EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ah, sorry, just remembered something else. Just one quick edit.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Alright, done.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ah, one moment, forgot to add a detail.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"No horses, sorry to say." A Nord voice sounded out nearby. The caravan driver and her son, who appeared to be about twenty years of age, approached the group near the stables, having just managed to hear the young Khajiit's question. "Well, no extra horses. But, we have two carriages, which should hold all of you, even the..." She began, pausing as her gaze turned to Leaps. Her eyes widened, and she looked to Meesei with obvious uncertainty. "Oh...that is a wamasu. Um, well, just...keep it under control, okay? We'll, uh, get the carriages ready. It should take no more than ten or twenty minutes."

As the Nord and her son went about preparing their horses and carriages, Meesei answered the others with a smile. "Well, I hardly think it appropriate for me to manage every aspect of our journey. We are all going to be together for some time for this task, so I believe I will let you all decide on that."

Just as the Nord had said, the carriages were ready in a little over ten minutes, so the pack began loading and distributing the supplies evenly between the two. For most trips, the carriages would likely be spacious, but they had quite a few people, along with their supplies and equipment, to transport. Nevertheless, while cramped, they were able to load up and set off for the Imperial City in under half an hour.

---

The journey from Bruma to the Imperial City, while direct, would take some time. Walking, it could be a month to reach the city, but their carriages could cut that time in half. It only took a day or two of travel to move beyond the cold of the Jerrals, much to the apparent relief of Leaps. In the more temperate central Cyrodilic climate, he no longer had to be wrapped in furs and was generally more active and lively. As could be expected, Meesei, Kaleeth, and Newt were all particularly glad to be out of the cold as well. They were able to get out of the thick furs they had been wearing, though due to the presence of the caravan drivers, they did stick to either armor or city clothes.

Given the long and often dull nature of travel, Meesei's and Gallus' packs had plenty of time to talk. There was not much formality between them to begin with, but it did not take long for any that remained to be dropped. Most of the members of each pack seemed to get along reasonably well. It was still too early to tell if there were going to be any major problems down the road, but there were no conflicts to start. The only one who gave any hint of an issue was the Dunmer, Irenya. She was not necessarily rude towards anyone, and she certainly could be sociable, but if one paid attention, they would note that she was distant with Ahnasha, Fendros, and Meesei in particular.

After almost two weeks, the packs were close to the Imperial City. Just on the other side of Lake Rumare, in fact. On the island in its center, they could see the magnificent city and the tower that dominated it. Unfortunately, it was going to be night shortly, and it would take a few more hours to reach Weye. As such, they decided to make camp for the night just off of the road.

It was dusk, and the sun would set within the hour, but given the irregular sleep schedules of the children, Newt was wide awake. He had been staring out over the lake wide-eyed for the entire time it had been in view, longing for the water. Newt, being Argonian, learned to swim just at the same time as he could walk. To them, the two were hardly any different. Back with the clan, he loved to swim in the warm waters of the pool, but the massive expanse of this lake was entirely new to him. He had never seen so much water in one place. There was a suitable beach nearby, though it was just out of sight of the camp. Much of the shore was covered in large rocks, and the camp was on top of a hill with a short, but steep incline leading down to the shore, which the carriages could not traverse.

"Mommy, daddy, can we swim? I want to see the...big pool!" Newt shouted excitedly, tugging on Janius' leg.

Kaleeth looked to Janius and gave a slight shrug. "I think a swim sounds nice. Does anyone else want to join?"

Ahnasha, who was already holding Rhazii's hand, looked down to her son. "What do you think, Rhazii? Want to get in the water with Newt?" She said before glancing to Fendros. "Could you take him? I don't think I ate enough of a lunch. I'll join you soon."

Pieter, after finishing unpacking his bedroll, stood up and joined the others. "I guess I could go for a swim. You coming Sabine? Tzirret?"

Meesei needed only to look at the water for a moment before knowing her answer. "And I certainly will be joining."

"Actually, uh...Alpha. Could I talk to you for a second, alone?" Lorag asked, motioning his head towards a spot a short distance from the camp.

Meesei nodded. "Very well, I will join the rest of you shortly."

Irenya was hesitant at first, but eventually stood up as well. "I...think I will come too." Leaps, while he normally seemed to like swimming with the others, seemed to be content being curled up next to the fire.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I'm steadily working on projects, hoping to not have to rush on any of them. I have things to do tomorrow, but at the very least, I'm free for the night.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Good evening. How are things? I have an idea for an event or two that can occur during their journey, like in Leyawiin, for instance, and perhaps one along the road. Otherwise, though, I'm thinking this section of the RP will just be this mission, before the next major timeskip. Instead of having several major tasks one after another. So, this one shouldn't take an entire year.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag laughed. "Yeah, misunderstandings. You know, Janius used to talk all about his 'misunderstandings' with women. Funny how much they seemed to happen with him. 'Course, that was all before he became the crocodile's mate. He's a 'family man' now, apparently. Also funny how much that seems to happen in this pack. Catdog has the Dunmer, then Janius..." Lorag moved alongside Gallus and gave him a nudge. "Better be careful. With how things go around us, you might end up with a wife and two kids by the time this is all over." He chuckled.

---

As expected, it did not take long before Meesei was able to locate a caravan driver. In fact, she found a few waiting for their next set of passengers in the tavern, and all of them took interest once they overheard how many people she needed them to transport. The more passengers, the more they were paid. As such, Meesei had ample opportunity to negotiate, a process which took roughly an hour between all of the possible caravan drivers. Eventually, she struck a deal with a Nordic woman and her son, who between them had two decent-sized carriages they could use. She was even comfortable with Leaps being present, and even riding in one of the carriages if needed. Although, Meesei had a feeling that the Nord did not have a good idea of what exactly Leaps was.

The Nord told Meesei where to meet her, then went to get her son. Meesei then headed back outside the gates of Bruma to rejoin her pack. By this point, enough time had passed that everyone should have been able to finish whatever business they had in the city, so Meesei expected to be able to leave as soon as the Nord joined them and showed them to her carriages. The eyes of most of the pack turned to her as she approached, and even Leaps raised his head to look at the familiar scent. "I have negotiated a price with a caravan driver. We will have two carriages for the journey, and we intend to leave as soon as she and her son join us. Is everyone ready to go?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag stood leaned up against the fence with his arms crossed, though his expression was not entirely serious. He assumed that Gallus and his pack had been told they would be in more of a supporting role, so most of them would not have to be greatly seasoned warriors. But, that would not stop Lorag from expecting the best they could give. Anything could go wrong, and they would all have to be prepared. "I push as hard as I need to. A proper soldier's training takes a heavy hand to get it to take. I've trained pretty much everyone in the pack at some point, 'cept Alpha. Lover-boy over there didn't know near as much as he thought he did when we found him outside Cheydinhal, but he at least didn't put up too much of a fight when it actually came to learning. Catdog let me train her early on, but I'm not much of an archer, so I couldn't help her there, and she's too stubborn to admit I could help her with her blades at this point. City-boy, he's just as stubborn, but wasn't as young when we found him. I haven't really trained him the old-fashioned way, but he's learned from me. He just might not admit it. His lizard-lover, though, she almost gets excited to train, believe it or not. No matter how rough the training gets, she keeps coming back for more, even now. The perfect student, really."

Pausing a moment, Lorag moved from the fence and approached Gallus. "Now your pack? I recognize some of the faces; I know I've given training to at least a few of them over the past few years. Hope we have time to give you some proper instruction. You might have come here for adventure, but don't think you're going to get out of work. After all, you're serving the bidding of Hircine now. He's not going to let you slack off, and neither will I." For a moment, Lorag's face was firm and serious, but it quickly turned to a grin once he felt he had gotten his point across. "Ah, but don't let me scare you too much. I'm sure you'll get all the 'adventure' you want. Though, you do know that, once we get to Elsweyr, you're going to have a hard time finding' women without fur, right?"

Newt found himself confused for just a moment. Unlike Rhazii's parents, Kaleeth was not raised in an imperial fashion. Her village did not have all of the same strict rules of formality in terms of manners and how to speak to others. They did have rules, but they were different. Janius, of course, knew Imperial manners, but Newt only had one parent attempting to teach them to him, and given his age, they had only begun a short time ago. However, if there was one thing children could do well, it was learn. He knew he wanted a sweetroll, and he knew what Rhazii had said to satisfy Fendros. He had heard the word polite before, and at least partially knew what it meant. After a few seconds of staring, he finally gave an answer. "Ummm...pleass?"

Ahnasha had been watching the exchange between Tzirret and Kaleeth, and could not help but to laugh. Granted, being afraid of Leaps was perfectly understandable. In truth, the pack probably should be a bit more afraid of him than they currently were, but they had all become accustomed to having him around. She walked up alongsize Tzirret and looked down at him with a grin. "Yeah, wamasu can charge lightning through their bodies, and even project it from their mouths. Meesei thinks it is magic, but they don't use it in the same way as a normal mage. It's instinct, something they do automatically. Grown wamasu can even use fire...kind of. They can roar out a sort of gas that is easily flammable, something their lightning can ignite easily. Leaps doesn't know how to do that yet, fortunately."

Ahnasha took a few steps towards Leaps. "But, if you think you're afraid of him, you should imagine what it was like for me when Rhazii was playing with him, especially once he started getting bigger. I had to make sure Leaps understood the boundaries. The first time Leaps shocked Rhazii with anything more than a bit of static, I made sure that Leaps understood clearly who should be afraid of who, didn't I Leaps?" As she spoke, Ahnasha knelt down next to Leaps' head and extended her hand close to his snout. Hearing the tone of her voice, Leaps broke away eye contact, lowered his head, and lightly licked the back of her hand. "I thought so." Ahnasha added.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag gave no real reaction to Uthri, having obviously not been paying close enough attention to notice her glare. He did not precisely know what Gallus was actually talking about, but he shrugged and nodded to him regardless. He still had plenty of mead for the road, so he was fine just waiting outside, leaned against the fence of the nearby stable. Carriage drivers were generally not too hard to find in a city, and given the number of people they would be transporting, they would probably end up leaving soon since the driver would not need to wait for any more passengers.

"So Gallus, why'd you agree to come along for all this?" Lorag asked simply.

Even with the thick furs he was wearing, Newt was shivering at the cold, moreso than Rhazii. He held his arms tightly across his chest, close to himself in much the same way as he saw his mother doing whenever they went out into the snow. As one might expect, he was no more of a fan of the cold than any other Argonian, even having been raised in County Bruma.

"S-sweetroll?" Newt asked, his expression filled with anticipation. Unknown to him, his mind had immediately gone to much the same place as Rhazii's. They did not go to Bruma often, but most of the times they had, they had received some kind of treat.

Kaleeth was nearby to Leaps, who was laid down on the ground, curled up near a fence. In the cold, he tended to become notably docile and reluctant to move in order to conserve energy. It sometimes made it difficult to convince him to move along, but giving him a flame or other source of warmth to follow would generally work. Tzirret, it seemed, was afraid of him, which she understood perfectly. Wamasu were terrifying and dangerous creatures that hatchlings in Black Marsh were taught to run from. At first, even Kaleeth could not help but to be nervous around him once he started to get somewhat large. Tzirret would not know the stories, but even he could see easily that Leaps was a predator, and large enough to be dangerous. Nevertheless, Leaps had lived all his life with them, and Meesei had neutered him to prevent his natural aggressiveness from becoming a problem.

In response to Tzirret, Kaleeth sat down on the ground beside Leaps and put her arms around him. He started to curl up tighter and closer to Kaleeth, which made it appear as if he was returning her hug. Although, in reality, he simply wanted to be closer to the new source of warmth. "Yes, we've had him since he was an egg. He has gotten pretty big, but he has never hurt any of us on purpose. Just be careful if he starts playing with you; he has caused some scratches with his claws, and he might shock you a bit."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I need to get to bed now, but I did manage to post first. Goodnight.