They'd been walking for an indeterminate time, when Christie stopped and looked around. Damien followed her gaze, seeing nothing more than the Umbrascape around them: a seemingly endless forest, the trees lost in the mist that seemed to be everywhere, shifting trails in the undergrowth, and faint threads of light connecting the trees together.
"What's up?", he asked.
"Dawn's coming. We better find a place to stop for the day", she answered.
"Why?"
"Because the only light in the Umbra comes from the moon. During the day, it's lit by the sun, which means close to zero visibility. And it's a bad idea to travel the Umbra during the day unless you know exactly where you are and where you want to go."
"Oh. Okay", he said with a nod. "So what are we gonna do? And for that matter, how come we still haven't reached my car? When I found the clearing, I had only been walking for about twenty minutes…"
Christie sighed. "I don't know. I'm not exactly an expert on the Umbra, y'know. But…", she paused, staring intently ahead. "It looks like there's a Domain ahead, kinda like the clearing where we met, only an Umbral version. We might be able to find shelter there."
"Okay. Fine then, let's go", Damien said. I hope you're not as lost as me, he thought.
Christie went ahead, and Damien followed her, looking warily around.
They soon reached the Domain, which looked like another clearing to Damien. He set his bag on the ground and sat down with a sigh of relief. Technically, he'd been walking for most of the night, and he was grateful for the respite. His stomach growled. He sighed in annoyance.
"What's wrong?", Christie asked.
"Nothing. If I'd known I would be traveling in the Umbra, I would have brought some food…", he said.
The young Garou chuckled. "If that's all, I'm sure I can catch something for dinner", she said. And before Damien could reply, she shifted into her wolf form and loped off into the woods.
Damien watched her go, still unnerved by the transformation, then stood at the edge of the Domain, looking into the woods. The quality of the light changed gradually, until the forest was lost in a haze, effectively blocking sight after a few yards.
Christie soon returned, still in wolf form, carrying a rabbit in her mouth. Damien hadn't heard her, and he jumped back when he saw the small wolf standing right next to him, almost grinning.
Christie dropped the rabbit, then shifted back to human form, absent-mindedly wiping a speck of blood from her cheek. Damien unconsciously took a step back, which made her chuckle. Then she set to skinning and cleaning the rabbit, while Damien went to gather firewood from the nearby trees.
They soon had a small fire going, the spitted rabbit roasting over the flames. Damien took a bottle of water from his bag, and tossed the other to Christie.
"What were you really doing in the woods?", she asked after a few moments.
"What do you mean? I told you I sensed something in the woods that seemed to call out to me. And when I tried to take a closer look, I ended up in the clearing where we met. That's all", he answered not quite edgily.
Christie nodded. "Just wondering", she said. "Why were you going to Redland City?", she asked after a pause.
Damien smiled thinly. "I was just going to take care of some business", he said, chuckling darkly.
"Oh." She didn't ask, and he didn't offer any explanation.
After they'd eaten, Christie wandered around the clearing in wolf form, sniffing at the trees. Then she turned to Damien and barked. He was astonished to find that he understood her perfectly.
"Go on and get some rest", she said. "I'll take first watch."
Damien nodded numbly, then stretched out on the springy grass. He didn't feel really tired but after a few minutes of lying down with his eyes closed, he slid into a deep sleep.
* * * *
While Damien slept, Christie took to slowly circling the clearing, sniffing at the air every so often. Her gaze fell on Damien, sleeping peacefully close to the fire. He's kinda cute when he's asleep, she thought. She padded closer to him and sniffed at him. The scent of his leather duster tickled her nostrils, and there was something else, beneath the odor from his boots and coat, something with a darker undertone, and she stepped back, scrutinizing him closely. He was a shade over six feet tall and looked to be in very good shape for a human, dressed in black from head to toe: steel-toed boots, jeans, a plain cotton shirt and his duster. Without a doubt, he was quite attractive by human standards, with his lean build, closely cropped black hair and dark blue eyes. She sniffed at him again, trying to determine the origin of the strange scent. His body odor was as human as possible, only giving a vague hint that he wasn't exactly what he appeared to be.
Then she moved away from him, and went to lie down across the clearing, all senses alert. She lay there, watching the woods, lost in the Umbral haze of daylight, and thought idly about the first wizard she'd met. He had had the same sort of strange undertone to his scent as Damien, and she suddenly knew what it was. The scent of death. Whatever the reason, Damien Valentine had the smell of death on him, and her instincts told her that he should be watched closely.
* * * *
Damien dreamed…He was standing on the bank of a stream, under windswept clouds, the scent of cherry blossoms heavy in the air. He looked around, and saw a small, red-painted wooden bridge crossing the stream, a rough path winding from the bridge into a grove of cherry trees some fifty yards away. He shrugged, and followed the path, crossing the bridge and coming on the other side. He walked on, towards the trees, one hand automatically going to the knife at his waist.
At the bottom of one of the trees stood a small stone statue of the Buddha, no more than two feet tall, resting on a pedestal shaped like a lotus blossom. Damien took a closer look at the statue: it was the traditional rendition of the Buddha, sitting in the lotus position, its hands forming the abhaya mudra, its head ringed by the halo symbolizing the purity of the soul. Damien smiled, and noticed the carvings at the base of the statue. Examining them, he found that they were Sanskrit letters, together with Japanese ideograms. He didn't know Japanese, but Sanskrit was among the first things Julianne had taught him, and he had no trouble reading it. "This grove marks the final resting place of he who was in life known as Master of the Blade, Wielder of the Vajra Sword, Merciful Heart of the Warrior. You who enter here, pay your respects to the memory of a great man, and you shall be rewarded. Desecrate his shrine, and the Ten Thousand Hells will take your soul as tribute."
Damien couldn't decipher the Japanese ideograms inscribed below, but he didn't need to. Still smiling, he stood up and entered the grove, his feet making no sound in the thick grass that covered the ground. In the exact center of the grove, he saw a small shrine, bearing another statue of the Buddha. The shrine also bore a small cup filled with sand, in which were stuck three joss sticks, and a votive plate bearing Japanese ideograms and Sanskrit words. "Noburo Mochizuki of the Masaemon clan. Your memory shall live forever."
Intrigued, Damien examined the shrine again. There was a small hollow at the base of the statue of Buddha which adorned it, a hollow shaped like the six-pronged symbol of the vajra thunderbolt.
Before he could take a closer look, the grove shimmered and began to fade, and he felt himself waking up. Trying to cling to the dream, he fought against the awakening, but to no avail.
* * * *
And found Christie crouched over him, her hand on his shoulder, shaking him lightly.
"Wake up", she was saying. "Your turn to keep watch."
Sitting up, he nodded, trying to hold on to the memory of the dream and preserve the feeling of utter peace it had brought him. "Sure", he said, then watched as she shifted to wolf form again and padded around the clearing until she found a comfortable spot. He simply stood there for a moment, then took out a cigarette and lit it, earning a brief glance from Christie. He didn't know that wolves could give a single look such an expression of disapproval. She shook her head, then turned her back on him and settled down.
Damien shrugged and sat down, smoking in silence. Once again, when he was finished, he rubbed the butt out on the ground and put it in his pocket. On a sudden impulse, he shrugged off his duster, then reached for his bag. He took his Buddhist rosary, then sitting cross-legged in the full lotus position, laid his kris and gun in front of him, within easy reach.
Then he began chanting the Om Mani Padme Hum mantra, softly enough to let Christie sleep.
He sat there, meditating, his eyes closed but fully aware of everything around him, until the 'twilight' came, and with it the rise of the moon. He sensed movement just beyond the clearing, and focused on that spot: a small swallow-spirit perched on a branch. It looked at Damien, then at Christie's sleeping form, and flew away with barely a sound.
Damien could have stayed there meditating for a long time, but he knew they had to leave soon. So he broke his focus, and stood up slowly, then slipped on his duster and retrieved his weapons. Then he went to wake Christie, and she opened her eyes as soon as he touched her shoulder. He fought the urge to pat her head or scratch her, and took a step back when she shifted to human form.
She yawned then looked up at him.
"Sleep well?", he asked.
"Yeah. I had a really nice dream too", she said with a grin.
"Oh, really?", he asked, trying to sound only politely interested.
"Yeah… it was so peaceful, so quiet… I was near this small river, and there was this funny little bridge, all painted red…", she said, then broke off when she saw the look on Damien's face.
"Did you see a cherry tree grove, by any chance?", he asked.
"No, but I could smell them", she answered. "Why? What's wrong?"
"Because I had a dream too… I saw the bridge and the stream, and when I crossed the bridge, I ended up in a cherry tree grove with a funeral shrine in the middle of it", he said.
"This is getting seriously weird", she said.
"No shit, Sherlock", he replied with a wry smile. He drank some water from his bottle, then turned back to Christie. "Did you see anything else in your dream?"
"Um, there was something shiny, that looked like a key or something, on a tree close to the bridge, I think…" She frowned. "I was going near it to get a closer look, but you woke me up before I could see it clearly."
Damien shook his head. What the hell's going on?, he thought. Well, one thing's for sure, we have to find that place, wherever it is. Redland City can wait.
"I know what you're thinking", Christie said, breaking his train of thought.
"You do?"
"Yeah, you're thinking that we gotta find that place. I know, 'cause I'm thinking the same thing", she said.
Damien sighed heavily. "We don't even know where it is. It could be in Japan for all we know."
Christie shook her head. "No, I don't think so… I got the clear impression that it was in the Umbra somewhere, but it wasn't a place I'd encountered or heard about before…"
"That's great. It could still be anywhere, and I have no idea of where we should start", Damien replied, sounding more annoyed than he'd intended.
The young Garou shook her head again, this time with a commiserated look on her face. "You don't know much about Umbral travel, do you?", she asked with a slight smile.
"Not exactly."
"Well, we know where we wanna go, right? All you have to do is keep that place fixed in your mind, and you'll find a path towards it eventually. Someone once told me that navigating the Near Umbra was essentially about trusting your instinct", she said.
Damien nodded. "Okay, well, if it's that easy, why don't we go now?", he asked.
Christie smiled. "Yeah, let's go", she answered, unfazed by his sarcastic tone.
Damien sighed again, then picked up his bag and went after her.
* * * *
Not long after they'd left, Christie was scouting ahead, in wolf form again, and Damien thought he heard noises on the wind. They sounded like some kind of animal, but he couldn't tell where they were coming from. He walked on, and almost stumbled on Christie, standing in the middle of the faintly glimmering moon path they'd been following. The Garou was listening intently to something, her ears pricked up, her whole body bowstring-taut. Damien barely had time to draw his kris, when something burst out of the underbrush a few yards further. It was so strange that at first he didn't believe what he was seeing. It appeared to be a large quadruped, roughly the same shape and size as a small bull, and seemed to be made of smoke, its outline rippling in the faint breeze, its reddish eyes glowing like coals. The bull-thing took a step towards them, and Christie shifted again, this time to a huge, towering form that made Damien feel small and weak. She turned eight feet tall, her now-furry body a blend of man and wolf, with a wolf's head, legs and tail, her arms ending in huge taloned hands. Damien stumbled back, then narrowly dodged the bolt of lightning the bull-spirit had just shot from its horns.
"What the hell's that thing?", he shouted.
Keeping her eyes on the spirit, Christie snarled an answer, the words slurred in her growl.
"Tempestoro! Bane Elemental!"
Damien nodded unconsciously, and watched in awe as Christie launched herself at the monstrous bull-spirit, and landed on its back, one arm wrapped around its thick neck, her other hand ripping at its side. The Tempestoro bellowed and shook, seeking to dislodge the Garou from its back. Christie hung on, and slashed at it again, her paw seeming to go straight through its smoky 'flesh'. Damien ran to them, dodging the lightning discharges, and came within range just as the Tempestoro shook off Christie. She landed in a snarling heap almost ten feet away, then was on her feet instantly. The bull-spirit turned to Damien, and he was close enough to see the small flames that flickered from the beast's nostrils.
It took a ponderous step forward, then charged abruptly. Damien rolled to the side and came up on his feet, his kris slashing into the Tempestoro's side. Its bellow changed from 'angry' to 'hurt', and Damien knew he'd hit. The beast turned around, a long gash in its flank, from which oozed a sluggish, smoking ichor. Damien whispered a mantra, then joined his hands in the vajra mudra, summoning power. The blade of his kris glowed with a purple light, flickering like a flame. Then it grew and lengthened, turning into a sword of purple flame.
The Bane charged again, but Damien could see that it was slowing down, its injury draining it. He had plenty of time to see it coming this time and stood his ground, sidestepping at the last minute. Then he swung his arm, and his flaming blade came down with the roar of a well-stoked fire. It almost sliced off the spirit's head. Somehow it moved away, and almost wrenched the sword from Damien's hand.
Then he heard a snarl, and Christie was standing next to him, slashing at the beast's neck, separating its head from the rest of its body. The Bane collapsed, its smoky flesh already dissolving.
Damien breathed a sigh of relief, and cut off his spell. The purple flame went out, and he was holding his kris again. Christie shifted back to human and looked at him.
"Neat trick. Thanks for the help", she said simply.
"Don't mention it", he replied, retrieving his bag from the ground and walking ahead.
She caught up with him after a few seconds, and patted his shoulder.
"Seriously. That was a cool trick with your knife", she said with a thin smile. "Didn't think that wizards could kick ass like that."
"Eh. I try my best", he replied, struggling to keep a straight face. If only you knew, he thought. He said nothing and kept walking, still picturing the cherry tree grove in his mind.
* * * *
Damien's time sense was now more or less 'tuned' to the Umbra, and it told him they'd been walking for about two hours, when they reached a river, cutting straight through the moon path. The glowing trail of light bridged the river without interruption, and they kept walking across the Umbral waters. Damien couldn't help but look down, and saw strange shapes in the waters, shapes he recognized as fish that didn't exist anywhere but in the Umbra. Shrugging, he walked on after Christie, and they kept going at the same steady pace.
About a half-hour later, the two travelers stopped at the bottom of a small hill. They were standing at the entrance of a cave, its interior almost too dark to make out anything apart from the moon path that disappeared into it.
She turned to Damien, who was looking at the ground and the hillside around the cave's mouth.
"Find anything?", she asked.
Damien didn't answer right away. He stooped to pick up something, and held it up triumphantly. "A-ha!", he exclaimed. "Exactly what we were looking for", he finished.
"What did you find?", she asked, already knowing the answer.
"A cherry blossom. So we might be getting close", he said with a boyish grin.
"Yeah, and I'm ready to bet the way is through that cave", she added, hoping that she was wrong. She had always hated caves.
Damien's smile faded slightly. "I was kinda hoping you wouldn't say that", he said. "I don't like going into small dark places without knowing what's ahead."
"Then that'll make two of us", she said, patting his shoulder. "But I don't think we got a choice."
Damien sighed heavily, but headed off into the cave, praying they wouldn't encounter anything else than bats. Christie went after him, her knife in hand.