There are four local packs with territories in the city with the Pure controling most of the land on the other side of the river."
Casey made a note that Cory hadn't assumed a Pure attack as his first guess.
"The Tur is at Freemont Park."
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There are four local packs with territories in the city with the Pure controling most of the land on the other side of the river."
Casey made a note that Cory hadn't assumed a Pure attack as his first guess.
"The Tur is at Freemont Park."
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For a brief instant, anger flash across Cory's face at the mention of the Pure. His eyes settled on Christian's wound.
"Hrmph."
Cory inhaled deeply and looked at Christian's face, then at Casey's eyes.
"Will you hunt with me tomorrow night? I want to meet the local packs, and find out what the local situation is like."
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"So long as you don't mind waking up early. I work nights. Christian's howl caught me just as I was getting off.
"That was you, right? None of the guys on the bridge actually looked to happy."
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Christian pops some aspirin from the kit while he listens to the other two talk. He smiles when Casey asks him about the howl. "Yeah, I guess so. I've never run so fast in my life before." He says it like it's a memory he's not planning on forgetting any time soon.
Then he looks a little confused and starts asking questions. "So what's a Tur? And there's werewolf tribes? Is that something everyone gets? Who are these Pure and why is their territory where I live? Why wouldn't they want me there? And... hunting?"
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"Christian, you and I are brothers beyond pack or tribe. I will help you walk the path of darkness, as it is the path I walk, also. Under the New Moon, you will join the tribes as a scout and observer, one who sees, but isn't seen."
Cory looked away, towards the window.
"Hunting. The Hunt is what my pack is all about. There are other ways of life, other ways to see the world, but my tribe values the hunt. It brings us closer to what we are, and helps us understand ourselves. Whether we are hunting rabbits in the park, or stray spirits in Twilight, the Hunt tests our skills and pushes our limits. To live without hunting is to live isolated, in a dark room, hiding from ourselves."
Cory stopped. He remembered the confusion he felt when his elders dove into their passionate tirades. He smiled at himself, knowing why they spoke as they did.
"I'm sorry, I'm ranting on about things you don't really understand. Christian, you spoke of running fast, and you smile when you remember howling in the night. Imagine running after something, rather than away from something. Imagine the chase, and you are the hunter, rather than the prey. There is power in that."
Cory paused. It had been a while since he had hunted, and that didn't sit well with him.
"Hunting is part of who we are. We will hunt our kind, not to kill, but to find, to learn from, maybe to join with."
Cory stopped smiling, sobering a little.
"We may not end up in the same pack, but I hope to some day call you friends. Tribes are important for defining who we are, but packs are necessary for survival."
Cory looked to Casey and said,"You have done well without a pack, but I hope that you will join a pack, any pack, someday. There is strength and support in a pack, that you will never find anywhere else."
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Christian gives Corey a "Why are you speaking in Greek?" look that illustrates the fact that he is not on the same page with the whole hunting thing. He doesn't see a correlation between "YAY RUNNING" and "YAY HUNTING".
Christian shakes his head. "I don't know. I have a job and a girlfriend I need to think about before I go running off after a pack and a tribe. You said these 'Pure' have all the territory across the river? Is there some way I could talk to them? Get them to understand that I wasn't trespassing intentionally and I was living there before all this happened? I figure that they don't have any problems with normal people living there, only werewolves. Maybe they just came across me and thought I was spying on them or something, and if I explain that I'm new to this they won't come after me with the silver again?" Because if that works out, it would be great.
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Cory didn't want to lecture and rant, but he found himself doing just that. He pursed his lips and lowered his brow in thought. He leaned forward, concentrating in silence for a moment. When he spoke, his voice was low and stern.
"If you do go back, and the Pure capture you, and they surely will, you may not survive. If you do, the next time we meet, you will be trying to kill me, and I always fight back."
Cory tried to soften his tone, and his gaze as he looked into Christian's eyes for a moment.
"The Pure do not negotiate. You either accept their ways, or you die. Does a rabbit negotiate with the fox? They see us as prey, not rivals." Cory remembered a comparison Tree Breaker often used."Think of all the human hate mongers in the world. Now give those hate mongers the ability to turn into beasts built for violence. Everything up to tonight doesn't matter to them. What matters is that you join them, or you die. The ... the Nazis didn't negotiate with the Jews. The lynch mobs didn't negotiate with the blacks. The Pure won't negotiate with you."
His own life before the First Change involved hunting, stalking, moving through the forest, because he could. His First Change just showed him who he really was. Cory realized that not everyone experiences this kind of revelation.
"Christian, you are not human,"said Cory. "You may have started out human, but you will never be human. To think of yourself as human will endanger yourself and the people around you."
Cory looked at Casey, wondering what Casey's self-image contained at this moment. He looked back at Christian.
"Running free is good, but running free for a reason is great. You, we, are half wolf, and that half needs attention. You will have urges that will claw their way up from where ever you hide them within yourself, and when they surface, you may not be able to control them. You will experience a blinding rage, and when this rage can comes out, death will follow."
Cory has a moment of inspiration.
"Did you see what happened during the fight tonight? Did you see that one wolf, the one defending you, how he turned into a raging beast? You can do that, also. There is a time and place for it, but what if something triggered it in a grocery store? If you do not acknowledge the wolf within you, it will demand attention and rise up without your permission."
Cory relaxed back into his seat.
"Try negotiating with one of those beasts."
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Cory didn't really seem to think of the Pure much better than he described them thinking of other werewolves. He had been keeping quite out of respect for the more experinced guy but he decided to say something. It was his house they were in after all, he could speak his mind.
"I wouldn't exactly call watching someone get their neck chewed through as defending," Casey added. He had gone over to start washing the two cups he owned.
He sat back on his heels again.
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Cory looked at Casey, then gave Christian a good, hard look.“He doesn’t seem injured to me. Except for that bullet wound, but silver will do that to you.”Cory shrugged. “If you survive a wound, you aren’t dead. On the other hand, if that other wolf hadn’t shown up, he may not have killed Christian, but he surely would have ripped the New Moon from his heart.”Cory leaned towards Christian, smiling a brotherly smile.“Can you feel it, the New Moon, hidden up there in the night sky?”
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Christian looks at Cory like he's an alien speaking gibberish. This guy was in-fucking-sane. He felt something, but he couldn't tell what it was. Maybe he was just really tired. "But, why?"
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