Walks sees herself sitting
at a sand painting humming to herself a song that Cry of Winds taught her
as part of the winter rituals. Slowly the image of Great Wendigo fades
in behind her, basking her in light. Wendigo looks pleased. (As pleased
as Wendigo can look anyhow.)
Walks sees Kyla, in Crinos
form, holding a large machine over her head. It looks similar to
the machine the Technos were using at the Verbena's caern. Kyla slams the
machine down on top of a pattern spider, smashing it and the spider to
tiny bits. As she claps the dust from her hands the image of Pegasus fades
in above her, basking her in light.
Walks sees Jarryd, in homid
form, facing a pack of angry wolves. Although the wolves are showing
all signs of attack and aggression, Jarryd only talks to them, trying to
calm them with words. Unicorn appears at his side, showing her support
and approval.
Walks sees Manny walking as
a tiny ephling of secrets hustles about at his feet. Manny doesn't notice
it. The spirit bounds around taunting Manny, even tapping him on the shoulder.
Manny barely glances over his shoulder to look for it. He keeps walking
away and the dream ends.
First, she sees Kyla in Crinos
form, standing on the top of a mountain. The winds is whipping about
her and rain pours down in torrents. Kyla appears to be cupping her
hands to catch the rain and throwing it back at the clouds. Occasionally
she stops and screams at the rain "Stop it!" But the rain continues and
so do Kyla's attempts to send it back. Zephyr walks by on the clouds
near by shaking his head.
Walks then sees another Garou
(she doesn't recognize him) crouched on the ground. He leaps straight up
in the air...then falls back to earth. He jumps up again, arms flailing
like a drowning swimmer. He points at the ground and shouts, "Let go of
me. Stop making me fall!" and he goes back to trying to float. Zephyr
walks by on a tree branch shaking his head.
She then sees another Garou
standing on a plain, holding his hands up to the sun, trying to shade the
plains from the sunlight. But naturally he can't block the sun from the
entire plain; he looks very frustrated. Zephyr stands next to Walks.
"You need to learn their lesson as well," he says.
Walks is sitting in house,
the Morningstars' house. She's sitting in the kitchen with Danielle. Danielle
is handing her a big box (it's called a suitcase, isn't it?).
"I hope you have a safe trip."
she says.
"Where am I going?" Walks
asks.
"To our brother's house, for
your quest." Danielle says, handing Walks a milk carton.
Walks is standing in room with
cement walls and no doors or ceiling, the sun is shining down brightly
from a blue sky. A bubbling spring of water is filling the room with clear,
clean water that is up to
Walks' (homid) waist.
On one wall is an old fixture
that looks like a male face out of which more clean water is coming. Opposite
this is another face, covered with cobwebs. Walks pulls the cobwebs aside
and suddenly more clear water starts to pour from the mouth into the room.
On the third wall is a faucet that, while a little rusty, is also pouring
water in. Madonna appears, takes Crinos form and strikes the fourth
wall. A small crack appears and clean water starts to trickle in through
the wall. Madonna disappears.
Walk notices another small
bubbling fountain in one corner. In a far corner the floor becomes muddy
and dirty, brackish water appears to be seeping into the room. Two fomori
appear on the top of one of the walls with a large, rusty barrel and start
dumping thick gobs of filthy goo into the room. The water is getting dirtier.
Banes appear and start throwing rocks and dirt clods. The rocks are aimed
at Walks, the
dirt toward the central fountain. A sinister
man floats down from the wall to turn off the faucet. The water stops from
that source, the room grows dirtier. The filth is splashing onto the walls.
A voice: "The Hand of Gaia
must be Strong and Free."
The Room Full of Fountains, Part II
Walks becomes aware of her surroundings as though waking up in the middle of action
The sinister man has turned off the water flowing from the faucet in the wall, he floats back up to the top of the wall and disappears.
The water is slowly receding. Walks can now
see that there is a ledge along the wall. On the ledge comes a deer and
a wolf and a bear and a fox, and a lynx and several songbirds and a family
of humans. They stare at the lowering water, made dirty by the servants
of the Wyrm.
Some of the animals sniff the water warily.
Some of the animals try to drink the water, those that do begin to look
sickly, others simply walk away, down the ledge and out of sight.
The humans try to drink of the water, they too look weakened.
With the ledge no longer crowded, an greasy looking
wolf (like a Spiral) stalks into view. A shadowy bane appears above
the heads of those remaining. Lust/hunger is visible on the faces
on the Wyrm creatures.
The water is down to Walks' knees. The Dark
Wolf on the ledge looks at her mockingly and then past her to one of the
fountains on the wall. The Dark Wolf is laughing. Another Dark
Wolf crouches in the far corner of the room, eyes and nose just above the
water level, looking at Walks.
The voice: "Remember. Strength is remembered."
Room Full of Fountains, Part III: Searching for Water?
"It's dry!" shouts Manny. The pump he's working is barely delivering a few drops of water no matter how fast he pumps the handle, even in Crinos form.
"Well, we're running out!" says Darren Lexus as he uncaps a bottle of Perrier. There seem to be hundreds of empty bottles scattered around behind him.
"I'm looking..." Kyla is driving her spear into the earth with great force, driving it almost all the way to the end of the shaft. The ground shakes each time. She looks and sniffs into each hole, but nothing comes out.
"PhaaHg! Terrible!" Garth is drinking from a shallow brackish pool surrounded by body parts of Black Spiral Dancers.
Stanley is pulling an old dusty canteen out of the hole he's dug. "When did this come from?" he asks. Madonna, supervising his efforts says, "Well it's not from around here."
They open it. Water pours forth.
Room Full of Fountains, Part IV: Finale
Walks is standing in the room full of fountains. The Spirals in Lupus and Hispo forms are beginning to take slow, stalking steps toward her. Before they can attack The Pack appears in the room: Kyla, spear in hand, stands protectively by Walks; Jarryd and Derrick each begin to corner one of the Wyrmwolves, and Manny sniffs around the perimeter of the room, searching...
A voice: "Remember the strength of the Past."
Manny snorts water out of his nose, "But, where is it?" The water is receding. The people and animals on the platform can't reach the water anymore. Walks recognizes some of the Glass Walkers among the humans on the platform.
A voice: "The memory of Gaia Unified holds the key."
The Spirals are retreating from Derrick and Jarryd. The know they can't beat The Pack, but their work here is done. The water is dirty, the People are thirsty and will die, eventually.
A voice: "Connect to the Past."
"This is making no sense!" says Derrick, not taking his eye of his adversary.
Some spiders are making webs on the faucet in the wall, clogging the flow of water.
"Guide us, Walks..." says Kyla.
"THERE!" Walks shouts, pointing to a spot in the air.
Kyla strikes that very spot with her spear and the
sky tears open and a column of cool water pours down flooding the room.
The wave of it first hitting the surface sweeps the spider off the faucet.
The Spirals flee.
Walks challenged Bite of Frost to recognize her as Rank 4. Bite of Frost had her perform a traditional Wendigo ceremony known as the Sun Dance. It is a test of stamina that uses pain to clear the mind and to reassure the spirits of the Garou's dedication. When properly performed, the ceremony ends when the Garou receives a vision of the future. This (to the best of my recollection) was Walks' vision.
You see a wolf limping, trailing blood behind it
in the snow. It struggles to pull itself to the top of a cliff before
it collapses in exhaustion. From the cliff you can see the whole
panorama of the Umbra laid out below you. Above are Hyperion and
Luna.
A light appears on the horizon, glowing red.
It rises in the sky until it is opposite Hyperion, casting shadows on the
ground instead of light. The line where light and shadows meet falls
across the panting wolf and along the trail of blood. Fomori spring
up in the shadows, Gaian spirits in the light.
The Sept is preparing for war! A line of Black Furies
is filing out of a Moon Bridge and Kyla is issuing each one of them a spear.
A group of humans and kin are sitting in the Hunter's
clearing checking weapons and putting on camouflage makeup.
The Wendigo are putting on headdresses and war paint.
Bite of Frost grumbles, "We could use more warriors."
"I'm here!" pipes up a cheerful voice behind Walks.
She and the rest of the Pack turn around and find no one there. "I'll help!"
says the vaguely familiar voice, again behind them.
Spinning around, again they see no one.
"Oh, stop turning around," says the voice. "I want
to be behind you."
On the ground in front of the Pack is a paw print.