EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Looking over to Ra'kalesh, Kaleeth saw that they were packing up their maps. Their meeting was evidently over, so she would be able to speak to him soon. Slowly, she handed off Newt to Janius and smiled. "Thank you. I hope he can help me. It would be terrible if something like that happened to me in anything other than training. I just hope we will have time, since we're going to be searching for their clan. Who knows, maybe you can learn something too?"

After the alphas finished their meeting, headed back towards the center of camp. As Ra'kalesh passed by, Kaleeth stopped him somewhat nervously. "Ra'kalesh, I...have a question for you. Do you remember when we fought back on the ship? You fought so well...I was wondering if you could help teach me?" She asked.

Ra'kalesh smiled. "This one was wondering if you would ask. Unfortunately, he will not be able to teach to you fight like he does. Ra'kalesh is a practitioner of the Whispering Fang style, and spent years as a monk studying it. Khajiit's techniques would not work for you without that level of dedication. But, Ra'kalesh can still give you lessons. He may still be able to teach you principles that could help in your own fighting style. We can start tomorrow, after we all return to camp."

Kaleeth nodded, returning his smile. "Thank you, I'll do my best." She responded before glancing over to Janius. "Will you join us too, if you can?"

Peiter gave a slight huff at Tzirret. "You're getting used to it? I don't see how, considering your full-body fur coat. I guess Khajiit are desert cats, though. You must have a lot of tolerance to the heat. Honestly, I wouldn't mind a desert right now; it's the humidity that's getting to me." Peiter explained. He walked over to his bags and undressed himself, then laid down on top of his bedroll nearby, looking up at the sky with his hands resting behind his head.

When Sabine brought up the idea of making a potion, Peiter chuckled. "Hmm, and you're sure we're not actually on fire right now? If you told me that, I honestly think I would believe it. Ah, I'm sure we'll manage, though. Hopefully, we'll be able to find the clan soon, so we won't have to be searching through this jungle for so long. Hopefully, they're still in this area, and haven't been found by Vile."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Hmm, this voyage was cutting it close to the full moons. Within the next week, I believe." Meesei answered. "We will need to approach that night with caution; perhaps travel in larger groups. But, you are right that it could help us find them. On that night, we might try simply spreading out over a wider area, without any especially detailed searching. That would give us the best chance to encounter any of them, and we can always cover ground we missed in the next night." She suggested.

Since they were not going to be beginning their search that night, the rest of the group started setting up their camp. They were likely going to be moving their camp frequently, so they only took out the essentials from their bags. Kaleeth took up a tired Newt in her arms and allowed him to rest while Janius set up his bedroll. Although, she found herself glancing periodically over to Ra'kalesh with the other alphas. Despite the fact that she had been able to satisfy herself with fights aboard the ship, her mind always seemed to go back to their fight on the first day. She had not even been able to touch him during their bout, and she could not help but to wonder how that was possible. She wondered if he would be willing to give her any training, since they were on a mission.

Meanwhile, Peiter let out a sigh as he took a seat on the ground near the center of camp. Naturally, he was near Sabine and Tzirret. Although, Ciinriel had been joining them more frequently for the past day or two. She was not normally as outgoing as when she was intoxicated, but she was starting to open up to them. Peiter stared out into the forest and let out a sigh. "Back into the heat of this jungle, I suppose. Sea travel may be boring, but at least the air was a bit cooler." He shifted somewhat uncomfortably. At first, wading through the water had been refreshing, but now, he just felt wet. The humidity of the jungle made sweating largely ineffective.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"No, that is not a bad plan." Meesei commented as she looked over the map carefully. "I do not want to take the risk of eliminating any areas entirely, but we may be able to prioritize based on where the most likely spot could be. Since Vile's forces have the suppression gas, I would have selected a location that would allow for an easy escape, were I the clan leader. However, he could have established their new camp anywhere. Perhaps in a cavern, or even in the trees. Ra'kalesh, would they have had time to build another set of structures in the trees? I am not certain of the details of how they are constructed."

Ra'kalesh scratched under his chin for a moment as he thought. "No...this one does not think so. But, we do have hidden supply outposts, as you know. Khajiit does not know if there was one in this area. Certainly, it would not have been large enough to accommodate all of the survivors, but if they already had an outpost to start with, they could have added a few more structures."

Meesei nodded. "It is a possibility, then. All teams will need to stay alert for anywhere they might be. If they are underground, then we will not be able to catch their scents. However, the basic plan is a good one. We will split up into teams of three, then cover a predetermined area each day. Once that area is covered, we will all returned to camp, then move our camp to a different location the next morning. Although, even with the nineteen of us, it still may take a week or two to cover such a large area. Hopefully, we will find the clan long before then. It is getting late today, so we should make camp here and start in the morning. Are there any objections, or suggestions?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Once everyone had finally made it to shore, Meesei directed them to continue on a short distance into the forest, since the beach was a very open area. There had been no evidence that anyone was following them throughout their entire voyage, but just in case, Meesei felt it would be best if they were not plainly visible from the ocean.

After a few minutes of walking, the group was deep enough into the forest that Meesei felt it was safe enough for them to stop. As everyone was finding a place to set down their bags, Meesei found a fallen log on which to spread out their maps. She called over Gallus, Ra'kalesh, and anyone else who wanted to give advice so that they could finalize their plans for their next move. She uncorked an inkwell and gave a quill to Ra'kalesh, as he was the one with the most knowledge of the area.

"Ra'kalesh, what is roughly the area we are going to need to search?" Meesei asked.

Ra'kalesh dipped the quill, then drew a thin line in a circle around their current area. Compared to the whole of Elsweyr, it was a small circle, but it was still a very large area for them to search without any real direction. "It will not be easy, unfortunately. Ra'kalesh knows this is where they planned to go, but he has no more specifics than this. We will need to devise a search pattern.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Agreed." Ahnasha responded. The two children did not seem to have a care in the world at the moment, other than their own amusements. Ahnasha almost felt envious of them, for that fact. "Now, we just have to figure out how to keep ourselves from going insane for the rest of this trip."

---

Compared to their previous voyage, the packs' current trip was mercifully short. As they were only sailing along Elsweyr's coast, they were able to reach the approximate area where Ra'kalesh knew his clan had gone within just four days. It was short enough that life aboard the ship had only just become stale by the time they arrived. Thanks to her lycan regeneration, Kaleeth was able to heal quickly and return for a few more fights with the crew several times during their journey, along with Lorag once he learned about them. Fortunately, they accepted the explanation of magic as her source of rapid healing. Although, she refrained from joining in any fights on the day before their arrival to ensure she would be in good physical condition.

For Meesei, she had no trouble passing the time during their journey. When she was not spending time in conversation with her packs or the pride, she was meditating and otherwise practicing her magic. It was something she had always done whenever there was nothing else to do, though since the war began, she had been even more rigorous in her pursuit of magical insight. For as long as any in her pack had known her, Meesei had been a powerful mage, but over the past few years, her magical abilities had grown even stronger. Since high-level magic was more difficult to study, the change was not as drastic as others in her pack like Ahnasha and Sabine, but she had steady improvement.

It was later in the afternoon that the ship finally cast its anchor just off of the shore to allow their passengers to disembark. Obviously, there was no dock for them to use, and the captain did not seem intent allowing them the use of one of their rowboats. From speaking with her, it seemed she wanted to get out of the area as fast as possible. Fortunately, the shores were not rocky, so the ship was able to get close enough to shore that they would only have to wade a short distance to dry land. While the crew were letting down the ropes, the captain gave the group one final "farewell."

"Alright, this is your stop. Once you're off this ship, you're off. Make sure you've got all your stuff with you now, else it's gonna be mine. Now, it's been a pleasure doing business and all that nonsense. If anyone asks, we've never met." The captain said before walking back towards her cabin.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Do you think I should go ahead and do that?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Yeah, I probably should get us to our destination soon enough.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha nodded. "Yeah, I doubt the Star is anything more than a dream. Only one person in Tamriel can have it at a time, and there are a lot of enchanters out there. Most people will never even see a Daedric artifact, and our pack already has one in our possession. I doubt we'll be so lucky as to get another. I'll just have to make due with the normal soul gems, like everyone else."

Ahnasha's attention was grabbed by the noise off to their right. Rhazii ran by with Newt not that far behind, leaving Ahnasha with a small grin on her face. She saw them playing like this all the time, but it was still amusing to watch, especially when she did not expect it. Janius was not that far behind, which was fortunate, else Ahnasha might have become cross with him. Naturally, he was curious about their conversation with Irenya, so Ahnasha answered, despite wanting to be rid of that topic forever.

"Well, none of us ended up scratched, stabbed, incinerated, or crushed by a frost atronach, if that says anything. It could have gone better, definitely, but I doubt she's going to bother us as much anymore. I still don't know if she's going to do anything about how she acts towards Meesei, but I guess only time will tell. Meesei might be diplomatic about it, but I personally won't stand for her, or anyone else, disrespecting the Champion." Ahnasha explained.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha grinned and let out a huff as she lightly hit Fendros' shoulder. "Well I don't have to keep the things with me. I just need practice in making thralls to better understand the underlying principles. I made plenty of them back with the clan, usually out of animal carcasses. I just, uh, made sure the clan didn't see them. I killed them all before we left, don't worry. I also figured out that I could soul trap them again and reuse the soul once I wanted to move on to a different thrall, so for that kind of practice, I didn't need all that many souls. I just needed a good supply of soul gems. I...know there is going to be a time where I'll need more, stronger souls, but you know me. I'm not going to become some power-crazed necromancer. I'll be a...perfectly reasonable and well-adjusted necromancer."

Ahnasha was trying to remain lighthearted, despite the serious subject matter. The perception of necromancy across most of Tamriel was overwhelmingly negative, and in many cases, that perception was well-earned. She did not want power at any cost, however, she just wanted life. Nevertheless, she still wanted to edge the conversation away from that topic. "Ah, what I wouldn't give to have Azura's Star. I can see why enchanters and necromancers are always so obsessed over that artifact. A soul gem that could survive multiple uses would be beyond useful for my experiments. I would still need some soul gems, for those experiments that require multiple souls at once, but still, it would help immensely. Unique Daedric artifacts are not easy to find though, unfortunately."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha shrugged her shoulders. "Eh, I've mostly gotten used to the smell by now. I honestly prefer working with skeletons, but I need to work on something with flesh to really get in the practice I need." She explained. At first, she had even found her own work to be very distasteful, but her desire to extend her own life had forced her to press on until she could come to terms with its grisly nature.

"From what I have learned so far, the key seems to be in understanding how one's life force manipulates the body itself. Basically, how the soul is bound to the body. With a strong enough soul gem and some time, I can make a reasonably strong permanent thrall, rather than the ones that disintegrate after a relatively short time. But, there is a pretty huge difference between how the souls in those thralls interact with the body I give them, and how my own soul is bound to my own body. It's like the different between a person using their own body, versus a person using strings to manipulate a puppet. I still have a long way to go before I can really understand the intricacies of black souls. I just know that I'm going to need souls, and a lot of them, for my experiments. We kill things all the time, the hardest part is probably going to be getting the soul gems themselves." Ahnasha reasoned.