[center][h1]Eleanna[/h1] [b]VIII[/b][/center] Eleanna smirked and felt her heart pump faster. In the shadows cast by the oasis’ palm trees hid Were-Taker, covered by his usual coat. He’d insisted on coming to the first Party, just to make sure his little “friends” behaved properly around his boss. It had been quite a while since Eleanna had met the now-famous beast tamer and in that time the lizard-man had managed to tame a large amount of were-humans for Eleanna and turned them from a collection of wild beasts into a proper warband. A simple glance at the entourage would give anyone all they information they needed about them – Werebears, Werewolves, Werebulls, Werelions and more were all present, with the one shared trait among them being their dishevelled, the dried blood around their mouths and staining the hair down their necks, and the neat and straight scars along their backs and limbs where no fur grew. Some of them stood on two legs, while others stood on four or even slithered along the ground, all with their bloodshot eyes, twitchy muscles and foaming mouths. Eleanna could barely believe the fact that they weren’t just jumping on her and devouring her right then and there, and he knew that she had to thank Were-Taker for it. Turning once more, she let her eyes set themselves on her goal – her immediate future. 14, Anak’thas’ land. She’d gotten to know the lamp-guy a bit throughout their days as travelling buddies years ago, and so she knew that there was no way in hell that he would just ignore what she was about to do. She had taken her time teaching the Daman Peoples how to stay strong in the face of adversity and how to cope with failure and tragedy, and now she had the opportunity to finally teach others the same. She chuckled to herself at the thought, feeling a strange kind of giddiness in her belly as she took the first step towards the green, temperate land. Behind her, the ground rumbled with the step of a hundred rabid werehumans. [center][b]IX[/b][/center] The last rays of sunlight were vanishing as she approached the fledgling town’s gate, made of rickety wood and guarded by two men wielding spears of bronze and clad in thick leathers. The men fidgeted with their spears nervously, giving each other a glance as Eleanna stopped just a few metres before them. One of them recoiled at her height, being at least a full head taller than him. “Good Evening, gents.” She said, her voice muffled and distorted by her helmet. “Evening.” Said one of them, half his hair grey and the other half brown. Wrinkles covered his face and a nasty scar lined his jaw. There was a long, tense silence.. “Welcome t-” “Don’t tell me you two are all this town has to offer?” Eleanna interrupted the old man, stomping her spear on the ground so that the skulls tied to its tip clacked against each other. “Your skulls are too big for my spear, don’t you have small dogs or something? Also what happened with the land’s aura? It feels like that bitch’s aura instead of lamp-guy’s.” The men tensed up and tightened their grips on their shields. Something banged against Eleanna’s helmet, denting the metal. She turned to see it as it landed on the gravel. A sharp piece of stone. She turned to look at the man on top of the watchtower next to the gate. He was preparing his sling for another shot and as he did, he shouted. “You better leave now, freak!” Eleanna wheezed, and then she started laughing as loud as one could possibly laugh. It was a belly laugh, one that surely echoed throughout the entire settlement and burned itself into everyone’s mind. Before long and as the men lowered their guards a little, she snorted one last time and sighed happily. “That’s more like it!” She gave them a thumbs up with her left hand, then pointed behind her at the darkness below the canopies of the pine trees of the forest. “Look there, will you?” So they did, and a dozen pairs of glowing pupils stared back at them. They weren’t human. The youngest guard gasped and slipped, falling flat on his bum and knocking the air out of his own lungs. The older guard rushed to his side and propped him up. “W-What do you want?! Leave us alone already! We’ve never even met you!” Begged the old guard. “Hey, don’t blame me! I’m just trying to teach you a lesson here. Life is not fair and tragedy can strike at any moment, you know? In this case, you should be thankful it’s me who found you and not someone else. So here’s the deal-” Eleanna started, only to be interrupted by another sharp rock hitting her helmet. “We don’t make deals with bandits, leave!” “By the Light, shut the fuck up slingboy!” screamed the old man. Eleanna crouched down and grabbed the stone, throwing it at the young sharpshooter’s head so hard it ricocheted off his forehead and tore a hole through the straw ceiling of the watchtower. The teenager crumpled into a heap, unconscious. “Yeah, you should probably learn some manners, boy.” Eleanna muttered under her breath. “... So here’s the deal, we’ll come back next dawn and meet you and everyone who wants to fight for their life here. And don’t think of escaping through any of the other gates, ‘cause we obviously have eyes on those as well. Defeat us fair and square and you get to live. Fail and both you and everyone in the city dies. Sound good?” “No!” “Good. Be back in eight hours. Gotta love those short summer nights huh?” Eleanna gave one last chuckle before walking back into the pine woods, the monstrous sets of pupils vanishing soon after and leaving the guards to rush into their settlement and towards their leader’s house. [hider=Summary] Eleanna revels in finally being able to spread her “teachings” to a foreign land through the usage of her newest acquisition – A warband of “tamed” werehumans, courtesy of Were-Taker the Beast Tamer. The post ends with Eleanna showing up at an unnamed fledgling town to the northwest of Node 14, where she then proceeds to tell the guards to meet her in front of the game the following dawn so they can fight for their lives. If they win they get to live and if they lose both they and everyone inside the town walls (palisades) die. [/hider] [hider=Might] No Might used. 5 Remaining. [/hider]