It's fair to say that the worn-out, salmon-hued tiles of the diner's floor have seen many things pass over them, shod in any manner of things, but bright metal and hooves is rare enough. A big, dark mare is settled near the stove, her legs curled, a table and chair pushed rough aside to make room for her. A long trail of melting snow, dirt and flecks of red run from the door to her. She's a mess from head to hoof, but for the moment dozing.

The door opens, and Ren wanders in, humming to himself, though he and it stop short when he sees the horse. "...Huh," he remarks, mainly to himself, "Don't see that every day." The flecks of red get his attention; he wanders closer, looking to see whether they might be anything to worry about.

For those with the senses for it, there's sure the scent of blood about. The mare wakes as the door opens, lifts her head sharp and snorts. A dark eye fixes on Ren, she makes a rough-edged sound. Still, under all of the mud, she doesn't look wounded.

The back door to the diner creaks open, and a bit of noise precedes Danny's appearance in the kitchen doorway. His hair is dusted with snow that he brushes at absently, the majority of his attention on Ruth as he sniffs at her. He has his satchel with him, and it clicks and clacks with the promise of odds and ends.

The mare does not turn her head, but then she doesn't have to. She snorts again, nostrils flared wide, then lowers her muzzle an inch. A shiver runs along her flanks. Thundersnow. Then she blinks and lowers her head, looks towards the stove and burrs out a long breath.

Serendipity flashes a grin to Danny, and continues his way toward the kitchen, opening the fridge and rummaging a bit.

"*You* don't look so great," Danny informs Ruth as he sets his satchel on a barstool and shrugs out of his cloak. "Run into something out there?" He vanishes back into the kitchen for a moment to prepare the customary pot of tea, shuffling past Ren as he fills a large kettle and sets it to boiling.

I did, Eshu's Daughter says, a low sound in her long throat. Sun up from here, not far. Her ears flatten along her skull, then she shakes her head, casting bits of snow and mud about.

Serendipity finds some leftover casserole of some kind, and serves himself up a good plateful, wandering back into the main room. "...So what's the story?" he asks, dropping into a seat at the table.

Eshu's Daughter twists her head about to look at Serendipity, flares her nostrils out. A thing. Legs. A lot of legs. It was under the snow.

Danny returns from the kitchen and takes a pair of small winter apples from the day's offerings. He skirts the counter and offers one to Ruth while biting into the other. "Tart," he warns her. "But tasty."

Eshu's Daughter spies the apple with a dark eye and turns her head back towards it. She lowers her muzzle, soft lips brush Danny's palm. And then, like magic, the apple's gone and broad teeth flash as she crunches it.

"Who's been talking?" Serendipity asks Danny, mock-offended, and grins again, starting in on his food.

Danny rolls his eyes at Ren in as good-natured a fashion as possible, and gives Ruth a stern look. "So what did you run in to?"

Eshu's Daughter bumps Danny's hands with her muzzle, along one of his forearms, gets bits of apple on him as she snorts. I don't know. It had a lot of legs, it was sleeping under the snow. She turns her ears back. I don't know, smelled wrong.

"Lots of legs?" Danny frowns. "Did it--can you smell the Corruptor? Is that what it smelled like?" He drifts back into the kitchen to check on the tea water, and comes back with a healthy wedge of beige cheese and a loaf of rye bread instead.

Serendipity grins, then sobers a little, looking Ruth over. "Lotsa legs? ...huh. How big? What colour, an' all?" He looks at least halfway to Danny with it, as if expecting him to translate.

I can't, it smelled like it was burning. Eshu's Daughter turns her head about to nuzzle along her stoveward side. There are a few long scratches there, a crescent-shaped bite. Healing. Were she a normal horse it could have happened weeks ago. Black. It stood out on the snow. Fast. I haven't fought anything that fast before. She lashes her sodden tail against the floor.

Justin is not half a step through the door when he says with great alarm, "Ruth!" and strides to the mare's side without acknowledging either of the other men. "Ruth, are you all right, what happened?"

Danny sets to slicing some bread and cheese. "Black, lots of legs, and it smelled burnt," he recounts, as much for himself as for Ren. "And fast. Where were you on the mountain?" He nibbles at some of the cheese and mumbles a hello to Justin.

Serendipity arches a brow, listening, and greets Justin with a light wink, but nothing more.

Eshu's Daughter lifts her head up. Settled on the floor as she is, though, she doesn't stir from her place. She turns a dark eye towards Justin, whickers, rough-edged and tired. It'll heal, she says to Justin, in the cant of her head, the burr of her equine voice. I'm fine. For a horse who looks like she tumbled down from the mountain, maybe she is. I wasn't on the mountain.

Justin cups the mare's chin in one hand and brushes back her forelock with the other, watching her intently, but without comprehension. He shakes his head and looks at Danny. "I think she's saying something but I don't know what. She's okay?"

"This wasn't around *here*, was it?" Danny asks, sounding alarmed. He glares at the kitchen as the tea kettle starts whistling, and goes to assemble mugs and steepers. His voice drifts out from the kitchen, "She's healing. I really wish we had a near-man form sometimes."

Eshu's Daughter lips at Justin's hand, snuffs out a warm breath. I'll live. She turns an ear towards Danny. Not far, out on the path, sun up from here. I killed it.

Serendipity eats, and listens. Well, to what he can hear, at least. The rest he just watches.

Justin sighs, his lips set in an unhappy line. He looks Eshu's Daughter over again, more carefully, noting the healing wounds. "We'll have to increase patrols," he observes, straightening up after caressing the mare's jaw.

Eshu's Daughter snorts, presses her muzzle into Justin's hand. Faint, tired, human laughter stirs, though only he can hear it. /* Does this mean you'll go? There's always trouble. */

Danny brings out the tea pot, some mugs, a few steepers, and a jar of black currant tea, all neatly assembled on a tray. "Damn straight," he agrees with Justin. "She says she killed it. It didn't look like it had mates or offspring? No other tracks or smells?"

That earns another snort from the mare. I don't think so. Her ears flatten against her skull. Smelled like the only one, but I didn't look.

Justin laughs quietly in response to--well, nothing, apparently--and leans his forehead for a moment against Ruth's. "Of course I'll go. You've only to ask." He draws away, as Danny queries Ruth further, and still casting worried little looks at the mare, goes to find himself some lunch. "I'm nearly done with the underground part of the hive battle, Danny."

Primly, Danny says, "Guess we have to go hunt burnt-smelling leggy things." He pours hot water into the mugs and sets the tea to steeping, making his own tea a little stronger than usual. "Good! I've been looking for something to read." He reaches into his satchel and pulls out a carved riverstone, turning it over and over in his hand absently.

Serendipity turns to arch a brow toward Danny. "You're gonna read burnt leggy things? Y'know,we've =got= a whole library 'cross the street..."

One was enough. The mare curls her head down, seems to draw inward, then the figurative becomes the literal. She makes a strangled sound, a rusty whicker as hooves splay out into fingers and toes, and then Ruth rocks back onto her rear and wraps her arms around her middle. "Ah-- g. Ah. Right." She reaches up to cover her mouth with a hand, hard, then stills. "Mg." She's filthy from head to toe, but for all of that, there's little blood on her. "I don't know if it was waiting, or sleeping," she says, dark and rusty. "Just there."

Justin winces in sympathy as he watches Ruth's transformation. "You're in pain. I think there's some willow bark powder around here somewhere." He turns his search for food into search for painkiller.

Serendipity reaches into his coat, rummages a moment, and comes out with a small bottle. He eyes it, then holds it out vaguely in Ruth's direction. "Or there's this," he offers, "...gonna need the bottle back after, but."

Danny hands Ruth a mug of the tea and sips at his own tentatively. "No, read about the Hive's underground battle," he tells Ren. "I was outside for most of it, so I'd like to know how things went."

Ruth, undaunted, pulls herself up to her feet, stands there like the ground was miles away, then sits down hard on a chair. She gives the bottle and tea a bleary look, shakes her head. "Thanks," she murmurs.

"Ruth, shift back, you're not doing yourself any good," Justin scolds from the kitchen, amidst the quiet clicks and tings of glass bottles being pushed against each other and moved around. "...I need you to fill in what happened above ground, anyway, Danny, so you can tell me and I'll transcribe."

Serendipity shrugs goodnaturedly, and puts the bottle back from whence it came. "Suit yourself," he remarks lightly, and polishes off his plate of food. "So, what's this underground hive battle thing?"

Ruth pulls her shirt up and looks at her middle, new wounds drawn over an older scar, something long and narrow that twists down a side, from her middle down to her hip. "Better not scar," she mutters. "Enough of those." She looks towards the kitchen and snorts, then leans forward, holds her hands out. The chair clatters as she surges up, as hooves thump along the aged floor. Then, she's a mare again, lashes her sodden tail as she settles with a groan near the stove.

"Although, it *is* easier to drink steeped willow bark." Danny sets Ruth's mug aside and takes up the riverstone again, running his fingers over the carving in its surface. "When we went to fight the Hive, there were two groups, the folks outside and the folks inside. I was outside. Justin was inside, with Ruth and some others. There was a lot going on, but I can still remember most of the details."

"Rowan, Bryce, Arrow's Flight, Dali, and Lucas," Justin recounts, clanking things around in the kitchen. "I rode Ruth. We went underground to strike the heart of the Hive. That's when I got the streak in my hair, after I struck the blow that shattered the soul-powered magical circle that powered the Hive." He pauses for a brief second, eyes distant, a jar of something forgotten in his hand, then reanimates and sets about whatever he was doing. "Destroyed it utterly." It's all said quite matter of factly.

"Go you," Serendipity replies, only the very slightest =touch= dry. "Presumably everyone else was busy killin' things too, yeah? Sounds like the party of the year."

Eshu's Daughter snorts, low and dark.

Danny listens to Justin and nods thoughtfully. He gives Ren a narrow look and his repetitive turning of the riverstone pauses for just a moment. "Only if death is something you expect at a party," he says in a low voice. "Up top we were fighting some of their magickers and the villagers, and these small werewolves."

"We dealt with one fairly small ambush on the way down, and then, well, it's too complicated to easily tell, you can read it if you like when I'm finished." Justin's stirring something as he speaks, a spoon tinking rapidly against the sides of a mug, which he brings out to the mare. "Here it is, I looked up the dosages so it's all right. It'll taste like hell, though, but, it should help. I hope."

Eshu's Daughter lifts her head, draws Justin within the measure of a dark eye. Bits of dirt cling to her matted, tangled mane. She cants her head, turns it to look at the mug. What is it?

"Mine woulda tasted better," Ren comments. "What kinda small werewolves? I mean -- like, cubs or something?"

Danny shakes his head at Ren. "No, more like...dwarf werewolves. When one changed back she was a girl, maybe ten years old." He starts in on his bread-and-cheese sandwich and chases the occasional bite with a sip of tea.

"Acetylsalicylic acid," Justin answers Eshu's Daughter promptly. "Hence, it'll taste like hell. Ought to ease your aches, though."

Eshu's Daughter whickers, warm and quiet. Remembered that smell from somewhere. The mug gets a dark-eyed glance. If I drink from that, it will spill.

Serendipity's brow furrows. "They had ten year olds fighting?" He sighs, shaking his head. "That's fucked up."

"Yeah," Danny agrees with a grimace. "It was a fucked up place. Good riddance." He holds up his mug in a salute to that, then takes a healthy drink from it.

Justin frowns, slowly, watching Eshu's Daughter's horse-speech with a sort of blank intensity. He doesn't reply to her, but gets a bowl deep enough for her to drink from and pours the tea into it, then sets it down for her. "Of course you can't use a cup while you're trying to heal," he mutters, more to himself than to her, raising his voice to say to Ren, "'Fucked up' is an excellent way to put it."

Serendipity grins, fleetingly. "I've gotta way with words. It is, though."

Eshu's Daughter lowers her head to bump her muzzle and forehead against Justin's arms, an amiable gesture though it leaves him mucky as well. /* Thanks. */ She drinks from the bowl, though she cants an ear towards Ren and Danny.

"At least it's gone now, and those madness spirits aren't running around anymore." Danny begins cutting pieces of bread and cheese for another sandwich, adding a few slices of apple as well.

Eshu's Daughter lifts her head from the bowl and snorts. Her tongue sticks out, she licks at her muzzle, then shakes her head. Ugh!

Justin smiles at the mare, brushing mud from his sleeves. "No trouble, Foe-Hammer." -Now- he goes to find food, and Danny's cache attracts him. "Spare some for a poor starving alchemist?" He adds, "The Hive's gone, but Argent's not. He's got his black heart set on our caern."

Eshu's Daughter twists her head about, tosses flecks of mud from her stringy mane, then turns an eye towards the others. There is a lot still to do. The hive isn't really gone until he's gone.

Serendipity tilts his chair back, arm draped over the back. "So, what's to know about this Argent guy? Where's he hide out, and how come you haven't all gone to get him yet? Really powerful?"

Danny nods, making a muffled sound of affirmation as he pushes the cutting board and its offerings towards Justin. The cheese appears to have been flavored with mustard seeds and dill, and the rye bread is fresh and soft. Half of the small winter apple remains as well. Once he's swallowed his mouthful of sandwich, Danny says, "He's an Urge Lord Alpha. Very, very, *very* powerful. I'll be a lot happier when he's dead."

Justin cuts some bread for himself. "He wears a magical artifact, an arm forged from silver, and he and his twisted tribe are no longer hurt by silver. He can turn things into silver, as well, which is bad news for -our- shifter folk. Very powerful, very intelligent. He's a devil." Again, this is all said with the matter of factness of someone explaining a bus route.

Serendipity considers this a moment. "So the arm-thing protects him from it, or lets him do the transformation, or what?"

Eshu's Daughter licks at her muzzle and snorts, then gives that apple half a look.

Danny lets Justin answer questions regarding Argent, as the Perunka doesn't know anything more than he's already said, and pulls another apple from the basket for Ruth. He offers it to her, keeping his eyes mostly on Justin and Ren.

Eshu's Daughter leans her head forward to lip the apple up, crunches it noisy between broad teeth. He ran at the end, when the hive was falling, but someone like him-- He had plans. Kept some of his people. Anything.

"I assume the artifact is the source of all of his power that doesn't come standard with Garou." Justin shrugs a little. "I don't know for sure, of course, but it's logical." He shuts up to eat.

Serendipity nods, relaxing back more. "So, any particular plans to get the thing away from him, then? Know where the guy's hanging out, or anything?"

"She says he ran in the end, but that someone like him has plans," Danny supplies for Ren and Justin. "I just hope the arm *is* his major power source, because if it's not, removing it won't really help."

Justin shakes his head, swallowing. "No clue. I suppose Lucas could sit on him in his centaur form while somebody amputates..."

The mare flares her nostrils and snorts, then with some effort clatters to her hooves. Her bright metal shoes make a din on the worn tiles, clop and clank and thud. She whisks her stringy tail, cranes her neck about to look at her side. The wound's still there, but it's faded now. Whatever turns him and his arm into little bits will be what we want.

"Huh." Ren looks disturbingly thoughtful, a bit distant. "Wonder how he's got the thing attached. Wonder how he keeps it from freezing in this weather..." He drums his fingertips on the table a few time, quickly. "So if he's the planning type, you guys're gonna go hunt him down on your time and not when he comes for the fight all prepared, yeah?"

Danny nods at Ren and takes up the riverstone again, now that his sandwich is finished. "I think so. Julen's mentioned it before. The weather's not the sort of that, though. I imagine that'll be first priority at the Melt."

"That's the plan," Justin says, also thoughtful, although in him it's far more reassuring than in Ren; he's not known for his propensity to sled down mountains in ice storms, after all.

"At melt, huh?" Serendipity repeats, and then grins exceedingly toothily. "I say, do it now."

"Draw up a plan and offer it to Julen," Justin suggests.

Eshu's Daughter steps towards the long counter, slow and certain. Her hooves ring and clatter on the floor, her hide twitches along where the long cuts still heal. She lowers her head to catch a loaf of bread up from a basket, takes a great bite from it, then skews an ear as the rest flops down onto the counter. Come on-- She chews on what she has, cants her head to look where the rest went. Horses being horses, she can't see that it's in front of her.

Danny snags the rest of the loaf and pulls it apart into two smaller, more manageable pieces. He offers one to the mare and grins at Justin and Ren. "Maybe Argent's secret weakness is sleds. We can lure him out with one."

Rosebud? The mare lowers her head, neck arched, to gather the loaf up. She is mindful in a way that horses often aren't, not to take fingers along with it. It was right there, wasn't it?

Serendipity snirks and grins back at Danny. "Hey, y'never know. But c'mon, he won't expect it, right? So all you gotta do is figure out how to use the weather against him, in your favour, and you're golden."

Justin runs his fingers through Eshu's Daughter's mane, dislodging dried mud and blood and trying to disentangle the long strands. "You're a mess," he murmurs, dusting his hand off on his jeans. He grins a little at Ren. "Well, if you've any suggestions, feel free to put them on the table. I'm not good at strategy myself. Except for chess, I'm all right with chess."

Danny gives Ruth a puzzled look, but confirms for her, "Yes it was." He nibbles at the second piece of the loaf and toys with the riverstone again. "Speaking of strategies, I should to get back to the house and do a little more with the workshop plans."

Eshu's Daughter thumps a hoof on the floor, turns a dark eye to Justin. While I was showing it my hooves, we fell. Near a creek, the ground was steep. She whickers, low and rough, lowers her head as she finishes the rest of the bread. Perhaps it's only coincidental that this aids the mage in his work.

Serendipity hehs. "I dunno most people'd consider it strategy as such... but hey, y'know, whtever works, I say." He shrugs, and stands, stretching idly. "Gotta find the guy, first. Then you work with whatcha got."

Justin nods at Danny, and makes a vague sound of vague agreement at Ren, like he can't actually -dis-agree. He keeps running his fingers through the dark mane of the mare. Suddenly he tells her, "Let me brush you down, you're covered head to hoof in dirt and blood, it can't be comfortable for you."

Eshu's Daughter turns her head, slow and almost solemn, looks around Justin at the long trail of muck, a tangle of human and equine prints across the floor. Then she lowers her head, a single nod.

Danny sets the chunk of bread down on the counter, temptingly within Ruth's reach, and pulls on his cloak. He gives Justin an amused, almost sly look as he takes up his satchel--a classic 'you dog you' expression--and drops the riverstone inside. "I'll see y'all later." He waves as he heads out the front door, saying, "Wind at your backs," and a small swirl of snow sneaks inside as he slips out.

Eshu's Daughter turns her head about, quick and easy, catches the bread up in her mouth. It's gone in a few bites.

Serendipity tosses Danny a lazy mock-salute, and watches Justin and the Perunka. "S'pose that'll leave me plentya quiet to strategize in," he remarks wryly, and wanders over to glane out the window, checking the weather.

Justin gives Danny a bewildered look. "What was -that- about," he mutters, wide-eyed. "Come on, Foe-Hammer, let's go find somewhere to clean you up that won't give Rowan a heart attack." He nods at Ren, "Think about it, and let us know if you come up with anything good."

Eshu's Daughter burrs a breath out between thick lips, then wheels about, each step a ringing thump on the worn old floor. I have no idea. She whisks her tail and follows Justin out into the snow.