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"Probably not. We have too many other ways to settle disputes.

Tn1e Silverheels of the Sept of the Hand of Gaia arose from among his packmates and stepped to the center of the ring; Hack went to where Half Moons were gathering to judge. Ringer wondered how many years collectively had gone to legal wrangling while species went extinct daily. Gaia, forgive us for the snail darter. In the distance, a band was playing. He couldn't tell who. ~kn~rU1.f.NPJ'& a~,~4 P~trn~ IV111"///11tt The two heroes circled in the council ring. They disputed judges, argued over what gamecraft was appropriate. Finally a Garou approached armed and in jungle fatigues. "Warriors of Gaia! War not with each other. Winter-Stars, let us return to our seats. There is much that we must attend to." Rich sat bolt upright, startled into Crinos.

"Mule! That's Garret Faithful! Look, Ringer!"

Ringer saw the hero lead Winter-Stars toward the ranks of chairs that the Knights had erected. Garret's ash-blond hair and kingly features made him as hard to ignore as a battlefield flare. A female Knight sat by Winter-Stars and spoke into his ear.

"So his alpha can just call him off like that?"

Ringer was curious.

Rich leaned closer. "He called war discipline on him. The Knights are fighting down there in the Amazon; Garret can't be challenged until the Garou withdraw. Believe me, he's not power hungry. But he's the only one they'lllisten to." As well as a hero to Full Moons, Rich didn't add. That made sense, Ringer thought. No anarchists in foxholes.

"Especially not in a sacred place. That's the biggest rule of all." !:!Pit Jffnf%6 jyp Ad'/IP,~ %11/ c;,11.14./11 c;,",.,~ fr .6 (/Jp,km;,f "This isacaern here? At Woodstock?" )one looked at a display of Gnosis on her Visor's screen. "Is there someone here all the time?"

"No, the caern is further away. There used to be one here, probably a Croatan spirit-mound. I don't know the sept. I know at the original Woodstock a spirit came, Smoke Ring; he was happiest when everyone was wasted.

This is a powerful place, no lie. I think that Justice and Pearl want to see if they can open the caern here ... if there is even anything left. Somehow I doubt it; I mean, this festival wasn't spontaneous. It was funded, advertised, all that. Some of the people here are sincere, but it's not as sacred as it could have been." The moot was breaking up into songs and stories, Eric the guitarist and a girl with a flute setting up to play for the Garou.

"I think that the humans are safer with us here than not. I know, bringing humans and the People together like this is a little weird. But it can really dispel suspicion that there's something weird going on if people walk through a park and don't see anything strange. Hiding in plain sight has saved a lotofGarou."

"What if there's trouble?"

"Other tribes blame it on us 'breaking the Litany' again. Funny, when we save a caern they aren't as quick to praise us. Caerns and septs have to make these decisions themselves. So always ask if you bring someone, anyone. The Skinner may be dead but there are many just as bad."

The Pipe of Gaia passed, along with a firepot and tongs for lighting it with a coal. Ringer drew on it as it came to him: tobacco and kinnickinnick, traditional among the Children. He blew smoke, satisfied with the trip, with the pack, with Gaia.

C'~ 11F:~T/P~tr.IW PMctt fV.IfttNf/ttr !:IP~t c;,,~ "So Gaia doesn't, like, actually mind us fighting?"

Ringer had called up picture-s of Harpy knives into the Visor screen and was rotating them. The council had ended and the pack returned to their campsite.

"We need to avoid fighting. To seek peace, nonviolent-" A growl interrupted her.

"Gaia isn't nonviolent. Wolverines kill for pleasure and cats torture mice." Hack's tail showed him frowning. "The idea of pursuing peace is something that Mandy and I look at differently. But war, human war, is something neither of us likes. Ants fight, but they don't waste continent5. doing it."

Mandy spoke again. "This is the precept of the Litany that makes us different from the other tribes.

We take on an extra precept to remind us that we are Gaia's defenders, and that one of the ways we fight for Her is to seek peace."

A a/HJ tftrn:Ptn tJ/ /1}p;£q JYe~YJP(yjW "So what about the other tribes?"

Mandy took on the air of a lecturer, saying "There are no other tribes. All Garou are children of Gaia.

The others do not understand this, and the Garou suffer for it."

Ringer sighed. "Okay, how about this. What about che other Garou?The ones who don't follow Unicorn? I really need to know this stuff, so can we drop the politics?" 8_4c.k :f:ltr/4/ "Well, the closest to us are really the Black Furies.

They send their Garou sons to us. Like Hack. His dam, The-Motion-of-Light-in-Water, she's a Fury lupus who runs with a pack down in Virginia. Pupped at Sunset Sea cacm and left him, only Garou she ever birthed. We are really one tribe: 'Unicorn and Pegasus leave the same hoofprint,' as the Crescent Moons say. Their numbers diminish as the years go by. Not surprising when they're all women and all warriors. If the Twelve Tribes are to fight the War of the Apocalypse together, we had best hurry."

"They're all women? Are they lesbos? This sounds crazy."

"No, they hate the way men treat women - they remember every tale of rape or gang-rape, forced marriages, slavery, things like that. And no, they aren't a tribe of lesbians; most I know are hetero. They keep some of their sons, after all: the metis. Really, they're a warrior society more than a tribe. And they are mad women: mad about the cruelty of men, about the ruin of the wild. Good friends, but don't get too close." 8tYF~d {f,N{.I<Jd/".1 Ringer stroked Hack's wolf fur, thinking that he was close enough to Fury flesh and blood when he did so. "I won't. I met some Bone Gnawers once and they seemed like great guys. We were passing a bottle of shine round and telling dirty stories ... why are you looking at me that way?"

"The Gnawers are good allies. Just ... a little tacky. l mean, they have fleas. Some of them."

Ringer suppressed an urge to scratch. "Well, I liked them. Down to earth, maybe."

Rich growled. "They are the best friends I ever had. Gnawers spoke for me in moot when Children of Gaia would not. They love metis as well as two-legs.

Honor to the sons of Rat!" He seemed to consider the matter settled. .:J:ltrFHM' "Rich, your mother was of the Fianna, as you told us." ]one leaned forward. "What are they really like?"

"They are my mother's tribe, not mine. They love drink, war, honor, singing. They love the good things in life, but they scorn the bad things - as they define them. They hate metis and all the Fera. They would have let my mother die birthing and then let me die. 1 don't own them as my people."

Mandy said, "The Fianna are good warriors, but Gaia needs peace. They are great revelers, but Gaia needs hard work. They need to know that great tales are spun of peace; we could win them with such words.

Still, they are closer to us than most other tribes ... keep Rich's words in mind. There's another tribe you should worry about, though .... cA"'ptex Two: TAe Qr-ove eft# tJ/fdhl-ft "The Get? Why?" asked the younger woman.

"They're the Germans ... Scandahoovians, whatever, right? Are they all crazy? Nazi types?"

"Most Get I know would pull your intestines out through your throat for calling them Nazis. They believe in the strong dominating the weak, but the way this one Get put it, they thought the Nazi party was governed by the weak. But as for being crazy - well, yeah. They are given to war, enough that I fear BeastOf-War lives in them. They hate us for seeking peace, hate all humans-"

"Wolves too. I know," said Hack.

"-Who aren't 'pure' enough for them. So wolves that are part dog, humans who are, well, anything but white, they don't like. And Ringerthey don't like gay people either, even when the Get practice some ... violent homo-stuff themselves. Maybe if they saw how strong we are in different ways, how hard we struggle, that what we seek is purer than anyone's hate, purer than anyone's race, that peace is stronger than giving in to Rage, maybe then they would struggle as hard for peace as for victory. Maybe."

C:./iu /1)~/".1 "Now, the Glass Walkers are more like us. They love the city; we just don't mind it. We want peace; I don't know what they want. But they get a lot of crap from the other tribes for being too close to the Weaver, JUSt like we do. And they are Weaverish , So trust a Walker, but not too closely. Okay?"

"Okay," Ringer had met a few Glass W alkers.

Cool and easy to get along with, not like you'd think.

Jone, now, was almost one herself with her website and her wolfcam . :f<~Jr/ rJ'IiiPw Hack said, "Now, there's a tribe you haven't mentioned. Ringer, stay the hell away from the Red Talons."

"The who?"

"They're a tribe of lupus, all lupus, all the time.

And they mean it! They hate everything human, hate the human half of themselves. I have known a few, and they were angry with me, even, because l live with humans. I don't know what they will do when there's no wilderness left: for them, really, the Apocalypse is right now. And we're part of it."

Jff~.Nk~ "The caern where we couldn't stop, in Ohio ...

Mandy, who are the Shadow Lords?"

"The Garou of the Slavic nations. "'Kings of ebony darkness', at least in their own imaginations. They're really more like kings of the spoiled potato salad. They love telling other Garou what to do, and they boss their Kin around really badly. A lot of their Kin leave, even go to other tribes. They love darkness, dark magic; it all stinks."

"Why haven't the other tribes gotten rid of them if they're that bad?"

She sighed, and there was a long pause before she answered. "Because they're good at what they do.

Because they can think like our enemies, even to the point of outmaneuvering them. Because they play politics so well that people figure they don't mind Shadow Lords being manipulative if the sept alliances wind up stronger for it. Because they have a long history of getting their hands dirty when other tribes would balk at doing something dishonorable, even if it was for the good of the Nation. Because some people are scared of challenging them. Because we need all the help we can get. Can we talk about somebody else?"

Jlfo~tr .hrh$1 "The Silver Fangs, on the other hand, are pretty decent except for their crazy hero stuff. King Albrecht, now, he's brave as the day is long. If they'd help us make peace between the tribes, maybe we'd have a chance.

A lot ofGarou really respect them."

"I thought you hated patriarchal authority figures?" }one's smile was teasing.

"Well, like Hack pointed out, those Garou with strong wolf blood respect authority. They like strong alphas. The Silver Fangs are just the ones who happen to have the traditional reputation as strong leaders, even if it's not always accurate.

JJ~n.ff#~r.t "Speaking of respect, the Striders deserve some. If you meet a lone Garou, especially a long way from everything, he's likely a Silent Strider. Pretty tough customers. You'll meet some someday, maybe. They're wanderers, go from caem to caem, sept to sept. They know a lot of secrets."

UK/PINf "Really? I thought the greatest mystics were the Uktena."

"Well, they know a lot too. They will work with us readily enough, but they keep what they want to know to themselves. We are alike in a lot of ways. We both want justice more than fighting, and we both take in all the world's peoples. But they're not really about breaking down boundaries the way we are - the way they tell it, there are some things better left as an individual's burden." She shook her head. "And the way they put it, I'm not inclined to disagree."

CA.i/4re"' of (Je;.ie;.

IV~!~P "So they're not exclusively Native American any more?" ''Nope. The Uktena are pretty pragmatic that way.

Now, the Wendigo are not like that. They want war, want death, really. As often as we go to them seeking aid, they send us back with insults. I don't know how many Wendigo are left; the only one who has an open history of dealing with Unicorn's people these days is a white boy, and I wonder if he speaks for the rest of the tribe. Maybe there are more like him. Maybe not." ffiriJ!~~r.t "Haven't we missed a tribe?"

"No, they missed us. Or maybe we failed them. Or something. Oh, Gaia .... " She paused. "You have no idea how badly the elders were shaken up when the Stargazers left."

"Left?You mean, they weren't exterminated ?They just quit?"

"No, they didn't quit - well, they didn't quit being Garou. They just quit the Garou Nation. They were losing a lot of ground back in their homelands, the way I heard it; Tibet, you know. So the Stargazers drifted further and further from us. Eventually they just: left, the few hundred that were all that remained of the tribe. It hit us pretty har ." She sighed heavily. "I mean, we do all these things to try and get the tribes working together, and all of a sudden a tribe says 'Thanks, your help will no longer be required.' It was like ... it was like being told flat-out that we'd failed, that we were no good. That they didn't trust us to get their backs, or that we couldn't convince them the Nation was worth the effort. And of all the tribes, they were the closest to us ideologically, I think. It hurt. It hurt bad. And you're left there like you'd just gone through an awful breakup, wondering 'was it me?'" ~.&4/h There was an uncomfortable pause then, before Ringer made a try to change the subject.

"Mandy, you talked about the Wars of Rage before. Do the Children of Gaia have any contact with the Fera, I hear folks call them?"

"All that we can. Some will not speak to any Garou, even to us. Some find us their preferred negotiators; others find more kinship with other tribes, like the Gnawers. It's always tense going."

AIN1,J411 "There are spider people, and they have nothing to do with us. Spider people. How weird is that? As tales say that they drink blood, drink only blood, this is perhaps best. I hear they're not even Gaia's people - that they're children of the Weaver more than anything else.

I don't believe it - after all, it was that kind of shortsightedness that made Garou believe the Dragon People were of the Wynn - but from all I've heard, the spider people have never acted friendly toward any Garou, or even acted like they wanted revenge. They're just ... on the outside, as much a myth as anything else." .&v/# "There are Bastet left, though. The great cats. I've caught the scent of one, a cougar-kin down south in the Sierra Nevadas. They're an aloof people themselves; !understand the ones in Africa tend to be more inclined to talk with Garou, since it's their homeland and they have less to fear from werewolves there. But in the Americas, the Bastet are cougar and jaguar breed and neither one is particularly friendly. I've heard tell that from all the watching they do, they're well aware of the divisions between tribes, and I've heard rumors that angry Bastet stalked and killed a pack of Garou, sparing only one of the Children of Gaiabut rumors only, no proof. They're a proud folk. If you ever meet one, be polite and respectful, and don't approach anything looking like their territory unless invited." anrx "Are there any shapeshifters that aren't proud to a fault?"

Mandy smiled. "Just one bunch I can think ofthe Corax. Raven-shifters. Some of them act like Raven from the Native American stories, all wise and insightful; others are more easy-going. I met one once; it was the only other Fera I've ever seen. But they're close to us, the Coraxas close as any Fera can ever be to a Garou. They remember our old role as peacemakers, and don't blame us for failing to do enough.

They know a lot - they fly high, and they see almost everything. Almost everything. There are a few things even the Corax can't find."

"Like?"

"Like the Gurahl."

"They were the Sons of the Bear, right?"

"Yeah. They perished in the Wars of Rage. They were Mother's healers. Everything we do is just a poor shadow of what they were allegedly capable of; if the War of Rage hadn't happened and the Gurahl hadn't been exterminated, some say Gaia wouldn't have chosen us to be Her new healers. But we're not the originals. She needs them now, more than ever. The Wars might have doomed Mother; would that we were better peace-knotters."

CA.t<..pfe..r-Two: T Ae.. C]r-ove..

"Lost to us as well are the Mokolesnake, lizard, alligator. They died, pretty much all of them, long ago.

We know almost nothing of them."

"But the Glass Walker guy said, in Australia, he found some, alive, the Great Dragons." ]one was excited. "If any are alive ... the prophecy! Maybe it could come true!"

"Seekers! Go find that tale-teller, and hear what he has to say. Maybe he can lead you to the Dragon Folk; maybe they want to be left alone." She smiled ruefully.

"But Gaia knows, we could all use some good news." ~11.1.6'1.1- "lt's kind of ironic, I guess, that the Gurahl are gone and the Ratkin aren't. Gaia's healers are goneHer force for population control is still working at it."

"Ratkin? Wererats? They're still around?"

"Yep. The Bone Gnawers get all tight-lipped on the subject, which is kind of proof in itself; if the Ratkin were dead, what would they have to hide? So they must still be around; you don't see them because they don't want you to. They spread sickness, destroy people's food! They have no use for us at all. What does a rat care for peace? But when West Nile virus breaks out in Massachusetts, ora building collapses in Kenya ... they still watch over humans, still kill and destroy."

"They sound pretty evil."

"They do, but really they're just rats. That's all." ~p,.6w "And then there are the sharks. People say they're evil, too, but they're not. They don't hold any grudges against us; I don't know if they think about us at all. It's not that we slaughtered them, because we didn't.

There is simply nothing to discuss. They keep to sea, we to land. Simple as that."

Offidr..t "So if some of the Fera act like enemies and others are kind of like friends, what's that mean for the others?"

"The others?"

"You know." ]one looked a little embarrassed.

"The others."

"Ah."

Wr/lljJ/M.I "I suppose you know from all the ballads of great heroes opposing the Leeches that vampires are real."

"The Wyrm's slaves. Destroy them." Hack was the Judge, cold as winter moon.

"Hack, you ever tried to get permission to build something in a city? Ever been to an art museum? Ever made deals with the Glass Walkers? Yeah, vampires might be evil and pretty crazy, but they own a lot of stuff.

So keep in mind that Gaia's peace isn'tjustaboutGarou."

"You tread on cracking ice."

"Look, think about it. Some of them have been around for as long as our tribe has been a tribe. Think about all the things they must know, all the stories they could tell. Can't you see just how much we could gain if we actually managed to make peace with them?"

The lupus' eyes were hard and cold. "I suppose there aren't enough ~tories of Children of Gaia deciding to try trusting their most ancient enemies and getting stabbed in the back for their trouble? Not enough stories about us getting massacred for opening our arms to real monsters? You want to write a few more?" He locked eyes with Mandy for a moment, then looked away. "Fine. Go ahead. Dream your dreams."

"Okay, we get it, vampires," Ringer hastily interjected. "Are there more?" ;WI!fiU "There are. A lot of the old stories about shapeshifting shamans and wise magic-workers are obviously based on us, right? But there are humans who can do this sort of thing, too. For them, all those occult books and kabalistic rituals are real. They're a wild bunch. They're basically humans with Gifts, Kin and otherwise. I don't know what spirits give them the Gifts: maybe their own spirits do it. Some of them, the ones who walk in dreams, the ones who call to the Old Blood, they're not so bad. But the rest are dangerous.

They drink off the life from caems, evil or crazy, I don't know which. Avoid them if you can."

H~tn:hr.t "Not all of them work magic in the same way, though." )one commented, tapping on her screen as she did so, "I've heard of something new. Not mages.

Not all of them hostile - sometimes they just don't understand. They're hunting us, really. Blindly." She turned the little Visor and showed them a snapshot of an elderly woman lifting a Crinos Garou off the ground, the huge furry form frozen. Underneath was a small child's body. "Some kind of powers, from Gaia knows where ... watch out. We can't always counter them."

IVM.I/W "These are ghosts, like on Halloween. The Striders are said to speak to them. I'm glad I'm not a Strider.

Restless Dead. Yeesh."

"I would know more. There is knowledge that I would have of them. Where can these Strider adepts be found?" Rich leaned closer to the fire.

"I dunno. They're always moving round. )one, ever see Striders on Wyrd\V'olf?"

"Uh ... yeah. There's one who posts from a palmtop whenever he can afford a web cafe: Mallorca, Piraeus, Jebal Ali, Goa. Another hacks into phonelines. But, hey, I see ghosts on the net sometimes too: people, posting, when I know they're dead. So maybe, packmate, we can try looking there."

"I will ask for your help. Thank you." a"'~"#J$1 "Hey, Rich, how much do you know about the Fianna stories of the fairies?"

"The Good Folk? Damn little. Just enough to understand that they're not talking about pixies that come out when you've had too much to drink." ''No, they're real," added Mandy. "I don't know much more except that they live in some kind of freakedout alternate reality; under mounds and inside little rings of white mushrooms. )one, you know any more?"

The younger woman shook her dread locked head.

"Uh-uh. Lots of stuff the Fianna are always saying; some say they can imagine anything they want and make it real, some say that they live in invisible castles.

Don't know much about them; they don't have email in Fairyland." tlft!/M l(m:/ t/~ff; Ringer walked beyond the crowd, into the emptiness between the airstrip and the chainlink fence.

Mandy strolled beside him, Garou sight making them surefooted even in the almost -darkness. "Unicorn, huh?"

"Yeah, One-Hom 's the big guy. Gal."

"What is with that? Seems pretty wimpy for a totem spirit."

"I don't know. She's been with us a long time, since Babylon, Sumer, all that, when she was Rimi for us, fighting Sirrush, the Dragon of the Ishtar Gate. She is Gaia's Love made real, healer, whole-er, balancer. We aid the weak, seek for justice, defend the oppressed in his name. She's a fierce fighter too - that hom is sharp."

"I thought ... you know, unicon1s and rainbows .... "

Ringer grinned.

"You handle the rainbow crap, kiddo. Just know this: defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. Strike for the good and the true, that's Unicorn's way."

"So Unicorn's pretty tough, eh? You ever see her?"

"Yeah ... she came through the caem one time years ago, when Summer took over from Concepcion, who was our Voice before her. We all were sitting in the rocks near the caern's heart, and we saw flowers and weeds blowing ... he came as a horse that day. His horn was as long as my arm. I was just a kid, so I didn't know why my mom and dad held each other so tight.

The other time I saw her was in the Homeland, but I was only there a little while. She's everywhere there: each person sees her differently."

"I. .. dream sometimes about her ... well, him, I think. That he's all wild, like with a lion's mane. He doesn't even look like a unicorn, really. He's got a lot of power, speed. It's ... exciting."

"That's great, Ringer. Yeah, everyone sees her differently; she's not really male or female, but we see what we expect."

"You mentioned the Homeland. What ... is that like?"

"Like peace, like home. It's supposed to be like Earth was before the Wyrm fell. Who knows? It's beautiful, peaceful. Your moon is always in the sky, forests of game, rivers offish, fruits and berries and stuff. There are Kin who live there all the time, usually people who would have died if they'd stayed on Earth. You always see Unicorn, and she's always ... like you. If you're a warrior, she-or he is strong and proud, big and buff. If you're a delicate artsy type, she's slight and pale. Mine?

Major quarterhorse action, pure country club." She laughed. "But Kareema Okavanga's was a zebra with a horn. So you never know. But I never went back to the Homeland. Too much work here. I mean, Paradise, it's cool, but there are no problems, nothing to do, really."

"Sounds nice. I'm too busy as it is." Ringer wondered: endless peace, endless rest. Was it death that she described? "What about this Summer Country everyone was talking about the other night when Bruce brought out that really great mead?"

"The Summer Country is a perfect place of Gaia's love made real. Basically one giant bubble bath or something. It is supposed to be a place where there is no hatred, suffering or evil. Only catch is that to enter, you have to experience and accept the Mother's love perfectly." She took a deep breath, stepped over a stone. "I've never been there."There was a wistful note in her voice. "It does sound nice, doesn't it. Like Heaven, I guess." Then she turned round on the darkened grassy field. "Well, shall we go on backr' She strode toward the camping area, and Ringer followed.

The crowd roared and surged: like the waves off Mendocino or at Sunset Sea, Ringer thought. He could feel the music vibrating in his guts, feel the motion of the pit-and something else. Yelling with the others, he tried to sort it out. What was different here?

Gnosis.

It was weak, but it was there. Packed in so close, bodies hitting each other, he could feel Gaia's power in c A(:..pf erTwo: TA.e Grove the humans, Kin and Garou who danced to Metallica.

Shirtless, sweat-slick, he wondered whether humans could feel this too. Kin could sometimes, he knew. It felt ... strong, not as strong as a caem's heart, but remarkably connecting all the same. He was by the sound booth, on the edge of the crowd.

The power he felt gave him an idea. He'd never tried this, wouldn't try it, but. .. the energy was positive, the crowd so connected, so gathered. "Yo, dude, give me a leg up, willya ?" Ringer took off his shoes and stuffed them in his pockets. Will l get dropped? Willi get stepped on? Rage could heal him if he wanted it to, but humans could get hurt badly .. .. The guy held out his cupped hands and Ringer stepped up and onto ... nothing.

Hands everywhere rose, held him up. He tensed at all the hands, along his back, his ass, his legs, thentry to relax. Let the power earth itself. He got his bearings from a painting on the peace wall, of the world supported by the hands, paws, hooves, of a hundred species of creatures. It's cool, no one's gonna let you fall.

No one's gonna hurt you.lt was like a massage, all those hands, a flight of hands, all over him. I'm not in control.

Then, stranger, No one's in control. No one is pushing me anywhere; it's the crowd, the will of the crowd ... strange.

He was caressed, flying, hands touching him, anonymous, supporting, trusting. Earlier he'd seen a guy fall before, and the crowd part and help him up. He'd never seen that at a concert before. He let the Gnosis of the crowd (from where, he wondered?) wash over him.

Incredible , like kissing, he thought. But they're both about letting someone touch you, both about trust, I guess.

The stage loomed ahead and a bouncer pushed him away before he could land there. The crowd carried him back and then many hands lowered him down, that flying feeling refusing to leave.

The band finished "Fade to White" and the crowd screamed its approval, Ringer joining, listening to the interplay of a thousand voices. What message hid there, that no one person knew?

"Have a good time?" It was Rich, shirtless in the sticky heat and big as a mountain. Hard to look at his huge Homid form and think that his Crinos was half again as big.

"Gaia, it's so fun! I could feel-," The Veil! Protect the Veil! he thought, "- the energy. It was really positive, really charged me up." The older man laid an arm on his shoulder, shook him gently.

"Yeah, I can feel it. You gonna stay for more?"

"Sure, might just sit for a while. Uh ... you can stay too."

They sat and listened to the band, watched the dancing crowd, and Ringer wondered again at the sensation of crowdsurfing. Awesomely damn fly. And more than that ....

"Rich, the power, you said I was full of it, right?"

"You're usually full of it, packmate."

"Yeah, thanks, asshole. Okay, look, when I was surfing, was that, like, a connection to Gaia? Like, when I was floating, kinda, on top of all those guys, all those people, was I, all like connecting to Gaia through them? Can that happen?"

Rich frowned, visibly putting on his official role as a The urge while a guitar solo wound on and on. "Yeah.

It can, like in the Rite of ... some rites. I know rites where you can do that. If there's a lotofGnosis floating ruunJ from human::;, Garuu, even the ::;pirit::;."

"Were there spirits in that crowd?"

"It can happen, yeah. An Uktena I know used to study with some wonder-workers, voodoo chicks, and they said that spirits always come when the drumming's good. That's probably how it used to be, when the spirits had an easier time connecting with people, but now it's a lot rarer. Most humans just don't get the spirit connection - they walk on the land, not with it." He looked out across the crowd. "I felt it, too. A bit.

More than there should have been. Maybe the spirits were there, shedding Gnosis like ... like body heat."

"Wow, freaky. Why would they do that?"

"I think - here's something that spirits do. They come to a mortal, like us. They want to see with our eyes, feel what we feel. Like if you're wasted or with some chick -or some guy or whoever, they want in." The two Garou both laughed. "Sorry." Rich had had a couple of beers, Ringer realized. Or more. "So they come down, the drumsthat's what I've heard-open the door up for them, and they come, ride the people, get what they want. So they might spill a little Gnosis on the crowd in return, or just because they feel good."

"Awesome. You ever crowdsurf?"

"Naw. Big guy like me can't."

Rich looked away, and Ringer realized that Rage was the reason, not size. Rich, Wyrm-foe, werewolf and wonder-maker, was afraid. Not for himself, for humans, for soft fragile humans who'd be tom to bits when Rich's anger erupted. Damn. I never saw it in him.

He felt sorry for the great metis, then vaguely guilty. It could have happened with me, tOO. With any of us, and I just went and did it anyway Like I wasn't afraid. And he didn't stop me because he trusted me-more than he trusts himself. I wish ... Rich could see how good a man he really is. It was a thought to wish on, to work on. It was a good thought. They sat there silently then, enjoying the humans, enjoying Gaia.

Ringer was walking to the porta-showers that the festival had set up. Maybe, he thought, I'm too human.

Hack doesn't even care how I smell ....

"Hey, you're withJone Palladino's pack, right?" It was Soldier-of-Paradise, towel over his shoulders.

"Yeah. Kevin. Ringer, I guess, here. Uh, good story, the one about Crete." Why, Ringer wondered, am I so tongue-tied?

"Thanks, whatever. Just somethin' I heard from that professor. Hey, glad you guys made it. Knew Jone from a while back - who all else is with you?" The Ragabash carried a spongebag; the ragged T-shirt he wore showed the flames and snakes inked into his shoulders. Was it a kid's craziness that got him the tattoos, Ringer wondered, or the urge to take all the pain without Raging, or something more?

"Mandy Barret, she's the alpha, I guess, and Rich, rhe big guy, and Snow Falling on Hackberries. Hack."

Why, Ringer wondered, do I feel light as a feather, just saying his name?

"Yeah, I met y'all. Hey, it's none'a my business," rhe little man went on in his maybe-Oklahoma drawl, "but you and the wolf ... you two together?"

Why not tell him the truth?Not like he'sgonna mess with me, Ringer thought. His heart still flip-flopped, from a life in the closet. "Yeah, he's ... I mean, we're ... "

"Yeah. I could tell. Hey, it's awright. Just ... you know, don't be a shit about it. You know? And-."

"Yeah?"

Soldier-of-Paradise was grinning. "It makes you happy, man. It makes you fuckin' glow. I can see that, and I don't even know you. That's really cool."

Ringer went on to wash up, wondering what the trickster had really said, really meant. )one was making coffee on the little camp stove when he returned.

"Want some?"

"Sure." He rummaged in his tent and found a mostly clean cup. The shower and shave had done wonders for his self-esteem. "What's up?"

"Just talked to Peter, the guy that met the Dragons. I got his email for the Seekers list ... we talked a long time."

"So what did you learn?'' She poured two cups, added sugar to hers. Ringer smelled vanilla and hazelnut.

"He really did meet the Dragons, in South America and in Australia. They told him a bunch of stuff, because they have some kind of power that lets them remember anything through time. But I asked him if the Dragons would know anything about the lost tribes. More than anyone alive, he said. So I asked to go with him; he said he'd see. Imagine what we could learn, imagine talking to them!"

"Yeah. Sounds cool. I'd go, you know. Just to see them, I guess. Say, where are we all going after this?"

"You know about Seattle, right?"

"Sort of. It's going to be some big protest against, what, the government?"

"Not really. It's about the World Trade Organization, this big thing that regulates international trade, really just a way for corporate hotshots to trash poor countries and people's lives for their own wallets. So a lot of us, from all over, are going to see if we can shut down the meeting."

"We're all going to go?" Never been the political type, Ringer thought.

"You can if you want to. I know Mandy, Rich and I want to go."

"We'll go too." We, Ringer realized. We. My ... partner and !. Sweet.

"Great. If you want to look at the planning files, they're here .... "

TEA Okay, Jo, I'm here.

HELLO_KITTY kewl. you got the list?

TEA Are you sure this is secure? And I can't believe you're using that alias.

HELLO_KITTY it's safe. and i'm the master of many faces out here :) you have the list?

TEA Yes. I'm FTPing it now. This Seattle thing is going to be huge.

HELLO_KITTY yeah. you sure about this? i've been getting some crazy responses from all around the world. i didn't know the cog were spread out like this.

TEA Me too. Great, isn't it? We're gonna get the great unwashed together and shut these fuckers down.

So who have you heard from?

GJjffrrF:J¥/ HELLO_KITTY you want the great unwashed? their british representative actually got online with me. just a sec ...

HELLO_KITTY here. i'm uploading the transcript. i think you'll like him.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT SCOOBY where you from Matt?

MADDENINGMA TT England.

SCOOBY no shit? i thought that was fianna land.

MADDENINGMATT Yeah, there aren't many of us. We're part of a little group called the Green Laners. We and a few Bone Gnawers've got a caern out by Leyton-on-the-Twee, north of the big sept at Brighton. It isn't much but we call it home. Fact, we call all the green lanes home.

CAv..pfex Two: T Ae Grove SCOOBY green lanes?

MADDENINGMA TT}ust like it sounds. Roads of grasslands untouched by the Weaver, save for a few standing stone markers. Been here since the Diggers, Will Everard's lot back in Cromwell's time, givin' the land back to the people. We're fighting them tooth and claw as they try to pave them over to make it safe for lorries full of French beef. Taking our homes away too.

SCOOBY evicting you? is that legal?

MADDENINGMA TT It is when you're squatting.

They don't actually want the places we live in, they just don't want US living there. And by US I don't mean you and me, I mean all the "crusties" as they call us. The ones who hand to mouth, conning by night and getting dole by day. They're taking everything away out here-our heritage, our homes, our way of life. About the only thing left is our vote, and I bet they want that, too.

SCOOBY sound rough. probably won't make it to seattle, then?:) and where'd you get net access?

MADDENINGMA TT Th' Sept of Tolerance at Brighton is sending a pack, but none of us can come.

Sounds like a blast, though. Look out for the Swiss guys; they're deep into Davos' plots and they'll be there monkeywrenching. And as for the net access, well, we can take stuff, too. Speaking of which, gotta run. bye.

SCOOBY bye! iY11/'*'nif 6'/trtY~ Dear Emily, I know, I know, it's been a while. You know how it is, I'm afraid; rarely enough time to write. We keep so busy, busy, busy.l'd apologize yet again for being no kind of a husband to you, thanks to this damn war that will never end, but you'd smack me for it. So I'll just say that I miss you. More than ever.

You know, I always wanted to see Europe, back when I was a dumb kid. I figured the French would be rude to an American, and I expected it. Then, when I Changed, all those hopes went to helluntil I started rising in rank, and making little leaps of progress. So when I got the opportunity to come on over to Europe and try helping out with the mediations there, I couldn't say no. You knew all this already, right?

Well, this may be no surprise to you, but I guess I should have thought things through a little more.

Don't get me wrong, the local Children have been just great - when I've been able to find them, that is.

Turns out there are only two septs held by the Children that anyone knows about, and only one on the mainland! So although I've managed to stay as the occasional tribemate's houseguest once in a while, that doesn't get me a place of honor - or much of a place at allat the local moots.

The war's bad over here. There's so little wilderness left, and the local humans (please don't get mad at me for saying that!) are squabbling over what's left. 'There's \ittle room for wolves. And that means that the local tribes are all very much on the defensive.

They don't have anywhere left to go. I think that's why the Children are persona non grata here, at least in so many septs-the Get and Fianna and Fangs and Lords and Talons and Furies don't want anyone hanging around who might counsel compromise.

It's hard, baby. The biggest push for peace I've heard of, the one everyone's talking about over here, is led by a Shadow Lord. You remember Ballard? Yeah, his tribe.

This guy, "the Margrave" they call him, is apparently managing to make Get of Fenris anJ Bla~.:k Furit:::s brt:ak bread together, whether they like it or not. He's getting things done by force of personality that the European C hildren haven't been able to do with persuasion and wise counsel for centuries. It doesn't make us look good, and we have to work twice as hard to get half the respect.

The Margrave'sofficial policy, I hear, is that he welcomes our help as expert negotiators and diplomats-! just wish that the locals cared more about official policy.

Anyway, I don't mean to bring you down. I'm alive, I'm well, I'm eating regularly. I think I can make a little progress here whether these hardheads want me to or not. And once I've fulfilled that promise, I'll be home with you again, baby. ! can't wait. I really can't.

Here's to me fulfilling my duty with all of Gaia's speed.

All my love, Hector ~I;(Q.kr From: "Andrei C hernenko" <acher@glasstown.net.ru> To: "His Rich Antler" <richant@wyrdwolf.net> Subject: re: Seattle Date: Friday, November 19, 1999 3:47PM Hello Rich Thank you for the directions. I am very eager to come to this rally, as I have no love for the WTO. The IMF has kept Russia addicted to its money like a pimp keeps one of your legendary American crack whores.

Of course, these days America doesn't corner the market in the crack whore industry; we here in Russia have sadly been trying to catch up.

You had asked whether it was true that Mother Russia hated her children. I do not believe that is true, but sometimes I think that she isn't very well disposed towards the C hildren of Gaia. O ur time here has been very poor of late. The near genocide practiced by the Red Talons during the Cold W ar would have been enough to consider our tribe cursed had it been the only act taken against us. But the Silver Fangs drove the knife deeper by standing idly by .. . because we had given them bad advice over thirty years before. If not for the Glass W alkers and Bone Gnawers, there might not have been any Children left in Russia at all.

And that was just the cold war. You mentioned that I was the first Russian Garou you had ever heard of, and there is a good reason for that. Until last year a Shadow Curtain veiled all that occurred in Russia from the rest of the world, and it had been th ere since 1991. It was the work of Baba Yaga, a witch more famous here than any seen in your Disney movies and far more real. For years the Garou Nation struggled against her and the Wyrm-spawn who followed her. Because of the treachery and lies we haJ bt:t:n v i~.:tim to in tht: pa:st, no one:: save the Glass Walkers and Bone Gnawers would heed our advice. This cost them since their good fortune in the war made them look like collaborators; at least until one fifth of the Glass Walkers were killed by Baba Yaga herself. Now their loss matched that of the other tribes who had been losing caern after caern. If there was a bright point for us at all in this affair, it was when the Shadow Lords turned to our Voice, Alyosha Lyubov, to bring peace between them and the Silver Fangs and help unite the Garou.

Of course, as you can see now that the Shadow C urtain is lifted, we won. But it was not without price; many great heroes were lost to battle and much damage was inflicted to Russia physically and socially. In this case, though, we had no choice and now it is left to build from the rubble. We have but one caern in Russia, hidden in a place I cannot even reveal to you, but hopefully in the near future we will be able to build more. In the meantime most of us stay with our friends the Glass Walkers and Bone G nawers. l write to you from a Glass W alker caern right now. May this fragile peace between the rest of the tribes last. Your words of your own land are encouraging.

Finally, you had asked a question for your friend Jone. I do not know any Gurahl personally, though there are some Children who still look for the lost healers of Gaia. Many feel that Mother Russia seems to hate us now because we lost the Gurahl. We strive for peace and healing, but I fear that the C hildren are poor substitutes for these lost ones. If she really is interested, tell your friend that there arc legends of a gulag in Siberia that is frozen in time and of a sleeping shapesh ifter there whose healing powers are greater than any known to Garou. The Wendigo there may just let her live.

Take care my friend, and I shall see you in Seattle.

Andrei C/n.l/4 J'Mzv Amanda said, "No nation has ever extended so many rights to so many people. Granted, things are far from perfect, despite all that humans, Kin and Garou have done- "Specially for me." Ringer had never been fagbashed but a friend, Cooper, had gotten beaten up so bad he was never the same ....

"Yeah, I know. Lost a Kinfolk uncle to AIDS myself."

Amanda wem on. "Bueche UnitedStatesandCanadaare where the largest number of Children live and they are where we and our ideals have had a lot of success. Humans invent causes. And humans make their own history. But our backing has changed things. Summer in the Free Speech movement, Garret and Winter-Stars for the rain forest. We have a lot to contribute."

"The Children helped in the anti-slavery movement, didn't they?" ]one came to join them and sat down, smoothing the legs of her khaki cargo shorts as she did so.

"Yeah ... funny thing. A human historian compared the census data in Ontario and found that only six thousand more blacks lived there in 1864 than in 1853.

So he thought that the Underground Railroad either wasn't real or didn't work." She smiled. "Historians! If he only knew how many Garou led and Moon-Bridged slaves to safety, pulled them into the Umbra ahead of federal marshals, hid them in caems, "employed" them to keep them safe, smuggled them to places lost in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan or down east in Maine woods .... Long after, we still couldn't tell the truth about it ... too many were at risk who still lived, and our caem hearts aren't things for humans to know anyway.

The Furies always helped women but they were too few to do much ... the Children were more spread out and both Garou and Kin helped the slaves escape to freedom. Including," Amanda said to ]one, "a woman named Christmas Tucker." ]one was blank-faced. "Maum Chrish, your great-great-grandmother."

"I ... I heard that name, a long time ago. But I didn't know who she was. Was she Kin?"

"At the end many were; to make the trip safely, and to hide slaves in caerns, we had to bring them inside the Veil. Maum Chrish became Kin at the Old Troy Caern in O hio. Eleven living Garou are descended from her."

"Wow. What else have the Children done in the United States?"

"The peace movement, the free speech movement, gay people's freedom from discrimination, their freedom to have their marriages recognized, women's right to own property, to vote, to hold office, to breed - " her eyes dropped for a moment, "- when and where they want to. To free the Aleuts in Alaska, to give citizenship to our Uktena and Wendigo sib's Kinfolk. There are so many stories that I can't tell them CA.r.;.pfe~ Two: TAe q~ove all. I don't even know them all," Amanda said. "So look for them yourself. Or-."

"Make them up?" The no-moon twinkled in Jane's eyes.

"Yeah, America's not exactly paradise, but it's the best anyone could do, really. Humans make their own history, but we're at least half human. Even you, Hack."

NMr64d Ringer could hear Ziggy Marley rocking on the airstrip as he tried to fit a rod into a sleeve on a tent that would smell bad anyway when it was around him.

Should sleep in the open. Guess I'm too shy. Footsteps crunched on the mulch near him. ]one said "You know, Ringer, the MP3s of the stories came out great. If you want, you can listen to them .. . the ones that they told while you were asleep."

"Sure. I gotta work on fixing this tent anyway. Just let it play." She touched some controls and set the Visor in the shade of a box of camp supplies. Ringer struggled with the tent while a deep, thickly accented voice came from the speaker.

"My name is Yahya ibn-Muhammad and I am a Child of Gaia, Ahroun for the pack of Hanan AmberEyes. I was born in a village called Jebal Ali in 1941. The village and my family were there since the year 256 AH, 878 AD to you, as the mullahs in the mosque had written.

When I was seven, the Israelis razed my father's house.

They told us only that we were no longer to live there.

The village headman's house and the mosque they took and made part of their kibbutz. My family went to a refugee camp in the Gaza strip, on a patch of desert where nothing grew. The aid agencies went to the camp and gave out food, but some of it we could not eat because it was unclean. My grandmother died because some of the food was spoiled too. Some of us died within. Some gave in to violence. Some of us, a few, sought peace.

"You ask about religion. Yes, I am a Muslim. And I am a Child of Gaia. God gave his laws to us through the Prophet Muhammad, and all Muslims interpret them differently. He does not forbid that we revere the Earth, that we tend and care for Her. The Qur'an and the ahadith speak of many Muslims who pursued the way of Gaia, the way of peace. In my sept Hanan is a Christian, History-of-C lay a jew. This does not keep us from fighting together for peace. For in my land peace, true peace, must be for all of us alike.

"My Change came when I was fifteen, and Salah, who was Garou, found me and took me to his pack.

When Hanan came back from the United States where she had gone to school and began working for our freedom as a people, we moved to the West Bank near where she lives. We have worked together for the Palestinian cause for thirty years.

"We organize marches, sometimes just standing because we can't get government permission to march.

Two caems have been destroyed because of Israeli 'settlements' in the West Bank. We protest every time a woman is raped, each time the Israelis shoot a kid for yelling at them or throwing rocks. Many Garou can't take it: they Rage, kill and kill. I don't blame them but it makes our lives very hard. Sometimes the Massad provides Israeli soldiers and fanatics with silver. Our pack has it worst: we protect the Veil by keeping Garou bodies out of Israeli hands. It isn't easy: they are reluctant to release anyone's body lest the funeral become another protest. I have taken two Garou and eleven Kin bodies back from them myself. The Gifts and rites I know help, of course.

"In the rest of the Middle East there are more Children. Aryeh Cold-Heart was an Israeli soldier who first Changed on the battlefield in Lebanon and struck down twenty of his own army's men when he saw that the Israelis were butchering Lebanese civilians. He was working in the great oil fires in Kuwait last l heard, and his pack have sought in Iraq for the last Children there. A crow brought us news that they were all dead, killed by a mage who sided with Saddam Hussein; this was some kind of wizard whose power came from killing. It may be tme.

"It isn'teasy seeing your people suffer, beingGarou and knowing that the Israeli soldier who killed your two sisters would die at your first blow. And knowing, as I do, that killing him would not bring them back.

Would not make Palestine free. We are still working, but it is hard going.

"I have no more to say."

A#IM TO: S[>inach99@wyrdwolf.com FROM: dirtyrocks@boering.com CC: SU1:3JECT: Ahadi Mandy, I am a farm extension office worker here in Groot Constantia at the Cape, and I am of the Children. Your friend Scott Jensen, whom I met at a development conference in Capetown in January, gave me your email and told me that you wanted to know how our work is going here. I've heard a lot on WyrdWolf's chatboard, but here's my take on it all.

The Ahadi holds: the pact of sore-of-peace between most of Africa's shapeshifters (I almost wrote "Entoban" instead of Africa; I'm obviously spending too much time with the wrong people.) The Dragon Breed, the cats, even the Garou who are hyenas (if they are Garou) mostly abide by the alliance, most of the time. This hellish, war-torn home of mine has enough problems that we have managed to unmake one more.

Apartheid is dead (and so is the lion prince of darkness), and the Children here, black, white, colored and Asian, have rejoiced. We worked so long and so hard that the absence of the laws is almost worse than their presence; evil as it is, it was all we knew.

Now comes the harder work: restoring a civil society, dignity, true peace. It is not easy, especially since the liberals of the West cared about apartheid, but not, apparently, about what would come when they helped erase it. We work to build solidarity among the races, include children of both factions in school and play activities, negotiate with leaders ... maybe it's helping.

Africa is not Garou territory, and save for Egypt and maybe Morocco, it never has been. As Children of Gaia, this is hard for us to accept: that there is a part of Her body that belongs to other two-skins, and that the heartaches and terrors of this great land are theirs, not ours. I have lived all my life and will die here, working for justice. But perhaps even the Children cannot tell the Africans, mortal and immortal, what to do, cannot dictate destiny to another. I do not know.

Hope you are well by the sunny sea, Wilhelmina Brisebois ten Graz, Theurge, Two Oceans Sept, Constantia hn/!4 May 31, 2001 Dear Mandy, The baby is kicking. Keeps me awake some nights.

She will be Garou, I'm sure of it. Casen tells me he can feel it too. You'll be an aunt in October. The monsoon season was incredible - towers of clouds and endless rain. Casen held me when the lightning began and gave me some of the Sight; I could watch the rain-spirits dancing. It amazes me that a man as strong as he is can be so tender sometimes. The sweet side of Rage, I guess.

You asked how the Church work was going. Well, about as you would expect in a nation like India that has suffered so much from Western stupidity and cruelty.

We hold Gaian services once a week at sunrise and sunset. There are a few who come; we have explained that no one is excluded and that the Church does not ask them to abandon the local gods. We're not here to proselytize, just to show them another way. I think they like the singing and one boy has made up some new songs with me about keeping the earth and river clean.

Just got in an hour in the garden. Kumar, one of my students, made me a bamboo garden-seat so I can work without too much getting up and down while I'm pregnant. Greens are coming in, and the chili peppers have cA(l..pferr wo: TA.e Grove blooms on them again. We didn't get much oil out of the first crop of soybeans, but we'll try again. The soymilk is good for the weaned children, too. Anything's better than them buying powdered milk and vegetable oil from peddlers and paying a fortune. Classes start in about ten minutes so I'll keep this brief. I'm finished with the first aid class and I'm doing one on childhood illnesses. In the midday everyone is resting anyway, but this evening I want to sit down with a few of the women who want help building another solar oven. They see that it saves a lot of fuel and there is no more firewood within a day's walk of the village anyway. They used bamboo up till two years ago, when discharge from the gas plant made the grove start to die. Some of the families spend as much on firewood and charcoal as they do on rice.

The old men don't grumble as much about me and my husband being here since the dholes stopped coming. Casen started a night watch with the men: he says that at least one dhole pack that came into the valley had Talons in it. The watch routed the dholes after Casen had driven away two Talons- "Shivans," he calls them, worshipers of destruction. I understand that and I don't oppose them being wolves. But my students and friends here are not their prey.

I saw the dispatch from the action you did in Copperhill, Tennessee. Maybe there will be birds and trees again there someday now that you've gotten rid of the Wyrm taint. I'm sorry about Swordbearer; it sounds like once he got hit there was nothing you could do. You know, sister, you furries have a lot of tough powers, but it's stories like that that make me glad to be teaching, digging in my garden, helping build solar ovens. Glad to be working for Gaia, not fighting. Glad that I'm Kinfolk, not Garou.

Always your sister, Celia Barret Keller PS: Casensayshe knows a Kinguythatyou'd really like! 7hd ,Mj,:fr/# .A/'~#!

So what about China, Korea, Japan? Are the Children there?" Ringer sat on a campstool, staff over his knees while the camp lamp flickered. ]one dozed, rolled in a sleeping bag on a foam pad. A bunch of stoners went by giggling idiotically.

"No." Amanda sighed heavily. "Never have been, really. There are a few who go, stay, come back. Some go, study with the Stargazers, visit the Beast Courts.

But no caerns, no septs."

So I am a twofold exile, Ringer thought sadly. Oh, well, Gaia is a good enough home.

"So, uh, how do the Garou there see us? Do they even know about the Children?"

"They ... know things. The Children want to know how the other shapeshifters get along with the Garou. I mean, there are dragons in their caerns there. But the Stargazers left the Garou Nation, and they aren't coming back. And the shifters of the East don't want us there." Amanda looked older than she was, tired.

"Amanda, who is EdithLooking-Glass?"He'd heard the name in connection with the Middle Kingdom.

"Garou, Child of Gaia Galliard moviemaker from the Jewel Heart Sept in Michigan. Tough as nails. She, her group, they fight human rights abuses. Mostly just documenting everything they can. Scales cliffs, shoots video from the Umbra, interviews people in slave camps.

I saw one of her movies, before it won that prize ... scary, about the Burmese army's forced-labor gangs; they carry truckloads of food, ammo, explosives, days and days of climbing incredible mountains. A lot of them die but they're from tribes that the government wants dead anyway. No one ever saw it before her, no one but them.

She got one boy out, brought him to the Hand of Gaia Caern, near here in upstate New York."

"Then Children do have a role in Asia."

"Well, yeah. Sure. It's not our land, but-"

"But it is." Ringer suddenly knew where he wanted to go, what he wanted to do. Speak truth to power, right? .AII..!IM#tr From the personal diary of jane Peck, Gill-Over-theGround, Galliard and Voice in Waiting for the Sept of Gaia's Bounty, Brisbane, Australia.

The past few years have been difficult ones, even with the apparent reappearance of the Rainbow Serpent to the Council and the return of the Gumagan.

The Children have fought hard for peace in the Australian region, with three of my own pack risking their lives in East Timor to safeguard refugees. In many ways, the reappearance of the G umagan is a greater reward, with our local Seekers overjoyed even though the two crocodile-men that have appeared have told us very little. In particular they will not answer questions about the survival of any Bunyip Kin. All this is connected somehow to a strange event that Pork chop the Bone Gnawer and Father Raymond, Child of Gaia, told their packs about in the early years of the colony.

Their descendents say that th is was an incident in which a band of Aboriginal laborers stole a boat and apparently killed the guards sent to subdue them; colonial records do mention the disappearance of some soldiers and of several chests of earth from England. The Gumagan made a claim that one of these natives, a shapeshifter, has somehow been reborn.

The Children in Australia have been shaken deeply by the disappearance and apparent death of the metis scientist Cernounos. Th is brilliant Garou had taken DNA samples from specimens of thylacine skin and hair, supplementing them with living blood cells provided to him by a mystenous Aboriginal man who claimed to know that the last Bunyip Kinfolk could be found near the Torres Strait. Using this DNA, he cloned several "Garou" infants and brought them to term using plastic pouches to simulate the thylacine's birth experience. The litter grew quickly and began Changing within two months of birth. The largest female, called Greatstripe, became the leader and the pack became brutal hunters. The native spirits remained silent on the new "Bunyip" and Cernounos told no one about his research. G radually Darius Winchester, our Silver Fang King, became aware of the new creatures. And so did others: rumor has it that a cabal oflife-warping humans with G ifts sought to use the metis' scholarship for their own ends.

When the new pack of "Bunyip" were about a year old, they disappeared. Their creator confided in his coleader Inanna, then went to seek the lost "children" and never returned. Speculation among lnanna's close friends and packmates about the fate of the "Bunyip" has run rampant, but facts are hard to come by. It's clear that a violent struggle, including bloodshed, accompanied the departure ofCernounos and dtat even his Garou packmates did not know where exactly he was headed. lnanna fears the worst and her packmates believe her fears are justified.

Her usual spirit voices are silent on this topic.

New Zealand is quiet, as my friend Soulefish told me. The new multitribal sept down on Stewart Island just opened the ancient caern there; the spirit, T uatara, asked them a lot of questions about the Gumagan.

The Get's bid for control there was foiled when they arrived and found a place as part of a greater Garou whole who would keep the land in common.

This land's, this Australia's beginning was so awful, and still we work, true as we can be tO Father Raymond's vision of a new land where all would be equal, where justice and not the blind will of master would be law. We have a long, long way yet to go.

Jbf!# .A#ftJr#tr HELLOKITTY Here 1s the latest dispatch from the war. I still don't know if this is something we should support.

TO : hellokitry39@wyrdwolf. net FROM: distaff@kingdancer.sky CC: stickman@wyrdwolf.net, wolflady@wyrdwolf.net, treasure 181 @megamule.ww SUBJECT: On the Red Hill Kit, It's as bad now as it has ever been. Granted, you guys' Gaian Network managed to buy two thousand more them, Endron is still dumping here and Good House is making paper where a caem was fifteen years ago.

I ledaprotestrecentlywith a local cane-cutter's collective, two hundred women and their families with signs and songs to the paper plant's gate. You can't imagine the stink of a paper mill till you've been L----- J there. The police came and attacked the demonstrators before they got to the factory door; two people died, a woman and a little boy who choked when we were gassed.

I told Garret and the Knights agreed in council tostrike. I went with them; might be just a Theurge but I can pop claws with the best of them.

We stepped sideways into the plant, trashed their files with the help of a cyber-spirit I knuw, aml tuuk ten staff prisoner while the Knights found and destroyed the most expensive machinery. It was worse than we expectednot just mundane evil, but the Wyrm's evil had settled into the place. We had to kill four guards who turned out to be fomori. Gifts to subdue them wouldn't work.

I don't know how many fomori are going to have these powers from now on. It would really bollix things up if we had to kill every single one.

Good House closed the plant because of "labor problems" a week later, but the trees won't grow back for decades, even if we tear the building down. It's an eyesore now, windows smashed in and garbage everywhere, worse for Gaia almost than if it was working. This war has gone on for years and I worry that we aren't accomplishing anything.

Sorry to be so downbeat. TTYL, Woman-in-the-Mist, The urge of the Mother's Will pack.

What would that world be, a world without war! It would be the real world. Peace was the true life, the life of working and learning and bringing up children w work and learn. War, whichdevouredwork, learning, and children, was the denial of reality.

Ursula K. Le Guin, Four Roads w Forgiveness Although the most common concepts for Children of Gaia are usually teachers, diplomats and healers, it's well worth remembering that the Children are a tribe of Garou like any other. Children can be soldiers, singers, thieves, eco-terrorists, layabouts, anarchists, artists - the possibilities are near endless.

Unicorn's creed doesn't mandate that all Children pursue the elusive goal of"peace" in the same fashion.

The only real defining factor is that almost all Children deeply believe in the importance of making the world a better place. They may have come to that conclusion on their own, or had it hammered into their heads from birth; they may choose the path of non-violence, or choose to bring death to those who endanger the ideal of a better world. And it should also be noted that Children are very, very rarely creatures of passive resistance - they're werewolves, and as such potentially the least passive creatures on the planet. The Children are passionate about their ideals, and demonstrate as much every day. When creating a Child of Gaia character, keep this passion in mind, because it's often the source of the tribe's strength. &tt~rt711m.U Since the Children of Gaia come from a diverse group, they have a wide variety of advantages at their disposal. Their lack of Background restrictions shouldn't be seen as a lack of definition, but as a chance to really explore the diversity of a tribe that accepts almost anyone, from any level of society and from any place of origin. ...4$41 Most Children of Gaia do their best to cultivate as many allies as possible; the tribe would rather be loved than feared. These allies are typically within the human world, as the Children are well aware that a human ally can do more for the cause of peace than a werewolf cursed with Rage might. Alliesofothertribes are also possible, although they tend to be based on personal relationships rather than tribal pacts offriendship; more than one tribe has a tendency to view the Children of Gaia collectively as a burden, while making exceptions for a Child or two who have proven themselves more than capable of carrying their weight.

The Children are comparatively more likely to develop allegiances within other supernatural groups (notably magi or Fera), although even this is treated with extreme care. More often than not, the trust in such a relationship isn't enough to merit the status of "Ally," and such relationships are taken as Contacts. h:~tfQ/trr.t The ties with one's ancestor-spirits tend to mark a Child so blessed. Those who possess this Background are often less comfortable with modern tactics like protest marches, instead becoming more prone to older styles of diplomacy. A Child with high levels of Ancestors is often a touch more cynical, being well aware just how recent most Western cultural revelations are, but they are also much more steeped in the older traditions of their tribe.

CPnfird'h A Child of Gaia's connections can be from all walks of life, and usually are; the tribe's influence stretches far beyond college campuses. Political figures and community workers or officials are popular choices, particularly given that the Children are usually all too willing to help these people with their agendas (should they be related to the Children's own). A Child who was born to another tribe might have contacts among that tribe, if the parting was amicable. Also, as previously noted, a Child might have contacts among other supernatural groups, so long as such contacts don't jeopardize the overall struggle of the Garou. .PP/ilh Obviously, the Children of Gaia favor fetishes of healing, purification and harmony to fetishes of war.

The tribe's favored fetish weapon is the staff, which can be used to subdue or kill as need be (unlike a claw).

Fetish staves are almost never made from silver, as that would make them more lethal against other Garou than the Children would like. .k#p;% The Children of Gaia have far more human than wolf Kin, to the slight detriment of the tribe.

The tribe's ever-increasing homid majority is generally more comfortable with humans than wolves, given that humans are capable of understanding the ideologies of the tribe, while wolves are more interested in survival. The Children do their best to have large families, and to keep all their Kin as welleducated about the struggle as possible, a combination that has led to a few unfortunate security breaches here and there. And, unfortunately, there are just as many bad apples among the Children's Kinfolk as there are among the Kin of other tribesas proved by the Skinner.

U 11n./Pr A Child of Gaia's mentor is almost always of the same tribe; few Garou of other tribes are all that attached to the Children's ideology. Mentor and student are often surprisingly different in many of thetr outlooks, given the diversity of the tribe and its members' values; a former member of the Imminent Strike might coach a young pacifist, for instance. These seemingly mismatched pairings are often undertaken in order to teach the cub (and sometimes the mentor) the values of compromise. :Pw~ 8NIJI/ Children of Gaia with true Pure Breed are notably rare in the modern day. The tribe has bred with so many groups and adopted so many cubs of other tribes that its own bloodlines have been somewhat diminished. Those rare Children with Pure Breed have a faint dappling of white in Lupus form, and have features vaguely reminiscent of the Mediterranean and Middle East in Homid. Tribe members from the stock of other tribes might visually have something akin to Pure Breedfor instance, a Child of Black Fury stock might have a strong black coat and Greek features. However, Pure Breed keeps it supernatural potency only if it's the lineage of one's tribe; these Children can't convincingly pass for Pure Bred members of other tribes. .A'LVP"ijh:W Few Children of Gaia are from "old money"; most members of the tribe are dead-set against the sort of practices that tend to make one rich. Most Children are of low Resources, neither dirt-poor nor comfortably well off. They often gain their money from odd jobs, or are even supported by Kin spouses or family. Rich Children are therefore exceedingly rare, although they do exist.

-A>m:v The Children are not as a whole as devout ritualists as other tribes tend to be. Rites of accord are very popular among the tribe, as are mystic rites, but only a few Children from any sept are likely to know punishment rites. Most Children favor rites that ask for the spirits' permission rather than forcing them; it's a rare Child that forces a non-Wyrmish spirit into a fetish against its will. ~/II The Children have no particular biases against the sort of totems they follow, and are as likely to follow a totem of War as any other. Naturally, allChildren packs tend to prefer totems of Unicorn's brood, and the Children find personal pride in following totems like Bear. The only common pack totem that most Children of Gaia have difficulty with is G reat Fenris - the violent wolf-god's creed of never refusing a worthy fight is at direct odds with the tribe's policies against unnecessary violence. Still, a rare few Children have taken Fenris as their patron across the ages, and greatly raised their tribe's esteem in the Get of Fenris' eyes in the process. t1~ The Children of Gaia have accumulated many Gifts over the centuries, and their traveling from one sept or caern to another has only increased the store.

A few Gifts are even practiced exclusively by Kin of the Children, detailed in Kinfolk: Unsung H eroes.

• Water-Conning (Level One)- The Child may purify water by dipping her hand or bowing her forehead to the surface. An avatar of Unicorn teaches this Gift as a sign of his favor.

System: The Garou touches the surface and rolls Perception + Primal-Urge. Water that is poisoned by animal dung or parasites has a 5 difficulty. The difficulty is 7 for chemical waste and 9 for Wyrm-taint. Each success purifies enough water for one person for one day.

MET: Make a Static Mental Challenge (retest with Primal-Urge) against five traits for biological waste, seven traits for chemical waste and nine traits for Wyrm-taint. Every success purifies a day's ration of water for one person.

• Jam Weapon (Level One) - The Garou may stop any Weaver-born weapons from working within the range of his voice. A dove-spirit teaches this G ift.

System: The Garou shouts a single, strange word and spends a Gnosis point. The player rolls Perception +Expression, difficulty of the Willpower of the nearest armed person. For each success, all manufactured weapons will not function for one combat round. This includes guns, crossbows, flame-throwers, and even tasers or cattle prods (anything with moving parts). It does not include natural weapons (retractable claws don't count as moving parts).

MET: Spend a Gnosis trait and make a Social Challenge against the nearest armed person within earshot. With success, all manufactured weapons of the target stop working for one turn. As your game area may not allow for shouting, us~ common sense (and Storyteller's discretion) regarding the area of effect.

• Swallow Rage (Level One) - This Gift allows the Child of Gaia to overcome her innate savagery, although at a dangerous cost. By use of this Gift, the Child may stop a frenzy and reduce her Rage by directing it inward. The inward battle is visible for several minutes and can take the form of a shuddering concentration or even a masochistic beating. An ancestor-spirit teaches this G ift.

System: When the Garou falls into frenzy, the player may make a reflexive Rage roll, difficulty 7; this Rage roll, unlike others, cannot in itself induce frenzy.

Even one success on this roll immediately brings the werewolf out of frenzy. However, each success does one health level of lethal damage to the Garou, and reduces her temporary Rage by a similar amount. The player must decide at the moment of entering frenzy whether to use this G ift or not; once the Garou has fully succumbed to frenzy, she cannot focus enough to use this Gift.

MET: Whenever you fail a frenzy test, you may immediately make a Rage Challenge {no retest allowed, nor do you need to make a follow-up frenzy test). With success, you do not enter frenzy, but you lose one Rage trait and take one level oflethal damage for each success.

• Domestic Seeming (Level Two) -Unicorn does not want humans to fear her children, even the lupus. Many lupus Children of Gaia learn this Gift in the interest of walking comfortably among humans. By using this Gift, a werewolf in Lupus form convinces observers that they see a dog, not a wolf. Ordinary humans look at the wolf and think "husky," "malamute" or some other similar breed of dog. Even other supernatural beings (save spirits) can be fooled by the Gift, seeing what they expect to see rather than the truth. This Gift is taught by any spirit of peace.

System: The player spends a Willpower point and rolls Manipulation +Animal Ken; the usual Manipulation penalties for Lupus form do not apply for the purposes of this Gift. If the player fails the roll, any observer can tell they're looking at a wolf with a successful Perception + Animal Ken roll. If the player gains any successes, human observers cannot penetrate the disguise; supernatural creatures may make a Perception + Animal Ken (difficulty 7) opposed by the player's roll to penetrate rhe illusion. Spirits of the Middle Umbra are not affected by the Gift at all; they recognize the werewolf as one of Gaia's warrior as usual. The Gift's effects last for a scene, or until the werewolf changes form.

MET: Spend a Willpower trait and make a Social Challenge (retest with Animal Ken). With success, your lupus form merely looks like a large dog, not a wolf, and only supernatural observers may attempt to penetrate the disguise (by making a Mental Challenge resisted by your Social Challenge). If you lost the challenge, any observer may do so by making a Mental Challenge (retest with Animal Ken). You should wear a tag or some other marker to indicate your change.

• Grandmother's Touch (Level Two - This Gift heals as does Mother's Touch, but can heal the user of the Gift. This Gift cannot heal spirits or the undead. A unicorn-spirit teaches this G ift.

System: The player spends a G nosis point and rolls Intelligence+ Medicine (difficulty of the wounded individual's Rage, or 6 for non-Garou). Each success heals one health level, and the Child may heal Battle Scars as well with the expenditure of an additional Gnosis point, as long as the Battle Scar was received in the same scene.

MET: As Mother's T ouch; spend one G nosis to heal one health level of damage (a Mental Challenge is also required to heal non-Garou). This power does not work on the undead. Battle Scars may be healed with an additional Gnosis T rait, provided they are healed during the same scene in which they were made.

• Mule's Bane (Level Two) - This metisspecific Gift allows a metis to lash out at others by visiting his enemies with his own deformity. Mulespirits teach this Gift.

System: The player spends one Gnosis point and rolls Dexterity + Expression to "throw" the metis' deformity; the difficulty is the opponent's Willpower.

The enemy gains the metis' deformity for one turn per success, subject to Storyteller approval. If the metis botches, his own deformity becomes worse in some fashion for the remainder of the scene.

MET: Spend one Gnosis trait and make a Physical Challenge (retest with Expression). With success, your opponent gains your metis deformity and any related Negative Traits for one turn.

• Soothe the Savage Beast (Level Three) - By being the catalyst for any sort of soothing music (singing, turning on a radio, playing a CD, etc.) the Garou makes it more difficult to Rage. When Garou must fight one another, the Children of Gaia sometimes use this to their advantage, as many are more experienced at holding back their Rage. A nightingale-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player rolls Gnosis, difficulty 7. Each success increases the difficulty of Rage rolls by 1 for all those in earshot (to a maximum difficulty of 10). The effects last for as long as the Child of Gaia is able to continue providing music.

MET: Make a Gnosis Challenge (if attempting this against a large group, mob rules apply); you must also provide audible, soothing music of some sort (no heavy metal, no rap) for the Gift to work. Everyone within earshot loses one Rage Trait. A target's Rage Traits may not fall below one.

• Words of the Alpha (Level Three) - T he Children have often sought leadership in human societies as well as among Garou. This Gift allows a leader to seek the best course of action for a particular goal.

Eagle teaches this Gift.

System: The Garou meditates on the chosen goal, spends a Gnosis point, and rolls Intelligence+ Leadership (difficulty 8). For each success, she gains one fragment of insight, be it a word of advice or hint at secret knowledge, into the right way to lead this group toward her chosen end. Note that Eagle does not show the most popular way, or the easiest way. His flight is high, and he flies alone.

MET: Announce the goal for which you seek advice to a Narrator, then spend five minutes in meditation. At the end of five minutes, spend a Gnosis Trait and make a Mental Challenge (retest with Leadership). With success, a Narrator may provide you with some snippet of advice that can help you achieve your goal.

• Lover's T ouch (Level Three)- The Garou can restore what another lacks: not only wounds healed, but also strength of will and even spiritual essence. Any spirit of love or avatar of Unicorn may teach this Gift.

System: The Garou touches the afflicted person kindly; the system is the same as for Mother's Touch.

The two need not be lovers but the contact must convey affection and warmth; the two may embrace, one may caress the other or wrestle with him, or there may be further intimacy. The Garou spends a Gnosis point and rolls Intelligence + Medicine as usual; each success may restore one health level of damage, one point of Willpower, or one point of Essence (if the target is a spirit). The difficulty is the Rage or Willpower of the other person (whichever is higher). The player may choose to divide the successes among multiple pools; he need not choose to heal only wounds or Willpower. In all other respects, this Gift functions as Grandmother's Touch, save that it can be used on spirits (but, yet again, not undead).

MET: Spend one Gnosis to heal two health levels of damage, one Willpower Trait, or one Essence. The Mental Challenge to heal non-Garou is still required.

This power does not work on the undead.

• The Cleaving H oof (Level Three)- Unicorn's powerful hoofblowsoften killed the humans that hunted him. This gift allows the Garou to focus inner strength into a single blow, ending a fight before further harm can take place. A Unicorn-spirit teaches this Gift.

System: The player spends a Gnosis point before rolling to hit. If he successfully strikes his opponent, the dice gained from Strength in his damage pool count as automatic successes rather than dice. Dice in the damage pool gained from weapons, claw damage or extra successes on the attack roll must be rolled as usual. For example, a werewolf with Strength 5 uses this Gift before successfully clawing an opponent; his damage pool works out to be 9 dice (5 for Strength, + 1 for the claw maneuver, + 3 for three additional successes on the attack roll). The player rolls four damage dice, adding any successes (or subtracting in the case or rolling ones) to the five automatic successes on the damage roll. The defender may soak as usual.

MET: Spend a Gnosis Trait. You receive one free retest on your next damaging attack. This Gift lasts for one turn.

• U nicorn's Grace (Level Four) -The Garou blessed by Unicorn are calm even in the midst of chaos.

This Gift, taught by an avatar of Unicorn, allows the Garou to keep a tight lid on her anger.

System: The player spends a Gnosis point; for the rest of the scene, her Garou cannot frenzy, and her ability to spend Rage is limited by her Empathy rather than Dexterity. Further, her Rage is considered three points lower for purposes of determining whether surrounding humans are affected by the Curse (Werewolf, p. 191). This G ift does not work if the Garou is in Crinos form.

MET : Spend a Gnosis Trait; for the remainder of the scene, you cannot frenzy. Your ability to spend multiple Rage Traits in a turn is limited by your Social Traits rather than your Physical Traits. This Gift also softens the Curse when dealing with humans. This Gift will not work if you are in Crinos.

• Uncaught Since the Primal Morn (Level Four) This Gift grams Unicorn's perfect speed to the Garou, allowing her to outrun virtually any pursuer.

An avatar of Unicorn teaches th is Gift.

System: The player pends a Gnosis point and makes an opposed Stamina+ Athletics roll against the fastest of any pursuers; the Garou is unfailingly faster than her pursuers for one scene for each success.

MET: Spend one Gnosis Trait and make a Physical Challenge (retest with Athletics) against the fastest of your pursuers. If you win, your pursuers have no chance of catching you for one hour.

• Serpent-Driving (Level Four)- The touch of Unicorn's horn sets evil spirits and poisonous beasts to flight. This G ift enables the C hild of Gaia to mimic Unicorn's power, driving foul creatures out of water, underbrush, and so on. It is a more powerful ability of Unicorn's horn, and Unicorn himself teaches this G ift.

System: The Garou touches his hand or forehead to the water, into the alleyway, or into whatever area he suspects ofharbori ng enemies. He then rolls Gnosis, with the difficulty being 4 for ordinary animals such as snakes, 6 for lesser W ynn creatures (such as fomori), 8 for Wyrm-servitors of strong power (such as Black Spiral Dancers) and I 0 for powerful creatures of the Wyrm. For each success, one such creature is forced to abandon its hiding place or nest by the most direct route possible. If the Wyrm-creatures were using any supernatural means of concealment (such as Gifts or Disciplines), they may make a Willpower rest, difficulty of the Garou's Gnosis, to maintain these powers.

They must still physically leave the area, however.

Note that this Gift may cause the creatures to attack and is thus best used with care. Serpent-Driving may be used only once per game session.

MET: You must dearly define the area you suspect of containing concealed creatures, then make a Static Gnosis Challenge against four traits for ordinary animals such as snakes, six traits for lesser Wynn creatures, eight traits for strong W ynn-servitors and I 0 for powerful Wyrm-creaturcs. Success flushes out your chosen prey and they must leave the area you defined. Any creatures that were using Gifts, Disciplines or other powers of concealment may make a Willpower Challenge against the Garou'sGnosis; failure indicates that they must stop using those powers. This Gift may be used only once per session.

• Trust of Gaia (Level Five) - The Child of Gaia with this Gift can instantly earn the trust of any who hear her speak, even over electronic devices like telephones or loudspeakers. Affected listeners feel that the speaker is a good and trustworthy person, although it does not coerce them in any other way. Those affected will not willingly attack the Garou, although they can be mind-controlled to do so (and will hate doing so). Banes, Black Spiral Dancers and other creatures of powerful Wyrm-taint feel intense dislike instead of trust.

The trust evoked by this Gift doesn't supersede common sense; if the Child of Gaia drives a speeding car through a crowd of affected listeners, they'll still scatter for cover, although they'll feel certain she had a good reason to be in such a hurry. An avatar of Unicorn teaches this Gift, and demands that the recipient swear never to abuse its power.

System: The player spends a Gnosis point and rolls Manipulation + Empathy; the difficulty is 6 to affect humans, 8 to affect humans corrupted by the W yrm or o ther shapeshifters, or 10 to affect supernaturals corrupted by the Wyrm (such as vampires). Creatures born directly of the Wyrm such as fomori or Banes, or ritually enslaved to the Wyrm, such as Black Spiral Dancers, are immune. All listeners must make successful Willpower rolls (difficulty of the Garou's Gnosis) to resist. For the duration of the scene, all affected listeners treat the Garou as if she were a trusted friend. After the Gift's effects end, those affected by the Gift do not remember being supernaturally swayed.

MET: Spend a Gnosis Trait and make a Static Social Challenge (retest with Empathy, mob rules apply); all listeners within earshot resist with Willpower. The difficulty is six Traits to affect humans, eight traits to affect Wyrm-tainted humans or other supernaturals, and 10 to affect supernatural creatures indirectly affected by the Wyrm (such as vampires).

Any affected targets that fail their Willpower tests treat the Garou as a trusted friend for the duration of the scene, and do not remember being induced into this trust. Black Spiral Dancers, fomori, Banes and other creatures directly born of or enslaved to the Wynn are immune (Storyteller's discretion regarding the effects on Sabbat vampires, Thallain, fae of House Balor or the Shadow Court, Nephandi or Spectres).

• • • N ight had fallen some time ago and the circle of Garou was well lit by the Umbra! fire, but it became