Gathering Strength

Making their own camp aways off from the wild Comanchee and the tainted Militia, the Prodigals prepared to bed down on their second night out from Vinagroon. Rends had spent the day out scouting with the Injuns, but hadn't stumbled into anything of note. That just got him more on edge though. Things were just going too smoothly. Something was going to go wrong, like it always did. That didn't bother him, though. He was excited to get to the fightin' and start Roarin' Jack's war in earnest. As he fixed his bedding, his mind wandered to the future, imagining himself wading into the middle of a screaming war band out on the plains, slaughtering his enemies and gaining glory for his pack and tribe.

Naturally, his thoughts drifted back to the last big battle he'd been involved in in Nacadoches. He was proud of himself and his pack, but he remembered the end of that fight. When he was hanging in the jaws of Cordova, drained and weak and alone facing an Umbral monster in his home. He hadn't backed down, but he'd very nearly been killed, and had been completely drained for the better part of a day afterwards. He couldn't afford to do that this time. This could be an extended campaign, and he needed the tools to keep himself and his pack as well as the War Packs alive and active for all of it.

Looking up, he noticed Zoe taking out her pocket watch and preparing to step into the Umbra. He decided to sieze the opportunity.

"Mind if I come along, Zoe? I reckon it's best to not be alone with them Skin Rippers nearby, and if you's summoning spirits they's a couple I need ta talk to."

Zoe smiled encouragingly and gestured for Rends to join her. "The more the merrier, right? Unless that more is more Skin Rippers..."

Her anxious expression stared back up at her from the surface of her beloved pocketwatch. When she looked up, she and her rugged packmate were surrounded by a more or less barren umbral desert. She shook her head in disgust and sadness.

"The Skin Rippers' summons went farther than I thought. This is horrible, Rends. I feel so powerless against these monsters since so much of my power depends on the help of spirits. I'm not even sure if it's a good idea to be summoning spirits to this area right now, or if they will even come. If they come, we must protect them and warn them to get the hell out of here as soon as they teach us what we need to know."

She sighed and lifted her head in determination. "Either way, we must try. We need all the help we can get, especially since we're not even sure if any of our allies will come."

She turned to Rends and her eyes were filled with concern. "We have an insurmountable task before us, brother. This is far more dangerous than the Battle of Nacogdoches or the one in Perdido. In the past we've gotten away with each doing our own thing and it working out well enough, but this time we need to be unwaveringly united. In a battle like this, immediate decisions need to be made and we will not have time to discuss. I trust you, Rends, and your battle mind and will commit to following any instructions you give me in the upcoming fight."

Zoe looked at the Ahroun for a moment in silence before continuing. "So, I'm summoning a war spirit, who'll likely be a friend of your tribe, and a wasp spirit. Who do you need to speak with?"

"I need a falcon and earth spirit."

He chuckles at her jab about the war spirit.

"Seems likely. Last war spirit we met seemed my kinda feller. I aint worried though. One get is worth more than a dozen of any other tribe in war, and only the best fighters woulda followed jack. Tween all of us we gonna tear em to bits."

Zoe nods at her Ahroun, silently noting his decision not to comment on her trust in his battle tactics. "Very well. Let me get the falcon for you first, since elementals are a bit harder to summon."

Closing her eyes, Zoe begins to reach out through the umbral wasteland with a request for the presence of a falcon spirit. The eerie silence unnerved the young theurge and she hoped and prayed that the spirit would answer her call for the sake of her friend, their pack, and the nation, both Garou and Texas, as a whole.