Dead Dog Walking Part 3 (closed)

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

After a minute more, Maya leads Hannibal to a rocky outcropping, and into a tall, vertical split in the rock. He feels a strange ripple, almost like stepping through the Gauntlet, but without any action of his own.

The natural crevasse is suddenly replaced by a smoothed stone tunnel, smoothed out without losing the subtle irregular form of the original. It splits in a T in front of him, but Maya deftly turns him 180, and leads him back out of the tunnel, and into a green and verdant glade.

The air is warmer, moister, than where they had been. The grassy sward in front of him, sprinkled with spring mountain flowers, stretches 20 or so yards in a semi-circle in front of the cave mouth that he just exited, then fades into a dense old-growth forest. The smell of cedar trees and moss and warm green things envelops him, and the sound of a merry stream burbles somewhere in the distance....

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

Hannibal blinks and sniffs the air, then sniffs the flask as if wondering if the new smells are coming from that.

"This... this is that place you were telling me about... your... den?"

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

Maya rumbles assent, then shifts back to Homid. She seems more relaxed here than he's ever seen her. "This is my Glade. And, I might add, I'm pretty sure you're the first Garou to be here." She smiles. "Are you hungry? There are some lovely berry thickets, and fish to catch in the river. I even know where there are a few bees' hives, if you feel brave enough to risk the bees' wrath."

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

"No I..." Hannabal rubbed his stomach... "Things are upset at the moment a little. Is it liquor before Bear-a-visen?"

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

Maya blinks blankly at him. "I have no idea what you just said. Why don't you sit down in the sun for a bit? I'll get you more to drink. Do you like mead? Or blackberry liqueur? I made both last year..."

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

Hannibal's eyebrows raised at the mention of more booze, but it was interrupted by a moment where he turned a little green.

"No I uh..." he suddenly lurched a little, and then burped. "I think I should just sit down for a while..." he slumped to the ground.

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

"Right. I'll be right back." Turning, she slips into bear form and gallops into the cave. After a few minutes, she comes out in her human form, carrying a bowl. The smell of warm oatmeal, liberally topped with brown sugar and plump blackberries, wafts up from it. "Here, just take a few bites of this. It will be easy on your stomach, and help sop up some of the alcohol that's eating holes in your stomach."

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

He takes the bowl gratefully and tries a little bite.

A long silence passes between them.

"Maya... I don't think..." Hannibal shook his head, "You know what's bullshit is... I'm supposed to have some kind of destiny because I dumped Guy in a cave and found a bone and went back through time or something... but I don't want a goddamn destiny. Magnificent 7? There's nothing magnificent about me. I drive truck. I trade. That's all. My dad... he was the big hero. I ain't shit. I'm a mutt. About as purebread as a wasteland dingo. The best thing about me..." Hannibal slumped over the oatmeal in his lap, "Was Holly."

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

"Is Holly," Maya corrects absently, then takes on a serious tone. "Iluak-Fire-In-Snow once told me that, since no one is perfect, it follows that all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection. Garou, in my humble opinion, worry far too much about being perfect. You work hard, you care about your friends, you put yourself on the line to do what needs doing and that's that. You'd have made a damn fine Gurahl, frankly. Forget heroes and bloodlines and all that stuff. Seems to me that "destiny" is just Gaia's way of telling you that something needs doing, and you'd best get off your butt and do it. Just because you don't know why She picked you is no reason to insult Her judgment..." Maya's eyes twinkle and her lips curve, making the last statement into a gentle joke. "You'll do what needs doing because it needs doing. Let the Galliards make heroes or villains as they will..."

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

"My life is a lie. Who I am... I'm a drifter. Who I love... against the law. What a story they'll tell. Hannibal Relays-the-Truth... to everyone but himself. Well here's the story: Hannibal the rankless wonder. Perpetual Cliath. Bum and deadbeat father to be."

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

Maya sits down next to him. "Seems to me you're in trouble for not telling lies..."
She pauses, sneaks a berry out of his oatmeal, and slurps it up before continuing. "And no way, no how, will you be a deadbeat dad. That little Kovi is yours, yours and Holly's, and you know you'll hit the road before you'll let anyone take him away from you. There are lots of Coggie septs that would be glad to have you all, and Ritemasters who could and would take care of that silly anklet for you. Heck, eventually Holly could do it herself." She shrugs. "Or things may change here. With the mortality rate at this Sept, who knows who'll be in charge in a year, or what they may do? Don't borrow pain to come, because it may never arrive, and then how silly would you feel?"

She falls silent, then passes the note he'd left behind in the bar over to him. "You forgot this. Given who wrote it, you probably should wait to read it until you're feeling a little better, but that's up to you."

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

"That's the lie Maya. That there is a home for me, a Strider... a runner is what I am. I do what you say, I run to another Sept, I play dice on which allies of mine'll die between now and then... all the while this... thing eating the Sept apart through..." Hannibal shivers to spite the warm sun on his back, "Dreams... what kind of a choices are these?"

He takes another small sip of the oatmeal.

"It probably doesn't matter though. Whistler made me swear to 'manage' the problem with the other Sept on my own. That means they'll tell me to kill my child, or they'll kill me. Only one way that is going to go down. Short story for the Galliards then."

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

"Hannibal, look at me. You're a Garou. Home is your pack, your loved ones. Wherever they go, there is home. That's what it means to be a wolf. You aren't tied to one place, one bit of land, however beautiful. The problem with oaths of the form 'death before dishonor' is that you eventually end up with two groups of people: the dead and the forsworn. It's a survivor's problem, that. What's more important, living to do more good work, or dying to support what you've already done?" Maya shakes her head. "I know what I'd do, but I'm not Garou, so I guess all I should do is say I love you and whatever happens, I'll support you and make sure Holly and the Kovi are kept safe and sound."

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

Hannibal smiled just a little.

"Taz said he could protect us too. Choked Holly, knocked me out to 'prove' it. He got his way, and now... this. I know you'll try, and maybe that's enough, but probably not."

He set aside the oatmeal.

"I'm done running. The truth has set me free. Let the Wendigo take my life. Someone's coming back without an eye... a nut... bladder control, I dunno. I'm not going down without a fight."

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

"I can do something Taz can't. I can bring her here. No one can enter here without me bringing them through. She'd be safe here, until she was ready to leave and had a safe place to go. You want to go to the Wendigo, go. I can't blame you; you've got guts and there's no denying that. Just remember to fight them like a Philodox, with the Law as well as your claws. You've been punished by your elders, and however they may despise you, deny you, they have no right within the Law to punish you again. They can challenge William for his decision if they like, as Taz tried to do, but they can't punish you out of hand and you mustn't let them. If we are to work with them, they must respect the Sept and the decisions of its elders, even when they disagree with those decisions. To do otherwise, to let them countermand your own elders, is to bare the throat of the entire Sept in submission to them."

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

Hannibal grabbed his temples.

"Fight them like a Philodox... right. Sounds easy. Fight a Sept that only believes in the strength of dagger and Klaive with words... no problem. I'll get right on that."

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

"Well, now, if it was easy everyone would do it." Maya puts her hands over his, stares into his eyes. "You're doing this for the alliance between the Septs, right? Well, how you do this is going to set the tone for every other disagreement between the Wendigo and us. If you let them take what they want from us without making them follow our rules first, you tell them that the Sept of the Forgotten Winter is weak, and can't stand up for its own decisions and its own people. Don't do that. Make them fight by our rules, in our arena, if they want a piece of you. It's the only way to make sure that what we have is equality, and not subjugation."

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

Hannibal squints into the sun and rubs his temple some more.

"Easy for you to say. You haven't met Kills-the-Weak. He's the kinda guy that doesn't understand why we quit the Impergium. I mean... when I suggested bringing books in for the kids he got all pissed off. Didn't like the idea that their cubs needed to know about, you know, the actual world from some source other than him."

Hannibal scoots into a shady spot to avoid the head-pounding sun.

"If they ever actually made anything besides polished stones and sticks they'd be Amish. Militant Amish. I mean their space program is throwing spears at each other really, really high."

[Athena Fire-in-Snow]

Maya grins at his joke, bitter though it was. "Sounds pretty bad. Means making him toe the line is even more important. Man like that, I don't want him thinking he can walk in to our place and set rules for us. Be honest, sure. Both about what you did and about the fact that you both have been judged and punished. Don't let Kills-the-Weak think for a moment that he can overrule what your elders decreed, or we become weak. With the obvious eventual conclusion..."

[Wilhelm Opens-the-Way]

Hannibal shook his head again, trying to shake off the liquor for a moment enough to get across what he is trying to say.

"See that's my problem with all of this. Way I see it. Love ain't about weakness. Vulnerability, sure. Its a soft spot, but weakness? Hell no! Somethin' real is soft like magma is soft. Deep beneath the earth, it burns hot, it's fluid and keeps the ground under your feet at the same time. Trust takes strength. Our laws make it so that lovin' another Garou is to be pissed on. Sure, I get it, my kid is gonna have problems. His leg won't work right, or he'll be a little retarded or something, well shit, that sucks. That's a problem for some people because that don't help the 'grand fight'."

He grabbed the bowl of oatmeal and had another spoonful, this one heaping.

"But how much does Dieter freakin' out and Raging all over the Beltane party because I reached out for Holly's hand while we were on our knees in front of the whole Sept - because his parents got killed help the big fight? When he was born we lost two fightin', lovin' Garou and all we got was that guy and a sense of moral superiority? Seriously, come on!"

Another spoonful.

"How does a thousand," between swallows, "Thousand deadbeat parents leaving their kids behind bitter lost cubs help the big fight again? Somebody tell me that! And the violence Taz was willing to do to Holly and me so we'd stay out of the shadows and run skipping into the light of the gawddam Philadox inquisition - did that help the big fight? No. It's bullshit. This is a law from a different time, a time when the end of..." Hannibal waves his arms indicating everything around them and more. "All of this catching fire and burning down and falling over into the swamp wasn't just right around the corner, when the love of a slightly broken kid is the last love you might ever have before..." Hannibal couldn't get the rest of the words out. They choked in his throat, too full of emotions.