Week Eight -- Sunday Who: Pan and Shadow, possibly Gypsy too? What: Pan takes a long walk to find some help for Gypsy Where: The Sundance Apartments, maybe the River Runners camp too? When: Sunday sometime around mid-morning
Pan had left the old farmhouse early that morning to get a head start on the long walk ahead of him. Gypsy had requested of him that he find her a doctor. Seeing as he was part of the River Runners he knew a thing of two about the members of other tribes even if he did not know the members himself. It seemed as though every other tribe had a medic except for themselves, which was sad really because it left them to rely on favors and trades for such things.
Pan knew that Azrael had a hand in medicine but they were already so indebted to the Mountain Lions, and what with the grain situation Pan didn’t think it was a good idea to ask for more. So it was the Wolves that he sought, simply because they were closer than the Feathers and he knew that Wolf had a soft spot for Gypsy, so perhaps he could convince their medic to come.
He layered up as much as he could stand and reluctantly clad his bare feet in a pair of Doc Marten’s he found in the communal coat closet of the farmhouse. He walked along Highway 90 along the edges of Mountain Lion turf. There were still the rotting bodies of cars strewn this way and that along the road but there was more than enough space for him to be able to pick his way through. He shivered inside his tattered brown pea-coat. Oh how he hated the cold, but it was for Gypsy and he figured he could tolerate it. The walk was long and the surroundings quiet with the kind of stillness that only snow can bring to a place. He mused at how white everything was, how clean, crisp and clear the world looked when it snowed. What a joke.
The walk was lonely, long and cold which eventually brought forth a song from his lips. Lucy remember the smell of that fall? The fires of fungus and the rotting leaves. I fell off the wagon… Through shivers he sang to himself and the small group of deer he came upon when he reached the city limits. into your arms! As he left the highway and walked down one of the smaller city streets he saw a figure standing a few blocks ahead of him, no doubt a guard at the edge of Wolf territory. into this long month of Sundays! His voice and the crunch of snow beneath his boots were the only sounds in the alley, if the guard had yelled something at him he hadn‘t heard. He flipped the long tassel of his snow cap back over his shoulder, fancying himself in a musical as he danced down the road towards the guard.
He reached the rather somber looking youth who stood there watching him with an unsheathed bowie knife in his hand. The guard couldn’t have been much older than Pan but he was taller than him and much more serious looking. The man shook his head and gently thrust the knife towards Pan, “And who are you?”
Pan wet his lips and leaned away from the guard though he was not scared. “I’m Pan, from the River Runners. I need to speak to your physician, brother.” He took off his snow cap revealing a shock of red, blonde and brown hair. It was all different lengths and stuck up in multiple directions, various strands were home to beads or feathers.
“The River Runners huh?” The expression on the guard’s face said that that explained a lot. “I’ll take you to Shadow but you’ve got to let me search you first.” He looked rather reluctant as if something could spring from one of Pan’s layers and take off a finger
Pan grinned, this bloke was too much fun to play with. “Sure honey, just don’t be too rough.” He flicked a brow and undid his jacket so that the guard could pat him down and search his pockets. Pan was weaponless aside from a rusty one-inch pocket knife that was tucked into his belt.
The guard wasn’t very thorough, in fact he seemed to be in as much of a hurry as possible so he could get away from this strange young man. “Follow me.” The guard turned to walk towards the apartments and Pan followed him.
Pan took up his song where he’d left off. Now deep in a forest, losing all thought of spring and nothing can help me remember… The apartments were not too far from where he’d found the guard. He was happy to be around someone, out of that barren snow wasteland at least. The smell of smoke from chimneys brought a smile to his face and he took a deep breath in between verses of his song.
The guard looked back at Pan with an annoyed expression just as they reached the front door of the apartments. The building was old and had a main lobby. To either side of the lobby there was a hallway that lead to all the apartments, sort of like a hotel. There was a staircase opposite the front door the lead up to the second floor which mirrored the first. Pan stopped singing as he entered the building. He’d never been this deep into Wolf territory before and he frankly found it bizarre how well put together everything was. It was like he’d stepped into a doll house.
The guard lead him to one of the first apartments down the left hall and knocked. Even though the door was unlocked he didn’t feel it was an emergency and so he afforded Shadow the privacy. “Shadow? Fox here, I’ve got a…” He glanced back at Pan as if deciding what to call him, “a River Runner here to see you. He’s clean.”
Pan fidgeted with his hat as he looked all about the hallway and back into the lobby like a nervous bird. Who was this Shadow person? He sounded mysterious with a name like that and Pan couldn’t help but be curious. He knew the Wolves had a medic but he knew nothing about the guy.