EliteCommander

Shadows in the Moonlight

Sam shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose it is possible. I mean, at this point, there is little I am not willing to believe. There are all sorts of things that could be real: magic, vampires, even dragons for all we know. Maybe now that we're werewolves, we'll be able to find them...if they exist, of course. All we can really do right now is guess, unfortunately." He guessed, letting go of her for a moment to put more wood on the fire.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Although it had been a while, the Wamasu's Nest was still familiar to most of the pack. For Meesei, she also found herself curious how the others they had met in Thorn, such as Rukeewei and Neerana-Rei were doing, but she was more focused on Ariel at the moment. Once they had their tables, and Janius had managed to calm down Leaps, Ahnasha was the, understandably, the recipient of Ariel's first questions. She did actually want to talk about Rhazii, but that did not make her any more comfortable talking about the burns.

"His name is Rhazii." Ahnasha answered. "We were going to go to Stormhold for the birth, but we did not quite make it in time, so I had to give birth in the swamp. It might not have been the best circumstances, but it all turned out fine. The marks...they aren't birthmarks, though that might be what I start calling them. It is...difficult to explain, but we found ourselves in danger, and he ended up being burned. There was nothing we could do to avoid it. Luckily, we had a good healer to bring him back to health. His only scars are visual; otherwise, he is in perfect health." She explained, trying not to make his injuries seem too severe. As well, she did her best to hide her missing finger, as she would rather avoid explaining how that came to be.

Now that the most difficult part was out of the way, Ahnasha could be a bit more comfortable talking to her, though Meesei spoke up next with her own question. "Our journey hasn't been the easiest, but we have persevered. How have things been for you here in Thorn since we left?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Don't worry about it if you can't. Hope it gets restored soon.

Shadows in the Moonlight

Sam sat next to Stevie by the fire with his arm over her shoulder. With a smile, he leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "I was thinking, once we have figured out how to control our beasts fully and keep them from turning when we don't want them to, I wonder what we can figure out to use our werewolf forms for? Obviously, we can't let anyone else know about it, but we have a lot of new abilities now. We're faster, stronger, have better senses. We also heal faster, I wonder what it actually takes to even hurt us?"

Elder Scrolls: Danger of Discovery (EliteCommander and Luna)

Swims laid back in his bed with Veria, content to hold her in his arms as they relaxed. Neither of them were in especially good condition, so it was not too long before they fell asleep for the rest of the night.

Between the potions and the magic of the preistess, both Swims and Veria were perfectly healthy by evening of the next day. They could have left then, but just like Khaj recommended, they decided to wait until the next day to leave with a Legion patrol. Swims' iron chestplate had been damaged beyond use by the bandits, and while the rest of the armor was still usable, he decided to simply sell off the entire set and use the gold to buy enough food for the return trip. He kept his sword, but why would he need a set of heavy armor if they were no longer going to be adventurers. He did not have any other clothes of his own, but luckily, the preistess was kind enough to donate to him a simple, worn set of clothing.

Thanks to the Legion patrol, the journey back to Leyawiin was far less eventful than the trip to Blankenmarch. The soldiers were willing to escort them, though they were not particularly social with Swims or Veria. It seemed they had little interest in speaking to a pair they percieved as naive children. Swims found it a bit easier to travel this time, since he no longer had to carry around a heavy set of armor. Still, it was a lot of effort for he and Veria to keep pace with the soldiers.

Once back in Leyawiin, Swims returned immediately to his family home, and invited Veria inside as well. It was the middle of the day, so his parents were running the store, while his brother and sister were off at their respective jobs. As a result, the house was empty for the moment, apart from Swims and Veria.

"I am not looking forward to telling my egg-brother about this." Swims commented as he took a seat in one of the chairs in the main room. "He didn't believe I would succeed; he said I would be back within a month, and...well, I guess I am."

Elder Scrolls: Danger of Discovery (EliteCommander and Luna)

Do you mind if I do a timeskip to take us to Leyawiin?

Elder Scrolls: Danger of Discovery (EliteCommander and Luna)

"Thank you for understanding." Khaj said, with genuine sympathy in his expression. "Well, this one just wanted to stop in and check on you. Khaj needs return to his men now, as we will be leaving the town soon. When you are ready to leave Blankenmarch, you should wait for one of the Legion patrols and follow them to the city, just to be safe. Take care, both of you." Khaj said before standing up and exiting the room, leaving Swims and Veria alone.

Once Khaj left, Swims reached up with his free hand and placed it gently on Veria's cheek. Despite their misfortune, Swims did his best to keep a smile. "Don't worry, my love. We will have our day, our adventure. I don't care how long it takes, how much we have to train, we will not abandon our dreams. Until then, we have each other."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

As the pack walked through the city, Kaleeth once more became quiet and visibly nervous, but that wasn't to say she was not impressed. Her expression was an interesting combination between awe and fear. just like in Stormhold, it was a new place whose people she knew nothing about. She did not know what the locals were like, what they would expect, or what they would be offended by. However, the city itself was beautiful. Until they entered the residential district, all of the buildings were made of fine white stone, which reminded her of Ayleid buildings if they were not in ruins. Instead of Elven structures, however, they were Argonian, though they were far different from anything Kaleeth had seen. All of this was in addition to the massive expanse of the ocean she had glimpsed on the way into the city. "Endless lake" was starting to seem more like an accurate description. Overall, the city made her feel small, but in a way that made her want to discover what mysteries it might hold.

Once in Ariel's shop, Kaleeth could not help but to smile at Sabine and Ariel's reunion. The others had explained to her who Ariel was and what had happened in Morrowind and Thorn, so she was informed, though Ariel obviously did not know her. When she finished going through her greetings and spoke to Kaleeth, she shook her head lightly. "No, my name is Kaleeth-Rei. I am...like them." She answered. She was aware that Ariel already knew they were lycans, but she had been told to still be careful about saying it aloud in cities.

For Ahnasha, the city seemed noticeably less impressive than before, though her expectations were colored by the fact that they arrived during a festival the first time through. Still, it was a beautiful city, which made her even more concerned about Rhazii and his scars. For the majority of her life, Ahnasha had not been one to care about societal judgements, but now, the idea of being labeled as an incompetent mother deeply disturbed her for reasons she did not fully understand. As such, she held Rhazii in a way that his scars were not easily visible, even once they entered Ariel's shop. She did not see the scars when she went through greeting the pack, but Ahnasha could not just hide them forever. Ahnasha did not understand why she was so afraid of having Ariel see Rhazii's injuries, even though she, out of anyone in the city, would be most likely to be understanding. Nevertheless, her heart raced with anxiety, which in turn upset Rhazii and caused him to whine.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I'll let you write the entrance to Thorn, that way you can do the part where we go to visit Ariel. I'm interested to see how things have gone for her.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It was a few hours before everyone made it back to camp, but even if they did not have a full day to travel, they still moved on regardless. The next few weeks of travel were much like the first, though the swamp grew less thick the closer they came to Thorn. It was rather difficult to focus on travel, hunting, and gathering ingredients at the same time, but they managed as best as they could. By the time they neared Thorn, they had a surplus of hides, some of which were actually from rarer beasts. As well, Sabine was able to find some ingredients from which she could make potions that could contribute to their overall funds. As much as Meesei hated it, the mucus from the eel she killed actually proved useful for a few kinds of potions, so she had to continue collecting the vile substance.

Unfortunately for Ahnasha, her nightmares did not subside, or even really decrease in frequency. Just as before, she did not have them every night, but she was forced to suffer through them often enough that she dreaded going to sleep each night. She also found herself having a hard time watching the others skin the creatures they killed, as the sight of their organs sometimes caused her to flashback to the images of her own insides that were burned into her mind. Regardless, Ahnasha spent every spare moment in which she was not caring for Rhazii with Fendros to get away from her torments. They did all they could to recapture what they felt back in Morrowind and Cyrodiil, and overall, they were largely successful. The time she spent with him was the time she enjoyed most out of the weeks of travel, but still, it was less of a solution and more of a distraction.

Eventually, the area around the pack grew familiar until they knew they were on their last day of travel. They prepared themselves as best as they could to enter the city, though their attire was likely to draw a few stares this time around. Although they had a surplus of hides, they had a shortage of city clothing. In order to make sure everyone was at least acceptably dressed, Janius, Lorag, Kaleeth, and Fendros wore their armor, while everyone else used the city clothes they did have. Unfortunately, what they had was made for Argonians, so Ahnasha's tail hole was too large, and Sabine's had to be patched with hide that did not match the rest of the garment. Hopefully, they would be able to purchase new clothes once in Thorn, but given that what they carried could likely only be traded for enough gold to just barely pay for their passage to the Imperial City, it was not guaranteed. In any case, Meesei had already determined that the first thing they would do once in the city was to find Ariel. She would hopefully be able to provide them with some assistance in the form of advice or lodging, and as well, Sabine was of course excited to see her again.