A silence swept over the shouting audience around Meesei as she assumed her beast form. The front row pressed against those behind them as they instinctively backed away a small step as a collective. Harriet maintained her guarded stance, but her eyes grew a touch wider and one side of her upper lip lifted in barely suppressed fright.

"What? How did...?" Harriet stopped herself from getting too confused at the expediency of Meesei's transformation and levelled her expression. The champion was easily twice her current height, four times her weight, and Harriet suspected that even sixteen of herself would not match Meesei's strength. Short of a suicidal attack to just the right spot on Meesei's throat, the Harriet's steel was useless. She stood up straight and tossed her sword lazily to one side. It sang briefly as it hit the stone. Harriet had no other choice but to transform herself. She pulled off her ring in preparation, it being the only thing she was wearing that wouldn't come apart in a planned way like her clothing. Unlike Meesei's transformation, Harriet's one was conventional, leaving her vulnerable for a moment. Harriet's survival in that moment really depended on Meesei's good will to allow her to keep fighting, but given Meesei's position, underhanded tactics were least necessary now.

---

Janius came upon the door to the dining chamber and held up a hand to Lorag while he looked ahead. "Yes, I've a scent. It is most likely our man." Janius continued forward, leading the way. In truth, the commotion had choked this particular passage with scented tracks, but Janius' nose had been practised in Black Marsh now. He had a better handle on such things. [i]What is the weather like in the Deadlands, I wonder?[/i]

As it happened, Janius did not need to follow his nose far. Their quarry was by the rations amongst the gaze of a few curious onlookers at their fires. Lorag and Janius both came across a dark-green scaled Argonian in fur lined hide armour frantically filling a hempen sack full of as much food as he could carry. He was alone, so Janius walked carefully up to him and loudly cleared his throat once he and Lorag were in reach. He didn't even seem to sense their approach in his distraction.

The Argonian fumbled and dropped an apple back into the barrel he had just fished it out of and became very still. Janius was about to reach forward when the Argonian twirled around quickly and threw his food bag in Janius' face. By the time Janius blocked the bag and regained his balance, the Argonian was sprinting away. This was the kind of situation Janius was thinking of when he reasoned to bring a packmate along. The Argonian was not an impressive sprinter.