t1FUl JV

t1.FU...l JV&..#

"While we had no love for Rome or the Leeches that controlled it, their direct rule was looking very appealing by contrast. As corrupt as it was, it was still a civilization with laws and with that came at least a measure of stability. After conferring with our Silent Strider companions in the sept, we sent a group of our Kin and some leading Judean citi.zens to appeal to Emperor Augustus for direct rulership of the land.

Rome's G lass Walkers ensured that the message came to him by day, when the vile Leeches had less power in that Wyrm-ridden city.

"Initially, the kingdom was split between the disputed parties until Archelaus proved himself to be incompetent. The butcher was banished to Gaul and Judea came under direct Roman control. For better or for worse, we had gotten what we wanted.

"While some have disputed how wise or peaceful an action this was, remember whom was assigned as governor in 21 A.D.; Pontius Pilate. Our actions seemed right at the time, but their aftereffects have long been argued and discussed. I can only hope that in the very End that it turns out to be the correct one."

"What was that about?" Hack asked.

"Jesus. Know about him, right?" Jane stroked her wolf-friend's back. Hack's tail thumped pleasure.

"Sure I know who Jesus is. l watch TV, don't I?"

The wolf pulled himself into human form to carry on the conversation. "And I know Pontius Pilatehow Jesus died and all. But who was Jesus? I mean, really?"

"Wish I knew. I mean, that's what the whole history of the Christian Church is all about. Whether he was man, God, proceeded from the Father, son of the Father, spirit, flesh, fiction, fact ... maybe he's whatever you make of him."

"He was a Gaian - not literally, in all likelihood, but part of our spirit whether he knew it or not. You know he was - where can you find our ideas better than the Sermon on the Mount. 'Congratulations to the peacemakers,' 'The meek shall inherit the earth,' all that. Nonviolence, turn the other cheek, share your belongings." Mandy was lecturing again.

"Pity Christians don't do as he said."

"Pity more of them don't do as he did is more like it," muttered Rich angrily.

"The Church of Gaia basically takes his ideas and applies them in a Gaian wayyou guys have seen us at the caern." Ringer had attended services a couple of times, not really getting the point.

J one said, "Yeah, you guys work for social justice too. I know the guy that manages the website." Who on the Web, Ringer wondered, didn't this woman know? Maybe the chicks on the porno sites; she didn't seem the type.

"My sister, you know, she's off with her husband doing development work in India. You met them before they left, Rich, the skinny guy with the big dark eyes. Remember?"

Jane went on, "So what does Jesus, Jesus Christ, mean to you, Mandy? I mean, do you get all crazyweepy and stuff over religion? I'm not making fun of you, I just want to know."

Mandy seemed to be choosing her words carefully. "He was a great man, the greatest. He told us the most important things ever: love each other, care for each other, do right. I know he was, he is, the most important teacher of righteousness who ever lived.

Whether he was God, or a god, I don't know. No one knows. We can only believe. And the most incredible thing about him is that we Garou, as hard as we try, we can't live up to his example, not with Gnosis, Gifts and fetishes. But there's something even more amazing. That maybe, just maybe, he wasn't magic, wasn't a spirit or a god, just a man. And that even then, what he said, what he did, stays with us always. He stays with us always. So there, No-moon, is your answer.

That good enough for you?"

"Yeah," Jane almost whispered. "Thanks a lot. I needed that."

"Is this serious enough?" Hack asked. "Mandy, what's the next story about ?" t1.FU...l JV&..# Amanda spoke: "The Children had it pretty good in ancient Greece.

Okay, women had it rough in Athens, but they had more rights in Sparta than anywhere else in the ancient world. We sat in on a lot of art and philosophy; the Greeks listened to us as they did to anyone. We would have outright flourished there, except for one small difficulty - it was the homeland of another tribe, who wasn't particularly thrilled with the thought of sharing their lands with an entire other tribe. You can't really blame them for being territorialthey're werewolves, after all - but it would have been nice.

"Hell, they still call the Mother Gaia! The citystates fought all the time, but what better place for peacemakers? Yeah, Ringer, I see you laughingit was great back then if you liked men, too. Unfortunately, it was also great if you liked underage boysdon't scowl, Ringer, it's true - but we're not really here to talk about social ills we couldn't do anything about. We're here to talk about our successes, our biggest battles, the things that give us hope in this age.

"Ctesias of Cnidos was a Child of Gaia and a doctor. Like so many of us, he followed Asklepios, the healer-spirit. He went to Greece's enemy, Persia, and worked for Darius, the Shah, as a personal physician and bodyguard. When Darius and Cyrus fought at Cunaxa, Cyrus broke through the guard of the Shah and wounded Darius himself; the Shah would have died save for Ctesias' healing Gifts.

"By and by Darius died and Ctesias returned to Cnidus in Greece. He wrote a history of Persia and a history of India. In the twenty-fifth section, he was the first writer to describe Unicorn; wild unicorns were still around back then. He sired four Kin and died an old man.

"Ctesias speaks to us sometimes in moots. His bravery and his willingness to extend Gaia's blessings even to his people's enemies make him a hero to us.

Would that more were like him today. .fStr/y-#n Justice-Like-Great-Waters frowned as woman wearing a "Jesus Saves" T-shirt approached with a cement log. At justice's command, she put the prop down and picked up an arm's length of slash pine from a woodpile. This also gave a good view of the back of her shirt: "But Gretzky rebounds, and he scores!"

She threw the log in and announced, "Hi!

I'm Shelly from the Hanging Moon sept.

I've got a great story for you!" Justice had a look of worry on her face.

"This is about the Raga bash Mocking Demons. At least that's what we're told her name was. It changes every now and again. Anyway, this is the tale of her sojourn tO the vile, corrupted city of Babylon."

Unsettled murmuring began around the fire, but she still continued. "Now in its early days, Babylon looked like it would be the new Sumeria. There was Hammurabi codifying law5 and civilization flowering in ways that promoted stability and peace. Unfortunately, the guiding hand we offered was basically severed by demons that had overtaken the city's power structure. We were driven out and could only watch on from beyond the city walb, trying ever and again to return and help the populace inside.

"These demon worshippers ruled the city with a cold hand; they made regular human sacrifices on the top of their temple and things worse than Leeches prowled the night. The Children felt pain for the people who were suffering, but even the mages who lived there and once wielded so much power couldn't kick the demons and their worshipper out.

"However, a Ragabash named Mocks Demons managed to enter the city without being detected.

Alone in a city full of evil, she did the only thing that a lone Ragabash could; tell clever lies. Her lies were about the ancient friends of Babylon , the Children of Gaia, who remained hidden in the city, fighting demon when they could and saving people on the treets. They were united and waited for the people to get behind them to throw the evil out.

"Mocks Demons did a lot to make this rumor true; she fought the night stalkers and saved a lot of people who spread more stories. Eventually she was hunted and killed, but her sacrifice had given life to Children in Babylon who were not really there. People began standing up for themselves and a little hope returned to the beaten down multitudes. There were even mobs of humans whose faith enabled them to rum back the demon-things.

"Eventually it was a band of mages who threw the demons and their worshippers out, but they would never have done it without the support of a heartened populace.

While the Children were never able to free Babylon, Mocks Demons' courage, sacrifice and little Lies were instrumental.

To Mocks Demons, and the power of rumor!"

Everyone drank.

Ch#d Ringer admired the wiry little man in gym shorts and a USS Michener T-shirt who strode into the council ring. Tough-looking, with tattoos wreathing his arms and a hand orne narrow face. "Who's he?" ]one aid, "That's Soldier-of-Paradise, the NoMoon. Oidn 't know he was back from the Persian Gulf so soon. O nly Garou I know with the nerve to join the Gaia-damned Navy. "The man poured something onto the fire and watched it flare up while people laughed.

"He's in the military? A Child of Gaia? Why?"

She grinned. "Lost cub - I think he might have some Bone Gnawer in him; his instructor in boot camp was Kin. Stayed in to struggle for just warfare, peacekeeping, stuff like that. Goddamn Raga bash tried to get us all to join up! I mean, sure; like none of the rest of us have problems with Rage. One thing's for sure: he's not preaching to the choir like we are! He said once that there was nowhere that needed Unicorn's touch more than the military. It does make a kind of sense." Ringer caught wanting ami regret in the young woman's eyes as she looked at the man who had just placed a log on the fire.

"Thought you were into nonviolent social change ... or are you into him?"

"He doe do a wicked James Bond impression ... no. And you're SOL too; he's married and has a kid."

"Oh. What did he pour on the fire?"

"Bad whi key."

Soldier-of-Paradise spoke in a flat Southern drawl: "I'm Raga bash for the Water Margin Sept and I'm a fire controlman on the Navydestroyer]ames Michener.

My tale comes to me from a history teacher who sailed with our ship to Arabia, Crete and Spain; while we saw the Palace at Knossos he told us about a big fuckin' lie.

"The Minoans, Crete, long time ago. They were a kewl civilization, trading spices and resins with Egypt and sending to Greece for lumber and slaves. They were also savage, gloomy and cruel. The 'Palace' at Knossos has no traces of fire, the teacher said, no windows or light. It was a house of the dead, y'all, not a place to party. There the rot-king Minos ruled in the dark long after his spirit had departed, tied onto his throne with a roomful of dead bigshots.

Or. Stirling-he was Kin to some tribe I don't know had enough of the Sight to look beyond the museum's lies and see Asterion. He was the last of the moon-bulls, after the WarsofRage. They tried to breed 'em back, but no dice; the only way they could work a breeding program for the aurochswhich are to cattle as wolves are to dogs, just so you know-was to domesticate 'em.

And domestication kills the shapeshifter blood.

"But they had one. The Apis was trapped in a maze; they fed him a bunch a human sacrifices, shipped in from Athens. Asterion was a crazy sonofabitch too, all by himself. He was pretty fuckin' sick there at the end, killin' em just because he could. Some human dude came and did him, but it wasn't like he had anything to live for. The bull-man barely put up a fight.

"Y'all probably know the lies: that the guy that killed him was some big hero with a ball of yam, that the Minoans were a fuckin' happy land with equal rights for women, all that sunshiney kinda crap. The lesson here is, don't believe everything they tell you, especially if it's a drunk sailor like me." He paced away from the fire.

"So ... uh, what was that all about?" Ringer had missed the point.

"Minoan Crete. The perfect Gaian civilization, so some say. Apparently there are ... differences of opinion. Ask him yourself if you want to."

"Well, the Children argue about everything. I guess I'd like to meet the doctor he talked about, the man who told him the story. That place sounds pretty weird."

"Whether the museum is right, or Soldier-ofParadise is, it was a weird place." ]one cut in. "Oh, and Ringer? He likes Maker's Mark, over ice. just so you know." The mischief-making smile flashed.

"I thought you said-" But another Garou was rising to speak and the sailor had already disappeared, back to his pack, back to his mate, back to hisship ... no knowing. fit/111!.1"/n A weedy guy with a clipboard stood up. "Mother?

I have a story that is older." Ringer thought he looked like a graduate student - heavy glasses with black plastic frames and a cropped head of hair that was going bald anyway.

Justice brought him the staff and he said, "I am History of Clay, Theurge for the pack of Hanan Amber-Eyes.

"In ancient Sumeria, mud made the building blocks of civilization and water was its least common ingredient. Humans fought wars over water, especially rivers.

We learned the Rite of the Sacred Peace from the spirits and our septs sought to make peace; all too often war came instead. O ne such war occurred between the cities ofUmma and Lagash, but the King ofKish came and set the boundary with a stone marker between them. Lagash got the river.

"Umma was not happy, and as soon as the King of Kish left they ripped down the marker and restarted the war. This battle went back and forth for three generations until another king, II of Zabalam, swept down to crush the army ofLagash and conquer Umma.

II declared that Lagash owned the river, but Umma could use it free of charge.

"The king ofl agash was not satisfied, and continued to try and raise money for a new war. The King desecrated temple and even caern lands with his farms, seized boats, and raised taxes. If a man divorced his wife, brought his sheep to town for shearing ... even for burial there was a tax. 'From one end ofLagash to the other,' wrote Strength ofWater, 'there was the tax man.' "Long had we fought for Lagash, but this was too much. The sept agreed; he should not drive us into the ground for a war we were weary of fighting and that would do us no good. Together we rose up and overthrew the king of Lagash, placing Urukagina the Reformer, Kinsman to the Children of Gaia, as our leader. He ended the flood of taxes, restored land to the temples, and passed laws protecting widows and orphans from powerful neighbors. He brought the vow of sacred peace to Lagash, himself swearing the great Oath in the caern we maintained on temple land.

"Sadly, this was not to last. Eight years later the king ofUmma, 'Big Man' Zaggesi, came and defied the sacred peace by conquering Lagash. It was a bitter lossit was the same bitter loss we have endured so many times.

Urukagina chose to promote peace by slowing preparations for warbut Zaggesi had no such interest, and he was simply better prepared for the war that followed. So we are reminded-though we may desire peace, we must still be ready to fight. WeareGarou. It isourdutytomake war when needed so that others will not have to.

"In his dying breath, though, Urukagina cried 'As for Zaggesi, King of Umma, may his goddess Nidaba bear his mortals in upon his head.' While the curse was slow in fulfillment, Zaggesi was kept on a dog collar 25 years later as Sargon of theSemites washed his sword in the southern sea. Thus it is for all who would break the sacred peace. No bringer of war dies content." 7#d /M/d/Jf/11/ff A gaunt woman with jaundiced eyes stood and threw a log on the fire, though by her appearance it seemed as though the fire would burn her up like a dry twig. "I am Tears of Mercury, of the Gaia's Bounty sept.

My story's so old that humans won't even allow themselves to remember it; yet it ts so powerful that they can't forget it in their hearts." Her accent, a mix of Irish and Australian, made Ringer think of far lands, far times.

"I'll begin by addressing a little myth that's disturbingly pervasive among our tribe: the whole notion that the Defiler Wyrm invented rape. That's a crock.

I don't care if you heard it from a wizened elder who's convinced that rape was a special tool meant to increase humanity's number:;, or a dewy-eyed cub who's sure that humans could never come up with something so vile on their own - it's a lie. Or wishful thinking, more like it. Rape exists outside the human species; It has for a long time. But when someone deliberately causes that kind of suffering and violation tO another creaturewell, it doesn't take a genius tO reason that the Defiler Wyrm gets stronger off that violation. That much is true. But the thought that the Wyrm had to invent rape - no. Don't ever let anyone tell you otherwise. The Banes do not make people do this.

"So, as I was saying, the Defiler Wynn didn't invent rape, and it wasn't the influence of outside spiritual entities that made humans breed more than they should have. They just did. Humanity was simply on top of everything and there was nothing to cull their numbers. That's why there were roo many of them. So the real reason the Children were against the Impergium wasn't because culling humanity was the wrong solution. It was because of the bloody manner in which the other Garou went about doing it. They were feeding the Wyrm with their murders and reveling."

Tears, who was now looking much stronger in the firelight, looked about as mumbles of dissatisfaction surrounded her. "To illustrate this point, I'm going to tell you a story about a wolf and a rat. The wolf was one of us, named Patience of Deed, and the rat, well, let us just call him 'the rat.' "The rat came to Patience of Deed and asked, 'Brother, is it possible to kill with love in one's heart?' ...

"'It is,' replied Deed. 'But you must be sure it is absolutely necessary. Who is it you must kill ?' '"Humanity.' Deed's eyes grew wide, and the rat quickly added, 'Not all of them! Just enough that there are too few to harm Gaia.' '"l see, and why are you doing this? Your love for Gaia is admirable, but it is hardly a reason for such a task.' '"Gaia has asked this of me, brother. So, you of all Gaia's children who truly understands her love, tell me how can l kill Her children with love?"

"Patience of Deed closed his eyes in thought for some time, considering the matter. He knew if Gaia asked it, then it must be done. He then responded, 'Eat their food. When it is low, they are less likely to breed.

Spread disease when this is not enough, so that they can pass away in their sleep. Since this is the will of Gaia, you must make it such that they see it as the will of Gaia.' "And with that the rat left and began to do his duty.

When the Garou took this responsibility from the rat and began the lmpergium, we didn't object because we were opposed to the culling of humanity, but because it was done in a wantonly violent and bloody fashion. The will of Gaia is always the way oflove, no matter how hard it is for us to comprehend this."

"Is that true?" )one asked.

"Well," Mandy, mused, "the Children of the Rat have always eaten away at humans ... there's truth enough to it.l think it's a bit much to assume it was one of us that told us how to do their jobs, but y'know, l guess the Ratkin probably used to gather around campfires and talk about how they taught us to do our jobs.

So fair's fair." She chuckled, then her face became more serious. "But she didn't tell how the Impergium ended! That was Lore-Speaker Gran's work. When he-she-"

"He-she? What was this person, a drag queen?"

Ringer was briefly amused.

"No, something greater. He-she was metis, and a hermaphrodite."

"A what?" asked Hack.

"Gron was both male and female, at once Arm, Voice and Heart of the Great Mother of All. He-she traveled to each sept of the Children, to all places under the sky. Gron saw that the Garou were not Gaia's only defenders! Humans, Kin and otherwise, lived, farmed, built and worshiped in ways that aided the Mother.

When humans fired the forest, it grew back thicker, greener. When they hunted, they killed the weak and sick, strengthening the herds. And they did more. In the caves of Gaul he-she saw carvings and paintings honoring Gaia; by the rivers ofThessaly humans made statues of the fish spirits, making them real as no chant could do. for the rest of his-her life Gron worked to lift the great ban, to allow some human to increase their numbers.

But on the night of the Allmoot where the speakers announced the change, Gron died. Murdered by mad Talons, some say, while the Talons themselves claim . the Mother struck him dead ... no one knows. Dying, : he-she bade his pack mates carry him to the council ring, wounds reopening, to hear the speeches. The council agreed to lift the lmpergittm and Gron saw runners depart to all septs of the Garou, knowing his-her goal achieved. And retumed to the Mother."

"Wow. Some story. Is that true?" Ringer smiled.

"Yes. Probably. The C hildren tell that Gron lifted the lmpergium; I've heard Ll few people from the other tribes agree, mostly so thev can curse him."

"But by that time, hadn't the Garou already, like, killed the other shapeshifters? .... " ffJtrr.t ~ ..A>~d Mandy passed him a flask. "Here: it'll relax you.

Yeah, the other shapeshifters mostly died, mostly because of the Garou. Including the Children of Gaia."

"What do you mean, stster? The Children tried to helpto save the Others! And we-" A log crackled i.md hissed.

"-Are at fault. The Orhers trusted us, and that wa _their undoing. I myself count six times when the bears or the crocodiles were lured to 'peace talks' with a Child of Gaia as mediator. Each time, another tribe used the 'meeting' as an occas on for ambush. Once, Facesthe-Moon was given a 'peace talen' that had a Fire-spirit bound into it, and two sounders of the Boar-folk bumed to death where Shadow Lords did not slay them. She went herself to seek the Grondr, to apologize, and they killed her in revenge." Jone, face darkening, tumed to her Visor and sty I used through several layers of email to a GPS page.

"So the warrior tribes tricked us ?Then it isn't our fault." Ringer sipped at hot mead, ginger and cinnamon the flavors he could name.

"Great for the throat, don't you think?

It wasn't just that they tricked us, it's that we kept trying and trying to mend fences that were long since scattered ash." Homemade cookies came around on a wooden plate. "When someone, anyone, sought our help, we were ready to give it: take offerings that concealed poison or hexes, give our safeguard to noncombatants who they'd slay when we turned our backs." She shook her head. "And it happened on both sides, too. When they were hunting the lynxes in Europe, the lynxes sometimes came to our ancestors for sanctuary, then killed them and their Kin to avenge their own brethren. There was plenty of hatred on both sides, and sometimes even the Children got caught up in it." An old sorrow hung on her face.

"We're not saints. Sometimes a Child would lose a loved one to the Wars, and she'd go looking for justice - revenge, more like it. Sometimes our ancestors felt more loyalty to their friends and allies among the Garou Nation than to Unicorn. Sometimes the Rage just took over. As much as we want to be of one heart and one mind, we're still individuals at heart. Some of our ancestors - let's be honest, some of our contemporaries have done stuff we're all ashamed of. That's the tale of human and Garou history in a nutshell."

"Yeah, good stuff."Ringersaid. He passed the flask to Hack and Jone, who sipped and returned it to Mandy. "So what started it all?"

"How do you mean, Ringer? You mean how did the Garou begin? Or how did mankind begin? Or how did the Wynn get trapped in the Weaver's Web?"

"I don't know. I guess, how did humans get to messing with nature, instead of the other way round?

Why didn't they just stay like they were?"

"Well, that's the toolmaker puzzle, isn't it? The whole mess of the Weaver and the Wyrm is connected to thatthat when humans started to make tools, and to teach each other how to make tools, that's when the Wynn got wound in the Web. Which caused which, I don't know. Maybe it's the humans' fault - they've managed to do a lot of stuff without any help. That's why we're here, you know, on the edge of the Apocalypse: it's humans' toolmaking that ended in this world of giant factories and bombs, corporations and chainsaws, diapers and newspapers. And try as we might, we can't go back. But it all goes back to the hand ax, or the basket, or whatever the first tool was. And given how much easier they make life, can you blame people for wanting them ?That's the toolmaker puzzle: you make things, and you eventually make something that can wreck the world."

"Depressing; thanks, Mandy." Ringer was smiling ruefully. "Maybe the next story won't be so downbeat."

She returned his rueful smile. "They can't all be stories we want to hear, Ringer.lftheywere, we wouldn't be telling any of the stories that need to be heard."

Or(ftnA:/ o/ffid Ch!ft/l'dn o/ t:ltr!tr The pack watched a longhaired man approach Justice-Like-Great-Waters carrying a guitar. "Hey, it's EricHey! Eric!" The youngish Garou waved back at her. Others were hooting at him, some clapping. "He's great - you ever hear him?"

"No - is he like, a folksinger?" Ringer wondered which would be worse - listening to this guy or pretending to like his music.

"Yeah ... anarchy folk-punk, I guess. Lives with a Philodox named Sunfrog at a Bone Gnawer Hillfolk caern in Tennessee and does a lot of rabble-rousing.

He'll sing us his story, I bet." Eric tossed a few sticks onto the blaze and began, smooth voice rising and breaking on the passions that the song conveyed. Ringer realized on the second chorus that Eric was singing in Garou, not English, and on the third chorus he joined in.

Ringer heard: The Garou were born, in the world's mom , Brave wolves to ward their mother Brave wolves they turned, fooled by the Wyrm And set to fight each other.

For Gaia's every daughter, for Gaia's every son The ways divide, the water wide Our path to peace we climb We are all Gaia's Children, the many tribes are One, From war we come, Her peace our home Deep are the eyes of time The tribes divide, each takes a side Takes two sides t'make a war And Garou died, blood ties untied Rot filled the Nation's core The Mother peered, her great eyes teared Into a caem of slaughter From there she got, from death and rot Five of her sons and daughters In Mother's nest, against her breast The five dead Children lay Cold as the earth, but a new birth Great Gaia whelped that day To each she spoke, and live they woke One from each blessed Moon Her sacred breath woke them from death Though undeserved, a boon You're Gaia's child and undefiled Preserve our Mother's peace The tribes unite, your heart keep bright Though struggles never cease And from this tale, know you can't fail A darkened world to heal As did those five, keep hope alive Her love and peace make real The crowd of humans, wolves and in-between shapes clapped and howled their approval.

"So, that's how the Children came to be?" )one asked. "Gaia brought dead puppies back to life?"

"Yes." Rich spoke, his Glabro form at the edge of terrible. "The Great Mother's mercy brought back to life the first five pups slain by Garou hands. They were the silver pack - one of each moon, like us - that became the Children of Gaia. She charged them with healing and peace and these remain our work today."

Ringer saw the other then.

A thin man sitting on a log near the pack: it was the scholar who'd spoken ofSumer. Something about his look told Ringer that he wasn't convinced by the folk song. "Honored sir," Ringer began, unsure of the proper mode of address in the O ld Tongue, "is this tale to your liking?" The man wore an ironic smile, clipboard no longer in his hand.

"Mandy Barret's pack, innit?" The guy seemed friendly enough; perhaps in his early thirties, darkcomplexioned and prematurely bald. He spoke with a slight English accent. ''I'm History-of-Clay." The others shook hands, Rich merely touching his hand for a moment as was usual for Glabro and Crinos Garou when greeting one in Homid.

"Yeah, you told us about Uru whatever in Sumeria.

Good story!" )one came up and shook the man's hand. "What did you think of the last one? You're a historian, right?"

"Yes ... I'm a paleographer, really, work with old inscriptions. Same thing, and I do teach history at a college in Palestine. No, it's a fine tale, but there are others."

"How do you mean, others?" Rich had sprawled on the grass in Glabro as the others sat down.

"There are other tales of how we came to be. You know that one .... "

"What are the others?" )one was intrigued; Ringer could see her activating the MP3 recording mechanism on her Visor. The damn thing had to be a fetish, as much as she had crammed in there. He heard Rich growling. Signs flicked and danced on the indiglo screen as the Garou scholar spoke.

"Time isn't a one-way street, not even the twoway street our wonder-working foes would claim. It is a maze; our knowing of it mazier still. No one can say when a legend is legend, when a myth is a myth, or when a piece of knowledge becomes so shabby and unreal as to be a 'fairy tale'; myths are not lies but stories about what is true. So take this as a story, and not much of one. But it's about us, who and what we are.

"No one knows where the Garou truly came from, save that it was from Mother Gaia. The oldest tales used to begin, 'When we awakened ... ' or 'When we first took the Wolf shape .. .' or "In the days of Progenitor Wolf. . .' But there are songs older still, choruses no Garou alive can understand. We claim to be the oldest of the shapeshifter races ... maybe there are those older than we.

"Once there was One Tribe, the Garou Nation entire, as Gaia intended. Maybe because it was a golden age uncorrupted by the Wynn, maybe because there were so few of us that we had little need or room for argument. I don't know. But we didn't stay that way.

"Human numbers grew when humans developed more and better tools for hunting and gardening: better food supplies. The lmpergium you all know about. We slew humans to prevent their numbers from growing, but also to prevent the skilled and powerful hunters from challenging our terror-rule over the two-legs. We wanted to control their food-gathering, use them as breeding stock, drive them as cattle. But even so we became aware that humans were more than just chattel, more than just a bunchofbroodmaresor studs. The rock art of Altamira and Lascaux, the Gaia-statues ofWillendorf, the Tassili paintings all bore witness to humans' ability to create beauty and to revere the Mother. They had something we did not, something we still have not. Maybe the Mother gave them this because we have so much. Call it the 'nameless within them' if you will ... it makes each one of them precious.

"But with this realization came disagreements. Factions began to form over the simple question: What to do about the human population? Some were for brutal control, so the humans couldn't drive other animals to extinction like the mammoth: these became a faction of lupus, ultimately the Talons. Some for continued management of humans as subjects ... these were the Fangs, many others too. One faction argued for the lifting of the ban, and the last and greatest to plead for it was Gron.

You know about him-her too. How many champions he-she challenged and defeated simply to raise the question: should we lift the lmpergium?

"The Children of Gaia were simply the Garou who wanted peace both with humans and with otherGarou, and who worked, and fought for peace, and still do.

That is not much of a story, but it is who and what we are. And must be."

"Hey ... that makes sense. That we were just the Garou who wanted peace." ]one said. Ringer saw Rich shifting, more and more uncomfortable. "History-ofClay, do you think that the Garou-?'' "The Garou are the children ofMotherGaia. Let no one dispute this!" Rich was on the brink ofCrinos, his own true shape, rage and death. Mandy turned to him.

"Rich, spin down. It's just a story, that's all. If you want to tell one-" But it was too late. The manwolf shape erupted, roared -