A First Meeting

[Keira Kelly]

Aoife looked over at Thomas as the mist swirled around through the air around them. "No, t'anks." she replied as she rolled it up into her pack. "I got it well enough but t'anks anyways." She grabbed the drinking skin that was lying beside her, all empty now and stuffed in in the pack beside the meat. She'd had a fair share of what had been in there but felt no ill effects of the drink at all. She swept back her long auburn hair as it fell into her face as she tied the pack up tight. "Well den, I hope yer good feelings are right! It would be nice to settle down for a span, sure enough." she said and meaning it.

She smiled playfully. "Don't get me wrong, friend. I may be a Galliard but us Fianna enjoy a good scrap as much as da lot of you!" she said with a chuckle. "Alls da more when da one on the receiving end is friends wit' de Wyrm! D'ough stories are not a bad addition to da mix either!" she added as she threw the back onto her back, putting her arms through the straps. Her bedroll was already tied to the bottom so she stooped down to pick up her bow and quiver, hanging them off of one shoulder as well. Such a weight of all she carried would likely have staggered a normal girl of her size but she handled it well.

She kicked some dirt onto the remains of the fire before taking a big, deep breath of the cool, wet air. It was hard to smell much of anything in this fog, or hear anything either. They would need to be on guard. She stared out into the invisible horizon, towards the north. It was fitting in a way, she didn't know what would happen at their destination just as she could not see ahead now. "Might be a touch hard to carry dis lot in any ot'er form.." she answered. "But I can try wit' whatever suits ye best..."

[Deathcon]

"We can travel as humans, usually I travel as a wolf but I am also carrying a lot less than you." Thomas checked his belt to make sure his klaive was in it's proper place then said "Ready, lets move."

[Keira Kelly]

As they started through the misty morning, Aoife began to ask questions. "How long have you known you were Garou? Was your First Change hard?" she asked, curious. "You are homid too, ta? You are already used to the faol form? Switching to four legs just throws me off at times still.." she said with a laugh. "Tis much fun d'ough! But yeh, tell me a bit about yerself, where you came from? Is it much different from dese lands?" She was curious and the only way to satisfy curiosity was a Galliard's favourite thing to do, ask questions and talk.

[Deathcon]

As they walked Thomas said "I'll start with my homeland, it was in the middle of a black forest where we hunted and lived off the land. Occasionally we would go into the nearby village to trade but usually would just find and live off what we could. However I now know that my father was a werewolf and my mother a kinfolk, many people came through our house asking for help, and many nights my father would be gone and return in the morning. But I never knew until my first change."

He paused for a moment and took a deep breath "My first change was bad, really bad. One morning my father never came home and that night our home was attacked by forces of the Wyrm. It was when I saw my mothers throat slashed that I changed and tore every last Wyrm tainted creature their apart. After that I was picked up by werewolves from the Sept my father was apart of and was adopted by an old Shadow Lord who owed my father a favor. He said he would repay it by making sure I became a true Werewolf."

After a small pause Thomas laughed "Brynlof was a hard teacher, but a good one. He taught me to be comfortable in all my forms and how to fight through Kailindo and Klaives, I even have a talent for changing only parts of my body at a time."

[Keira Kelly]

Aoife furrowed her brow. "A black forest? Sounds a wee bit depressing.." she commented. "De land dat I'm from is beautifully green, even more so dan here! I am sorry te hear about yer parents d'ough." she said sadly. She'd heard tales of Garou being killed, sometimes by the Wyrm's minions and sometimes even by normal people. She was just glad that back in Eire, the faol was respected well enough and the minions of the Wyrm were, as of yet, few.

"Changing only parts?" she said with some wonder. "Dat dere must be quite de trick... And useful at times." She gave a short laugh. "So you can control your body to make it do what you want meanwhiles I have no power over me transformation every full moon! Whatever gave us our gifts was on a bit of a lark it seem!" She shook her head, just a bit enviously. She noted that Thomas had not asked her about herself, which would have been the polite thing to do but she supposed he was Ahroun after all. So she would tell him anyways.

"Me, I come from a fair sized village in de heart of Eire." she began. She wasn't really sure how the size of her own home compared to other villages elsewhere; she just didn't have the reference but she'd always thought of it as large compared to the surrounding villages where she came from. "My fat'er was da town leader and well respected. I didn't know my mut'er.. until my First Change. My fat'er had told me she'd died.. or at least would never talk about her so I had only assumed dat she had. Well, den one night I was chased by a whole pack of faol; I t'ought dey were gonna kill me so I did de only t'ing I could, I ran and den I blacked out. When I awoke, a woman told me about what I was. Apparently she was me mut'er d'ough I didn't find dat out till da next day.. She was Garou and had left to be wit' her Pack, leaving me to be raised by Fat'er as not all children of Garou become Garou as you probably know." she explained.

"Well, me fat'er had always worried about de day she'd might take me away." she said with a shrug. "I didn't want to go eit'er but I had to, I needed to learn what it meant to be faol. I stayed with de Fianna pack for almost four summers until I had learned all dat I needed to and den decided to leave; the Pack was too big like I mentioned before and I wanted to see the werld a bit. So here I am!"

She threw Thomas an playful smile again as was her way. "So tell me, Shadow Lord, what do you t'ink of de English and how dey be invading dis land of da Scots?" She wondered if he even know about the imminent conflict brewing between these lands.

[Deathcon]

"Humans spreading the Wyld and Weaver, nothing more. The English wish to civilize the Scots, bringing the Weavers influence. The Scots wish to live in pure freedom and do as they wish, bringing the Wyld. It is a sad thing to see but that is why we exist, to destroy the ones using them as pawns."

[Keira Kelly]

Aoife made an annoyed face. This Shadow Lord.. she supposed he was typical of his tribe; focused more on himself than those around him. She had told him her own story and he had said not a word in reply to it... and that annoyed her. She wanted stories! Conversation! Dialogue! She had commented back about his own background, but this Shadow Lord had completely ignored her attempts to find common ground.

She grunted. "De Wyld is strong in d'ese lands already. Are we not here to achieve balance? We do not need the likes of de English bringing in such change... D'ese lands have prospered for generations.." she said with frustrations. "Besides, I t'ink d'ere might be more to de English coming to Scotland d'an just expansions or oter natural means..." she said, hinting at her own fears. "Da minions of the Wyrm were here fer some reason and I don't t'ink dey are just here to have a nice journey..."

[Deathcon]

"The Wyld is very string here, which is why the Weaver wants to crush the Scots. But the Wyrm is here for a much darker reason. It may have to relate to this upcoming war, or it may have something to do with the presence of a Sept here. Now that I think about it you may be right, maybe the Weaver is the puppet here and the Wyrm the master." HE shivered at the thought the the English were invading on the whim of the Wyrm but... it may be true. "Let us hurry to this Sept, maybe they will have answers for us."

[Keira Kelly]

Aoife bared her teeth slightly at Thomas, though her Shadow Lord companion did not seem to take notice. He had just about repeated what she'd said, not really adding to the conversation in any way. Though she had already directly said she was looking for a pack and pack leader, she didn't know if she could follow a faol who was so.. uncommunicative. A proper leader had to inspire confidence, not just through actions but words as well. As a Galliard, Aoife knew this all too well but she had no desires to lead. What she did know though, was if Thomas did not start sharing more of what was going on in his mind, she might just have to move on, looking for other Garou.

First though, she desired to find out what was going on in this area, not to mention she was still waiting for Ronan to catch up with them. "Let us hope dey do have answers..." she replied quietly. "I'd not like to see dese English invade and next head for my own home..." she added with conviction. She almost thought of herself as human first and Garou second; she'd grown up only knowing normal human custom. She'd hate that villages like her own would be burned and ransacked be it for human conquest or the darker lusts of one of the Triat.

"So.. den, what's it like to be a Shadow Lord?" she asked, hoping that Thomas would give her back more than a one line answer. They were still hours from their destination but she was almost prepared to make it a silent and awkward journey if she couldn't get more speech out of this other faol.

[Deathcon]

"It is very cut throat to be honest with a lot of back stabbing and maneuvering. I was one of the rare few Shadow Lords to have a mentor, most are forced to learn on their own or die. Because of this most of the Shadow Lord pack leaders you see use dirty tactics to get what they want, no matter what it takes." Thomas breathed in and continued with "I try to avoid the dishonorable tactics like blackmail and threats. But I can sneak through a persons house to see what exactly they have up their sleeve, you don't have to take anything but the knowledge of it is enough to prepare for it." Thomas sighed "It's hard being a Shadow Lord and retaining your true honor, I want to win but at the same time I refuse to poison and threaten or scare someone into submission. If you beat them out in the open no one can dispute your victory. Even if you knew he poisoned his blade and because of that you took the antidote to it." Thomas msiled widely.