Child of the Crescent Moon


By the Light of the Crescent Moon
One last howl of pain, one last push, drenched in the light of a looming theurge moon, the black fury felt her child slide from her body. It lay where it landed as she labored to expel the afterbirth from her body. No one was there to attend to the child. No one was there to aid the mother. No one was there to know of her secret shame. The black fury, her labor finished, looked to her son. His puny, malformed body twisted in the light of the looming theurge moon. For nine months she had wandered the umbra alone, so that she could hide his conception and birth from the unforgiving eyes of her sisters. For nine months had she cursed its father for the shame branded in her womb. For nine months she had quaked at the thought of the laws she had broken. Now it was over and she could return home. In the cleansing light of her birth moon, her sin was forgiven, her ordeal was over. The umbra was not a forgiving place. There had been times when, big with child, she had feared that she could not defend herself from the creatures that walked the spirit world. There was no reason to think that a newborn metis could survive where garou warriors had feared to tread. No one would ever know. It was over. The black fury walked away, never looking back at the infant crying in the cold umbral wind. And so she never saw the two women approach it. One of the woman lifted the child into her arms. He looked up into her beautiful, sad face and ceased his cries, comforted. She bared a breast and he took his first nourishment, suckling vigorously despite the scars and lacerations that marred her flesh. "You cannot tend to this child alone, sister" the other woman said. "You are weakened and have much to do just to survive." "But am I not the Mother of All, Luna? He is mine just as the others are mine. I have lost too many in my defense to let this little one perish for want of care." "Give him to me and to my children, we will raise him as our own." "And my daughter that has started her journey home... what will this little one's foster family do to her?" Luna laughed, "you know me too well, sister. She shall make it home and win much renown in the eyes of her sisters, leading them forth into glorious days. But the day shall come when he who was raised by the spirits will be raised in the eyes of his people and what was hidden will be revealed by his light. " "You still surprise me sister. I had not thought of you as so subtle or so cruel. I bow to your wisdom. Take your new found son." The woman bent to kiss the infant and when she straightened a mark stood on his twisted face where her lips had touched. "Grow strong but quickly, child. I fear I need all of my children to protect me." She handed the child to her sister and walked away. Luna stepped off the moonpath and into a night silent except for the sound of a child's gurgling at the crescent moon.

The Call of a People
The young metis limped out of the mist. He looked warily behind him but could see none of his "family." His heart beat with the thrill of the forbidden. For the fist time in 18 years he was to venture beyond the familiar and safe landscape of home. He was too young yet, his brothers and sisters claimed. He still had much to learn, they said, just before setting him new lessons and activities (designed to keep him too tired to wonder and too busy to act on any curiosity that might linger) He had tried to appeal to his mother, but she just looked at him with silver eyes and said "it is too soon to surrender you to her, my son. She has others to attend to her yet. You are still mine." He could never get her to explain when she said that. Who was he to be surrendered to? What was out there? It wasn't that he was unhappy. He spoke in the tongues of his brethren and learned their ways, he knew the secret places of the umbra and called them home, but beyond the mists something tugged at him, called to him. He peered out at the new place. strange mountains loomed, draped with spider webs and the land looked sick and dry. a figure walked into view, one straight and tall and beautiful. The young metis started forward to get a closer look at this new wonder but cringed at the sound of a scream from above. Brother Falcon had found him. It was time to return home. With one last look of regret at the figure, the metis turned towards home as fast as his broken body could go. Upon reaching home, he saw his mother standing there with a cloak of crescent moonlight and tears in her eyes. "It has come. I cannot keep you from yourself. Oh my son! It has come too soon!" She turned and fled and he tried to follow but he could not match her speed. He stumbled and fell beside a pool, weeping that he had hurt the mother that he loved. He looked into the water and seeing a mockery of the figure he had admired and feeling the weakness of his flesh, howled with fury. His claws struck at the reflection and he beat at his body, in such despair that he didn't even notice his first change until his brothers found him weeping and wearing the flesh of the ape. The time had come for new lessons. He learned a new tongue from the spirits and although it felt odd in his mouth learned to use it a little. He learned how to slip through the curtain that had shielded him from the physical world and he learned what it was to leave home the day he stepped onto the streets of the city.

The Status Quo
The Metis (or Walks Alone until I find a better name) has entered the physical world rather disadvantaged. He has only a basic vocabulary (learned from the spirits that act as totems and therefor have some speaking ability) and no ability to write or read. He also has no idea about the real world or the weaver or garou society or anything that could come in handy like that Because of this, he was diagnosed as developmentally disabled. He didn't stick out there due to his utter lack of  social skills and his habit of speaking to the spirits in their language in front of people who interpreted his behavior as talking gibberish due to his "disability." He was placed in a group home, thereby protecting him from his own innocence but also curtailing his freedom significantly. His body is hunchback and his face utterly deformed. (think quasimodo and the phantom of the opera's love child) He is also a male black fury. He is a interesting mix of innocence and wisdom. He has no reason to be other than completely trusting and childlike in matters of the physical world and garou and human society. However, the stuff that he knows in the umbra is beyond what most theurges can only imagine. He holds the garou and humans in utter awe but is at home and family to the most powerful spirits known to garou (Luna and gaia are now conspicuously absent so to let him have his life. Their time with him is at an end) He cannot read glyphs or know the most basic  knowledge, so he looks and is treated like a novice and/or idiot (especially with having only a basic vocabulary) but is probably the most knowledgeable theurge on the planet. Finally, he has a little bit of a problem in that before his placement in the group home, he attracted the attention of a high ranking Black Spiral Dancer. Realizing what he was, the Spiral Dancer attempted to capture Walks Alone and make him dance the spiral. However, The Spiral Dancer timed his attempt wrong and Walks Alone was transferred to his new home before he could be taken. Ironically, the very behaviors that makes people believe he is disabled, is the same behavior that is hiding him from those hunting him. (Trust me, there are plenty of people in many different group homes and institutions in many different agencies that have the same behavior patterns. It is a needle in a haystack situation). They are still looking but he is safe... for now.