Heaving another heavy sigh, he closed his eyes and felt that thin membrane that separated this physical place from the Whyte Plain. He was not nearly as good at this as Katherine was but he was getting better all the time. At least that’s what he told himself. Taking a deep breath, he pushed against the membrane and the sun and the rocks and the wind that had picked up and had started to move through the mountains over the plateau was gone, replaced by the deathly stillness of the Whyte Plain.
He was always cautious of this place. He remembered well his previous visits and they always brought back memories of his first trip here. The time where he had followed that warm, comforting voice and the joy that it promised. How whatever it was had tried to claim him and if it hadn’t been for Aceso he would now be one of the shadows that roamed this still, dead place.
He reached down subconsciously and felt where the scar that her bite should have left would have been. Her teeth had ripped into him and it was only after that sharp pain exploded from his side, that he was he brought back to his senses. She had risked her life for him and he would always be grateful. After seeing what had happened to Achelois and what had almost happened to Charles, this place was never to be taken lightly.
He kept his senses sharp and he slowly inhaled the air around him. There was no wind here and there was no chill, or warmth. The mist that perpetually covered the ground he walked on hugged his legs up to his werewolf calves. His eyes were as sharp as ever but even his enhanced sight could only penetrate this place so far. The Plain stretched out in all directions, lit by some unknown means, but then faded into an oppressive black only a few dozen yards away from him.
His movements were liquid and his eyes and ears rotated taking in all areas of the place around him. He strained himself to hear everything, to see everything, and to feel even the slightest changes around him. The only thing that moved here was him, his heartbeat, and the mist that clung to him as if trying to slow his progress.
He stopped short and looked around in all directions, slowly turning around in place. He closed his eyes and found the familiar membrane between the spaces and pushed.
The smell that assailed his nose was enough to make him want to puke. He opened his eyes and almost gagged as he shifted back to his human form. He coughed violently for a few moments, as if he was trying to get rid of a lungful of water that he had aspirated by accident. Bending over and placing his hands on his knees, he forced his lungs to take in oxygen slowly, while trying to keep his nose from inhaling too deeply the stench that had assailed him. After he was calm, he opened his eyes and looked around his new surroundings.
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The cramped apartment that his pack was sharing was just that, cramped. They had practiced for a full day marking this place specifically and going in between here and the Whyte Plain so they would come back to this exact spot. The room was dirty, and no matter how often they cleaned and disinfected the place, it still smelled. The sounds from outside invaded the room, no matter how tightly they tried to close the windows and stuff the cracks in the wall with clothes as they waited for proper materials to fix the place up. The walls were covered in yellowed, aged wallpaper that once was magnificent with bright orange and purples and red, now all faded and torn. The smell that had assailed him in his werewolf form was from outside and inside. Even now, in his human form he could still smell the human filth from outside, that, mixed with the rich spices of the street food from one street over made a unique smell that must have been what the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles smelled and lived with every day in their sewer home in New York. Except this was much, much worse, and by the sharpness of it, he suspected someone had shit outside their building again.
He shook his head and wondered how anyone could actually live here. He had heard stories, seen documentaries, and read books about the culturally rich, dynamic, and diverse India. He wondered why nobody had ever mentioned that the amount of human filth and literal shit that lined the streets here made a smell that really could not be described in any way and give it true justice. Of all the places they had to go, Ansuya and Huan Li had chosen this place.
Tiredly walking into the main room of the apartment he saw Charles was sitting at a computer, and Katherine was reading a book, looked like something on tourism or sightseeing locations. Nicolas was playing a console game on the twenty inch barely color TV in the far corner of the room, something that was particularly violent with cars running over people and cops chasing him as four bright large yellow stars were lit up in the upper right-hand corner. And Aceso was nowhere to be seen.
He turned back to Charles and Katherine, “Where is Aceso?”
Katherine looked up from her book, “She and Ares were taken out with Huan Li and Ansuya earlier this morning.”
“Where did they go?”
“They didn’t say, they did however tell us not to leave and to tell you to stay put when you got back.” Katherine arched and eyebrow at him. “Speaking of, where have you been?”
William gave an awkward smile and scratched at the back of his skull. “I was up in the Himalayas, looking for the City Under the Clouds?”
“All night? That’s not like you, my friend” replied Charles who had turned away from his computer screen to face him, “Did you find anything?”