Gallus knelt down and regarded the darkness of the cave, craning his head to try and see into it better. He took in a hissing breath as he weighed up the situation. "Well, it's worth a look. If this is their hideout, then all we have to do is make ourselves apparent as we enter. One thing first..." Gallus looked around and a nearby tree. He stood up and walked to it while pulling out his dagger. Evidently to make sure they remembered where they were headed, he roughly scratched an arrow pointing to the left, which was north.

While he walked back to the cave and carefully tried stepping down into it, he gave a glance to La'khay. "Are you familiar with what caves are like in these parts, La'khay? Any creatures we should be aware of?" Gallus was talking loudly and clearly, causing an echo further into the cave. This appeared to be intentional.

Tzirret followed in behind both La'khay and Gallus, being careful not to point his spear where he could slip and cause damage.

Fendros actually stifled a chuckle and smiled widely. "You do remember that my family lives on a vineyard, yes?" Fendros reminded, "Guards head up every now and then on a patrol route, but they never disturbed us. We could probably arrive on a Sundas during the evening. It was a rule that we would gather for dinner as a family with no exceptions on those days."

There was a rustling up above from Colours. Either he had finished getting orientated or he had been waiting until the tone of the conversation cooled down. The sound made Fendros look up to see Colours, then he regarded Ahnasha with a hand on her shoulder. "We will talk of this more. We should get back to searching." Right before he was going to start moving again, Fendros faced Ahnasha a moment longer, "And...I'm sorry for keeping the letters from you. I'll let you read them when we get home." Fendros caught himself and cleared his throat lightly, "Bruma, that is."

La'khay followed closely behind Gallus into the entrance to the cave. She nodded to his question, while still keeping her eyes trained further into the cave. "Yes, there are many creatures that might call a cave home. Bears, minotaurs, durzogs. We could even find a tiger, or most of the other creatures Ra'kalesh described before. They are great places for creatures to hide their young, but it could also lead to the new home of the clan. Let's just, uh, be careful."

As they drew deeper into the cave, the light from outside grew dimmer. Their lycanthropy gave them all at least good vision in the dark; even moreso for the Khajiit. Regardless, some more light would have been preferred. "Is there anything we can use for light?" La'khay asked.

The reminder of the letters caused Ahnasha some annoyance, but she did appreciate the gesture. Giving a mild sigh, she nodded. "Sure, once we're back. Provided that nothing has happened to our quarters since we left, I suppose."

Once Colors was back on the forest floor, he pointed them in the direction they needed to go. Ahnasha, of course, had many new thoughts on her mind, but she tried to focus on the task at hand as they set off on their search once more.

Gallus made a short, high hum, as if La'khay's answer was more interesting than haunting, but he still drew his hammer as he proceeded. "I'm familiar with two of those things, at least. I guess this place isn't as different as I thought it would be."

The question of light was something that caused Gallus to turn around and give La'khay a raised eyebrow and a smile. "I am surprised you're the one who is complaining. Alright," Gallus stopped and slid off the knapsack on his back. A short time fishing around had him draw out a torch and some flint. Within half a minute, he sparked the torch and painted the cave walls in a flickering yellow light. Since he was in the lead, Gallus picked it up after putting his knapsack back on and continued with the torch in his off-hand.

"At least it will be easier to spot surprises," Gallus commented.

Tzirret clutched his spear in both hands and kept flicking his eyes between the nooks and crannies in the walls. He would rather not face off any of the creatures La'khay listed off, whether he knew what they were or not.

The trio moves slowly and carefully through the cave. The ceiling was relatively tall, though to La'kay, it still felt cramped. She was not used to being underground, and overall, did not particularly like it. While Tzirret was holding tightly to his spear, La'khay simply kept her hand near her dagger's scabbard. Although, she was not much use in a fight if they happened to run into danger. She could defend herself in her werelion form, though she could only act on instinct. As for the cave itself, there were a detail that did stand out. Along the floor, they could see what looked like trails of dried blood, accompanied by the scent of dead animals. Unfortunately, it was strong enough to overwhelm any other scents that could be there. While that could be explained as the clan's hunters dragging back their prey, it was not the only explanation possible.

After heading through the winding cave for a bit longer, they came across a split in the path. One passage branched off to the left, while the other headed right. The blood trail lead mostly to the right path, though the scent was still present on the left. "Which way should we go, do you think? Or...do you think we're even in the right place?" La'khay asked.

"I can't say I know if this is the right place, but it's the best trace we've seen so far," Gallus said. His voice had hushed noticeably since he saw the blood trail. Evidently he was less confident that there were lycans here. "All I can smell is blood and carcasses. Nothing else either way."

After another moment, Gallus tsked as he peered down each passage. "If there is something alive in this cave, I would like it in front rather than cutting us off from behind," Gallus said. Tzirret winced as he knew what decision was coming next. Gallus walked to the right, "We follow the blood. Tzirret, make sure nothing sneaks up on you."

Tzirret nodded as he reluctantly followed. "This one cannot blink if he wanted to," he said uneasily. From then on, he periodically checked over his shoulder.

"This one...does not like it either." La'khay whispered, staying firmly in the middle of the group. The scent only grew stronger the deeper they went until, after another minute or so, they came to a larger chamber, about the size of a few rooms in the average home. Around them along the walls, as they might have expected, were carcasses in various states of mutilation. There were a few deer, boar, and at least one Khajiit corpse. Some were little more than skeletons, while others were fresh kills. Near the back of the chamber was the largest carcass, that of a bear. It was fresh, and looking closely, they could see movement behind it. It was no large predator, however, but rather something around the size of a child.

The creature had been feasting on the bear, but once it saw the trio enter, it ran back to a small nook in the back of the chamber. At that point, they could see it clearly: it was a very young minotaur. It had thin fur, horns that were barely more than stubs, and large, frightened eyes. Immediately, it started to let out loud, piercing cries that echoed through the cave in terror of this new threat that had entered its den.

"Aw, it's actually pretty cute. But...if that's the child, then..." La'khay began, only to be interrupted by a lout, bull-like roar coming from the cave behind them. Looking around quickly, La'khay could see no other exits in the chamber, so fear quickly started to overtake her expression.

When they reached the main chamber of whatever kind of den this place was, Gallus was on his guard. It didn't take long to discern that this place was not a lycan hideout unless inhabited by ferals. What Gallus was actually surprised to see was the minotaur child - or was it a calf? - panicked on the other side of the room. Gallus furrowed his brow and angled his head, unsure of what to do at first. He was about to turn and leave when the youngster's parent made itself apparent.

Gallus' eyes widened and he waved La'khay and Tzirret to stand clear of the chamber's entrance. He shouted, "Get out of its way!"

Tzirret was initially frozen with fear, but the instruction gave him direction enough. He leapt aside and pressed his back against the wall a few steps from the entrance. He was breathing fast.

While the others took cover, Gallus backed further into the centre of the chamber and kept his eyes on the entrance. He knew minotaurs had a tendency to charge when given the distance, so he would just have to be nimble enough. He held his torch to one side to give the creature a target that would be easier to dodge. As soon as he saw the creature moving forward, he would try to leap to the side. At least by they they would be able to see it.

Once given direction, La'khay ran up against the wall right behind Tzirret. She held her dagger in her hand, but it would be all but useless against such a massive beast, even if it was in skilled hands. In her panic, she pressed herself against Tzirret's back, wanting protection. These were situations she hated being in, as even in her lycan form, she doubted she could take a minotaur. "You can...keep La'khay safe, right?" She whispered to Tzirret.

Within seconds, a large, female minotaur rushed into the room to investigate its calf's cries, and immediately, fixated its gaze onto Gallus. Her fur was bloody from a recent meal, and her horns long and worn from heavy use. She was enraged at this threat to her calf, and let out a deafening roar that reverberated through the chamber. Just as Gallus predicted, she charged straight for him with the single-minded purpose of crushing his bones to dust, of which she was certainly capable.

Tzirret was just as, if not more terrified, than La'khay was as they stood shoulder to shoulder. Tzirret only had the lucidity to let out a shakey "Umm" to La'khay before he flinched heavily from the enraged minotaur's roar.

With a defiant shout, Gallus dove to one side to avoid the oncoming beast. The light in the chamber dimmed for a moment as the torch rolled with him. He got back onto his feet with no time to spare.

"I can't...I..." Tzirret struggled to form anything more, but was interrupted by a firm shout from Gallus.

"Tzirret! Flank it! Now!" Gallus' order was almost as loud as the minotaur herself. "Kill it!"

With all the attention still on him, Gallus intended to evade for as long as he could. He knew he didn't have the reach to kill the creature before it could do serious damage to him, but Tzirret's spear was much more suitable for the job.

Tzirret looked to La'khay, still terrified, but he knew he couldn't stay while Gallus ordered him. He ran as fast as he could to try and get an angle on the minotaur's side without being noticed.

A minotaur was a fierce, exceptionally strong, and easy to anger beast, but one thing they did not tend to be was tactical. When Gallus dodged, either by charging again, or by swiping at him with her massive fists. Each time she missed, she let out an enraged roar. Obviously, she was no agile beast, but Gallus needed only to make one mistake for her to deal a grievous injury.

The minotaur was focused on Gallus to such an extent that she was still not aware of the others behind her. In fear, La'khay could not stop herself from transforming, if only to be able to run away more easily, but even in her lycan form, she could not take advantage of the angle they had. Tzirret, however, had an opportunity to strike while the beast was readying for another charge.

In Tzirret's mind, there was a secondary battle between his fear and his attention. Gallus' orders were all that was keeping him from transforming involuntarily.

It took a moment for Tzirret to get into a position where he could strike. He was at first afraid to get within the minotaur's reach, especially as it flailed wildly at a deft Gallus. In the panic of the situation, that moment went on for longer than anyone would have liked.

Each time Gallus dodged, he stepped back, closer to a wall behind him. In a vain effort to get more ground, he lashed out at the minotaur's arm with a swing of his hammer. The hammer landed true on the beast's wrist, but it did not have the desired effect of driving the creature back. Gallus was exposed. In the instant he realised as much, Gallus took a fist to the chest and almost flew backwards with the force of the blow. He dropped his hammer and torch as he stumbled back against the wall behind him.

At witnessing the strike, Tzirret gasped and hesitated.

Gallus took a very audible, wheezy breath in. He was winded and weakened, but the minotaur was intent on charging again.

Tzirret had frozen again, but his eyes landed on the exposed side of the minotaur's torso as she leaned her horns forward. Tzirret's response was almost unconscious. He could kill it. In one movement, he thrust his spear forward, directly between the minotaur's ribs. He sunk the metal tip in with all his strength, not being aware of being in the creature's reach. If he got the spear in far enough, he knew it would die. It would have to.

The moment the spear was stabbed through her ribs, the minotaur let out a pained roar and jerked away from Tzirret, pulling the spear from his grasp. She swiped in Tzirret's direction, though he was too far away for it to connect. Tzirret's interruption gave Gallus plenty of time to move, but the beast would not be charging anymore regardless. After her roar, the minotaur found it difficult to draw in another breath. She gave a furious glare at Gallus and Tzirret, but wheezed as she backed away, towards her calf.

Evidently, the spearhead had tore through her lungs, as she could not draw in enough breath to sustain her. She collapsed to her knees in front of her calf, still desperate to protect it in her final moments. In all likelihood, the beast would die, but it would be a long and painful process.

While Tzirret had attacked, La'khay had transformed out of fear. Her werelion form had short, tan fur and was larger and stronger than any bipedal Khajiit, but not to the extent of a werewolf. Dropping down on all fours, she skulked over behind Tzirret, still staring at the wounded minotaur in fear.

In an effort to hold onto his spear, Tzirret was pulled along by its haft before he let go, causing him to be thrown off balance and stumble to the floor, landing on the rotting but mostly flesh-stripped carcass of a bear. He rolled onto his back to see the minotaur thrashing and braying in pain.

Gallus pushed off from the wall once he realised what had happened. Clutching his chest with one hand, he stepped up to his hammer. He stooped to pick up his weapon and started striding slowly towards the minotaur as its energy ebbed. By the time he was within its reach, it hardly had the energy to strike him. It was spurting blood from its mouth at this point.

"Gallus, no!" Tzirret reached with one hand, panicked for Gallus' life. He was convinced that the creature could still do him harm. He frantically tried to stand up.

With surprising ferocity, Gallus whirled his hammer arm up in a circle away from the beast while taking a step forward. As he bent his knee, his hammer whirled around and under, hook first, driving up beneath the front of the minotaur's ribcage. The hook sunk straight into its heart and Gallus let his hammer go so he could shuffle back again. He was well clear by the time the minotaur fell forward, lifeless.

Tzirret was standing now. He was still catching his breath. He stared at the now dead minotaur with wide eyes and perked, alert ears. Seeing La'khay's beast form in the corner of his eyes made him flinch, but he was quickly relieved to see that it was not another threat.

Though he still clutched his chest, Gallus looked to Tzirret with an open-mouthed smile. "Excellent thrust, Tzirret," he said, still a little weak in his voice. He walked around to the minotaur's side, put a boot to its side, and pulled Tzirret's spear free with a mighty heave. Almost half of the entire haft was coated with fresh blood. Gallus took the spear over to Tzirret and held it out to him. "Now you get to be a hero for real," Gallus nodded backwards in the minotaur's direction, "Go and take its horns. You deserve them."

Tzirret didn't take his eyes off the minotaur. Instead of making any movement, his breathing became shaky and the core of his torso began to shudder uncontrollably. He clutched his arms across his stomach and doubled over, baring his teeth and holding his eyes shut. His breath became strained as sobs began to sound from his throat.

Looking more sympathetic, Gallus dropped Tzirret's spear for the moment and stepped up to embrace him with his free arm. "There there, beast slayer. None of us are hurt," Gallus cooed. Tzirret's sobbing increased in volume as he pressed his face into Gallus' shoulder. Gallus just pat him on the back as he let the tension go.

While comforting Tzirret, a high bleat came from the nook where the calf still hid. Gallus looked at La'khay from over Tzirret's shoulder with a worried face. "We ought to dispatch the calf. It will die without its mother and we could use the meat."

The pull of La'khay's beast spirit started to wane once she saw that the minotaur was most certainly dead. Slowly, she walked up to Tzirret as Gallus was comforting him and stood uncomfortably beside them. Although it had been ended quickly, the whole situation had been terribly stressful for her, and obviously Tzirret.

Once Gallus mentioned the calf, La'khay turned her gaze to it. Her current form did not show the same subtleties of expression as her Khajiit form, but her slight grimace did show that she was not thrilled at the prospect of slaying the small creature. "Yeah...why don't you do that?" She finally answered.

Keeping herself low, La'khay walked around behind Gallus so that she was in front of Tzirret. "Tzirret." She said as she sat down, pausing until he looked up at her. "You saved us, cloudy-cat. You actually did it." She said warmly. And, since hugging was more threatening in this form than anything, La'khay expressed her gratitude by licking his snout. Uncomfortable or no, she did have good intentions.

La'khay's request was fair enough. Gallus nodded and gave Tzirret another few pats on the back before he stepped back. "I'll just be a moment." Gallus strode towards the calf and pulled out a dagger. He had killed enough livestock in Bruma to not be bothered by what he was about to do.

Tzirret allowed Gallus to leave and tried to calm down, but he was still bent slightly and looking distraught. He lifted his tear-streaked eyes to La'khay and received her congratulations. He recoiled a bit and tensed up with surprise when he was licked on the face. Still taking short breaths, Tzirret responded weakly, "Tz...Tzirret did, didn't he?" He sobbed into a smile, staggered by the mix of feelings. "He just...stabbed it...He stepped up and stabbed it." Tzirret didn't care about La'khay's current form. He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her neck. He let out sounds that were difficult to discern between laughing and crying.

The sounds of struggle from the calf were quickly silenced as Gallus made its death quick. Afterwards, he noticed that La'khay had effectively taken over the comforting role for the moment. Gallus opted to retrieve his hammer from under the minotaur's corpse instead. It would not be an easy job to turn the body over, but he had the strength to do it.

Since the threat had passed, La'khay closed her eyes and started to calm her beast spirit while Tzirret was hugging her. She took in a few, deep breaths as she focused on clearing her mind. Beast spirits were typically not too keen on relinquishing control so soon after transforming, but after about a minute of silence, her body finally began to shift back into her normal form.

Once back to normal, La'khay was able to wrap her arms around Tzirret as well to continue to give him comfort. It was honestly difficult to tell how Tzirret was feeling at the moment. On the one hand, he did seem to recognize his own success, but on the other, he was still in tears, and apparently in need of comfort. His timid nature made him a hard Khajiit to understand. Regardless, she wanted to encourage him. Now that she could think more clearly, she could see that this frightening affair was actually a good opportunity to bolster his confidence. "Yes, you did good, Tzirret. You were afraid, but you did it anyway. La'khay is proud of you, not to mention grateful." She said with a smile.

After a few moments, La'khay's grin started to take on that now-familiar mischievous quality. Glancing back, she could see that Gallus was preoccupied with retrieving his weapon, and therefore, not looking in their direction. Quickly, she gave him a kiss straight on the lips, then pulled away grinning. "Congratulations."

La'khay's kiss left Tzirret dumbstruck and paralysed again, but not in quite in fear this time. He simply stared up at La'khay with a small, open-mouthed smile, then suddenly released all of his breath in a quick, shuddering laugh of an exhale. He seemed unsure and without words. Even if he did have something to say, he didn't really want to speak anything else to La'khay while Gallus was still around. He instead swallowed and caught his breath, looking around nervously until he found his spear. It was covered in dirt and blood, but he still picked it up and found a cloth to wipe off most of the filth.

Gallus approached the pair again with a bloody hammer in one hand and the corpse of the minotaur calf dragged along the ground behind him. It was smaller than Tzirret, so there was little doubt that they could carry it with them. "This'll be a story to tell once we get to camp again, now, won't it lad?" Gallus said to Tzirret with a laugh on his tongue. He seemed oblivious to the morbid scene he was carrying with him. "One last thing before we leave," Gallus looked to La'khay, "That Khajiit over there," he gestured with his head to the one humanoid corpse they could see, "Was that one from your clan or is the body too decayed to recognise?" Gallus raised his brow, "Oh! Tzirret, the horns."

"Ah, yes," Tzirret was giddy, but had mostly calmed from his breakdown. He pulled out a knife and walked to saw off the minotaur's embattled horns. He wished he had an axe or a proper saw so it wasn't so difficult.

Once Tzirret let go of her, La'khay quickly grabbed up her belongings and held them under her arm. Some of the straps had snapped from the quick transformation, but it would be easy to fix back at camp. As Gallus directed her attention to the Khajiit corpse, she gave a grimace, but reluctantly examined the decaying body. "La'khay...does not know. Not for sure. She does not recognize that one's face, but she didn't know everyone in the clan. This one...doesn't think he smells like a lycan, but the decay makes it hard to tell."

La'khay looked away from the as soon as she had given her answer, instead focusing on the minotaur. It seemed Tzirret was taking a well-deserved trophy from what was essentially his kill, even if he hadn't technically finished it off. Hopefully, the horns would serve as a reminder to him that he could actually be a strong hunter. As for the rest of the body, La'khay knew they could not carry it themselves, but it would be a shame to let it go to waste. "We still need to cover the rest of our area, but let's try to remember where this cave is. Our food supplies are running low in camp, and there's a lot of meat here. Some of it is rotting, but this minotaur could feed us for a while, and we could get some meat from the other carcasses. We just have to be able to lead the others back here." She suggested.

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem, our search pattern can be retraced here. Hopefully there isn't a bull to deal with when we get back," Gallus responded as he hefted the minotaur calf over his shoulders. "Perhaps another in your pack might recognise the body."

After another several minutes, Tzirret sawed at the horns of the minotaur he felled to the point where they could be struck off with a hammer strike. He carried both of them under his arm as the three of them exited the cave and continued their search. He didn't know what exactly he would do with them, but he figured Gallus wanted him to take them as a trophy. Perhaps he could fashion a necklace out of them or something. Peiter would never believe this.

For the rest of the time spent searching, Tzirret was mostly in a state of disbelief and daylight dreaming. There were a few details that passed through Tzirret's mind that perhaps diminished the achievement of the moment, but not nearly enough to bring down his mood. He smiled during the entire walk, especially at La'khay. It was a contrast to the crying he released beforehand, but that was really just coming down from the stress of the situation. Gallus could have died, after all. La'khay and himself could have died as well. He wasn't experienced in life and death situations.

Time moved on and the search converged to a new camp site. The parties gathered to stop for the night with no signs of the clan amongst any of them. Thankfully, it was only the first day of searching. The first of what they suspected would be many more days to come. Gallus, La'khay, and Tzirret were one of the latter groups to arrive that day, so eyes were drawn to what they had brought back.

"Is that a child?" Fendros mumbled as Gallus approached. A wave of relief and recognition washed over him as Gallus came closer. "No. Wait," Fendros spoke up, "How did you three come across a minotaur calf?"

"How do you think, Fendros?" Gallus said with a grin, dropping the dead calf at the camp site. It was then that Tzirret came into view with a couple of arm-length horns under his arm.

"You went and hunted a minotaur family? We were meant to be searching," Fendros protested.

Gallus gave a falsely shocked look, "Oh ye of little faith!" Gallus put a hand on his chest, "We did no such thing. We simply found a cave and investigated to see if there was anyone from the clan. It just so happened that it was a minotaur den and we had to fight." Gallus flashed a grin, "You'll never guess who killed the cow."

Tzirret gave a surreptitious smile. He was proud of himself, but he was also still too modest to boast.

Gallus' group attracted some attention as they returned, considering what they were carrying. In particular, Peiter took interest in the pair of oversized horns under Tzirret's arm. He walked over to him and looked over his trophies with some measure of disbelief. "A minotaur? You mean one of those giant, man-like bulls with skulls like iron and the temperament of Gallus after a woman denies him? I'll admit, that's almost hard to believe."

Ahnasha too seemed to be curious about Tzirret. She did not stand up, but she did eye the horns under Tzirret's arms curiously. "A minotaur is indeed an impressive kill. I had to take down a big one before, as a test from Hircine to prove worthy enough to speak with him. They're tough, and excessively strong. It took quite a few arrows and well-placed blades to finish it off. That must have been a tough fight; how much did it take for you to bring it down?" She asked.

While a few of the others were questioning Tzirret, Meesei approached Gallus and La'khay. "I suppose since you're alone you did not find the clan? None of us had any luck either, though I suppose it is only the first day of searching. Did you find anything else worth mentioning?"

La'khay nodded. "Well, we did find a Khajiit corspe in the minotaur den. La'khay didn't recognize him, unfortunately, and the smell in the cave makes it hard to tell if he was a lycan. But, it's possible one of my pride could recognize him, if he was part of our clan. In any case, one of us should probably take a group back to the den anyway. There's a lot of meat on the minotaur, and some more in the cave we might be able to take. It could extend our food stores for a while."

"Very well, I will gather up a few of the others, then one of you can take us back when you're ready." Meesei responded. "Now, were any of you hurt during the encounter?"