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David was sleeping fitfully in Urhan, growling slightly as he dreamed. He was back in the asylum struggling with the building rage during his First Change. He was in his old, cell-like room dressed in a plain t-shirt and elastic waistband pants. He was being isolated in his room again for trying to fight one of the nurses after he saw a cloud of fat, black flies swarming the nurse and laying burrowing maggots in his skin. It took so many orderlies to restrain him.

All the employees feared and hated him. All except one, Nurse Gabriella Martinez. She entered his room wheeling in his dinner. She did so warily as David stared at her, she feared him like the rest of the staff. But she didn’t hate him.

“Good evening, Mijo,” she said, fear evident in her voice while wheeling the trolley of food up to David’s bed. “I know you’re not allowed to have any, but I snuck you a pudding cup.”

David thanked her by leaping at her and biting down on her shoulder with razor sharp teeth. He ignored her pained screams as he thrashed her around, shredding her shoulder.

He snarled as he continued to sleep through his nightmare, twitching and kicking.

Tsu’mara wasn’t sleeping any better either. Her sleep hadn’t gotten any better in the week since the barbecue at Lucas’s mother’s house. She dreamed of hunting in a vast savanah wilderness. She was in her Gauru form chasing a desert antelope. She caught it quickly, pinning it to the ground and tore its throat out.

As she devoured the still kicking antelope, she felt a sharp, burning pain in her side.

She awoke with a piercing scream of agony. She shifted instantly from Urhan to Dalu and clutched her side. Blood immediately covered her clawed hand. She breathed hard, rage bubbling under the surface. Threatening to break out and make her fall to Kuruth.

She couldn’t let herself fall to it, not when Colin, a non-Uratha packmate, was nearby. Only Uratha packmates were safe from a fellow Uratha’s Death Rage.

David was immediately at her side, awake and shifted to Hishu. He pulled her hand away to inspect the wound, but he couldn’t make anything out through all the blood and in the dark of the early morning.

The bedroom light was turned on and he was shoved aside by Jesse. He gave the wound a better inspection than David did, peeling back Tsu’mara’s shirt. The wound was a clean line across her dark skin, and deep. A thin line of subcutaneous fat with muscle underneath was visible. The blood coming from it was bubbling, with a trail of steam coming out from the wound

“It’s a stab wound,” said Jesse. “By something silver too.”

With the sound of rapid, heavy footfalls, Morrison burst into the bedroom. Colin was behind him in Urhan, watching nervously from behind the elder’s legs.

Morrison got Tsu’mara up off the bed so she’d stop bleeding all over it and led her out to the dining room, sitting her down at the dining table. There they treated the wound.

As Tsu’mara was stitching herself up Morrison asked, “Why the fuck were you sleeping with silver knives?”

“I wasn’t,” answered Tsu’mara as she tied off a stitch. “I don’t have any silver.”

“Then how’d you get stabbed?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” answered Tsu’mara, tying off the final stitch.

Morrison gave Tsu’mara’s stitches a look over. “Hm, those’ll do. But it’d be better if we had a professional do it. The way you did it will make it scar badly.”

“You have no idea how you got stabbed?” he asked.

Tsu’mara shook her head, “I was dreaming of hunting antelope when I felt a sharp pain, then I woke up.”

Morrison rubbed his chin in thought, “I’ve never heard of one of The People getting stabbed in a dream and coming out stabbed. That’s more of a human thing. There’s Cahalith abilities that allow them to infiltrate the dreams of humans. But I’ve never heard of it happening to The People. Wolf-Bloods being an exception. We just don’t dream the same as humans.”

“You’re certain you felt the pain in the dream first?” he asked.

Tsu’mara nodded and Morrison rubbed his chin again. “Hmm, that sounds like a Cahalith ability, but it shouldn't happen to The People.”

He looked over to Lucas, David, and Kaiden who were standing at the doorway of the bedroom. He told them as he walked off towards the library, “We’re gonna look through the library for anything that might help.”

Tsu’mara pointed over her shoulder with her thumb towards Caliente, “We have a pissed off pack right next door.”

Remembering what the Moon Shadow Riders’ Elodoth yelled out to his packmate during his initiation, David shook his head and said, “The Pure don’t have auspices. They tear them out after they have their First Change. So they wouldn’t have a Cahalith.”

“Maybe I pissed off a Blood Talon one?” suggested Tsu’mara.

Lucas shook his head, “The only Blood Talon you could’ve gotten on the wrong side of would be one in the Protectorate. They wouldn’t dare violate the Oath of the Moon by trying to kill another one of The People.”

Morrison called out from the library, “Get in here, you three! We need to figure out how it happened before trying to narrow down any suspects.”

Kaiden, Lucas, and David entered the library where they saw Morrison book an old, worn leather bound journal from one of the many overfull shelves. “I had a great uncle who was a cahalith. He researched dreams that he wrote down in a dream journal. I’ll look throught this while you lot read through other books.”

He pushed aside David’s sketch books that littered the desk and sat down at it. The other three started looking through the shelves for anything that might explain what happened to Tsu’mara.

“Hey, Kaiden,” said Lucas. “You want to-”

Morrison butted in with a low growl of warning, “You better not use Sift the Sands in here.”

Lucas pivoted, pointing to the wall behind Morrison and said, “You want to take that shelf there and I’ll take the wall by the door.”

He waved dismissively to David, “You take the other wall.”

David grumbled to himself. He didn’t understand why the Old Man made him do research along with Lucas and Kaiden. He pulled an old leather bound book off a shelf, but it was too difficult for him to read because of its complicated script and archaic old timey way the English was structured which left him spending several minutes just to read a couple sentences.

“That’s a book about Cryptids like Chupracabras and Wendigos,” said Lucas without looking up from the tome he was reading. “That won’t help.”

David slammed the book closed and shoved it back onto the shelf which made Morrison growl at him to be gentle with the book. After several minutes of Kaiden and Lucas searching through several books, and David staring at a single page of another book he pulled, Morrison spoke up from reading his ancestor’s dream journal.

“The dream attacks I can find in this are from Uratha knowledge,” he said, flicking through a few more pages of the journal. “They’re only Cahalith abilities too. Even spirits of dreams can’t wound in a dream and cause damage in the waking world. Not the exact injury caused in Tsu’mara’s dream at least. Only stuff like an aneurysm and ‘perceived’ injuries, never the actual injury.”

He tapped a paragraph on the page he settled on, “This is an account of a Cahalith requesting this exact form of attack from a spirit, with the spirit saying that it wasn’t able to do it.”

“Can mages?” asked Jesse, making David and Kaiden jump from his sudden appearance.

Morrison rolled his eyes, “Witches don’t know shit about Uratha dreams.”

Lucas shook his head and said, “They know a lot about the dream world, the Astral Planes. The attack could’ve come through that somehow.”

Morrison groaned in annoyance, “We don’t dream like humans do. You have to stop talking to those bastards.”

“I don’t trust those mages either,” said Jesse. He then gave Lucas a coy look, “I assume the only reason we keep them is breeding stock.”

“What are you talking about?” Lucas asked. He shook his head and said, “Actually. Don’t answer that.”

He called out to Tsu’mara who was still sitting at the dining table, “You’re the one who was attacked. You think we should ask them for help?”

“We should explore all avenues,” she said.

“You know,” pondered Kaiden, sliding the tome he was flicking through back onto the shelf. He grabbed a scroll tube from its nook. “If anyone here would’ve pissed anyone off enough to get them to try and kill them in their sleep, it’d be David.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?!” snapped David, stopping his search for an easier book to read.

“You’re not exactly the cuddliest person in the pack,” answered Kaiden as he opened the scroll and immediately rolled it back up and returned it to its nook. “Oh, that’s a rain summoning ritual. Definitely won’t help.”

“Well neither is the Old Man,” snapped David, pointing harshly at Morrison.

Tsu’mara called out from the dining room again, “If it was a competition to see who pissed off the most people, David would lose. I’ve cucked a lot of people.”

“Are any of them pissed off enough to try and kill you?” asked Morrison

“The only ones who lived are in Afghanistan," answered Tsu’mara. “High Command didn’t want them dead for some reason.”

“Call some of your old comrades that were there,” said Morrison. “Keep it vague, phrase it like a welfare check.”

“Madhouse,” said Morrison while he looked at his watch to get David’s attention. “Get dressed for work. It’s about time for us to wake up for it anyways.”

“I’ll call in sick for work so I can call my old battle buddies,” said Tsu’mara.

“I can do some more research in the library after I’ve streamed for the day,” said Jesse.

“I have nothing else to do,” said Kaiden. “So I may as well keep researching with Lucas. Bring Colin along to help.”

Morrison shot down the suggestion about Colin immediately, “He needs to keep his ear to the ground and gather information from the humans. Blondie’s daughter is in town from college. She’ll be a good source for information from outside the territory.”

***

Everyone got ready for their day, though were on edge. Forced to keep a straight face and not betray their worries about the attack.

Colin clocked in at work at the Nevada Club of Pioche. Where he met Blondie’s daughter, Marcee. She was blonde like her mother but with brown eyes instead of blonde. They hit it off, laughing and joking with each other as they worked.

“So, you have a thing for men in uniform?” she asked in a coy tone as they did inventory while her mother served coffee to the morning patrons.

“What? No,” said Colin as he checked to see how much of each alcohol brand they had and if they needed anymore.

“So you’re not hooking up with one of the sheriff’s deputies?” asked Marcee.

“Well yes, but not because he’s in uniform,” Colin said, flustered.

“Really?” asked Marcee as she threw out a bag of roasted peanuts that were close to their best before date. “You’re telling me nothing about the uniform does anything for you? The short sleeves that show off the arms, the vest, none of that gets the engine running?”

“No,” denied Colin with a furious blush.

Marcee snuck up behind him and whispered huskily, “So you never thought about having him use the handcuffs?”

“Shut up!” snapped Colin, pushing Marcee away while trying to suppress a smile.

Meanwhile, back at The Den, Tsu’mara called out while her hand covered her phone’s receiver as Lucas and Kaiden left to do some research on the town, “Bring back some packs of beer!”

The two got into the truck and Lucas started it, saying, “Howlmore isn’t gonna like it, but we should just go straight to the mages. If anyone knows what’s going on or, at the very least, knows how to help, it’d be them. We need all the resources we have at our disposal to help. Cause it’s not going to stop at Tsu’mara. I just know it.”

They drove a short ways to the hotel the mages were staying at, the Overland Hotel and Saloon. Right at the split of Lacour Street, and Main.

“Do you know what room they’re staying in? You met them before I joined the pack,” asked Kaiden.

“Yeah, Jesse told us what room they were in when they first came here,” answered Lucas.

He stopped in front of a door and went to knock. But Kaiden stopped him, pointing at the sign hanging from the door, “It says ‘Do not disturb’.”

“Our territory. They don’t have a say in the matter,” said Lucas and knocked on the door.

When there was no response, he knocked again.

After several more attempts to the same result Kaiden waved down a cleaner who was leaving another one of the rooms.

Acting nervous and bashful, “Uh, ma’am. I lost my keycard and can’t get back into my room.”

The maid sighed, and said, “Fine, I’ll let you in. But you’ll have to ask the front desk for a replacement.”

She scanned her card and unlocked the door, “I was never here.”

Once the maid was out of ear shot, Lucas said, “You know that won't work forever. Eventually the community will recognise you as ‘one of Howlmore’s grandkids’.”

Kaiden shrugged and walked into the hotel room, “It worked now. That’s all that matters at the moment.”

The room was decently fancy, with a floral theme. The beds had a pattern of pink roses and butterflies. It was clean and well maintained. Too clean. The beds were still made with only a single impression from where someone sat down. There was no luggage in the wardrobe. No bags and personal effects. No one had lived there for the past couple months.

Suspicious, they started looking around. Lucas loosened his revolver in its holster and kaiden checked the only other door, the bathroom.

“What the fuck?” he exclaimed when he opened it.

Instead of a bathroom it led to an ornate dining room of a large mansion.

Lucas peered through the door and said, “Oh yeah. Alice mentioned something about a portal.”

The moment the pair walked into the dining room the chime of a desk bell rang out, with no apparent source.

Poe and his apprentice, the redhead Kevin, greeted them by storming into the dining room wielding a sword and mace respectively. The mace Kevin brandished looked overly ornate, with ornate decorative looking flanges on its head.

The two mages skidded to a stop when they saw Lucas who chuckled and said, pointing back through the doorway to the hotel room, “We tried knocking but no one answered, so we just let ourselves in.”

Poe lowered his sword and swore, “Shit. We didn’t lock down the space portal.”

He placed the sword on the table, saying, “If you’re looking for Alice, she's in Pioche somewhere. Doing field work on behalf of Keeper of Boots. But since you’re here, can you help us move some boxes?”

Lucas shrugged, “Sure, we’re actually here to ask you things.”

Poe guided them towards the garage where Lucas and Kaiden took the opportunity to look around as they made their way to their destination.

The mage’s home was a nice upscale mansion. Looking to easily be worth a million dollars, through one of the windows they were surprised to see that they were somewhere in Vegas, considering the desert lawn and nice looking suburb. Probably Summerlin or Henderson.

“Where are we?” asked Lucas as they got to the garage and started pulling assorted boxes off some shelves.

“In our sanctum in Vegas,” answered Poe. “Don’t know how much you know about Awakened magic, but in one step you went a hundred and fifty miles.”

Lucas looked to Kaiden to gauge his reaction. He was straight faced for a moment before he walked off with his box, “Sure. Why not? Of course we fucking did.”

When they put the boxes down on the dining table, “We came here because one of our packmates was attacked in their dream. That shouldn’t be possible cause we don’t dream like humans do.”

Poe put a hand on his mouth and pondered, “I think I heard of something.”

The mage took them to the sanctum’s library. Lucas let out a whistle when he saw it, two stories tall with wall after wall of books of all sorts. It was also clear to Lucas and Kaiden, after referencing their mental map of the house and its dimensions, that it was clearly not able to fit inside the house.

Poe searched through several books. Flicking through them before returning them and searching through another.

“Ah! Here it is,” said Poe, finding the book he was after. He put the book on a nearby table, showing its title written in an Old English script. Lycanthropes and the Subtle Realms.

He flipped through it for a few moments before he stopped, tapped the page he was looking for, and said, “Ah! Here we go. Most interactions mages have with werewolves is in regards to the Shadow. Occasionally, though, there have been instances where mages are actually attacked by them in the Astral Planes. Specifically, one called the Anima Mundi. Because it’s only ever been there, there have been some theories for the past few hundred years that this is the plane that werewolves go to when they dream.”

He turned the book towards Kaiden and Lucas, saying “This bit of lore that was, uh…”

He trailed off and then cleared his throat, suddenly sounding nervous, “That was, uh, obtained from a werewolf pack in the eighteen hundreds supports the theory.”

Kaiden and Lucas leaned forward and read the page.

_Uratha dream. They dream of Luna. They dream of the future and past, sometimes both at the same time. They dream of the perfected wildlands, often thought to be memories of Pangea. When Mother Luna isn’t writing their dreams directly, Uratha minds wander to a distinct realm of dreams at night, a different one from humans. _

Poe asked, “What do you two know about the astral realms?”

Lucas answered, “The Hisil is our forte, not the stuff that the mages concern themselves with.”

Poe nodded in understanding. He left and returned soon after, wheeling in a dry erase board.

“Oh boy,” sighed Kaiden, mentally strapping in for a long lecture that he knew was coming.

Poe stopped the board in front of the pair. He uncapped a marker and asked, “I assume you dream of hunting and killing prey?”

“No, we dream of killing other things too,” answered Kaiden.

Slightly off put by the werewolf’s answer he drew a circle at the top of of the board, Poe stammered, “Well, if the popular theory about werewolves dreamscape is true-”

He tapped the circle he drew with the bottom of the marker.

“Then you go here, the Anima Mundi, like I surmised before. It has a few names such as the World’s Dream, or the Dreamtime. It’s actually where the Australian Aboriginals got the name from. It’s called the World’s Dream because it’s actually the dreamscape of nature itself. It’s the very top, in a metaphysical sense mind you, of the astral realms. The Anima Mundi is full of a multitude of sapient spirit-like plants and animals inhabit the realm. Rocks and rivers speak, just like they do in the Shadow. When I get the rare chance to speak to a werewolf that doesn’t threaten to tear my throat out and actually debate with me about the nature of the realms, they tell me that the Anima Mundi is actually far less hostile to your kind and doesn’t loathe them like the inhabitants of the Shadow do. This is commonly thought by them to be because it’s a mere memory of Pangea, in a time before Spirits began to hate the children of Father Wolf. The Anima Mundi is in fact the now, not a memory. It’s a whole separate realm, part of the Astral Realms.”

“Whereas when humans dream,” he said, and he drew a circle at the bottom of the board and tapped it with the marker, “They enter their Oneiros, a realm composed of their own inner mind. Mundane science actually knows of this realm but they’re completely off the mark as to what it is and call it ‘the subconscious’. The Oneiros is home to self-created entities representing fears, passions, memories and everything in a person's mind.”

He then drew another circle in between the ones symbolising the Anima Mundi and the Oneiros, taking time to deliberately draw the edges of the new circle overlapping the edges of the Anima Mundi’s and Oneiros’ circles.

He tapped the new circle, “Above the Oneiros, above in a metaphysical sense mind you, is the Temenos, the dream of all human kind. Every thought or idea humanity has ever had ends up as part of the Temenos. It’s a maze of interconnected subrealms, near infinite in number, and connected by symbolic association of ideas. Only Mages can reliably access the Temenos. If one dreams of flying, they can link their Oneiros to the Temenos sub-domain of flight and flying machines. Here they can enter into the crew compartment of a B-52 bomber. From this domain, they can step into a realm littered with the military technology of the Cold War, or step directly into a realm where the B-52s made their one-way primary mission bombing runs. Navigating the Temenos requires following this sort of path of connections.”

“If one were to follow the connections of the Temenos to nature,” he drew a line starting from the Oneiros through the Temenos, meandering around it, twisting and turning, intersecting the line he drew several times before ending it in the overlap of the Temenos’ and Anima Mundi’s circles. “They will eventually arrive at the edge of humanity's domain in the Worlds Dream and enter the Anima Mundi proper. In the Dreamtime, like I said before, nature is the entity dreaming, not humans. Humans have carved out an ever-increasing portion of the World Dream and nature is displeased with this encroachment. As a result, Mages struggle to persist in an Astrally Projected form while in the Anima Mundi. It doesn’t want us there. The Uratha, on the other hand, seem to be welcomed here. It’s a peaceful, relatively speaking, experience, well attuned to the lupine side of every werewolf. Hunting and killing prey in a perfect wilderness makes for restful werewolf dreams.”

“Not very restful as of late,” said Kaiden with a frown.

Poe nodded, looking thoughtfully at the Anima Mundi’s circle and rubbing his chin, “Yes, it seems that your packmate’s attack was an actual event in the Anima Mundi and the wounds they received carried over into the waking world”

He turned to them and asked, “Is this the only attack?”

“As far as we know,” answered Kaiden.

Lucas added, “Though they have been complaining about not sleeping well for the past couple weeks.”

Poe looked back at the board, “Hm, seems to me that whatever attacked them has been targeting them for a while and this is the first successful one. Attacks like these are well known to mages, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard of it happening to a werewolf. Mages can be attacked by werewolves in the Anima Mundi but, until now I suppose, it’s always been mere speculation that these were actual werewolves dreaming and not just the ‘idea’ of werewolves. To facilitate this attack, the attacker would have to locate your packmate in the Dreamtime and physically assault their form there, not at all an easy proposition.”

“Then how did they manage that?” asked Lucas. “If she has been getting attacked for as long as you say, then this isn’t a random attack. Someone’s after her.”

“Her?” asked Poe, looking over his shoulder to Lucas. “So it’s the big one,”

He walked over to the shelf he got ‘Lycanthropes and the Subtle Realms’ and pulled out and flipped through several more books. “Frankly, due to the trouble Mages have just entering and staying in the Anima Mundi let alone getting so deep and so regularly to attack your packmate so often, I don’t think Awakened magic can do this. Though I’m not an expert in the mind arcana.”

“Then what did it?” asked Kaiden.

“That, unfortunately, I can’t say,” answered Poe as he flicked through. “But whatever did it must have acquired a sample from her, likely a part of her body for the best possible sympathetic connection. They then used this connection to track her in the Anima Mundi.”

“Is there any way to protect against future attack?” asked Kaiden. “Cause whatever this is probably isn’t gonna call it a quits.”

Poe thought for a moment before searching through more books. After several more books were referenced he said, “It’s possible to mix Awakened magic with werewolf magic to create a connection to the Anima Mundi. Making it so you can lucid dream. We’ll have to set up at a locus to perform that kind of ritual.”

“We’ll have to ask our elder first,” said Kaiden. “He’d tear you apart for even suggesting that.”

Poe paled at Kaiden’s comment and stiffly nodded, “Yes, do that. In the meantime we’ll research a spell to help her lucid dream.”

Kaiden and Lucas got up and left. Once they were back through the portal and in Pioche, Lucas asked, “How do we tell Howlmore? Or not tell him at all?”

Kaiden shook his head, “It’s the only lead we have. Maybe just don’t tell him about magic at the loci.”

“Maybe we can do it at the graveyard locus?” suggested Lucas. “Not that they could reach the Minehead one to begin with.”

“Maybe,” said Kaiden. “But if, by some miracle, we can convince Morrison to let them. It’d have to be with supervision.”

“Let’s see if Tsu’mara and Jesse have found anything first,” suggested Lucas. “Even if it is our best shot.”

They arrived back at the Den to see Tsu’mara talking on the phone. She was smiling as she spoke, “Alright. That’s great to know the VA finally pulled their finger out. It’s been good checking up. Call you again some time.”

She hung up and told Kaiden and Lucas, “That was the last of my old battle buddies. They’re all fine. So it’s just me.”

“You two find anything out from the mages?” she asked.

“Maybe. They might be able to help,” said Lucas. “But Howlmore won’t like it. So I want to make sure it’s our only option first.”

Tsu’mara clenched and unclenched her fists, “What is it then? I can fight things I can get my hands on but I can’t with this thing.”

“Poe’s working on a spell to help you lucid dream,” answered Lucas.

“Yes!” said Tsu’mara with a clap of her hands. “Let’s kill this thing.”

“We still don’t know what it is though,” said Jesse from behind Lucas and Kaiden, making Kaiden jump. “I’ve been doing more research and it can’t be a Cahalith. It’d be unusual for them to attack from the shadows like this. They’d do it in a way so that you’d know it was them.”

Kaiden nodded, “Us Cahalith seek glory in all things.”

“Perhaps there’s a rite to allow lucid dreaming,” said Lucas as he went into the library and started looking through several books, tomes, and scrolls.

After a long time, he said, “We don’t have any records of one.”

“Could be an obscure one,” said Jesse.

“Could be one the Pure know,” said Tsu’mara. “They don’t have auspices since they won’t need an auspice in order to attack me if there’s a rite that could do that.”

“Why just her though?” asked Kaiden. “We pissed them all off.”

Kaiden thought to himself for a moment, “Though it is most likely Talbot’s pack. They want to kill all of us and the Bone Shadows told me during my crash course that the Pure have rites the Forsaken have no idea about.”

He said to Tsu’mara, “You said all your battle buddies are fine and Jesse said that it can’t be a Cahalith. So that only leaves the Pure in Caliente as the only suspects.”

Lucas nodded, “That might be why she’s getting attacked. She and Morrison did quite a number on one of them when we broke you out.”

Tsu’mara nodded in agreement, “And since I’m not a Cahalith, I was the easiest of the targets. And it would’ve been suicide for them to try it against Morrison.”

“Could a nature spirit be helping them?” asked Kaiden. “Poe said the Anima Mundi was full of nature spirits.”

“The what?” asked Jesse and Tsu’mara in unison.

“Long story,” said Lucas and then shook his head, “Poe said that it was full of spirit-like things.”

Lucas paused for a moment before going to a shelf and pulling a book off the shelf. “Actually, you might be on to something.”

“This is a book on tribal practices, specifically hallucinations and dream quests from native American practices. It says stuff like snake venom alongside other hallucinogens in concoctions for them

“Snake venom?” asked Jesse. “Morrison said that their pack totem was a snake spirit. And Father Albert was able to smell the spirit. He had to resanctify the church cause of it.”

Lucas continued flicking through the book. He stopped on a picture of a kind of cactus used in the concoction, “Their totem could be the source of the ritual, yes. It could also have been from a cactus spirit. There’d be lots of spirits that would know who to do dream quests.”

“That settles it,” said Tsu’mara, clenching her fists and looking ready to hit something. “It has to be Talbot’s pack.”

Lucas closed the book and returned it to the shelf. “I guess we have to use the mage’s solution after all. I’ll call Howlmore, he’ll need to be here so we can try and convince him to not kill them on sight for suggesting it.”

Lucas made the call to Morrison and they waited nervously for the half hour it took for him and David to return to the den. When they arrived they were filled in on the mage’s idea of combining their magic with Uratha magic at a locus to get Tsu’mara to lucid dream. The elder listened intently for the entire explanation, becoming more and more visibly annoyed as it went on.

“This could be a good lead,” he said. “I’m not sure if I’m comfortable. I’m _definitely _not comfortable with them fucking around with their bullshit near a locus.”

He paced around the dining room in irritated thought for several minutes. Finally, he said, “If we do this. I want the mages to go into the dreams as well. That way, if something goes wrong, I can slit their throats.”

Kaiden sighed, “I’m starting to understand why they’re so scared every time we come around.”

Morrison chuckled, “You should see the leash we have on them in Vegas.”

His smile quickly fell and he turned his attention to Lucas. “Go. Call your little girlfriend.”

Lucas blushed and did as he was told.

Later in the evening the pack, bar Colin who was still working at the bar with Blondie’s daughter Marcee, met at the Boothill Cemetery with the Mages. The whole pack was tired, having been awake since the very early morning, and too wary to try and catch any sleep during the day.

“God, I’m fucking exhausted,” complained Tsu’mara. “I’ve been chugging coffee all day and it hasn’t been working.”

“That’s cause your system would purge the caffeine immediately,” said Kaiden. “You’d have to drink like several mugs of extra strength espresso for it to even come close to working.”

“If only someone didn’t throw out the espresso machine my mother gave me,” said Lucas, side eyeing Jesse.

Of the mages that met them at the cemetery, Annabelle, and the apprentice Miguel weren’t there.

“Where are the others?” asked Morrison.

“When I said your whole pack was going to be here, Annabelle suddenly remembered she had pressing matters to attend to,” answered Poe, giving David a side eye.

David smirked at the memory of Annabelle's fear of him.

Poe directed everyone to sit in a circle around Tsu’mara. Morrison stayed out of it, prowling around the circle and keeping an intent eye on the mages.

“We’re gonna use your mystical pack bond to allow the entire group to dream in the same place. Otherwise we’d be scattered in the Anima Mundi.” explained Poe.

Circles and arcane sigils were painted in the sand and gravel. After the arcane circle was completed, the mages took their places in the circle, joined hands with everyone, and started to chant in a strange language that no one in the pack could understand. A language that sounded like incomprehensible gibberish that was mixed with a harsh static that no living thing, mortal or spirit, should have been able to create.

Once the chant stopped, the pack blinked blearily. Suddenly feeling very tired.

While they were all still awake, Poe said, “Make sure to force your will onto the Dreamtime to keep yourself lucid. This Ritual enhances that.”

Lucas was the first to nod off, falling back onto the sand and gravel. Everyone else followed soon after.

***

They awoke in an open savannah grassland, a few sporadic acacia trees in the distance, with a lone giraffe eating from one of the trees.

Tsu’mara jerked up from where she was laying in the grass, her head jerking around as she looked for anyone that might attack her. The mages were already up and standing, waiting for the others who were unsteadily picking themselves up from the ground

David snarled in irritation from the effects he felt from the spell. It felt far too similar to how he felt from waking up from being sedated for his liking. Kevin, the closest mage, nervously sidled away from him.

As he stood up, he noticed Lucas. Something was off about him. He was staring off into space and his form was strange. Like he was only half there, hazy around the edges.

“Lucas,” snapped David trying to get his attention.

Lucas didn’t respond. He still stared off into space and even started to fade away.

David rushed over to him, grabbed him by the shoulder and punched him across the chin.

Lucas stumbled, clutching his jaw. His form became more corporeal but still remained hazy around the edges. He glared at David and snapped, “The fuck was that for?!”

Poe answered for him, “Looks like you failed to force your will properly onto the Dreamtime.”

The mage looked over everyone else, and nodded, “Everyone else did, thankfully.”

He looked back to Lucas and said, “You’re still lucid dreaming, the ritual made sure of that, but be careful. It’ll be easy for you to get distracted and fade away into a different part of the Anima Mundi. So try and stay focused on the task at hand.”

They all nodded and started getting ready for whatever was coming for Tsu’mara.

“How are we gonna do this?” asked Lucas.

Tsu’mara pointed to the giraffe in the distance eating from an acacia, “I guess I’ll just act like I was last night and hunt in Gauru to draw whoever it is out.”

“What about the rest of us?” asked Lucas.

“We should all hide but be ready for a fight,” said Jesse. “If whatever it is sees all of us, it won’t bother trying and’ll run before we can do anything.”

“Where’s my lighter?” asked David as he patted his pockets.

Seeing his packmate searching for his lighter, Lucas checked himself over and asked, “Where’s my gun?”

“We’re astral projecting,” answered Poe, “Physical objects don’t carry over.”

“Then why do we have clothes on?” asked Jesse.

“Because,” explained Poe, “It’s so ingrained in our culture and way of life to be clothed that even our astral forms have clothes on. If one was a nudist, I suppose, that’d be a different case.”

“Guess it’s just tooth and claw then,” said Tsu’mara.

Jesse, David, and Lucas shifted to Urshal, and Kaiden shifted to his golden jackal Urhan form. They all looked at the mages, who were busy looking around the savannah in awe.

“Amazing,” said Poe. He crouched down and ran his hand across the top of the long, dry grass. “To be so deep into the Anima Mundi without it immediately trying to eject or attack us.”

He stood back up, “It must be because of the Lycanthropic magic being combined with ours. We should test this again.”

Jesse and David didn’t trust them and immediately shot them down, snarling in the First Tongue, “No.”

After Tsu’mara translated for them, Poe held up his hands and stammered, “We’d only do it with your permission of course.”

He looked to Lucas, who he hoped would be more amicable to the idea of researching together and combining their magic. Lucas shrugged his beastly shoulders and said, “I’ll think about it.”

Poe let out a sigh of relief when he got the translation. He nodded and said, “A topic for another time then.”

“Hide,” growled Jesse at the Mages.

“That’ll be easy for us to do,” said Poe. He muttered a spell in that strange static sounding language and they suddenly disappeared. But they weren’t gone, as the pack could still smell them.

“You should get rid of your scent if you can,” said Jesse. “If any of us fall to Kuruth, we’d still be able to find you with our noses and tear you apart.”

Alice’s voice came from the area where the mages were invisible, “That’ll be easy enough for me to do.”

The mage’s recognisable scent disappeared. It was replaced with an odd blank smell that was easily lost whenever the wind picked up, getting buried under all the other scents that blew through.

Satisfied that the mages were sufficiently hidden, the pack, bar Tsu’mara, hid themselves amongst the tall grass.

The shadows in the grass around Jesse lengthened, coiling around the Irraka until he disappeared from sight. But he was still there, the pack could still feel his presence through their pack bond.

From the shadows, Jesse growled when he saw how David was sneaking. The Ithaeur’s stealth left a lot to be desired for Jesse and he sought to fix it. His footsteps were far too loud compared to the others.

As David prowled through the grass, he let out a yelp of surprise as he felt an invisible force force him down, adjust his paws, and shove him to the side into a darker patch of grass.

“Jesse…” snarled David.

“You’re a horrible sneak,” David heard Jesse say from within the grass.

“Cut it out!” snapped Tsu’mara. “Let’s get this over with and fucking kill whoever’s doing this.”

She then groaned as bones popped and cracked. She dropped to the ground on all fours and snarled as her spine jutted out from her back and lengthened. Her already impressive musculature increased, bulging out before it was covered by a wave of patchwork coloured fur. She let out a roar as her mouth lengthened into a snout.

The gauru’s eyes trained on the giraffe nearby, still eating from the acacia tree. She launched herself towards it, flying across the distance before the giraffe had time to turn and run. She leapt up for its neck and, grabbing it with both hands, bit into it with razor sharp teeth. Snapping the giraffe’s neck.

The others watched Tsu’mara tear into the giraffe from their hiding spots in the grass, keeping an eye on the horizon for the inevitable coming threat.

Jesse was the first to see it.

A werewolf in gauru form was silently approaching Tsu’mara, a silver-headed spear in their clawed hands. His scent reached the hidden members of the pack and they recognised it as Joseph Talbot’s.

Jesse waited for Joseph to pass him before expended essence to shift instantly to Gauru form himself and standing up behind the unaware werewolf. He swiped the Firetouched from behind, digging his claws into Joseph’s skin and raking them upwards.

Joseph stumbled forward and howled out in pain. He flipped around to face Jesse, his ears pinning back in fear as he realised he stumbled right into an ambush.

He gripped his spear harder and charged Tsu’mara with a roar, he raised the spear up to impale her. But he raised his spear too high, and his roars alerted Tsu’mara to the incoming attack, thus allowing her to jump away from the lunging attack.

Lucas and Kaiden burst out of the grass and bit down on Joseph’s legs, making the enemy werewolf cry out in pain and fall to the ground, still holding his silver spear and trying to strike Tsu’mara with it.

During one of his attempted strikes, David leapt from his hiding spot and grabbed it with his handpaws to pull it away from his packmate. He bit down on the shaft of the spear, just below the head, and snapped cleanly through the wood. The spearhead dropped onto the ground and rolled away, towards Tsu’mara.

Poe dropped the invisibility spell he had around the mages and he punched the ground, shouting in that incomprehensible static sounding language. A spear of rock erupted from the ground straight into Joseph’s gut and out his back.

Alice ran up to and placed a hand on Tsu’mara. Her fur rippled as even more muscle stacked onto her body. She snorted as she felt a rush of extra energy flood her system.

Tsu’mara leapt onto Joseph. Her claws dug into his shoulder and he howled in agony as she pulled. Skin, muscle, and tendons shredded and joints dislocated as Tsu’mara tore the arm from his body. His agonised howls rang out across the savannah as Tsu’mara tore off the rest of her attacker’s limbs. His howls only stopped as the last one was torn off, leaving him impaled on the spear of stone. He breathed in shallow gasps as he succumbed to shock.

Tsu’mara picked up the spearhead from the ground and plunged it into the back of his neck. A hissing squeal came from it as the lycanthropic blood boiled against the silver blade. Tsu’mara wrenched the spearhead from side to side, cutting through flesh and bone until his head fell off his shoulders and onto the ground.

She left the spearhead in the stump of Joseph’s neck and howled to the sky in victory, and was quickly joined by the rest of the pack all while covered in their prey’s blood.

Joseph’s body was scattered across the area. After the pack all shifted back to Hishu, Alice approached with a morbid sense of curiosity.

“That’s odd,” she said as she crouched down to look at a discarded leg. “Usually bodies fade after dying in the astral realm.”

“I’m guessing that, since we can’t bring physical stuff with us to this place, that we also can’t take stuff back with us,” said David. He put a foot against the remains of Joseph’s torso and wrenched the spearhead from the jagged remains of his neck. “Cause this would make for a nice trophy.”

“I can actually help with that,” said Poe, walking up to David. “Matter is my speciality.”

David shoved the spearhead towards the mage, making them flinch when he was almost sliced across the chest with the blade.

Poe stammered, “You’re supposed to offer blades handle first.”

“It’s silver,” said David, not wanting to risk cutting himself with the lethal metal.

When it became clear to Poe that David wasn’t going to offer the blade politely, he gingerly took the blade from David and muttered a spell over it. The spearhead, and the small amount of splintered wood that it was connected to slowly faded away until it was like it was never there to begin with.

The mage looked around nervously, “Anyone else coming?”

David looked at the remains scattered across the area. Something about it seemed off to him. “I don’t know. Every time we’ve dealt with the Pure they’ve always had a packmate with them. At the church, when we rescued Kaiden, and when they retaliated for taking Kaiden from them.”

He dismissively kicked away Joseph’s arm. “But he’s here by himself. I don’t think he was supposed to be here.”

Tsu’mara rubbed her side where she was stabbed earlier in the morning. “You think his packmates are gonna see his body mangled?”

“I have no clue,” said Lucas. “No one’s ever dealt with something like this before. But either way, they’re gonna be fucking pissed.”

It was then when David noticed the apprentice mage Kevin. He had done nothing the entire fight, and when David looked him over, the redhead looked like he was going to be sick. David gave him a wolfish grin and walked up to him.

He put an arm around the apprentice’s shoulder, covering him in Joseph’s blood. “First time?”

Kevin paled until he was as white as a sheet, and his scent changed. Instead of just looking like he was going to be sick, David’s bullying guaranteed that he would be.

***

The first thing that happened when they returned to the waking world was Kevin bolting up from ground and for the closest gravestone. Alice rubbed and patted his back as he threw up behind the gravestone while she glared at David who was cackling on the ground.

“Went well it seems,” said Morrison as he watched the apprentice hurl his guts up.

Tsu’mara had a big shit eating grin, “Morrison, you’re not gonna believe who we found. Who we just eviscerated."

“Oh?” Asked Morrison. “Who was attacking?”

“Joseph Talbot,” answered Tsu'mara.

Morrison nodded, “Makes sense. I always pegged him as the pack's shaman.”

“They're gonna need a new one,” said Tsu'mara.

“You killed him?” Asked Morrison, surprised.

“We tore him to shreds,” said Tsu'mara, gleefully.

“To shreds you say?” Asked Morrison before clicking his tongue in disappointment. “I was hoping to kill him. I should've come along after all.”

Tsu'mara shook her head, “He would’ve ran the moment he saw you.”

“He didn’t have the chance to run,” said David, finally recovered from his laughing fit.

“Speaking of Joseph,” said Tsu'mara. “I don’t think the attack on me was sanctioned by his pack. Cause he was there all by himself.”

Morrison nodded, “If that's the case, then we may have stopped them and the attacks. But this just pissed them off. He was Wilhelm's favorite son.”

“We've already pissed them off several times,” said David. “What's one more stick to the fire?”