At the Bus Station

[Danny]

Danny and Torsten were the only ones waiting for the bus this early, so they could talk without the danger of being overheard. Still, Danny glanced around carefully, giving Torsten the impression that maybe all werewolves were a little paranoid.

While they waited for the bus, he continued to explain.
"You have witnessed one of the reasons we have to keep our existence a secret. Humans are not ready to accept that we exist. They will hunt us down as monsters and destroy us, or, like those men that were after you, turn us into lab experiments. That is why we reveal ourselves only to each other, and our kin. That is what we call the veil."

"Later, I will teach you how to change without the rage. That is possible too."

[Torsten]

How much can a boy take in the first hours of his change?
Torsten was mentally refreshed after his short rest and he was ready to absorb a bucketful of information, however his body was tired.

While strolling down the street towards the bus stop, Torsten observed the waking of another day. The birds had started to sing and the early morning mist was slowly starting to rise. Torsten walked alongside his new found friend chatting to him about the events of the night and his mother. He glances at Danny for a second and says in a fearful tone.
"Do you think they took my mum for lab experiments?"
While he hoped Danny would say no, his worst fears about his mum being hurt were becoming apparent.

When they arrived at the bus stop Torsten observed Danny's caution at being in the open and took note to always be on guard. He slipped his hand into the pocket of his jacket and felt the reassuring grip of his pistol.
After a few minutes silence Torsten turns to Danny.
"So, I understand the need for secrecy, but who are you at war with and why?" he voiced his question quietly and with full interest in the subject.

[Danny]

"We were created for a purpose, Torsten," he said. "We are the defenders of Gaia, and the Spirit World. We protect Mother Earth wherever she is threatened. We fight corruption, decay and destruction, and the horned serpent that embodies it: the Wyrm."

"You see, in the beginning the Wyrm used to be balance," he said. "The Wyld was chaos, the Weaver was order. Together with the Wyrm, they formed the Triat. Then the Weaver went mad and trapped the Wyrm in her web, driving it mad as well. It is no longer balance.”

“It now embodies anger, corruption, perversion… and it feeds off ours. It sends its children out into the world to encourage humanity to destroy and defile, and in turn feed the Wyrm, making it stronger until it is strong enough to break free and take its insane revenge out on Creation. And that is the war we are fighting.”

He stopped as the bus arrived and started going through his pockets for change.
"That's our bus," he said. "Best sit in the back where we won't be overheard."

[Torsten]

Torsten's eye's go wide when Danny explained the how and why of the creation of the world to the War.
"Wow, so we fight dragons and stuff and the weaver, is it a spider of some type. Man if it is, I want to squish it big time! I hate spiders! Torsten rambles on not waiting for a response from Danny.

"So what about this spirit stuff, I remember mum talking about dead spirits once. She talked about Vampires and how evil they were, but she was only reading from one of her books. Though the way she told it.... I hate Vampires! As well as dead spirits." He shudders visibly.

"So how do you fight?" Torsten asks. "I've got some really good hunting rifles at home. One's like a sniper rifle, it's got a really good scope on it. I think it's a military Schmidt & Bender ZF 3-12x50 if my memory serves me and it sits on a 98 GEW 8mm Mauser.
I'm a pretty good shot out to 1000 metres. " he says with some pride.

He eyes the bus approaching and stops talking. Instead he stares at the bus driver intensely looking for any sign of danger.
He turns back to Danny when he feels that everything is ok

"Here I can pay!" Torsten says when he saw Danny looking for money. He held out some notes that he's had in his pants pocket.

Torsten scans the entire bus and it's occupants as he heads towards the rear seats.
Once seated he turns to Danny.

"I'm not sure I want to see the spirit side of things." he says quietly. He looks pleadingly at Danny hoping he'd understand.

[Danny]

The bus driver took the bills and gave them their tickets and their change. Danny found a seat near the back and immediately started answering Torsten's questions.

"The war is fought on many fronts," he explained. "It's not always about kiling and hurting and dying. Although the average Ahroun would probably like to convice you that it is. We are all Gaia's soldiers, but the Ahroun are the leaders in battle. They are the ones born under a full moon, and they have received the full extent of Luna's blessing, or, if you see it that way, curse."

The bus rumbled on down the street. Apart from an elderly lady sat near the front, there was no one, so Danny relaxed a little as he continued talking.

"We fight many things," he said. "Even other werewolves, who have been corrupted and turned to the Wyrm. The weaver... she is known as the spinner, and her children do resemble spiders. They weave their way across the spirit world, trapping things in their webs. She is reason, science, and order... to the extreme. She is spinning out of control. It was her web that drove the Wyrm mad, after all."

He glanced out the window. The city was starting to wake up, people were going about their business, all of them oblivious to the war they were preparing for.

"I've never used guns myself," he said. "Few of us use them. After all, you've seen what you can become. Gaia's gifts make much more fearsome weapons than any number of bullets... unless it's silver of course. Yes, that's not just a myth. Silver is deadly to us. Remember that."

He smiled. Torsten's mother was surely Garou. There was little doubt about it anymore.
"Dead spirits?" he said. "Even among Garou, the ability to see ghosts is very rare. If you come back the Library later, you will meet two of my friends who have the sight. But from what they both tell me, we have nothing to fear from ghosts. They are harmless spirits who have lost their way, or need our help. Vampires are a different matter. They are the bastard children of the Wyrm. They spread their taint and corruption and control humanity for their own personal gain. Always destory them when you have the chance."

From the way he spoke of them, it was obvious that Danny hated vampires with a vengeance.

"Don't worry about the Umbra," he said finally, turning to look at Torsten. "I will not take you there before you're ready."

[Torsten]

"Really!" Torsten says, "Vampires really do exist!" His voice full of awe and surprise. "I thought Mum was just telling stories to keep me entertained. Man this is really stuffed up, I mean how do you tell them apart from everyone else. What's to say that old women isn't one in disguise. Do they have a smell or something else to distinguish them."

Torsten has an appetite like no other for information and his brain absorbs it at a rapid pace, thus the amount of questions being asked.
His teachers at school find this severely annoying but to Torsten times like this are like winning the lottery.

"So you have a place like a club house. How many of you are there? Will I be able to meet them?"
Torsten seems excited by the prospect that there are others like him.

"Will I see Adiyah, Yvonne and Max again? I liked Adiyah she reminded me of my mum, and Max was cool, like really strong and in control."

Torsten's tone become a little more serious.
"So what are you going to say to my dad? Do you think he knows about me? Mabey he's one also." Torsten says in hope. "Then he can teach me stuff as well."

Finally Torsten pauses to catch his breath and he looks at Danny.

Man I want to be strong and fearsome just like him, he thinks to himself.

"So Danny, what am I? Was I born under a full moon? Will I be a fighter like you? Can you tell me about your history?"

[Danny]

"They pass easily among humans," Danny said. "Except for the fact that they're dead. A really experienced hunter might notice the subtle telltale signs. Some of us can sense their taint or smell their true form through gifts we have learnt from the spirits. You're not thinking of becoming a vampire hunter, are you?"

But there was something in Danny's tone that suggested he appreciated Torsten's interest. There's nothing a teacher likes better than a student with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.

"We have a place we call our Caern," he said. "It is a strongly spriritual place, and it serves as a gathering place for the Garou in the city. You will most definitely meet them again. They should be there later today. I have asked them to do something for me..."

He was probably going to end up running late. They would have to wait. But he wasn't too bothered now that he knew the Caern was in capable hands.

"I don't know yet what you are," he added. "I am hoping your father will know, if he is in fact one our kin. I doubt he is Garou though, mostly because I'm sure your mother is. And Garou don't usually mate with other Garou. There is a good reason for that.
Adiyah said you had a kinfetch though. That is a spirit that watched over you while you were a child. It would have known your tribe and auspice, and told her when it found her. We will ask her later today, if your father doesn't know."

The bus came to a halt and a few more people got in. The doors were about to close again when Torsten realised this was his stop.

[Torsten]

Torsten looks at Danny with an excited expression
"Can I really become a Vampire Hunter? I'm sure if mum was around that's what she'd be training me for. She had heaps of books on them. I wonder if Dad kept them?"

"Caern, wow! What's the meaning of the word? Does it have a history. How many people live there?"

His thoughts stray to another question

"Say, can I live there and do my schooling from there?" I practically live by myself as Dad always is at work and the maids are the only ones that really look after me. I mean cook and clean. Though I do most of the cooking."

While Torsten is talking he glances out the window as the bus stops. Then suddenly realises..

"Shit, oh sorry, umm, this is my stop." he says hurriedly.

Torsten jumps up and rushes to the door thrusting his arm through the opening before the door closes.
Torsten grimace's when it slams shut, slightly crushing his forearm.

"Hey open the door", he yells at the driver. "I need to get off."

He waits for it to open then jumps off the bus, rubbing his arm to alleviate the pain.

He turns to Danny with a frown on his face.
"My place is just down that street."

[Danny]

"Well, it is our duty to combat the Wyrm wherever it dwells," Danny said, hopping off the bus as Torsten did and letting him lead the way to his house. "That means Vampires too. Whether they know it or not, they are the Wyrm's servants."

He was still speaking quietly, and glanced over his shoulder once or twice before they reached the house.
"A caern is a holy site," he said. "One of those special places where the physical world touches the Umbra. It is important to guard these places. Few of us are there permanently, for that reason. But the others come and go. You are welcome there as long as you are loyal to Gaia."

He stopped as they reached the house. Torsten noticed his father's car was still there, which meant he hadn't gone to work yet.

Continued here