"When his mother, the last of his family was dead, Nydourl resolved to speak with the only other Bone Gnawer that he knew - the Wise One, who lived in a cave in a hill not far from the village. Nydourl travelled to the cave and spoke to the Wise One, who was old and creaky. Nydourl wished to know why Rat, the protector and teacher of his people, had turned so harshly against them. The Wise One said that only Rat knew what Rat knew, and that the rats do as Rat says. Nydourl said to the Wise One that he would seek to find Rat. He would learn why it was that Rat had turned against his people and he would make Rat stop."
"Having cremated his family, Nydourl left his village with only a bit of food, a small knife and the clothes he wore. He travelled for many days upon many roads and he had many adventures. But he could not find Rat anywhere..."
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"One day, Nydourl was walking, when he spied something glittering on the road. He picked it up and saw that it was a ring made of gold, with engravings of feathers on the outside. Nydourl, being an honest sort of fellow, resolved to return it to the owner if he could."
"That evening, Nydourl approached a large town. He strolled in and began to look for a place where he could sleep the night. As he walked through the town, he came to the market place. By a large stone plinth in the centre of the market place, a line of people were standing. The hands of each were tied and each was tied to the person in front and behind by rope. A slave master was near-by, settling his slaves down for the night to be ready for the market in the morning. Nydourl could see that one of the people in the line, a young woman, was one of the Changing Breed, even if she was in her human form. Nydourl resolved to free the woman and the other slaves."
The Socially Considerate Version
The pack wander up to the outside of the walled palisade and wait in line for the guards to check them through. While they are waiting, Red-Shirt notices a glint from the setting sun. He checks it out and finds that its a finely crafted ring. It doesn't seem magical or special other than the incredibly fine detail on the outside - it is intricately carved with feather-patterns.
After talking with the guards, who are basically malnourished peasants with sticks, and deciding not to say they are from a plague ravaged part of the countryside, they head in through the gates. Only 5 steps into the "street", Trouble Magnet are told by a guard to get inside soon as there is a curfew. Being fine upstanding young law abiding citizens, they look for a hotel or inn or something. They find something like a hostel and manage to agree to help distribute food and such out to the place in return for somewhere uncomfortable to sleep. No one seems too keen to talk, and all of them go to sleep without offering to pay them to kill the red dragon or anything.
Nydourl and Bethsheba
"That night, when everyone in town was asleep. Nydourl crept back to the market place. The slaves were sleeping near the stone plinth in the centre. By stealth, Nydourl crept up to the slaves and cut their ropes with his knife. The woman he freed last. When the slaves realised that they were free, they leapt up and began running in all directions. Nydourl and the woman slipped away into the night."
The Anachronistic Version
Having managed to stay in homid form, the pack are roused before dawn by the hostelier who wants more out of them for the night's cold hard bench. They work out that most of their fellow travellers are here for a market in the centre of town, and so slowly drift that way. The centre of town is kind of paved, and has a large spring in the middle, forming a combination well and water feature. Townsfolk are taking water from the pool in large, badly made pots. For the most part the market is produce-based, but the pack note that there are a number of slaves tied together and tied to a stone plinth.
The pack wander about the place, looking for someway to make a bit of money and buy some breakfast. They try storytelling and dancing, and manage to get a) some stale bread and b) strange looks from Oscar's fabulous primal dancing. Fleas-from-America does a sketch and nearly gets lynched for being a magician (things like perspective being a relatively recent invention). Red-Shirt and Bob are a little miffed about their being slaves, and wonder if they get free them somehow. Red-Shirt idly senses and notices that one of the slaves, a youngish woman, is very unusual - the pack come to the conclusion that she is a shapeshifter, like them, but perhaps a wereraven (not a #$%%*ing shark, no).
This changes things, and they decide they should buy her. The thought is made to trade Snarls-at-Suggestions for her, but that doesn't go down too well. They consider selling a fine wolf-hound to protect the herds and letting whoever it is catch up later, but again with the social conscience. They chat to the slavetrader who tells them that she is a fine, healthy young woman, and he will be auctioning her - several of the elders of the city are looking for a wife for their sons, and although he cannot claim she is a virgin.... They, on the other hand, look like poor travellers - push off. They pack decides that One-Pot-Screamer will use one of her gold earings. She takes one out and beats it with rocks until it looks like a nugget, and then returns to the market.
Judicious use of the Persuasion gift means that One-Pot-Screamer and Manid the slavetrader are now the best of friends, and its all One-Pot-Screamer can do to only leave with one slave, rather than a matched set. The pack and their new friend leave town, and introductions are made - the young woman is Bethsheba, and she says that she is fully in their debt. At the pack's urging, Red-Shirt asks if she is missing a gold ring, and Bethsheba immediately shows her right hand and says "like this one?". Despite a bit of suspicion that she might have been playing tricks (the Fianna and the Shadow Lords are both aware of the reputation of the Corax), the pack give her the other ring.
"Nydourl told Bethsheba his story, and of his search for Rat. Bethsheba was wiser than Nydourl and knew that Rat would not give up a secret except for a secret in return - one that he could not refuse. Likewise he would not give a gift (the gift of lifting the plague) without a gift in return. Bethsheba said that she would help Nydourl find a secret and a gift."
"Now Rat had thirteen children, seven sons and six daughters. Bethsheba knew that Rat's seventh son, Tenacity, had disappeared and had probably been kidnapped. Rat was searching everywhere for his son. If they could learn where Tenacity was, that would be a secret that Rat would give anything to know."
"Bethsheba also knew that Tenacity had been last seen in a large port city to the west. She told Nydourl what she knew, and they resolved to set out immediately for the city."
"They travelled for many days and had many adventures on the way. Then one day they came over a hill and down into a large city beside the western sea. Nydourl had never seen such a large city before. Nor had he seen so many cats before. They were everywhere: in the streets, in the alleys, on the rooftops, in the houses, in the shops. Nydourl asked a shepherd about the cats. The shepherd said that only recently had the city been swamped by cats, and that no-one knew where they were coming from."
Once in the city, the pack start casting about for some clue as to where there should go now. The port city is centred about the point where a river flows into the ocean, creating a natural port. This city seems much richer than the primitive village where they met Bethsheba - not least due to its burgeoning trade in a cat-related products. Just about every market stall is selling cat-fur, almost for free. The cats are everywhere, squealing and getting into everything. Guards wander about with bronze spears, gold and other primitive coins are more common than the last town.
The cats are so prevalent that Trouble Magnet come to the conclusion that there must be some sort of cat-spirit interaction going on - maybe a cat spirit stole Tenacity away. Oscar says he saw that on television once. There is more scratching of heads. Where would one find a cat spirit in this time and place? They decide to try speaking to another cat, so One-Pot-Screamer becomes the local lunatic, going around calling 'puss, puss, puss'. Eventually she gets the attention of a rather beat up tomcat and manages to ask it some sensible questions - it says that it came here from somewhere else, and it doesn't like it here. Its been here for about a moon. It didn't like coming here either, it was stuck inside a box in another box with lots of other cats and it rocked and rolled around a lot. Aaah, say the pack, maybe it was a boat. The tom pisses off as they head to the port.
A quick look around the port shows that there are a mix of fishing boats and largish ships, most of which seem to be galleys (part sail, part rowing powered). One of the ships positively glows of wyrm to Breaks-like-Wind - one moored at the far end of the port, closest to the open ocean. The pack hang about and try to find out more about this ship without approaching too closely. Questioning locals about the docks gets scared reactions and people not willing to talk in any great details - apparently the ship is owned by pirates, and they do that whacky chain gang thing on the streets late at night looking for slaves to row their ship. The officials don't do anything because the guards have all been paid off. The pirates sail in every couple of moons and restock their ship, then sail off again. They've been here for a few days, they will probably be off again soon.
Despite not being exactly sure what the link between cat spirits and the pirates might be, various pack members continue their investigations by following the pirates who leave the ship around - not all of the crew are equally heavily tainted, some are fomor, some are not. Its not a pleasant situation though. Oscar and Red-Shirt find somewhere to change to lupus and sniff around town and work out over the day that the concentration of cats is strongest at the docks, but they can't pin it down to the pirates specifically.
"Late that night, Nydourl and Bethsheba watched the galley from the shadows. No-one else was in sight when pirates started carrying large crates down the gangway from the galley to the docks. The pirates opened the crates, and dozens of cats leapt out and ran in every direction (although not back to the pirate galley)."
"Bethsheba suddenly realised what was going on. The pirates were bringing in cats in order to keep all the rats out of the city. As long as there were no rats in the city, they would have no way to find out the Tenacity had been here or where he had gone. Since the pirates were involved in keeping the rats away, they must know something about what happened to Tenacity."
The next morning, Trouble-Magnet try and work out how they would get on board the ship. Having watched the pirates laying in supplies, Oscar and Fleas-from-America figure out their own plan of sneaking on board in some of the barrels of pickled meat, which works quite well.
For the rest of the pack, Bethsheba suggests that they could approach the ship looking for passage to a nearby city, and offer gold to pay their way. If they pay too much, the pirates are sure to accept, if only to grab the pack for their rowing crews and the gold for their stash. The remaining four Garou reluctantly agree to this plan and One-Pot-Screamer approaches the man who seems to be in charge of the crew as they load up supplies. She asks if they are heading down the coast (tm) and the mate grudglingly suggests they might be. One-Pot-Screamer asks if they could buy passage, as they wish to go that way as soon as possible. When the mate demands to know what they will pay, she says gold, and he demands 2 gold coins - one now, and one when they arrive. Bethsheba sighs and pulls out a purse, angling the sun into its darkened centre. She pulls out a coin and hands it to the pirate, who weighs it on his palm and says that they will leave on the afternoon high tide - be there or be left behind. Oscar and Fleas-from-America groan from within the hold - another couple of hours in these pickle barrells and they'll be waterlogged.
"Bethsheba told this to Nydourl, who decided to sneak onto the galley to see what he could find. While the pirates were busy with their cats, Nydourl quickly and quietly ran up the gangway and onto the galley. In the galley were many slaves, tied to the benches from where they pulled the oars. Nydourl spoke to one of the slaves, an old man who had been there longer than anyone. The old man told Nydourl that just before they started their regular cat-carrying trips, the galley had made a voyage to a small rocky island far out to sea, and that they had carried no cargo except for a rat in a box. He knew that it was a rat in the box because it kept gnawing it's way out of the box and running around the ship, with all the pirates chasing it. The pirates would catch it and put it in a new box, but it always managed to chew it's way out."
"Nydourl crept back off the boat and told Bethsheba what he had learned. They decided that they must get to the island. The easiest way would be on the pirate galley. Bethsheba said that they should approach the pirates and offer to pay them gold for passage to another city along the coast. The pirates would wait until the galley was out at sea before attempting to steal the gold, whereupon they could defeat the pirates and take the galley. Nydourl agreed to this plan."
"Nydourl and Bethsheba approached the evil pirate captain in a dock-side tavern, and offered gold for passage to another port. Bethseba used her powers of illusion to create the image of gold to fool the captain. The captain agreed and said that they would be setting off in the morning. Nydourl and Bethsheba agreed to be there."
Its only about 30 minutes out of port before Fleas-from-America decides he can't handle being in the slowly sloshing barrel full of pickled pork. Through judicious use of extreme force, he smashes his way out of the barrel and slowly squeezes his way through between the tightly packed barrels, cursing Oscar-the-Grouch for every scraped bit of skin and sludgy sewer-like splash of bilge water. Oscar scoffs and says "watch this!" and changes form, expecting the barrel to burst. No luck - instead he shatters one limb under the force of the attempted change and finds that barrels full of liquid are much heavier than he thought. Eventually the two of them end up nearly to the end of the hold.
However, the rest of the pack have noticed that the pirates have heard something happening down in the hold and warn the two of them to both hide and shut the hell up. Two of the pirates head down into the hold area and poke about, but shrug and come to the deck again. Hours pass and the sun sets into the western ocean. The 'passengers' are fed a simple salty seaman stew.
"The next morning the galley left port. Bethsehba knew that the pirates would probably wait until they thought the passengers were asleep before they tried anything. Sure enough, that night, while Nydourl and Bethsheba pretended to sleep, half a dozen of the pirates crept up to attack them. Nydourl quickly killed the pirates before they could raise the alarm. He then crept up to where the slaves were being held and freed them. Before the pirates knew what had happened, they had been overrun by slaves and tossed over board."
Its well dark and the pack are feigning sleep, even Snarls-at-Suggestions, who is still recovering from a bout of seasickness. Oscar and Fleas have been poking about in barrels, but there's nothing more than food. Suddenly, senses are a-twitching - the pack can see a number of black-clad and armed pirates creeping towards the front of the ship along the side decks. There are about 2 pirates per passenger. The pirates creep up the ladders and are about to pounce when the Garou erupt into action - three of the pirates have been levered over the side before the others even know what's going on. In the space of seconds, the pirates are decapitated, crushed, tossed overboard or generally discomforted.
Oscar explodes out of the lower hold, already in crinos form. Slaves start to yell and gibber, possibly due to the crinosness of it all, possibly due to Red-Shirt leaping off the forecastle and crushing a pirate in front of them. The pack start to run for the rear of the ship, figuring that this will rouse the pirates. They make fairly short work of one of the guards while Abby leaps down into the rowing part of the ship and starts to cut the chains holding the slaves in place. The other guard turns out to be a bit more exciting, and nearly fries Fleas-from-America, who has leapt up to try and block the archway leading to the cabin. Between One-Pot-Screamer and Fleas-from-America, they manage to make the fire breathing pirate unhappy with his lot in life.
The battle rages as the Garou find themselves having difficulty reaching the rest of their opponents. A terrifying howl emits from the back of the ship, but the Garou just shrug it off, and Snarls-at-Suggestions replies with a heartening call of the wyld of her own. Oscar blocks a doorway and beats on pirates who make a definitive effort to hurt him a lot. Breaks-like-Wind, One-Pot-Screamer and Fleas rush one of the archways while Red-Shirt leaps up onto the rear deck and decides to cut his way through the boards. One of the pirates swarms up the outside of the ship and proves to be all rubbery and hard to hurt, but Red-Shirt rails on him for a while and he falls down. The pirates rot the decking through some evil wyrm power and manage to make a wider front to fight the Garou, but once the pack have freed enough healthy slaves to help them attack, the battle turns fairly much the good guys way.
Unfortunately, in the fray all the pirates were killed, and that makes for a difficult time of interrogation. The slaves hear the discussions about needing to know why the pirates were bringing in cats, and prove to be a veritable font of information - they explain that the pirates would move up and down the coast, capturing cats, and bringing them back to the port city, and how that all started just after their trip with the rat in a box. The pack make "aahh" noises and ask if the slaves can tell them where the rat went. As some of the slaves had been captured from other vessels, they were experienced sailors, and had taken note of their course and all - the pirates had taken Tenacity to a strange and menacing rocky island in the middle of the ocean.
"The freed slaves proclaimed Nydourl as their new captain and leader. So Nydourl told them to set course for the rocky island far out to sea where the pirate had taken the rat. They sailed for days until the spied the island; a rocky outcrop topped by a ruined castle.
Despite the somewhat daunting weather, the ship is docked at the rickety pier and the pack head up the rough path hacked out of the rock. From below they sense both Wyld and Wyrm - a sense of madness and perversion. Once Trouble Magnet have reached the heights, with Bethsheba behind them, they find themselves facing a pitted metal gate. As they watch, a malevolent, and craggy face forms out the metal itself. It speaks - "answer my riddle and pass - fail and be cast into madness and death!". Fleas-from-America goes to randomly answer it based on riddles he's seen on tv, but someone points out the consequences again - madenss, and death.
The face speaks its riddle:
Names give power,
Magic to control.
But what is broken,
by naming it?
A brief pause and One-Pot-Screamer blurts out "silence" without
consulting anyone. They all stare at her, but fortunately the face
fades and the doors creak open.
The courtyard is deserted - all that remains are signs of reeds or rushes or reeshes and some wooden structures. Oscar cannot smell anything alive - no rat, no pirates, nothing. They poke about a bit and One-Pot-Screamer tries to sense for unnatural senses again. She finds that there is a point source within the keep, and so the pack creep within. Its dark, but they find torches and light them. Creeping around the deserted keep, Red-Shirt notices a light coming from within an internal room. He points it out to people and they sneak up. Snarls-at-Suggestions crawls forward and tries to figure out what is going on inside - she can hear a faint sounds, but can't make them out, she can see a pile of cloth - argh, the light! Oscar has got bored of this pedestrian approach and found that the door is not locked, so just opens it.
An emaciated and skeletal figure sits upon a chair, draped in clothes much too big for him. He points a finger at the pack and screeches "You are too late! It has been taken! Take to the Court of the Rajah of Madness!"... and slumps. The pack wait for something horrid to happen. Nope, that seems to be it. They move into the room - Oscar and Fleas-from-America move to where the guy is before the rest of the pack yell at them to get the hell off the floor just there. As they walked across the floor, the colourful patterns of mosaics shimmer and cascade colours like rainbow'd water. Nothing horrible seems to happen - the ripples of colour die away and the floor returns to its hypnotic pattern. Fleas drags the guy away with some rope he's brought from the ship, and checks him out - he's dead, probably of starvation or dehydration. He smells bad. Some of the pack notice that three members of the pack seem fascinated by the rippling floor. They are spaced evenly and are tapping the floor in sync, causing it to for up more and more intricate patterns. Oscar jumps into the middle, disrupting all the patterns, and the Garou blink and start. They decide to get the hell out of here.
While exploring the ruined keep for anything else of interest, the pack wonder how to get to the Court of the Rajah of Madness. Bethsheba suggests that its not a good idea - the Court is in the Wyrm realm, Malfeas. She says that it is a sufficient secret to tell Rat where Tenacity is, demonstrating a healthy regard for the sanctity of her own skin.
"Nydourl and Bethsheba discussed what they should do next, now that they had a worthy secret to give to Rat. Bethsheba said that the gift they should give should be of use to Rat in rescuing his son. Anyone who sought to enter Malfeas to rescue another would need strength and courage, two characteristics that Rat lacked. They should therefore make a gift to Rat of strength and courage. Bethsheba said that they should go and seek Lion, who was renowned for his strength and courage. Bethsheba knew that Lion lived far to the west, so off they sailed, into the setting sun."
"The journey west took many days, and they had many adventures on the way. Eventually, they reached the far western shore. Here Nydourl and Bethsheba bid farewell to their crew, despite their entreaties to stay, and headed inland."
"They travelled for many days until they reached the lands where Lion lived. Both Nydourl and Bethsheba were in animal form when they came across mongoose running through the long grass. When asked where he was running to, mongoose said that Lion had pronounced that his daughter was to be married to the most worthy, and that all the animals were gathering. Then mongoose ran off."
"Bethsheba thought that this would be a good opportunity. If Nydourl in wolf form could be chosen as most worthy, then he could reveal his true nature and perhaps bargain with Lion for what they really wanted. Nydourl agreed, so off they went towards Lion's home."
"Eventually they reached the rock in the grasslands where Lion lived. A great throng of animals had already gathered, and more were arriving all the time. By evening, all the animals had arrived, and Lion appeared on the rock. After telling the hyenas, who were squabbling over Elton John's carcass, to keep it down, he proclaimed that there would be three tests to determine who was the most worthy to marry his daughter. There would be a test of speed, a test of strength and a test of courage. The testing would begin in the morning, so all the animals settled down to sleep. Bethsheba pointed out to Nydourl that they would probably have to cheat in order to win, and as Nydourl was Bone Gnawer, he thought that was cool."
During the evening, Trouble Magnet do everything they can to make sure not a single competitor gets a good night's sleep. Red-Shirt, Snarls-at-Suggestions and One-Pot-Screamer wander around starting random rumours ("Cheetah is going to wait until everyone's out of sight and then eat other competitors", "Lion has rigged the competition"). Breaks-like-Wind, the designated Nydourl for the events, goes off into the savannah and finds a plant with particularly itchy pollen, then brings it back so the others can distribute it into the beds and burrows of the other animals. Fleas-from-America pretends to be a race official and says that the test of speed is going to be made more even by adding rocks tied to some of the faster animals with grass. He gets into big arguments with animals, partially because when some animals complain, he randomly changes their weight ratios. This starts to combine with the other rumours and some animals go and wake lion up to complain. Oscar wanders around looking hungrily at the other animals and trying to generally offput them. One-Pot-Screamer drops into her dreaming trance and gives as many animals as she can the heebeejeebees during the night. Snarls-at-Suggests wanders out into the grassland and cuts loose with a terrifying Call of the Wyld abot an hour before dawn, topping the night off quite well.
"In the morning all the animals assembled at the rock again. Lion pronounced the test of speed. Basically, all the animals were to run towards the sun until they reached mandrill. The first animal to do so would be the winner."
It takes a long time for various grumpy and twitchy animals to line up for the race. The pack try and think what else they could do to fiddle their chances of winning, and consider and disregard a number of plans (including setting fire to the grassland). Freya uses her Mimic gift to sound like Lion saying "Ready! Set! Go!" and a bunch of animals take off skittishly - Breaks-like-Wind helps this along by taking off himself, as if he belieeves it was really Lion.
While the animals are being brought back into place, Bethsheba swoops down (as Raven), giggling. She suggests that the pack repeat that sort of tactic again, because Mandaril is some distance away towards the sun, and the sun has moved a fair way while the confusion is being sorted out - but she could guide the Garou accurately to the target. Trouble Magnet think this is a great idea. As they are lined up a second time, Abby does her Call of the Wyld gag again, and the more skittish animals take off - Impala is last seen crossing the horizon. The racers are lined up a third time, and Lion says "Go!" and Freya fakes his voice saying "No! Come back!" and half the animals do, leading to another calling off of the race.
Finally, its nearly midmorning when everyone takes off. Despite previous preparations like Fleas-from-America's sign of an elegant lion pointing at right angles to the race course with a 'detour' kind of sign, and Red-Shirt's plan to stand half way along and use a persuasive gift to redirect the animals yet another way still, they are not needed - the animals run towards the sun, a good 30 degrees from the right course. Midafternoon, a rather bemused Mandaril and Wolf return to the rock, and lion proclaims wolf the winner.
"Bethsheba thought fast, and as the race was about to begin, she told Nydourl to delay the race somehow. Nydourl took a stick and crept up behind gazelle, then broke the stick. Gazelle, being flighty, took off before the signal to start was given. Other animals also took off and a great deal of confusion reigned. It took quite a while to get everything back under control again."
"As the race was about the begin again, Nydourl thumped the ground behind rabbit. Rabbit shot across in front of leopard, who gave chase. Once again chaos ensued for quite a time before everything was settle down again."
"Meanwhile the sun was moving across the sky. Finally, after several false starts, the animals were ready, Lion gave the signal and the animals were off, running towards the sun. But Nydourl had delayed the race for so long that the sun had shifted across the sky. Bethsheba had marked the point on the horizon where the sun had stood at the time the race was supposed to begin, and she flew in that direction, with Nydourl following."
"They ran alone across the grasslands for hours until they spotted mandrill waiting alone under a tree. Nydourl ran up, and the somewhat perplexed mandrill declared wolf the winner. Nydourl, Bethsheba and Mandrill headed back towards Lion at a more leisurely pace than before."
"It took the other animals a long time to realise that something was wrong, whereupon they started running in all directions. It wasn't until late afternoon that they started to trickle back to the rock, where they found mandrill and wolf waiting. By evening all the animals had returned, and Lion declared that wolf had won the test of speed. There was much murmuring and muttering amongst the animals, but there was nothing that they could do. They all lay down to sleep and await the next test."
"In the morning, Lion pronounced the test of strength. A single great rock stood near the rock where Lion lived. The animal who could push the rock the furthest without stopping would be the winner of the test of strength. One by one the animals attempted to push the rock. Bethsheba figured that there were enough animals to keep this going all day and told Nydourl that he should go last."
"The rock was so big that most of the animals couldn't move it at all. Only the strongest animals could budge it, and it was no surprise that Elephant moved the rock the furthest of all those tested so far. The day wore on as the animals pushed and it had become dark when only Nydourl was left. Nydourl suggested to Lion that perhaps they should leave his testing until morning, as not all animals could see well in the dark, and he wouldn't want any of the contestants to harbour any doubts about his success or failure. Lion agreed and declared that the final contestant, wolf, would attempt the test in the morning. Again all the animals settled down to rest."
During the night, the ghostly Breaks-like-Wind moves to the boulder. He leaps agile atop it, and then starts to use his burrow gift to dig through the center of the huge rock, while packmates subtly remove as much of the scant rubble as they can. The entire night is spent as Breaks-like-Wind carefully hollows out the rock as thinly as he can, repairing any miscalculations with create element. Once he's finished, he jumps back up top, and covers the hole again with rock.
"Once all the animals were asleep, Nydourl and Bethsheba crept away. Bethsheba was looking for something in the few trees in the grassland, and soon she found it: a large bee's nest. She told Nydourl to remove the bees nest and take it back to the rock. The bees were all sleepy and didn't give Nydourl much grief when he pulled the nest off the tree and carried it back to the rock. Under Bethsheba's direction, Nydourl climbed to the top of the rock and looked for a large crack. When he found one, he opened up the bee's nest and carefully poured the honey into the crack in the rock. Nydourl and Bethsheba then headed out into the grasslands again."
"This time Bethsheba was looking for something on the ground, and soon she found it: a large ant's nest. Bethsheba called to the ants and told them of a very special rock that she had found that produced honey. The ants were very excited, and all immediately headed off in the direction she had said. Nydourl and Bethsheba headed back to Lion's rock to get some sleep."
"The next morning, the animals awoke to watch wolf undergo the test of strength. The ants had travelled slowly all through the night, and as Nydourl walked up to the rock, he saw the last ant disappearing underneath the rock. Nydourl placed his front paws against the rock and began to push. Much to the surprise of all the other animals the rock very slowly began to move. What's more it kept on moving. The animals slowly trailed after wolf as he kept pushing the rock, past the place where even elephant could push the rock no further. Wolf pushed the rock at least twice as far as elephant had. Raven, actually Bethsheba, circled overhead, crying that they should all head back to Lion to hear his verdict. All the animals turned and headed back to Lion, which was just as well, because they didn't see that the rock was inclined to keep moving even when wolf was no longer pushing it."
The next morning, once all the animals were awake, Breaks..ehem, i mean Wolf puts his shoulder to the rock and begins to shove as hard as he can. As the other animals watch in disbelief, it begins to move, the thin shell sliding over the grass. Breaks-like-Wind puts on a great performance, apparently nearly rupturing himself to keep the rock moving. Once he has moved it twice as far as even elephant managed, he collapses to the ground, coincidentally refilling the rock up with his create element gift.
"When all the animals were assembled, Lion declared that wolf had won the test of strength. Again there was much muttering and mumbling amongst the animals, but there was nothing that they could do. Lion declared that the test of courage would take place after nightfall."
"When it was dark, Lion led the animals away from his rock across the grasslands, until they reached a small village of humans. In the centre of the village a fire was burning. Lion declared that whatever animal could enter the human village and bring back fire would be the winner of the test of courage."
"One by one the animals attempted the test of courage. Most could not bring themselves to even enter the human village at all, and of those that could enter the village, not one could bring themselves to take fire away with them. Finally, Nydourl trotted into the village, picked up the end of a burning branch in his teeth, and trotted back out again. All the other animals were gobsmacked."
Despite offers of a cigarette lighter and the suggestion of just grabbing a branch and lighting it with create element, Wolf decides to conform to the story. Breaks-like-Wind moves down through the dark to the village. He slips past cages of chickens, between the legs of guarding humans, and to the fire. He nabbed a branch and slipped back out of the village, and up the slope. All the animals resumed their total bafflement expression.
"Nydourl trotted up to Lion, threw the brand in the air, changed into human form, and grabbed it as it descended. Immediately all the other animals began to scream and roar and screech. Lion demanded to know what was going on. Nydourl pointed out that Lion had placed no restrictions upon who was eligible to be tested. In theory even a human could have entered the contest, had he been privy to the event and had some desire to be married to a lion. However, said Nydourl, if Lion was prepared to grant a gift at least as valuable as his daughter, then Nydourl could be persuaded to renounce all claims to her."
"Lion, perhaps realising that there are few things worse than having one of the Changing Breed for a relation, agreed. Nydourl asked for the gift of Lion's strength and courage. Lion muttered a bit but agreed again. Returning to his rock, Lion wrapped his strength and courage up in leaves into a pretty parcel and gave them to Nydourl. Nydourl and Bethsheba took their leave of Lion and the other animals."
"Nydourl and Bethsheba travelled far and wide for many days, and they had many adventures. Wherever they went, they spoke to rats that they met, telling them that they had a valuable secret and gift for Rat, and asking where they might find him. Eventually, they found themselves at the biggest city in the world, where they were told Rat lived. They made there way to a great palace, and by secret ways found their way to a golden room under the palace, where Rat lay on cushions surrounded by food. Nydourl said to Rat that he had travelled far to see him, as there was a secret that he wanted to know, and that he would give Rat a great secret in return. Nydourl was strangely insistent that Rat should agree to give up his secret in return for the secret offered (?), and hinted that the secret concerned the whereabouts of Rat's son Tenacity. Eventually Rat agreed that he would give his secret if Nydourl's information was valuable. Nydourl told Rat that Tenacity had been taken to the Rajah of Madness in Malfeas. Rat agreed that this was a valuable secret and that he would grant a secret in return. Nydourl asked Rat how he could go about finding (???) Marion Perry (??!?$@%&(*89....