Post by Seniade on Nov 28, 2015 23:33:36 GMT
((Part 1))
The sound of the engine hummed as Tobias reached down and shifted from third to fourth gear in the small car, glancing over at the dark haired child who was drowsing in the passenger seat. As he overtook a slower moving vehicle from the left on the M5, still heading north, he reached over and ruffled her hair with a protective and fond expression across his face. He didn’t start to slow down until he found his exit that would immediately lead him to a road with a turn off not fair from the highway. The dirt road was narrow and trees grew close to each edge of the path, branches laden heavily with still-green leaves, many of which were starting to go slightly yellow as August came to a close and September started to take hold as the first month of autumn weather.
The jostling of the vehicle over the bumps in the dirt path soon made the sleeping girl in the passenger seat open her brown eyes and look around. “Da… are we nearly to the caern?” She whispered in a hushed voice, feeling the need to keep her volume low, for no other reason than she was nervous about meeting the rest of the sept.
Her father looked over briefly and nodded at his child as he slowed the speed of the vehicle down; they’d reached an open area where others from their pack had left their own vehicles so they could make their way to the patch of open earth where a large bonfire was blazing, some of his family members approaching his car as he pulled in and shifting into park, setting the parking brake and turned the vehicle off. “We’re here, little one.” Tobias told her gently as he opened his door and got out, jogging around to open her door and pick her up from her booster seat to carry her as he closed her door and approached his family.
“Tobias, it’s been far too long since we saw you at the caern… is this yours?” A pregnant woman with dirty blonde hair and dark green eyes asked as she approached him, her smile gentle as she gestured to the girl held on Tobias’s side and braced with one arm.
Tobias grinned and stretched an arm around the woman’s shoulders to give her a one-armed embrace, kissing the top of her head. “Yes, this is my little Celeste.” He turned to look at his daughter and gestured to the woman he had embraced. “Celeste, this is your aunt Mara, my sister. She’s wanted to meet you for a long time, and she’s about to have a baby herself, you see. You’ll have a cousin.”
Celeste peered at Mara with wide brown eyes, only three or four at the most and obviously painfully shy. “Hello, Auntie Mara…” She said in a soft voice, before burying her face in her father’s neck.
Mara chuckled and petted the girl’s dark hair with a fond smile. “She’s a bit young for her first visit to the caern, Tobias… are you sure you want to expose her to this so soon?”
Tobias’s grin faded a little and he squeezed Celeste close. “Yes. She will rise to greatness within our pack, Mara. And she’s all I have left of her mother. I know I couldn’t have told Annabelle what we are or what Celeste is since the Litany forbids breaking the Veil… but I did love her, Mara. I really did.”
Mara’s expression looked sorrowful and pitying as she reached out and squeezed her brother’s shoulder firmly, before reaching up and giving one of his lanky dark curls an affectionate tug. “We were all grieved to hear you lost someone so special to you Tobias… but we did rejoice that your pup survived the attack. Rest assured, the leeches will not be permitted to take another life from our pack, Kin or no.” She promised before turning and leaning against Tobias's shoulder as the group of people approached to greet the newcomer.
Celeste watched from the relative safety of her father’s side as a very different kind of 'sister' who was very obviously a ginger with copper hair and freckles dusting her face, introduced herself to Celeste as 'Aunt Victoria' and two tall men, taller that her adored father even, and looking much older with strands of grey or white in their dark beards, introduced themselves as 'Uncle Darcy' and 'Uncle Bryson'. With each introduction, the young girl nodded and said hello as politely as she could muster but she refused to leave the safety of Tobias’s arms as he set her down on the ground beside him.
“Ready to meet everyone else, my dear?” He asked, her looking down at her with a reassuring smile. She stuck her thumb in her mouth and nodded, still looking apprehensive as he took her other hand gently in his own and they walked toward the group of other people at the bonfire, the two women on Tobias’s right and the two men on his left. Only the one woman was an actual blood relative to him, the facial features making the family resemblance obvious, but the other three people were his closet friends within the pack and had been with him during those crucial hours in the hospital.
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He looked down at Celeste as his mind recalled the memory of the evening when he and Annabelle had been out together and that leech, Colette De la Croix, as she liked to refer to herself, had moved faster than he could predict. Colette had been a gorgeous creature and could be enchanting when she wanted something for herself, but what Colette wanted from Tobias had been a creature of what he considered to be myth, an abomination of nature that had the benefits of a Garou's shifting abilities yet was given over to the taint of the Wyrm in the vampire nature that the Embrace led to. Enraged with Tobias's rejection of both her and her offering, Colette had attacked him in a foolish manner that led to him tossing her out the window. He had never seen the vampire's body but he hoped that the female would take the hint and go elsewhere with her insane offer.
Unfortunately, Colette was not satisfied with how the situation ended and she waited until Tobias had begun to see another woman again. She waited to strike until Tobias stopped looking over his shoulder for an attack, until he and Annabelle had been expecting. The vampire had rocketed herself out of an alley when they'd passed by, her screech of rage making her seem more of a banshee than scorned woman. It had only lasted a couple of seconds, but those couple of seconds had been long enough for Colette's fangs to tear Annabelle's carotid before Tobias got his hands around Colette's neck, twisting and wrenching her head around to face her spine.
Tobias hadn't bothered to check if that had killed the leech or not when he had flung her bodily away from him back into the abandoned alley Colette had attacked from. He'd knelt down and gathered Annabelle up in his arms, rushing as fast as he could to the nearest emergency station. To this day, he didn't know if the vampire who had stolen his wife from him lived or died.
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“Welcome back, my son, to your pack, your home. The rest of the sept may arrive tonight or they may arrive tomorrow.” Tobias's attention jerked up and focused on the tall slim man with silver-white hair and piercing blue eyes, the wrinkles in his face a testament to both his age and wisdom. The elder paused and cracked a smile at Tobias and the girl holding his hand in a tight death-grip.
Tobias stepped forward and embraced the elderly man wholeheartedly, leaving Celeste to cling to his pants leg. “Thank-you, Father. Are you sure you want the ritual to happen this soon? You still have many more years of wisdom yet to lead our pack with...” He paused as the elderly man waved his hand slowly, shaking his head.
“The spirit of Gaia insists it is an ideal time to pass this station within our sept and our pack to you... allowing our people to get used to the idea of following you before they need a new leader. My time grows short. Besides, you’ve done your duty by bringing new life into our pack.” The elderly man knelt down and reached out to ruffle Celeste’s dark hair with a smile. “Welcome, little one. I’ll have to tell you the story of our people tonight by the bonfire, so you know where we come from. Would you like that?”
Celeste looked up at her father and then into the kindly blue eyes of the elderly man who introduced himself as her grandfather, nodding with her thumb still in her mouth, her fingers still gripping her father’s pant leg tightly. The rest of Tobias’s relatives followed and joined the group of other people sitting around the bonfire on fallen tree trunks as Tobias followed his father to the other side of the bonfire and joined him on the only empty trunk.
Tobias sat as his father stood before the fire and looked around at the rest of the pack, giving Celeste a wink as she scrambled up next to Tobias and settled in next to him. Then the pack elder lifted his hands and gestured to the whole group assembled to either side of the fire. “My children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, cousins and Kin... Tonight in the eyes of pack and Gaia, I pass on the authority and responsibility of pack Alpha to my son, Tobias. But before we go through the ritual, as with all gathers of our tribe, I will tell the tale of how we became Guardians of this area, defenders of Gaia and those who fight the evil of the Wyrm.”
He took a deep breath and took in his pack with a long look around the area, before starting the story in the obvious tone of a tale that had been told many times over from parent to child for centuries.
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The sound of the engine hummed as Tobias reached down and shifted from third to fourth gear in the small car, glancing over at the dark haired child who was drowsing in the passenger seat. As he overtook a slower moving vehicle from the left on the M5, still heading north, he reached over and ruffled her hair with a protective and fond expression across his face. He didn’t start to slow down until he found his exit that would immediately lead him to a road with a turn off not fair from the highway. The dirt road was narrow and trees grew close to each edge of the path, branches laden heavily with still-green leaves, many of which were starting to go slightly yellow as August came to a close and September started to take hold as the first month of autumn weather.
The jostling of the vehicle over the bumps in the dirt path soon made the sleeping girl in the passenger seat open her brown eyes and look around. “Da… are we nearly to the caern?” She whispered in a hushed voice, feeling the need to keep her volume low, for no other reason than she was nervous about meeting the rest of the sept.
Her father looked over briefly and nodded at his child as he slowed the speed of the vehicle down; they’d reached an open area where others from their pack had left their own vehicles so they could make their way to the patch of open earth where a large bonfire was blazing, some of his family members approaching his car as he pulled in and shifting into park, setting the parking brake and turned the vehicle off. “We’re here, little one.” Tobias told her gently as he opened his door and got out, jogging around to open her door and pick her up from her booster seat to carry her as he closed her door and approached his family.
“Tobias, it’s been far too long since we saw you at the caern… is this yours?” A pregnant woman with dirty blonde hair and dark green eyes asked as she approached him, her smile gentle as she gestured to the girl held on Tobias’s side and braced with one arm.
Tobias grinned and stretched an arm around the woman’s shoulders to give her a one-armed embrace, kissing the top of her head. “Yes, this is my little Celeste.” He turned to look at his daughter and gestured to the woman he had embraced. “Celeste, this is your aunt Mara, my sister. She’s wanted to meet you for a long time, and she’s about to have a baby herself, you see. You’ll have a cousin.”
Celeste peered at Mara with wide brown eyes, only three or four at the most and obviously painfully shy. “Hello, Auntie Mara…” She said in a soft voice, before burying her face in her father’s neck.
Mara chuckled and petted the girl’s dark hair with a fond smile. “She’s a bit young for her first visit to the caern, Tobias… are you sure you want to expose her to this so soon?”
Tobias’s grin faded a little and he squeezed Celeste close. “Yes. She will rise to greatness within our pack, Mara. And she’s all I have left of her mother. I know I couldn’t have told Annabelle what we are or what Celeste is since the Litany forbids breaking the Veil… but I did love her, Mara. I really did.”
Mara’s expression looked sorrowful and pitying as she reached out and squeezed her brother’s shoulder firmly, before reaching up and giving one of his lanky dark curls an affectionate tug. “We were all grieved to hear you lost someone so special to you Tobias… but we did rejoice that your pup survived the attack. Rest assured, the leeches will not be permitted to take another life from our pack, Kin or no.” She promised before turning and leaning against Tobias's shoulder as the group of people approached to greet the newcomer.
Celeste watched from the relative safety of her father’s side as a very different kind of 'sister' who was very obviously a ginger with copper hair and freckles dusting her face, introduced herself to Celeste as 'Aunt Victoria' and two tall men, taller that her adored father even, and looking much older with strands of grey or white in their dark beards, introduced themselves as 'Uncle Darcy' and 'Uncle Bryson'. With each introduction, the young girl nodded and said hello as politely as she could muster but she refused to leave the safety of Tobias’s arms as he set her down on the ground beside him.
“Ready to meet everyone else, my dear?” He asked, her looking down at her with a reassuring smile. She stuck her thumb in her mouth and nodded, still looking apprehensive as he took her other hand gently in his own and they walked toward the group of other people at the bonfire, the two women on Tobias’s right and the two men on his left. Only the one woman was an actual blood relative to him, the facial features making the family resemblance obvious, but the other three people were his closet friends within the pack and had been with him during those crucial hours in the hospital.
**************************************************************************************
He looked down at Celeste as his mind recalled the memory of the evening when he and Annabelle had been out together and that leech, Colette De la Croix, as she liked to refer to herself, had moved faster than he could predict. Colette had been a gorgeous creature and could be enchanting when she wanted something for herself, but what Colette wanted from Tobias had been a creature of what he considered to be myth, an abomination of nature that had the benefits of a Garou's shifting abilities yet was given over to the taint of the Wyrm in the vampire nature that the Embrace led to. Enraged with Tobias's rejection of both her and her offering, Colette had attacked him in a foolish manner that led to him tossing her out the window. He had never seen the vampire's body but he hoped that the female would take the hint and go elsewhere with her insane offer.
Unfortunately, Colette was not satisfied with how the situation ended and she waited until Tobias had begun to see another woman again. She waited to strike until Tobias stopped looking over his shoulder for an attack, until he and Annabelle had been expecting. The vampire had rocketed herself out of an alley when they'd passed by, her screech of rage making her seem more of a banshee than scorned woman. It had only lasted a couple of seconds, but those couple of seconds had been long enough for Colette's fangs to tear Annabelle's carotid before Tobias got his hands around Colette's neck, twisting and wrenching her head around to face her spine.
Tobias hadn't bothered to check if that had killed the leech or not when he had flung her bodily away from him back into the abandoned alley Colette had attacked from. He'd knelt down and gathered Annabelle up in his arms, rushing as fast as he could to the nearest emergency station. To this day, he didn't know if the vampire who had stolen his wife from him lived or died.
**************************************************************************************
“Welcome back, my son, to your pack, your home. The rest of the sept may arrive tonight or they may arrive tomorrow.” Tobias's attention jerked up and focused on the tall slim man with silver-white hair and piercing blue eyes, the wrinkles in his face a testament to both his age and wisdom. The elder paused and cracked a smile at Tobias and the girl holding his hand in a tight death-grip.
Tobias stepped forward and embraced the elderly man wholeheartedly, leaving Celeste to cling to his pants leg. “Thank-you, Father. Are you sure you want the ritual to happen this soon? You still have many more years of wisdom yet to lead our pack with...” He paused as the elderly man waved his hand slowly, shaking his head.
“The spirit of Gaia insists it is an ideal time to pass this station within our sept and our pack to you... allowing our people to get used to the idea of following you before they need a new leader. My time grows short. Besides, you’ve done your duty by bringing new life into our pack.” The elderly man knelt down and reached out to ruffle Celeste’s dark hair with a smile. “Welcome, little one. I’ll have to tell you the story of our people tonight by the bonfire, so you know where we come from. Would you like that?”
Celeste looked up at her father and then into the kindly blue eyes of the elderly man who introduced himself as her grandfather, nodding with her thumb still in her mouth, her fingers still gripping her father’s pant leg tightly. The rest of Tobias’s relatives followed and joined the group of other people sitting around the bonfire on fallen tree trunks as Tobias followed his father to the other side of the bonfire and joined him on the only empty trunk.
Tobias sat as his father stood before the fire and looked around at the rest of the pack, giving Celeste a wink as she scrambled up next to Tobias and settled in next to him. Then the pack elder lifted his hands and gestured to the whole group assembled to either side of the fire. “My children, grandchildren, brothers, sisters, cousins and Kin... Tonight in the eyes of pack and Gaia, I pass on the authority and responsibility of pack Alpha to my son, Tobias. But before we go through the ritual, as with all gathers of our tribe, I will tell the tale of how we became Guardians of this area, defenders of Gaia and those who fight the evil of the Wyrm.”
He took a deep breath and took in his pack with a long look around the area, before starting the story in the obvious tone of a tale that had been told many times over from parent to child for centuries.
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