Heroes Triumphant Return

Listen brothers! Listen Sisters! To a tale of heroes. For it is said that among Gaia's children would be a mighty pack that would make friends of enemies, summon great spirits back to Gaia's world and in their sacrifice, unite all Garou, and all Shifters, into a People once more. That their story is a circle unbroken so long as it is told and told again! So listen...

The story begins many years ago. Back before white man set foot upon the pure lands of America. Back when the Croatan still walked their beloved mother Gaia. It begins then, in Europe. This story, like so many others, began on a dark and stormy night...

A long, low howl pervaded the silence of the forest. The small wolf, her fur pure white, as her soul, offered a howl into the crisp morning air to introduce her entrance upon the lands of another. Her body, thin as it was, moved gracefully as any other wolf, with a dignity and honor given her position. The wolf sniffed the air, a quick intake of breath, followed by the vapor from the exhale. She was being approached. Two individuals. She could smell the clothes on them, and decided to shift to match their appearance. By the time they got to her, a middle aged, white haired woman stood in the forest, wrapped in a thick white bear hide. "Good morning Gaia's Promise." The leader spoke in a thick German accent, "Welcome to the Cearn of the Forged Axe." The small woman smiled in recognition of the gentleman, an old friend. "Greetings Lars-Rhya," she replied in German, and offered a brief nod to the other man with her. "Vladmir, how do you fare?" she asked the Shadow Lord next to Lars, switching from German to Romanian. "I am doing well enough..." he replied. Not a man for small talk, Vladmir was a tallish gentleman, his Romanian heritage obvious in his sharp features, dark eyes and dark hair.

That was the day of the First Meeting of the Council. That day, a council of Garou was called together to decide who they would send across the great ocean, to be the first to meet with those other Garou in the new land.

Gaia's Promise was selected because she was "heralded" as a great Mediator to be. She was the descendant of Small Wolf Speaks Loudly the wolf who mediated the Litany treaty. GP however, was a coward at heart, but they forced her into it anyway. In order to gain the help of the Red Talon, she was forced to face him in combat, where she lost. However, because of her honor in the fight, the Red Talon decided to join anyway. The others sent to aid her were not going of their own free will, but told to go by their Elders. There was speculation she was born under a theurge moon, but they made her a Philodox anyway. And they ignored her comet hailed birth and prophecy of misfortune. There were other more capable wolves and she was only Adren. She had had no previous mission and they sent her anyway.

From the Cearn of the Forged Axe, they sent the first official request for a Moonbridge to gap the distance between the continents, but no on answered their request. Seasick and feverish they set paws upon mother earth after sailing two moons across the deep water. The pack, known then as Ambassadors of Gaia, met with a young, Wendigo, one who held then a sacred fetish, and lead the tribes in the Americas.

When they were sent from Europe to America the first time, the War between the Pure Lands and the Old lands was in progress. It had been so for at least a hundred years (settled in 1400 Indian wars until 1800's). They went over in the 1700's, just after America's independence.

When the ambassadors arrived, the opening peace talks bombed. They were attacked and several local wolves died. The Ambassadors were mocked and sent running. Raids by both wolves continued and more garou and kin died. The pack reformed in Virginia seeking an idea. The pack reformed in Virginia where they discovered that a Vampire was leading the Virginia trading company to expand the population and turn it into a Vampire city. There was evidence of Wyrm influence. The pack decided to unite with the Wendigo under a common enemy.

They spoke with Eyes of Ice, Wendigo Elder Philodox, and bearer of the Sacred Hoop. In those days, the Camp known as the Order of the Sacred Hoop did not exist, but was merely a small group of Garou and their mortal kin who felt that the Indian tribes should be united once again.

Eyes of Ice scoffed at the proposal. The pack went to war anyway and helped the reluctant Wendigo in the field. It was fighting by honor that they won the support and reluctant kinship of the Wendigo. It was many winter months of proving and re-proving themselves that the Wendigo let the ambassadors stay.

But it was not a peace.

Gaia's promise prayed for an answer.

It came in the form of a broken leg. Eyes-of-Ice was grievously wounded. In his culture such a wound was worthy of putting down. But Gaia's Promise, the peace keeping healer whom he mocked had a gift that no other Pure Land wolf hand: mother's touch. In a month, Eye's of Ice was a good as new. And as vengeful as he was recognized these strange wolves, if they meant peace could bring many strange gifts.

He preached to his kind as she to hers. Many whispered behind their backs that it was the wolf of lust more than love and peace that urged their words.... Some listened.

But it was not Peace.

After several months of peace talks, Eyes of Ice agreed to allow the other tribes, and their kin, passage into the New World. He joined their pack, the Ambassadors of Gaia, then, in a combat with a great Wyrm creature who had found his way across the land many years before. An ancient and powerful Tzimisce. When they finally tracked him down to a cave, where he had baited them with a powerful fetish, they found themselves trapped by his minions. Sacrificing themselves to aid several others to escape, the Red Talon, Shadow Lord, and Silver Fang of the pack were supposedly slain that night. Eyes-of-Ice used the incredible powers of the Sacred Hoop to send Gaia's Promise traveling through space, to return upon a comet when she was needed. The Stargazer of the pack managed to escape, as did Eyes-of-Ice.

It was in their blood, 5 tribes blood mingled...that the peace treaty was signed in vengeance against the Wyrm. It was the Stargazer and the Wendigo's sorrowful cries for their pack mates that no Garou in his heart could ignore.

They were great heroes and they had to have died for some reason and if it was brotherhood, said the Garou, then I am with you.

Eyes of Ice went on from there to form the Order of the Sacred Hoop, and unite many of his brothers under his cause of uniting the tribes. He was deeply saddened by the loss of his pack, however, and it showed.

He consulted with many a theurge to read the skies. The totems warned him against seeking, but he did. Upon the strands of the sacred hoop he poured ash and mulberry, dill weed and wine. And there an image formed. He spoke to his Stargazer pack mate and his pack mate replied.

"There will come a time when the Ambassadors will return. There will come a time when they will ride again. When they will awaken the old wolf in all of us.

But it will be a sad time. Heralded by yet another comet and a strange litter. When our worst days shall be upon us again. When something worse then ourselves shall walk the earth undead. When the tribes once more fight each other and the sacred hoop shall be shattered. The Hoop shall be broken.

Only then shall the hero's return. From the Icy Caves of the Pure Lands."

"But shall we win," asked Eye of Ice. "Shall we be glorious and live together?"

The Stargazer only shook his head. "I don't know."

And so the two friends waited unto death wolf finally caught them.

Three centuries later or,

Once upon the moon, in a Cearn deep in the winter cold of the pure lands, a week's walk north to ward the north star, a Cearn of Wendigo were blessed with a strange litter of cubs who were not a litter. One, Chelsea Sundancer, a Silver Fang was almost a perfect replica, save for gender for a long lost Silver Fang of the Ambassadors of Gaia. Stolen by her kinsmen, learned in the prophecy, they sent her to Alaska where the best theurges said the gathering of the hero's would take place. She was accompanied by a rugged kinfolk, Archer.

And then the comet came... and a pure white wolf was found wandering the forest, born a theurge, but not born. The Children of Gaia remembered the prophecy, and sent her to the arctic Cearn in the north. Along with Chelsea, arrived another girl; again she was a near perfect replica of her counterpart from the old pack. Then, the Stargazer on the Cearn, one who had trained a small Wendigo Metis from birth, brought him forward, and both were recognized as ancient members of the old pack. Shuri and Snow Blind joined the group, who was then given their rites of passage. They were to clean an oil spill, caused by a grounded tanker. They were joined by a Red Talon, Rages from High Ground, who had been ordered to join the group, and sent on their way. They were not expected to return.

That day, they not only completed their task, but also reawakened an ancient wolf totem, Dire Wolf. He chose the group as his pack, and they became Heroes Triumphant Return. They were a pack that had come back from the past, to fix what they left undone. Uniting the tribes.

When they returned to their Cearn, however, they found it burning to the ground, all members slain. They were hunted by a gunman in a helicopter, and managed to evade him. Continuing on, they were eventually confronted by their old selves, now evil minions of the Wyrm, ghouls to the Tzimisce. Running from them, the Red Talon managed to slay his counterpart, but the others remained.
They traveled from there to the east, where they were taken in by the Silver Fangs, and trained. Snow Blind left the pack for several months then, and went to join the Silver Pack. Joining them, he traveled into the Abyss, where they saved the life of Falcon. Gaia's Promise vanished into the forest for moons at a time. She was seen running with Dire Wolf and other totems, learning the secrets meant for her in her first life, but left unlearned until this one. After that, Snow Blind returned to HTR, and they all left to come back to the west, where they aided in the return of the Bellingham Cearn of Clear Visions from the Wyrm, where it was a Cearn of Death.

It was a sorrowful victory, however, for in the process of saving the Cearn, Rages from High Ground and Chelsea were both lost. Archer, a kinfolk who had fallen in love with Chelsea during their previous adventures, sought only to enter the Umbra, and find his dead love. Snow Blind eventually brought him to the other side, and he has not been seen since.

Snow-Blind went on to meet the Legend Ahroun Stargazer, Moonrazer, who offered him his challenge for Athro, and then Elder. Asking many questions, and causing many more to become asked, Moonrazer taught Snow Blind quite a lot.

Several months ago, Snow Blind found that he needed to talk to Turtle, the lost Croatan Totem. Along with a few others, he opened the eyes of the old Totem of Wisdom once again.

Now, Snow-Blind Dances-with-Wind is Snow-Blind Forges the Circle, Elder Wendigo Ahroun. A child of Wendigo, Dire Wolf, Phoenix, Turtle, and Falcon, he is likely one of the calmest Ahroun in the Garou nation. Never having frenzied, he is a master of Kailindo, taught to him by his Stargazer Elder pack mate. Gaia's Promise, in a sad end, gave into Wyrm frenzy, slaying a Get of Fenris during peace talks, and was then slain by Snow Blind, and her spirit sent to the Silver Forge. The Shadow Lord has disappeared.

Now, Snow-Blind searches for the hoop once again, having found the pieces, but straining against dire circumstances in an effort to put it back together. Seeking aid from many other people, he makes an attempt to free Owl from captivity, fix the Hoop, and end this tragic war started with the people of the world.