baptism of fire

The firelight crackled, smoke and the smell of burning leaves and branches raising high into the air. The sept of Skybound Cedar was gathered for an important rite, one month after the birth of the newest Garou, as was tradition. Two new mothers prepared their children for the Baptism of Fire, not in the least of which was the leader of the rite herself.

She thought back to the first time she had gotten to help with this rite, five years ago.

Her beloved niece and nephew received their baptisms, both into the Bone Gnawers by way of their father. She had been allowed to help the rite by performing it on her sister’s children when they were identified as Garou, while the whole sept watched.

Tonight, she was performing the rite on her own for the first time, urged on by the most venerable Glass Walker on the island. Births-the-Moon gave her gentle encouragement from the sidelines, taking two twin children from her arms and giving her the mix of herbs and pine that she would shortly be throwing into the fire. She watched as the twins were passed off to their father, who looked at her with encouragement in his eyes.

She shifted into her strange Crinos form and began to throw the poultice into the fire. Possessed of the muscle and bulk of any Garou, but the ears, face and coat of the bat-eared fox, she was well aware how strange she looked in front of a sept full of wolves. They could be forgiven for mistaking her for Fera, for sure. She wore the mark of Bat with pride, for it meant she could even have a tiny piece of her own twin sister’s splendor.

Above the fire, a number of kin-fetch spirits hovered, waiting patiently for her to begin. She picked up an obsidian ritual knife from a nearby table, and cut into her palm with it, bleeding herself into a nearby bowl of ashes and mixing it with the same knife until she was left with a coppery-smelling, reddish gray paste. The human side of her to this day believed that this was unsanitary, but the primal side of her argued that it would be fine, because magic or something.

She beckoned for the fathers of those being anointed tonight.

The first was a huge, square, leanly-built man with a number of scars across his face. Despite being kin, she would have hated to try to take him in a fight. He held a baby boy with him who looked a dead ringer like her best friend and pack Galliard. This kid may as well be her nephew, she figured. He seemed nervous about holding him out to her, as if he could break this child.

She collected a finger-full of the mixture of blood and ash, and used the soft pad of her fingertip to apply the mixture as she was instructed so long ago – a daub to each ear, each eyelid, the nose, and the tongue. The boy fussed under her touch, not particularly enjoying the taste of ash and blood in his tiny mouth.

“Shhh… quiet now. C’mon ladykiller, you’re gonna be alright...” She gave him a few soft pets, as best she could, to quiet him down, then turned to the next.

This man wasn’t quite as tall as the previous, but would have still been taller than her in homid form, and you’d be forgiven for calling him the whitest man on the face of the earth. He pet her arm in encouragement, and she gave him the gentlest side-hug she could manage, ruffling his deep umber hair a bit. They locked eyes for a moment, and she nodded. He held a little girl out to her.

This girl looked for all the world like her father, though her tawny skin belied her mother’s influence. Unlike his brown eyes, hers were a deep blue. The ritemaster smiled down at her daughter, and applied the ashes in the same way. Though she too fussed, she seemed calmed by the idea that her mom was right there.

“Go on, both of you, raise them to the fire.” She looked toward the blaze, where the two spirits, moon-pale eyes wide, drifted closer. Both fathers followed her instructions, and she observed as the kin-fetches laid a kiss on both the babies around the navel, burning the glyph of their tribes into their spirit. The boy would eventually become a Child of Gaia, as his mother. Her daughter, it seemed, would follow her footsteps, a proud Glass Walker. Both of them, Galliards. Talespinners.

She couldn’t be prouder.

“Join me now, dear friends, as we welcome these two children to Gaia’s side! Howl with me!”

The tears welled in her eyes as the howls and roars and other calls of her beloved sept welcomed her and her best friend’s children.