So a. a a ee Se cS Foi ba | — - maltese 7 RWRunning and Clamping Seattle, November 30, 1999 “Mandy, what ispeace?” Hack walked beside heras the others followed. He was handsome for a wolf, Ringer thought, with gray fur and a short muzzle. His tail stood high in the Seattle wind, It was before dawn, the streets empty save for the protestors like them- selves walking to the Sheraton and Roosevelt Hotels. “Peace? Well, the Children always say it’s a struggle.” A smile split Amanda Barret’s California- blond face. In human form she was a big woman in a peasant dress and a hand-knit sweater. “A struggle? Isn’t that, well, kind of a contradic- tion in terms?” Steep Seattle hills worked Ringer's legs. Shop windows showed him to himself, same as always. Asian guy with hair falling in his face, wearing jeans and a t-shirt saying If gays and lesbians are given equal rights then EVERYONE will want them, "No, not really. For us, Rage is really less of a struggle. Just like... water pouring out. You feel it, all through you, and you know, nothing feels that good.” Her face was troubled briefly. “Nothing. War, whoever it serves, is easy. But waris the Wyrm's work!"Joné came up beside Mandy, dark eyes in an oval coffee-and-cream face framed by dreadlocks. She pulled her fleece jacket tighter round her in the chill breeze. Cargo pants, boots, the usual. “No. Not always. The Garou are Gaia’s warriors, even Children of Gaia. We fight, and we're made to fight. But we can struggle for something else besides the enemy dying. We can struggle for peace.” “So, what is peace?” Hack was insistent. “There are, they say, four struggles.” Mandy was lecturing. Ringer didn't mind. “First, easiest, is the struggle to make war just. We've been trying that since Sumeria, more since the Romans invented civil rights. That means fighting for something worthwhile, like the Amazon War—” “not the Vietnam War, or the Gulf War Mandy,” Joné asked, “ajust war isjust awar! Don’t you think that violence itself is the enemy? That we have to transform ourselves, become something better?” Cars went by honking ferociously, were gone before Ringer could see what was going on. “L'm getting to that.” Mandy was clearly in her clement. Rich muttered, “Damn longwinded talesingers!” and walked further forward. Kevin watched his tall, red-headed packmate, human shape hiding the CCrinos form Rich had been born to, and wondered 2 Children of Gaia a