When I regained consciousness I awoke to find myself surrounded by odd people who I had never seen before. Men and women, ranging from their late twenties to their early sixties, were circled around me. And in the center of all this attention, I lay, with my father kneeling next to me. A mix between a grin and a grim scowl seemed to dance around his lips.

I blinked my eyes, forcing them to see better. I saw another guy around my age. I didn’t recognize him at first, but after a moment my eyes came into focus and I saw that it was a guy from school named David Noel. I hadn’t seen him for a couple of months, but that wasn’t all too uncommon. I mean, he was more of a friend of a friend then anything else.

He had on a loose fitting T-shirt and baggy jeans. His long black hair wrapped in a ponytail. His eyes glowing with justice and burning with vengeance, stared at me. As long as I had known him David had been a rather active man, keeping himself in good shape, but his muscles seemed more defined then I had remembered.

The older men and women of the crowd stopped and moved back. The shadows in front of me grew as a small horde of children my age came in. All in all, there was about nine of them, counting David. All of them stared at me, much as a jeweler romances a stone. I stood upright, trying to gain a better perspective of what is around me. Then one of the boys, the most slender among the group, stepped forward.

His feet were planted about shoulder-weight apart, his knees slightly bent. His fists raised to the fighting stance, arms primed to launch his destructive knuckles. Snarling, the boy showed off his two canine teeth, which we quite defined. A guttural growl escaped from the back of his throat.

“Yes?” I asked, a smug grin playing around on my face. “You want something?” My opponent took two or three steps forward, then cleared his throat before letting out a ferocious howl. This howl must have been some sort of declaration of war, for he leapt for my throat.

His left fist knocked me square in the chest, while his right hand pounded into my jaw. I stumbled back a step and a half. Feeling that my balance was off, I allowed myself to drop to the ground so as to get myself readjusted. As soon as my back hit the ground, I swung my left leg around, arching it up. The heel of my boot smashed into his jaw, knocking him onto his ass.

I leapt to my feet and then leapt to him, making sure that I landed on his stomach. Once I was standing over him, feeling very confident about myself and my abilities, was when the fight grew into something more for both of us.

“Die!” He screamed as he lunged at my ankles, biting deep into them. I feel backwards from the loss of balance from having my legs pulled out from under me. I looked down to see him looming over me, and that my socks had become red from soaking in the blood of my wounds.

I saw that his body was beginning to grow, that he was turning into Glabro. “No!” I screamed in my mind. “I’ll will not allow him to win this, I will beat him!” In an eye blink I was once again met with the familiar discomforting feeling and I glance at my arm and saw that I was once again in my Crinos form.

“What?” I heard his voice ask. I looked down and saw that my assailant had only just now reached his Glabro form. I took this opportunity to punt the punk across the forest. He landed two or three feet ahead of me, landing hard on his back. Using my wolf-enhanced hind legs jumped next to him.

He stood up, I slashed my claws across his chest. Blood flowed from the wound. Even when my rival had changed into his Crinos form his wound still gushed freely. He swung his enlarged fist at my face, but I managed to duck underneath the swung appendage. I brought my left fist up for a quick jab. I got in three jabs and managed to cock my right fist back when he raked his claws against my face. I jerked my head back, but one claw slid across my flesh, digging into my face.

Arching my back, I sent a flurry of punches into his gut. I even managed to bring my shoulder up to smack my rival in the chin. His body loosened as the energy seemed to be drained from his body. I stepped back, allowing my opponent to surrender. When I saw that he had no intentions to do so I tried to swoop back in and resume my hitting. His outstretched hand found home in my stomach first. His claws dug into my flesh, piercing it, and driving into my belly. Striking at internal organs and delicate vertebrae.

I coughed, a slight amount of blood oozed out of the corner of my mouth. I froze, blood coming out from new wound, I grabbed his hand by the wrist. Then, pulling his hand out of my stomach I snapped his hand back, breaking bones and stretching tendons.

I brought my head down fast upon his and he just smiled at me. It was the most frightening thing in the world. I had just broken his wrist and he had a huge grin on his face. He pushed me off of him. I was shocked at how easily he brushed me off of him.

He morphed back to a human, the grin still on his face. Then he outstretched his hand, his gaunt elongated fingers wiggling in the night air. I changed back to my Homid form. I accepted his hand and shook it.

“Stephen Warren,” I offered.

“Jeff Simms. Fights-with-tricks. Sorry about that tussle, but hey, we have to make sure you can fight before we let you go anywhere.” He glanced down and rubbed his hand over his scared chest. “Good shot, by the way.” I looked down, five finger-sized holes were in my stomach, healing slowly.

“You didn’t do to bad yourself,” I praised.

“Thank you.”

“Now, what were you saying about ‘letting me go somewhere?’ What did you mean by that?” I asked.

“You know, on a mission.”

“Such as?” At the question Jeff looked around himself confused..

“Fighting Wyrmspawn or the like.”

“Look, I’m tired. I don’t want to talk about Wyrmspawn. I don’t want to fight. I just want to sleep.”

“Fine, you’ve had a rough day. Why don’t you go to your bed and lay down?”

I stepped back and looked around trying to find where my bed was. My father stepped up and took my arm. He lead me to a small room where a little cot lay out in the middle. I went in, laid down on my bed, and promptly fell asleep.

I awoke with the face of a beautiful woman standing above me. She had a small grin on her face, and a playful look in her eyes. She placed her hand on my chest, her fingertips laying lightly on my chest. She runs her hand down my chest, her fingernails lightly scratching the surface of my skin. Her roaming fingers stopped at the bottom of my T-shirt.

She grabbed my the bottom of my shirt and swiftly brought it off of me. She leaned her face closer to mine. Our lips almost touching, I could smell her scent. I could see her delicate features closely, as her eyes closed and she extended her tongue. She ran it smoothly over my lips, wetting them for me. I stuck my tongue out, she made brief contact. Our lips finally connected after I leaned forward. She stopped kissing me on the lips and began kissing me on the chin. Then she started kissing my chest and down my stomach. She arrived at the buckle on my jeans, when she grabbed the zipper with her teeth and began to slid it down.

“Stephen?” A voice came from nowhere, sounding ominous. “Stephen? Time to get up.”

I blinked my eyes and opened them to see that my father was in the room. I also noticed that I was wearing only boxers and jeans on, with a small blanket wrapped around my waist.

“Stephen? Stephen? Time to get up,” Dad said to me. I blinked and rubbed my eyes. When he saw I was awake he smiled. “You should learn not to talk in your sleep.”

“Oh, shit,” I thought to myself. “I talked in my sleep.” I felt so small, since he walked in one of my dreams. Running one of the better ones too.

“Time to get dressed he said,” he said, sounding way too chipper. I cursed at him under my breath and I got out of bed.

A few hours later, I would be dressed and walking outside when I came across Samantha Stone. She was a beautiful woman, a sort of charm and elegance seemed to emanate off of her. I walked over to her.

“Hey, my name’s Samantha,” she started.

“Hello, my name’s Stephen,” I mimicked. I held out my hand for her to shake. She delicately placed her hand in mine. It made me feel like bending over and kissing the back of her hand, which I did.

“I know, the second to the last of the eleven.”

“What?”

“You are the second to the last of the eleven latest recruits.”

“Recruits for...?”

“To be in a pack, of course. Silly man,” she laughed. She had a wonderful laugh which brought a smile to my lips. It was deep and throaty and reminded me off birds singing.

“Of course,” I looked around. Noticing that no one else was around, I stepped closer to Samantha. “I was just wondering if you wanted to maybe get something to eat or something some time.”

“I’d like that very much. How about now? You free now?”

“Sure.” Of course, the truth was I had no idea if anything was actually expected of me. I had no idea of my schedule for the day, or if I was prohibited to even leave the area. But I did know one thing, and I guess it was the only thing that trully mattered in the end. I had asked a beautiful woman out to eat, and she said yes.

We arrived at the Waffle Home around nine in the morning. Two people, one man and one woman, were already sitting in there. Samantha quickly walked over and sat with them, I followed her lead. The man was named Scott and the woman was called Maggie. We made ran through formal introductions rather quickly and got straight to business.

“Maggie Rothchild,” she flashed a quick grin. She long black hair done up into a bun and pinned behind her head. “Homid, Ragabash, Fianna.” I blinked in cufusion. Before I could ask anything, Scott started.

“Scott Grey. Homid, Ahroun, Get.” I looked over to Samantha for assistance.

“This is Stephen Warren. Homid, Theruge, Stargazer.” They both nodded.

“Second to last of the eleven,” they said in unison.

“What?” I asked. “What are all you people talking about?” I shouted. Maggie motioned for me to calm down. I breathed deeply and sat back down. Maggie and Scott exchanged glances for a minute, before Maggie turned back to face me.

“Your breed is what your parents were. You have a Garou and a human for a parent, so you are a Homid. Your auspice is where the moon was in its cycle during your birth. You were born at the quarter moon, so you are a Theruge. Then, there’s what tribe you belong to, which tribe your Garou parent is in. Your father is a Stargazer.”

“Now, that’s my denomination,” I insisted.

“No,” Maggie corrected me. “It is your tribe. It would be best to think of it like that.”

“But what is this ‘second to last of the eleven’ crap everyone is talking about?”

“Every litter, or batch of young likely Garou, comes up they have a large task which must be performed. If it is done, then the Garou are formed into a pack and accepted into their clan. There are eleven candadites for your group, you were the second to last to develop. The last one will either have developed last night or it will never happen,” Maggie told me solemnly.

“Never happen?”

“Yes, you see, the Garou gene is recessive. It doesn’t occur in all of the births. That is why our caern encourages mating with kinfolk.” To be honest, I had been drifting off, since the conversation had seemed to have drifted over my head. However, the words ‘encourages’ and ‘mating’ brought my attention right back to her.

“What encouarges doing what with whom?” I asked, my mind still fluttering from the possibility of sex being offered.

“Our caern encourages mating with kinfolk,” she repeated slowly.

“What are a caern and kinfolk?” I asked perplexed.

“The caern was where you slept last night. It is sort of a group’s territory, or inner sanctum. And a kinfolk? They’re what happens when a Garou’s kid isn’t a werewolf. But, just because they can’t change form don’t mean that they aren’t cool or anything. Like I said, we breed with our kinfolk, which enhances the chance that a child will be Garou.”

“So, where are all these kinfolk?”

“They’re either at the caern or at their job. Samantha here, she’s one.” I looked over to Samantha. She had a playful look on her face. She raised her eyebrows towards me, I took it as a sign. I stood up

“I think I’m gonna check out, do you want to join me Sa...”

“Sit back down,” Maggie interupted me. “You have to meet the rest.”

“The rest?”

“Yeah. Your possible future packmates.”

It had taken another hour before everyone was there and I was introduced. The last person to show up was Jeff, who came with a mischevious grin on his face.

There was Nathanial Robinson. He seemed like a nice guy. His Armani suit and briefcase didn’t seem to quite fit into the Waffle Home motif though. He arrived first, and boy was he was prompt, he arrived exactly at eight thirty.

There was Nora Goodman. She came in with Nate. She was smaller than, a mere five-five compared to his tall six-one. But she seemed to carry herself with an inner strength and pride.

There was Kristen Linton. Another small woman who carried herself well. She sat down and started chatting with Maggie as soon as possible. Very friendly, very pleasent.

There was Cory. She barged in and sat down, proping her feet up on the table and stretching out. She had a large grin on her face and seemed to have a quiet pleasant charm about her.

There was Paul Harding He walked in, his eyes downcast. A troubled look on his face. He wouldn’t say what the matter was, just that it had something to do with his car.

There was Kathoga. He strutted in here. He had arms like barrels and he apparently liked to flaunt it. His voice was very harsh and consisted mostly of grunts and growls.

David showed up. We had a short discussion of what had happened to him recently. He told me that he had left school to become a Garou. He had been there for almost three months so he knew a bit more than I did. I pumped him information, but not much of anything was worth knowing. Most of it had been covered already in the book I was sent. When I asked him to explain the “mission” we’d have to undergo he told me to just wait and that all would be revealed in time. Eventually, we all got settled down and looked around at each other. It was Jeff who eventually broke the silence.

“Well, I have just been fully debriefed on what are goal is. There is a small Jaggling...”

“What?” I interupted. “There is a small what?”

“Jaggling. Think of it as a demi-god’s secretary.” I just stared at him.

“Okay, all in the spirit realm there are things called Celestials, these are very powerful. Luna and Helios are two good examples of Celestials. Underneath them is Incarna, who have Jagglings underneath them and then there are Gafflings at the lowest rung. Clear?” He asked staring at me.

“Yeah, crystal. Sorry,” I apologized.

“There is a small Jaggling which is roaming around somewhere within a five or ten mile distance north of our caern. We find it and bind it to this small artifact,” he said as he pulled out a small stone. It was so transparent that for moment I thought that it was made of glass. “Any questions?”

“When do we leave?” Nathaniel asked looking at his watch.

“Now. We are not allowed to return to the caern until our mission is successful.”

“We can’t go home?” I asked.

“Not until our mission is done,” Jeff clarified.

“And if it’s not?”

“It will be.” He paused and looked around. “Everyone go to the bathroom if you gotta go, we won’t have the oppertunity for a while. I’ll see you guys outside in about ten minutes.” With that he stood up and walked out the doors, leaving us to look around ourselves.

Slowly, we dispersed. I went to the cash register and picked me up a pack of cigarettes. After packing them tightly I got one out for me. I walked outside and put the cigarette in my mouth and lit it. I took a few puffs off of my cigarette and sat down on the pavement.

I tried to mediate for a little bit, make sure that I wasn’t running into a situation half-cocked. That was the worst thing to do in any situation. As soon as I managed to block out my surroundings, I felt five or six sharp taps into my shoulder. I opened my eyes and turned around to see Jeff standing tall.

“Can I bum one of those off of you?” He asked. I slipped one out and handed it to him. He stuck his cigarette in his lips and I lit it for him. He inhaled it, held it in for a moment, then slowly let the smoke slip out. “You worried?”

“Not really.”

“You scared?”

“I don’t think I know enough to be scared.”

“Don’t worry about it, you’ll do fine. I’m more worried about some of the other guys. I want you to help me try and watch out for everyone, I don’t need any one of these people to die.” I took another puff off my cigarette.

“How hard is trapping a Jaggling?”

“For one of us? Beyond impossible. Most of us don’t even know how to talk to spirits, let alone bind them. But, we’re gonna meet up with a great Theruge who can do it for us.”

“A Theruge? I’m a Theruge. What’s so special about us?” I asked. Hoping someone could explain the different auspices to me.

“Well, your auspice is very skilled at working with spirits, in fact, I bet you can speak to the spirits.”

“Well, who is this Theruge?”

“A man by the name of Smith. I don’t know the rest of his name, for he is one of the oldest Garou in the area and is subject to his own whims.”

“But this Smith, he can bind the Jaggling, right?”

“Of course.” Pause. “Most definite.” Another pause. “Almost definite.” Pause again. “Very likely.” A fourth pause. “It’s possible.” The final pause. “Okay, I have no idea. But he says he can and that is all we can go on,” he assured me. The others started walking out of the Waffle Home, everyone was talking about the mission. Jeff had managed to get to the front of the crowd and start telling everyone that we were on our way to meet a wise and experinced fighter who will aide us on our journey. He snuck me a small look of helplessness. At the end of his speech he asked the question.

“Any questions?” I raised my hand and he called on me.

“Why do I get the feeling that this is gonna be a shit job?”