“Okay…okay.” Kaleeth answered, closing her eyes briefly as she tried to slow her rapid breathing. Sabine was probably right, she they just needed to keep themselves safe while the warriors and mages fought. If the worst happened and they were attacked by something, Kaleeth could at least try to fight back. In these confined corridors, it would be hard to run from a werecrocodile.

Ahnasha did start to pass up quivers to the archers, but she did not stop thinking. Darahil and Vera seemed like they were just going to rely on their more obvious defenses like the gate. It was possible that they could hold out with what they had, but there had to be more. Darahil did mention that there might be alternate entrances through the unexplored section of the ruin, but she would at least be able to have an idea if the hunters were trying that route. She knew when the hunters left, so she knew roughly the maximum amount of time it should take them to reach the ruin. If they were taking an alternate entrance, it would take them even longer, so she could warn Darahil and Vera. Regardless, despite her beast spirit’s constant distractions, she tried to think about what other options they had. She thought back on strategies that Meesei and others in her pack had used, and tried to think if there was anything she could make use of now. 

[i]”Okay, have to think. I need to…I need…ah, get out of my head beast!”[/i] Ahnasha tried to think, but her mind was just filling with thoughts of the hunters, and violence. She wanted to rip their foes to shreds with her bare claws, and she was having a hard time thinking of anything more subtle.  If she transformed back, she would not be able to take on her lycan form again, but right now, she had a feeling her mind would be more valuable than her body.

After the quivers had been passed up, Ahnasha forced back her beast spirit within her mind and allowed herself to shift back into her normal, Khajiit form. Having not killed anything, it was more of an effort than usual, but once she was back to normal, there was no chance of her transforming again for about another day, against her will or otherwise. Now, at least, she could think clearly. [i]”Now, let’s see, what are our options? Meesei…she likes to use her magic, to be creative with it. We have mages here, though I don’t know what they can do. Meesei is probably better than any of them, but…well there are a lot of them here. With their skills together, we can probably do a lot of the things Meesei could, we just need to make sure they have a supply of potions. Now, what can we do with them? Maybe combine them with the warriors somehow? Let’s see…Lorag, he just loves sharing stories from his Legion days. Maybe…”[/i] She continued within her mind, her eyes scanning around at their warriors, particularly the more heavily armed an armored ones.

[i]”Hmm, this is…it’s kind of like a pass, actually. The cave is narrow, only a few can fit through at a time. A shield wall would work here. Spears, shields, heavy armor. We’re lycans, so it’s not like they can physically overpower us, no matter how well trained they are. Or, well, we really don’t want to put anyone outside the gate. They wouldn’t be able to get back in. But it is a good backup plan, if they break through. We could fall back to…that hallway. It’s narrow like the cave. But, come on, what else? What if they try an alternate entrance? The unexplored section would take a while, so I’ll know if they’re trying that, and the vents…OH, wait, vents. That gives me an idea. The cave…it doesn’t have vents.”[/i]

Ahnasha quickly approached Darahil and Vera once more, obviously having something important to say. “I have an idea. You have lookouts near the entrance, correct? We can build fires in front of the gates, light them once the lookouts spot the hunters, and have the mages ensure the smoke only heads up the cave, and not towards us. That will cut their visibility to nothing, and might even suffocate them. They will never expect us to attempt to smoke [i]them[/i] out. We can set traps, like runes, through the cave and…maybe some flammable oil within sight of the gate. If they have a ram, we need to focus on destroying it. These gates are our best defense, so we need to keep them strong for as long as possible.”