She is stumbling a little as she comes up the lane, her steps louder than usual, weariness clear even before her bloodstained and beaten state can be seen.

Sepdet is draped precariously across the porch swing, with hands behind her neck and her head hanging off so she can watch the stars. She slowly rocks back and forth; one foot is propped against the rail. Odd position to be in a light trance, but there must be some reason why she doesn't hear the woman's approach until Sarah's quite close. Suddenly she lurches, falls out of the swing in a barely-controlled tumble, hits the boards with a loud thump, and scrambles to her knees. "Sarah?"

Lurking out there somewhere, Yi pulls herself out of the shadows from around the farmhouse's side nearest the fields. A sharp lookout, so to speak, as she trots up quickly - even more so, hearing Sepdet thump onto the porch. "Sepdet are you o--..." She squints her eyes, and blinks back at the beaten state of the kinfolk. Swearing something in Cantonese the Gnawer is out before the Strider is to her feet, outright running towards the kinfolk.

"Please--" The Kin's voice is shaken, hollow. As she comes close enough to make out details, the moonlight becomes less forgiving: contusions and redness mark her throat, and a prominent shiner is well on its way around her right eye.

Sarah continues to walk, exhausted and numb, toward the steps. Blood stains one arm, a leg of her jeans, and both hands.

Sepdet forgets things like steps and simply swings a leg over the rail, staring behind the woman as if searching for hellhouds. Yi thus reaches her first, but the Strider is right behind her ex-packmate, hands out.

Yi reaches out in case the woman decides it's alright to faint, arms ready to support the weak and battered. It's even hard to tell Sarah's face for her now; anger, worry, Rage clouding even more quickly upon the face and phase of the newmoon. She's ready to secure a protective hold upon the woman, saying something in Cantonese first before adding in a forced out, "Steady. Easy..."

Sarah looks at Yi for a moment, blankly. She takes a couple of slightly deeper breaths--careful, as if more of her is bruised than face and throat. She is only a little unsteady on her feet, swaying from shock and exhaustion.

Sepdet shares a look with the Gnawer, then slips around to one side, hitching an arm behind her shoulders.

You sense Sepdet said, or perhaps sent, "Porch. Not inside; walls bother her."

Yi slits her eyes at Sepdet, for a moment squinting with a barely contained antipathy not directed at the Strider herself but in the general circumstances. Even so, the Gnawer clenches her jaw and leads the woman towards the porch of the farmhouse, to set her upon the porch swing.

Sarah shakes her head and balks, looking at the ground. "No. There is, there is a man. He will be dead by now. I have to--"

She swallows. "I don't know what to do."

Sepdet bares her teeth. "If he is dead, then you did as you should. We can follow your trail back and hide the body later." She touches an unbruised part of the woman's face. "Come. You're safe here, but you need healing."

Yi can feel the pressure of her teeth grinding. Breathing stepped up a little, the ragabash says nothing but still keeps a hold on an unhurt part of the kin's arm. She nods once, to agree with Sepdet's 'mandate'.

Sarah shakes her head minutely, looking at the Strider and blinking. "But if he doesn't die. It was not a bad wound. If someone finds him or he wakes up or--"

Sepdet glances towards Yi. "Would you like to make certain he's dead?" she asks tightly.

Yi lifts back her lips a bit, revealing a tight smile. Very tight. Carefully, she lets go of Sarah's arm and takes a step back, waiting a moment to see if the kin is going to fall down. "I will go and take care of what is needed to be done," she says lowly, eyes travelling towards the Strider.

Sarah almost slumps with relief, some of the tense determination easing from her shoulders.

Sepdet comes to a sudden decision. "Screw it," she says, probably for the first time in her life. "We'll both go. Yi, be my eyes and ears and tell me if you smell a /trace/ of human anywhere. Sarah, close your eyes. I'm carrying you home and putting you in your own bed to patch you up, and I'm going to make sure there's no taint around while Yi gets rid of him."

Sarah stares at her for a moment with wide eyes--and then shuts them tightly, averting her face.

Yi pauses before hopping the rail. "Best heal some of the worser wounds first, Rhya," she says with a note of clamped down concern. "She could be hurt inside too." That said though, the Gnawer swings easily over the railing and in less than a second, hits the ground with four paws instead of a pair of boots.

Sepdet's hands are as gentle as ever in this form; she is very careful with her claws. Too angry, she tells Yi grimly. Need to clear my head. She takes Sarah's hands and coaxes her to put her arms around the Strider's neck.

Three-Blades paces down at the bottom of the porch steps, nose to the ground and picking up scents, distinguishing them and separating out hers, Sepdet's, and Sarah's blood. The trail this time would be a lot easier to follow. Not so good, if Sarah was tracked. She waits for the Strider to secure the kin, before trotting down the pathway of the lane.

Sepdet gathers her very gently, resting most of Sarah's weight on her hips. It is hardly the first time the Strider has carried someone this way. She brushes the side of her head against Sarah's hair, then breaks into a silent rolling lope that sails across the ground as smoothly as a swing. Sarah may be easy to see, but with this moon, Sepdet is all but invisible.

Sarah is limp and silent, an exhausted burden in the Strider's arms.

There is a single light on inside the trailer, when they reach it.

((Sarah pages: None of it is Sarah's blood, actually, as far as the trail. None fresh.))

Sepdet is more than careful across the road, but unslacking until they draw near. Then she's doubly on guard, in case there is more than one danger here. Again, she urges Yi to Scout for her, standing in the shadows of the trees and reaching out with senses.

Three-Blades twitches her swiveling ears, listening in. A moment is taken to scan the area in general, and particularly for Sepdet and Sarah. The Gnawer though, is not as brash now as she might have been before at the farmhouse. The tracking helped to smooth out the rough Rage that threatened her calm. Now, it's just settling business. Sniffing, listening, seeing, and even feeling out with the ends of her fur, she works her way closer towards the trailer, avoiding the light's rays.

There is nothing in the trailer, but on the way there the smell of blood comes to her.

((Sarah pages: There's a blood trail... going to follow it or look at the trailer first?
You paged Sarah with 'Well since we're looking for the blood trail and a human, we'll be looking for the 'dead' guy.'.))

Three-Blades finds the body with no trouble, from the smells of death: blood and excrement, coming from a place not far away. Sarah must have dragged the body from the trailer to the woods; there is a definite blood trail that assaults the wolf's keen senses, until it is overpowered by the death-reek. He is a big white man in the usual clothing the country men wear around here, with a deep stab wound in one thigh.

Sepdet's soft growl hisses out in the still woods, as quiet as she can make it. ~No taint.~ Once the no-moon's verified the trailer's empty, Sepdet carries her limp burden inside, grabbing a towel with her teeth from the kitchen to drop under Sarah's bloody side before carefully laying her on the bed. Finally she dwindles, small hands resting delicatly on the tortured skin on either side of the woman's neck.

Sarah stirs a little, when Sepdet sets her down--but she seems too exhausted, now, to muster the effort to sit up. Instead she closes her eyes and breathes, slowly. "It's safe now." Sepdet takes a deep breath and sets to work, for once aiming to ease pain more than simply patch a warrior enough to get them moving again. This takes longer. Yi's sharp ears outside soon hear the familiar, homely sound of the Seer's lullabye, rough alto rising and falling in a repeating pattern.

Sarah seems to be only mildly injured--the black eye, the bruises around her throat, and two other contusions at shoulder and ribs. But she is shaken, and tired, and has just killed a man for the first time in her life. By the time the chant is done, she has slipped into unconsciousness.

Three-Blades shifts to a better form to drag the man's body off with. Crinos form. She remains outside, attending to the body of the dead man. Clothes first stripped off, likely for kindling.

Sepdet sighs; in spite of the run, her nerves are not quite as steady as they might be. Sarah's ribs are set but sore, or so she will discover. The Strider belatedly goes to find washcloths to clean her up, popping her head out the front door to make sure Yi has things in hand. "Clues," she reminds the Gnawer, probably unneccessarily. The gratitude in her voice doesn't need to be spoken. Then she returns to the unconscious patient, doing her best not to wake the girl while she works.

((You paged Sarah with 'So does it look like anything? What's the guy look like?'.
Sarah pages: Looks like she stabbed him in the leg, and then after he passed out from blood loss, she dragged him outside to die and went to find help.))

All of the blood must have belonged to the murdered intruder; there is a pool of it in the trailer, and no sign of any wounds on the Kin girl's body.

Three-Blades swivels her ears back with the Strider's sound, but otherwise has her golden colored eyes set on the man. Memorizing his features, build, injuries and whatnot not just with her eyes but with wolven scent and instinct. A large claw lifts the dead-weight leg to inspect the wound, and then flips the man over to check the body for anything else. Afterwards, she's dragging the body off from the trailer to dispose of it.

((Sepdet pages: Clues come in the form of the guy's wallet, which gives name and the addy of a farm up the road. He looks pretty well like a beefy farmer, and there aren't any marks on him beyond the knife-wound. Pack of Marboros in pocket. A pair of pliers and a leatherman tool in various pockets. Besides the other unpleasant smells of death, he reeks of beer.
You paged Sepdet with 'How about animal smells? Like, say, a horse.'.
Sepdet pages: D'oh. Yes. Horse. Cow. Dog. Chickens.
You paged Sepdet with 'Any particular horse? :}'.
From afar, Sepdet has a brain. Yes, that horse included. ;)
Sepdet pages: Although the scent of that horse is a bit faint on him. But this is /not/ the man whose tracks you smelled the other night.))

Sepdet gets the blankets over Sarah and starts cleaning up the blood on the floor; that will be a bit of a challenge, but it's not the first time she's had to do this either.

((Long distance to Sepdet: Three-Blades will probably be tearing the guy apart and scattering the man around after she's pretty much gleaned out what she can of it all. Clothing, wallet, keys and personal things kept to hand over to Garou. She'll ask where the head ought to be buried. Or burned.))

Three-Blades takes awhile in body-disposal. A long while. In the end though, she returns with just the man's personal effects. She's got a fair amount of blood on her, but a very soured mood is enough to say she must have done a pretty darn good job.

A whole roll of paper towels and a few normal ones get sacrificed to the cleanup job. Sepdet also stumbles across two shotguns. "Yi?" she calls eventually. "Weaver-toys for the Walkers to examine. I think one of 'em's hers."

Three-Blades shifts down, most of the man's blood wiped onto folded clothing. The wallet and such set atop the pile in her arms is brought inside and set on a countertop. She has a look at the shotguns, first unloading the rounds left if there are any. Her face is set in a calm, though unsmiling expression. "I smelled the horse on him. Hard to tell, though. He was drinking a lot of alcohol." The asian sets both guns down, peering at the blood evidence left.

One of them has been fired; most of the shot hit the ceiling by the door, or the upper part of the front wall. The other was loaded.

Sepdet glances down at the sleeping human's pale face, her own merely resigned. "I'm not surprised. Thank Gaia she's Wendigo; it probably saved her life." "It was stupid," Yi growls out before she can stop herself. "To be out here alone," she amends, attempting to wash out some left over blood on her own clothing. Failling that, she opens up the man's wallet and pores over any form of ID that is available. A good thing she's improved a bit on reading English. Then again IDs aren't that hard to read.

((Sepdet pages: credit card, drivers license, Wal-mart card, card for some sort of Farmers Association. Photos of a few children.))

George Dobbs, apparently, lives down the road that goes into Kent Crossing.

Sepdet exhales, still keeping her voice low. "It shouldn't have to be this way. Dear Gaia, we let Robin live there in the north bounds for two years, and we could not always be there. Our kin. Must we keep them caged to keep them safe?"

Yi offers Sepdet the wallet afterwards. "Farmer. I do not think he lives here exclusively." She makes little question against the Strider's sigh. "At least she knew how to defend herself. The wound to his leg sealed his fate, with or without the alcohol." There is a glance over to Sarah. "Is she ok?" the Gnawer finally asks now that her mind has sifted the gruesome stench of death, slick feel of blood and visage of her own claws rending flesh into pieces away.

Sepdet sets a hand against the pillow beside the woman's head, not pressing down. "The bruises, the ribs will heal," she replies gravely, mouth closing on the words to leave a significant silence afterwards.

Yi slowly retracts the wallet, fingers sifting through the contents for useful things like money with a quick pass. The silence remains there for a bit. "She must have been in shock. This situation." It's a little uneasy, as if Yi can understand Sepdet's drift. "But we will need to know what happened."

Sepdet opens and closes her right hand tightly, a slight tremor there betraying a repressed memory or two. "Yes. Hopefully anger will loosen her tongue enough to tell us."

"I should check this address. The man had children," Yi says to escort the topic off of Sarah. "And this trailer..." the Gnawer looks around, gauging what can be done.

Sepdet sighs. "Can perhaps be moved closer to Wendigo territory, perhaps even south of the road near the bluffs, if she's willing. But that is between her and her tribe."

((Sepdet pages: Not much more, save that Dobbs Farm is about halfway down towards Lake Arthur, about the same size as Escrowe itself, except the animals are still there.))

Yi slowly nods, still with eyes wandering. "It can be stripped," she muses quietly. "Everything taken apart. Lance would be able to do it." The Gnawer leans against the counter, a shotgun shell examined. "If this man had owned the horse," she begins, looking towards the Strider fleetingly.

Sepdet raises an eyebrow. "If no more animals come, then it was him. If not, we should keep watch there for a horse-thief."

Yi sets the shell down. "The farm should still be checked." She drops her gaze to the spot of the shotgun pellets peppering the door area. "If the Enemy hides there." Sepdet nods. "Search first.~ She sighs, legs abruptly folding under herself. ~I will guard /here/ tonight. After that..." she spreads her hands, a mute gesture of frustration, and nods back towards the east and responsibilities.

((Long distance to Sepdet: Yi will stop the log there. Assuming Yi decides to go in Sepdet's place and tell Leonard.
Sepdet pages: Please. Because Sep can't set foot there to tell him. :)
You paged Sepdet with 'How old was this guy? Like, a general desc?'.
From afar, Sepdet |George Dobbs stands on the steps with a double-barrelled shotgun under his arm and a cigarette dangling from the corner of his mouth. He's well over six feet, beefy, jammed into old jeans and work shoes and a plaid flannel shirt. His face is broad-jawed, ruddy, and sporting a day's stubble; brown hair is starting to thin on top. "That's right, from--" Blue eyes widen as he catches sight of her face. "Shit, I thought Avery was pullin' my leg about some Injun chick up here."
Sepdet pages: probably early forties.))

[And the +mail sent to Little Bear (Leonard) after the incident]
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Yi at some time late in the night comes running for the Bluff. She howls respectively, though with news to bear. Once someone appears (and hopefully Leonard) she proceeds to tell him about Sarah's condition - she came stumbling to the farmhouse, bloody, a bit battered, and in a state of confused shock so to speak. Sepdet and Yi were at the farmhouse. They tracked the blood trail back to a trailer, where there was a dead man outside of it. The man was killed by Sarah with a knifestab in his leg (and he was heavily drinking). Sepdet took Sarah into the trailer and healed her a bit while Yi disposed of the body. The Strider and kinswoman are in the trailer while Yi tells Leonard of this. She'll answer what she can. Sarah is asleep, and Sepdet is protecting her.

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