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March 21st 2012
My Beloved John
Here is the second letter about the different shifters that we rescued. This bus ride has been longer and more boring than I thought it would be. I have been people watching as we go, but most of these people are boring with nothing interesting about them. Apparently the reason it is taking longer than the advertised twenty hours is the engine keeps overheating, and they have popped two tires. Really, you would think the maintenance would be better done.
Let's get back to the shifters, they are more interesting.
The Araújo burrow is probably the most unusual one of them. They are a family of poison dart frogs that were originally from Brazil but the entire group of them moved up here and owns a handmade quilt making business. Since there are a great many more females than males, they follow a matriarchal council system within their burrow and they apparently encourage their female children to find their female bonds. They also share a close relationship with the cobras, since they often do the incubation pregnancies like we discussed, using one of the females as mother and the other as father, with the cobra healers making it possible. I don't think that they realize the cobra healer is a thera. Those in their burrow that do not work within the family business seem to be chemists of one type or another since a lot of them work for pharmaceutical companies creating a variety of medications. The head of their burrow has promised to make us handmade quilts that speak of our tale, when I am done with this mission to hunt down the web and deal with those the moons correlate to I am to call or write her, they will send someone to record the story so that they can make those blankets.
The Moore coop is a multi-generation family of peregrine falcons. They were all very polite and their manners reminded me quite a bit of Jacob. The gifted female had trapped them in their animal form while they were out flying. However according to their coop elder it had to be an immortal that actually did the trapping. I wonder if that means I will have to deal with what the elder referred to as a forsaken immortal. As a thank you for getting them freed, the elder has given me a small collection of jewels that I can use for bribery or other purposes of that nature, though they are beautiful and there is a golden topaz I wish to get made into a brooch for your formal outfit though I am not sure if that would appropriate.
Catori Tkalis was the most interesting person I think, of the desert tortoise clan of Massika. She is their healer, a thera if I am reading the way she heals correctly. Past that, she acts as a shaman, teaching the various members of the clan of the Old Gods. She told me, when they were captured she was not worried because*e she was told a Son of the Moon with a Cat Huntress and two Children of Shadow would be coming for the entire clan. She had kept all of them calm, tracked what happened to each of her clan members, and had been the first to welcome me when we showed up. They did not offer any sort of payment pasted thanks for the assistance, but she had a peculiar look in her eyes when we left.
The Sereferre coterie is a collection of black-footed ferrets. Ironically enough, their pack name means silver ferrets. I wonder if it's because they are whiter than the normal cream color. They are a rather eclectic bunch. Within their ranks they have teachers, cab drivers, nurses, veterinarians, and a handful of other jobs. They also seem to have large families, with each family having grandparents, parents, two to six children, and in some cases great-grandparents and, aunts and uncles, and cousins all living in one house. How they manage all of those people in such small spaces I do not know, because their houses are not huge, with the bedrooms being big enough to hold a bed or two and dressers. They were quite fascinating actually. Their coterie is headed by the oldest couple to have once had children, though often those children are bonded with children of their own. Actually they reminded me of the Wilson nest once they had been healed.
I always thought that Mouse was a bit excitable. I had not realized that she is rather like the rest of her kind, but she is. The Dodd field mouse nest we rescued had over eighty people. It was actually the second largest group after the crows. They were all excitable, and all very happy to no longer be used as pets. Sadly, several of their numbers were gone, fed to pet snakes by owners who had not realized they were shifters not actual mice. Despite the fact that so many had lost a family member, they do not seem bitter. However I believe that they will be thinking of finding new ways to protect themselves from that type of event again. They all thanked us, but they had lost a great deal and could offer nothing which seemed to bother them, though I do not know why.
The Erlenda den is full of desert night snakes though they have several humans as well. The humans had managed to escape with many of the small children and hidden so it was mainly adults that had been captured. The reason that Elspeth could not find them was none of the children had the telepathic abilities yet and since they were not actually part of the den they did not register as shifters to her. Luckily the entire den was reunited and the elder of the den, an elite of golden tones thanked us for returning them home so soon, apparently they had only been caught a few days prior and the human part of their den was not sure how to get a Track to retrieve the missing members. In thanks a tailor that belongs to the den makes him a second coat much like his belstaff only of a heavier material. Apparently they have a seer in their den who said I would need heavy coat for part of my mission.
The Katrien aerie of burrowing owls was originally from Suriname where they used to grow rice. They moved here in order to have a better life. Their aerie is made up of five families in total, no more than forty people in total. All of them shifters, even the children, though most the children can only partially shift. Like the Erlenda den, they had only been caught for a few days and had not yet been sold off as pets or to science labs. Each of their families is headed by the family member that can make the most amount of money legally. While the aerie is controlled by a council made up of the heads of the families. It is definitely unique in comparison to most of the packs I have come across. Besides working jobs, almost all the adult members and many of the teenagers also work on a large communal farm that their homes are all located around. As a thank you, they gave me a large basket full of fresh foods that they made the day after they got home since there was a day between when I helped rescue them and when I was getting ready to leave.
Forever yours
Sherlock