EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Peiter's heart pounded, and though only a few seconds passed, his mind raced with thought as she stood up. As nervous as he was about the whole thing, he knew what he felt. And, unless she was crafting an elaborate lie, he thought he had an idea of what Sabine felt as well. When she stood up, he did not let go of her hand. Instead, he quickly stood up as well, and decided to take one more terrifying step.

"Wait." Peiter began. His eyes darted back and forth nervously for a moment before he finally forced himself to make eye contact. "I do rather like that...interesting offer, but..." He began, clasping his hands around hers and standing within inches of her. "Are you sure you don't want to just...skip straight to it?" He tried to stay confident in his tone, but the sweat on his brow told another story.

Colors gave a laugh. "Oh yes, the dreugh rarely target ships. A decent-sized vessel is big enough to just scare them away on sight. No, the creatures you have to worry about on the open sea are much larger than a dreugh."

Continuing the introductions, Jo'rashaad spoke up next. "This one's wife is S'ajira. She was born into the clan, and has been a part of it her entire life. She is a respected defender of our clan. Were she able to speak for herself, she would likely be in a leadership position by now." He said. As he spoke, S'ajira sat down beside him and lightly rubbed her head against his shoulder.

"As for Jo'rashaad himself, he is from Torval. The capital is home to a few organizations of magical learning, formed from the remnants of the old Mages' Guild, one of which this one was a member. Of course, there is much political trouble between them, but not to the extent of the Synod and College of Whispers. We engaged in actual magical research. Jo'rashaad was on the way to an excavation of an Ayleid ruin near the border to Cyrodiil when he was turned. This one was...disappointed to leave behind a life of magical learning, but the magical nature of lycans themselves is something of interest." Jo'rashaad explained.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I was going to add more, but I think I need to get to bed. Goodnight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Peiter was able to feel what Sabine was doing, but it was not nearly as easy to understand as he had hoped it would be. The magicka almost seemed to disappear before the light was formed, and he could not make sense of why or how the spell even worked. Nevertheless, he tried to mimic it. He focused on manipulating the magicka in the same way as Sabine, but no light was being formed. He got to the point where the magicka disappeared, but did not know what to do from there. There was a part of spellcasting he was missing, and he knew it.

"I feel like I'm missing something...fundamental to all of this. I can manipulate the magicka, I can charge it now, but I just can't make the light. I'm close though, I can feel it. Maybe with some more practice, it might start to make sense. But maybe we should rest for now, though. This is surprisingly exhausting for me. Not physically, but...I guess magically. But, thank you. Really, this means a lot to me." He said.

La'khay smiled and reached over to place her hand on Tzirret's shoulder. "Of course, there's no way you're going to a brothel. That would just be silly...since La'khay can just give you the same service herself." She said with a chuckle. Of course, she was merely teasing him, but he did not need to know that yet.

Colors laughed and decided to continue before Tzirret had a chance to respond. "You all already know me, but as for my history? Well, I've been called many things in my life. A good-looking rogue, a dashing scoundrel, but in reality, I was but a humble handsome trader. I worked on the seas, even had my own ship. It was just a schooner, but it was mine. My work involved, uh, finding goods that were in need in one place and hard to acquire, finding them in another place, then trading between the two."

"He was a smuggler." Do'ajee interrupted bluntly.

"Ah, such a harsh term. I was an...extralegal entrepreneur." Colors retorted.

Thinking back to the previous night, Kaleeth commented on a detail she noticed. "A smuggler, you say? I thought you said yesterday that you couldn't fight?" She asked as she took a drink. It was much sweeter than she had anticipated, but she supposed that was her fault for not expecting such from a Khajiit drink.

"Yes, but you see, the best smuggler is one who doesn't have to fight." Colors explained. "Sadly, I lost my ship when I turned. One of my crew must've been turned at some point on land, because she transformed during the full moons and nearly killed all of us. Only myself and my first mate survived, at first. He died later from his wounds, and the ship crashed against an outcropping of rocks during the fight."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Peiter was reluctant to let go, but Sabine was excited enough to teach him that he did not have much of a choice but to continue with the lesson. Upon her instruction, he started to channel his magicka once more. Now that he had done it once, he just had to replicate what he had done on the first attempt. Now, with focus, he could actually somewhat feel what he was doing. It was far weaker than what Sabine could do without even trying, but he was manipulating his magicka nonetheless. As for actually casting a spell, however, he was having much more difficulty. Her analogies seemed to make sense, but trying to 'move' magicka in the way she was describing did not come easily to him. He tried imagining that his hand was glowing, but the most he could seem to do was to make the magicka within him flutter.

"I'm...trying, but it's just not happening. I know you said it's like moving a muscle, but it's like trying to move a muscle I never knew I had. Maybe..." Peiter began as he looked up into Sabine's eyes. He clasped his hands around Sabine's and held them close to his chest. "Maybe you can show me? I can try to feel your magicka, to see how you are doing it."

Tzirret had not gone into detail on his turning, but traumatic turnings were common enough among lycans that the pride made their assumptions on what might have happened. Regardless, such stories were ones that many of them shared, and they knew it best not to dwell on those details. Ra'kalesh was the first to answer Tzirret.

"This one is Ra'kalesh, the leader of this pride. In his life before turning, he was a monk. This one lived in a monestary, and was a student of the Whispering Fang. You may know it best for the style of martial arts we practiced, but we did have a life and beliefs beyond it. Ra'kalesh was turned when out hunting with one of his brothers. This one was taken into a smaller pride for a while before we found the clan. It was difficult adjusting to such a life at first, as this one is sure you can relate, but he has found more meaning in this life than his last."

Once he was finished speaking, Ra'kalesh nodded to the next of his pride beside him, Do'ajee. "This one's life has not been so exceptional. She is Do'ajee, a warrior by trade." She said. Notably, her Cyrodilic was much more heavily accented than most of the others in her pride. "This one is of one of the nomadic tribes who wander the deserts to the north. We had wandered close to the Tenmar forest when this one was turned. She was swimming: a rare opportunity for one who wanders the desert. Fortunately, this one was alone, and did not return to her tribe. Finding the clan took time, and Do'ajee admits she did not want to join them at first. She blamed them for the rogue lycan's actions, but Ra'kalesh convinced this one to give them a chance."

Since they seemed to be going in a circle, La'khay gave her introduction next. "This one is La'khay. She is not a fighter like most of the others, except Colors of course. This one is actually from Senchal. Her parents were paupers who worked odd jobs around the city, just as this one has done most of her life. Before her turning, La'khay was a prostitute working at a brothel near the docks. It was a nice place; you should visit it if you get the chance. It was probably one of this one's clients who turned her, considering that one day, she was suddenly a werelion. Luckily, Colors happened to be nearby when this one was close to turning and took her out of the city." She explained. Despite the nature of her history, La'khay did not seem to show a hint of shame in describing it.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"I did?" Peiter questioned. He felt like he had done nothing at all, so he was surprised to hear that he had any measure of success. "I didn't create the light like you wanted, but you said I was...channeling, right? I mean, that is something. More than I've ever done before, definitely."

As Peiter stopped focusing on his magicka, he started to smile. Technically, he had not actually cast any magic yet and still wouldn't consider himself to be close to even being a novice, but for the first time, he had felt a small taste of a force that had always seemed so strange to him. It was satisfying. In his cheerful mood, he turned himself around and hugged Sabine tightly. He said nothing, and did not seem to want to let her go.

Colors glanced back and forth between Janius and his drink. "Well...I for one think that wine is an essential." He said as he took a drink. "I mean, my pride has been through a lot. It is imperative that we be able to keep our morale as high as possible, so naturally, I thought to grab it for their benefit. Besides, there was extra space in my bag after we finished going through everything else that was useful, so there was no harm in taking it. I mean, wine is a valuable item, so if nothing else, we could sell it." Evidently, Colors could not settle on a single excuse, because he seemed to be giving them all at once.

"Colors, just close your mouth, and pass the bottle." La'khay interrupted. S'ajira trotted over and gave the bottle she had taken to her to open. La'khay uncorked the bottle and allowed the Pahmar to drink a portion before taking a large swig herself. "We have it now, so there's no point in worrying about how or why it got here. Just enjoy yourselves."

Leaning over towards Tzirret, La'khay offered the bottle to him. "That includes you, 'cloudy-cat.' Just relax. Tell us about yourself, what is it, Tzirret, right? Where are you from?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Okay, I'll try." Peiter answered. He strained, focusing as much as he could on the strange, chaotic energy he felt. She said to push it through his hands, which sounded simple, but he did not have much of an idea how to actually move this energy he had never felt before. He went through considerable effort and concentration just trying different methods, hoping to find some way of interacting with it. He attempted just thinking about the energy moving through his hands to create a light, but it was, of course, not that simple. He tried to imagine the sensation of the energy collecting in his hands, and while it did make him feel even stranger, it did not bring him completely to his goal. To Peiter, each attempt seemed to bring nothing but failure, but to Sabine, whose perceptions were much more well-attuned, she would know that his magicka was actually being charged through his hands. He just had no idea how to give it form.

Colors laughed heartily before pulling what appeared to be a bottle of wine from his bag. It was a local wine, complete with moon sugar, so he had likely grabbed it from the enemy's outpost the night before. "Oh come now, we all know that wouldn't happen." He said as he popped the cork off of the bottle and looked to Janius. "It wouldn't even come close to being a competition." He said pridefully.

As Colors pulled out the bottle, S'ajira got up, then slowly walked around the outside of the circle and sat down beside Colors. Even without words, it was clear to the pride what she wanted. Jo'rashaad leaned in as he turned his gaze to Colors. "This one hopes you're ready to share, Colors. It has been too long since my wife, or any of us for that matter, have had a good drink."

"Yes, and perhaps we should give a drink to the Suthay-raht boy over there while we're at it." La'khay commented, motioning outside of the circle towards Tzirret. "He's been staring at us for a good five minutes; it looks like he could stand to calm his nerves."

Kaleeth took her seat in the group next to Janius and eyed the wine curiously. Seeing as she was not aware of its contents, she did feel that it would be nice to have a drink. Although, with the number of people present, she doubted she would be able to. "I don't think that one bottle would be enough for us all."

"Yes, yes, it's unfortunate, but there's not enough for all of us. Even so, I have no problem sharing this bottle." Colors added quickly, but as he was speaking, S'ajira investigated the bag beside him. By the time Colors noticed her rummaging through the bag with her snout, she had already pulled out a second bottle of the wine with her teeth. Colors gave the Pahmare a glare, while several of the others laughed.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Since one conversation seems to be over, we could have one between the pride and a few of the others. I think Janius and Tzirret are still there, along with Uthri, whom seems to go back and forth between the two of us.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Feeling Sabine's embrace once more was certainly enough to pique Peiter's attention by itself, but he tried to focus on the matter at hand. She was doing something to him, though he did not know what. He still did not know what to look for, but now, with whatever Sabine was trying, he knew that something would probably be different. If he could feel whatever it was within him that wasn't normal, then he might actually be able to feel the magicka. He took in a deep breath, then let it out slowly much as he had before. At first, everything felt normal. He felt his breath, his heartbeat, the warmth of Sabine's body behind him, but as he focused harder, he had a sense of something more...chaotic. It was strange and out of place from what he was accustomed to.

"I think...I don't know. There is something, it's...unusual. I feel warm, almost." He explained.

Meesei shook her head. "No, just that you avoid drawing attention to yourselves. Senchal is a large city, in which it would be easy to remain hidden, but you should be cautious all the same. I will remain here and aid Irenya in helping the pride to recover...as well as myself. I will go speak to Fendros and Ahnasha. If there is anyone else you would like to go with you, I would go speak to them now." Meesei recommended before taking her leave. Ra'kalesh headed back to the center of camp to join the rest of his pride, who seemed to be conversing with several members of both Meesei's and Gallus' packs.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Peiter attempted to follow Sabine's instructions to the letter, but his lack of experience made that much more difficult than it sounded. He was trying to feel this energy, but had no concept of what it was even like. Even if he did feel it, he was not sure how to go about willing it into his hands; would it just be as simple as thinking about it happening? He breathed deeply and tried to focus on each breath, but all he could recognize within his body was his heartbeat pulsing in the background. He was sure the magicka was there, as it was supposedly in everyone, but a description was not enough for him to understand, at least not easily.

"I...I don't know. If I focus, I feel a lot of things: my breaths, my pulse, a light breeze around us, random sensations. I just don't know what to feel. I feel like a blind man trying to understand color. Is there some way you can sort of...show me what to feel? Can you do anything to make it easier to sense?" He asked.

Ra'kalesh turned his head briefly to look over his pride. With the aid of a healer, they could be ready to hunt reasonably soon, and they would not want to delay much longer after that. "To allow this one's pride time to heal, we will likely hunt tomorrow. So, if you can find a captain willing to leave tomorrow evening, or the next day, it would be ideal."

Meesei nodded in agreement before commenting. "I would expect that most people in Senchal can speak Cyrodilic, but just in case, I can send Ahnasha with you. And, perhaps a few others for defense. Though it is a city, it would be unwise to go in alone, given the situation. I would recommend taking someone who is skilled in matters of trade and bartering. I know both Fendros and Ahnasha possess that ability."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Peiter followed Sabine excitedly, although not particularly for the magic lesson itself. They stayed close to area and found a clear enough area to sit down. He was not certain what this lesson would entail, or how they would even go about beginning, but he was sure Sabine knew what she was doing. She did have quite a good teacher, after all. Her first question was quite simple, and he should have expected it, but he still found himself scratching his head as he tried to think of something useful to say.

"Um, well, I know it uses magicka to work, which comes from the stars...or something? I don't know how to use it or anything. I've never even really...felt magicka before. I don't really know what it is like, or how I would begin to feel it. I know, being Breton, it shouldn't be too hard, but I've never seriously tried before." He answered.

Ra'kalesh had to think for a moment, not about the game in the area, which he was intimately familiar with, but how it would compare to what Gallus was accustomed to. "The Tenmar forest shares much prey with the Blackwood forest of Cyrodiil, this one believes. Bears, boar, wolves, deer, dreugh, the occasional troll. But, there are more, of course. The durzog is not unique to Elsweyr, but it can be found here. The same is true of the lamia, and goblins. We might find tigers, minotaurs, or crocodiles if we go into the water. Spriggans can also be found here, but this one doubts you want a feast of tree bark. Ra'kalesh's pride...may be able to hunt, but perhaps we may wish to wait a few hours, or another night to allow us to rest and heal more completely. Your healer has done great work so far, but there are quite a few of us. You could use the time to head to Senchal and broker a deal with one of the ship captains." He suggested.