Hounds at Edgewood.
Monday, 13 February 2012 14:00![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flint_garouShadow Lord cubs, hounds, then what?
13 February, 2012
The moon is in the waning Half (Philodox) Moon phase (57% full).
There's a faint scrabble of paws on the back porch, but the door to the kitchen opens to admit a slight wisp of a teenaged boy. Flint pauses at the sight of people in the kitchen, lingering in the doorway to shake himself off as if he was still on four feet and not two, before closing the door behind him. Most of the thorns and brambles and debris from the outdoors doesn't get tracked in, but there's one or two sticking to his jacket, and the cub nods a mute greeting.
Hayden returns to her seat with glass and milk and sets down to pour her fill. At the mention of her tribe she looks up to the Gaian. "You consider a Shadow Lord a friend? A dear friend?"
"There's another one of us? I've only met Nik and Eli…I mean, Andrei, other than Hayden and Ky," Alexandra answers. "But they're cubs, like me. I saw Xander at the moot, but I haven't really gotten to talk to him. She beams at the prospect of an introduction. "I'd like that!" Only then does the new arrival get her attention, and she offers a small smile and a wave to him. "Hello."
"I do, yes," says Stacey, smirking. "When you go through battles and trials together, that can overcome tribal differences. Kenneth is the one who gave me the name I use, too. Maybe someday he'll return and you can meet him." As Flint enters, she lifts a hand and waves with a smile. "Hello there. Not another Shadow Lord, are you?"
Flint makes a half a face, and shakes his head, though Alexandra gets a smile. "Flint," the boy offers in introduction. "Takes-It-All-In-Stride. Galliard cub of the Glass Walkers, rhya." The boy nods to Stacey, head tilted to one side in curiosity.
Hayden huhs with a sense of being unconvinced. The newcomer gets a look too but isn't offered any words to go along with it. Her sandwich regains her attention though and she puts another mouthful away.
Alexandra says "And Glass Walkers are Cockroach." Her expression suggests far less interest in meeting one of those, though she's hardly going to say something like that out loud. Looking to Flint, she asks, "Oh, so it gets used as a title, too? I thought it was just a suffix for names?"
"It could work if you don't know the elder's name," assures Stacey with a light grin. "I'm Stacey, Peacemaker, Adren Ahroun and Elder of the Children of Gaia. Nice you meet you, Flint." She glances towards Hayden. "Why is it so surprising that my friend is a Shadow Lord?"
Flint ducks a nod. "Nice to meet you, Stacey-rhya," the cub says, before quickly making his way across the kitchen and towards the refrigerator. The boy is skinny enough that he nearly disappears inside of it as he rummages.
Hayden licks a bit of jam from her thumb, "I get the impression that we're not keenly thought of. And typically friendship comes with trust, which may as well be taboo for the tribe."
Alexandra looks over to Flint. "Looking for anything in particular? I've gotten to know where things are pretty well over the past few days."
Stacey gives Hayden a bright smile. "There's exceptions to every rule, hmm? Trusting no one can be just as bad as being too trusting. As for tribal impressions, well, yes. You'll run into prejudices from some. But I like to let each person prove themselves, and my tribe holds the belief that we are all parts of a whole. All 'children' of Gaia. The Shadow Lords bring skills and knowledge that's just as necessary as our own."
"Nah," comes the more enthusiastic voice from the refrigerator. When Flint emerges, it becomes apparent that the cub was looking for everything in there, and how he manages to fit it in his hands is questionable. A can of soda, two things of string cheese, some rolls, and a couple of cold hot-dogs are all grasped, with a faintly sheepish grin offered before the boy goes to lean on the counter.
"Like what?" comes Hayden's rather quick question in reply to Stacey's words. "What did your friend do to earn such loyalty from you? Did he even want it?" The boy's emergence from the fridge earns a bit of a wide-eyed blink in his direction, and she (perhaps subconsciously) pulls her own sandwich a bit closer.
Alexandra pulls a skillet out from the cabinet, and holds it out at arms length, leveled at the Glass Walker. "Put them in," she insists, eying the hot dogs. "The rolls, too, unless you don't like them toasted."
Stacey blinks at the amount of food Flint pulls out, then grins. "Growing cub?" She winks at him. At Hayden's questions, she laughs. "You'd have to ask him! I suppose I can be terribly persistent." She winks.
Hayden considers that as she takes her last bite of sandwich and washes it down with her milk. Her eyes drift to Alexandra and Flint too then, wheels turning. "I wonder if one can be both." A half shrug and she's excusing herself from the table. "I've things to work on."
Flint gives Alexandra a faintly quizzical look, then deposits the hot dogs and the rolls in the pan, stepping out of the way and then looking to watch Hayden excuse herself with a faint shake of his head. "Yes," the boy says. "Um, kinda." The grin turns even more sheepish as he finishes the last of the second string cheese.
Water runs, up in the upstairs bathroom; then there's a thump upstairs, and the distant sounds of someone complaining about their funny bone getting hit. Eventually, Kaz limps down the stairs, hair a bit wet, and wanders into the kitchen. "Oh, hey, people. Rock."
"It's freezing out there, even if you did have fur at the time. And then the first thing you do is crawl into the refrigerator. So obviously eating a bunch of cold food is the best thing to do." Alexandra shakes her head at him, moving the skillet to the stove and lighting a flame beneath it.
Stacey looks over as Kaz enters and offers her a warm smile. "Hey, Kaz," she greets. "Looks like there's a lot of new cubs around. Well…" She gives Flint an assessing look. "Alexandra mentioned she was new. How long have you been with the Walkers?"
Flint cracks open the soda, turning the can around in his hand and nodding, as Kaz comes in, a very tentative smile offered by the cub. "Month'n a half now," Flint says in response to Stacey. There's no real objection to Alexandra's insistence on heating the food. Except perhaps the fact that the boy watches the food with the attitude of someone afraid it might just disappear if he stops looking at it.
"Hey, Stacey." Looking at the cubs, she grins a bit. "Kaz," she tells them. "I can get way wordier, if you want."
Alexandra offers Kaz a "Hello, ma'am," by way of greeting, moving away from the skillet long enough to get some butter to add to the rolls. "I'm Alexandra. Shadow Lord Ahroun cub."
"Month and a half?" repeats Stacey. "So not super new, but that's still pretty new." To Kaz, she adds, "Everything get settled from the other night?"
"Kinda new, yeah," Flint says, offering Kaz a less tentative and more certain smile. "Hi Kaz-rhya." Soda is set down on the counter. "Flint, Takes-It-All-In-Stride. Galliard cub, Glass Walker…" he just plain watches the Gnawer for a moment, before tilting his head to the side in question. "You were there with the Wyld dragon thing and the backwards rabbit, yeah?"
"Yeah, turns out she thought alla us who dealt with the Wyld dragon dude—" At this she nods to Flint "—Might be Wyrm Tainted, but it also turns out we wasn't. I called her up, life's good." She stumps more fully into the kitchen and looks for some milk. Over her shoulder, she goes on, "Kaz, like I said. Aha, there it is." Turning back around, with milk, she goes on, "Ears, t'Garou. Bone Gnawer, Galliard, that kinda stuff. Adren an' metis. I just got back a few days ago."
"Metis — that's a Garou who…oh." Yeah, okay, some bits of the lore Alexandra's learned so far she really doesn't have to say out loud to make sure she's getting it right. "Um, sorry," she adds, a bit flustered.
Stacey nods to Kaz. "Good to hear that it's not. Always better to be cautious than not. Sounds like quite a story. Wyld dragons and 'backwards rabbits'. Were you there, too?" she ask Flint curiously. Alexandra receives a brief reassuring smile.
With evening comes the setting of the sun, causing shadows to stretch like so many lazy creatures. Even in the overcast, the onset of darkness seems to bring about a time of retirement for many. There are those more nocturnal creatures, however. Mice and owls wouldn't be at odds during daylight. Though it's cold now, peeper frogs and crickets wouldn't call to one another and sing their dirge for the sun. And there certainly wouldn't be a couple of shapes ghosting over the meadow, two large shadowy things only a little darker than that caused by the failing light, moving hither and yon and within view of the house.
Flint nods. "I was," the boy offers. "It… yeah. Too bad no one caught that rabbit, though. Head was where the tail should have been, and vice versa." The cub faces into the kitchen, unaware of what goes on outside and just kind of grinning at Kaz and Stacey both.
"Yeah, kid of two Garou. We're all deformed in some kinda way. Mine's my ears, mostly. They don' show in homid, though. If you wanted, I could shift so's you could see 'em," Kaz offers, pouring herself milk and then frowning out the window a bit. But then she's distracted and looks over to Flint. "Yeah. I was sad for it." She explains to the other two, "We went after an engling, like tradition says, and then this pocket realm thing schlorped us up, so we was all, "What the fuck?" only mostly I was the only one swearing, because you know, it's my schtick. And then the rabbit appeared around the same time as the big dino-guy, which was both Wyrmy and Wyldy. So by the time we killed it, the rabbit'd gone away, and we got dumped out of the pocket realm. So I hope someone finds it eventually and helps it out."
By this point, the hot dogs in the skillet are crackling and sizzling as they cook, and the rolls are nicely toasted. Alexandra pulls out a plate, first putting the rolls on them, then slicing up the hot dogs so they fit neatly into the middle of the rolls. A slice of cheese atop each, and Flint is offered the hot portion of his dinner. Then, addressing Kaz, she replies, "Not unless you want to, ma'am, but thank you for the offer." She's entirely oblivious to anything that may be going on outside the house.
"That must've been quite an experience! I didn't get near enough action as a cub." Stacey grins lightly, leaning back in her chair to listen to Kaz's storytelling, with her grin widening just slightly a some of her word choices. "Poor rabbit. I wonder if Llyr could find a path back to the realm or something…"
Flint murmurs something polite in thanks as he accepts the plate from the other cub, stuffing part of one of the hotdog-rolls into his mouth with reckless abandon before adding to the story being told. "We fell into the pocket-realm, yeah. The engling, too. Like the ground just turned insubstantial beneath us, and then we fell," the cub says. "And other stuff was falling from the sky once we'd landed." A pause. "And then when they killed the dragon, everyone who was touching it got Wyld-changed." The cub takes a few steps further into the kitchen again, plate set down on the table so that the boy can eat.
"Well, partially I was offering, as I should have also said, 'cause they look like Black Spiral Dancer ears, so it'l give you some context f'later. But, I'm good either way." Kaz, it might be noted, is wearing thin, ratty gloves. "Yeah," she mutters to Flint's explanation, giving in to the pull to look down at her hands briefly, but then back up. "I dunno if they're lasting, or what, and Riley got changed into a girl, so I… Kinda would like to find out, somehow. Dunno how I would, though. Get a theurge, I guess." After taking a good pull on the milk glass, she wipes her mouth with her sleeve. "Can't hurt to find out, can it?" she asks Stacey.
Across the front porch movement can be heard. Too soft to be shod feet, too heavy and ponderous to be a fox.
"Black Spiral…" And then Alexandra jumps, startled, at the sound coming from outside, as if by repeating the name she might have summoned one. Remembering Flint's arrival, though, she breathes a sigh of relief and starts to laugh at herself.
Stacey chuckles at Kaz. "We hope it wouldn't hurt anyways. I can ask Llyr. I know he's been wanting something to do to feel like a help, with everything that's going on." She glances towards Alexandra, giving her a sympathetic look, although even she can't help a vaguely wary glance towards the front porch at that movement.
Flint tilts his head to one side at the sound, as if trying to determine if it's just someone arriving and happening to be in lupus, but the cub's brow furrows a little. "Yeah. Riley got turned into a girl, doesn't seem too happy about it. And Devon got made younger…" Flint falls silent then, as if to better listen to what sounds come from the porch.
Kaz says, sounding disappointed, "Yeah, asking's prolly better'n just doin'." Kaz again casts a look out the window, at the sound, and says, "Huh." And then, she snorts, and goes to check the door. (She only opens it a crack.)
Kaz says, sounding disappointed, "Yeah, asking's prolly better'n just doin'." Kaz again casts a look out the window, at the sound, and says, "Huh." And then, she snorts, and goes to check the door. (She only opens it a crack.)
Silence greets those who strain to hear anything else. Silence and darkness both meet Kaz when she looks outside. Until something in the darkness seems to move, and a pair of green eyes somewhere in the night-blanketed meadow meets the Gnawer's.
Alexandra asks Kaz, "Who was it?" She starts toward the door herself, wondering if she might get the chance to meet someone from yet another tribe.
"Can't blame him. I wouldn't be completely happy if I was turned into a boy," decides Stacey. Her attention, though, seems to be mostly on the porch and Kaz, frowning for the first time that night.
"Kaz-rhya?" there is a touch of concern in Flint's voice as he calls out to the Gnawer. "What's out there?" A nod, small, is offered to Stacey as the cub picks up the last of the rolls with hot dogs in it. "I dun think I'd like it either. Getting turned into a girl, that is."
-Hey?- calls Kaz, in a language that's understandable to everyone, and yet has overtones of a more animalistic voice. -You OK out there?- Then she says in English, without looking away from outside, "Somethin' that ain't human, anyways."
Alexandra pauses in place at the declaration that their visitor wasn't human — never mind that none of them are, either — expression turning to a mixture of worry and curiosity.
No response comes, nothing vocal from the meadow. The eyes seem to disappear after regarding Kaz a moment longer following her question. From the other side of the house comes a howl, easily recognized by those within as something canid. And though it's not the baying of a hound nor the keening of a wolf, it's distinguishable as a searching call, a hunting call.
"…Yeah, okay, you two stay between me and Kaz," says Stacey, frowning at that hunting call. "Between or behind." She gets up off of her chair, moving to the doorway of the kitchen so that she can reach around for her staff. "What do you think it is?" she asks Kaz.
Flint nods, plate and the last bite of food left on it ignored to pull Alexandra a little further into the kitchen and away from the door. There's a tenseness in the boy's posture after the note of the call ends, and the cub reaches up to rub at his head. "Yes Stacey-rhya."
The metis's nose twitches. "I think," Kaz says, sounding far more irritated than alarmed, "That there is Wyrm in them thar hills." She sidles aside so Stacey can get the staff, and then closes the front door. "Stace, you're faster'n me. You check out the back door, I'll be y'backup?" Apologetically, she adds to Flint and Alexandra, "I think you should sit this one out."
Alexandra allows herself to be pulled back without any resistance, though she frowns, casting a worried look after Kaz and Stacey. To Flint, she asks, "Have you been taught how to fight as a crinos yet?"
A reply lifts from the front after the call from the rear has died out, the howl far more distant sounding than where those eyes had been.
Stacey sighs. "Well, if it's the Wyrm…" Under her breath she adds, "Gaia guard my path." She nods her agreement to Kaz's plan, hefting that sturdy staff as she makes for the back door, carefully easing it open to check out there.
"Yeah," mutters Kaz, who melts into hispo (in the house! bad metis) and pads after Stacey.
Flint keeps his gaze on the door, rolling his neck. "I've been taught some about fighting. Different forms," the boy responds. He slightly herds Alexandra a little further so that he can see out the window, and then the boy shifts upwards and into glabro. Just in case.
Outside it's quiet. Very quiet. The darkness feels heavy, though it could easily be an illusion from an already uneasy happenstance. Nothing moves through the night, what little wind that stirs feels just as bitterly cold as the rest of the air. There's nothing for Flint to see but meters of darkness where the driveway and meadow should be. Nothing until a pair of green eyes seem to materialize and meet his gaze.
Alexandra swallows and nods. "I'll be starting it soon." Seeing the sense in Flint's idea, she follows his example and takes glabro as well. Her own change takes a bit of concentration to initiate, and comes more slowly as well, but shifting is something she's been working on these past several days.
Stacey shifts on up to Glabro once she's outside, too, since it is so dark out. "…Wish we had a Fianna and their fairy lights," she mutters. She moves cautiously on outside, feeling with her staff for anything that shouldn't be there.
Once outside, right on the porch, Kaz belts out a very grating, very annoying, howl. Stacey will most definitely recognize it. ~Be useful,~ she agrees, nose twitching intently.
Flint raises his eyebrows at Alexandra but just nods, steering them slightly towards the entrance to the utility room off the kitchen. "Something's out there," the boy mutters, mostly to himself. The cub takes a deep breath in when the eyes meet his gaze. ~In the meadow!~ It's not particularly loud, nor entirely clear, but clear enough and loud enough to reach the Gaian and the Gnawer.
Much like when Kaz had first met the eyes, these seem to just disappear while Flint watches. While out in front of the house, near the edge of the meadow, is movement. A dark shape, too large to be a wolf, pacing toward the driveway.
Stacey winces at that grating sound from Kaz. "If a tainted squirrel attacks, I know who I'm blaming," she growls softly. There's a frustrated breath at Flint's shout, and the Child rushes off towards the front of the house, her staff held ready in case she encounters anything in the dark on the way.
Alexandra allows herself to be steered. Considering for a moment, she apparently comes to the decision that glabro isn't suitable for the current situation after all, and once she's made sure there's enough space, begins moving gradually through the forms until she reaches lupus. If Flint is going to be their eyes, looking out the window for any signs of the enemy, the least she can do is be his ears and nose and make them at least a little harder to sneak up on.
Ears huffs. ~Should check the Umbra when we get a chance,~ she growls in frustration, as she galumphs along behind Stacey. ~This thing is playin' fuckin' hide and seek.~
The older cub tenses noticeably as Alexandra shifts, grumbling. Only when she's actually taken lupus does Flint seem to relax to his prior alert state, even going so far as to lean gently against the doorframe.
Darkness meets the Gaian and Gnawer, nothing to be seen immediately. However two shapes move where the driveway meets the road, even at a distance their size can be noted. One pauses while the other continues onward, two green eyes appearing again, looking from the Ahroun to the Galliard.
"Keep them away from the house," growls Stacey as the night's objective, and then she blurs into hispo, her staff disappearing, before she charges after the shadowy figures.
As predicted, Kaz is far slower than Stacey. So much so that she's soon outpaced by the Gaian. Having predicted this, she does in fact pause around the same time as she gets to the driveway, scanning around, but also prepared to lumber after Stacey if need be.
Inside the house, Flint has positioned himself to have an unobstructed view both out the kitchen, and out the windows in the front of the house to watch at the driveway. The Walker cub additionally keeps himself between Alexandra—currently in lupus—and the door, tense, alert, hands shoved into his pockets nonchalantly nonetheless.
Alexandra remains still and silent now that she's a wolf, her ears perked and alert for any noise that might suggest they're in danger.
By the time Stacey reaches the end of the driveway there is nothing to be seen. Nothing moves in the night, not even the shadows that had been haunting the ground around Edgewood.
Peacemaker lets out a frustrated growl and sniffs the area, trying to find some scent of the creatures she'd been chasing. Apparently not finding enough that way, she growls again and starts heading back towards the house. ~We should check the Umbra.~
Ears skids to a halt, and then also wanders around a moment, nose to the ground. ~Weird,~ she says, and then agrees with Stacey. But she takes a spin around the house again, just to check there's nothing around anymore, before going over to the pool and crossing over.
Flint seems to relax a little bit further, making his way back towards the table to pick up the abandoned pieces of dinner while the cubs wait for Kaz and Stacey to get back. "Pretty sure you can go back to homid now," he offers to Alexandra with a grin. Not that he does so himself.
Alexandra will stay on four legs until she knows everyone is safe. The Ahroun cub begins a slow circuit of the room, not actually expecting to find anything, but not wanting to let down her guard too early, either.
Peacemaker pauses to watch Ears for a moment, hesitating, and then she shifts back up into homid, that staff reappearing with her. She keeps an eye out as she walks back to the porch and opens the door, slipping inside. "You two okay in here?" she calls.
Flint raises a brow and shrugs to Alexandra. "Yeah," the boy says, shifting down into homid himself with a 'see' sort of look towards the lupus-shaped cub. "We're good, nothing… nothing happened in here." A pause. "What… what was it?"
There's the sound of something fairly large gallumphing through the woods and vines, crashing and shoving it's way into the meadow just outside of the farmhouse. The large grey hispo form of Wildfire soon appears, breaking forcefully into sight, stopping at the edge of the meadow to quickly survey the surroundings, teeth bared.
Alexandra gives a quick warning that she's going to change and moves away from the two of them before she begins the process of resuming the shape she was born to. "And where's Kaz?" she asks once she's reached a point in the transformation where she's capable of speaking English again.
Stacey shakes her head. "We don't know what they are yet, but they're gone, at least from here. Kaz is surveying the Umbra." At the sound of that crashing outside, she lifts a reassuring hand to the cubs, then moves back to open the door, peeking out. "Wildfire? Is that you?" she calls, unable to completely keep the tension from her voice.
Flint nods. The galliard cub takes several deep breaths, before moving to take the soda that he'd left on the counter earlier, and watches Stacey, quiet.
Wildfire continues to look the grounds over from the meadow for another few moments, but there's nothing to be seen. Only then does he answer the Gaian. ~Ears-to-the-Ground spoke. There was a problem here?~
Alexandra heads to the fridge for a soda of her own. It's not her usual beverage of choice, but she'll make an exception after the scare they just had.
Stacey nods. "Two shadowy figures, green eyes, almost… wolf-like. But not. They're gone from here now, but they left no scent. And disappeared as suddenly as they came. Kaz is searching the Umbra now. I don't want to leave the cubs alone."
Flint moves over as the Get speaks, quietly letting Alexandra know what's been said in Mother's Tongue, before looking over to Stacey. "I wasn't going to be going back to the Tenement until tomorrow," the boy adds, hesitantly. "That was the plans that was made when I asked to come out here."
Wildfire huffs again from deep in the yard. ~Do not,~ he agrees with the Gaian as he begins to walk the perimeter of the meadow, searching/guarding.
Soon enough, Kaz reappears in the shaded and screened-by-trees pond area, in homid now. "Well, that was fucking annoying!" she calls to Owen, and trot-limps toward the house.
Alexandra relaxes further when she hears the sound of Kaz's voice, since that's the final proof that everyone is fine. Now to make sure those that weren't involved are as well. "I'm going to go upstairs and make sure Hayden is alright," she tells Flint, rather than interrupt the more senior Garou's conversations.
Stacey closes the door, then, trusting that Wildfire can manage with his search, and she re-enters the kitchen. "Don't worry," she offers to Flint and Alexandra with a smile. "I'm going to stay and guard tonight. Just stay within this house, hmm? And we'll keep you safe."
Flint nods. "'kay," the boy says, leaning against the counter. "I'm gonna text Mouse-rhya and let her know, yeah?" The cub pulls a cell phone from his pocket, flipping it open and shut several times.
Wildfire looks up as Kaz reappears, pausing in silence for a few minutes, the puts his head back down to find, well, anything.
"Thank you," Alexandra answers Stacey. "And tell Kaz thank you, too, please." And with that, she makes her way upstairs.
Ears detours back to Owen, limp more pronounced than usual. "I'm betting it's a projection of some kind. So they ain't here yet, but they will be soon. They kept disappearin' on us, and we never got a solid look at 'em, and none of 'em touched us."
Stacey nods to Flint. "Good idea. We might need a Theurge's help figuring out what this was, anyways." She leans her staff against the wall again and moves towards the fridge, seeking one of those sodas.
At the nod, the phone is flipped open, the cub's attention going to pushing out a text message on nine little buttons that happen to grace the particularly cheap model of cell phone. A moment later, and it flips closed, and Flint heaves a sigh. "'kay, texted Mouse-rhya," he says.
Wildfire looks up, ears canted downwards in disappointment. ~There is no scent. No mark. As it nothing was here.~ He looks about the place once again. ~Too close to the… Does this have anything to do with those two Shadow Lords?~ The question is a stray thought that interrupts himself.
"Yeah, exactly, which would have me doubting my brain, but more'n me saw it, and there's plenty of things that fuck with us in lots of ways that ain't entirely solid, so I'm mostly just irritated." Kaz shrugs. "Dunno. Given as I hear he was talkin' about bein' chased by hounds, I'm kinda leanin' my bets toward yes, though. C'mon, let's go bug Stace. And, sorry f'roustin' you out and not even gettin' us somethin' t'kill."
Stacey gives Flint an appreciative nod after he sends that text, and then she finds a spot at the kitchen table again, opening her soda to enjoy a drink.
Wildfire looks about him once more guardedly, not liking this event one bit, not with everything else that's happened as of late. A grumbled sigh later, he rear's up into a two-legged stance before dropping down into his birthform to follow after the Gnawer, his clothes worn, shirt turning threadbare.
Kaz doesn't seem to like it much, either. She sighs, and tromps back toward the house. She pushes in the back door and complains, "All that excitement and I ain't even eaten dinner."
Flint moves over to sit down at the table across from Stacey, offering the Gaian Elder the more tentative smile. His phone gets set down with little ceremony on the table, better to be able to get to it in the case of a response or a call. A glance upward follows not long thereafter when Kaz enters. "I don't cook very well but I can make pasta, and sausages," the boy offers.
A half a beat later, and he adds, "And those come out good, so."
Stacey looks up as the door opens and offers a faint smile. "Hey. There's bound to be at least sandwich fixings." She glances towards Flint with a return of her smile. "And who doesn't like good pasta?" Back to Kaz, she adds, "Find anything?"
Owen pauses at the door to take his boots off before entering the house. As he moves inside, every window he passes has him looking outside.
Kaz blinks at Flint. "Nah, I can make m'self a sandwich. Don' want you makin' like an indentured servant or nothin'." True to her word, she starts futzing in the fridge, emerging with mayo, bologna and cheese. "Nope. No smell, no tracks, slightly Wyrmy but not hugely. Fuckin' cold over there, though, just like it is here." She gestures with the mayo-spreading knife as she talks. "I'm betting it's some kind of projection, where they're aways away and spyin' on us, tryin' to find what they're lookin' for. Or they just ain't solid, in which case we gotta figure out how to kill things that ain't solid, so all in all I prefer the first idea. Owen, you wanna sandwich?"
Flint makes a bit of a face at Kaz. "Mostly 'cause I wanted pasta too," the boy protests, mostly joking as he shakes his head. "I'm hungry too, and all." Despite the fact that he just ate what might have seemed to be half the contents of the refrigerator before all of the excitement started.
Kaz asks, "Well, OK then, bottomless pit, d'you 'wanna sandwich?" while finding the lettuce.
Stacey wrinkles her nose. "I don't quite like either option. Flint sent a message to Mouse. Maybe a Theurge will be able to find out more." She then stands to her feet. "I'm going to go check on the girls. And I'll be staying here tonight, too. We might want to make sure someone's around until this is dealt with."
Flint looks over at Kaz and pushes himself to his feet, evidently not about to let her make sandwiches without help. But an easier grin has come to the cub's face. "Sure," the boy says. "Then pasta?" Teenagers, really.
"Sure hope so," Kaz says, finding some ham in the fridge, too. And pickles, as she mutters, "Yeah, then pasta," to Flint. "But yeah," she adds, at her normal volume. "That's a good plan. Maybe I could take shifts with someone. Anyways —" She stops to grin at Stacey, ebullient despite the events of the moment. "I'll catch you later."
Owen waves off Kaz's offer for food, still peering out of a window as he moves about the place, eventually settling into the kitchen with the rest. "I'm pretty sure I ate something's mother earlier today."
Stacey nods to Kaz, giving her a light grin, too. "Definitely." And with that she heads up the stairs.
Flint watches as Stacey disappears up the stairs, before his attention returns to the more immediate issue of food, getting down plates for the sandwiches. "Awesome," he says. The entire time, as well, Flint's gaze rests on the sandwich preparations, with a faint hint of nervousness and fidgeting. Like the food might just disappear.
"Often do, in the woods," Kaz says, before finishing the turkey, cheese, lettuce, spinach, ham, mayo, and mustard sandwiches. "Mini-Dagwood, atcher service." As she sticks them on plates, she fixes Flint with a look. "You sure you ain't actually a Gnawer in disguise?"
Owen grumbles a little to himself, guessing nothing else will be happening for now, and fixes himself a glass of water at the sink, no ice needed these nights.
Flint shrugs, half-canting his head to the side and sidestepping so that he's not in Owen's way. "Pretty sure," the boy says, taking the plate with his sandwich on it, then moving to sit at the table. His manner subdues a little, though there is a definite enthusiasm in the first few bites of sandwich that come before food. "There's always food here, an' at the Tenement. I'm just… not used to it yet." Another tentative smile offered to Kaz as the boy continues to eat, methodically and probably pacing himself.
Kaz's smile is a small one, but not at all mocking. "Yeah. Well. Glad it's working." After a companionable moment of eating together, she sighs and angles a glance outside. "Lissen, I think mebbe I should go find Jacinta. But I'll catch you guys later?"
Flint grins again at Kaz, relaxing a little as he finishes his sandwich. "Yeah," the boy says. "Thanks, Kaz-rhya." There's genuine appreciation in the statement, and then the cub looks over to Owen. "I should go upstairs and such, and get to sleep," he states. Promptly followed by a wide yawn.
Owen nurses his water for a few, eventually placing the class in the sink after washing for it to dry out. "I'll join you," he says simply to Kaz. "Still guarding, at least."
Kaz tosses Flint a mock salute, and grins at Owen. "Definitely," she says, taking the rest of her sandwich with her and heading on out the back door.
13 February, 2012
The moon is in the waning Half (Philodox) Moon phase (57% full).
There's a faint scrabble of paws on the back porch, but the door to the kitchen opens to admit a slight wisp of a teenaged boy. Flint pauses at the sight of people in the kitchen, lingering in the doorway to shake himself off as if he was still on four feet and not two, before closing the door behind him. Most of the thorns and brambles and debris from the outdoors doesn't get tracked in, but there's one or two sticking to his jacket, and the cub nods a mute greeting.
Hayden returns to her seat with glass and milk and sets down to pour her fill. At the mention of her tribe she looks up to the Gaian. "You consider a Shadow Lord a friend? A dear friend?"
"There's another one of us? I've only met Nik and Eli…I mean, Andrei, other than Hayden and Ky," Alexandra answers. "But they're cubs, like me. I saw Xander at the moot, but I haven't really gotten to talk to him. She beams at the prospect of an introduction. "I'd like that!" Only then does the new arrival get her attention, and she offers a small smile and a wave to him. "Hello."
"I do, yes," says Stacey, smirking. "When you go through battles and trials together, that can overcome tribal differences. Kenneth is the one who gave me the name I use, too. Maybe someday he'll return and you can meet him." As Flint enters, she lifts a hand and waves with a smile. "Hello there. Not another Shadow Lord, are you?"
Flint makes a half a face, and shakes his head, though Alexandra gets a smile. "Flint," the boy offers in introduction. "Takes-It-All-In-Stride. Galliard cub of the Glass Walkers, rhya." The boy nods to Stacey, head tilted to one side in curiosity.
Hayden huhs with a sense of being unconvinced. The newcomer gets a look too but isn't offered any words to go along with it. Her sandwich regains her attention though and she puts another mouthful away.
Alexandra says "And Glass Walkers are Cockroach." Her expression suggests far less interest in meeting one of those, though she's hardly going to say something like that out loud. Looking to Flint, she asks, "Oh, so it gets used as a title, too? I thought it was just a suffix for names?"
"It could work if you don't know the elder's name," assures Stacey with a light grin. "I'm Stacey, Peacemaker, Adren Ahroun and Elder of the Children of Gaia. Nice you meet you, Flint." She glances towards Hayden. "Why is it so surprising that my friend is a Shadow Lord?"
Flint ducks a nod. "Nice to meet you, Stacey-rhya," the cub says, before quickly making his way across the kitchen and towards the refrigerator. The boy is skinny enough that he nearly disappears inside of it as he rummages.
Hayden licks a bit of jam from her thumb, "I get the impression that we're not keenly thought of. And typically friendship comes with trust, which may as well be taboo for the tribe."
Alexandra looks over to Flint. "Looking for anything in particular? I've gotten to know where things are pretty well over the past few days."
Stacey gives Hayden a bright smile. "There's exceptions to every rule, hmm? Trusting no one can be just as bad as being too trusting. As for tribal impressions, well, yes. You'll run into prejudices from some. But I like to let each person prove themselves, and my tribe holds the belief that we are all parts of a whole. All 'children' of Gaia. The Shadow Lords bring skills and knowledge that's just as necessary as our own."
"Nah," comes the more enthusiastic voice from the refrigerator. When Flint emerges, it becomes apparent that the cub was looking for everything in there, and how he manages to fit it in his hands is questionable. A can of soda, two things of string cheese, some rolls, and a couple of cold hot-dogs are all grasped, with a faintly sheepish grin offered before the boy goes to lean on the counter.
"Like what?" comes Hayden's rather quick question in reply to Stacey's words. "What did your friend do to earn such loyalty from you? Did he even want it?" The boy's emergence from the fridge earns a bit of a wide-eyed blink in his direction, and she (perhaps subconsciously) pulls her own sandwich a bit closer.
Alexandra pulls a skillet out from the cabinet, and holds it out at arms length, leveled at the Glass Walker. "Put them in," she insists, eying the hot dogs. "The rolls, too, unless you don't like them toasted."
Stacey blinks at the amount of food Flint pulls out, then grins. "Growing cub?" She winks at him. At Hayden's questions, she laughs. "You'd have to ask him! I suppose I can be terribly persistent." She winks.
Hayden considers that as she takes her last bite of sandwich and washes it down with her milk. Her eyes drift to Alexandra and Flint too then, wheels turning. "I wonder if one can be both." A half shrug and she's excusing herself from the table. "I've things to work on."
Flint gives Alexandra a faintly quizzical look, then deposits the hot dogs and the rolls in the pan, stepping out of the way and then looking to watch Hayden excuse herself with a faint shake of his head. "Yes," the boy says. "Um, kinda." The grin turns even more sheepish as he finishes the last of the second string cheese.
Water runs, up in the upstairs bathroom; then there's a thump upstairs, and the distant sounds of someone complaining about their funny bone getting hit. Eventually, Kaz limps down the stairs, hair a bit wet, and wanders into the kitchen. "Oh, hey, people. Rock."
"It's freezing out there, even if you did have fur at the time. And then the first thing you do is crawl into the refrigerator. So obviously eating a bunch of cold food is the best thing to do." Alexandra shakes her head at him, moving the skillet to the stove and lighting a flame beneath it.
Stacey looks over as Kaz enters and offers her a warm smile. "Hey, Kaz," she greets. "Looks like there's a lot of new cubs around. Well…" She gives Flint an assessing look. "Alexandra mentioned she was new. How long have you been with the Walkers?"
Flint cracks open the soda, turning the can around in his hand and nodding, as Kaz comes in, a very tentative smile offered by the cub. "Month'n a half now," Flint says in response to Stacey. There's no real objection to Alexandra's insistence on heating the food. Except perhaps the fact that the boy watches the food with the attitude of someone afraid it might just disappear if he stops looking at it.
"Hey, Stacey." Looking at the cubs, she grins a bit. "Kaz," she tells them. "I can get way wordier, if you want."
Alexandra offers Kaz a "Hello, ma'am," by way of greeting, moving away from the skillet long enough to get some butter to add to the rolls. "I'm Alexandra. Shadow Lord Ahroun cub."
"Month and a half?" repeats Stacey. "So not super new, but that's still pretty new." To Kaz, she adds, "Everything get settled from the other night?"
"Kinda new, yeah," Flint says, offering Kaz a less tentative and more certain smile. "Hi Kaz-rhya." Soda is set down on the counter. "Flint, Takes-It-All-In-Stride. Galliard cub, Glass Walker…" he just plain watches the Gnawer for a moment, before tilting his head to the side in question. "You were there with the Wyld dragon thing and the backwards rabbit, yeah?"
"Yeah, turns out she thought alla us who dealt with the Wyld dragon dude—" At this she nods to Flint "—Might be Wyrm Tainted, but it also turns out we wasn't. I called her up, life's good." She stumps more fully into the kitchen and looks for some milk. Over her shoulder, she goes on, "Kaz, like I said. Aha, there it is." Turning back around, with milk, she goes on, "Ears, t'Garou. Bone Gnawer, Galliard, that kinda stuff. Adren an' metis. I just got back a few days ago."
"Metis — that's a Garou who…oh." Yeah, okay, some bits of the lore Alexandra's learned so far she really doesn't have to say out loud to make sure she's getting it right. "Um, sorry," she adds, a bit flustered.
Stacey nods to Kaz. "Good to hear that it's not. Always better to be cautious than not. Sounds like quite a story. Wyld dragons and 'backwards rabbits'. Were you there, too?" she ask Flint curiously. Alexandra receives a brief reassuring smile.
With evening comes the setting of the sun, causing shadows to stretch like so many lazy creatures. Even in the overcast, the onset of darkness seems to bring about a time of retirement for many. There are those more nocturnal creatures, however. Mice and owls wouldn't be at odds during daylight. Though it's cold now, peeper frogs and crickets wouldn't call to one another and sing their dirge for the sun. And there certainly wouldn't be a couple of shapes ghosting over the meadow, two large shadowy things only a little darker than that caused by the failing light, moving hither and yon and within view of the house.
Flint nods. "I was," the boy offers. "It… yeah. Too bad no one caught that rabbit, though. Head was where the tail should have been, and vice versa." The cub faces into the kitchen, unaware of what goes on outside and just kind of grinning at Kaz and Stacey both.
"Yeah, kid of two Garou. We're all deformed in some kinda way. Mine's my ears, mostly. They don' show in homid, though. If you wanted, I could shift so's you could see 'em," Kaz offers, pouring herself milk and then frowning out the window a bit. But then she's distracted and looks over to Flint. "Yeah. I was sad for it." She explains to the other two, "We went after an engling, like tradition says, and then this pocket realm thing schlorped us up, so we was all, "What the fuck?" only mostly I was the only one swearing, because you know, it's my schtick. And then the rabbit appeared around the same time as the big dino-guy, which was both Wyrmy and Wyldy. So by the time we killed it, the rabbit'd gone away, and we got dumped out of the pocket realm. So I hope someone finds it eventually and helps it out."
By this point, the hot dogs in the skillet are crackling and sizzling as they cook, and the rolls are nicely toasted. Alexandra pulls out a plate, first putting the rolls on them, then slicing up the hot dogs so they fit neatly into the middle of the rolls. A slice of cheese atop each, and Flint is offered the hot portion of his dinner. Then, addressing Kaz, she replies, "Not unless you want to, ma'am, but thank you for the offer." She's entirely oblivious to anything that may be going on outside the house.
"That must've been quite an experience! I didn't get near enough action as a cub." Stacey grins lightly, leaning back in her chair to listen to Kaz's storytelling, with her grin widening just slightly a some of her word choices. "Poor rabbit. I wonder if Llyr could find a path back to the realm or something…"
Flint murmurs something polite in thanks as he accepts the plate from the other cub, stuffing part of one of the hotdog-rolls into his mouth with reckless abandon before adding to the story being told. "We fell into the pocket-realm, yeah. The engling, too. Like the ground just turned insubstantial beneath us, and then we fell," the cub says. "And other stuff was falling from the sky once we'd landed." A pause. "And then when they killed the dragon, everyone who was touching it got Wyld-changed." The cub takes a few steps further into the kitchen again, plate set down on the table so that the boy can eat.
"Well, partially I was offering, as I should have also said, 'cause they look like Black Spiral Dancer ears, so it'l give you some context f'later. But, I'm good either way." Kaz, it might be noted, is wearing thin, ratty gloves. "Yeah," she mutters to Flint's explanation, giving in to the pull to look down at her hands briefly, but then back up. "I dunno if they're lasting, or what, and Riley got changed into a girl, so I… Kinda would like to find out, somehow. Dunno how I would, though. Get a theurge, I guess." After taking a good pull on the milk glass, she wipes her mouth with her sleeve. "Can't hurt to find out, can it?" she asks Stacey.
Across the front porch movement can be heard. Too soft to be shod feet, too heavy and ponderous to be a fox.
"Black Spiral…" And then Alexandra jumps, startled, at the sound coming from outside, as if by repeating the name she might have summoned one. Remembering Flint's arrival, though, she breathes a sigh of relief and starts to laugh at herself.
Stacey chuckles at Kaz. "We hope it wouldn't hurt anyways. I can ask Llyr. I know he's been wanting something to do to feel like a help, with everything that's going on." She glances towards Alexandra, giving her a sympathetic look, although even she can't help a vaguely wary glance towards the front porch at that movement.
Flint tilts his head to one side at the sound, as if trying to determine if it's just someone arriving and happening to be in lupus, but the cub's brow furrows a little. "Yeah. Riley got turned into a girl, doesn't seem too happy about it. And Devon got made younger…" Flint falls silent then, as if to better listen to what sounds come from the porch.
Kaz says, sounding disappointed, "Yeah, asking's prolly better'n just doin'." Kaz again casts a look out the window, at the sound, and says, "Huh." And then, she snorts, and goes to check the door. (She only opens it a crack.)
Kaz says, sounding disappointed, "Yeah, asking's prolly better'n just doin'." Kaz again casts a look out the window, at the sound, and says, "Huh." And then, she snorts, and goes to check the door. (She only opens it a crack.)
Silence greets those who strain to hear anything else. Silence and darkness both meet Kaz when she looks outside. Until something in the darkness seems to move, and a pair of green eyes somewhere in the night-blanketed meadow meets the Gnawer's.
Alexandra asks Kaz, "Who was it?" She starts toward the door herself, wondering if she might get the chance to meet someone from yet another tribe.
"Can't blame him. I wouldn't be completely happy if I was turned into a boy," decides Stacey. Her attention, though, seems to be mostly on the porch and Kaz, frowning for the first time that night.
"Kaz-rhya?" there is a touch of concern in Flint's voice as he calls out to the Gnawer. "What's out there?" A nod, small, is offered to Stacey as the cub picks up the last of the rolls with hot dogs in it. "I dun think I'd like it either. Getting turned into a girl, that is."
-Hey?- calls Kaz, in a language that's understandable to everyone, and yet has overtones of a more animalistic voice. -You OK out there?- Then she says in English, without looking away from outside, "Somethin' that ain't human, anyways."
Alexandra pauses in place at the declaration that their visitor wasn't human — never mind that none of them are, either — expression turning to a mixture of worry and curiosity.
No response comes, nothing vocal from the meadow. The eyes seem to disappear after regarding Kaz a moment longer following her question. From the other side of the house comes a howl, easily recognized by those within as something canid. And though it's not the baying of a hound nor the keening of a wolf, it's distinguishable as a searching call, a hunting call.
"…Yeah, okay, you two stay between me and Kaz," says Stacey, frowning at that hunting call. "Between or behind." She gets up off of her chair, moving to the doorway of the kitchen so that she can reach around for her staff. "What do you think it is?" she asks Kaz.
Flint nods, plate and the last bite of food left on it ignored to pull Alexandra a little further into the kitchen and away from the door. There's a tenseness in the boy's posture after the note of the call ends, and the cub reaches up to rub at his head. "Yes Stacey-rhya."
The metis's nose twitches. "I think," Kaz says, sounding far more irritated than alarmed, "That there is Wyrm in them thar hills." She sidles aside so Stacey can get the staff, and then closes the front door. "Stace, you're faster'n me. You check out the back door, I'll be y'backup?" Apologetically, she adds to Flint and Alexandra, "I think you should sit this one out."
Alexandra allows herself to be pulled back without any resistance, though she frowns, casting a worried look after Kaz and Stacey. To Flint, she asks, "Have you been taught how to fight as a crinos yet?"
A reply lifts from the front after the call from the rear has died out, the howl far more distant sounding than where those eyes had been.
Stacey sighs. "Well, if it's the Wyrm…" Under her breath she adds, "Gaia guard my path." She nods her agreement to Kaz's plan, hefting that sturdy staff as she makes for the back door, carefully easing it open to check out there.
"Yeah," mutters Kaz, who melts into hispo (in the house! bad metis) and pads after Stacey.
Flint keeps his gaze on the door, rolling his neck. "I've been taught some about fighting. Different forms," the boy responds. He slightly herds Alexandra a little further so that he can see out the window, and then the boy shifts upwards and into glabro. Just in case.
Outside it's quiet. Very quiet. The darkness feels heavy, though it could easily be an illusion from an already uneasy happenstance. Nothing moves through the night, what little wind that stirs feels just as bitterly cold as the rest of the air. There's nothing for Flint to see but meters of darkness where the driveway and meadow should be. Nothing until a pair of green eyes seem to materialize and meet his gaze.
Alexandra swallows and nods. "I'll be starting it soon." Seeing the sense in Flint's idea, she follows his example and takes glabro as well. Her own change takes a bit of concentration to initiate, and comes more slowly as well, but shifting is something she's been working on these past several days.
Stacey shifts on up to Glabro once she's outside, too, since it is so dark out. "…Wish we had a Fianna and their fairy lights," she mutters. She moves cautiously on outside, feeling with her staff for anything that shouldn't be there.
Once outside, right on the porch, Kaz belts out a very grating, very annoying, howl. Stacey will most definitely recognize it. ~Be useful,~ she agrees, nose twitching intently.
Flint raises his eyebrows at Alexandra but just nods, steering them slightly towards the entrance to the utility room off the kitchen. "Something's out there," the boy mutters, mostly to himself. The cub takes a deep breath in when the eyes meet his gaze. ~In the meadow!~ It's not particularly loud, nor entirely clear, but clear enough and loud enough to reach the Gaian and the Gnawer.
Much like when Kaz had first met the eyes, these seem to just disappear while Flint watches. While out in front of the house, near the edge of the meadow, is movement. A dark shape, too large to be a wolf, pacing toward the driveway.
Stacey winces at that grating sound from Kaz. "If a tainted squirrel attacks, I know who I'm blaming," she growls softly. There's a frustrated breath at Flint's shout, and the Child rushes off towards the front of the house, her staff held ready in case she encounters anything in the dark on the way.
Alexandra allows herself to be steered. Considering for a moment, she apparently comes to the decision that glabro isn't suitable for the current situation after all, and once she's made sure there's enough space, begins moving gradually through the forms until she reaches lupus. If Flint is going to be their eyes, looking out the window for any signs of the enemy, the least she can do is be his ears and nose and make them at least a little harder to sneak up on.
Ears huffs. ~Should check the Umbra when we get a chance,~ she growls in frustration, as she galumphs along behind Stacey. ~This thing is playin' fuckin' hide and seek.~
The older cub tenses noticeably as Alexandra shifts, grumbling. Only when she's actually taken lupus does Flint seem to relax to his prior alert state, even going so far as to lean gently against the doorframe.
Darkness meets the Gaian and Gnawer, nothing to be seen immediately. However two shapes move where the driveway meets the road, even at a distance their size can be noted. One pauses while the other continues onward, two green eyes appearing again, looking from the Ahroun to the Galliard.
"Keep them away from the house," growls Stacey as the night's objective, and then she blurs into hispo, her staff disappearing, before she charges after the shadowy figures.
As predicted, Kaz is far slower than Stacey. So much so that she's soon outpaced by the Gaian. Having predicted this, she does in fact pause around the same time as she gets to the driveway, scanning around, but also prepared to lumber after Stacey if need be.
Inside the house, Flint has positioned himself to have an unobstructed view both out the kitchen, and out the windows in the front of the house to watch at the driveway. The Walker cub additionally keeps himself between Alexandra—currently in lupus—and the door, tense, alert, hands shoved into his pockets nonchalantly nonetheless.
Alexandra remains still and silent now that she's a wolf, her ears perked and alert for any noise that might suggest they're in danger.
By the time Stacey reaches the end of the driveway there is nothing to be seen. Nothing moves in the night, not even the shadows that had been haunting the ground around Edgewood.
Peacemaker lets out a frustrated growl and sniffs the area, trying to find some scent of the creatures she'd been chasing. Apparently not finding enough that way, she growls again and starts heading back towards the house. ~We should check the Umbra.~
Ears skids to a halt, and then also wanders around a moment, nose to the ground. ~Weird,~ she says, and then agrees with Stacey. But she takes a spin around the house again, just to check there's nothing around anymore, before going over to the pool and crossing over.
Flint seems to relax a little bit further, making his way back towards the table to pick up the abandoned pieces of dinner while the cubs wait for Kaz and Stacey to get back. "Pretty sure you can go back to homid now," he offers to Alexandra with a grin. Not that he does so himself.
Alexandra will stay on four legs until she knows everyone is safe. The Ahroun cub begins a slow circuit of the room, not actually expecting to find anything, but not wanting to let down her guard too early, either.
Peacemaker pauses to watch Ears for a moment, hesitating, and then she shifts back up into homid, that staff reappearing with her. She keeps an eye out as she walks back to the porch and opens the door, slipping inside. "You two okay in here?" she calls.
Flint raises a brow and shrugs to Alexandra. "Yeah," the boy says, shifting down into homid himself with a 'see' sort of look towards the lupus-shaped cub. "We're good, nothing… nothing happened in here." A pause. "What… what was it?"
There's the sound of something fairly large gallumphing through the woods and vines, crashing and shoving it's way into the meadow just outside of the farmhouse. The large grey hispo form of Wildfire soon appears, breaking forcefully into sight, stopping at the edge of the meadow to quickly survey the surroundings, teeth bared.
Alexandra gives a quick warning that she's going to change and moves away from the two of them before she begins the process of resuming the shape she was born to. "And where's Kaz?" she asks once she's reached a point in the transformation where she's capable of speaking English again.
Stacey shakes her head. "We don't know what they are yet, but they're gone, at least from here. Kaz is surveying the Umbra." At the sound of that crashing outside, she lifts a reassuring hand to the cubs, then moves back to open the door, peeking out. "Wildfire? Is that you?" she calls, unable to completely keep the tension from her voice.
Flint nods. The galliard cub takes several deep breaths, before moving to take the soda that he'd left on the counter earlier, and watches Stacey, quiet.
Wildfire continues to look the grounds over from the meadow for another few moments, but there's nothing to be seen. Only then does he answer the Gaian. ~Ears-to-the-Ground spoke. There was a problem here?~
Alexandra heads to the fridge for a soda of her own. It's not her usual beverage of choice, but she'll make an exception after the scare they just had.
Stacey nods. "Two shadowy figures, green eyes, almost… wolf-like. But not. They're gone from here now, but they left no scent. And disappeared as suddenly as they came. Kaz is searching the Umbra now. I don't want to leave the cubs alone."
Flint moves over as the Get speaks, quietly letting Alexandra know what's been said in Mother's Tongue, before looking over to Stacey. "I wasn't going to be going back to the Tenement until tomorrow," the boy adds, hesitantly. "That was the plans that was made when I asked to come out here."
Wildfire huffs again from deep in the yard. ~Do not,~ he agrees with the Gaian as he begins to walk the perimeter of the meadow, searching/guarding.
Soon enough, Kaz reappears in the shaded and screened-by-trees pond area, in homid now. "Well, that was fucking annoying!" she calls to Owen, and trot-limps toward the house.
Alexandra relaxes further when she hears the sound of Kaz's voice, since that's the final proof that everyone is fine. Now to make sure those that weren't involved are as well. "I'm going to go upstairs and make sure Hayden is alright," she tells Flint, rather than interrupt the more senior Garou's conversations.
Stacey closes the door, then, trusting that Wildfire can manage with his search, and she re-enters the kitchen. "Don't worry," she offers to Flint and Alexandra with a smile. "I'm going to stay and guard tonight. Just stay within this house, hmm? And we'll keep you safe."
Flint nods. "'kay," the boy says, leaning against the counter. "I'm gonna text Mouse-rhya and let her know, yeah?" The cub pulls a cell phone from his pocket, flipping it open and shut several times.
Wildfire looks up as Kaz reappears, pausing in silence for a few minutes, the puts his head back down to find, well, anything.
"Thank you," Alexandra answers Stacey. "And tell Kaz thank you, too, please." And with that, she makes her way upstairs.
Ears detours back to Owen, limp more pronounced than usual. "I'm betting it's a projection of some kind. So they ain't here yet, but they will be soon. They kept disappearin' on us, and we never got a solid look at 'em, and none of 'em touched us."
Stacey nods to Flint. "Good idea. We might need a Theurge's help figuring out what this was, anyways." She leans her staff against the wall again and moves towards the fridge, seeking one of those sodas.
At the nod, the phone is flipped open, the cub's attention going to pushing out a text message on nine little buttons that happen to grace the particularly cheap model of cell phone. A moment later, and it flips closed, and Flint heaves a sigh. "'kay, texted Mouse-rhya," he says.
Wildfire looks up, ears canted downwards in disappointment. ~There is no scent. No mark. As it nothing was here.~ He looks about the place once again. ~Too close to the… Does this have anything to do with those two Shadow Lords?~ The question is a stray thought that interrupts himself.
"Yeah, exactly, which would have me doubting my brain, but more'n me saw it, and there's plenty of things that fuck with us in lots of ways that ain't entirely solid, so I'm mostly just irritated." Kaz shrugs. "Dunno. Given as I hear he was talkin' about bein' chased by hounds, I'm kinda leanin' my bets toward yes, though. C'mon, let's go bug Stace. And, sorry f'roustin' you out and not even gettin' us somethin' t'kill."
Stacey gives Flint an appreciative nod after he sends that text, and then she finds a spot at the kitchen table again, opening her soda to enjoy a drink.
Wildfire looks about him once more guardedly, not liking this event one bit, not with everything else that's happened as of late. A grumbled sigh later, he rear's up into a two-legged stance before dropping down into his birthform to follow after the Gnawer, his clothes worn, shirt turning threadbare.
Kaz doesn't seem to like it much, either. She sighs, and tromps back toward the house. She pushes in the back door and complains, "All that excitement and I ain't even eaten dinner."
Flint moves over to sit down at the table across from Stacey, offering the Gaian Elder the more tentative smile. His phone gets set down with little ceremony on the table, better to be able to get to it in the case of a response or a call. A glance upward follows not long thereafter when Kaz enters. "I don't cook very well but I can make pasta, and sausages," the boy offers.
A half a beat later, and he adds, "And those come out good, so."
Stacey looks up as the door opens and offers a faint smile. "Hey. There's bound to be at least sandwich fixings." She glances towards Flint with a return of her smile. "And who doesn't like good pasta?" Back to Kaz, she adds, "Find anything?"
Owen pauses at the door to take his boots off before entering the house. As he moves inside, every window he passes has him looking outside.
Kaz blinks at Flint. "Nah, I can make m'self a sandwich. Don' want you makin' like an indentured servant or nothin'." True to her word, she starts futzing in the fridge, emerging with mayo, bologna and cheese. "Nope. No smell, no tracks, slightly Wyrmy but not hugely. Fuckin' cold over there, though, just like it is here." She gestures with the mayo-spreading knife as she talks. "I'm betting it's some kind of projection, where they're aways away and spyin' on us, tryin' to find what they're lookin' for. Or they just ain't solid, in which case we gotta figure out how to kill things that ain't solid, so all in all I prefer the first idea. Owen, you wanna sandwich?"
Flint makes a bit of a face at Kaz. "Mostly 'cause I wanted pasta too," the boy protests, mostly joking as he shakes his head. "I'm hungry too, and all." Despite the fact that he just ate what might have seemed to be half the contents of the refrigerator before all of the excitement started.
Kaz asks, "Well, OK then, bottomless pit, d'you 'wanna sandwich?" while finding the lettuce.
Stacey wrinkles her nose. "I don't quite like either option. Flint sent a message to Mouse. Maybe a Theurge will be able to find out more." She then stands to her feet. "I'm going to go check on the girls. And I'll be staying here tonight, too. We might want to make sure someone's around until this is dealt with."
Flint looks over at Kaz and pushes himself to his feet, evidently not about to let her make sandwiches without help. But an easier grin has come to the cub's face. "Sure," the boy says. "Then pasta?" Teenagers, really.
"Sure hope so," Kaz says, finding some ham in the fridge, too. And pickles, as she mutters, "Yeah, then pasta," to Flint. "But yeah," she adds, at her normal volume. "That's a good plan. Maybe I could take shifts with someone. Anyways —" She stops to grin at Stacey, ebullient despite the events of the moment. "I'll catch you later."
Owen waves off Kaz's offer for food, still peering out of a window as he moves about the place, eventually settling into the kitchen with the rest. "I'm pretty sure I ate something's mother earlier today."
Stacey nods to Kaz, giving her a light grin, too. "Definitely." And with that she heads up the stairs.
Flint watches as Stacey disappears up the stairs, before his attention returns to the more immediate issue of food, getting down plates for the sandwiches. "Awesome," he says. The entire time, as well, Flint's gaze rests on the sandwich preparations, with a faint hint of nervousness and fidgeting. Like the food might just disappear.
"Often do, in the woods," Kaz says, before finishing the turkey, cheese, lettuce, spinach, ham, mayo, and mustard sandwiches. "Mini-Dagwood, atcher service." As she sticks them on plates, she fixes Flint with a look. "You sure you ain't actually a Gnawer in disguise?"
Owen grumbles a little to himself, guessing nothing else will be happening for now, and fixes himself a glass of water at the sink, no ice needed these nights.
Flint shrugs, half-canting his head to the side and sidestepping so that he's not in Owen's way. "Pretty sure," the boy says, taking the plate with his sandwich on it, then moving to sit at the table. His manner subdues a little, though there is a definite enthusiasm in the first few bites of sandwich that come before food. "There's always food here, an' at the Tenement. I'm just… not used to it yet." Another tentative smile offered to Kaz as the boy continues to eat, methodically and probably pacing himself.
Kaz's smile is a small one, but not at all mocking. "Yeah. Well. Glad it's working." After a companionable moment of eating together, she sighs and angles a glance outside. "Lissen, I think mebbe I should go find Jacinta. But I'll catch you guys later?"
Flint grins again at Kaz, relaxing a little as he finishes his sandwich. "Yeah," the boy says. "Thanks, Kaz-rhya." There's genuine appreciation in the statement, and then the cub looks over to Owen. "I should go upstairs and such, and get to sleep," he states. Promptly followed by a wide yawn.
Owen nurses his water for a few, eventually placing the class in the sink after washing for it to dry out. "I'll join you," he says simply to Kaz. "Still guarding, at least."
Kaz tosses Flint a mock salute, and grins at Owen. "Definitely," she says, taking the rest of her sandwich with her and heading on out the back door.