kouf'Lak "Runs-The-Lines"

Formally known as Walks-With-Shadows

Uktena Theurge

Black Spiral Dancer

Walks With Shadows was born to Sleeping Bear and Kicking Fawn of the Lakota people on the reservation. His tribe lived deep in the reservation and did their best to preserve the old ways. His father, Sleeping Bear, was a great warrior. Few within the tribe could match his strength; however, his patience was just as great. Kicking Fawn was a loving mother.

From an early age, Walks With Shadows’ Theurge ability with the spirits was apparent. He did not fit in with the other children of the tribe. While they played their games, preparing to become warriors and the such, he would wander off on his own. He would seek the council of the stream or trees. He spoke to the animals and listened to the winds. Whenever he went on his walks, he would always encounter a group of playful wolves. He thought nothing of running and playing with them, like the other children ran and played with themselves.

At age 10, the young boy was sent on his vision quest. It was an early age for such an event; however, he had already spoken to his father of strange visions he had been receiving. He left the tribe to find his sacred place and began crying for a vision. It was during this ritual that he had his first change. He sat on a plateau, overlooking the land his tribe lived upon. From the trees surrounding him stepped forth the pack of wolves with which he played so often. He was glad to see his friends, and welcomed their company. However, his joy was interrupted shortly by a great pain in his chest. He fell onto his back and looked down to see a wolf devouring him from the inside. The wolf clawed and ate it’s way out of the human form, and this was his first change.

Returning to the village, he spoke to the tribe’s singer to learn of the vision’s meaning. (It was still unknown to him at this time that he physically did change. To him it was but a vision, and the change only occurred in the dream world.) The singer happened to be kinfolk, and recognized the dream for what it was. The elder sent word to the Uktena tribe of the Sept of Mount Ranier in Seattle, and they arranged for the child’s kidnapping. The vision of the wolf devouring the youth from the inside gave him his first name, Consumed By Wolf.

Upon arrival at the Sept, he went through his Rite of Passage and joined the pack that became known as Gaia’s Dream. Within the pack he fell into an advisor roll for the pack alpha. He spent most of his time befriending his pack mate Joey, a Metis Philodox. Joey was a little slow, and viewed the world through less complex eyes than most, which allowed Walks With Shadows’ child mind to understand him more than the others of the pack.

Gaia’s Dream traveled far and wide. Chimera adopted the pack as her's. She came to them often, always in the form of a small black cat. The pack would hear the tiny bells on her collar and smile, because they knew their totem was watching over them. They spent most of their time together seeking out lost cubs and bringing them into Garou society. Upon their travels they encountered an old and forgotten Wyld totem spirit, Mir-Hertat. The spirit chose the pack to remind Garou of it’s place in their lives. The pack gladly accepted it as a second totem.

In their travels, the pack came across a great Wyrm taint. A foundation that spoke of doing good for lost cubs, actually was performing horrid experiments upon the young Garou and killing many of them, sending those that survived into madness. The kinfolk running the foundation were unaware of what they were doing, but the pack soon learned of the spirits that possessed the kinfolk at night and drove them to do these horrible acts.

Before destroying these spirits, Gaia’s Dream encountered another pack of Garou hunting these spirits as well, The Insidious Fist. This would seem to be beneficial to Gaia's Dream, and it would be if it wasn't for one fact: The Insidious Fist was a pack of Black Spiral Dancers. Out of necesity, an uneasy alliance was formed. The two packs would aid each other in the destruction of these evil spirits.

Among this pack’s members was a beautiful and alluring woman named Lish’ta. Walks With Shadows recognized her immediately, as did she recognize him. They had spent their lives meeting in the dream world falling in love. When alone, they spoke their love for each other and performed a ritual naming themselves as life-mates. Controlled by love, the two mated. After their joining, standing under the moonlight by a crystal clear pond, Lish’ta gave him his new name: Walks With Shadows. The name fit the boy, since he now truly walked among those serving the shadows.

In addition to his new name, Lish'ta also taught him a new gift. Within the Umbra there are Wyrm lines, lines that only those with tainted eyes can see. Travelling along these lines, the Black Spiral Dancers can travel without fear of being followed. This is how the Insidious Fist seemed to walk through solid Umbral objects, or appear to walk through them. The downside to the gift is that it requires Walks With Shadows to taint his own thoughts so that he can see them.

The rest of his pack soon learned of his mating with Lish'ta, and did not approve of him breaking the litany. The Insidious Fist and Gaia’s Dream joined together to do battle with the spirits, which lead to combat with a Nexus Crawler. When the dust settled and both packs remained standing, albeit battered, Lish’ta stood upon a spire within the Umbra. She looked back at Walks With Shadows with tears in her eyes and spoke words that he never heard before she threw herself into the Deep Umbra. Walks With Shadows returned with his pack to the Sept, where he stood before the Elders charged with breaking the litany. The Elders declared him Ronin, and turned their backs upon him. Before he left, the Uktena tribal Elder within the Sept approached the young one and spoke to him. He was told that if he could find Lish’ta and return her to Gaia, he would be welcomed back into the Sept with open arms.

So he turned his back to the Sept and stepped his first steps on his journey. He has traveled far and wide, spending most of his time in the Deep Umbra, learning the secrets of that strange and mystic place. He has not yet found his love, nor has he seen evidence that she is alive or dead. He occasionally hears word of one that may be her in the Deep Umbra from the large number of spirits he has bound to aid him in his search.

During his wanderings, the spirits led him to Ashland. There he found an old friend in Shay and discovered a Sept that was seeking a spiritual teacher. It was a fateful day that he sat in the Caern telling stories of old, teaching of Brother Croatan and the spirits, when Freki spoke to him. He asked Walks With Shadows whether he would accept the position of Master of the Rite for that Sept. Walks With Shadows saw it as good, and accepted the honor. He continued to search the Deep Umbra for his lost love, but saw to the instruction of the cubs in the matters of the spirit as well.

One day, while he was speaking to a member of the Sept about the spirits, the sacred flames of the Caern errupted in energy. He saw this from the edge of the Bawn and went to the Caern to see what was happening. Once he arrived, a flame spirit began calling him. He spoke shortly with it, and reached into the flames of the fire. Withdrawing an object wrapped in a black web-like substance.

The Caern had gathered a small number of those within the Sept, who were watching the child Elder. As he pulled the object from the flames, the air about the Caern seemed to get dark. Some watching felt they could smell the Wyrm about. As the web-like material fell away, the Wyrm scent seemed to lessen. What was left was a black steel dagger.

Walks With Shadows seemed to recognize the dagger and began yelling at the spirit. The flame seemed to recede from his harsh words in fear. His face seemed to calm. Until he realized there was an audience. Then a look of panic covered his face. Grabbing the blade, he quickly stepped sideways, a faint word being heard as he did: "Lish'ta".

Since then, few have seen the Theurge. At rare occasion, the boy has been seen stepping from the flames of the sacred fire to collect a few things from the Caern. Each time, he seems to be having a conversation with himself. Arguing about the importance of a vision, usually important for the Sept but not important to his search. Each time, the Caern seems to get a bit darker and a faint smell of the Wyrm floats in the air while he is there. But those visits have long since stopped. Not even the spirits about the Caern that he spoke to often know of his location now.

It was about three months that the Sept of the Bleeding Hart did not see their Master of the Rite. The Theurge had finally disappeared in the Umbra to not return. His meager possessions gone from the Caern. The darkness and Wyrm scent gone as well. His fate was discussed around the fire for a short time, but only a few of the elders really seemed to concern themselves with his absence. In hindsight, this was a mistake.

Three months after his disappearance, strange occurances began to happen around the Caern. The spirits began to disappear and those that were still around became less helpful. It was as if they were being distracted. It wasn't long before the spirits began talking about "the young one" and "the drummer boy". This "boy who was not a boy" brought fear to the spirits.

Then some of the Sept's Theurges began to hear faint drumming in the Umbra. Carvings were discovered proclaiming that the Garou have been tricked by Gaia, that both Gaia and the Garou have forgotten their ancestry. Walks With Shadows return was marked by a day the Fianna of Ashland will always remember, the day Finnias Hunts-The-Spiral Quinn died.

No longer a boy, the three months that passed in the physical realm had been a dozen years within the Deep Umbra for Walks With Shadows. He used the gift of following the Wyrm Lines extensively in his search for Lish'ta. When he finally found her, she was near death. He saved her from death, but his mind was lost. Corruption had entered his heart and grabbed a hold on his spirit. The Wyrm had him found and brought to Malfeas to dance. It is here that he received another name: kouf'Lak Runs-The-Lines.

The young boy is now a young man, in his mid-twenties, and more connected to his past lives than ever. In his visions before his corruption, he sat at a fire with his ancestors. However, there were some places around the fire that were empty. Some of those places are now filled. These were the places for his ancestors that danced the Black Spiral. Before his own corruption, his other ancestors refused them their seats, but now they cannot. This is the root of his corruption. In his view, Gaia turned her back on the spiritual. She caused the split between physical and spiritual, so that she may have more power. Now she has forgotten her heritage, her connection to the spiritual. Likewise, the Garou have forgotten their ancestry and their connection to the Black Spiral Dancers. Gaia has lied to the Garou, saying the Wyrm and the Dancers want to destroy her. The Wyrm only seeks to return balance to the world, and reconnect Gaia and the spiritual. The Dancers, and kouf'Lak, serve the Wyrm in this quest.

His return to Ashland was short. The Garou did not hide their Caern since his departure, so they now had an enemy that knew their sacred places. Short after his return, the Theurges gathered and performed the rituals to shroud the Caern again from kouf'Lak's eyes. It was still an eerie sight for the Garou, when travelling alone, to see the black raven that followed kouf'Lak. Even eerier to hear the haunting drums within the Umbra. Not many could match his afinity with the spirits, and it is rare to see him out of the Umbra.

However, the drumming has seemed to stop around Ashland. Where has this Uktena gone? Some say that hope is not lost in him. Before his corruption, he found a small bell, like that on a cat's collar. Some Garou have even told stories of hearing a small cat's collar in the distance of the Umbra during encounters with kouf'Lak. Could it be Chimera is still watching this one?

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