As told by One-Eye-Blind, Corax Volucris:
Monkeys
never look up. You ever notice that? Never ever. Watch for it sometime
if you don’t believe me. They plod along day after day, eyes
on each other, on the ground, or glued to their gadgets and newspapers;
hell, you practically have to drop anvils from the sky to get them to
look upwards. I’ve never been able to figure out whether
it’s arrogance or blissful ignorance, really. Is it because
they can’t see the sky? Or is it because they won’t
see it?
Whaddaya
mean, ‘is there a difference’? Of course
there’s a difference. And that difference has everything to
do with Hilde, so shut up and listen. Do you want to hear this or not?
That’s
better.
Hilde
always watched the sky. Always. Even as a youngster scuffling in the
streets with the other monkey pups, she’d be looking up at
the sky every chance she got, tryin’ to look over the
buildings, the walls, tryin’ to see what was out there.
She’d climb up on rooftops, just to try to catch a peek over
the Wall--the Berlin Wall, the monkeys called it, before they tore it
down--to the other side of the city and beyond.
That’s
what caught my attention first, boyo. In all the years I’ve
spent watching monkeys from above, she was the first one to actually
look up and catch me lookin’. That’s rare in a
monkey. That’s special.
Did she
know what I was? Of course not! She was just a little monkey pup, not
even fledged yet. But she’d caught my eye. I’d
never created an Egg before, but there and then I decided that if ever
a monkey needed wings, that one did. Not to mention Raven had been
peckin’ at me to do this anyway, since I wasn’t
getting any younger n’ all. I was a bit leery--I mean, what
do I know about monkey pups anyway?--but what Raven wants, Raven gets.
So I
got a couple buddies together and we did it, and don’t let
anyone ever tell you that making an Egg is easy, ‘cause it
ain’t. Hardest damn thing I’d ever tried to pull
off, and I’m no slouch at spirit-dealings. Monkey spirits are
stubborn things, and if this one hadn’t really, REALLY wanted
to fly, I don’t think I would have gotten the damn thing to
work. Wouldn’t that have been pretty, huh? Me sitting there
with no Egg, no chick, and just an empty gnosis-sucking shell as a
souvenir.
I got lucky, though, and it worked. After it was all over, me and my
buds patted each other on the back, patted the Egg, sang Happy
Birthday, handed out cigars....you know, the whole song and dance.
What?
No, we did NOT have a baby shower. Jeez...
Then I
took the Egg and stashed it someplace safe for the next few years. This
was my first chick, after all, and I wasn’t about to let
someone else watch over the thing. And no, I’m not gonna tell
you where I hid it; it’s a good spot, and I might need to use
it for another Egg someday. Then I settled down someplace nearby
so’s I could keep an eye on the darn thing, and waited.
And
waited.
And
waited.
Hilde
was no early bloomer, let me say that. She took for-freaking-ever to
hatch. Of course, that might be first-time parent anxiety
talkin’, too. I mean I knew it would take years, but...
Okay,
so I was nervous. So sue me.
In
retrospect, she was a pretty young pup as monkeys go, and probably
needed the time to grow up proper. So it wasn’t until
‘89 that she finally started to seriously kick her way out of
that shell. Oddly enough, she ended up Hatching two days before the
Wall fell, which has always made me wonder. Not that she caused the
thing to fall over or anything, but still...things were changing, and a
new wind was blowing. I think maybe the raven part of her sensed that,
and decided it didn’t want to miss the fun.
So
anyways, there she was; awkward and cute and LOUD. Man, she damn near
broke my eardrums before I got her to tone it down. And that whole
flying thing? I’d been warned that some monkey-born Corax
have problems with it, being afraid of heights n’ all. Not
her. Damn chick barely sat still long enough for me to teach her the
basics before she threw herself off the nearest high object faster than
you could say monkey pancake. She fell flat on her beak, of course.
Then she bounced right back up and tried it again, and the next thing I
know she’s tryin’ out maneuvers guaranteed to turn
my feathers white.
So
anyways, that’s Hilde for you. Once she got her bearings
straight, she headed out west. She said she was gonna see every place
there was--her first world tour, she calls it--and last I’d
heard, she was workin’ her way across the States.
She’s still young and sometimes she misses stuff, but she
works hard to make up for it. Maybe a bit too fond of the bottle if you
ask me, but her heart’s in the right place, and
she’ll fly through fire to help ya if you need it.
Oh, and
if you want to find her in a hurry, just talk to a stormcrow. These
days she flies with storms and plays chicken with lightning--the wilder
the storm, the better she likes it. Hence the name.
Am I
proud? You bet. Sure I’m biased, but she’s a Corax
through and through, and it won’t be long before
we’re hearin’ stories about her. I guarantee it.
Name: Hilde Storm-Sky (born Hilde Keifer)
Born:
Berlin, E. Germany
Merits/Flaws:
Double Draught (can drink both eyes, not just one), Compulsion
(drinking--note: this is a psychological addiction, not a physical
one), and Fianna tribal flaw: Low Self Control (from Laws of the
Wild--I couldn't find an equivalent flaw in tabletop when I converted
the character, so I kept it as is. Basically, it means she gets very
passionate about things, and is easy to convince if one appeals to her
emotions--love, hate, outrage, etc. Higher difficulties for her to
resist such persuasion or situations...)
Languages:
German and Corax (native), Russian, English, Garou
Description:
5’2”, skinny and sharp-faced, with short-cropped
black hair and gray eyes. Normally very friendly and easygoing (if a
bit overbearing at times), with an unquenchable curiosity (of course!).
If prevented from drinking, her personality takes a turn for the worse
and she has a tendency to become rather cranky, sharp-tongued, and much
less tolerant of others.
She’s footloose and always ready to explore new territory, and this has inhibited her gaining rank over the last few years, as she rarely stays in one region long enough to dig up the truly juicy information. The U.S. has proved to be an exception, and she’s stayed on the west coast and Pacific Northwest for what is (for her) an exceptionally long time, because she’s intrigued by the oddball sept she’s found here, not to mention the incredible morass of supernatural activity that seems to be focused in the area. Eventually, though, she will move on--after all, she has an entire world to explore!