Ode to the moon

[Pablo]

Pablo let out a sigh of contentedness. Despite, the events that had literally just occurred a few nights ago. So there was division within the lycan ranks, there would be civil-war; for most that would seem like cause for concern. Not for Pablo though, he was happy to be driving through the snow covered mountains in a van with a few of his friends. Well, make that two of his friends; Pete and Adele. He was ecstatic that they decided to come along. Every now and then before a full moon Pablo would drive into the Norwegian mountains and isolate himself from human society. During these trips Pablo would pay his respects to the moon through a few different rituals. This was the first time somebody accepted his invitation to tag alone. Pablo bore a grin throughout the long drive due to sheer happiness. Adele and Pete were easily his two best friends and now they had finally met. Adele sat shotgun- she managed to call it a second before Pete who now sat in the back. Damien was also there, sitting in the back two seats to the right of Pete. The boy told Pablo he wanted to coming along and Pablo was the rather friendly sort and allowed Damien to accompany them. Damien wasn't necessarily Pablo's friend; they were acquainted and fought alongside each other in Rome though, which in Pablo's eyes was worth a lot. They were the four members of the camp-trip expedition.

It was the night before the full moon; they were still on track to Pablo's special isolated location. The young boy drove the van off road through a snow covered forest located rather high up on a mountain. The nearly full moon dominated the night sky, alongside it there were many stars. There was no light pollution in this part of the land. After a good hour or two of bumpy driving through the woods Pablo made the car came to a halt in a small clearing. "Well that was a long ass drive." He parked it, threw on the emergency breaks and stepped out of the car. Covered in a ridiculous amount of winter garb over his trench coat Pablo began to stretch. It was nice to finally get some blood flowing through his body. He made his way to the back of the van and began loading out most of the camp equipment in the form of tossing nearly everything over his shoulder. "So, I really need to go pee and I think the three of you should start setting up camp." Pablo's face still bore his cheeky grin. "I'll get some wood for a fire while I'm out there." Without any hesitation the lycan disappeared into the forest.

[Peter Sharpe]

Sharpe had not forseen the tragic events that had befallen the pack just a few short days ago. Though he certainly wasn't an expert on Lycan history by any means, he had never heard of anything like this. Lycans had declared war on fellow lycans. This wasn't a petty squabble between two pups. This wasn't a brawl between feral beasts. In ages past, your loyalties were set in stone. Vampires had hunted the Lycans for countless years. All Lycans, regardless of race, color, age, or creed, fought side by side for survival. The pack was your family, the vampires your eternal enemy. But now the lines had blurred. Soon it would become difficult to tell who was a friend, and who was a foe. This was a matter made all the more complicated for Sharpe, seeing as how the man who had declared war on the pack was none other than his step-brother Geoff. He'd traveled from America to protect the pack, and now he would more than likely have to bring fang and claw to his own kind. He would soon have to make a decision. Sharpe was a powerful Lycan in his own right, even more so considering the ever growing number of Lycans under his command in New York. The question ate at him throughout the entirety of the trip; Would he fight on behalf of Alena and the family who he'd come to love, or for Geoff, his own flesh and blood?

On the bright side, the trance like effects of watching the unchanging winter landscape flash by through the van's windows while being lost in though had caused the several hour trip to pass in what seemed to Peter like minutes. Coming to his senses, the van started to slow as Pablo veered off the snowy mountain road, forging a path through tall grass towards the treeline of some isolated forest in what Sharpe assumed was in the middle of nowhere. The girl, Adele, was sitting in the front seat of the van, and though he couldn't hear what she was listening to, Sharpe noticed that she was mouthing the words "Wiggle wiggle wiggle wiggle, yeah!" The other man in the vehicle, Damien, had his strange golden eyes fixated on something far off in the distance, apparently deep in thought. The golden eyes peaked his interest... he had never seen that particular trait before, yet both he and Adele both shared it. Sharpe made a mental note to ask the two young Lycans about this later.

The van rumbled to a hault, and Pablo wasted no time leaping from the vehicle and dashing off into the forest after telling the rest of the group to start setting up camp. He couldn't help but smirk when Pablo mentioned firewood. Sharpe was genuinely excited to see what Pablo had meant by firewood. Had it been anyone else, Sharpe would have taken the statement literally, but in Pablo's case... he wasn't sure if the young man would bring back an armfull of tree limbs, or a tank of napalm. Both would be effective, and neither would surprise him. Taking a moment to throw his backpack over his shoulder, Sharpe stepped out from the van, clad in his usual attire, sweats and a blue hoodie. Taking a moment to stretch, he walked up to the passenger side window, knocking on it to get Adele's attention.

"I'll be back here checking the tire pressure, take the blonde on in the back and set up the tents so we have somewhere dry and warm to sleep tonight?" He projected over the mental link before walking to the rear of the van, turning his back to the mirrors, and drew his name in the snow by the back-right tire.

[Adele Holst]

Snow covered Spruce trees followed the paved road into the Norwegian mountains. As the hours passed and the moon rose higher into the sky, the scenery only became more stunning. Kilometers of land untouched by Human means stretched on in all its majesty on both sides of the road. The deep blanket of snow covering the ground reflected the moon's light, so while there were no light posts around, the subtle details of the land were clearly illuminated and visible to the sight of the four Lycans as they drove through.
Adele had won the passenger seat and sat comfortably cross-legged for the majority of the journey, only to put her legs down and sit normally for the last half hour or so. Straying from the paved road and entering the mountainous forest she tapped her thighs in excitement, looking out at the forest and then to the guys in the van with a huge grin. The blonde girl had never gone camping before and she was thrilled Pablo had invited her along for the fun. So thrilled that any initial apprehension about meeting Pete had quickly washed away; after all, he was a friend of Pablo's, so he couldn't be too bad. Even Damien's presence couldn't bother her; if he tried starting anything, she'd jab him in the arm that he'd broken in Rome.
When the van came to a final stop, Adele looked about appraising their camping grounds and stepped eagerly out of the van. Considering the weather, the young woman was dressed light: a black medium weight jacket, her favorite pair of fitted jeans that had holes naturally worn in the knees, skate shoes, and thin, black one-size-fits-all stretch gloves. Winter had become Adele's season since turning into a Lycan, and the cold didn't affect her as bad as it used to. She didn't need heavy coats or a hat anymore. Her long blonde hair fell over her jacket and into her face as she bent to pick up a handful of snow.
When Pete approached and spoke mentally to her, Adele smiled softly, "Sure," watching him walk away. Packing the snow in her hand into a tight ball, the girl turned back to the van. "Damien." She chucked the snow at his window and watched as the ball exploded and smashed against the glass in the area where his face was looking out. "Come help me."
Before going for the tents, however, Adele grabbed her bag and began taking out the bottles of vodka, rum, and moonshine she'd filched from the Den, nestling them carefully in the snow near the van to chill. Smiling at her work, the young woman went to look for the tents. Grabbing a bag, she opened it and peered inside, deciding it was probably a tent, and began emptying the contents onto the ground. Chewing her lip, Adele picked up one of the bunches of folded poles and looked from it to Damien, "Um, I've never had to set up a tent before..."

[Damien]

Besides his human mother, the Lycans at the den had been Damien's only family since he was sent overseas. They weren't particularly nuturing, but they had raised him as best as a pack of wolves could. Before the Siege of Rome, Damien had never met Geoff, and as such, it wasn't the Lycan that he respected, but rather his status. Geoff was a consort of Alena, a strong and capable fighter, and perhaps a natural leader. Regardless, he was now an enemy of the pack. He was an enemy to the only family Damien had. Any man or woman, mortal or immortal, who would threaten his family with violence... would be met with violence. Any transgressions against his family would be repaid sevenfold. The day Geoff had declared war on the Pack, he had sealed his own fate. Damien vowed that the Lycan would die by his hands. Geoff had praised Damien's valor in the Siege of Rome... but he had yet to see true ferocity. Damien and his inner beast thirsted for Geoff's lifeblood. He made the right decision by vanishing into the night before the feast... had Damien managed to catch him, he would have likely ripped the man's limbs off one by one, and fed him to the dogs. But that was why he'd stayed at the den in Stockholm all of these long years, to control the rage of his inner beast. Lashing out in blind fury would bring him no closer to Geoff, and certainly no closer to finding his father. For now, this camping trip would serve to calm his mind.

For Damien, the trip through the Norweigan wilderness seemed to last an eternity, each minute that passed seemed like an hour, constantly mulling things over in his mind. Though he had never met Pablo or Peter, he wasn't oblivious as to who these particular Lycans were. This was part of the reason Damien had showed interesting in the trip into the mountains. Pablo's status among his peers was certainly prominent, he was practically Lycan nobility. And Peter Sharpe was well on his way to becoming a Lycan Lord, already commanding a group of Lycans in the Americas. These two Lycans would prove to be valuable allies in the search for his father. Certainly one of them had seen the man during their adventures. And even if they hadn't, if Damien could gain their trust, two powerful beings such as they were would surely be able to help him track down Perrin.

Unlike Pablo and Peter, Damien was... well aquainted with Adele. He had threatened to kill her at one point several years ago. The awkward silence in the vehicle was perhaps partly due to that history. It had been a long time since the two had spoken... Damien wasn't entirely sure if she had ever forgiven him. But he was intent on making a truce. Adele had been close to his father... and regardless of how much he had hated her for it, she might be the only way that he could ever find Perrin. It was a difficult task, it enraged him every time she glanced at his arm... he was never sure if she looked at him with concern, or pity. He needed neither from her. But for the sake of finding his father, he simply decided it was the former of the two.

Damien hadn't even realized that the van had stopped. His mind was elsewhere, staring blankly out into the darkness while chewing on a large piece of beef jerky. He hadn't even noticed the other Lycans getting out of the vehicle. Until a large snowball hit his window with a distinct thwump, snapping him back to reality. The window was rolled up, and despite his super-human hearing, he wasn't able to distinguish what Adele was saying. But judging by the look of complete and utter confusion on her face, standing in the center of a pile of tent rods, he knew what she wanted. He relunctantly stepped out of the van, taking a moment to stretch his arms before making his way over to her.

"I used to love camping as a kid." Damien said, spreading out one of the large tarps over the snowy ground. "My mother always used to take me camping during summer vacation... she wanted me to be just like the other kids who went camping with their dads." Damien chuckled. "Guess it didn't work, I suppose I'll never be like those other kids. I had to start shaving when I was in Middle School for christsake." he jested, attempting to convey that he had no intentions of strangling her today, hoping that she'd at least be willing to speak to him. It would be a start.

[Adele Holst]

The tarp whoooshed as Damien flicked it open and spread it out on the ground, and Adele bit her lip, thinking about what the golden-eyed boy was saying. Since meeting him, she'd felt a guilt that she'd known Perrin, and his own son had not. And on top of that, Perrin had given his power as a Lycan to her, some girl from Germany with no blood ties to him at all. Adele had wanted to help Damien and had told him, on the verge of tears, that his father Perrin had died before her eyes. He didn't seem to believe it, however, and yet had treated her with hostility from the moment he'd heard of her relation with Perrin.
Now Adele was wondering something a little different though: her dad had been American, but had never taken her camping; was it common there?
At a lost for words, Adele began unfolding and fastening the rods to their full length, setting them near the tarp so they wouldn't get lost in the snow. She opened her mouth to ask if camping was fun, but stopped; she was camping now, wasn't she? Why was it so hard to think of conversation with Damien, even when he was being nice? "I... wish I could have gone camping when I was younger." After unfolding all the rods, the young woman shoved her hands in her jacket pockets and looked doubtfully at the shell of the tent lying on the ground. Adele squatted down to look at the tent and see where exactly the rods where supposed to go and frowned, "How do you know which size goes where?" And then mumbled, "Damn Pete giving me the hard work..." The blonde grabbed a rod and began to fumble unsuccessfully with it and the tent.
She laughed nervously at the silence between her and Damien, "I think I could use a drink already..." Adele paused. No, she wouldn't ask that question yet, not until they'd eaten and maybe had a few shots. This was going to be a fun night, just as soon as these tents were put up and secure. She let Damien show her how, and finally managed to say something, "So, um, what other things did you like to do? When you were Human?"

[Pablo]

Pablo glanced back in the direction of his tiny camp ground and kept on walking deeper into the forest for a few more minutes until he believed to be far enough in. Pablo didn't quite know why it bothered him; he'd been naked in front of his lycan brethren countless times in the past and was rather comfortable with it. Yet for whatever reason; the fact they may be able to hear the splatter of his piss against the snow sat a little uneasy with him. After closing off his mental link; Pablo unzipped his pants and went to the work on the snow in front of him. He couldn't help but note how fucking cold the mountains in Norway were at this time of the year. "Damn." The lycan muttered under his breath upon realizing that he could still pick up the conversation Adele and Damien were having by the van.


He was still not too sure about the boy's presence on the trip. Damien may not have realized it, but they'd met once before the battle in Rome. It was some time ago, two... maybe three years. Pablo had overlooked a conversation between Damien and Adele that quickly turned into a fight. Pablo had then literally dropped into the fight to stop it in his werewolf form. Now he was still wary of the two getting at each other's throats. Maybe it wasn't so bad that their conversation interrupted his alone time, it made keeping this trip peaceful, surly Pete's presence would make it all the easier. Besides, at this point Pablo was finished with relieving himself and drawing a quick yellow two dimensional sketch of a wolf howling to the moon. Smirking at the brilliance of his master piece Pablo zipped up and began heading deeper into the forest. There were a few things that needed to be done before he could return; one of them was to come back with some "fire wood". Pablo planned on bringing that and then some.

Pablo traveled only a little bit more into the forest where he approached a cave barely out of earshot distance of Adele and Damien. When did that boy start talking so much? He didn't partake in any conversation on the way here nor did he speak a single word for that matter. Now he was off telling Adele about how he would go camping as a child with his mother. Pablo felt no resentment towards the youngest lycan of the group, instead he felt a bit jealous of Adele. She seemed to be in the process of making a new friend, something a certain somebody was a huge fan of. Maybe if he hurried.... No, he couldn't rush what he was about to do. Pablo stepped into the dark cave, his enhanced lycan vision allowing him to see clearly in the darkness.

From the outside the cave appeared to be home to a bear. It once was, around three years ago. That was until Pablo fought it off and claimed it as his own. Now, it was Pablo's war bunker. A place to escape to if the lycan home was ever destroyed by the vampires. The cave was lined up with state of the art weaponry, varying from guns, explosives, and even a vehicle or two all the way in the back. There was enough canned and easily preserved food to last a small family a few years. His friends, especially Pete more than anybody understood how much Pablo enjoyed being prepared for any situation. This cave was clear evidence of that fact. Within a few minutes Pablo was back out of his emergency home, in one hand he held an ax in the other a combat knife. He was about to partake in a ritual that he'd done many times in the past (usually before heading off to war) unbeknownst to anybody here.

Pablo looked up at the nearly full moon, smiling as he bathed in its moonlight. Slowly the boy held out his hand and with the knife cut opened his palm. The wound began to bleed profoundly, but had already begun the healing process. There was no sign of pain in his face; this was now routine to him. He allowed the blood to drip off his hand and taint the once perfectly white snow. "I am sorry for the lycan blood that I will draw in the coming months. On behalf of the entire Pack-"Pablo paused and glanced back at his hand. There was no scar, his bloody hand was the only sign that he'd hurt himself. Yet, he wasn't finished; he had to continue and thus once again stared at the moon while slicing his hand open. "On behalf of the entire Pack I apologize, but it must be done. Geoff has destroyed what was a happy family and plans on undoing all of our hard work. He must be dealt with before the vampire threat. I know how much you'll frown upon the bloodshed, but please send me a sign of your approval when you shine the brightest. I may hide it, but I need guidance now more than ever." He clenched his fist and managed to squeeze out a bit more blood before the wound sealed. Pablo finally broke his stare from the moon and looked down at the puddle of blood in the snow. It had taken the shape of a full moon and with a smile on his face Pablo placed the bloody knife on top of it.

Then as if he hadn't willingly spilled a significant amount of his blood Pablo picked up the ax and begun to whistle as he searched for a suitable tree. His eyes lit up as he found the perfect one a bit closer to the camp ground. It was shorter than the rest, about twenty feet tall. Small enough for him to quickly cut down and drag back to camp... and so he begun. From the camp grounds, the other three lycan were able to hear the sound of Pablo chopping down a tree to the tune of his up-beat whistle. After a few minutes of whistling and chopping for that matter it fell over and landed with a loud crash accompanied by Pablo of course shouting "TIMBER!" at the top of his lungs. Without wasting any time he quickly grabbed hold of the end of a sturdy branch and began effortlessly dragging the fallen tree in the direction of his friends. Blessed with lycan strength he barely put any effort fourth into this matter. The tree left a clear and easy to follow path through the woods, into the clearing, finally ending by the tents. "So, who wants to get to chopping?" He asked with a smile while he held up the ax in his bloody hand. "I was thinking that maybe we prop this up and maybe burn it whole."

[Damien]

Busy hands made happy hands. Or so Damien was told. It was rather amusing really. Adele and Damien had less awkward conversations while the latter tried to smash her skull in against a tree. And here they were, struggling with even the smallest of small talk. In light of this, Damien tried his very best to continue assembling the campsite while avoiding direct golden-eye-contact with the girl. Of course he couldn't blame anybody other than himself. In his youth, he'd let his anger get the best of him on more than one occasion. He just hoped that it wasn't too late to rebuild the bridges he'd long since burned.

Again Damien chuckled. "I was never human, I know, comes as a shocker doesn't it? But I understand what you mean. The same things I like to do now... I still love to swim. I used to live out in the country, we had a big pool in our backyard. In the summer, I would swim until the sun went down, and my mother told me that if I didn't come inside that I would turn into a raisin. I remember back when we used to go trick-or-treating. She always dressed me up as a werewolf... I see now that she had a real sense of humor. I guess she needed one to cope with it all. All in all, my childhood was normal. I knew something was missing, but I was blissfully ignorant until..." Damien paused. "Until the night I left."

By the time the tents had been set up, Pablo had returned to the clearing, dragging what Damien had decided was the most impressive display of camping prowess he had seen, and ever would see in his life. He couldn't hold back an enourmous grin. "Do you think that will last us the night?" He jested with Pablo. Now that the tents had been set up, and the firewood... gathered, for lack of a better word, all that was left to do was unpack the rest of the supplies. Mostly food, that would be placed in a net and hung from a tree. Most would assume that this was to keep bears from getting at their provisions, but that was a common misconception. This was to keep Pete from eating all of the group's beef jerky. Now that Damien thought about it, he hadn't seen Pete since he'd left the van and disappeared into the forest shortly after they'd arrived. Pablo was accounted for, but it wasn't Pablo that Alena had doubts about. Pablo's loyalty wasn't in question... but Pete, regardless of past deeds, was Geoff's brother. This is why Alena had asked Damien to... observe Pete during the camping trip. Though Damien had no initial suspicions, it was strange that Pete remained absent.

[Adele Holst]

Furrowing her brows Adele watched Damien, though he kept his gaze carefully away from her as he worked. In the 5 or so years these two Lycans had been around each other, Adele had seen a couple different facets of Damien, but none of those facets had ever been so open and nice to her before. She couldn't even say for certain who at the Den he considered a friend or who considered him a friend. He seemed to regard Alena with respect, but the Lycan Mother was the only Lycan Adele was aware who associated much with Damien. It made the girl a little wary of his sudden desire to speak calmly with her; but she didn't want to spoil the camping trip Pablo had invited her to. And honestly she was curious about the son of her late Sire.
Quiet laughter escaped at the thought of a little Damien running around demanding candy in a werewolf costume, and probably terrorizing the other kids in the neighborhood. "I never got to go trick-or-treating. But the Army brats at the base in my city would always say how fun it was, and complain that Germany did not celebrate Halloween like Americans."
Adele's ears perked and she looked up as she heard Pablo's hacking in the distance and then a loud "TIMBER!" As her friend came into view hauling a tree behind him, the blonde grinned and looked back at the tent she and Damien had built. Party time! she thought happily. A rush of excitement so strong washed over her it was all the young woman could do not to run and tackle Pablo where he stood with the tree. Instead she gripped the bottom hem of her jacket tight and giggled to herself. "The whole tree on fire would be so pretty..."

[Peter Sharpe]

After delegating the manual labor to the two blonde pups, Sharpe immediately departed from the camp, headed in the opposite direction of his old friend Pablo. He had much on his mind, and did not wish to be interrupted in his thought, not even by the likes of his companions. Of course, he wasn't at all worried about them eavesdropping... after all, everyone knew that Peter was a man of few words, of all the Lycans, he seemed to employ the mental link in lieu of speaking more often than not. He knew that it would be only a matter of time until somebody would ask him which side he would fight for. The only problem was... Sharpe still wasn't entirely certain. His only consolation lay in the fact that neither Damien nor Adele could possibly know that the Traitor to the Pack, Geoff, was actually his step-brother. He was also fairly certain that if Pablo knew, he wouldn't let such information slip casually.

Sharpe also took solace in the fact that there was plenty of room to think in this ancient forest. He could walk for miles in any direction, and never encounter another sentient being. As much as he loved the forests of his homeland, there was something special about the forest Pablo had chosen. Unlike the forests of home, filled with thick maples and oaks, the tall and skinny pines of this place allowed him an almost unblemished view of the stars. He almost laughed out loud... the last time he'd watched the stars in the wilderness, he and Pablo were wandering through the country side, on the brink of starvation. It was just their luck that right before the end came, they stumbled upon the estate of some young heiress, who as it turned out, was rather hospitable. Especially to Pablo. In the short time it took Sharpe to eat them out of house and home, the young heiress had attempted to seduce Pablo, and wisk him off to some island paradise to be with him forever and ever. She certainly was a persistant one. Sharpe had hoped that he and Pablo would be able to explore the country side again, to return the the life of adventuring, and beguiling the younger Lycans with unexaggerated stories of their heroism and valor. He hadn't thought that he'd return only to join Pablo in hunting down and executing his own brother. Sharpe would remain loyal to the Pack, and to Alena... but he wasn't sure if he would be able to face his own brother and kill him in cold blood. This wasn't his way.

Deciding that no amount of reflection would make his decision any easier, Sharpe made his way back to the clearing Pablo had chosen to set up camp in. Luckily, he didn't have to rely on his sense of sight, as he had when he was human. In fact, he didn't even need his keen senses of smell, sight, or the mental link. Instead, he followed the thundering crash of a fallen tree that echoed through the forest. Where there were loud noises, there was Pablo, he reasoned, jogging towards the direction the sound had come from. Fortunately, Sharpe had returned to the camp just in time to see pablo dragging an enourmous pine through to snow towards the tents that the blonde pups had sloppily errected.

Pablo usually kept his mind closed to the Lycan's thought-link, but Peter was sure that he would recognize that what he had to say wasn't meant for the other's ears."Pablo, I need your advice. You're the only one who's opinion has ever held any sway with me. He projected, making eye contact with the man to make sure he'd heard his thoughts before addressing the rest of the group.

"How the hell are we going to burn that?"

[Pablo]

Pablo couldn't stop grinning as he looked back and forth between Adele and Damien. They both seemed to be in really good moods and that made him rather happy. "It could last us the whole trip... but there's not much fun in that. If I try I can make it disappear in less than an hour." He said while turning to look at Damien. "Fire can do wonderful things. So...." He quickly gave the small clearing a quick scan. "Where'd Pete go?" Noting Pete's current absence Pablo made sure to keep his mind-link open. It had gotten to the point, where if he didn't actively try to keep it up, it would close by itself. Though he preferred it that way, sometimes it got in the way. He then turned again to face Adele who appeared to be giggling to herself. "If you don't calm down you might have a seizure." He jested. "In all seriousness though, good job with the tents. Sometimes I get so lazy that I don't bother putting them up and instead sleep in my lycan form. It keeps the cold and animals away."

Pablo casually tossed his ax besides the tree while plopping down right where he stood. In all honesty they could push the tree up-right and light it on fire, but that could get bad quickly. Pablo only knew how to make fires bigger, not keep them in check. He was a bit of a pyromaniac. "I'll let you decide to do with the tree. You're apparently the only one who hasn't been camping before." His statement was directed to Adele. Almost simultaneously with Pablo speaking Pete appeared from the forest. He received the message and then smiled when Pete spoke out loud. Well you see I brought a ton of ligh- "Lighter fluid... almost gallons of it. I brought some with me, it should be unpacked by now." Pete, you know I'll do nearly anything you ask of me. What's on your mind?