Trail of Tears: The Quest Chapter 3

In a district of town that seems out of a nightmare, gray overcast skies blot out the sun, the place feeling morbid and dreadful with a negative energy that permeates, much like both Sacramento and Daly City. The place is razed to the ground except for one lone house, still perfectly intact, white shingle siding showing faded and chipped paint. In the front yard, an elderly man's body was strung up, recently cut down by the manytailed leopardess, and then cleansed with pure water. She carried his body off just as the two large wolves entered the house, where the body of the former sherriff was still laying bloody on the ground. The door shut behind them leaving them in utter darkness, no light penetrating the small windows of the house.

Sori's ears perk from where she's helping [REDACTED]. "Wait." She looks, and sees the door to the house now closed. "Did Bal shut that?"

Inside, the sounds of dripping liquid are the only thing that break the silent darkness. Heath's focused attention on finding a way upstairs, while Balina's nose carries her to a corner near the place's kitchen, the sound of dripping from overhead blotted out by the intense scent that has been calling to her. She feels a shiver as her nose pulls in more than scent this time, the deep chill of something pushing up inside her nostrils is intense.

Balina would, if the thought didn't make her giggle, have frozen at the discovery. Whatever she is smelling here, it is, without a doubt, what she came for. Greedy nostrils vacuum up as much of the odor as she can, unable to stop even if she wanted to. The cold is so strong, so intense, it becomes her whole world.

Eithne leans forwards a little, and takes a sniff at what has her love so enamored... though her nose isn't quite as precise as the wolf's. "Do you recognize what it is, Balina...?"

Inola looks nervous, "We really should get Ash's father's body out of there too, this place is wrong, and it seems to be getting worse too." Her eyes wander toward the attic of the intact house, a high gabled roof overhead.

Sori looks at the dead elder, then to [REDACTED]. "You got this? I think I'm gonna see what's going on in the house. I don't like that the door shut like that; it doesn't seem like Bal'd do that." With that, she stands and heads towards the door.

Makena is watching curiously and smiling.

[REDACTED] nods toward her mate, quite, ears low as she works with the body. She has one of her swords out and is carefully removing infected maggot ridden flesh, getting ready to carry the corpse back to the sherriff's station. Makena cries out, "Hehe, I hope they didn't fly away or anything."

Grantok alluringly purrs, "Hold up Sori." Grantok speaks softly as she continues watching the exterior of the house with interest. "They haven't made any sort of noise that leads us to believe that there's anything wrong. And the last thing I'd want to do is get between either one of them and the hunt. Just wait a few more moments.""

"... Okay. But I hate us getting separated. Bad shit comes of that," Sori says.

Heath creeps slowly toward the staircase, following his own nose toward the stairs up to the second floor, totally blind, managing to find purchase on the steps after bumping his nose against them. There's a gentle warmth coming from the feather strapped to his neck.

Balina starts, stifling a yelp, before grinning into the darkness. "Yes," she chuckles, "I think we hit paydirt. Payblood. Something. Just need to find where it's hiding..." Picking her nose, reluctantly, off of the floor, she begins the search anew, seeking where the blood is coming from. Drip says ceiling, so it's time to find some stairs.

Makena smiles and watches, "Hehe, I guess I can help with heavy lifting if you need that, haha."

[REDACTED]' eyes move from the body up toward Makena. "Yes please. I don't want to carry him like a discarded sack. If you'd get the legs?"

Eithne nods slightly, humming throughtfully. "... I could try and light things up, but that's generally a bad idea if there's a Shadow-critter around, recalling what I've heard."

Balina's search for the stairs put her just behind heath who's slowly padded upstairs. The two begin their ascent toward the crown of the place, the sound echoing as splashing liquid hits the first floor's hardwood, dripping through the floorboards above it seems.

Outside, the distant sound of thunder becomes more prominent, wind picking up and cutting through even the thickest fur like paper. The wind saps strength and is bonechillingly cold. There's a low pressure, a storm sweeping in fast.

"They're just inside the house. Far as I can tell, it's not like we can't be right beside them if we need in a matter of seconds." Grantok's ear twitches a few times. "And I would wait until they've given us an all clear before getting the former sheriff's body." The chill in the air reaches her and she shivers slightly. "Not too much longer though."

"Generally bad, yeah," Balina agrees, almost absentmindedly now. She's staying behind Heath, but more due to necessity than any form of courtesy. She shifts her weight impatiently as she follows behind, simply waiting for the wolf to either find something or step aside and let the professional through.

"Damn, lousy weather coming." Sori says, "Used to be my arthritis would kick up from this. Small favors..."

Balina's cold nose touching heath causes him to leap out of the way at the top, and trips on something slippery, ending up on his stomach. A groan can be heard as his head hits the floor.

Sparhawk looks up and murmurs, "Never did find out why the circular storm..." while making the click-clack of claws pulling up next to the corpse being rescued. "I make a pretty good pickup truck, you may recall."

"...That doesn't sound good. Note to self; make nightvision goggles." Eithne mutters, peering into the darkness where heath groaned from.

[REDACTED] nods slowly at Sparhawk, and coordinates with Makena to heft it up. "We'll bring this back and then come back for the other body unless the others get him. I... I don't think it would be wise to just show up with that boy's father's body though without him being prepared." And she heads off with the three toward the sheriff's station.

Balina chuffs slightly as she picks her way past Heath, mumbling a too-sweet 'Thank you,' as she goes past. She sniffs at the ground as she goes past, continuing on the trail. Eithne's comments go unnoticed.

Sori says, "I'll stay here, but I'm gonna loop the building. I'd like to see if there's anything odd on the sides we're not seeing... Gran? Wanna come with?"

The second floor is equally pitchdark, and thick viscous liquid nips at Balina's paws, the scent growing more intense as she heads toward the source. Already up to her ankles as she digs deeper into the mess.

[Station] "Splitting up again, Sori?" Sparhawk asks with amusement. White silk on blue fur resists the indignities of having a poorly-preserved corpse on it, from zombie battle training at a distant hotspot.

Eithne fishes out a vial, as she hears her mate sloshing through something, and leans down to try and scoop some up for later examination.

"I'd rather not leave Inola here on her own. Care to join us?" Grantok side glances to the sheriff with a little bit of a smile on her face.

[Station] The trip back to the station takes but a few minutes, the sky's blue quickly returning. As they get the body free, it begins to twist and gasp, the man's eyes opening, black and gold.

[Station] Makena helpfully carries the man along with her. She seems to not have any issues with it!

Inola shivers, the wind hitting the human harder than those with fur. She follows quickly after the other two, as they shift around to the rear of the house. A stormcellar, one of the rare for the area in the rear, beyond a tiny backyard. The walls above seem to be bowing outward, more noticeable from the rare of the building. The crack of lightning followed by thunder strikes not far away, sparking dormant embers in the block.

[Station] Makena giggles as she looks back over her shoulder, "Hehe I think he's movin'?"

Balina continues wading, resisting the urge to lean down and lick up the mess to test it. She knows well enough what it is, but that doesn't seem to help. She pauses, briefly, as she feels Eithne squirming around, stooping slightly and pretending to inspect it as the sample is gathered.

"That... Ain't normal." Sori sniffs the air, and tries to determine the possible chance of collapse from the bulging. "More and more I don't like them being in there..."

Balina's pathway takes her to the source, what she's been searching for since she started the hunt. Fenris inside practically leaping out her mouth, her jaws salivating at the source, what is left behind. Kneedeep in the viscous fluid around her, barely inches away.

[Station] Makena is still holding the man up over her shoulder while he's twitching and gasping for air--looking back curiously to see what he's gonna do next. She doesn't get a look at his eyes from this position.

Balina summons up all the willpower she has, promising herself that this will be worth it, and reaches her head down to try and pick up her quarry, with the intent of dragging it out of the muck.

[Station] The corpses hand reaches out grasping at Makena nearby, his soulless eyes looking at the hyena. He moves his mouth the speak, nothing coming out, and then with a final shudder, the body pushes whatever it is out of it, from his mouth, and then the eyes shut and motionless, hand still wrapped around Makena's wrist.

The walls begin to buckle under the strain, the house not build for containing the flood inside. There's a shudder as one of the walls collapses, bringing the attic level down just a bit. Inside and out it rattles like the nearby thunder.

Balina's head dipping into the viscous fluid surrounding her, her jaws coming down on the crystalline fractured surface, she can taste the core, memories flooding into her, through her toward the waiting jaws of her inner rider. She can see each of the three passing by her, the elder, the sheriff and the raped girl. Her jaws hungering with little time before Fenris will take them.

Sorien acks, moving back away from the coming collapse, bringing Inola with.

"I agree wholeheartedly." Grantok looks to the stormcellar doors after giving the rest of the shoddy house the once over. She hops back from the building as part of it crumbles, coughing a little from the dust kicked up. "Hurry up in there, you three! It looks like the place is coming down any second now!" She shouts aloud.

Eithne shudders as the house does, glancing up and preparing to do something drastic if necessary. Balina is nudged, to try and keep her in the present, as well.

Heath's eyes open, the impact earlier having taking consciousness from him, a dazed look as the sound hits his ears. "Mrrrr" he groans, smelling Balina not far away, but not being able to see anything, where he is or how he got there.

[Station] Sparhawk observes the shuffling corpse with interest...and no camera. "Black and gold? That's a new set. Although it could just be Coyote and Shadow mooshed together in an unpleasant and completely unhelpful way."

Inola backs away a little too far, and lightning crashes down on the only tree in the yard but a dozen yards away. She's on her knees covering her ears.

[Station] [REDACTED]' shudders at the body's movement, relaxing only after she's sure the thing won't move again. Her eyes look toward Makena. "Did it hurt you?" she asks the Hyena.

[Station] Makena laughs, "It? I thought he was alive or something is it a zombie?? haha."

[Station] Makena turns and sets the body down on the ground, crossing her arms across her chest and looking over it curiously, smiling.

[Station] Makena giggles, "I felt him jigglin' around and then he grabbed my arm, what was goin on?"

[Station] Makena laughs, "Did he say anything? I'll bet it was 'rooosebuuud' "

Sorien kneels by Inola. "You okay?"

[Station] [REDACTED] hears the fingers break as Makena's wrist is pulled free. "I'm not entirely certain, beyond the corruption done here. This place is cursed much like it was when I killed my family in Dali." She sucks air through her teeth, "We found something similar in Sacremento, but on a larger scale."

Balina starts at the shuddering, and at the nudging, and especially the sharp crack of actual lightning. Her front paws splay further out as if she was afraid she was about to fall, and there's a cracking noise coming from her teeth. With a pained, "Mmmpf," she picks herself back up and begins to ever-so-slowly begin to turn around towards Heath and the stairs.

[Station] Sparhawk shrugs eloquently. "Seems to be over for now. We ought to get him home for a proper burial shortly. I can carry him if you're out of pop culture references, Ms. Yena?"

Inola's eyes look up toward the skunk. "I'm... I'm fine. I'm sorry, I'm not sure how you all are used to such strange things. What, may I ask, exactly happened to this place?"

Sori offers a hand up. "I'm... Not totally sure. In Sacramento we saw things equally weird, like the place had been blighted somehow. We've been calling the source of it all Shadow. This looks like some of that same evil, though it's a different manifestation."

[Station] Makena looks at Sparhawk and blinks, picking up the body again, "Hehe, you're one of those people who doesn't like to laugh."

[Station] Makena treks along towards the station. "Just let me know if he starts acting up again! Hehe"

[Station] The body remains calm as the three head back to the station, trip taking a decent amount of time. The everpresent heat of the Oklahoma summer returning to them as they hit the normal part of the city, the station less than a block away.

[Station] Sparhawk winces a little and gives half a smile to Makena. "Nonsense, I enjoy it rather a lot. I have had a bad year, especially compared to the previous two." Skunktaur trundles along at a moderate pace. "What, no eyes in the back of your head yet?"

Heath calls out, "Balina?" as he stumbles around. The walls crack again inside, the ceiling moving down a little bit more.

Inola uses the skunk as leverage to return to her feet, her jaws setting hard as the building further collapses. The lower floor walls appear bowed as well now, the structure's life seems limited at best.

Balina has her mouth full; it's not fair to try and ask her to talk. She does brush against Heath as she goes, making her movement a bit more obvious as she continues to try and remember where the stairs are. Another "Mmmph" gets muttered, this time with a little more urgency.

[Station] Makena asks, "Hehe, so [REDACTED], do you think there's anything *dangerous* about bringing this guy into town? I mean after he started freakin' out."

Grantok paces a little after the lightning strike, obviously unnerved. "It's more than similar to Sacramento. I'd venture to say that things here are the start of what happened there." She reaches for the stormcellar doors only to back up as the building shudders and collapses a little more.

The touch is enough to give Heath direction, padding after Balina, the two rushing down the stairs.

[Station] Makena asks, "Should we maybe tell somebody to come out here and have a looksee?"

Eithne grips tightly into Balina fur as her ride rushes down the stairs, keeping her ears up and moving to catch anything odd.

[Station] Makena giggles, "'cause if he's a zombie or something we might start an outbreak!"

[Station] [REDACTED] shakes her head, "It was worse to leave him there. More of that dark magic filling him. He was a man of peace, it's obvious that he let them do that to him without fighting back. Just look at his injuries." She sighs, "I doubt his body will reanimate, that's not how the Shadow tends to work."

[Station] Makena giggles, "Alright."

"Gran, get away from there. We can dig later if we have to. And... You had to suggest that, didn't you." Sori's ears are back, still watching the slowly-collapsing structure.

Just as the three reach the stairs below, the ceiling cracks, and the walls give completely, taking the upper floor down. Inside the three are coated as liquid squeezes down through the floorboard raining onto them. The walls below crack and buckle under the pressure.

Balina pauses for just a moment to groan, then begins moving that much quicker towards the exit.

Grantok cringes as the upper floor collapses downward, but remains near the doors. "We can dig, but I'd rather that we didn't have to do anything of the sort, especially if those three are still inside."

[Station] Sparhawk adds, "Mostly it's been geographically-linked, rather than the nanite infestation method. Earth and all that." Shi trots a little faster to look Makena in the face. "This guy's son is going to be upset when we show up, so I'm gonna deputize him and make sure he arranges a proper burial."

Sori starts at the accelerating collapse. "Sweetie, that ain't gonna be an option. That shit is coming down pretty much now."

Balina remembers as she's running that not only is there a body in her way, but she needs to grab it. She stops her movement enough for Heath to bump into her, and then nudges him with her mouth full to the body. Heath gets the picture and follows the icywolf, his jaws dragging at the sheriff's corpse. They reach the door, just as the frame starts to crack, the weight of the walls twisting the door. It seems locked shut.

Underneath the three, the floorboards quake as well, the weight of the three plus the corpse more than the collapsing house can take. The floorboards crack, a hole opening below all of them, sending them tumbling into the basement level.

Eithne grumbles at the blood splatter, and buries her face in Bal's cold fur. "... Why can't we ever go anywhere nice?" She starts, and then grumbles at the door problem, and glares at the obstruction. "... Let me deal with this, since your mo-Eeek!" which is, of course, when the floor breaks beneath them.

Balina gives a muffled yelp as her plan to look for a window is cut short by a terrible building code violation.

[Station] [REDACTED] shakes her head, "His father's body is still in that house. This was the elder lady's husband. She'll be glad to see his soul safe I'm sure." Her eyes search the station parking lot, the police car in it. "Come on though, he'll at least show us where to properly bury him." urging the three toward it with haste.

Reluctantly Grantok steps away from the house and stands aside Inola and Sori. "Alright. Just worried. Sorry."

The upper floor now buckles, tumbling the structure down, flattening the first floor. The structure looking now much like the others in the block. No sign of the three who went inside. Below, the three are being dripped on in a dank basement. There's light on the opposite end, dim but noticed.

[Station] Sparhawk frowns and mutters, "I am not used to having to identify people by actual sight," falling back in the three-person parade.

[Station] Makena follows along hastily!

Eithne looks over at the light at the end of the tunnel, and decides that enough darkness is enough. She closes her eyes, and then calls up her cloak of phoenix fire, wrapping it about herself lightly to try and give the three enough light to see what they're doing.

Sori starts, hearing the faint yells as the entire thing drops flat! She looks at Gran and says, "Well, We get to dig regardless." She waits a moment for the collapse to stabilize, then heads quickly for the cellar doors.

[Station] The three hit the police station, Ash looking surprised to see the three... with a body? He leaps out of the sheriff's chair he was lounging in, and heads for the door entrance quickly. He's to the three in now time, the young man Ash looking almost out of breath, his eyes searching the body, a moment of sadness in his eyes as he recognizes the face.

At the flattening of the structure, Grantok, coughs and waves away the inevitable dust that was kicked up. Upon not seeing the three, she swiftly joins Sori in freeing the stormcellar doors from the wreckage. "Damnit."

Balina was a little too dazed and squished to really complain, or even mutter the request first. Groaning again, she slowly picks herself up, blinks a few time in the now comparatively-glaring light, and starts taking vital inventory. Paws? Check. Head? Check. Most of own blood? Check. Now to make sure Heath is okay, just after checking on the thing she's been carrying this whole time.

Sori gets a grip at the door, and whether or not it's locked she yanks it open; she looks down inside, trying not to breathe too much dust and calls, "Bal? Heath?, Eithne?"

The doors open just as the phoenix bursts into life. The light flickering inside the building all at once illuminating the dazed heath, with a jawful of corpse, as well as Balina with a large fragment of obsidian in her jaws, meaty and thick, shining black and reflecting the light off of its surface. Around them, there's a thick black substance clinging to the walls, and dripping black blood still drizzling onto the floor below. The walls react to the light, moving and swelling, the shadow becoming animated and moving toward the light.

Eithne eeps! Noticing the incoming black, she shuts off her glow as quickly as possible, hoping that there was enough of a glimpse to navigate by.

[Station] Sparhawk tips hir hat to Ash. "Hey. Got an undertaker in this town? What may be capably described as the weird-shit-o-meter is spiking a little, and givin' the dead their proper respect is an important step in pushing it back."

Sori stops in shock, seeing the... Whatever it is. "Get out! We have to re-seal this from light!" She opens her satchel, dumping the contents away from the opening, then holding it out for Bal to deposit her burden into it, to seal it away from the light as well.

[Station] Ash' is startled again, looking up at Sparhawk, "Um... actually yes. I'll go call him. Bring the body inside and we'll rest him on the cell bed." turning back to quickly head for the phone. He fails to ask anything about his dad, just moving without question.

Grantok readies herself behind the cellar doors, and prepares to shut them the moment the three are outside. "Move it! NOW!"

Heath groans, his eyes finding purchase on the bubbling walls, going wide having never seen anything like it. He gets to his feet, and begins to tug at the corpse. A fragment of wall reaching out and grasping at the body.

[Station] Makena nods as she bring him in, looking for a place to place him but letting them tell her rather than simply plomping him down

Balina can move remarkably quickly when ample motivation is produced. Trotting out as soon as she knows Eithne isn't going to fall off, she spits out the obsidian chunk and begins eyeing back downstairs. "We've got a body down there. Not sure if we want it, but I think someone else might."

Heath tugs back at the body, and the wall pulls, a tug of wall with the thing clinging to its leg, wrapping around it. Heath pulling with all his might tears the very leg off the corpse, and falls back. Quickly recovering he drags it quickly up the stairs, the walls reaching out for him. He collapses onto the ground outside, corpse in tow, his head bloodied, looking like he took quite a beating.

[Station] Sparhawk weaves in with Makena and weaves a quick white sheet for the cell bed, trying to keep the battered mattress and blanket from more indignities. Shi drapes it over the bed, and over the ex-elder when Makena puts him down. "I'm gonna keep watch here, with my weird-shit-o-meter plugged in, 'kay?"

Sori wraps the chunk in her sachel tightly, rolling it up some to make sure no light gets in. "I don't know if we can get it at this point, not without somehow killing that stuff..." She backs away from the building.

[Station] [REDACTED] is waiting near Ash as he finishes his phonecall. Ash looks up toward Spar however, and asks, "Did... did you see my dad there? Inola told me not to try to get his body. I assumed it burned..."

Grantok slams the doors shut the moment that the second wolf exits with body in tow, pressing what little weight the lynx can provide at keeping them sealed.

[Station] Makena rests him down carefully and gets a wall to lean on.

Eithne clambers off of Bal's back, and glares at the door and the darkness beyond it. She crosses her arm, tongue poking from between her teeth as she gives some serious thought to things. "... Still wonder what Phoenix Fire would do that, applied directly, but. We have it except for a leg... And I'm not sure if we can get that leg back, exactly." She paces a moment, frowning.

"I think we do without, Eithne. You did fantastic getting the sheriff out, Heath. Thank you." Sori looks at the former-home. "We need Spar here. Shi had some tricks that might help seal this, I think. D'you see my comm anywhere? I was in a hurry and it should be on the ground here somewhere..."

Inola extends her hand, "You mean this? I saw you drop it a few minutes ago." quietly placing it in the skunk's hand.

Balina lays down panting somewhat now that danger has, nominally, passed. "It was both brave and stupid, and I'm sorry I was more concerned about that... whatever that thing is. Sorien, you scrambled to seal that thing up awfully fast. Just general concern, or can I get a good look at it now?"

Grantok fishes through her pockets, getting an idea from what Sori mentioned earlier. "Lesse. Hope, no. Moon. Bone. Water. Ahh. There we are. Tooth. Going to try something in the meantime." She replaces the other wooden coins in her pocket and retrieves her own little tooth. "I wouldn't recommend it, Bal. And I'm not about to get offa these doors either."

Sori replies, "General concern. I don't trust ANYTHING concerning Shadow, sweetie. It just looked like a big crystal, but if you think it's safe..." Gran gets a look and a nod. "Don't sit on any seams on the doors- don't want that stuff oozing up into you."

[Station] Sparhawk shakes hir head, but immediately continues, "Whether the sudden and geographically-limited storm was caused or hastened by The Jerks leaving this body strung up in a way...I do not have clinically detached words for, removing it from the area was important. Other people are looking for your father's body and will report as soon as they can." Shi reaches out and takes Ash's hand, the better to monopolize his attention. "We're going out to kick The Jerks in the face. They are terrible people and deserve a terrible fate. But what I need you to do, is make really sure these bodies get buried in a dignified way. Being angry and following us will mean this town might look like that house soon. /You/ need to prevent that."

Balina snorts. "Smelled important, but I'll defer to local authorities until you can do whatever you need to. Think I got... most of it earlier, anyway." Pacing over, she nudges Heath a couple of times, and gives him a somewhat concerned look. "Got a little carried away. Uh, as always. Hope you learned something in there, at least."

"And let light in for the shadows to feed on? Not bloody likely." She pricks her paw with her tooth and smears a little of the blood on the coin. Then etches the symbol of the coin onto each of the doors, along with a few other sealing symbols she recalls from the mansion back in Sacramento.

Sori looks Heath over. "I'm going to heal you some, sweetie; you don't look like you're badly hurt, but just in case. Someone use the comm and let the others know what we've found, or get them back here."

Eithne sighs, and walks over to Heath. "Here, let me help." The neko begins carefully applying Phoenix Fire, attempting to sooth the wounds the wolf has taken.

[Station] As blinks as he processes Spar's words. He says softly, "I will do my best. I really wish I was there to help my dad, he might not have died if I was only strong enough." eyes looking away a bit guilty. A heavy sigh, releasing tension, he gets up and moves to the cell. "We'll make sure he has a proper burial for an elder, will need to get the whole town together to celebrate his passage."

Heath is surrounded in attention, something else he isn't used to. He remains largely quiet, his vocal abilities limited anyway. He's plopped half on top of the body, in a rather undignified way.

There's a strange aura of power surrounding the doorway as Grantok finishes the spell. A gentle warmth, and a lowering pressure as a vacuum seems to be created inside. There's creeks on the door as it pulls solidly inward, and then it spreads to the rest of the house, the whole thing pulling in on itself creating a solidly sealed frame.

[Station] Sparhawk's voice follows Ash to the cell. "An elder's burial with his people is way more effective than bullets! Don't let it eat at you, can't refight battles after they're over. The next one's the important one." Shi meanders meanwhile to the front doors, peering at the ruined end of town.

Grantok slowly stands, stepping away from the doorway with a minor sigh of relief. "Well I'm surprised that worked as well as I had hoped. I'd like to think that should hold for a while." She turns to the others with a look of concern. "Shall we take the rest of this away from here before the mood changes again?"

After her tandem-healing of Heath is done, Sori blinks at the effect Gran generated. "... Wow. Damn, you'll have to teach me that!"

Sori scans the house, then her companions. She starts collecting her dumped possessions, saying, "Yeah. Back to the cop-shop I guess. "Are you three okay, I mean really okay?"

Heath says simply. "Yes... maybe. Head hurts."

Balina is a suffering from slight weird-shit fatigue, and merely shakes her head at the apparently-sealed house as the group begins to move. "Can we catch up on all of this later? I think my need for a bath is, at the moment, overriding my natural curiosity. Can't smell anything but House now."

Balina appears a little surprised to even be asked. "A little annoyed, a lot of messy, but I found a thing. I don't think there's much to be gained for going, 'Yup, this was Shadow', but... ask me again after I have a little more time to collect myself. I did say that thing smelled important."

Grantok shuffles her tools back into her pockets on the return to the station. "Just trying to put a little practical application to the bits of knowledge that Dirt left with us." Her voice still sounds a little solemn at the mention of his name. "The details of it were in the notes I left you a while ago Sori. The rest were runes from the mansion in Sacramento."

Eithne examines the symbols on the doors carefully before the group leaves, trying to etch them into her memory.

The group manages a hasty exit from the place, carrying the body and the obsidian stone out of the area. The legless body does not reanimate like the other on exiting, the group nonethewiser of the other event, and they reach the station just as a truck pulls in, an middle aged grim man doesn't really even bat an eye at the menagerie of shapes approaching.

Grantok watches the truck pull up with mild interest.

Sparhawk loiters about, tracking movements of adventurers and locals. And the continued lack-of-movement of dead bodies.

Sori says,"Well... We're back. Is there somewhere that Bal can de-slime available?"

Noting a delayed response, Balina cranes her head to look upward. "You okay up there, love? You were more or less stuck following my stupid nose around the whole time."

Makena snarls, "Hrm... so, hehe, where should we go from here do you think?"

Eithne waves to the others as the groups reunite. "Hey all. And not just Balina, though she's worse-off from walking in it. Her and Heath... and I'm fine, love. Though this has given me the resolve to look into nightvision technology." Then she glances over towards Makena, and then gives a pointed look towards the truck and the old man that stepped from it. "I think what's next came to us, though."

Inola nods, "There's a shower in the station's bathroom since this place was converted. The plumbings a bit weird, but you should be able to get hot water." pointing to a door that heads into the back.

Ash spots the group, and then the body, and goes very, very pale.

Sori's ears go down, seeing Ash's reaction. "... We're sorry... We got him out, but... There were complications."

Makena peeks out the window of the station and smiles "Think he's related to that lady?"

"Navigating without sight will serve you better than wearing tiny lights on your face," interjects Spar with ears perked to overhear what happened. Spar goes still and quiet when Ash goes pale, though.

"Just water's fine," Balina says, with only a minor bit of sniggering, as she steps around the group on her way into the station. "Hope none of this stuff got too deep into my pack... and that there's enough space for a... hm. Never mind, we'll make do."

Ash moves toward the body as it's set, and the undertaker comes up to him, placing his hand on the boy's shoulder. "He died well, boy. He'll be proud of you holding yourself together." The man then looks up at the group. "I thank you for honoring us by returning our fallen brethren." a gentle flat smile.

"I wish we could have done more." Sori's ears stay down.

Eithne nods in solemn agreement with Sorien, but moves on with Bal, looking towards where she estimates the shower to be. "Give a holler if you need us for anything, please."

Grantok nods in sentiment along with Sorien. "The land there will likely need some cleansing beyond what we've done. Just be wary to keep people away from it in the meantime. For all your sakes."

Makena smiles at the man, "What is your name? I'm Makena."

Sparhawk sits, then sits, then finishes sitting. Shi remains quiet, listening to chatter going by at about ear-level.

The undertaker speaks quietly, "Milap. Mil is fine." a slight bow, and then he moves to lift the legless sheriff's body up toward his truck. "Is this the only one?" he asks.

Makena looks around at the others curiously

"One other... Where'd you place the Elder, Spar?" Sori asks.

Sparhawk points through the front wall of the police station. '"Ash suggested the cell's bed, and so it was. I'll continue offering my help with carrying."[[Category:[REDACTED] Events]]