Kaz probably can't be heard yet as she wanders along with Yi, explaining "...And Jarred's like, glued to him." She stops, eventually, to howl her presence on Final Strike lands.

Rides-Fire's howl comes back, allowing the Bone Gnawer onto his lands but indicating that something has his attention. Something like a nap, probably, considering the time of day, but the formalities are observed.

Yi adds in a remarkly wolf-like howl, to boot, ending in a trio of yips to hold her signature. Then to Kaz, she just looks a bit...disturbed.

Rotem sits beside his fire at the campsite, Helen having just left back towards the farmhouse. He tosses in a few more dry pieces of wood, and leans back, waiting for the Gnawers to arrive.

Kaz, when she finally gets near Rotem's camp -- she's stubbornly in homid -- asks, without even a greeting, "Hey, did you want Cilantro?" Kaz is evidently a member of the non sequitur society of America.

Rotem looks up to Kaz and nods. "Yeah. Its always good to have around. And hello to you too." he smirks, nodding respectfully to Yi.

Yi inclines her head a bit in acknowledgement to the cub's greeting.

Kaz rummages in her pack and tosses him, first, some cilantro, and then some sage. "Figure, if you're gonna be cookin' shit out here, it at least oughta be /good/ shit."

Rotem smiles and adds the spices to the front pocket of his backpack. "Thank you Kaz. I found some thyme growing to the south of here. So I got that too." he pats the log next to him, inviting her to sit down. "Come, take a load off."

Yi narrows her eyes a bit, and finds a spot around a tree to lean against. "You certainly can make your home anywhere, can't you. Even in pack territories."

Kaz shakes her head. "Kinda restless," she explains, and in fact is moving even as she says it. "Rosemary oughta be somewhere, too, I'd think." She seems not to notice Yi's slight antagonism.

Rotem nods. "Of course. Nightflash was most accomidating. Ethan less so." the cub shrugs it off. "But he means well. Not sure if I can say that about the Talon, though."

"Not surprised," Yi notes. Then she digs around somewhere in her vest pocket and comes up with a couple of Snickers bars - one of which she tosses to the cub, the other offered towards Kaz.

Rotem snatches the bar out of midair with a smile. "Thanks." he says, pulling it into his pocket quickly and hiding it away.

Kaz mutters, "Thanks," as she wanders near Yi, and takes it. "Why th' fuck /should/ he be accomodating? He's a fuckin' Red Talon. He barely put up with packin' with /me/, an' he dint have to hang around with /me/."

Rotem nods. "I didn't say he had to be, Kaz." the cub tilts his head, looking from Kaz, to Yi, and back. "Something wrong? You both seem rather... Angry."

Kaz quirks a small smile. "Do you want the /actual/ answer to that, or the one that'd make you feel better?"

Rotem shrugs. "I'd say the truth, but if you're going to be culling me after all, lie to me.

Yi shrugs. "Angry? What's there to be angry about?" Like, plenty. She looks over at the cub, then at Kaz. Culling comments are kept elsewhere for now.

Kaz looks at the cub evenly. Remarkably calmly, considering how she was reacting the last time she saw him, she says, "There is a difference between lying and not explaining every last little fucking thought in my head. If you'd rather I did the latter, I can /very/ easily do /that/. Hell, I'd /love/ to."

Rotem shakes his head. "Just give it to me straight." the cub sighs, tossing another twig into the fire and watching it consumed. "What is the problem?"

Yi tilts her head back against the tree, and looks to Kaz. "You're the galliard."

Kaz takes a deep breath. "You wanna hear everythin' I'm thinkin' right now." She snorts. "I don't /think/ so, but fuck, if you wanna cope, it might even make me feel better. OK then!" She starts pacing. "I should have killed you at least five times, particularly when you go calling Brittany's tribe a bunch of backstabbers. I shoulda killed you when you went and fuckin' /spat/ at Elan, Jesus Christ. And you /still/ don't know what the fuck submission means -- Final Strike is /accomodating/ you? Fuck that, they got no reason to even /talk/ to you, you should be on your fuckin' /belly/ to them." She growls, as she paces. "And now Jarred's fuckin' tryin'a take you. Yeah, I suggested it, whatever, he's going on and on about how we're scum because we're thinkin' of killing you and he'll be an enemy of ours for ever if we do this -- talk about fuckin' with other people's tribes, Jesus Christ. And so I go, "You care that much, put up or shut up," but he's a fuckin' /Shadow Lord/, them people with standards higher than the fuckin' SEALS, an' he's takin' people /we/ won't even take? You ain't no Gnawer anymore, but shit, you should still be our damn responsibility to deal with. You've already made us look like fucking idiots at least five times over, this'll just make it /worse/." She glances at Yi. "That about cover it?"

Rotem sighs and nods quietly. He mumbles, "Okay." and keeps his head down, feeding the fire still. "I just hope you know, I've been talking with final strike, and I was more then respectful. Heck, even Ethan didn't mind me staying after he met me." the cub shakes his head. "Brittany and me are friends, by the way, and she'll be dropping by later if you want to see her."

"Didn't I tell you that your switchin' tribes is the decision of a dumbass?" Helen says, standing at the verge of the forest, watching the words exchanged by Rotem and Kaz.

Yi inclines her head, listening to a condensed version of the galliard's feelings. Her eyes take up a spot up towards the branches of the tree for a moment, and then lower back down to a flatter level. "Jarred... is a friend. He is, in fact, someone I do trust because he has a sense of honor inside of him." She glances briefly at Kaz, then turns back to Rotem. "I've talked to you about riting. I keep saying -when- you'll rite, but... Kaz is right. Be honest. Are you proud to be a Bone Gnawer? Do you know what it -means- to be one?" Her eyes harden a moment, and then she sighs and closes her eyes for just a second as Helen comes around. She seems to be recalling something else, and mutters quietly. "This is what Sepdet warned about... about cubs being taught by other tribes..."

Rotem covers his face with his hands, making an exhausted "Oof." sound and them mumbles to himself. "Helen." As Yi speaks Rotem looks to her, actually listening for once. The cub nods to her. "I was proud to be a Gnawer, and I wanted to be one. I didn't /want/ to change tribes. But I was forced to. It was that, or end up dead."

"Look, far as I know, you sure as hell weren't forced t' change tribes," Helen says, frowning vaguely. "But I could be wrong. Didn't I tell you th' same thing, the same thing Yi did?" She glances over to the other new moon and offers a small smile in a quiet 'hello'. Kaz gets a wave. Apparently she already ranted at him.

Kaz apparently hasn't forgotten Helen's comments of a few days ago, as she just bares her teeth at her. "So what?" she asks Rotem. "For some people, that'd be /better/ than changing tribes." She comes to rest with her hand leaning against a tree, and just shakes her head. "I trust Jarred fine. I just don't trust his /tribe/. You ain't gonna be someone I'll even wanna know, if you pass that Rite."

Rotem crosses his arms, looking at Kaz. "And why is that? Just because I pass his Rite, and not yours, you won't want to know me?"

Kaz's teeth are still bared, slightly. "You want the long explanation, or the short one?"

Helen clicks her tongue; she ignores Kaz now, and voices her opinion, "You're turnin' your back on what Gaia made ya. Didn't I just tell y' that, huh?"

Yi furrows her brow. Touchy situation, this. "Because Shadow Lords aren't all like Jarred. They'll be your friend, solely for the purposes of gaining something back." Rotem nods his head forwards "Long." and then looks up to Kaz. "Because I personally respect you, and would like, someday, to have you as a friend. So I'd like the l-long explination."

Yi crosses her arms over her front, looking troubled all the while. Perhaps moreso than she should, normally.

Kaz looks off into the distance. "I once knew a Black Fury. She was a great kid, but she got to know this Shadow Lord, and then did something that he interpreted as fuckin' with his honor. He was real concerned with his honor, even if she hadn't done a fuckin' thing to hurt it. So he started pointing out all the small things she was doing wrong, to her teachers, highlighting those over her actual accomplishments. It was a whispering campaign, and it /worked/." Bleakly, Kaz says, "She died on her Rite." Gaze moving somewhat closer to Rotem's, she goes on, "I once knew a Sept that had, over time, become more of a Gaian Sept than the Shadow Lord Sept it had once been. The Lords... I can prove none of this, mind you, but the Lords, it was whispered that they allowed Get to rampage over this Sept, killing most of the Gaians, because the /Get/ were easier to control than the /Gaians/." Her gaze finally turns back to Rotem. "Jarred is a good person. I don't speak of him. But most Shadow Lords I have known have been arrogant, full of themselves, capricious, vincictive, intolerant /bigots/. They spit on Gnawers for the momentary enjoyment, and then go steal from us later. They guard their honor jealously, and /shit/ on everyone else's. Jarred's... Different, but just because he's willing to take you doesn't mean I have to /like/ it."

Rotem nods. "And the reason you won't allow me to be your friend, even after I rite is...?"

"She means, she wouldn't trust you afterwards because Rites have a way of changing Garou," Yi replies, matter-of-factly.

Helen's eyes widen at both stories, moreso at the Fury one. "Jesus," she murmurs, staring at Kaz with a gawking expression.

Rotem nods, considering this and replying, with an examining tone, "So after my Rite, I'm going to be a murderous son of a bitch who doesn't care about anything but his honor?" the cub asks, looking to Kaz.

Kaz stares at him. "Hello, you dipshit, have you been listening? You would BE a fucking Shadow Lord. Through and through. I am /wary/, because I have been /burned/ repeatedly in the /past/. Do you get my fucking picture? That's why part of why I could never be comfortable in Ring of Fire, /or/ in Stonebreakers, even if they're perfectly wonderful indivduals, because their tribe makes me break out in /sweats/." She takes a breath. "I can guarantee nothing," she grits. "You may well be a perfectly nice person, a ray of sunshine in a fucked up world. But training, and Rites, they /change/ people. I've /seen/ it."

Yi looks away from the group, thinking about things elsewhere. "Every dog can be trained to attack people on command. Even their loved ones."

Rotem nods. "Then might I ask one thing of you Kaz? Just a request. I have no right to ask anything of you, but I just wish this one favor. After I Rite, if I pass it, give me a chance, to show you I haven't changed." the cub then looks down. "And sometime, ask Jarred what the first thing I said to him was, after he offered to adopt me."

Kaz's smile is bitter. "The /best/ Shadow Lords don't /show/ you they're the assholes. Nigel was a /bad/ Shadow Lord, 'cause I /caught/ his ass at what he was doing. But you can try. I don' guarantee nothin', though."

Rotem nods. "Thats assuming I pass my Rite, anyway." the cub shrugs, and again invites Kaz to sit down. "You can be mad at me, and take a load off, if you like, Kaz."

Kaz is still pacing. "Dude, if I sat down right now, I'd just stand up again three seconds later, why d'you keep invitin' me like that?"

Yi snorts quietly. "The best at being the worst will get those closest to you to rip you apart." She then turns and looks about to say something, but shakes her head and puts a lid on it.

Rotem shrugs. "Because I feel bad sitting here comfotably and you having to stand. Just enjoy the fire at least. Its cold out."

Kaz stops abruptly, and shakes her head. Following her own free association in her head, she growls, "God, I wish I was Fostern," and leans against a tree, briefly.

Helen says nothing; she's peering at the intricate folds of grass beneath her feet. The ragabash glances up, then, eyes roving the group, and she skitters off.

Rotem watches Helen leave, then turns back to Yi. "I don't think I'm gonna change. At least not that much. But I'll be careful. You know more then I do. So I'll watch out."

"Then don't sit. Stand up and pace around," Yi answers with a glance towards Helen walking off. She shakes her head. "You'll never be a true Shadow Lord, Rotem." Rotem takes her advice, standing up and dusting himself off, he rises and moves over towards the tree to lean on it. "From what I hear, that is a good thing."

Kaz tilts her head at Yi. "Why not?"

"No... you don't understand, yet. If you are not a Shadow Lord, you can't be one, unless you change. Even then, you won't be one." Yi gazes up at Kaz, then looks back to the fire. "Shadow Lords... I have only met Jarred of you sunset Garou. He has demonstrated, so much of what the Shadow Lords of my lands claim to be. But there's some things both have. Ruthlessness." She closes her eyes again for a little bit, simply feeling the breeze. "In the East, they call themselves Hakken. They uphold honor as the highest thing, and do anything to get it. This, includes betrayal, murder, everything you could think of from the movies, and worse. But see, it's not always revealed, as it is in the movies. To this day, I don't know their secrets. But simply put... to be a Shadow Lord, you will change. And everyone will be distant from you some way, even your closest ally."

Rotem shakes his head. "I won't change. You'll see. If this was so bad, you would just have killed me. So there must be hope. Jarred is a good Shadow Lord, I will be too."

Kaz says, starting into motion again, crouching briefly before the fire, before standing again, "Perhaps /I/ am no Gnawer. But I'd rather die doin' somethin' useful than get turned int'..." She shakes her head. "Nevermind. You ain't me. I ain't you. Why the fuck should you care what I think anyway, all I wanna do is kill you." Rotem nods towards Kaz. "Then maybe it is best that I go, and come back another time." the cub reaches down to grab his backpack. "Because I wouldn't want to push you into such a thing."

Yi turns her eyes from the blaze. "You won't change, maybe. But you won't pass your rite either then, if you go on a Shadow Lord's rite. And if you don't pass, not I nor Kaz won't be the one to kill you." She exhales slowly. "I'm telling you now, Rotem. Shadow Lords, don't have family. They don't have packs. Being a Shadow Lord, is being alone. Maybe you'll understand it, sometime." She shrugs, and glances over towards Kaz. "Kaz isn't going to kill you tonight. That much, I'm sure."

Rotem nods. "I wanted to be a Gnawer, and I wanted a family. But now I can't have that. So being alone, alive, is better then dead."

Kaz swallows. Quietly, she says, "No. Not tonight. I told Elan I wouldn't. So I'm..." She stops, and shrugs.

Yi shakes her head slowly. "No, Rotem. Being alive, being alone.. sometimes it's not better than dead. It -is- dead." She glances over to Kaz, again about to say something, then stops. "It'll never work." The quiet statement holds more than just those words.

Kaz finds a stick, and starts stripping it of bark. "She's right," she says, at the stick. "I ever tell you about my life, before I got here?"

Rotem shakes his head. "Nope. No one really did. I figured it was taboo to talk about."

Kaz shakes her head. "No," she says, quietly, still stripping the stick, "I just never wanted to. I was in a couple packs, a couple times, for six months or so at a stretch, but for fifteen years, I passed messages, I wandered around, mostly on the east coast. I didn't do any connectin'." She starts breaking the stick into bits. "I had no reason to. Why should I? Anyone I met'd just be an asshole." She stabs a piece of stick into the ground. "Now, that's fine, I'm a Gnawer, I've got family around I can lean on, and I occasionally did. And it ain't like it was required of me. An' now that I'm stayin' in one place, I'm learnin' how to connect again." She stabs the whole stick into the ground. "Now. Imagine, if you will, someone in the same situation as me, who was raised Shadow Lord. Who has to be constantly wary of what his tribe is doing, who has to be always on his toes, because position is everything. Who has to always have some kinda mask on, because who he actually is won't get him far, but maneuvering, /that/ will. Who can't get close to people because he /has/ to be better than they are. Who can't get close to people because he might have to progress beyond them someday. Who /just can't get close/." To the stick, she says, "/That/ is death. Even if you're alive." She glances at Yi, a quiet question in her eyes.

Rotem sighs and shakes his head. "I don't see that it has to be that way. Why can't I be like Jarred?"

Yi nods to Kaz, giving her silent answer. To Rotem, she answers, "Jarred... he'd never admit to not being close. He's a Shadow Lord." She gives the cub a smirk of knowing.

Kaz says, "Damned if you do, damned if you don't. How do you actually know what he's like?" This question appears to be rhetorical, as she goes on, "You don't. You just think you do." With a small, bitter smile, she adds, "Feel free to tell me I'm wrong, politely. Since you will anyway."

Rotem shrugs. "They don't have to be alone. Maybe that is why Jarred likes me so much. He just wants a friend to /be/ with. One he can trust."

"Ah. Yes." Kaz says this a bit clinically, as she takes the stick out of the ground again. "Since you are not of his tribe, you can be his friend. And now, once you finally become his, you will be his /responsibility/. That changes things, somewhat. I would know."

Yi turns around, and thunks her head on the treebark.

Kaz breaks a piece off the stick, as she turns to look at Yi, eyebrow raised under her hair.

Yi turns back around, wiping off her forehead of any excess wood. "Simply put as before... you won't be a Shadow Lord. Not in your current state of mind, anyway." Yi wets her lips, glancing from fire to Rotem. "I don't know how the other Gnawers feel. But, I still feel you have a chance to be a Bone Gnawer. But, what I think is that... it isn't the guidance... not all of it. You have to realize it yourself. There are just some things, the eagle cannot teach its young. You've fallen far enough. Now all you have to do is -realize- that you have to open your wings if you want to fly."

Rotem shakes his head. "But even if I did, I would still be culled for what I had done before." the cub sighs, "Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines."

Kaz tosses the stick somewhere. "Can I say... Some things?"

Rotem nods. "Of course. But I just want to remark on one more thing." the cub takes a breath, "You say the Shadow Lords will do anything for their honor. But from what I heard, you're culling me, for your honor. Not because what I did was so bad. Seeing as this last time, all I was doing, was following orders."

Yi bristles, slightly. "Do I Look like I Want to cull you? Do I? I am a Bone Gnawer too. The first thing a Bone Gnawer cares about, is survival. And here you are saying you have no choice but to follow a path set before you like a lab rat in a glass tunnel. NO. There is more than just cheese, if you would look outside of the tube you're in."

Kaz shakes her head. "No. Incorrect. I want to cull you because it was your last chance, and you fucked up. It doesn't matter if you were following orders, you fucked up, getting yourself seen like that. It was your last chance, and it's sad that your last chance happened when you were doing the right thing, but it has very little to do with my own honor, because frankly, I had to have a fuckin' /Get/ define what honor was, to me, so it's not like it's a large concern with me." She grabs another stick. "Yi. Elan and I, we have told him, we will either put him in the sewers with Baney, or cull him directly. But -- perhaps I am being hypocritical because /I/ have never been in this situation before, but to me, being a true Gnawer, it means survival, yes, but it also means giving yourself well to death when you absolutely have to. I will be infinitely willing to go when it's my time, if it /takes some bastards down with me, goddamit./ You can only run so far before you become something you wouldn't recognize in the mirror. We're /giving/ you and Baney that chance. If you're so much a Gnawer, why not die like one, instead of living like something... Alien to all of us?"

Rotem shakes his head. "A Gnawer survives. A Gnawer doesn't run headfirst into the gaping maw of the enemy when he could hang back and help the others with their raids. Yeah, its slower, but you will do just as much damage, and this way, you don't end up dead." the cub shakes his entire body slightly, trying to calm down. "So yeah. I'm going to take this path. Because I get to live. And because /I/ trust Jarred."

Kaz says, very, very dryly, "Oh, cool, so Baney's not a Gnawer. I /see/."

Rotem shakes his head. "Baney just doesn't have a way out. If Baney had the chance I do, I would hope he took it."

Kaz finally says, tossing her new stick very hard, very fast, "Y'know what? I'm fuckin' tired of this. Elan can overrule me if he damn well pleases, but I ain't givin' you to no fuckin' Shadow Lord, especially one who told me, the day before I told him to put up or shut up, that we'd make an enemy if we culled you. What the /fuck/ ever happened to tribes making their own decisions, asshole? I'm spreadin' /that/ all over the place, you /bet/. Yi can do whatever the fuck she wants with you, until you and Baney go frolic in the sewers, but I am not letting the Shadow Lords have you. Period. Now feel free to fucking do whatever the fuck, because I should finally stop letting my own fucking emotions interfere with my damn job. Now I'm getting the fuck out of here, because both of you are gonna wanna hunt me down in my sleep and eat me."

Rotem sighs and moves to the side, looking at Kaz. "Listen, please, Kaz-Rhya. All I want is a chance at life. Why can't you give me that? Why won't you let me walk my own p-path? I won't be your responsibility, or your problem."

"Banecruncher could take your way out. He could opt to run and hide behind someone who would be willing to take him in. He renounce his tribe, and become a wandering Garou of no tribe. A Ronin. But... he doesn't. He's willing to die for what he did wrong, in hopes it will give him a chance to put something on the other side of the scale and balance it out. A Gnawer survives, that much is true. But let it never be said, that a Gnawer was not willing to fight the Wyrm to his death. You don't understand Shadow Lords... and you don't yet understand Bone Gnawers yet." Yi glances at Kaz, eyes half-lidded and jaw clenching quietly. After a little while, she says softly, "I'll take him with me."

Kaz just shakes her head at Rotem. "We tried. You failed. Let it go." She jerks a head to what Yi's saying. "And listen to her. She's right." She stops suddenly, though, and then asks, "With you fuckin' /where/?"

Rotem looks over at Kaz. "Then please, don't mess it up for me with the Shadow Lords. Just allow me to die on my Rite, if I'm so ill suited for it. Please Kaz-Rhya. Please don't ruin this for me."

"With me. To Hong Kong." Yi glances over at Kaz. "Maybe it could do something... maybe it can't. If nothing else, there are enough things there to die for..."

Kaz blinks slowly. "Exqueeze me?"

Rotem blinks as well, looking at Yi like she fell off her rocker. "As in, like, some sort of Gnawer rite of contrition? To gimmie another chance?"

Yi turns her eyes to the fire, the low flames reflecting off her dark gaze. "My home is in trouble. I have to go back and help. One of my rite mates was killed already, another, possibly dead by now." Her hand goes into her vest pocket and she takes out a letter. Unfolding it, she shows it to Kaz. Not that the galliard can read it, being scrawled in black, Chinese letters. After a minute, she folds the letter back and slips it into her pocket. "I wasn't planning on telling anyone, until I had to leave."

Kaz looks at it as if it were from another planet, rather than another language. "You what?" She shakes her head slightly, as if to clear it, and then says, "OK. So you were just gonna up and leave with no warning. Gotcha. That always works real well." She sounds fairly sarcastic, but it's from loyalty and fondness, that much is obvious.

Yi lowers her gaze from the fire to her feet. Then she picks up her head again, and looks at Kaz. "I'm leaving, in a few weeks, to go back to the Sept of Rat's Tail. I have to. And I'm not going for a holiday. I'm going to help them fight. They've already called on the Glass Walkers and Shadow Lords around to help. But... I am going to come back. I will." Then her eyes go to Rotem. "And if he can't do anything here, maybe he can do something in Hong Kong."

Rotem folds his arms, listening. "If you'd let that be my chance, my chance at being a Gnawer. I'd just at it, Kaz. Its not that I don't /want/ to be a Gnawer, its that I don't want to die.

Kaz looks at Yi as if she suddenly became another person. And then says, very clearly, and with very little of her usual accent, "Yes. You will." Then she looks from Yi to Rotem. "No. You don't. But you're going to anyway. I'm sorry Yi, I just can't. I honestly can't see him surviving /our/ Rite, let alone theirs, and he's closer to being ours than theirs. So. Jarred can challenge me, you can challenge me, Elan can overrule me, but I just can't let him leave after all this. Period."

Yi stands straight and bows her head, in quite a formal fashion. "I will respect your decision Kaz." She looks to Rotem, her eyes set in a more stern manner than usual. "But before I leave, then... let me take these few weeks to see what I can help Rotem with."

Kaz accepts this with a nod almost as formal as Yi's, but remains silent.

Rotem nods to Yi. "Thank you." he says and puts down his pack again.

Yi looks over Rotem, arms crossing with some appraisal. Her eyes scrutinize without mercy from head to toe, and without turning, "First, we have to get you back into the city. You'll cut off your hair, for one. And get different clothes."

Rotem nods. "But these are my dedicated clothes." the cub comments, "And I already bleached my hair."

Kaz exhales a breath. "Well. I gotta get outta here." Gaze flowing to Rotem, she gives him a sadly quirked almost-smile. It's a little unsure of itself. "Anyway. See you later."

Rotem waves to Kaz and sits down.

Yi shakes her head. "No way you'll go into the city like this." She looks over to Kaz, and gives her a parting nod. "The hair, and clothes, come off in exchange for a new one. Your dedicated clothes will be kept dedicated, to be worn when your test comes." Her expression, is one of no excuses.

Kaz, stubbornly in homid, wanders off.

Rotem nods to Yi. "So I'm not getting Culled?" he asks, confused now. "No, but you're going to die," Yi answers plainly. Then after she looks around, she motions for the cub to stand up and follow her. "We'll go to the caern first." Rotem rises, looking to Yi. "I don't understand. What is going on?"

"You don't have to understand. Just do it." Yi starts off, quick on her pace. "Bring whatever you want."

Center of the Caern
This area of the clearing is about 30 meters wide and is a mixture of dark soil and clay throughout, though much of it looks like it's been sodded in recent months. Near the center of the clearing, the top of a large white boulder juts out from the soil like a bone revealed after the skin of an animal has been torn away. The large rock appears to be normal stone at its base, but towards the top stone gives way to a sparkling collection of quartz crystal.
Around you, twenty yards in every direction, stretches the caern. To the southeast, a waterfall plummets over the edge of the chasm into a small pool in the caern; nearby, to the southwest, steam comes from cracks in the ground, perhaps some of the same water. Northwest, a rocky spar juts out of the ground at a low angle, showing a sloping but smooth top. The chasm walls narrow a bit to the northeast, causing some of the mist to swirl in that area.
Obvious exits:
Rock Slab Windy Spot WaterFall Steam Vents

Yi motions for Rotem to set his things down on the grass silently.

Rotem sets his bag down on the grass and plops down with Yi, looking at her.

"Do you have a knife, or should I use the one you gave me?" Yi asks, brow arching up to regard him.

Rotem blinks, looking at Yi. "What are you doing?" he asks, confused.

"Cutting your hair," the nomoon replies, taking out her switchblade and moving behind him.

Rotem remains still, sitting there and allowing her to cut his hair herself.

She doesn't cut right away. The cub, sitting there, still while the blade is poised over his blonde locks, seems almost like a statue to her. "In the olden times, men grew their hair long, and braided it. From birth to the day they died, it was a symbol of their status. If your que was cut, you had no status. You were a barbarian, a slave, a prisoner, or a monk. For the monk, it was a show that he did not attach himself to his worldly status. Now, I cut your hair, and this gives you no status. You can take this in those four ways. You can be a barbarian, with nothing but savagery. You can be a slave, with no mind of your own. You can be a prisoner, with no freedom. Or you can be a monk, who can be savage when he chooses, smart when he chooses, free when he chooses, and realizing that hair, does not make up the world around him. Choose what you want to be, but do not tell me." She slices off his hair in neat strokes, gradually working it down to the barest slivers. It's about as close as a thin layer of dust by the time she's done.

Yi wipes off the blade on her hand, and flicks it closed to put it away. "Now, pick up the hair. Keep it if you want it. If not, give it to me." She waits for his reaction.

Rotem hands her the hair after collecting it, and looks over at her.

Yi takes out some string, binding the cut pieces of hair and slipping them into a pocket. "Ok. I want you to stay within this area. Within the caern, the bawn and a few miles off the surrounding woods. If you want to go to Final Strike's territory, then go ahead. That's all for today."