"Bahati! Behind you!"
The white-furred werecat spins around quickly, slashing at the bane with her spear. The powerful fetish slices into the creature, severing it's lower jaw. Bahati then leaps up, spreading her feathered wings as she flys to a branch some fifteen feet up. The bane snarls at her, but a large chatro jaguar charges the beast from the front. Not missing the opportunity, Bahati folds her wings tight and jumps back down, driving her spear deep into the creature's spine.
"What do you think I am Tommy? Blind?"
"Heh. Yeah!"
She smiles, her milky-white eyes focusing on nothing. Her keen ears swiveled and her whiskers twitched, as even the slightest sound or change in the air alerted her to what her eyes could not see. The albino then lept agiley off the now dead bane, landing lightly on the ground beside the saber-tooth. The big orange-furred cat snarled.
"You could have left me at least some fun, sis!"
She turned her head sharply, her ears pricked forward.
"Looks like you still will."
The chatro turns to look in the direction his metis sister indicated.
A few yards away, the male crinos Balam grinned as he ejected the nearly spent magazine of his gun, then slapped a new one in.
"Alright! Dakat! Time to rock and roll!"
A group of nearly a dozen hideously deformed formori cut their way through the thick underbrush of the jungle. The trio of werecats stood ready. The albino suddenly went rigid, her whiskers trembling.
"Balefire! Watch it!"
The three lept aside as a blast of sickly green fire erupted form the flame-thrower held by one of the formori. Landing on his side on the ground, Tommy fired the Uzi at the formor.
"Fucking bastard! Burn my forest will you!"
Bahati jumped up into the trees, using her wings to take her up several yards into the branches. She held her arms up and turned her face skyward, then began to chant in the dialect of the native tribe who raised her.
"Children of Tzinzie, I call to you! Come to my aid tiny ones, and show these Dakat that those of this forest stand strong together!"
A buzzing sound began to fill the air as thousands of small insects, flys and mosquitoes, swarmed around the formori. Cúrri, the chatro Balam, charged the group of formori. His powerful claws and vicious fangs ripped into two of the creatures as another two were blown apart by Tommy's gun. One particularly large formor broke away from the group and charged the male crinos. Tommy aimed his gun at the monster but all he heard was a clicking as his mag was again empty.
"Shit!"
Tossing aside the gun, he jumped aside, narrowly avoiding the slashing claws of the huge formor.
"Little help here, Bahati!"
The albino turned in the direction of the large formor then held out her spear, the end pointed toward the monster. The formor then burst into flames. It opened it's jaws wide and gave out a deafening roar.
"Eat this!"
Tommy grabbed a grenade off the ammo belt around his chest and pulled the pin, tossing it into the formor's open jaws. He hit the ground as the beast exploded in a fireball.
"Whoa! That had to hurt!"
His long fangs dripping with black blood, the chatro shot a cold glare at his pride-brother as chunks of flaming debris scattered around for several yards, a few almost hitting him.
"You dumb shit!"
Bahati shook her head at her brothers, the thin mane of silvery hair falling loosely over her shoulders.
"Quit arguing and fight!"
She kneeled down and placed her hands against the tree-branch she was standing on. Closing her eyes, she focused on the forest around her. A loud hissing filled the air as a heavy moisture began to put out the small fires before they could spread. It wasn't long before the last of the formori were all destroyed. Each alone, they would have been difficult for the cats, but the trio were a united force, despite their bickering.
Spreading her wings, she glided lightly to the ground. Tommy and Cúrri walked over to her. The crinos had retrieved his gun and was carrying it with the barrel resting on his shoulder.
"Nice work there, little sister."
She nodded slowly, then looked around, her other senses taking in everything around her that her eyes couldn't. She sniffed the air lightly.
"I'll need to perform a cleansing rite here. This place now stinks of the Dakat and Asura."
The chatro growled, speaking in the werecat language.
"Wouldn't stink so bad if somebody didn't have a habit of blowing things up all the time!"
"Hey! It worked, didn't it?"
Bahati just sighed.
"Will you two please stop arguing all the time. I swear, I don't know how mother kept her sanity with you."
The two male Balam both laughed softly at the comment.
.
Twin-Tree dropped down to one knee. She didn't realize exactly how difficult the travel would be. But thankfully, the Moon-Bridge had apparently taken her to the right place. She looked up, her ears pricked forward.
"Well, this definitely looks like the Amazon. I just hope this is the right territory."
Standing slowly, the red-furred Garou made her way carefully through the thick rainforest. The jungle was teeming with life, and she kept having the eerie feeling that she was being watched. After almost two hours of walking, she stopped dead in her tracks as a black shadow flashed in the trees ahead. Twin-Tree gulped, trying to hold in her fear. She'd heard many stories of the fierce creatures that dwelt within the Amazon jungle. Gathering her courage, she yelled out for any to hear.
"Hello? Please, I am looking for the Pride of the Shadowed Hearts!"
"Dogs are not welcome here!"
Twin-Tree spun around at the sound of the voice. Looking up, she saw a large male Balam in crinos form standing on a thick branch several yards above her. He had an ammo belt across his chest with grenades and throwing knives on it, a large blade strapped to his left hip, and an Uzi in his right hand.
"Please, I mean no harm."
"Then get out of here before harm finds you!"
She was about to speak again before a vicious snarling to her left caught her attention. Turning her head, she was a massive chatro-form Balam. His powerful claws were extended, and his razor-sharp fangs were bared in a fierce snarl. Fear gripped the young Garou as she thought that the two Balam would tear her apart before she even had a chance to explain herself. But then she heard another voice. Soft and gentle, and feminine.
"Cúrri, Tommy, please calm yourselves. Let us see what this young Garou wishes to tell us."
Twin-Tree's jaw dropped at the sight of the female werecat. She had been told that the metis Bastet was something to be feared, a abomination to all shifters for being not only metis, but a half-breed of two tribes. But what the Garou in fact saw, was a beautiful creature with snow-white fur and silvery hair. Her sightless eyes were milky white and a pair of silver-tipped white wings sprouted from her shoulders. Her markings were neither jaguar spots nor tiger stripes, but rather a silvery marbled pattern like that of a clouded leopard.
"Are... Are you Akis-Bahati? The daughter of Sarita de Sangre?"
The white Bastet nodded.
"I am. And these are my brothers, Akin-Cúrri, and Tommy Far-Thunder. Tell me, what do you know of my mother? And what is it that you wish of us?"
Twin-Tree relaxed a little. The cat's voice was soft and soothing, nothing at all like her warrior mother.
"My name is Sarah Twin-Tree, Fianna ragabash of the BackWater pack from Florida. Your mother was an ally to us, as well as the Mokole, Blackwater. We helped them against the vampire, Angelida Mason."
"I know of this Mason. And of her allies."
The Garou nodded.
"We were fighting the leech and her Wyrm-spawn servants, but something terrible happened. The sky churned and grew dark. Sarita and Blackwater, along with the Corax, Sawgrass, were pulled up into the Vortex. So was Angelida and three of her Fallen ones."
The two male Balam were shocked at the news, but the albino female remained calm.
"Which ones?"
"Stephen Devours-the-Unborn, Darian ShadowClaw, and Chigger, the Black Spiral Dancer."
The Bastet simply nodded as she considered what Twin-Tree told her.
"Come with me."
She turned and walked into the forest. Twin-Tree hesitated, then followed after the white crinos. Tommy jumped down out of the tree and then he & Cúrri followed as well.