Chapter 3 - Alice Never Had Days Like These....

"Urgh, I'm not really eager to go back to the burning river any time soon." says Alex.

I blink and look at him, what on earth is he on about?

Soothing coughs. "You weren't in the umbra there, you used it to travel to the land of Erebus. Erebus is one of the lands that is within the Umbra. There are other ones that we know of, but getting to them isn't so easy."

Oh, that explains it.

"Oh... So what's the umbra look like then?" asks Alex.

"If you get up off your ass, grab something shiny then I'll show you." I grin.

He grabs a little mirror on the side after looking around.

"Okay, so now what?" Alex asks.

"The umbra is attached to this world. To get to it, you pass through the gauntlet. The shiny surface, look into it and realise that it's just a door. It's right there in front of you, feel the connection within yourself and see the door then..." I grin at the pair. "You step."

I focus on that connection within me, it flows easily to me now, I sidestep, passing through the gauntlet with ease and emerging into the Umbra. I turn around and focus hard on the connection again, this time just using my eyes. I gaze back into the real world and watch Soothing and Alex talk for a few moments, before both sidestep. Soothing passes through with ease, looks like Alex might be a little bit, but at least he didn't get stuck.

So now I'm here in the umbra, with Soothing Song, who looks identical to Leon. Well yay.

"Looks like Alex is going to be a little while." I remark.

"So it seems." he says coolly.

"Look, I'm sorry that I wound you up. I hope you understand how different and difficult it actually is for both Alex and I to actually adjust to this life. We're both trying to atone for mistakes, I'd have hoped that would speak volumes considering the weight we're now both trying to carry."

"It is not my position to judge you." he replies.

I roll my eyes and turn around. I head on out the door, the umbra is pretty much a copy of the real world to me, only most of the buildings are made of web like meshes. Some of them have little spider like creatures scuttling across them. They're the minions of the weaver, keeping weaver type creations in check and maintained. I ignore them, they leave you alone if you leave them alone and don't fuck about with their stuff.

I head outside and into the parking lot. A glance around shows there's nothing else here. I can't tell if there's anything dangerous nearby at the moment, but it doesn't appear so. I'll worry about it if it happens.

Soothing has come down as well and looks at me. I look back at him as it seems to become a staring competition, neither of us looking away.

"Is there a reason to this stare down?" I ask.

"I'm not sure if I should trust you or not. Alex told me of his crimes and now you too have issues. I can understand the idea that you did it out of self preservation, but I am struggling to comprehend how you do not understand the total implications of what you did."

I sigh and rub my neck. "I guess that's because I've lived over two hundred years. Self preservation is pretty high on your priority to live that long. You're incorrect if you think I don't understand what the actual damage this has done. Trust me, I'm more than aware, when I get back I'm going to be going after the bastard that did that to me. The only consolation I have is that it wasn't the black spiral who walked away with the sword. He died, just not by my hand."

"So who took the sword?"

"A very powerful mage. One who's arrogance was so great that he offered me my heart's desire in thanks for falling so nicely into his trap. Don't mistake it Soothing, this guy is frightening. He breaks all the known rules. I could have wished that no one was upset about what I did, I could have asked for Tyr back. I could have done a lot of things. I chose the thing that would benefit my pack, not what would save me. I didn't think about what leeway it would buy me, I did it for my pack, not me." I turn and face him with all the conviction of my choice in my eyes.

"So, you would have accepted the punishment for your transgression?" asks Soothing.

"Anything that wouldn't have cost me or anyone I care about their lives, then yes I would have. Colt told me that I needed to accept it to be part of the pack and although I don't agree. I'll accept their rules." I reply.

He looks thoughtful and then a soft smile appears on his face and my heart judders in me. I hadn't seen that smile in over a century.

"I'm being a little harsh yeah. You obviously are starting to settle into it and it would be unfair of me to judge you on your words when I haven't seen your actions."

"Oh I'd be happy to show you any action you like darlin." I say without even thinking about it. Forgetting for a moment that I'm talking to a werewolf, not my dead lover.

Soothing actually blushes and chuckles. "A bit forward there aren't you?"

"Sorry, just... Well, in my world, I knew you. Or rather, I knew someone called Leon who looked the same as you, only he was a dancer and a bit of a pervert. We had some fun times together. So I forgot myself for a moment there."

Soothing laughs. "Well, it's not the worst chat up line I've heard, but it's far from the best."

I grin and move a little closer to him. "Then I apologise for being a thief."

He frowns and just before he opens his mouth to ask, I kiss him gently on the lips and then step back. He of course looks at me totally confused.

"I stole a kiss."

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head and I notice coming up behind him is Alex. He stops a little away from us both and his hands are clenching and un-clenching. Uh oh, I think I just stepped in something there. Soothing turns to Alex.

"Ah, we were worried you'd gotten lost then."

Alex doesn't respond and is giving me a look that I'm pretty sure had he had his old powers, I'd be running screaming right now. Oh well.

"Hello? Earth to Alex?" I say.

He snaps his head up and blinks.

"Sorry, I must have taken the long way in or something."

Well yeah, it was his first time, hardly a surprise it took him that long to get through.

"I wouldn't worry, it happens. Stepping through the gauntlet can be difficult, though I should have been a bit less smart assed and done it in a place where it's a bit thinner instead of a motel." I grin at him.

"So you gonna show me or what?" he snaps.

Oh shit. I'm betting he's crushing on Soothing and here's me making moves on him cos he looks like a dead lover. Congratulations Lawrence, way to be a heel about it all.

"Err, okay. So how comfortable are you with your beast forms?" I ask.

"I've gone into half wolf half man and full werewolf. I haven't tried any others yet." he says.

"Well, you've got a total of 5 forms of course. First off is your human one which you're in right now, garou refer to this one as Homid. Then we have stage two, which is a sort of part beast mainly human." I reply and focus on the beast within me. My beast likes to come out to play and I always feel more comfortable with it out than in.

I feel my body shifting as I get a little taller and my claws start to slip from my fingertips and my shoes vanish to reveal my longer feet and toe claws.

"The garou refer to this form as your glabro, the near human. As a Nuwisha, we have a different name, but that's not important right now. Your third form is your war form, the one used for mainly fighting." I say.

The next stage has always been my favourite since I got it. I can feel the beast filling me up and making my arms and legs even longer. The fur sprouts and covers my arms and legs, I can feel my nose elongating and my ears shifting up and becoming fully pointed.

"As you're probably guessed and I mentioned earlier, I'm a nuwisha, a werecoyote. So my form is rather different to yours. This form to the garou is referred to as crinos. Of course, that's only part three. There's still two more to go." I explain.

Now we get to the four legged form and I feel my hips shifting and my legs re-angling themselves into hind legs and my hands becoming forepaws.

"This is the fourth form, your hispo form. The dire wolf, this is another form suited to battle. Then finally you have your fifth form." I say, knowing he can understand me.

My body starts to shrink and my limbs are shifting again, this time they get smaller as well as does the claws.

"This is what the garou would call lupus form. The wolf. Of course you know that your forms will be rather different from mine, but the principle is the same." I sit back on my haunches and grin up at Alex.

"Right, so I should be able to shift into those forms too?" he asks.

"Yup. Though I'm still waiting for the penny to drop." I chuckle.

I do love being a bugger like this sometimes. It's the obvious stuff that when it happens you don't realise it's happening cos of how normal the situation is.

"Fuck! I can understand what you're saying!" he blurts out.

I laugh softly. "Yup, so, you gonna try it?"

I shift back up into my manabozho form and stretch out.

"Go on then Alex, show him what you can do." says Soothing.

I smirk gently and watch Alex close his eyes and call on his beast. I can feel the smile sliding from my face as he starts to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Holy fucking hell, he's enormous! His body stretches up and out, his height increasing to about 20ft tall, his arms long and corded with muscles, his thighs were as big as my waist! The claws on his hands were like wicked knives and his feet looked like they could squash trash cans like they were beer cans. His fur was almost white but I could tell it was more like a silvery grey. Across his eyes was a black stripe. I can feel myself step back when those enormous eyes open and bore into me.

"Holy fuck, you're huge!" I blurt out.

I have to admit, being stood beneath him like this is very freaking intimidating. He's like this powerhouse of claws and fur.

"What's wrong?" he says.

I look up again and blink, was he talking to me?

"Your fur... It's not the same colour as before." says Soothing.

That makes me blink. He's a different colour? That's a strange thing to say.

"Huh?" says Alex.

"When you changed the first time, you were a mucky brown and black. Now your fur is a bright grey, almost white, apart from around your eyes, it's black." says Soothing.

Alex starts to look down himself, checking out his new body properly. He starts looking down at his legs, then I spot a blush crawling up his neck and cheeks. I almost start laughing, I'd forgotten about this little extra part. My suspicions were confirmed when he cups his groin with his enormous paws, barely covering the larger equipment there. Inwardly I was jealous and trying not to laugh though.

"You're just gonna have to get used to that hun, seriously, don't worry about your dick swinging in the breeze, any person who see's you that's 'not' a garou will be going gaga. Seriously, I mean seriously insane. Humans can't handle seeing stuff like that and keep their heads. You're gonna want to be discreet and never let them see you change, unless you're gonna off them." I say.

"How come you have jeans?" he asks.

"Quirk of the breeds. Plus I didn't get the added size bonus like you." I respond.

He starts to squirm a little, the blush obvious below his rather lightly coloured fur, it's quite adorable. Well, I mean, it will be when I can get over how funny it looks.

"So how come I wasn't naked after the last time I transformed?" he asks.

"Oh, we took care of that. There's a detailed explanation as to what we did, but I'll do that later, short version, we used our power on them." Says Soothing.

"Oh, so you totem dedicated them?" says Alex.

"Yes, how the hell did you know about that?" replies Soothing

"I was curious as to why I didn't get to see Colt naked more often if he lost clothes every time he changed." says Alex timidly.

I burst out laughing. That's the Alex I knew, he might get embarrassed easier than me, but we're both dig a good looking naked man.

"Well, you seem to be getting a grasp on your beast somewhat Alex. I'm surprised, it took me a bit to get in touch with mine, but then again, I wasn't exactly in a position where people could welcome me with open arms." I say, the last piece of bitterness creeping in again. I really need to try and get a handle on that.

I look up at Alex, hoping that he hadn't gotten too pissy at that comment and I frown. He looks to be thinking too hard about something, then all of a sudden, I notice tears sliding down his cheeks from his large eyes.

"Alex.. Why are you crying?" I ask.

He looks startled and then puts his hand on the damp trails on his cheeks.

"I.. I just was thinking too hard about something..." he replies.

"The emotions you're feeling are bound to be strong hun, I know you've not been dead as long as I was, but you clung to your humanity and getting it back will be a shock to your system. Some feelings will be stronger than others due to the... Circumstances that you're put in." I look away from him as I try to avoid thinking about what I was actually feeling.

"What are you hiding Lawrence?" he growls at me.

"Huh?" I blink.

"You're wanting to tell me something but you don't want to actually say it. You've done this ever since I've known you. Saying something without actually saying it. Well, since you're reacting strangely every time I mention Colt then it has to do with him." Alex growls.

I give a slow and long blink. Fuck. How did he get 'this' insightful? I knew he was pretty good at reading emotions before, but now, this was a whole new level and he was reading me like a book. Inwardly I sigh, there's only one way out of this and I need to tell the truth, pissing him off doesn't really seem to be the smartest idea, which I may end up doing. But if I don't tell him the truth then I doubt I'd get away with it.

"Okay, of course, I should have known better. Look, after I lost Tyr, I was given a chance by the pack and Colt was the one who actually spent a little time with me and I got to like him. I'm worried that the feelings might just be me clinging to the first shred of kindness shown me. I do kind of like him alright? I'm sorry, I shouldn't have brought it up."

"No, you should not. Now are you going to teach me more?" he growls at me.

I flinch and feel my ears flatten against my skull. What kind of response was I expecting? Here was me telling him I liked the man he loved and on top of that he couldn't be with him, but I could. I guess I should just be grateful he hasn't smacked me one.

"When you are either in the umbra or the physical world, you can peer from one to the other using the same principal as you used to get here. However instead of physically stepping here, you just use the shiny surface to look through the gauntlet. Be aware, doing this will leave you blind and deaf to whatever realm you are currently in." I say.

He looks around, I'm guessing to find a reflective surface.

"Don't worry, you can practice that later. I guess right now we should go with the basic let's see how you fight."

"You serious? I'll break you." he says.

"Maybe. You're bigger than anyone else I've sparred with, but as long as neither of us use claws or fangs, we shouldn't die. Besides, your size is going to make this difficult for you. I have bigger targets to hit now than before and I'm betting that you're not used to it fully yet. I've had time to acclimatise to my new form." I respond.

"So you're saying that I get to hit you basically?" he says.

"You get to try, yes."

The grin that splits that huge muzzle of his is borderline terrifying. If I didn't know, the friend of mine was looking forward to attempting opening a can of whoop ass on me. I can't help but gulp.

"Let's go." he says and darts forward, his arm forward in a thrusting punch.

I dart to the side, my fear gone in the rush of adrenaline. I immediately bring around my right food, retracting my claws so I don't do a lot of damage and sweep out with a roundhouse towards his face.

He twists out of the way and I feel his muzzle skim the base of my foot. If I'd have had my claws out then he'd have been in a bit of pain. His right foot now comes up and aims a kick at my side. I jump over sideways, cartwheeling over his kick, then as soon as my feet hit the floor I spring up and smash both feet into his chest.

He staggers back sightly then charges at me full tilt like he's going to tackle me. I vault over and he starts to pass underneath me, I bring both feet down into his back and shove off him, sending him sprawling onto the floor as I flip all the way over again and land.

He gets up and roars at me, this isn't good. He's getting pissed now, I hope he isn't about to go berserk. It never occured to me to see how good his control on his rage is. I mean I don't have rage so it doesn't affect me, but I know that the garou have used it a few times in battle but it has the added danger of sending them into a frenzy.

"Uh oh. Lawrence, Alex hasn't learned to harness his rage yet." I hear Soothing say.

Oh that's not a good sign.

A right hook goes flying towards me, I duck below it, but he's now fighting smarter. As the punch starts to pass over my head he reverses the direction and brings his elbow down. I barely shove myself back in time, but I'm off balance and he steps in, pushing the elbow up into an uppercut. I cross my arms in a guard. But the momentum and strength he put behind it carries me up into the air slightly and backwards, I skid back with my claw digging furrows in the floor. I'd kept my balance, but fuck my arms and chest hurt! I rub them tenderly.

"Fuck, that was close. Damn, I've never actually gone up against someone pushing themselves like that. Didn't realise you'd channel your rage like that so fast." I comment.

"You keep talking about rage as if it's a living entity within me, what gives?"

"Well, from what I've gathered, rage is similar to what we used with blood. Most were creatures can draw on the power of their rage to enable them to be faster, ignore pain or in some cases increase their very strength." I say.

"Oh, so you use yours to move faster?" he asks.

"I don't have rage, it's not a gift that the nuwisha possess." I reply.

"The fuck?!" says Soothing, "You serious? You move that fast without tapping into rage?!"

I grin and nod. "Surprise. That's why I'm one of the main warriors for our pack."