A First Meeting

[Keira Kelly]

Aoife nodded as she started heading back towards camp. "Ta. Our friends we lost in battle.. we don't know 'deir fate.." she answered sadly. She worried that she knew what had happened but they had found no solid evidence of it. She held out little hope though; they needed to move on and that she would do. She smiled with an impish gleam in her eyes, looking at Thomas. "I'm a Fianna Galliard... I know how to have a good time!" she said with a laugh. "But other than that, I have been told I am quite good at hunting of all kinds." she replied.

As they approached the camp, she glanced at the still light sky. She grunted in annoyance as she remembered. "Tonight will be a full moon, will it not?" she asked. "Perfect, just perfect..." she muttered to herself. As they entered the small camp area, with a good bonfire burning, she was pleased to find that nothing had yet found the carcass of the stag in the short while she'd been away.

[Deathcon]

"Full moons are not so bad" Thomas laughed "Well as for me my skills are rooted in mostly combat, I was taught how to fight with a klaive and how to fight to the fullest potential of a werewolf, using Kailindo." Harvey looked at the stag and said "Impressive."

[Keira Kelly]

Aoife turned a sour look to her new companion. "Maybe not for you... I was unlucky enough to be cursed with having no choice on this moon!" she said with some annoyance as she bent down once again beside the carcass, pulling out her knife and cutting the rest of the usable meat off. She glanced back at Thomas' compliment, looking to see if there was any sarcasm in it but did not see any. "T'anks." she replied. "It took only one shot." she explained, realizing it really was an impressive sized animal she had taken down. "Nice as well; I've seen da Garou fighting style in action and it is effective looking. I wouldn't mind learning it eventually meself!"

[Deathcon]

"I may be skilled enough to teach, maybe one day we will see. So where is the Sept from here?"

[Keira Kelly]

Finishing up, Aoife wiped the blade she held on the grass before pausing, then pointing with the knife. "Da local Sept is Nort' of here, to be sure. Probably be able to reach 'dere by midday tomorrow, maybe a bit later." she answered. She then grabbed one of the biggest chunks of meat, skewering it onto a pointed stick and propping it close over the fire by two other sticks that were already stuck in the ground. There was another set that were taller and more stout. She loaded up the rest of the meat onto a third large stick, and propping that far higher above the fire to where it would get smoked enough to not go bad quickly.

She got up then, going over to the small stream and dunking her hands and the knife in, washing away all the blood from the preparation of the meat. The water was ice cold but it did what it needed to do. She pulled the cleaned blade out, wiping the remaining water carefully off with her heavy fur cloak before replacing the knife once more in its sheath before likewise drying her hands on the fur.

Aoife came back to the fire, digging around in a back she had laying beside her bedroll and pulling out a drinking skin. She took a swig from it before holding it out to Thomas. "Want some good, ol' ale, Ahroun?" she asked with a playful smile. "Tell me, where are you from? Have you travelled far?" she asked, sitting down beside the fire and inviting the Shadow Lord to do the same.

[Deathcon]

Thomas sat down by the fire next to Aoife and took a swig of the drink "Well I've traveled here from the Holy Roman Empire, I met an old Shadow Lord there who took me under his wing and began to train me and afterwords once my training was complete he asked me a favor. He asked me to come to this Sept and help protect because it would need new heroes soon." Thomas sat there for a moment and thought "The whole trip part was weird too, old werewolves who knew my old mentor kept helping me along the way, not even asking where I was going, they just knew."

[Keira Kelly]

Aoife furrowed her brow. "Da Holy Roman Empire?" she repeated quietly. She was from a small village deep in Eire; she wasn't all that familiar with what other lands lay out there yet. "You must have travelled far, 'den." she added, not knowing what else to say. She took the ale back from Thomas, taking another drink herself, glancing over at where Ronan's stuff had been. She noticed that most of it was gone, not all but most. He must have decided to go off hunting for a few days or something. Ah well, she had another travelling companion for now and her fellow Fianna would catch up with them eventually.

"It is quite the honour to be asked what you've been." she replied. She gave a small, annoyed laugh. "Da Sept where I come from, well, it was overcrowded and t'hough me Mutter was of that Sept, I decided I'd rat'er travel and explore than try to fight my way into t'at pecking order..." she told him, sharing a bit of her own background. "You say dis local Sept needs heroes? Any ideas why dey do?" she asked, curious. If there was a chance for good fighting, glory and good drinking, she was interested indeed. "Did dese old faol 'den know somet'ing about this place? Is it under t'reat from somet'ing? We found some Black Spiral Dancers a wee bit back.. but we dealt wit' them well enough and cleaned up da area they had fouled up." she told the other.

"Do ya know any of the faol at dis local Sept?" Aoife asked. She wondered if they would even accept them in or simply turn them away. They had crossed a few Septs in the past months that had done just that; they had often been of singular tribes and didn't want association with others so Aoife and Ronan and continued their journey. Maybe, if Thomas had the word of his mentor backing him, he'd be allowed to stay but Aoife didn't really have such high hopes for herself and Ronan. Perhaps they could look for another Fianna Sept if this local one would have nothing to do with them too.

[Deathcon]

"It is quite far away but it wasn't such a bad trip with the help I receive and I sympathize with you. The fighting is fierce in my old Sept and there are already many great warriors." Thomas took a moment to think about what exactly his Mast Brynlof had said, "Well he wasn't clear when he said, but he made it sound like something very powerful was gathering. But if Black Spiral Dancers are here then that might be the beginning of it, we had a saying in my old Sept: 'New taint brings Old taint.' Dancers are the harbingers of the Wyrm's generals." He sat there thinking for a moment about what this meant, the last time they saw Dancers in his Old Sept they were preparing the way for the biggest Wyrm beast he had seen, and it took down many werewolves before it went down. But if Aoife and hear killed a few Dancers there may be hope yet.

"I know no one at this Sept, I was only told to tell the elders my masters name and that he sent me. He said that would guarantee me and anyone else with me entry as long as I proved my self to the challenge that is bound to happen because I said his name. Brynlof was well known and a powerful fighter, they will want to see what his apprentice can do." Thomas thought for one more moment about what his master told him, he had said to also find a pack, otherwise he would die alone in his battle. "Aoife what do you plan to do when we get to the Sept? Do you know anyone there?"

[Keira Kelly]

Aoife shook her head. "No, I know only of da Sept's existence; not'ing of who is in it or even how dey might be towards outsiders." she answered, pursing her lips. Despite her usual outlook, it was getting depressing with how much rejection they'd already faced from Septs. "We were hoping that we could find a sheltering Sept ourselves." she told Thomas. "If it is true dat somet'ing big is coming, maybe dis Sept will need help... When we get d'ere, I want to find out if dey will need more help. We will bring dem news at least of what we've seen in the area, warn dem of the Black Spiral Dancers. I am also looking our for a pack.... What is a faol wit'out a pack, after all?" she asked with a bit of regret.

[Deathcon]

Thomas nodded and said "I agree, I need a pack as well, Shadow Lords are meant to lead and I have no one. It is a said thing to say but it is true, one day I hope to lead a pack." He thought for a moment and pulled out his klaive "This was given to me by my master as a mark of training coming to an end. It wasn't long after this I made my way here, looking for.... well I have no idea. Glory? Honor? A Pack? Maybe all of these, but hopefully in the end I'll live to tell about it." He put his klaive away and kept staring at the fire.