"Congratulations you've trained a hybrid wolf-dog to follow hand signals. That doesn't impress me, and I don think you're impressing anyone else either. Who are you people?" It was one from the Zuni congregation that spoke.

Aceso's eyes flashed in rage and she bared her teeth just visible to the natives before she shifted.

The entire room erupted. Where once a three foot tall wolf had stood, now stood a six foot, ten-inch-tall monster that no one who wasn't there would have believed. There were screams and people jumped to their feet. There was yelling and people pushing over each other trying to get to the nearest exits. It was chaos.

"LOOK AT YOURSELVES!" Aceso called out over the noise, bellowing in her augmented Shape shifter voice. "You called me a dog? I should rip your throat out for that insult alone. If I wanted you dead, you would be dead already. SIT DOWN!"

The room slowly calmed down. The reaction to Aceso's shifting was not unexpected, that's why they had made sure that Clifford had locked all the doors before the meeting started, but what self-respecting werewolf pack can be stopped by a locked door? The sound of Aceso speaking did have a somewhat calming effect on the room as natives slowly retook their seats.

Celestino never even stirred. He found himself smiling at the chaos and the total loss of control by those people who acted like they were so much better than everyone else. Maybe this is what they needed. Words can be ignored, debated, covered by litigation and conjecture, but seeing something with your own eyes, well, that was a bit harder to ignore.

"What is the meaning of this?" The Navajo President asked with a scratchy throat, as he tried desperately to maintain some control over himself.

"I told you about legends, stories, heroes and demigods, here is one. I suggest you listen to what they have to say," Clifford replied with a smug look on his face.

Aceso stepped down just one step of the stairs, her audience collectively leaned back in their chairs, although there were some who hid it better than others. Celestino couldn't help but smile. This alone was worth the trip.

Aceso stood on the stairway not moving but glaring out at the natives. She could have stood silent and turned to Elder Ansuya to speak but that is not what she wanted, she was pack alpha, and this was her place to speak.

"I am Aceso, alpha to my pack, and until recently, I lived Under the Mountain and protected our human cousins as best as we were able, along with the rest of my kind." She let her glance slide to the ground as the memory of her last night under the mountain had gone, the smoke, the fires, and deaths of her friends and mentors, even now the memory of that night hurt her in ways that she wasn't sure she could ever really explain. She looked up with cold determination in her gold eyes.

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"We have protected the humans from our enemy for a long time, we have hurt them and they have hurt us. The vampires drove us from our home after killing many." She looked over the tribal council men and woman, "We are here to enlist your help against the vampires, and reopen our relationship with the peoples of the southwest."

Ansuya stepped next to Aceso and added, "We have reason to believe that our peoples were once much closer friends than we are now. That, in the times long past, we were active protectors here against the evil that you fear to name, even now." With that Ansuya shifted and received a gasp of shock from the room as well, as the tribal council members wrestled with themselves to stay in their seats. Celestino wondered if one or more of the elderly council members would suffer from a heart attack.

It was the leader of the Hopi tribe who was able to find his voice first, "What do you want from us? If not to kill us… then what?"

Aceso took another step down the stairs, "We need your help. We know the truth about your monsters. It's not superstition that holds your tongues against the evil you choose not to speak of, but because you know those demons are real, just as real as we are. We have evidence that we share blood with you and that here among your people we believe there are Shape shifters, maybe known, maybe unknown, but we need your help in fighting our enemies. If you can help us, add to our strength, then we will add to yours and teach those with our gifts to protect you and yours, to bring that evil into the light, the skin walkers."

The Navajo delegation took a collective gasp and their medicine woman made a few hand signs in the air. The president of the Navajo nation looked particularly stunned. It's true then, Aceso thought, they haven't spoken of those demons in a long, long time.

One of the Zuni spoke, breaking the silence and tension, "If we were willing to listen to this fantastical story of yours how would you go about it? Who are you to tell us that you know us better than we do ourselves? And how would you choose? Are you kidnappers? Come to steal our children like Americans are apt to try every now and again?"

This caused a bit of a raucous in the audience hall. The thought of making a deal with those that would potentially kidnap your children was a pretty real threat and one that the natives in the hall had some combined real experience with.

"Silence! All of you" Ansuya's voice was cold steel that cut through the dull clamor of voices like a hot knife through butter. "We are not thieves, nor are we kidnappers. We will only take volunteers and only those that pass the test. Those that are worthy will leave you for a time but will return stronger for the leaving and perhaps a touch wiser than they were before. We prepare for war and we ask for allies. Will you help us?"

A younger Ute councilman stood up, this alone was enough to earn him the respect of the Elder Shape shifter. He slowly stepped to the middle of the council hall and spoke to the two monsters that stood a mere meter away from him, "we humans make bad opponents against demons and monsters. Most of us here have not been on a horse in many years, if at all. We are not the warriors we once were. Just what kind of volunteers are you asking for, whom would we send even if we wanted to, who wouldn't be more than a walking meat shield."

"Don't you have any Shape shifters here?"

The entire room turned around to face the owner of the light pitched voice from the top of the room. Amanda did not look timid or shy as she strode down the stairs confidently, her black hair swept softly behind her.

"My mother was Swift Sparrow, of the Apache nation. She married my father an officer in the British royal army. I am of this region as well and if your blood flows through my veins then why don't you have members of your tribes that can do this?" Amanda smiled a little before she shifted.

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