Welcome to Gaia! ::

Lauvel frowned, but nodded. "Alright then. I'll be fine on my own legs, but please lead the way." He said, gesturing to her deferentially, as she knew the way far better than he did, this being his first time in this place.

Shinn could feel Shera start to cry and picked her up off his back, embracing her in a warm hug. "Of course I'm scared Shera. I don't want anything bad to happen either," he said to his sister, "but Papa, Auntie Shana, Auntie Mazzia, and all the other grown-ups here always say to never let the fear get the better of you. Bad things happen, but we'll still come out better in the end." Shinn nuzzled his sister reassuringly. "If we stay strong, the bad people will never get the better. We're all here to protect each other."

Logain nodded. "I still have my own magics and abilities, though hopefully, they won't need to be used," he said, before stepping through the doorway slowly. He raised his arms slowly, with his hands open , revealing his palms as gesture to show he meant no harm, which he did not anyways. "Please, we have no intention of having unnecessary struggle. We merely wished to discuss a few things regarding events of a few years prior, the surroundings that have been placed around us is to prevent a misinterpretation of our actions, though it might be to late for that anyways," Logain explained to Kayla, hoping it would allow for the inquiry to remain civil.

"This place also rejuvenates the body as sleep and food do, so you won't be drained from having your sleep interrupted. I also apologize for the magic, the only other alternative I had was, while more pleasant, also more invasive" Alunn supplied.

Shera raced up to her father and jumped into his arms. She was still shaking with worry and fear as her father lifted her off the ground. She nodded quickly, having nothing really to say. Padding along she tried to keep up with her father, even to the point of nearly being underfoot as they traveled on towards the long house.

“They have found something, the mark of a human army, in a cave nearby. This meeting has been called to discuss a plan of action.” Miluiel said quietly to Lauvel. “The humans are near, and generally they don’t react well to us.” She said sadly. Her heart was racing, just how far away were they? She took a few bounding leaps up the hill before she reached its crest where the long house waited for them. It appeared they were the last ones to enter.

Miluiel looked around apologetically. "I am sorry my friend." She said quickly. "I did not mean to move so quickly. Will you be alright?" She asked softly before they entered the long house.

Shera bounded forward to her father and snuggled against him. She felt a thrill run through her when she felt her father lift her up into his arms. She nodded slowly in response to her father's words. "But papa, what does it mean? Are we going to have to leave here?" She asked sadly. After a moment Shera nodded too, "Yes papa, we will be strong." She promised.

Lauvel smiled and stood straight. "I am fine. You need not worry about it. A run was good for me," He said with a chuckle. When they entered the Long House, a small shiver ran down his spine, though he hid it well. Lauvel knew that these werewolves were not responsible for what had happened four years ago, how peaceful they were toward him, but the incident was still left deep scars. The yellow and red pairs eyes in the room showed no harm, all were stoic or concerned not hostile, and that did wonders toward keeping calm.

Azrael frowned , he knew he could not lie to his daughter, or anyone. Such an act would be criminal. "We may have to, Shera. I don't want to leave any more than you do, but what is most important in the end is our survival and keeping together." He hugged her tighter, his engulfing her comfortingly. "Even if we leave, I promise that we will return one day. I love you so very much Shera, and you too Shinn. We need to decide what is best for all of us." It pained Azrael that he could not protect this place for his tribe, but it was the tribe that was their true home, not the location, however much memory was invested.

Logain sighed. "I am sorry to have to hold you to such inconvenience, but we would like to discuss a particular incident four years ago, in a town not too distant from this place." He stated, coming to the crux of the matter, figuring it would be better to get to it sooner than later. "You would have been in contact with a healer named Shera, and an angel by the name of Celeron." Logain said, giving her a base to work from.

Shera looked up at her father as he spoke. She finally felt safe for a single moment as his warm arms wrapped warmly around her. But the feeling did not last long. Slowly the cold, icy fingers of fear were wrapping around her. She nodded. “I love you too papa.” She said softly and snuggled against her father’s warm chest. She sniffed softly. “But I don’t want to leave.” She complained.

Miluiel followed along behind Lauvel into the long house. She looked around at all of the furry wolf bodies assembled. It did appear that everyone was there. Her tired eyes searched the faces that had glanced back at her as she entered. At the front of the room she spotted her husband and her children. He seemed to be consoling them, especially Shera. She could only imagine how scared her daughter must be if her own heart was racing. Slowly, and carefully she moved her way through the crowd to her beloved family. “I think we are all here now dearest.” She said softly as she approached them. “I found Lauvel, he is here now too.” She smiled down at her children and hugged Shinn who was closest to her. Shera was wrapped in her father’s arms after all.

"Sorry...That was four years ago and I was still rather young then. I am not sure where I was." Kayla said looking down. It was not a total lie in that the madness that claimed her made her do things she would never do. She owed them both for everything they have done for her. "Are you wondering why a ten year old girl was not at a scene where violence broke out?"

It seemed the man was a lot closer to the truth then Kayla was comfortable with him being. Her eyes began to glisten as tears began to run down her cheeks. "If I could have helped them at any time I would have helped them." she said saying the truth but not explaining exactly why.

Azrael patiently awaited for the din to die down a bit before continuing. "We are fortunate for the intervention of capable wanderers, who drove them off temporarily, but that won't last long. Even now they could be regrouping to engage each other, and I am sure that they won't be appreciative of anyone who might have been responsible for delaying them." He said to the assembled tribe.

"What do we know of these outsiders?" Inquired an altogether calm, but tense voice, belonging a brown furred female, who was the mother of Izual and Lunalia. "I have no doubt that the armies are massed by humans, but who leads them? These could be Angelic machinations. They certainly seem be throwing their weight around these days, now that that damned war is over. They're just coming around pretending that people like us who were caught up in one Grace or another owe them reparations, as if they won the war." The gray and white furred male who stood beside her, her husband turned to say something to her nervously, but she snapped at him, betraying the extent of her tenseness, and the male werewolf backed down deferentially. Izual and Lunalia could be seen standing beside their father, with worried expressions on their faces.

Mazzia raised herself up higher, wishing inwardly that she shared a size more along the lines of Shana or Azrael. "We can't do anything if we don't know what we are truly faced with. While it might be safe to make an assumption, especially with the way this is aligned toward us, but we also run the risk of making things worse by acting on those assumptions. We need to know more!" She said, exasperated that this was happening at the worst possible time, not helped by how her energy was not what it was normally.

Veral raised an arm up to Mazzia's furry shoulder to comfort her, an act that was ackward to execute, given how much shorter Veral was than the werewolves gathered about the Long House.

Shana snarled, counter to her sister. "While we would be better off with that luxury, we don't have it! I'd go out right now to gather every bit of knowledge of what we are faced against, but what if they have trained magic users with them, they could spot us a mile off or more in the dark. Or what if what Nieza is more on the mark and their are warring angels among them or leading them. They'd put aside all their differences right there just to hunt us! We can't just pretend the world has forgotten about us and judged as extinct!"

Azrael barked loudly to gather attention, "Calm down! We are not a pack of mangy wild dogs! Do not forget who we are!" Azrael's words caused the crowd to fall silent. "We have among us another visitor, this one an elf sent to us by Talithan. He has more information about these outsiders. Lauvel, please tell us what you know," he said, gesturing toward the elf, who had been trying, rather successfully, to remain inconspicuous.

Lauvel swallowed and loosened his collar, as the red and yellow eyes of the tribe moved onto him. "Ah, uh, yes. Lord Talithan did bid me to warn you of their approach, I arrived too late to forewarn of it, to my utmost regret," He said, keeping his voice calm and even. "From the information that my Lord has on them, they are not led by any Angels, nor does he believe that these groups have ever been affiliated with them." The tension in the room seemed to lighten a degree, but it did dull the seriousness that remained. "They come from two Kingdoms far to the south, located around desert and coastal regions. They are mostly if not all humans, though a few tribes of grell might have followed them out of the desert." He spoke the word Grell with tinge of disgust. Grell, known also as Grunge Elves, where violent and savage nomads who largely stuck around the deserts and other desolate locations, and were in a state of disassociation with most other elven-kinds and in perpetual war with the subterranean Dark Elves. Miluiel would know this as well as he did.

"These kingdoms regard the northlands uninhabited, and generally have never been in knowing contact with werewolves," Lauvel continued, "however that ignorance could be just as problematic. These armies are not particularly large, but considering that most of the Nations north of the deserts they hale from are still recovering from the War of the Graces, they are not being impared. They have ignored these weakened States, for whatever reason, and I suspect want to establish colonies in the distant northlands like this to gather resources. Apart from that we don't have any relevant knowledge." Luavel finished his eyes nervously examining the tense crowd.

Shinn suppressed his urge to shout or cry. "I know," he whispered to his mother, "everyone always says, 'the best thing you can say to another is the truth.'" Shinn was using a form of an important saying among the Garoh tribe.