Tales and Teachings

The normally talkative Eaton was silent as we walked alongside Zoe and Zas back to the caern. He couldn't have been more disappointed with Mrs. Carmichael's stories; simply explaining the situation would have been so much simpler. When they reached their destination, he sighed and finally said to Zas,

"While I wish we could have reassured Mrs. Carmichael, maybe we can reassure Penelope; tell her more about our kind like ya said earlier; get her ready for what's ahead of her."

The two of them made their way through the camp, until they located the young girl. He knew her head had to be swimming in confusion. Nevertheless, he and Zas would try to clear her mind.

"Penelope," He began, "I know you've been though a lot lately, but I think the two of us," he looks back to Zas, "can help explain just what's goin' on."

He squats down to get on her eye level,

"I myself knew nothin' of our kind before my first change. I know you're all sorts of confused, but just listen; Let us tell you about our kind:

He sits in front of her and crosses his legs, setting his hands on his knees,

" You and I, We are the Garou: Our kind is called to defend the great spirit Gaia against any and all threats. The greatest of her foes is the entity called the wyrm. The wyrm seeks to corrupt and destroy all that is good in the world; every living creature is its prey. Whatever is doesn't ruin, it enslaves. We live to eradicate servants of the wyrm wherever they are found. Basically, we make the world livable for everyone else."

Eaton held up his index finger briefly,

"The thing is, none of us know we are Garou until we go through what you just did. I'm not sure, but yours was probably too early, maybe by a year or so. Though I ain't the best example; my first change was only a few years ago, which is pretty darn late."

Eaton shrugged it off as he continued,

"Maybe you didn't think of yourself as anythin' special a few days ago; that's how we are. I think you agree with me that you feel . . . different now, even though we calmed ya down. Now, there are those who have blood of the Garou but never have their first change, and they still have their place in our society; we call 'em Kinfolk. We pay close attention to 'em cause that's where pups come from most often. Which still ain't as often as we'd like.

Eaton pauses as he seems to think of something else, before he continues,

"We all have strict rules that we follow, otherwise we all get in big trouble: a giant list called The Litany. Think of it as a code that all Garou follow. Not eatin' humans, keeping caerns sacred . . ."

His voice trails off as he looks at Zas, realizing he had been talking the entire time,

"Ya know, I think you can explain this better than I can. Wanna fill her in? Add anythin' ya think I might've missed."

Zas, who had up until now been watching Penelope intently as she took in the information, nodded at Eaton and said, "I can say more on the litany."

Zas turns to Penelope and began, "In order to understand the litany, you have to understand why it is made. Laws are intended to protect and defend peoples lives, property, and ways of doing things. The litany on this matter is no different. To recite all of it would require more time than we have, but there are 12 important things to be aware of."
Zas pauses and then says slowly, emphasizing each seperately:"Garou will not mate with Garou. This law is not to be ignored, and any who break it are dealt with severely."

"The Wyrm is to be destroyed wherever it dwells. This sounds simple but can become complicated as it can often cause issues with upholding other laws. It is by no means to be disregarded either. The Wyrm is dangerous and cunning, and is not to be underestimated."

"Respect the territory of one another. This sounds easy as well, but territory boundaries are not always easy to see as could be seen on a map."

"Accept it when someone gives up. That ones pretty clear."

"Respect your elders. Anyone that is of higher rank and has developed renown greater than you is to be listened to. There are tribes, that take this out of context, but more on that later."

"The first of anything is to be offered to your leader. They know what is best."

"Do not eat humans. As Eaton has said, this is important mainly because we are called to defend. This is very clear. This is not tolerated."

"Do not tear the veil. This is one of those I mentioned earlier that makes fighting the Wyrm difficult. The veil is what keeps our Garou nature from being found out. Shape shifting into our various forms is merely one way that we can be discovered. So going on a rampage for fun and attacking a human settlement-white man or Indian, is grounds for punishment."

"Do not let yourself be a burden to your sept, pack, or caern. Becoming defenseless and unable to defend Gaia-our mother spirit, is not good. Pass on the wisdom you have, and then destroy the Wyrm with whatever means you can-giving your life if needed."

"Any leader may and should be challenged during times where their leadership is questionable. This law is vital to keeping the garou tribes strong, yet this law also goes with the next."

"During war, no leader is to be challenged. Hesitating for even a moment in the face of your enemy is death. For this reason, even when you disagree you are not to challenge the leader during war time."
After Zas says this he adds,"this is my personal belief however-if you are able to speak with your leader privately and share your concerns, do so. Only when you have done this, and you have been recklessly ignored, and the lives of many Garou are on the line, would I tell you to consider challenging the leader. Be warned though, that your decision will have serious consequences."

Zas then concludes, "and lastly, though no less important, as Eaton mentioned, No sacred place should ever be violated, and is to be protected at all cost. Caerns like we are in now, are the main bridges to the spirit world. The place we met you in, the umbra, is one portion of the spirit world-wherein the spirits dwell. Thus if a caern falls we lose an important spiritual bridge and are that much more unable to defend Gaia."

Zas takes a deep breath and then says, "that is the litany or it's core elements anyway. But I promised you that I would discuss the tribes. There are 13 now, though there used to be more. I will give you their names. Eaton, if you feel the need can give you a brief description of them. The only ones I know of personally that used to be of Gaia are your blood tribe-the Black Spirals, and another, the Croatan. I know little of either, aside from the fact that the black spirals now serve the Wyrm for some reason and the Croatan are no more because all of the tribe sacrificed itself to fight the Wyrm."

He takes a deep breath and then says, "The tribes that exist still are as follows, the Black furies," Zas then gestures to eaton as he says, "The bone Gnawers," Zas then says, "Children of Gaia, of which some are in this caern, the fianna..."

Zas takes a moment and turns around away from Eaton and Penelope as he hunkers himself over and makes a mean scowl on his face and then turns back around as he says, with his best impression of Sylvester, "The Get of Fenris!"

Zas then drops his impression and continues, "the Iron Riders-many of whom you have met....the Red Talons, the Shadow Lords-one of whom you fought..."

He then gestures to himself as he says, "The Silent Striders."

He then continues, "The Silver Fangs, The Stargazers, The Uktena, and the Wendigo."

"These are the tribes of the Garou."
Zas then sits down and looks to Eaton and says, "Ok, your turn."

Eaton nods to Zas as he finishes; impressed with his friend's recital. He strokes the hair on his chin for a moment, before he begins,

"It ain't fair to reduce the tribes to a single sentence; but it would take a really long time for me to say each and every role to properly explain em'."

He turns back to Penelope,

"I will say that each Tribe has their own talent and style on how to serve Gaia. I think she should meet them all for herself; this caern has plenty of folks from different tribes. I don't think I'd be doing em' any favors."

Eaton stands up, thumps his staff on the ground, and takes a few steps in a circle,

"However, even within the tribes, each of us has an auspice, or role we play, in the tribe. There are five of em':Ahroun, Philodox, Theurge, Ragabash, and Galliard. And ya've already met them all."

Eaton motions to himself,

"I am my pack's Galliard. My role is to inspire my pack and remember our stories. I rouse them during battle and celebrate our victories. I remember the tinniest of details during events that might be lost to someone else. They might seem trivial, but ya never know when you're gonna need em'."

He points over to Zas,

"He is our Philodox: Keeper of the laws of the Garou. Heck, I think he has em' all committed to memory. He uses reason with everythin' he does, to make only the surest of decisions. He's also great at keeping cool while Rens and I sometimes . . . get a little bit too excited."

"Speaking of Rends, he is the Ahroun: the greatest warrior in our pack. The Ahroun are the strongest fights in Gaia's army. Rends is so tough, he took a cannon ball to his chest and didn't even wince!"

"I know you've met Zoe; She is our Theurge. She is our packs connection to the spirit world. She's also probably the, well, kindest of all of us. Always willing to help however she can, especially when we scuff ourselves up pretty bad."

"And finally, we've got our Ragabash, Kefka. He. . . uh . . ." Eaton scratched his neck trying to find the right words, " . . . questions the times when we're too complacent. Like . . .when he finds a solution that no one else sees. Ya know, keeps things interesting for all of us."

"We don't choose our auspice; Gaia chooses them for us. It depends what moon you were born under. For me, it was the Gibbous moon."

Eaton gives her a smile,

"When were you born? We should be able to find out which face was shining down on ya."

Eaton looks back at Zas,

"Hmm, what else can we tell her?"

Zas rubs his head in thought and stands up as he begins walking around trying to figure out what else she would need to know about being a garou, when suddenly a thought occurs to him, "There is one thing that comes to mind."

He looks at Eaton with a smile and says to Penelope, "You will find out yourself that of all the things that Garou have in common is that regardless of what auspice you are, you possess a bit of rage. This is a weapon given to us by Gaia to aid us in our defense of her from the Wyrm foe. We obtain this weapon from her most powerful spirit Luna-or the moon spirit. This is why when we see the moon we feel recharged."

Zas focuses on Penelope looking deep into her eyes as he says, "This is a weapon though, like I said. This rage is easily turned against other garou. Garou fighting Garou is not how things are supposed to be. The Black Spirals are the most grievous offenders of this, but other tribes do this over various things to varying degrees as well."

Zas then looks to Eaton as he says, "Eaton and myself, and likely many others, feel that the greatest way to combat the Wyrm is to unite the splintered tribes who are rarely able to agree on much of anything."

Zas sighs as he says, "Fighting the Wyrm and each other is bad enough without the Weaver butting in..."
Zas then says, "O yes that's important too-Eaton, you want to tell her about the Weaver?"

Eaton looks at Zas and says,

"Certainly."

He turns he gaze back at Penelope,

"The Weaver is another great spirit, along with the Wyrm and the Wyld. The Wyld creates, the Weaver gives it form, and the Wyrm tears apart the form, so that the Wyld can create again. Or, that's how it was supposed to work: Instead, the Weaver got upset at the other spirits for ruining its order and tried to ensnare the wyrm so it couldn't gobble it all up."

He intertwined his fingers and folded his hands,

"But, the Wyrm lost it bein' caught in the Weaver's webs. Now, the Wyrm wants to destroy everything, instead of who's time is up."

He regripped his staff,

"But back to the Weaver: That was a long, long time ago. Now, the Weaver has, "blessed" humanity. Anything beyond a stick and a rock was because of the Weaver, teachin' them how to build their cities and guns. Still, the Weaver ain't evil, it just represents progress. Though there are some Garou who avoid the Weavers influence, instead opening embracin' the Wyld."

Eaton scratches his thin beard and turns back to Zas,

"That's our mythology. Have we talked to her about the forms each Garou can take?

Zas nods as Eaton tells his tale. At his question Zas pauses to consider the answer and then replies, "No we have not. I think I can manage that though, if you want to try to think of anything else of importance."

Zas then turns to Penelope and says, "We, Garou have 5 different forms we can take. The most commonly seen is the homid form...we look basically like any human you're likely to see. This is the safest form we take to ensure that the veil remains untorn. The trade off is, we don't heal as quickly in this form. Every other form will allow you to heal very quickly, even bullet wounds, but If you can help it, not getting shot works just as good."

"The next form is seen as an odd looking wild person by most humans-this form, Glabro, causes you to get stronger and you develop more "animal" qualities-like your teeth get longer, and you grow more hair...this form is not used too much except in rare cases when you are still trying to keep from drawing attention to Garou society but need a little bit of muscle."

"The next form would be our strongest, though I'd also say it is our weakest in a way. This is called Crinos form. This is what you shifted into during your first change. This form gives you a lot of added muscle, a lot of weight, and makes you an extremely dangerous foe. The only time we should ever use this form is when we are in a fight, because the down side to it, it's weakness, is that it causes most humans to go crazy, causes the veil to be broken and thereby violates the litany. It doesn't affect kinfolk, but even they know to get out of the way of an angry werewolf while they're in this form."

"Then we have our Hispo form, which resembles what most call a dire wolf. Four legs, tons of fur, extremely sharp teeth and raw fury. We use this form mainly for hunting, but it can be used well enough in a fight. This form is also likely to draw attention from the humans, but they usually don't go crazy when they see you like this. Normally they just shoot at you."

Zas smiles and says, "Then we have the Lupus form. We look like everyday wolves in this form. Won't normally draw too much attention from the humans, the veil stays safe, and this is normally the best way to travel long distances."

Zas scratches his chin as he says, "We get these forms to use to defend Gaia. We are powerful and resilient against many things, but all Garou have one big weakness. Silver. Avoid it. You heal most wounds quickly, but not any given to you by silver. Those take time. Fire doesn't feel good either. Stay away from it too."

Zas looks at her with a stern face before further saying, "Attacks made by other Garou also take longer to heal. Our claws and teeth are dangerous even to one another. This is yet another reason you in particular are such a concern by many. As far as I know most Black Spirals don't get along with the other tribes...at all, namely because we tend to try and kill one another on sight. Your teeth are exceptionally sharp and seem to possess some form of vileness that causes more suffering when you bite than other Garou."

Zas then looks away and says, "I do not say these things to make you feel badly about your actions upon your initial change, but rather to let you know why others may be hesitant to deal with you."

Zas then says, "I mentioned tribes and elders earlier. What I have yet to tell you is of how to become a member of a tribe. When you first arrived here, Red Oath, the leader, or Alpha, decided that you had not yet become a black spiral tribe member, merely that you had been born by them. Most every Garou has a choice in determining what tribe they wish to be in, so therefore you still get to decide your path."

"However, choosing a tribe to be apart of is not the end of it. You must be accepted into the tribe as well. This process is called your rite of passage. As it is currently, you are a cub. You have not had a rite of passage yet. Those in our pack are directly above you in rank due to that we have each passed the rite of passage and we are called cliath. Directly above us is the fostern, above them adren, then athro, and then elder. Advancing in rank is not easy, and also takes time. Yet, the litany says we respect our elders. That doesn't mean just the rank of elders, but any one of higher rank than us."

Zas takes a breath to continue but looks to Eaton who seems to have something to add and then gestures for him to speak.

When Zas mentioned her attacking Mocks-the-Night, Penelope's eyes grow wide. "I- I did all that? I'm so sorry! You mentioned me fighting back, but I just assumed Hawkins hurt Mr. Kefka- I can't... I don't remember..." Her eyes trail off and she fails to meet their gaze for awhile.

When Zas glanced at Eaton, Penelope took advantage of the lull and interjected: "Um, well, this is a lot to take in, but I guess it makes sense. I always felt, I don't know, different somehow. I know that sounds silly, but its true all the same. I don't know what moon phase I was born during, though. My birthday is June 9th, 1824- does that help any? I'd like to figure out what I'm supposed to be..." At first she stammered her words, but they came faster and faster as she spoke.

Then the young girl's demeanor shifted and her troubled eyes flicked from one of her teachers to the other. "I'm not gonna be able to see momma and the others again, am I?" Her face is pale and still, a grim resignation tugging at the corners of her mouth and eyes. She glances around the caern, at the worn and faded race track and the old stagecoach at its center. "Am I just gonna be kept out here?" Her voice was dull and flat, devoid of emotion.

After hearing Penelope, Eaton sighed and gave her a sad smile,

"No, you're not gonna be stuck out here. I know you want to go back to your family. There's . . . just too much at risk. Others like Hawkins are still looking for you. We're waiting until we get a better idea of what they'll try to do. " His voice lowers into a half-growl, his body growing tense,
"One things for sure: They ain't layin' a finger on you or your family again. I swear by it."

He calms himself slightly, his pose becoming relaxed,

"Not only do we have to worry 'bout them, we must keep the veil intact. We've talked to your family and . . . they don't know anything about us; they just ain't Kinfolk so we can't safely tell 'em anything."

Knowing this news must be heartbreaking, Eaton raises his eyebrows and his smile shifts from pitied to genuine,

"But that doesn't mean you can't ever see em again; most of the reason me and Zas are tellin' you all this is so you can mingle with humans after all this. Your folks just have to wait until we figure out what's up with this Malchizedek fellow; I'm sure he can help you."

Deciding to talk about her birthday, Eaton continues,

"I don't know of the top of my head what moon was shining down when you were born, but I'm sure there's someone here in the Caern that has an idea; I'll find em' and run that on by."

He looks at the sky for moment, trying to think of a topic they haven't covered. He snaps his gaze back to the girl as he thinks of something,

"I know Zas talked a bit about rage, but there's another force that all of us are blessed with: Gnosis. I'm sure Zoe could go on and on 'bout it, but in a nutshell, it's what connects us to the spirits. Reaching the Umbra requires us to use Gnosis; it comes back after awhile but you don't want to spend it all in once place. There's plenty of other uses for Gnosis, though,"

Eaton thumps his staff on the ground and stares at it with a proud look in his eye,

"This ain't a regular stick; it's bound with a spirit. A nice one, that is. These things lend us the power of that spirit that let us do some crazy stuff. Though some spirits can actually teach a Garou how to use their Gnosis to do things on their own, without carryin' around all these different things."

He stops staring at his stick and looks back at Penelope,

"If the spirit is bound in an object ya use, it's called a Fetish. If you can do it on your own, then a spirit has taught you a Gift. Depending on your Auspice, spirits can teach you lost of different things."

After he concludes, he again turns to his packmate,

"What else can we teach her?"

Zas was pondering the answer to her questions when Eaton spoke. Zas listens to Eaton's answers and is quiet. He says nothing for several moments as he forms his own thoughts.

When he speaks again it is cold and harsh, and he speaks fiercely. "You will not see your family, if Red Oath says for that to be the case. As it stands now, you will meet with the one known as Malchizadek and if you prove strong enough to survive being purified, you will be allowed to return. The decision to see them or not however, lies with Red Oath."

Zas then is silent as he considers what more she needs to know. He says matter-of-factly, "She should know of rites and of deed names. Then perhaps she will have a sufficient amount of information to know who she is."

Zas smiles in memory as he begins, "Rites, are an important part of our culture. There are many forms of rites because they serve many purposes. Their main purpose however is to bring all garou closer together to each other and to the spiritual oneness with Gaia."

Zas then gestures to Eaton as he says, "The last thing I will speak of is deed names. Each Garou you meet will likely have one. These are regularly given after completing that rite of passage I spoke of earlier. They indicate some aspect of what the garou went through during the rite. Eaton here is named Leper-Friend. Zoe is Hears-The-Song. Kefka is Mocks-The-Night. Sylvester is Rends-The-Gar. I am Snowy Owl. When in the company of other Garou these names are commonly used."

Zas pauses, looks to Eaton and says, "I can think of nothing further she would need to know or that she would not be able to better understand just by living among our kind. Do you have anything more?"

Eaton shakes his head,

"I think we've told her everything that she can handle right now. Like you said,"

He turns back to Penelope,

"Hearing about it is one thing, but learning for yourself will be much more fulfilling. I know just a few days ago you never could've dreamed 'bout any of this; it must be scary as hell for you. It does just take a little gettin' used to, and I hope Zas and I made it a little clearer. But I know you'll find the calling that Gaia has for you. "

Eaton drums his fingers on his staff,

"Though if you have any questions, we'll answer the best we can."

"It is rather strange, but I... I can handle it." Penelope lifted her fierce gaze, glancing from Eaton to Zas. "I want to stay here and learn about how to be a good Garou. I want to learn your- or, er, our ways." After a moment's silence she sighed and looked away from them, her gaze focused on the dark tree line hedging the Caern. "I thought momma and the rest of my folks were killed back at the farm. I guess I had already resigned myself to not seeing them ever again..."

Her stone-faced expression turns into a wicked grin. "But now I don't have to mourn them- they are ok and I can protect them- I can fight back!" Her sharp white teeth flashed as they caught Luna's light. She looked at them both eagerly. "So... what do I need to do to figure out my Auspice?"