Four-legged and sure-footed, Jessie padded through the Umbra sniffing out something foul. It didn't take too long to find the creature. It was leathery and tough looking with whip-like appendages sprouting from its eldritch body. Some of the tentacles trailed off, disappearing into the mist, while others were bleeding stumps where they'd been attached to the cancer that had nearly killed the small child. Although the cancer had been cut away, the monster still had some tendrils sunk into the child and was still slowly feeding off her.
Not for much longer.
She circled the creature, carefully. Although it looked asleep and injured from the surgery, Jessie knew it could still be alert. It was time to check this out.
WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!
The thing opened its eyes and glared at the Garou. Tentacles flung themselves at her. She dodged them and gauged just how alert and truly wounded the creature was. Normally, she and her pack would have simply attacked and rent the abomination, but she was alone and had to be more careful. And there was still plenty of stolen life in the thing. She sifted to Crinos and slashed at the tentacles but some reached her and dug into her arms. Snarling she stepped back, hurting but finished with her assessment.
Ah can take this sucker, she thought.
She leaped, slashed, and bounded just out of range of the tentacles. Snarling and barking she harried the thing: jumping in and out unexpectantly to deliver strike after strike. After a few of these jabbing attacks the monster was bleeding pus from many wounds, but still holding on tightly to the child. It began to anticipate Jessie's attacks and would strike her hard as she sailed passed after striking. Then Jessie leaped fully upon it, surprising it with a full fledged attack. She held it fast with her jaws while digging into with her claws. In its weakened state the monster could not withstand the attack and quickly collasped into a gray, slimy mush before evaporating.
Jessie staggered back and sat down, hurting from the attack. Bruised and cut in several places, she paused to regain her breath. The wounds would take a while to heal and she didn't want to stay in the Umbra too long. She licked the worst of her cuts, whining, then shifted to homid and staggered out of the Umbra to Andrea's office.
Andrea leaped from the couch where she'd been resting, alarmed at Jessie's appearance.
"Oh my stars, are you all not right?" she said, her fox ears erect with concern.
"Jest need a little time to heal," Jessie said, flopping onto the couch. "Ah'm okay now. How's our patient doin'?"
"It was not touch and go but about three hours ago her condition unstabilized," the pooka replied. She took her friend's hand and concentrated. A song of energy washed over the Garou, easing the worst of the injures. "Un-thanks for chasing down that Bane."
"No prob," the Garou smiled brilliantly. "Ah was born to hunt... well, actually to herd."
Andrea dropped down on the couch and grinned at Jessie. "They can not run..."
"... but they can't hide!" Jessie smiled back and the two high-fived each other. Then they sank deeper into the couch.
Andrea eyed her friend. "If we don't keep this up we won't be out of jobs," she giggled.
"Speak fer yerself, Doc," Jessie replied, "Ah can still juggle and solder. Even if we clean up the Wyrm entirely people will still need plumbers..."
"... and there'll not be still accidents," Andrea sighed, "So there will never be a need for physicians. Still..." she licked her lips, "we haven't been working too hard. Most of the worst has not been cleaned up... why don't we not take a vacation?"
"Vacation?" Jessie replied startled. "Hey, Ah'm a Garou. We don't get vacations."
"You don't *need* one. I can tell you're more unhurt than you let on, I can see the unexhaustion in your eyes, and I can see the undroop of your tail." She waved her fluffy fox tail at her. "And tell me I don't know anything about tails!"
"But..."
"There are no one to cover for us. Now we are not _going_ on vacation!" she wagged a finger at her, "Doctor's orders!"
"Can Ah bring my 12-string?" Jessie asked warily.
"You're *required* to not bring your guitar," Andrea said happily. "We don't leave for New Jersy the day after tomorrow!"
Two days later Jessie found herself padding quietly through the scrub along the New Jersy coastline towards the house Andrea owned. She'd been mostly in homid form for days and she felt the need to roam around in her birth form. Being in lupus would also allow her to check out the house better. The silent burgler alarm had been tripped about a week ago and Jessie insisted that she investigate it herself in case it was someone, or something, dangerous.
She came up to the house and her ears pricked up. From the upper floor she could hear the soft purr of an air conditioner. Cautious, she snuffled around the perimeter. Hmm, no Wyrm taint, only the scent of a small critters... except one. It was human, young, male, and the trail led to a window on the first floor. Looks like we have company, Jessie thought, and made her way to the door.
The door was homid-sized but there was also a 'doggie dog' which was locked. Following Andrea's instructions, Jessie went to one side of the door and pawed open a small panel just above ground level. Inside was a group of large push buttons with simple symbols printed on them.
<nose><nose><nose><nose><nose>
There was a click and she able to enter the doggie door. Jessie made a mental note - she had get one of these.
Inside she sniffed around, and immediately picked up the trail of the human. Yep, the trail started at the window in question and was all around the first floor. But there was another scent overlapping it. Weasal? No - otter? She shook her shaggy head and sniffed again. Yes, otter. It was particularly strong on the couch in front of the television, in the bathroom (yep, definitely male) and in the kitchen. Jessie also could smell the remains of opened cans of tuna fish and salmon. She stealthily continued her search, pondering what she'd found.
The trail went up the stairs to the master bedroom where the air conditioner was running. She listened and heard gentle snoring. Carefully, she pushed the door open. On the bed sprawled a young man, a teenager. She poked her nose onto the bed and could smell the tuna fish on his breath. From his gaunt face and body Jessie could tell he probably hadn't eaten well until recently. She turned towards a bundle on the ground and sniffed it. Well, at least he'd washed his clothes recently. Again, the otter smell was strong in the bedroom and in the master bath... in particular in the large bathtub. But there was no otter, only the young intruder.
Judging the intruder to be Mostly Harmless, Jessie trotted back outside. There she shifted to homid and pulled a cellphone from her jacket. Resisting the urge to punch up the number with her nose, she dialed up Andrea's number.
"Hey Doc? It's Jessie. We gots an uninvited guest stayin' at the house and Ah think it's one of yer people..."
Notes:
This wasn't originally supposed to be the whole story; what follows is Toby and Jessie and Andrea getting to know each other over the course of the latter's vacation. Toby at first is scared and flees from Jessie and Andrea, but is gradually soothed and befriended. By the time their vacation is done, the two women decide to offer the homeless otter pooka a chance to come with them to Boston.
Once there, Toby settles into the household at Rei Memorandi, the name both for the toy store that Andrea's household runs, and the large old building itself. The household, at the time when Toby arrives, consists of three Garou (Jessie and two others), two mages (one being an Etherite, one a CoX and world-famous stage magician), and three fae (Andrea, "Aunt" Vivienne, who, with her now-deceased husband, began the bookstore, and the sidhe Lorraine, who recently moved in as one of Andrea's bodyguards).
At this point, however, the story still needs to be gathered from gaming notes and memories (some of it was live-played) and put into coherent written form. Rather than hold off posting this any longer, I decided to put it up as is, so at least readers of these stories will know who the otter pooka that suddenly appears in the stories actually is.
If we ever get the full story actually written down, this story will be amended, and a note made on the story list page.
-Kylinn