Fic: The Wolf Within (14/?)

[Erin <erin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ok, had to crank this out so no one killed me for the ending of part
13. Hope you guys like it. :)

TITLE: The Wolf Within
AUTHOR: Erin (erin@xxxxxxxxxxx)
SPOILERS: None, really.
RATING: PG-13 at worst, because of some violence. It is a
Buffy/Willow fic, so if that bothers you, or it's illegal to even
think of a Slayer and a Witch getting it on, then just don't read it.
Or move.
DISCLAIMER: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all characters belong to Joss
Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and Fox. I'm just borrowing them for a bit.
I'll put them back when I'm done, no worse for wear (but maybe a
little happier). Most of the werewolf stuff is copyright White Wolf,
such as Garou, Crinos, Child of Gaia, Glass Walker, etc.
ARCHIVE: Currently, I believe my stories are being archived at the
following places:
Kim's Corner - 
http://www.fortunecity.com/village/villageplace/93/
Bill's Page -
http://members.spree.com/entertainment/kerrison29/default.htm
Gary's BtVS Fanfiction -
http://psycho.simplenet.com/fanfiction/index.mv?index+buf
Please let me know if I've left someone out, or if one of the URLs is
in error. Anyone who isn't listed here who wants to archive my
stories is welcome to, just let me know so I can add you to the list.
Thanks.
FEEDBACK: Constructive comments are encouraged.
SUMMARY: (Buffy/Willow) Willow discovers that there is more to her
than meets the eye, and it could tear her life apart.

Part the Fourteenth

"And so the Garou made war against the Gurahl, the Brothers and
Sisters of Bear. In their anger they invaded our dens and slaughtered
our Kinfolk, expecting them to have been corrupted by the Wyrm, who we
call Pattern Breaker. The Gurahl fell in great numbers before the
claws of the Garou; for they fought in packs, not alone as we did, and
they fought with a ferocity that had been gifted them by the Great
Mother to use against the Pattern Breaker.  

"And so a Great Council was held of the few Gurahl who remained. It
was decided that the Rage of the Brothers and Sisters of Wolf was too
great, and that if the war continued it could only spell doom for our
people.  

"Many of the Gurahl, in sadness, decided to disappear to the furthest
reaches of the world, and could only be found on the remotest
mountain, the furthest glacier, or the most distant river. Most chose
to cross the great Ice Bridge and dwell in the Pure Lands with their
nomadic Kinfolk; some chose to secret themselves in far-off dens, and
fall into centuries-long slumber. Still others gave up their physical
form, choosing to allow their spirits to travel to the Summerland, to
live with the Great Mother." -- From the tales of Artur
Mountainwind, Gurahl Tale-Spinner

* * *

Willow ran, her blood pounding in her ears. Next to her, Buffy ran
hard, looking from side to side to check on the progress of their
shadowy pursuers. From the mad howls that erupted from time to time,
the Spirals were not only keeping pace, they were enjoying the terror
of their prey.

"How are they keeping up?" Willow gasped out. "The spirits..."

Buffy shook her head, tossing sweaty bangs from her face. "Maybe
they've got spirits helping them too." They ran hard for a few
minutes more before Buffy said, "We can't keep this up, Will. We've
got to get out of the Umbra, try to lose them in the real world." The
girls slowed, then stopped on the silver road, panting with
exhaustion.

Buffy watched as their pursuers, four Black Spirals including Oz,
emerged from the shadows. They moved slowly now, sensing certain
victory over the two young women. They grinned and laughed, howled
and giggled, and closed in tightening the trap.

"C'mon, Buffy," Willow said, shoving the mirror in front of her face.
Buffy concentrated for a moment, and disappeared from the Umbral
landscape. A moment later, Willow joined her in the moonlit forest of
the physical world.

"How much you want to bet they brought mirrors too," Buffy said, still
catching her breath. "We gotta get outta here, post haste." Willow
nodded, and they picked a direction and started running through the
woods. The air was colder here, and it felt good against Buffy's
sweat-slicked skin as she ran. She winced as she realized they were
leaving a trail a mile wide for the Spirals to follow.

"Buffy, look," Willow said, tugging on her arm to get her attention.
"See that light? It's a campfire, I can smell it!"

"Great, Will," Buffy said, tiredly. "But what are we going to do,
lead the Black Spirals right to a bunch of soon-to-be-unhappy
campers?"

"Oh," Willow said, dejectedly. "I thought, maybe..."

"It's worth checking out, at least," Buffy said, giving Willow's hand
a squeeze. "C'mon."

They slowed down, and crept to the edge of the firelight. A large,
grizzled man sat in front of the fire, his back against a fallen log.
He had no tent or camping gear that either one of the girls could see,
but he had somehow managed to skin and spit a rabbit, which was at the
moment roasting merrily over a crackling fire.

The friends looked at each other, trying to decide what to do, when
the man called out in an Irish brogue, "Come on now, I know yer out
there. May as well step forward in peace, or step forward an' get
ready to fight. Either way, decide quickly, my rabbit's almost done."

Willow looked at Buffy and shrugged resignedly. She stepped forward,
and said, "Um, sir? I'm sorry to bother you. My friend and I will be
on our way, but there are some very dangerous...animals...around here,
and we wanted to warn you about them."

"Dangerous animals, eh?" the Irishman asked. "I've handled a few of
'em in my day." He held out a large hand for Willow and Buffy to
shake. "M'name's Finian, by the way."

Willow shook his hand, and gasped at the electric contact. "You...
you're Garou," she said, incredulously.

Finian gave Willow an appraising look. "Aye, of the proud tribe of
the Fianna. An' you are Garou as well, Glass Walker from the look of
ye."

"How did you know?" Willow asked, looking at Buffy askance.

Finian chuckled. "No other Garou would come out here with such
trappings of the Weaver," he said, pointing at their backpacks. "And
who are ye, miss?" he asked, with a sideways glance at the Slayer.

"My name is Buffy," she said, "I'm not a werewolf, but I'm a friend of
Willow's." Buffy liked the old man instantly. Well, not old, she
thought, he was probably around Giles' age. Old enough.

"Well, my greetings to the both of ye," Finian said. "So, what are
these dangerous animals ye were talkin' about?" As if to punctuate his
words, the three heard the hair-raising sound of Black Spirals on the
hunt. "Oh," the Irishman said, raising an eyebrow. "I see."

"It's a long story," Willow said, quickly. "But there are too many to
fight, and we need to get away..."

"Ah, well lass, you're in luck," Finian said, smiling. "Y'see, it so
happens that I have a gift for dealing with these kinds of things.
See, back when I was a youngster, learning at me grandfather's knee in
the great Sept Tri-Spiral at the Brugh na Boinne..." Another chorus
of howls, closer this time, prompted Buffy to interrupt.

"I sense that it's a story for another time. Can you do anything
about this, or are we going to have to run for our lives?"

"Impatient pups," Finian mumbled. "Of course I can. Come close to
the fire." When Buffy and Willow had stepped forward, Finian began to
sing.

"I've been a wild rover for many a year 
And I spent all my money on whiskey and beer, 
And now I'm returning with gold in great store 
And I never will play the wild rover no more..."

The howls sounded again, still closer. Willow looked at the Irishman
wildly, saying, "Are you sure that's the right song?"

Finian thought for a moment, and replied, "Probably not. Let me
think." After a moment, a very long, tense moment, he began to sing
again. This song was ancient, and the beauty of it heartwrenching.
Though neither girl could understand the words, they could tell that
it was a song filled with love, with loss, and bitter disappointment.
The howls faded now, the Black Spirals sent off, scenting their prey
in another direction. Buffy and Willow stared at the man in
amazement, as his song ended.

"How..." they both began at once.

Finian chuckled, and replied, "'Tis a gift that the Mother has seen
fit to pass on to me. I am, as I said before, a member of the Fianna
tribe of Garou. We are one of the oldest tribes, and are one of the
only tribes that bothers to sing the old songs and keep the
histories." He shook his head sadly. "Too many of the younger tribes
scorn the old ways. But as well as bein' a Fianna, I'm also a
Galliard."

Willow looked at the man quizzically. "What's a Galliard?"

"What's a Galliard?" He repeated, aghast. "Have yer elders taught ye
nothing? Is this what's come of Glass Walkers nowadays?"

Willow blushed, and dropped her head. Buffy fixed the man with a hard
stare, and said, "She was a Lost Cub, she hasn't had a chance to learn
everything."

"Aye, I suppose 'tis true," he said, nodding regretfully. "With the
Apocalypse upon us, many pups get thrown into the world without the
proper teachings. Very well then, sit ye down and ye can share my
dinner."

The two girls sat gratefully, as Finian removed the rabbit and began
tearing pieces off. "Now, ye know that all Garou consider Gaia to be
our Mother, and She gifts us with many weapons and songs to fight the
Wyrm. But She is not our only guide or protector.

"Y'see, long ago when Gaia created the Garou, she invited all the
creatures of earth and spirit to come see us. Now some, like the
Wyrm's minions, were furious that Gaia would create such strong, noble
creatures, and they plotted our destruction. Some, like the other
Shapeshifters, the Bastet, Gurahl, and such, were jealous, and they
withheld their gifts and secrets from us because of envy.

"But the spirit Luna looked down upon us, and put Her special mark on
us. She said, 'Just as I change shape, so do they,' and so She
blessed us with special gifts depending 'pon which moon we were born
under. She called this gift, Auspice.

"An' that is why one who is born under the crescent moon gains the
gift of communin' with the spirits, and we call that Garou a Theurge.
One, like me, who is born under the gibbous moon is called to be a
Galliard. We are the lore-keepers, the ones who sing songs of great
deeds and valiant ancestors. Whenever a warrior falters, or forgets
why it is he fights, we sing our songs and put heart into him once
more."

Willow listened closely to his story while she was eating. That was
why Nichole had called her a Theurge, she thought. She was still
mulling that over few minutes later, when Finian interrupted her train
of thought. "So what are ye two girls doin' out here, so far from
home?"

Willow and Buffy took turns telling the story. They didn't have
Finian's gift of storytelling, but he listened closely all the same.
When they were done, he let out a low whistle.

"Gaia's breath," he swore softly. "They must be makin' cubs out of
sterner stuff if yer elders sent ye on such a quest."

"What do you mean?" Willow asked, curiously.

"What you are proposing to do has never been done before, girl. Not
since the Black Spirals devoured the noble White Howler tribe has any
of the Changing Folk discovered a way to change 'em back. An' to
leave it to a Lost Cub -- and one without a proper pack, besides! --
Gaia, it boggles the mind, an' that's a fact." The old Fianna sat
back against his log with an air of finality.

"So...you think it can't be done?" Buffy asked quietly.

"Oh, there are a lot of things done every day that have never been
done before, an' no mistake about that. But if ye two succeed, it
could mean... Lord, it could mean the return of the White Howler tribe
itself!" Seeing the curious looks of the girls, Finian sighed, and
muttered again about the neglect of their elders. "Ye see, the White
Howler tribe was a brother tribe to our own. While we claimed as
Kinfolk the Celts of the British Isles, the White Howlers claimed the
Picts. They held the Highlands of Scotland against Rome, when the
Imperial Eagle set its sight on Britain. They were so fierce that the
corrupt Romans ordered mighty walls built just to keep the Howlers an'
their Pict Kinfolk out!

"Well, the Romans were corrupt, as I said, an' the Wyrm had rested
comfortably inside their greedy, conquest-driven hearts. Many Wyrm
beasts, unable to defeat the Howlers through honest battle, began
opening Dark Caerns in the Highlands, hoping to give their allies
access to the physical realm."

"Hellmouths," Buffy breathed.

"Aye, lass. An' so they opened great black pits, from which all
manner of beasts emerged, twisting the countryside into a painful
mockery of itself. Now, of course the Howlers, being the brave Garou
that they were, decided that the best way to strike at the Wyrm was to
strike at its heart. So they formed a mighty army, and entered one of
these Dark Caerns, slaying any Wyrm-beast that was unlucky enough to
cross their path.

"They made their way to the center of the Caern, some might say that
they reached Hell itself; and there, they met a beast so terrifying
that half of them were driven mad from the sight. They had gone so
far into Hell that they came face to face with the Wyrm.

"Only one White Howler survived to tell the tale. He fought his way
out of the inky darkness, only to see his former brothers emerge from
the pit. Where once they stood tall and proud, now they were horrid,
twisted by the power of the Wyrm. Their eyes glowed with the green
balefire of damnation. They mocked him, and said that they were no
longer White Howlers, but Black Spiral Dancers.

"He fled then, knowing that it was his duty to warn others of these
twisted mockeries of Garou. He found one of our Septs, and passed
along his story. That night, as he slept, the Black Spiral Dancers
came for him, and when he was found in the morning, the only thing
left were his bones."

Willow heard a rustle in the bushes, and she immediately leapt up into
the air with a yell. Looking around frantically, she saw some small
animal scamper off. "Ok, this whole thing has me seriously wigged,"
she said, looking around fearfully. Buffy rose, and wrapped Willow in
a big hug.

"But ye see, lass, what stands to be gained if ye succeed," Finian
said.

Willow nodded, taking comfort from Buffy's embrace.

"Sleep here tonight," Finian said. "Morning will be soon enough to
continue your journey, and you two could use the rest, I think.
You'll be safe in this clearing; the Spirals won't pick up your trail
until you leave."

The girls accepted his offer gratefully, and they pulled some thin
blankets out of their backpacks to use to keep warm. "Aren't you
going to need a blanket or something?" Buffy asked, eyeing the Fianna
and his lack of preparedness.

Finian chuckled. "Ye forget who yer talkin' too, lass," he said, and
in an instant shifted into wolf form.

"Not a bad idea, actually," Willow said, with a thoughtful look at the
Irish wolf. She gave her blanket to Buffy and then shifted into wolf
form, curling up next to the Slayer to help keep them both warm.
Buffy smiled and buried her face in warm red fur, falling asleep
within seconds.

END Part 14


-- 
Tara: "I am, you know."
Willow: "What?"
Tara: "Yours."
----------
"So Willow's not driving stick anymore. Who would've thought?"
-- Faith
*email: erin@xxxxxxxxxxx