"Aye Captain. Tonight I'll see if the Salt will come to meet Uban. I don't know much about the ladies around here, but this is still a friendly ocean. If he's to be a Priest, he best meet the mermaids while they'll tease and blow kisses." Pieter grinned, and adjusted the pipe in his mouth. Nothing too untoward would happen tonight, but life as a Priest was...Heh. Pieter flung the grappling hook and watched it arc gracefully until it struck its mark. 
"You know about the Lady, which is good of yeh. But Priests need to know all of the sea. From mermaids and selkies to the darker things that live in the deep. Things that can't hear prayers because they don't care what the pleas of men are." The forest beyond them was quiet, and the faintest reminders of the morning fog were dissipating within it's branches. The sea below them was cold, bracing in the way that made the heart pump and raised the will of all who weathered it. At this point, they switched what they had been doing. They took turns flinging the grappling hook, and the other took a cutlass or a hatchet and hacked away the rope that held it. Repelling boarders was an important thing when you had such a small crew. 

At this point the conversation had left such important matters, and friendly conversation lifted into the air like fog breaking before the rising sun. 

---
Wheel sat on his stool, and listened. And waited for the boy to decide what to do. He spat. Stood up, and strode to where the child sullenly sat. "So you think that you're better than learning how to hunt like a man? You think that because you can turn into a coyote and bite the head off a rabbit you're above the bow?" Wheel's tone slowly lost it's friendliness, revealing an angry edge. 

"Because, last I checked, it was men with bows who hunt animals, not the other way around. And you're going to be hunted, boy. Shifters aren't very popular, and they get killed by men with bows. What happens if you get shot with iron, and can't take it out? Then you'll be defenseless and weaker than any man. Because a man can use a bow and you can't." As he spoke, Wheel picked up the bow that had been tossed to the side, strung it, and took one of the arrows from the quiver that lay next to it. Staring into the forest, Wheel effortlessly drew back the string until it touched his cheek, squinted for a moment, and let it fly. It arced cleanly into the air, and struck one of the trees, causing birds to erupt from its branches, squawking as they took flight. 

"If you can't fight and kill with every weapon you meet, you'll one day be taken by surprise, and they're be one less Shifter in the world."

Without looking at the boy, he tossed the bow at his feet and left. 

---

Hana took the meat and bit roughly into it. Life on the road meant you took good meat when it was offered to you. Hana chewed on the toughened meat and raised her eyes when she saw the crackling dagger. Without the need for complex spellwork, Uban called the lightning and it came. It was like the lightening and the man were the same. Unbidden, Hana began to consider the grammars she'd need to bend the attributes of the lightning, the symbols appearing before her. With her free hand, she scooped some mud into hand, and rubbed it onto her cheeks and her forehead. Tracing an obtuse triangle, what could only be described as a jagged 'L', and an achingly perfect rhombus, soil dripping from her face. Popping the remaining meat into her mouth, Hana covered her mouth and said, "Please do not be alarmed."

With a flicking gesture, Hana hissed under her breath and drew a curtain of crackling lightning into her hands from the dagger. Sparks ran up and down her body as she closely examined the streaking arcs of lightning as it drew bright lines across her umber skin. Laughing, Hana grinned maniacally at Uban. Her magic had worked. She knew she would never feel the pain of lightning so long as she kept the symbols on her body. The harmony of the spheres had been improvised, and she was the glorious result. Lifting her hands above her head in triumph, she faced Uban, saying, "I can't summon a storm, but we can figure out what exactly you can do. Go ahead and hit me with your best shot."