RP Stories/Bloodmoon Eclipse

 The sun was already high in the sky when Jira emerged from her hut, her hair bedraggled, with dark shadows under her eyes and smelling of briarsap and wine. She winced and shielded her eyes from the sunlight as she stumbled to the fire, looking like she'd fireball the first person to speak to her who wasn't offering her strong black tea.  Kyphis took one look at Jira and decided this will be a great time to take stock of the stores.  Tara was just stumbling her way out of her own hut. Groggily huffing in the serenity of nature, she noted another distinct ambience of ill will, encompassing a very hung-over looking Jira. As it were, Tara knew exactly how to counteract this foul imbalance of humours, and brought a billy and some tea she'd come by when she was last in Clara, out to the large fire in the middle of camp. Until the tea was brewed, she knew silence would be better welcomed than a solemn commiseration.  Jira was dimly aware of Tara's presence as she stared into the fire, the black coals streaked with red.. So red.. Why was red important? Something she couldn't remember past the haze in her head...  Her gaze moved to the flames flicking around the steel billy can, and soon the smell of fresh tea filled the camp.  The Alpha was still asleep by the fire on his fur draped chair, slowly lulling awake, he let out a whisper... "This again Dreamwalker? You need to stop having these late nights." Eyes still shut, Sairus groaned as he turned the fur blanket over himself.  Môr crawled from her tent, dazed and bemused. She made her way to the fire and looked at the others with barely one eye open. Her mouth opened with a great yawn and she flopped her worn out body over a spare trunk. Môr felt her stomach turn, but held back the sickly feeling. "Uuuuurrrgh........ I have never felt a hangover like this before," she mumbled in her less than perfect state.  Now tipping over on his chair, the Alpha fell off to the side upon hearing Môr's voice, crashing down with all of his furs on top of him. "WHAT? Who's here?!" Sairus was quick to get up on his feet holding up a dagger, he let out a sigh and lowered it when he realised he had been dreaming.  Sitting next to the fire Landak jumped to his feet hearing Sairus's yell. "Alpha! Is everything alright?" He asked panicked as his wineskin lay forgotten on the ground. A loud beastly echo of snoring and coughing moved through the breeze towards camp as Rexxar lay flat face down in the den  Sairus calmed himself, sitting back down in the dirt. "Why does everyone have the look of death on them?" He said with a grumble, now drawing with his dagger in the dirt.  'So... much... noise' Tara thought to herself, head pounding. She gave a groggy nod to Môr, and at the sight of her, for a moment, a hazy flash of a memory too vague to pin down, but it seemed like it had something to do with last night.  "Not too sure" Tara said non-chalantly as she began to hand out the freshly boiled tea... although the fact she couldn't remember anything that happened last night, irked her.  "Looks like I'm not the only one who had a late night." Jira noted as she took a cup of tea from Tara.  "... Why are you still in the same clothes as yesterday, Tara?"  Môr shared the same confused look as Tara, "You are in the same clothes too, Jira?!"  "Did we... drink? Last night? I honestly can't remember..." Tara mused.

<p class="MsoNormal"> ________________________________________________________________________ <p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"> On the other side of camp, Kyphis stared at the storeroom in disbelief. <p class="MsoNormal"> "What in the..."Normally, the large hut was fairly ordered. Since not everyone could read and write, there where pouches hanging from the wall by the door, marked with pictures of the foodstuffs in the storeroom. The pouches were filled with marked tokens, so all that someone taking things from store has to do is drop tokens into the large basket below the pouches. Someone taking out two baskets of nuts would take two tokens from the marked pouch, drop them in the basket, and be on their way. It made counting a lot swifter, and helped with knowing what sorts of things needed to be foraged, as well as when they would need to make the rare long trip to market. <p class="MsoNormal"> Right now... there were empty baskets and sacks strewn about the storeroom in heaps, and the basket for tokens had been spilled out on the floor. The place was a mess. <p class="MsoNormal"> With the sacks and baskets in piles, and the state Tara came back from her lessons with Jira, he had little doubt who the culprits were...

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal">  Jira looked down at herself, indeed seeing the same shirt and skirts, stained with red liquid and smears of some unknown ingredients... She picked up the hem of her skirts and sniffed the fabric... Blisterwort? No - wolfsbane... <p class="MsoNormal"> Jira looked up and saw the same stains on Tara's sleeves... And to her surprise... On Môr's clothes as well. <p class="MsoNormal"> "...What did we do?" <p class="MsoNormal"> Now cleaning his dagger, Sairus replied gruffly. "I did hear a lot of commotion during the night, but was too tired from training to bother with it - didn't sound serious though"

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"> Kyphis lingered a little longer in the storeroom, trying to organize things a little better. <p class="MsoNormal"> He couldn't figure out what the girls might have been after in here though, and in such quantities. The only things they kept in the storehouse where foods and general supplies. Most people kept anything important to them in their own huts or tents, and Jira kept almost all the magical materials in her den. It wouldn't do to have someone grab something poisonous by accident just because they didn't know what it was, after all.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"> The snoring stopped, silence, then the sounds of a steel pounding an anvil cracked through camp like thunder... <p class="MsoNormal"> The Dreamwalker winced against the sound - her head was already throbbing and now this? She did appreciate Rexxar's persistence and devotion to his blacksmithing... but this was not one of those times. <p class="MsoNormal"> "Kyphis? Where's Kyphis? Ah, there you are!" Jira said groggily as he emerged from the stores. "Any chance of a fry up for breakfast? I could really use some bacon... and think Mor might need a few extra eggs too." <p class="MsoNormal"> The hammering of steel on steel continued, and Jira yelled as loudly as her parched throat could muster: "REXXAAAAR! COME HAVE BREAKFAST FIRST!" <p class="MsoNormal"> Kyphis looked incredulously at Jira - "Breakf.... Jira, it's mid-afternoon already. Look at the sun, it's setting, not rising!" <p class="MsoNormal"> Jira wheeled around and squinted up at the sky and swore, seeing the afternoon clouds streaked with red. Red.. why was red so important? There was something she needed to do.. something about red... <p class="MsoNormal"> A flash of memory came to her - a red potion in a cauldron - her cauldron - and something was added - something that smoked and frothed and billowed steam - and ... her memory was a haze after that. <p class="MsoNormal"> "Tara, Môr.. we brewed something last night.. something important.. what was it?" <p class="MsoNormal"> Kyphis strolled over to the women huddled together on one side of the fire. <p class="MsoNormal"> "You did a damn sight more than just brew last night. Tara only came in a few hours before sunrise, and the storeroom's a mess. I've not taken a proper stock of what's missing, but it looks like all the jam, most of the potatoes, and several baskets of jerky fell victim to you three in the night." <p class="MsoNormal"> "I... I don't have a clue.." Tara stammered, ears ringing with Rexxar's smithing efforts. "I'm in no state to argue that it wasn't us who raided the stores, but perhaps something in there might remind me of our activities during Witching Hour". Tara got to her feet, with a groan of effort, and took three queasy steps before giving a mighty heave behind a log. <p class="MsoNormal"> "Oh dear. I'll clean that up later" she said, before kicking some dirt over the puddle of bile, and continuing over to the storage hut. <p class="MsoNormal"> As much as she hated seeing Tara so sick, Jira was grateful for the distraction, as she realised there was a large clump of jam in her hair. No wonder her hair smelled amazing. <p class="MsoNormal"> She quickly wiped the berry pulp away with her sleeve and followed in Tara's wake, attempting a healing spell to ease her stomach. <p class="MsoNormal"> Rexxar kept banging away, the blows becoming lighter but at a faster pace, he was in full concentration - not being one to half finish a project. <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus started to ponder Jira's words, what they could mean, why she was speaking them, Sairus looked up at the sky and uttered a single word in his still barely awake state... <p class="MsoNormal"> "Shit."

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"> After watching the state that Jira, Môr and Tara were in Landak raced off to Jira's hut. Upon entering Landak let out a loud cry "By the ancestors! what on earth did you all do in here?" The sound of a flint striking steel was heard within and light suddenly illuminated the doorway. <p class="MsoNormal"> After rummaging around for a few moments Landak emerges covered in a layer of dark dust and a muddy liquid through his hair holding a small chest labelled "For when Landak and Rexxar get too drunk" <p class="MsoNormal"> Running to Jira, Landak handed her the chest. "I think you three need these more than Rexxar and I do" he said grinning. "Your hut is a mess Jira - what did you do last night?" <p class="MsoNormal"> Jira heard Landak's cry and spun around - oh, clever Landak! She thankfully took one of the hangover potions from the chest he carried and drank it down in one - she never thought she'd need one herself. Her sobriety returning, Jira looked up at Landak's question... What DID they do? <p class="MsoNormal"> The shaman headed for her hut, wondering what would make Landak exclaim aloud like that? She pulled back the hides that hung over the door, and froze in shock "My HUT!" <p class="MsoNormal"> Môrgana, in Jira’s wake, exclaimed “What on earth were we on?!” <p class="MsoNormal"> Jira’s hut was still dimly lit by a little fire that a great big cast-iron cauldron sat upon. The smell of the mixture from the pot was unpleasant but bearable, however Môr was more worried about the contents. She looked around the hut were broken vials and jars covered the small wooden table near the cauldron, and spills of essences and solutions made the floor wet beneath her feet. <p class="MsoNormal"> “Jira? Tara? I’m don’t have good feeling about whatever this potion is.” She smirked, “It just doesn’t seem, or smell right.”

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal"> With the three women running around, meanwhile, Kyphis decided that he was going to let them sort this out and rest by the fire. <p class="MsoNormal"> "Recovered from yesterday, Sairus? You were a bit overzealous training the pups and claws, from the look of things. You need to look after yourself better, with everything that's been going on" <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus glances down to Kyphis, taking a minute to think how to respond... <p class="MsoNormal"> "Oh! Yes well, we have a lot of training to do what with all the unknowns in the Briar and with the issues with our enemies becoming more present in the world, and uh, I need to exercise after my injuries." Sairus gasped for breath as he finished his speech.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> Jira picked her way through the hut, gingerly stepping over the broken glass and avoiding the spill that looked suspiciously like scaldhead berry extract... whatever they had attempted to make must have gone horridly wrong... she stirred what was left of the potion in the cauldron, and a withered plant to the top... "Gleamflower. No wonder we lost our memories..." <p class="MsoNormal"> Jira stood back and pondered, what were the three of us trying to make? Gleamflower, scaldhead berries, briarsap and wolfsbane? What could that possibly - <p class="MsoNormal"> Suddenly Jira spotted her alchemy book, and what page it was open to. Her eyes grew wide as she realised exactly what was going on... and raced out of the hut. <p class="MsoNormal"> Môr noticed Jira stop suddenly in front of her Alchemy book. “What were we mixing?” she asked as she approached the book. The book was open to a page scrawled in Jira's handwriting, and beside it, a picture of a blood red moon. <p class="MsoNormal"> She had a vague feeling that she had seen this image before. She asked herself, was it last night she saw it? This must have been the potion they we mixing. “Tara, what was this for?” the young naive witch asked to try and make sense of it all.

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<p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal">  Kyphis pauses in pouring a cup of tea for Sairus. "It's been a few weeks now, have your wounds truly not healed properly? You should have said something sooner! Landak, Dayro, Floki, and I are capable of training the less combat ready pact members while you recover, but if you keep pushing yourself like that you will not be anywhere near as ready to aid us, should our training be put to the test!" <p class="MsoNormal"> Kyphis tutted to himself. "Look, rest up properly today. You're our leader, and we need you in top form. With the things we face... well, half form won't cut it. You have to let others take the lead sometimes - it's the only way we can All grow stronger, after all" <p class="MsoNormal"> "NO!" <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus stood up suddenly and glared at Kyphis, before shaking his head in shock. <p class="MsoNormal"> "I need to keep strong, I need to keep training, my wounds are mostly healed now, I am fine." Sairus sat back down looking concerned, doing his best to conceal his shaking hands. <p class="MsoNormal"> Kyphis, ignoring the tone in Sairus' voice, finishes pouring the tea, and holds it out to Sairus. <p class="MsoNormal"> "Drink this. It will help you get stronger, so you don't sleep through the better part of another day." <p class="MsoNormal"> "He won't sleep tonight, Kyphis." <p class="MsoNormal"> Jira appeared beside the fire again, without a trace of her previous sickness (that hangover potion had done wonders). Instead she wore a face of serious concern. "We couldn't make the potion in time. You'll... you'll have to do it the hard way, Sairus." <p class="MsoNormal">  *SMASH* <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus grip crushed the cup as he heard Jira's bad news. "I'm still unsure of how stable I will be, but it's nowhere near as bad as it was last time, I just..." <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus stood up to face Jira. "Should we tell them?" <p class="MsoNormal"> "You can't hide who you are from them forever." <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus looked at the shards of stone on the ground at his feet. "So be it" <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus closed his eyes and took a deep breath while he gathered his thoughts..."I have something I should have told you all long ago." Sairus took another deep breath, clearly displeased with himself. <p class="MsoNormal"> "My name, "Split tooth" has a meaning... I am not always your Alpha, sometimes... Sometimes I become someone else, someone, bloodthirsty, hateful, demented...  Normally... Normally I have been able to hold this back, but lately there has been no... wall... to hold it, and so I have been finding it harder to fight it." Sairus turned to face the pack. <p class="MsoNormal"> "I am sorry, I am sorry I have endangered you all for so long..." <p class="MsoNormal"> Kyphis had no idea what was going on. "What are you talking about, Sairus?" <p class="MsoNormal"> "Remember the abomination we faced in the briar, Kyphis?" Sairus looked to the dagger he had left lying in the dirt. "I was not part of that fight... At least, most of it." Sairus glanced at the fire before inspecting his now scarred hand. Môr had now followed Jira back to the fire where Alpha announced his....... well she wasn't quite sure what we was announcing. She caught the end of the of what he was saying then agreed with Kyphis to continue.

<p class="MsoNormal"> "Sairus, we don't have time for long stories!" Jira looked up, watching the shadow creep over the front of the Oathmother... slowly blocking her from view. The eclipse was beginning. <p class="MsoNormal">  "I'll continue this when I get back then... Just know that I will always protect all of you" <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus began trudging his way towards the camp exit. <p class="MsoNormal"> Before he met with the gates he picked a vine of thorns off a small bramble bush and wound it around his upper arm.

<p class="MsoNormal"> "So what are we going to do, Jira? Surely we can't let him go out there and hurt himself - even if he isn't himself. What if he gets attacked?" Tara asked, panicked. <p class="MsoNormal">  Jira drew herself up tall, drawing on the Great Wolf for as much courage as she could muster - she had to lead while Sairus was gone. "He'll be fine. He's done this a few times before, back when the pack was smaller. He hid it well back then. And besides.. you've already seen what this ... not-Sairus... can do against a Briarhost." <p class="MsoNormal"> "But Jira, even -the Other guy- wasn't able to take down a Briarhost on his own. I'm worried! He still hasn't recovered from that battle." Tara protested - she couldn't shake the feeling something was about to go down. <p class="MsoNormal"> Rexxar emerged from the den covered in burns, scrapes and a thick black coat of ash up his whole front and face. The last two days of work on this project could definitely be seen and smelt. In his bloody charred looking hands he held a long blade wrapped in a tattered brown cloth, only the handle was visible clearly resembling a piece of thorny briar vine. Rexxar noticed that Alpha was about to walk out of camp picking up his pace yelling "ALPHA WAIT!" <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus turned around confused by the sudden commotion "Rexxar? What's this? You have been hammering for days, I'm about to leave camp for the night" Sairus raised his brow at the parcel in Rexxar's hands... "A gift?" <p class="MsoNormal"> "If it wasn't for last night, I would have had this done yesterday, but the drink it just tasted too good." He chuckled sheepishly. "I made this for you." Rexxar said whilst handing the blade handle first to Alpha excited to see his reaction <p class="MsoNormal">  Sairus gripped the handle, the sound of splitting flesh loud as Sairus pulled the blade from the cloth. The blade was blood red with rust cakes on as if it were ancient, only the rust was a dark grey, that of steel. "I know this colour, it's the same as the sap from the briar vines, how did you come across so much to forge such a blade?" <p class="MsoNormal"> Sairus nodded his head down in thanks. <p class="MsoNormal"> "No matter, I must beg my leave before it's too late. You have my thanks, brother - I shall make its first kill a great one." Sairus put his hand on Rexxar's shoulder, Sairus was visibly shaking and twitching at this point. <p class="MsoNormal"> "The Bloodmoon is almost beginning." said Jira. "For the sake of your pack Sairus, go. Go far from here till it is done." Jira took a deep breath. "Be safe brother." <p class="MsoNormal"> Just as Sairus turned to go, the shaman reached out and grabbed his arm. Her eyes flashed dangerously, as if she was looking at a completely different person. "If you can hear me, I speak to you... Romulus." Jira spoke the name, the name Sairus told her from stories long ago, when he was a slave in the arena of Ravenna. From a time long before the Briarwolves were even formed. <p class="MsoNormal"> "If you can hear me, Romulus, know this: the Bloodmoon lasts an hour at best. Use your time well... " the shaman stood strong, showing no sign of weakness - <p class="MsoNormal"> "Bring back the biggest kill you can." <p class="MsoNormal"> The Alpha grinned and nodded at Jira before turning and exiting the gates. <p class="MsoNormal"> "Make room in the food stores, pack! We may need a few extra shelves!"