1880, March -- East Texas (IC)

Horace

Outside the Cabin | Nathaniel and Kaladin
Kaladin, nothing looks amiss or dangerous to your eyes. Just a normal ol' dirty unkempt hermits cabin, with too many herbs hung to dry from the rafters.

After getting attention of the young man next to him and signaling to move away from the window so they can talk without chance of being heard. Kaladin whispers to the young man: "can ya keep an eye through the window, I'm gonna to speak to the lady. Signal me if something looks off"

Kaladin walks to the door and knocks twice.

The Cabin in the Woods | Kaladin and Nathaniel
Kaladin, your knocking echoes through the clearing, causing several crow to take flight with loud CAW CAWin'. Some feathers float down around.

"Yes!" the old woman shouts from within. "Yes, come in now. Come now, don't be shy." She laughs with a dry cackle. Classic.







A Metaphorical Precipices Under the Pines | Horace
Horace, William Hayes opens his mouth to tell you off...

And then stops. He seems to have changed his mind. Perhaps he sees fate has brought him a confidant. He sighs. "Look... I don't know you from Adam, but maybe that's a good thing. Just--just follow me and I'll explain on the way." He laughs, sadly to himself. "But ya ain't gonna believe me old timer. I don't even believe me. I think I'm losing my mind..."

He starts heading off deeper in to the forest, parallel to the town--but waiting to see that you follow him.

Do you follow him Horace?

Nathaniel nods, happily obliging to Kaladin talking to the old witc...lady, instead of him. "The signal is this..." as he pulls his left earlobe down twice. Slowly creeping his head back up the windowsill, he keeps watch on the cron...old lady.

"Well young man that's fine. I can tell you are an upstanding man and I have no need of knowing you in order to follow you."

To say Horace was well and truly hooked on the mystery now would be an understatement. He followed along enthusiastically.

Weaving Through the Pines, Keeping Up with a Spray Young Man | Horace
William picks his way between the trees, talking as he goes. "I've always wandered the hills. Loggers, prospectors, hunters; there's always folks out here campin' and gettin' in to things. I talk to 'em about places they been and things they seen."

He hopes a knee high log and offers a hand to old ol' Horace if he takes it.

"I write their tales and stories down--fantastic adventures.
Well maybe not as fantastic as Jules Vern, but to me it's somethin'. I wanna travel the world! Explore stuff."

He holds a fern back for Horace to walk past.

"One night, months back, I was invited into the camp of some travelin' folk. The sort who go town to town and repair ol' pots an' the like. I listened to their music, shared their food and heard some tales--some dark and spooky, legends of creatures prowling in the moonlight. When I go to write 'em down their elder gets agitated and orders me to leave."

"But some seem agitated by that and beg me to stay--sayin' it ain't safe to walk the woods. Anyway, I was getting afeared so I left. But.."

He stops. The Pines blow in the wind.

"On the way back home I was savaged by a beast." He starts walking again. "Some of the traveling folk came outta no where and chased it off. I thought I was not long for this earth, what with the way I was bleeding. But they nursed me and by the next day... my wounds was healed..."

The path you're on takes a sharp turn round a ridge then down toward an old pine log bridge spanning a gurgling creak.

"I thought it all odd but behind me. Then the nightmares started. And the fevers an' chills. I saw ghosts and vomited all I ate for a week. Until the full moon... then I transformed. In to a monster; or at least I imagine I did! Its all so unreal! I have memories of running the night forest, and, and and mauling and eating... eating people."

A woman stands up from sitting on the bridge--she wasn't obvious before.

"William!" She runs toward you two, a burlap sack in her hand. "William are you alright?! I've got your clothes and--" she stops when she sees Horace, obviously taken aback at his presence.

"May, it's alright. I just had to tell someone and God put this man in front of me as a kind ear to hear it all!"





They both look at Horace to see how he feels after all this information has been dumped on him.

"It was you! You are the creature we seek! But it's alright! This is wonderful!"

Horace claps his hands together gleefully. He can't believe his luck.

"You have been made into a werewolf young man but have no fear. You only need to confine yourself every full moon and you will hurt no one. All the rest of the days you can live as your normal self! Why this is amazing. You are a lucky man indeed. You have been blessed."

Turning to the lady he asks, "And you are? perhaps you would be willing to help him stay confined on the aforementioned day?"

Besie the Gurgling Creek | Horace
"I sure as heck don't feel lucky..."

Ms. Decker's eyes go wide. "You're one of them strangers was in my house last night," she exclaims to Horace.

"Strangers in your house? Why was--"

She interupts William, cutting of his uncomfortable line of questioning. She softens it with a hand on his cheek.

She looks at Horace and says, "We tried that Mister. One month I helped Billy into a mine shaft and pulled the ladder up after me."

She stares loving and deep into Williams eyes as she continues. "He howled all night but couldn't get out to eat. This was the first of his three nights... and hand to God he almost died for want of...eaten..."

William is sweating more, and wipes his brow. "I can't explain it to ya Mr. Phinney, but I know as I know the sky is blue that if I dont...feed...during those three nights I'll die. Sure as the sun rises in the East."

Jeremiah stands with his arms folded over his massive chest. He has sorrow in his eyes, but looks to Horace to see where he leads.

after a glance at the young man and not seeing any indication that something is amiss, Kaladin opens the door and steps inside cabin. The smell of the stew takes him aback for a minute before he looks over at the old woman. "good day - happen to come across your cabin while wondering the woods, names Kaladin. Has anything out of the ordinary happened in these woods recently?"

The Cabin in the Wood | Kaladin
She smiles in greeting at Kaladin. "Welcome. Y'all can call me Alta Evans."

"As to your question, well there's always something 'out of the ordinary' round rhese parts." She cackles.

"Come, sit. I'll read your palm." She pats the stool next to her.

An uneasy feeling at the notion of a palm reading rises at the pit of his stomach but feelings be damned and Kaladin suppresses it telling himself he is not superstitious and the curiosity of this old woman and a fortune reading overrules his sense of unease.


taking a seat next to the old woman, and extends his hand while keeping a close watch on the woman.

In the Cabin | Kaladin
She takes your hand in her leathery pair then "Huuuhc, *patoow*" spits right in your palm and rubs it round.

"Mmm. Mmm. MMM. Your past. It's closer than you think. I see its line intersects here." She pokes your palm. "You'll be dealin' with it before the moon is out..."

"A big decision is looming, with lives hangin' in the balance. I see two moons in your sky, not one."

"But more immediate: I advise you find wolfsbane in the nearby hollow, hang it round your neck an' leave town."

"The beast you seek fears it. And," she points to a pentagram scrawled on her wall in a dark red substance, "it can't stand the mark of Baphomet. But your faith would need strength carry that sign."

"That is all I see."

I understand William but we must do what we must and you are alive and well. That is lucky young man. Turning to May he says, "Yes that's right miss. Horace Phinney again at your service."

Horace listens intently his eyes widening in excitement. "Ah three days is it? Well then someone brings you food then or else you will perish? Is that correct?"

Near the Creek | Horace
"Food... Yes that's right Mr. Phinney," William says.

"Except, this ain't something natural. This is a curse, there's no question about it." The sweat is fairly running off him now.

"It's not just meat the monster wants. It ain't just flesh. It's the fear, and, God have mercy, it's the soul."

May dabs her eyes with a kerchief.

"I think I 'fed' last night Mr. Phinney. On a buck or somethin'. But the hunger ain't gone. It needs to be a human soul, to slack the hunger. An' once I've devoured 'em their soul joins the rest I've eaten--a never-ending crowd of ghouls I carry with me."

"If I close my eyes, I can see them--those I ate. I see their lives while I eat 'em."

He looks sadly at Horace. "I'm open to tryin' anything though... Just, tell me what you want me to do?"