((From afar, Sepdet has hair, and did not last time you saw her. Not much, but definitely it grew in fast.))

Sepdet is sitting crosslegged in the shallows, hands lightly resting on her knees, eyes half-closed.

At random, a howl loud and strong breaks the splashing sounds of the waterfall. The moon, it seems, is being greeted jovially. Recognition could be earned in that distinct timbre of the Gnawer's newmoon voice, heard rarely really, but still very much unique until she does speak out. It does not matter that it isn't her moon, or the full eye of Gaia's crazy shapechanging sister. Three-Blades clips the howl with two yips. That was for thanking Fox. She then proceeds on towards the source of misty droplets and running water.

Sepdet shivers and comes out of trance with an unguarded smile on her face. She cups her hands over her mouth and yips back, a more high-pitched sound than a fox's bark but similar.

Three-Blades speeds up her picking over the caern floor, trotting through the dark and joining up with a bound and near pouncetackle. Near, being that she skids and halts right in front of the Strider. Hello hello, Star of Our Hopes.

Sepdet puts up a hand before her eyes as Yi's paws hit the edge of the pool in front of her, not that she really minds a splash. (Especially as she's already fairly drenched.) Braced for a pounce, she shifts position up to one knee. ~Hello, Fox's Messenger. All well?~

Three-Blades splays her ears at two jaunty angles, and looks around. Leaning in as if to whisper, but such things rendered pretty moot by the near silent lupus language, she signals... You tell me. With a kidding drop of her jaw in a grin, she backs up a bit and sits on the damp shore of the pool. Truly though. Things are well and good. Have you found the missing chains for the circle?

Sepdet says patiently, ~I need just a few more. They will come. But not, perhaps, before Nightflash has returned.~ Her expression turns grave. ~Which I thought might be true. As for the caern itself, it grows apparent to me that we must begin to work with Chimera, lest she become as Fog: known, but not a shared presence.~

The fast footfalls of a running wolf are easily heard over the waterfall, and the Fang soons appears out of the mists, sniffing around at the ground urgently for some scent. He hears the threads of conversation and spots Sepdet and Yi by the waterfall. He makes his way over to them more slowly, shifting through the forms to homid just as he arrives at the waterfall. He bows deeply to them both.

Three-Blades looks around the caern, head twisting this way and that before she turns back to Sepdet and flickers her ears in agreement. Many-Mirror-Faces, and us some the wiser. I still wonder why Chimera chose this sept, but it is fitting. The Gnawer pauses, ears turning towards the Fang. For some, anyway, she rumbles in finish.

Sepdet raises a hand at Tobin in a quiet greeting. ~For that one, anyway,~ she amends. ~Evening, Tobin. Any sign of Merlin yet?~ Her tone turns slightly teasing.

Tobin's manner is grave and something's distracting enough so that he misses the teasing tone. He merely shakes his head at the Strider's question and gets right to his point. "Rhya, a bane got onto the Bawn tonight."

Three-Blades blinks. Once. Twice. She's up on her feet, a flash after. So she lied, all wasn't well.

Sepdet starts to her feet as well, jaw setting. ~Spirits didn't tell me,~ she says flatly. ~What, where, and is it dead?~

Tobin shakes his head, looking slightly ashamed. "It got away. We didn't even realize it had been there at all until it was gone..." he pauses and takes a deep breath. "I should explain," he says after letting his breath go out slowly. "There was a horse that had wandered up the lane towards the farmhouse. Alicia, Dane, Salem and I were all there. The horse looked dazed and moved very slowly. We approached it, and saw that someone had /carved/ three sixes in its flank. It smelled faintly of the Enemy." He glowers now, remembering the next part. "But, before we could investigate any farther, Alicia and Dane got too close to it and it spooked and bolted. They killed it quickly, and when it was dead the taint was gone. I believe there was a bane in the Shadow, latched onto the horse and controlling it, and it fled when we killed the horse." He ends with his tone full of anger.

Sepdet listens quietly, carefully, digesting each word and tucking it away with arms folded and face distant. ~The farmhouse, you say. It came from the direction of the road?~

Three-Blades feels a growl of more or less indignance rather than Rage, but lets the Strider and Fang exchange report and interrogation.

Tobin nods briskly. "As far as we can tell, yes. Also, the horse was shod, so it must have belonged to someone nearby."

Three-Blades scratches at the ground briefly. True, we had not completely wiped out the Dancers when they fled. Noble, or foolish... the Gnawer rumbles, but shakes it off feeling that there is likely more to Tobin's story. Why a horse? Why the three numbers?

Sepdet pores over his report, silent for a moment.

Tobin explains briefly to Yi, "The triple-six is a number used in Christian mythology to represent the Devil, or Hell. Three sevens is said to be the number of Heaven." He shrugs. "In this case, someone could be using it to represent the Wyrm. Who wanted to send us this message, and why, I don't yet know."

Sepdet murmurs, ~What was done with the body?~

Three-Blades snorts. I know the meaning of the three sixes. But rather than contest her knowledge of Western cultures and philosophies of religions, she defers to Sepdet's question.

Tobin shrugs at Yi in a manner that suggests he was explaining to her just in case, but quickly answers Sepdet's question. "Alicia is performing a cleansing on it. Afterward it will be thoroughly butchered and fed to the wolves in park. I told them to make sure to leave no trace of it, and I'll be going back later to erase the..." he pauses, blinks, and looks at Yi. "...tracks," he finishes slowly, eyeing the Gnawer Ragabash thoughtfully now.

Sepdet nods, following his gaze also towards her ex-packmate. A hint of her usual dry smile reasserts itself. ~Tracks,~ she echoes quietly.

Three-Blades switches her gaze between the two, ears swivelling with the more vocal words and guttural sounds. Echoing the two with a querying whine, Tracks? The Gnawer blinks.

Sepdet stoops slightly to touch the Gnawer's nose.

Tobin nods at Yi and Sepdet's gesture. "I want to find out where the horse came from, and as forceful as the Ragabash in me is, he's dead and out of practice. While /you/ are very much alive and known to be a good scout." The faint beginnings of a smile tug at the corners of his mouth.

Three-Blades almost has to cross her eyes to look towards the finger that is reaching for her nose. But her eyes flick upwards to the Strider. Moments later, understanding dawns in her golden eyes. Ears splay. Tracks, she echoes a fourth, but this time knowingly.

Sepdet nods. ~Although we should hide them quickly, since, as you say, horses usually have owners.~

Three-Blades swishes her tail around the backs of her legs. She wholly agrees, on the tracking and track obliterating bit. Little Bear has taught me a little on woods tracking.

((Sepdet pages to the room: Cool. Well, we can say Tobin's 'hiding' the tracks while yi goes on ahead, once he needs to go to sleep, and we'll just let him know what was found. :) ))

Tobin turns back to Sepdet. "Which brings me, indirectly, to the reason that I sought you out, Rhya," he says, getting back around to his point. "The horse is dead, and I have a feeling its spirit is not lingering here, but I wanted to know if you knew of a way to possibly summon that horse's spirit. It's not too late that I can't save a piece of its body if we need it, but I wanted to see if we could find out what that horse saw in the last hours of its life. If we can find that out, we may be able to find the bane's Realm accomplice."

Tobin senses "Three-Blades slips a brief look at you like she's wondering what you mean by 'the Ragabash' in you. But quickly looks away, to be polite."

Sepdet sucks in her cheeks. ~The summoning of a dead spirit is very difficult,~ she admits. ~Anubis-rh... enh--~ she pauses, shock briefly crossing her features as she realizes something-- ~Anubis was able to do it with an ancient Rite of my tribe. But it is not taught to outsiders. Nor did he teach it to me. It can be tried, but unless the creature had a strong presence, the spirit is no more than ephemera, and quickly is reabsorbed into Gaia.~

Three-Blades glances up at the moon, then back to the two theurges. If we waste even more time pondering ways to call the dead, the moon will be mine, she says a little bit under her breath. Point me and I will go as far as is wise to.

Tobin contains his disappointment, as he was expecting an answer like that anyway. "I would have slipped across myself as soon as the deed was done if the moon wasn't so small, to try and catch the spirit on its way out, but, the moment has passed. I think the best we can hope for is to investigate the stables that the horse came from and see if one of the employees there is the Realmside accomplice." He nods at Yi and gestures towards the west, "The tracks start in the lane to the farmhouse. I can take you to them."

Sepdet shakes her head, ~Tobin's asking whether we can do it before the spirit escapes. The short answer is: I fear not, and you probably couldn't have gotten anything even if you'd been in the umbra the moment of its death. Let's go.~

Three-Blades does pause briefly though, staring out and attuning to the night, as if expecting another ambush of sorts. Whole chunks of seconds pass, and then she looks to the others and grunts. The owner of the horse may be dead already, she muses.

Tobin mutters, "If Alicia hadn't been so quick to kill the horse, we may have been able to detect the bane earlier and capture it, and /then/ we'd have had a prize." He almost rubs his hands together, thinking about it, but catches himself at the last moment.

((From afar, to the room, Sepdet hokays. Tobin trucks along behind us, diligently cleaning up the blood and hoofprints, so he lags behind. Night, Tobes! Well done. :)
From afar, to the room, Tobin bows. And thanks for the fun, you two. Especially you Sep, for running this thing. ;) ))

[Random part of the farmhouse fields here...]
Contents:
Obvious exits:
PORch BarnYard Sunrise Road

Tobin leads them to the edge of the woods on the south side of the lane, where the signs of the horse's death throes are plain: blood, smell of sweat, churned-up earth, a few broken branches. Tobin and Sepdet stay behind, partly to clean up the mess, and partly so that they will not encumber the no-moon with their less stealthy selves.

Three-Blades lopes along over the rivers and through the woods with the other Garou to the point of the tracks. First pausing though, there is the quiet entreatment for Fox's clever gift of leaving no scent behind. The ragabash made quite a deal, and makes good use of the vulpine secret. While Tobin and Sepdet remain behind, she's nose to ground sniffing, investigating the area and spying around. When the metal-shod hoof tracks come to her with a fresh scent, she starts a reverse path down the way, reading the horse's condition and other information along her search.

[Scent of Running Water, Turn On!]

The scent is clear enough: horse, tiny residue of horse shit and hay, and the faint hint of iron left behind on gravel. She can smell no fear or sweat except in the area where the animal met its death. Behind the area of struggle, the tracks make an absolutely straight line, barring trees, that angles very, very slightly until the horse was obviously trudging down the lane. Not down the middle. Again, an odd angle, as if it were simply following a random(?) heading and sticking to it. It goes right out towards Sunrise Road.

Three-Blades, so long as the scent is fresh, shouldn't have too hard a time following. For one, she does look up on occassion to make sure nothing is about to jump her, or say if a nasty silver-bullet having sniper was waiting. Sensing little so far, though, the Gnawer continues onwards and uses the shadows if need be. Again, just to look like a lone wolf passing through rather than someone actually hunting. Nearing the road, the Gnawer flicks her ears back and forth, listening for cars, movement and such.

Nothing untoward or unfriendly greets the Gnawer. One thing does turn up as she reaches the edge of the road: a nylon halter with attatched lead rope. The back strap is unclipped, not broken, which would have made it easy to slide off a horse's head. And there is a human scent here, but it is very faint.

Three-Blades sniffs the halter, nostrils flaring as she investigates this human scent. Male or female? City or rural? General things, perhaps, could be discerned from the faint scent. And true like a hunting dog, she sniffs around for any sidetracking trail of the human, partly at the same time looking out for foot steps, broken grass along the road, things that may be deviating from the present course.

The smell of car and tire residue and asphalt predominate. As for scent on the human tracks and halter: City... male... rubber soled shoe... and the telltale hint of heavy canvas work-gloves that keep finger-oils off the halter. That's about all she gets. Except for two very strange things. Horse tracks, and human footprints, go out into the road (together) and are stronger in one spot, as if there was some activity there. The horse's tracks do not extend beyond that spot. The human footprints seem to head a little farther into the middle of the road, down the lane about ten feet, and then disappear in mid-road as well.

Three-Blades follows the tracks along, all the way to the end where they stop. Lifting her head and snorting a moment to clear off what dust may have gotten into her system, the Gnawer does an assessment. So the guy, was walking with the horse. Stronger in one spot. Perhaps he was on the horse, riding? Could be difficult to tell. Circling the spot where the horse tracks stop, the Gnawer sniffs around for other different scents before following the human tracks and stops when they stop mid road. Here she takes a look at where she is, remembering how far she's traveled from the origin, or rather end of the tracks. Glancing around, the Gnawer also looks for Sepdet and Tobin.

It's not all that far from the farmhouse driveway where the tracks give out. It's hard to tell anything else about that spot, except that it's definitely had vehicles on it recently. The main strange thing is that the human and horse scent-trails most defintely end right on the road.

Three-Blades peers at the area where the trails give out. She looks around, then considers the probabilities. What if someone had just unloaded a horse trailer? Then there could have been more than one human scent. Why was the human's scent so faint? Was it possible to drag a horse through the Umbra? The Gnawer growls a bit, not liking being so inconclusive. There is one conclusion though. She's not going to be able to keep tracking without more information. But, just to make sure, she crosses the road and expands a radius to hunt out scents, as if the asphalt itself were a black solid river and she were looking for something else on the banks.

The search turns up nothing more than an extremely flat possum. While Yi is sniffing along the eastern side of the road, she catches Sepdet's scent close by in the woods.

Three-Blades trots back out to the middle of the woods, and there chuffs when she catches a small waft of the Strider's scent. Instead of them coming to her, she goes to them and meets up with the Strider in the woods. It ends here. No fading, just ending. And a human's scent. A male, from the Scab, and one careful not to leave much to go on.

Sepdet was crouched in the shadows waiting, so as not to disturb the scents or tracks which the more sensitive no-moon might find. She listens with a hand on Yi's back, expression remote. ~So,~ she murmurs at last. ~The city. At least it's not another forest sniper. What do you mean by ending?~ The Seer looks perplexed.

Three-Blades twitches an ear, licking her muzzle once. The tracks end abruptly. The horse stops in one spot, and the human moves on a little bit more before those steps disappear too. It is as if, they floated down and touched the ground in their places. Or, stepped out from the Shadow. The Gnawer here looks confused on that explanation. Glancing back she adds, Perhaps it is better if you see for yourself as well.

Sepdet shifts down for this, treading cautiously out onto the road on her thin paws. Ears twitching for the warning sounds of a distant vehicle, she investigates, able to make out the prints, if not quite so much detail. She follows their path back and forth from road to shoulder and back again, then follows the human's track the few more paces down the middle of the road. Finally she returns. It is as you say. But there is no place to reach, and I do not think we need fear it was a mage that strong. I only know one who could cross the Gauntlet, and it was growing harder year by year until she could no longer do it without grave injury.

((You paged Sepdet with 'So lemme get this straight. The human tracks go from the middle of the road, a few feet. The horse tracks just sort of appear, and the two of them go off to a point where the halter is slipped off,and then the horse goes alone. Were there tracks leading back to the road from the human?'.
Sepdet pages: Oh, yes. Right. Sequence: Human tracks appear near middle of road. Walk several paces along the road-- 'upstream' for that lane, so to speak. Turn slightly and meet up with horse tracks, which appear there. Accompany horse tracks to edge of road. Halter is near that spot. Human tracks return to the place where they started, along about the same route.))

Three-Blades pads along, not disturbing the tracks with her own pawprints but still remaining rather scentless. I can understand if the horse was brought by a carrier and dropped here, the Gnawer thinks aloud and notions so around the spot the horse tracks appear. But, the human scent, there is only one.

Sepdet's ears splay backwards. And who carved the animal? And where?

Three-Blades sniffs the human track scent again, faint as it may be. That, I think, will need to be found out by visiting the horse's owner and den. The Gnawer, in turn, mimics the backwards splay. Maybe if there was a better idea of where the horse came from. Guards-the-Flame might be able to describe better.

Sepdet dips her muzzle. Perhaps. I know less about these animals than water buffalo, asses; there were few horses where I was born.

Three-Blades knows only a bit about horses from the humans racing them. The Gnawer twitches a moment, gambling habit revealed. That aside, she gets back at business. Maybe if there is a chance, the spirits of the area may know about the bane that came. But to wait until the moon is full to ask is not being efficient. Best to keep a vigilant watch on the bawn edges, and have the cubs be careful in the ~farmhouse.~

Sepdet turns away from the road and seeks the shadows of the woods, still pondering. Yes. And I shall warn the other Guardians there is trouble. Thank you, Fox's scout.

Three-Blades whuffs a soft laugh. If you keep that up I will call you Coyote's Hope. The Gnawer trots after, sometime along the way thanking Fox from deep in her spirit to restore her scent from its odorless mask.

Sepdet noses Yi's shoulder, tail skipping once, and then turns towards the bawn and her own patrols.