Devil's Tower

Who: Jace and Bishop
What: Angst, guilt, and more of the usual
When: Late Thursday night
Where: The top of the stairs and their room
Rating: R

He'd known it wasn't a good idea. Knowing that, he'd even mentioned it to Bishop and she'd told him that it wasn't a good idea, and he'd agreed. He still did it.

Jace hated feeling defenseless. Even if the people around them right now weren't a threat, it still bothered him. It had been years since he'd just walked around without some sort of weapon and if felt wrong. That was the reason why he'd gone over to the medic's place, since she was the one who had taken his knife and his gun when they first arrived, hoping to get them back. He was just going to ask her about it. Of course, it was pretty late, so if she wasn't awake or if she wasn't there, he thought maybe he'd just have a look around for himself.

Shadow had been there though, and she'd been awake too. She'd caught him red-handed taking a rather thorough look around. The woman had been almost disturbingly calm about the whole thing and merely asked what he was looking for. Jace told her the truth because he couldn't think of a lie that would work better ,and he thought there was a slight chance that if he just asked for the weapons back she'd actually give them to him. She didn't. She said she didn't have them anymore and it was up to Wolf anyway. But she told him something else that nearly made him forget about the weapons altogether.

"Why do you want them back now? Are you really that eager to kill someone else?"

She knew about the Mountain Lion soldier he'd shot. What's more, she knew that the boy had died.

There was no reason for it to have bothered him so much. This wasn't the first person he'd killed, and he didn't seriously believe it would be the last. There was a difference though between actually doing the deed in the heat of the moment and being reminded of the consequences of that action later. In the moment there was at least a little uncertainty and there wasn't time to dwell on anything. Now he'd had it confirmed, the boy really had died, there was no denying it. And he'd had to stand there in front of Shadow while the woman told him. Which meant she knew not only that he'd tried to keep that bit of information from the Wolves, but she also knew now, without a doubt, that he was a killer. That was an unpleasant thought.

What was even worse though was that Bishop knew. She'd known for almost a week, and she'd never told him, never mentioned it. How could she do that? He didn't think for a second that it was because she didn't think it mattered. He knew Bishop better than that. So why? Maybe she didn't want to think about it either. Maybe she blamed him. Maybe she thought what he'd done had been an overreaction, brutal and unnecessary, that there must have been some other way. It wasn't like those thoughts hadn't crossed his own mind.

Jace was grateful that he didn't run into anyone as he made his way through the snow to get back to the house and then through the house up to their room. He didn't actually return to their room though. He didn't want to see anyone just then, not even Bishop. Especially not Bishop. He sat down at the top of the stairs, in the dark, staring ahead at nothing. Son of a bitch.

[COMPLETE]

Who: Jed [Open to any River runners]
What: Jed calls a tribe meeting
When: Saturday evening
Where: The living area of the winter shelter.

Jed had never been one for public speaking. He'd never been one to keep his opinions to himself but having to address the whole tribe about the new pressing issue and possible downfall of the tribe was making his heart beat rather erratic. It wasn't even the eratic excited heartbeat that he had whenever Silver was in the room, nope, it was due to pure fear of the uproar this news could cause...would cause.

He had discussed with Gypsy what needed to be done all of this morning and after she had retired to bed (Jed's idea surprisingly) he walked out and nervously asked everyone to gather all the tribe and meet in the living area. Various faces stared back at him, some with worry already on their faces, some with confusion and some with amusement...though he wasn't quite sure what the cause for the last one was, perhaps a joke he had not been in on. However now was no time for jokes. He stood in front of the old couches and cleared his throat, trying in vain to hush the loud chatters of 'his' tribe members.

"Guys," he spoke letting the lump in his throat fall from his lips and make him sound as if he was choking, "Guys!" he called louder this time, thankful that a hush seemed to fall over them the second time. "Okay I know you are all wondering why you're here," he took a breath....great way to start a speech, or course they were curious! "This morning Gypsy and I walked out to the barn attic where the supplies have been kept for the winter. As you know," he ran a shaky hand through his hair, "As you know the blizzard has been wiping out supplies of and places of refuge for tribes all around and last night it hit us-" he closed his eyes as murmurs broke out through the group, "I don't know how to say this so-" he scratched the back of his neck, "The grain we had left over from the harvest is gone, it's been frozen or blown away, we've got tinned food but it's not going to last us through the winter. We're in trouble but I need you to know that if we can pull together we can 'fix' this, we can make it through,"

The room was not quiet for much longer, people stood up, people panicked, some had so much worry on their face he was concerned the girls of the group were about to burst into tears. All this emotion filling the room was doing nothing for his own nerves. "We need people to branch out and talk to the surrounding tribes, see if we can't ask for their services," he called the words into the loud room feeling them settle in the air but not sink in over the existing noise.

"Guys!" he screeched achieving a lower level of noise than before. "We need to band together, I need volunteers to go to the Lions and try and arrange some sort of extra food supplies, I need people to approach the Twin Feathers and ask for their carpentry services. And I need to know if anybody has any other suggestions or wants to help," he held his breath waiting for people to shout at him, waiting for people to step up...waiting for help.