were purposely 'removed' when they were believed to hold taint. Those cases..." She closes her eyes. "It is always a power struggle. More money. More land. More respect and face. And when you reach the top, you are waited on, respected. Feared. Garou, vampire, wyrmspawn, all have their ambitions. It is just time, strategy, and resources to see who will get there, and who can hold it."

Leonard frowns. "They should be more busy with taking care of Gaia."

Sepdet shakes her head. "It is the rot of the city, twisting minds. They confuse quest with conquest."

Leonard growls, low and dangerous even in human form. "And you wonder why I hate them."

Yi nods slowly. "It is a constant battle, just as Hong Kong has a constant pulse. But, there are us who don't fight for such high positions. While the others fight, we clean up the mess. I've not truly been allowed to any other places, but I believe there is great power deep in the hills, where the dead sleep. I should find a book, sometime. Bring it to show you how Hong Kong looks like, and then tell you what it -really- looks like. It is not all that bad. Just has its sore spots that need to be cleaned."

Sepdet says ruefully, "I have only seen it from very high in the sky, running overhead. Someday I need to stop in all the places I've crossed over."

Leonard closes his eyes, grumbling. "Stop long enough to light a match..."

Yi chuckles at Leonard. "Would you burn your packmate's home, if you thought it would do the greater good? It's not that easy, just as it is here. We -could- blow up the sewers. But where would the humans go? Kill them all? Start the cleansing again? Are lives of the innocent worth it? It's a battle beyond tooth and claw, yes."

Sepdet rolls her shoulders. "And yet, I have seen a forest grow green after ashes. We'll see."

Leonard shakes his head. "If I had answers to those questions I'd be alpha. I don't. I need to sleep now. You're both welcome to stay."

Sepdet shakes her head. "Even alphas don't have all the answers, I fear. Dream well, k--" she pauses, adjusts her familiarity to one less close but still warm, "Little Bear."

Leonard nods, shifting to wolf form and closing his eyes, dozing in front of the dampening fire.

Yi tilts her head to Little Bear. "I doubt any of us truly have the answers. Only Gaia might, but who knows? Sleep well, and have some good hunting dreams."

Sepdet looks back at Yi with a twinkle in her eye. "Little Bear," she says, shaking her head.

Yi chuckles, and stretches out her legs. "We need some walls to run up, sometimes," she notes quietly. "And I should be heading back as well. I do have a job, even if I only get half the pay." She stands slowly, stretching upwards and yawning.

Sepdet nods. "And I should take a swim." By this she usually means checking on Silverscale. "Good walking, friend."

Yi gives a short salut. "Say hello for me. I will see you again soon, alpha." Her tongue lolls out, though her form is already changing as she grows then shrinks. With a departing chuff, she bounds down the bluff and disappears into the woods.