Elspeth crouched next to the wall, looking at the horrific creature before her. It sported long, sinuous tentacles that reached for her from what would have been a lushly overripe body. Its face was twisted with anger and hatred.

It also stunk so badly of corruption that it brought tears to Elspeth's eyes.

With a narrowing of eyes, Elspeth willed her body to change, transforming from the near-man form to her own horrific man-wolf, or in this case woman-wolf, form and attacked. The fight was over in moments. The fomor was obviously too new or inexperienced to give Elspeth much trouble.

When the creature lay, bloody and unmoving, at her feet, Elspeth heard something off to her right side, farther down the alley. She turned her head to look into the stunned eyes of a small child.

The little girl couldn't have been much more than five years old, and she huddled next to a trashcan, not so much in fear as in shock. She was small and there were circles under her eyes and she was grimey and dirty, but there was an evenness to her features that told Elspeth that the child would be beautiful if she were cleaned up. Obviously she had come upon the fight while Elspeth was distracted.

But Elspeth's mind kept noting her complete lack of fear.

Elspeth shifted down to homid. It wasn't her breed form, but it was bcoming more familiar the longer she walked in it. The little girl smiled at her and then uncurled from her position. For all that she was bone-thin, the child seemed well- made.

Elspeth noticed the blood on her hands and wiped them off on her clothes. She was grateful, once again, that Walker had Dedicated them to her. She reached one hand out to the child, who came willingly enough, though she seemed nervous around the stinking corpse of the fomor. Well, for that matter, Elspeth didn't want any more contact with it than she had to.

Elspeth moved away from the fomor, going farther down the alley, and the child followed her. Elspeth knealt down and the girl reached out to touch her face. Such fearlessness. Could the child be Kin?

Elspeth took a discreet sniff of the child's scent. There was something very strange about her, but Elspeth couldn't quite figure out what. No corruption-taint, not quite Garou, not quite Kin. But no matter, this was a child, a cubling, and obviously motherless.

Sirens screamed in the distance and Elspeth figured that she needed to get back to the den, apartment as the humans called it, and the rest of her pack. "Mother?" she asked the girl, shaping the still-strange sounds of the human tongue, "Father? Pack?"

The child looked puzzled for a moment and then shook her head "no". Elspeth saw the glint of silver at the child's neck, not pure silver, but a shiny white, silver-like metal under the child's collar. She gently pulled a necklace out from under the child's shirt, a pendant on a chain, of a stylized lion. The child shivered a moment and looked up at Elspeth clear-eyed.

The sirens grew closer and Elspeth picked the child up in her arms, the girl was tiny, and took off running. The little girl wrapped her arms around Elspeth's neck and held on.

Walker paced back and forth in the apartment he shared with the rest of his pack. "Where is she?" he growled. Elspeth had left the apartment three hours before, on her own, against his better judgement. She was supposed to be back an hour ago and he was getting frantic. She wasn't ready yet for human society. There was so much she still didn't understand...

There was a knocking on the door and he fairly ran to open it. Elspeth stood there, looking proud of herself, and carrying a very dirty child in her arms. "Where have you been? What happened?"

"Fight. Fomori. Had to hide." Elspeth calmly stepped into the room and, still carrying the child, started hunting around for something.

"Where did you get that child? You can't just pick up a child from somewhere. What about her parents?"

"No mother. No father. No pack. Pup all alone. Saw fight." She paused in her searching. "Saw me. Saw Crinos. No fear." She looked straight into Walker's face. "No fear, Walker-of-Dark-Paths, no fear."

Walker's eyes widened. "Kin?"

"Don't know. Pup alone. Pup strange. Pup need mother. Elspeth be mother." She found what she was looking for, a towel and a large t-shirt. "Pup need cleaning." She started for the bathroom.

Walker threw up his hands in frustration. "I don't understand you sometimes. We can't take care of a child..." But Elspeth had already disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door.

"I wouldn't argue with her, friend." Anders walked into the living room from the kitchen. "Women are strange, and Gaia knows, of all the tribes the Children of Gaia have maternal instict to spare. Not to mention one born wolf. *I* m not about to come between her and a child she s adopted, are you? Elspeth's wanted a child of her own for years."

Walker turned to the seer from the germanic Shadow Lord tribe. "Why this child? Why now? We fight, alot. A child would be an obvious weakness to be exploited."

Anders patted Walker on the shoulder. His friend was a storyteller, a Moon Dancer, a singer of the ways, and a wanderer by his tribal heritage, the egyptian Silent Striders. "Don't worry about it, Mike. We'll deal with it. Somehow we'll deal with it."

Michael Walker flopped down onto the old couch. "I hope so. For all that I'm worried, she's never seemed so happy."

After a while, Elspeth and the little girl emerged from the bathroom, and came out into the living room where Elspeth sat down on the floor and began combing the little girl's long black hair. Walker was shocked to realize that the child was the most beautiful little girl he had ever seen, raven's-wing black hair and sea-green eyes and all. Even dressed in an old Elfquest t- shirt she carried herself with a grace that outshone a great many Silver Fangs he knew.

Anders had gone back into the kitchen and now came out carrying an sandwich, which he handed to the little girl. She smiled at him in thanks and then began to eat, carefully chewing each bite. At Walker's curious look, Anders shrugged. "Kids get hungry, and this one's been underfed."

Walker sighed. "Hey, Elspeth, do you know what her name is?"

Elspeth looked up at him and thought a moment. "Pup not talk. Need give name?"

Walker nodded. "I think we had better. I can get my Glasswalker friends to make up documents for her then. Child," he addressed the girl, "do you want to tell us your name?"

The girl smiled at him and shook her head.

Walker sighed. "Alright. Do you have any family? anyone to take care of you?"

The girl smiled and turned around to embrace Elspeth.

Walker chuckled and Anders joined in. "Well, I suppose that takes care of that." Anders said.

"Yeah, I suppose it does." Walker thinks for a moment. "Well, she's slightly unworldly, so it can't be something overly mundane or trite. I don't know, any ideas, Anders?"

Anders nodded slowly. "Yeah, but it's obscure. She'll likely be teased or something, but it's just pretty enough..."

"What is it?" Walker asked.

"Arcadie Fae, and you spell that F-A-E."

The girl looked up at Anders suddenly, startled, and tears came to her eyes for a moment. Very carefully she stood and walked over to tug on Ander's pants leg. He knealt down and she embraced him. "I think she likes it." he told the others.

Walker nodded. "Looks like that to me. Arcadie Fae Carrolls she is then. I think we'll have her as Elspeth's little sister. Is that alright with you guys."

The two Garou nodded and Elspeth pulled little Arcadie into her arms and the child eventually fell asleep.

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Sent to Werewolf-l on May 1st, 1997 as part of Operation: GlamourGun