[i]Jocasta and Eddie[/i]

Jocasta sat at the counter, watching her mother, a tall powerfully built woman with thick black hair streaked with silver. Her sleeves were rolled up, revealing the tattoos of their tribe and kuklos and she was glowering at the other woman. Both were warriors, mothers, and at odds about some mission. Jocasta pretended to not listen, instead she slowly rolled a cigarette, Eddie watching her nimble fingers intently. He hated when people argued and she could feel the tension coming off the Metis male. He was in his Crinos form, comfortable at the sept behind the Veil so he was not forced to shift to the homid form. His golden green eyes were bright and Jocasta always thought there was an air of innocence about him, even in his most brutal rages. Her dark eyes cut to her mother who was growing louder and more adamant, the other woman also raising her voice. Something had gone wrong, somewhere south in Mexico, Chiapas perhaps. There was unrest in the jungle there, Wyrm creatures appearing where they had not been expected. 

Her mother's shoulders were bunched, she was growing to the point where her temper would explode and it could mean a vicious fight between the two Garou warriors. Delia was snarling back and there was no backing down between the two proud veterans. Jocasta slowly brought the cigarette to her lips and lit it, inhaling deeply and blowing out the smoke toward the pair. She peered at them under her straight bangs when her mother whirled around. She was a health nut, always working out and insisted on organic meats and food, no alcohol or drugs of any kind. Jocasta raised her eyebrows and took another drag. 

"Jocasta! By the Goddess what are you doing?" Atalanta shouted, watching the curl of blue smoke rise and her nose wrinkled at the stench. She had the gift of wolf senses even in her homid form and the acrid tobacco smoke stung her nostrils. "Put that out!" 

Jocasta took the cigarette from her lips and held it, as if to examine it. "Calms the nerves, maybe you should try it, Mother?" 

"Calms the...put it out now and open a window," she snarled, taking a step toward her daughter. 

The other woman, Delia, coughed at the smell, her short blonde hair waving back and forth as she shook her head. "Really that's not necessary, Jocasta. Your mother and I were just having a discussion." 

"Is that what you call it? Because I was certain she was about to go for your throat," she eyed her mother who was wrenching open one of the kitchen windows. "And you're both making Eddie upset. He doesn't like fighting."

Eddie looked up at his name from where he sat on his haunches at her side. His heavy shoulders were tense and his clawed fingers flexed constantly with nervousness. Delia looked at the Metis, her face revealing her loathing for a brief moment before she smiled but long enough for both of them to see. Jocasta would not have been fooled anyway, Ahroun were terrible liars in her experience. She took another deep drag as her mother turned back from the open window, her face still in a mask of anger. Her dark arched brows drew together and she put her hands on her hips. 

"Out now, take that and your little friend with you," she said, though Jocasta could tell she had calmed down from the angered pitch she had been at before the argument had been interrupted. 

"Now, now, Mother...you know Eddie is my son now," she pointed out much to the chagrin of Atalanta who shook her head. Eddie seemed pleased with it and made a growling, chortling noise of pleasure. "Since I couldn't keep my own pups, he's all I have." 

Jocasta stood up, the cigarette now planted between her lips. She still was raw about having to give up her twin boys, to the Get of Fenris of all tribes, in exchange for two female pups who were likely to have a very hard time growing up in the patriarchal tribe. It was a typical trade, the Black Furies simply did not keep boys but for select Metis males since they were sterile and generally rejected by other tribes. Despite their fierce feminist nature, the women of the Furies also held a nurturing side and took in the unwanted offspring of the taboo inter Garou matings. Eddie was one such creature. His name was not really Eddie but he responded to it and no one seemed to recall what his real name was. It was Jocasta's sick little joke, calling him Oedipus as a play on her own name which was the same as mother in the Greek myth of the man who would kill his father and marry his mother. It caused offense to many of the elders, who did not see any humor in the fact that inbreeding and breeding of Metis were becoming a bigger problem among the Garou. 

"You girls behave now, I don't want to come in here and find fur all over," she said as she strolled out the door, still smoking. "Mother, I'll be leaving tomorrow by the way. I'm taking Eddie on a little road trip." 

Atalanta shot her a look, it was the first she had heard of it. "Where?" 

"Northeast," she replied, standing back as Eddie ducked down and went through the door. "Seems like a place to be now. I always wanted to see the Green Monster." 

Atalanta frowned, unfamiliar with the term as she was not a fan of sports or other silly games men played for too much money, "A Green Monster? Is it some sort of Kindred ghoul? A wyrm corruption?"

Jocasta laughed, her dimpled smile flashing, "Yeah, something like that." 

Eddie looked back and replied in a deep rough voice, "We're gonna see the Red Sox." 

Delia smiled and chuckled, "Baseball, Atalanta, they're going to Boston."

Her mother stiffened, she hated being made a fool and her daughter frustrated her constantly, "Fine. Why can't you just say Boston? Everything must be a riddle with you." 

She waved them off, her New Moon daughter was not what she had expected and she grumbled to Delia, "If only I could have crossed my legs and held her in another week or so. I would not have to put up with that. How she managed to even rank up, I will never know." 

Delia shrugged, "She is Ragabash, it is her nature to be contrary and speak in riddles. And she is not without bravery and honor, though she plays it down. You don't see what she did?"

"What start smoking in my house even though she knows I hate it and forbid it?" Atalanta retorted, watching from the open window as her only Garou daughter sauntered down the walk with the big Metis shadowing her steps. 

"No she turned your anger on herself, derailing our fight," Delia replied, "It's what they do, you know that."

She sighed and twitched her nose, the odor of cigarette still rank in the air, "Yes, that she did. I'm still not done with you but I'm not ready to tear your throat out." 

"As if you could," Delia replied, smiling slightly at her old friend. "We'll get it situated, bring back those that were lost." 

Jocasta snuffed out the cigarette on the gravel, she was not much of a smoker but it had it's advantages. Eddie trailed her, sniffing here and there, looking for prey as they passed by the large empty field that lead to the brush where deer, wild hog, and rabbits would abound. 

"Go on," she said, waving at him, "Hunt now because tomorrow you'll be in homid form." 

Eddie curled his lips, revealing the long white fangs and snorted. He did not particularly care for being in homid form but it was necessary. He bounded off, his hulking form moving swiftly, faster and quieter than he seemed he should be. His nose picked up the trail of a young buck nearby and he was hungry. 

Jocasta waited, watching the sunset in the west, the golden light touching the mesquite trees and glittering off the water of the Rio Grande. The heat would cling to the night, it was never quite cool in the Valley, the rural area of South Texas full of cattle, barb wire fence, scrub land and little else. The sept was on the border with Mexico, a convenient way point for the Black Furies as they dealt with the wars and issues that arose south of the Red River all the way to the vast Amazon jungle. It was quiet and other than the occasional wandering immigrant crossing their grounds, none bothered them. They were viewed askance by the local ranchers as a hippy feminist cult and they were happy keep their distance.

The journey was uneventful, a two day drive across the eastern half of the United States with Eddie hanging his head out the window, even in his homid form he enjoyed the blast of smells the wind brought. The caern in Massachusetts was opened and vulnerable now to the encroaching Kindred. The urge to go there tugged at her mind, her connection to Gaia was deep, as it was to all Garou but in particular because she was born into the Black Furies. The Theurge Ianthe had bid her to go and while Jocasta was taken aback that she was the one chosen among the warriors and more spiritual Furies, she obeyed.