Dear whoever actually reads these when I send them,

So last time we left off just kind of all off doing our own thing in the woods, recovering from what we had seen. Eventually some other Garou approached, a pack of them. They were closest to Cana, and they approached her. From what I heard, it seemed like they were just passing through and offering to share their hunt. Cana went Lupus and agreed to this. Sina, Irene, and I were nearby, so did the same thing. I was curious to learn more about a pack of Garou that wouldn’t banish us right away, and the excitement was doing a bit to help me forget what happened earlier and cheer up. I hope it was doing the same for the others.

So this Garou pack was totally awesome. Cana said she was interested in learning some hunting skills, and I agreed, thinking this was a completely awesome idea. They showed us how to harry prey, and watching them, it just connected so well with me. It was tactical and required close communication and understanding, and was just a great way for the pack to work together without putting any individual into too much danger. I was surprised how quickly I grasped it, and ended up further explaining it to the others. I can’t wait to actually put it into use; it’s sooo cool the way it works, and overall just teaching it to my packmates, I felt closer to them.

So we ate with the other Garou, and slept warm and comfy in a huddle with them, all in Lupus form. It was a great night after a hard day, and was the refresher we needed. Calliope never showed up, but I think she went back to town, so I was pretty sure she was safe and warm too.

The next morning though, when we woke up, a bunch of the other Garou were missing. We heard noises, so went to investigate, eventually coming across a… a giant bear thing. Like this thing was really big and spiky and weird and creepy. It had to be Wyrm-tainted. I was a bit surprised to see our elders fleeing from it. Instinctively I wanted to lose my respect for them, but I told myself that this thing must be too much for them, too dangerous for even experienced Garou packs to face. I considered for a moment that maybe we should retreat too, if our elders couldn’t handle it, but then the bear thing charged, and before I knew it, I was charging back. Welp, I guess I was fighting it. I hoped my pack would join me. Maybe we could even try that harrying tactic?

I managed to jump onto the bear’s face and slash some flesh off, but it threw me to the side pretty quickly. Sina then joined me, doing the same on the other side. Yay, that meant I had at least one ally! But of course, I shouldn’t have even ever considered my pack might leave me alone in a fight; I suggested to Cana to dodge around the bear so we could try harrying it, but she found a quicker way to get behind it, sliding under its belly. At the same time, I saw Irene go into the Umbra, probably looking for a way to fix this from there.

The bear ended up charging into a tree, so with that and Irene gone, it took away our chance for harrying. I was disappointed, because the Ahroun in me was excited to try the new tactic, but I reminded myself that it was most important to stop the Wyrm-Bear first and foremost.

So to keep the bear from charging the others, I went Crinos and dove for it, restraining its front arms. Sina then came over to attack it while I held it, Cana stepping into the Umbra to help Irene. Then, before I knew it, the bear exploded in a splurch of nasty black goo. It was not fun holding onto it as that happened… I went over to the clean snow and started rolling in it to get the goop off, then looked over and saw Sina holding a tiny baby bear… a dead baby bear.

I didn’t get it at first, looking around for any sign of the big bear’s corpse, but the only corpse was the baby one, and the only sign of the big bear was the goo. I double-checked with Sina, saying I thought we were fighting a big one, and she confirmed this. Then we both started freaking out, realizing we had just killed a baby bear.

Before we could get our bearings (oh, no pun intended, that’s just horrible!), we heard Calliope calling for us from back in the woods. She said she had someone with her to rescue us, so we quickly turned human and I ran and got my pelts. Sina handed me the bear, and I freaked out, thinking I would be caught as some horrible disgusting baby bear slayer. She went into the Umbra to get the others back.

When they returned, Cana took one look at me and the bear and was completely horrified. She was lost and confused at first, not seeming to understand what she was seeing, then she became completely angry. Sina and I tried to explain we thought it was a big evil bear and it just kind of exploded on us, but she was too upset to reason with. It was at this time I also found out Irene had a new persona, Rose, and she thought it was 1942! I think I would’ve been more excited and impressed to meet such an old woman with such a young body, but there was just too much going on at the time.

Calliope soon ran into us, a man and a woman following her. There was a lot of bickering and confusion and new clothes, and Cana seemed to know the guy, then Sina grabbed the bear from me and ran off with Cana to bury it. After some more bickering and confusion, the two returned, and thankfully Cana seemed to be directing her anger at this new guy now instead of us. We all ended up going back with the new group, and they were going to take us back to the US! I was really excited, but tried not to show it with all the drama going on, and then eventually just asked Sina if she wanted to sit by me in the back, feeling like she was the most stable of the group right now and the easiest to talk to, since, like me, she didn’t have anything weird or personal going on right now. Except the bear-killing thing… but we had that on our hands together, and I think, even though she had been pretty cold and serious for most of the journey, the two of us finally found a real bond… through our horrible baby bear-killing atrocity, yes, but it was still a new bond, and I was latching onto it.

So we got into a real nice car and were waiting for Calliope’s lady friend to get in with us, and right then we saw a flock of pretty birds. I don’t know why, but Sina freaked out and said we needed to get away as quick as possible. I didn’t understand what the problem was. They were some really nice-looking birds. She then explained that they were the omen of… something. I recognized the word from learning about it a long time ago, but you know how I am with remembering things. But anyway, we all decided that this was a bad, horrible thing and were trying to get the lady to hurry into the car.

We were stopped from retreating though when we saw a truck approaching. There was a Garou running after it, and another one tied up in the passenger seat. Our pack had a moment were we all looked at each other, realized there was no way we were just going to run from this, and then silently decided to help.

And that’s where I’m leaving off for now! Where will our next exciting adventure take us? Probably to the afterlife as we get killed by the evil bird flock monster while trying to rescue a cute damsel!

Hugs and Kisses!
Cain