EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth wasn't sure what Sabine was wanting until she noticed that she was trying to pull her towards the river. "Oh...the blood." She commented in somewhat of a depressed tone. She was reluctant to move at first, but after Sabine stood, she forced herself to follow. After a short walk to the river, she unenthusiastically lowered herself into the water to wash away the last signs of her gruesome deed. Meesei followed suit and joined her in the water, if only to allow herself to relax in what was becoming a stressful situation.

Though not sobbing as before, Kaleeth was still obviously depressed. She seemed to be using the river purely to clean away the blood, as opposed to calming her nerves. Seeing Kaleeth in this state caused a feeling of regret to swell within Meesei. Even though Kaleeth had become friends with most of the pack, and she had found love with Janius, she believed that Kaleeth might have been happier staying in her village. The family and friends she grew up with, along with the relatively simple life, were what she had been accustomed to for years. Now, she was being throws around against her will into situations she neither liked nor wanted. It was a sad thought, but there was nothing that could be done about it anymore. All she could do now was to help Kaleeth make the best of her situation. "Try and relax. Just lean back and try to clear your mind." Meesei suggested.

The Depths of Deception

"Agreed, but not now." Rareth responded to August. Being a Human ship, the Hummingbird felt small to her; she scarcely had enough room to stand up fully while inside, and she had to duck through doorways. On the mission she had taken part in with Ashley a year ago, she had found herself hitting her head on lower parts of the ceiling annoyingly frequently. Nevertheless, Ashley's familiarity with the ship was more valuable than her comfort.

"I will be serving as squad leader on this mission. I'm sure everyone has already reviewed the plan, but still, I'll give a final rundown of our plan of attack once everyone arrives. I'm not sure how accustomed you are to working in a team, but as long as you follow orders, it will be fine. How comfortable are you in performing a stealth mission?" Rareth asked.

The Depths of Deception

Perhaps I should post up some notes on the Rothian language somewhere. I think I did that back when we had group functionality. Words are separated in sentences by apostrophes. Names, and other proper nouns, have the first letter of each word capitalized. Such as "Rareth'Jharn".

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

In one thing, Kaleeth could certainly agree with Sabine: she was afraid. She had not felt this much fear since she first transformed months ago. The others had told her she would get better, that she would learn to control it, but they were not like her. They knew how to train werewolves, what if she could never gain the same kind of control they had? What if she had to spend the rest of her life in fear that she would kill the people around her? What if the next person she devoured was someone she cared about? She could not stop herself from imagining the faces of the other members of the pack on the body of the Imperial she maimed.

"I am scared." Kaleeth said, slowly turning her head to look at Sabine. "But I am scared for a reason."

Meesei moved to sit on the other side of Kaleeth and put her arm around her as well. They had all been traveling together long enough that they were no longer strangers, but friends, and Kaleeth needed the comfort of her friends. "We were all scared, Kaleeth. We all had little control in the beginning, but you wouldn't be here if I did not believe with complete confidence that you can overcome it."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Again, Kaleeth had a delayed response. There had not been all that much rational thought in her mind over the last few minutes, so she hadn't really thought about what she would have done normally. She supposed they would have killed the highwaymen anyway, but that hardly halted her pain. The way she did it, and the way she consumed him afterwards, was painful enough in and of itself. "I don't mind that he died, he was a bandit, but...I ate him, Sabine. I...devoured him. I am a cannibal, a wretched, vicious monster! And...and what if he was innocent? I would have killed him anyways. I am an animal that deserves to die. You...you won't be able to stop me next time, not when I become that...beast. You should kill me now." She said, once again breaking down into tears.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth was slow to react to Sabine, but after a few moment, she slowly raised up her head and made eye contact with Sabine. She bared her teeth in anger, not necessarily at Sabine, but at the situation itself. "I am a murderer." She answered. She had been aware enough to know that those humans were bandits, but it didn't really matter to her. The way she mercilessly consumed him haunted her mind, as the images were practically burned into her vision. She had gutted enough animals to be desensitized to gore, but the fact that he was human made that irrelevant. Every time she thought of his half flesh-covered, broken skull, it sent a shiver down her spine.

Meesei moved herself to sit to the side, between Kaleeth and Sabine. Her regret was understandable, but at least the fact that her prey had been a highwayman would make it a bit easier. "He was a highwayman, Kaleeth. Had we not been in our lycan forms, he might have tried to kill us, but...I know that is of little comfort. Your beast would have tried to kill him regardless. Still, you do not need to feel regret over this kill. Continue with your training and stay with us, and I promise I will not allow you to kill an innocent as long as I draw breath."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth had no more words after Janius left. The only thing she did was to sit down on her bedroll, draw her knees up to her chest, and wrap her arms around them. There she sat with her head down, sobbing profusely. For the moment, sadness and self-loathing was what dominated her mind, but the anger was still there. Her beast was sated, so it wasn't because of its influence this time. This anger came directly from her. Even if it wasn't rational, part of her wanted to blame Janius for all of this, for causing her to go and contract lycanthropy, for her becoming a cannibalistic beast against her will. Even the rest of the pack was not immune to her frustrations, though it was not focused on them. How many had they eaten, she wondered?

Meesei was cautious in her approach. For the moment, she sat nearby, waiting for the moment to seem right for her to comfort Kaleeth. There was no longer any danger of her taking on her werecrocodile form, which would make this significantly easier, but she still wanted to approach with compassion. She had a feeling that convincing Kaleeth to accept this would be more difficult than with Fendros.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

We could do that, how much time do you have?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei was not quite as pressed to hunt as Janius, as she had killed a bit more recently, so she was able to shift back to her normal form. The more she thought about the situation, the more she regretted not expecting it. They were close enough to Gideon now that encountering travelers was more likely, especially since it was the closest Black Marsh city to Cyrodiil. Whether it was an innocent traveler, or one of the bandits that prey upon them, she should have anticipated an encounter. Now, Kaleeth was paying the price.

"I can watch over her Janius, if you need to hunt." Meesei offered, but Kaleeth did not give Janius a chance to leave before she slowly brought herself to sit up and look up to him with a mix of confusion and surprised. With tears still in her eyes, she sniffed, then tried to speak in a raspy voice.

"What do you mean...first? You...you wanted me to kill? But I tore him up, I ate him. I am a cannibal, a monster! Why would you want that?" She asked, raising her voice louder. Beyond her regret and sadness, a hint of anger started to form within her.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

For Meesei, the fate of the highwaymen was difficult to watch, not because the death was particularly gruesome, or because she held any sympathy for the thieves, but because Kaleeth was not doing so willingly. She wanted to stop her; she wished she had the strength to halt her in her tracks, and indeed, it was possible that she could, but that possibility came with a terrible risk. If she sparked a conflict with Kaleeth's beast spirit, then she could be forced to kill her.

When Kaleeth snapped her jaws down on the first Imperial, it was all but over for him. There was little caught in her powerful jaws that was not broken immediately. The highwayman's brother tried to intervene with a blade to the back of her neck, but his strike was not strong enough to make more than a shallow cut through her thick scales. In retaliation, she swiped at him with one arm, which wasn't fatal, but it easily knocked him off of his feet. Fortunately for the other Imperial, Kaleeth was too busy devouring his brother to pay her any attention. He screamed his brother's name when he saw what was happening, but he was already clearly dead. He did not have time to wonder why the two werewolves were not bothering to attack; instead, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him, not even bothering to pick up the weapon he had dropped.

Kaleeth's beast spirit was efficient in stripping the meat from her prey's bones, so the corpse did not last long. Though she had not been in control, Kaleeth was still aware, which made her all the more horrified. The plan had been for them to conduct a few exercises after the hunt, but the very moment her beast relinquished control of her body back to her, she reverted back to Argonian form. Now covered in blood and lying on the ground next to the scattered remains of what used to be a corpse, Kaleeth burst into tears. "No...this...this isn't..." She paused only for a moment to open her eyes, which allowed her gaze to meat the crushed remnants of a human skull. "Why? Why didn't I stop? I...I ate him. I am...monster!"