[Sodium_noir] a Company of Wolves

[Beth Savage]

Nez, Poe
Uktena, Raven spirit
The Isle of Crabs

Nez woke up stiff and sore, and not in a very good mood. She had been
determined to spend the night on the Isle of Crabs as a sign of her
dedication to the old caern. Now, she rather wished she hadn't. Sand had
managed to work its way into her clothes, the raucous calls of sea gulls
filled the air, and rotting seaweed wasn't the most pleasant scent in
the world. It wouldn't have been so bad if she had brought along a
sleeping bag or maybe a small tent, but Nez hadn't wanted to miss the
last ferry out. Sleeping as a wolf would also have been a lot more
comfortable, but Nez didn't know yet how often humans came to the
island- and she had no desire to be picked up by Animal Control.

One good thing that had come out of her stay was that the spirit of the
land- or some other spirit- had started to talk to her in her
dreams. It was surprising how often the spirits spoke to people- not
directly with words, but indirectly. Her teacher had practically had to
bind and gag Nez to get her to really listen to the world, but
eventually she had taken the lesson to heart.

Spirit-dreams were rarely straight-forward and always filled with
symbols, riddles, and misdirection, but Nez loved exploring them. Before
she even opened her eyes, Nez focused on the dream, repeating it to
herself in order to remember as many details as possible.

It had started with her standing in an old mansion. The woodwork,
furniture, wall decorations, everything was done in a particular style.
Something like Victorian or Gregorian or one of those. A long red runner
had rolled right up to her, so Nez stepped on it. The rug had turned
into some kind of mechanized walkway, carrying Nez down the hall without
the need for her to walk. Out of curiousity, Nez tried to walk, then run
in the opposite direction, but the red rug just moved faster so Nez was
constantly moving in the direction that the rug was. She then tried
walking forward, but this time the rug slowed down and even went
backwards so Nez kept making the same steady progress forward.

The red rug stopped in front of a large wooden door with a giant iron
knocker on it. Nez tried pushing the door open, but even in her Crinos
form, the door didn't even budge. She tried knocking on it, but still
nothing happened. Annoyed, Nez was just about to give up when she heard
a slight noise on the other side. Calling to it, she demanded that the
door be opened. Immediately, the door began to slowly swing open; the
darkness of the interior pouring out of the door into the hall like
thick syrup.

Nez suddenly realized that this might not have been such a good idea.
She backed away from the door, knowing that she should leave, but too
curious about the ooze to do so. She reached out and touched the ooze,
ready to jump back if it tried to attack her. The black ooze lept to her
hand and immeiately engulfed first her hand, then her arm, then started
working along her entire body. Frantic, Nez tried to escape, but she was
caught fast. As the ooze covered her head, casting her into darkness,
Nez called for help.

Suddenly a bright light shone in the sky; it was Nez' moon, the cresent
moon. All the ooze turned to dust and fell away leaving Nez standing in
a featureless dessert. As she watched, the moon turned blood red and
drippped onto the sand. Nez desperately wanted to see what the drops of
moon blood would turn into, but as the moon dimmed, the dessert turned
into a peaceful ocean.

Standing somehow on top of the ocean, Nez felt a pull from below. She
jumped into the water and swam downwards. The water pulled her to the
bottom of the ocean where light never shone, although Nez could still
see. Ahead was a cave in the ocean's floor, that was where the pull was
coming from. There was something important in the cave, something she
really wanted- although she didn't know what that was. Nez swam as hard
as she could, swimming along with the current. She reached the cave
opening and saw that the inside was so dark that no light could ever
penetrate it. That didn't even slow her down. As Nez started to swim
into the cave, she woke up.

Standing up, Nez stretched and tried to get the sand out of her clothing.

*So you're finally awake?* Poe said to her. *Lots of good eating here.
These little crabs are good. Want one?*

"No thanks," Nez yawned. "I'm going to look around a little more."

Nez made a quick circuit of the island, then went back to investigate
things a little more closely. Nez noted which parts of the island could
be seen from the shore, tried to figure out the quickest swim back, and
looked for places where it seemed that people hung out.

There was a lot of garbage here- broken glass, cigarette stubs,
partially burned wood, and plenty more. Frowning, Nez started picking up
old beer cans, then stopped. The spirit that had spoken to them had
incorporated garbage into itself. So maybe some of that stuff belonged
here. If the Bone Gnawers hung out here, it made sense.

That meant that Nez had to figure out which pieces of garbage were
wanted and which weren't. A crab had made a home out of a crushed can. 
An angry gull cawed at Nez while she inspected its nest, which included 
old video tape, string, and a red ribbon. A bunch of tiny fish lived in 
the shelter of a rotted sneaker. Those things were acceptable, so she 
left them alone.

Nez suspected that the broken glass wouldn't be too popular; she didn't 
see anything using it. It was, however, shiny; maybe it attracted 
something to the island. That was something she'd have to watch for.

Besides, she needed to get going. It was time to go digging for secrets.

OOC: Sorry for the delay, but things are now back on track.

OOC: I'm not sure if either of the other Garou are staying on the island 
or not. Nez has some stuff to do that will take one post to do. They 
could plan on meeting up later to check out the neighborhood where the 
wyrm-tainted building is. Or Nez could go alone- it's up to you.