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"Hey you're barking to the choir, Thunderhoof," Podge says. "I liked Melodie, but the rest of their family were crypt-dwelling creeps."

"Barrow-dwelling creeps," Elton says, hauling himself up onto the roof. "The Palyses took care of our dead. And Thunderhoof, you've seen what happens when no one guards the barrows."

"Hey El, which tribe murdered half the Indians and stole their magic cave back before the Three Families showed up?" Podge asks.

"Don't put that on me, Patrick," Elton says. "And we need to focus on rescuing Melodie."

"But we know where Melodie is?" you ask.

Elton nods. "She fled when her family died," the theurge says. "North of here, little nowhere town called Ashfield. Nin scouted it but she couldn't find Melodie, and couldn't explain what was so weird about the town."

"Weird?" you ask.

Elton shrugs. "Something unnatural is afoot up there," he says. "Nin is sensitive, but can't put things into words. She played an Eddie Money song, which didn't explain anything. This is what happens when Garou aren't there to placate and support the spirits. Spirits get aggressive and strange, and everyone suffers. The smartest thing to do is just head up there, find out what's wrong with Melodie, and deal with it face to face."

"Well, what are we waiting for?" Podge says. "Text Nin and let's go right now."

"Great, let's go!"

"I don't want to rush into things. Give me a few days to conduct research."

"Not yet—I need to work and make sure my situation here is stable first."

Next

Are you sure you're ready? Serious danger may wait in the shadowed woods and forgotten homesteads of Ashfield.

I'm ready. We're heading north to rescue Melodie.

Not yet.

Next

"I'll text Nin," Elton says.

"Give me another ten minutes here," Podge says, still working on the satellite dish.

Your phone buzzes.

BridesheadReloaded Nin how quickly can you get to Thunderhoof's?

BridesheadReloaded We're going north to find Melodie

AWAB15 i'm eating a mufin

BridesheadReloaded Can you finish this muffin in such a way

AWAB15 babnanana walnut

BridesheadReloaded That you arrive before noon

AWAB15 i'm alreayd coming i just am trying to make conversation

AWAB15 it's important to know what your friedns are doin in there everyday lives

AWAB15 and you are my friend

"Awwww," Elton says.

BridesheadReloaded Stop screwing around and hurry up

Next

You head downstairs and organize bags, zip ties, extra clothes, protein bars that taste good to both humans and wolves, and the other paraphernalia of shapeshifter life. By the time you're done, Podge has finished messing around on the roof. Many Bone Gnawers look like mangy dogs in their lupus forms, which they consider an advantage, as people ignore them. Podge wasn't so lucky. He seems to have inherited genes from wolves, coyotes, hyenas (the heavy jaw), and maybe weasels, since his torso is oddly long and flexible. Surprisingly, the complete package looks like a natural animal, well-proportioned and almost noble, not some kind of drooling wasteland mutant. But Podge can't pass himself off as a mutt. He shows off by transforming in mid-jump, landing gracefully on all fours, and regards you with thoughtful eyes above his heavy jaw. Then he lopes to join Nin, who is at the edge of the field beyond your house, already in her wolf form. The screen of orange leaves makes Nin look like a fox: she's as small in lupus form as she is monstrously huge in hispo. You and Elton make sure all of your equipment is strapped down and in place before you Change.

Elton lopes across the field to join Nin as you carefully finish your metamorphosis and wait for your senses to adjust, then you race off to join them.

Next

It's a four hour run to Ashfield in lupus form. Like during the journey south to Holyoke, Elton wants to scout this territory, which once belonged to the Broad Brook Garou. Leaves swirl as the others fan out behind the theurge and trot into the autumn woods.

It feels like running with a pack. There are only four of you, and of course, you bring up the rear, partly because you're just a cub and partly because you're not as swift as the others in your lupus form. But the experience represents a strange and exhilarating communion, like nothing you knew back home. As Nin ranges ahead so fast and far you can't even smell her, and Elton and Podge dig through the desolation, you watch their backs, panting as you struggle to keep up.

I help guard Elton as he looks for spirits or signs of other Garou.

I try to catch up to Nin. I can't, but I ought to try.

I follow Podge and try to figure out how to stay alive in the rural-exurban borderland where we spend so much time.

Next

Podge leaves Elton to snuffle after spirits. The Bone Gnawer wants to explore what remains of the Three Families' camps in the old Broad Brook territory. The two of you turn up an old propane stove, a half-buried backpack full of old cans, and the remains of a Subaru Forester. Nothing is immediately valuable, but as Podge ranges back and forth, he tries to show you how it all fits together: there were once paths through these woods, secret ways that the Garou and their allies could use, that the People of the Map would never find. It might be possible to rebuild those paths. But you can't sniff around here forever. Nin howls somewhere to the north, and you follow her cries.

Two hours later, you break away from the others as you circle a green hill covered in autumn leaves. A hot wind blows out of the deeper woods, stirring ripples on the surface of a little brook. The worlds are close here, like they were near the camp of the slaughtered Deer Cross Pack, and for a moment, you hear Gaia's mournful sighs. The spirit world appears between two sickly birch trees.

The Umbra is a vision of hell, rendered without art. Earth-moving machines work the muddy and lifeless fields, operated by brutal laborers with cracked skin and twisted horns. The air smokes; the muddy ground is covered in slim, human-like creatures, once beautiful, now broken and lifeless, their robes tattered. Black Tarn told you about glade children, the spirits of trees. Before the vision fades, you watch one of the earth movers plow a dozen of the muddy corpses into the ground beside the brook.

This rivulet flows into the actual Broad Brook. Follow it and you could reach the captured and defiled Broad Brook Caern. Or you could if you could understand why your previous scouting expeditions all end with you missing everything important and standing next to the highway. You're not sure how to begin.

The vision fades, but the feeling of rot remains, clinging to your fur. You can almost feel the diseased hatred of whatever resides now in that place as it concentrates its hateful will upon you.

Furious, I howl my Rage at the Wyrm-thing that has stolen and defiled the Caern.

The Litany tells me to fight the Wyrm wherever I find it. I'm not strong enough yet, but I let that thing know I'm here.

I can't charge into those tainted lands, but I edge around the periphery, looking for weaknesses or ways in.

I'm not getting devoured by Banes today. I back off and keep moving.

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