EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Shanja gave a nod, and a huff that seemed to just be an acknowledgement, at Tzirret's answer. He paused briefly to lay himself down in the shallows, so that the water could still wash over him while still leaving him close enough to the shore that he could write. As he was getting settled, Jo'rashaad, who had been relaxing on his back on the surface of the water, swam close enough that he could speak to them, but still remain mostly submerged if he laid down on the riverbed. "Well, this one sees that you all are getting along." He commented.

The Senche nodded to Jo'rashaad as well, then wrote another question in the mud: "You like Pelletine?" Since Tzirret had hesitated on his last question, Shanja made sure to add the proper punctuation this time, to be clear.

Ciinriel chuckled as she reached out and gently touched Sabine's hair. "Well, I might be shiny, but your hair is positively glowing!" She joked. "I would love to have some of it, if it isn't too much trouble to make, of course. My hair is too short to have it done like yours, though. It still hasn't grown back out all the way, yet."

La'khay had not been lying when she said she wanted to remove every speck of dust from Sabine's body, as she was as thorough as she could be once she started helping to wash Sabine. At least this time, Sabine could actually provide some help in washing herself, but La'khay was going to make sure that nothing was left unwashed. When Sabine complimented her, however, she did acknowledge her with a smile. "Thank you. La'khay simply loves beautiful things, and she loves to help make things beautiful. People, paintings, sculptures, she loves working with them all. Between just us, if La'khay was not in the service of Hircine, she would be a priestess of Dibella. Peiter is a handsome man as well, isn't he? La'khay thinks you two are good as mates. This one thinks he will have a hard time taking his eyes off of you when he sees you like this."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Peiter nodded to Tzirret in agreement. "He said the same size? I can't read Ta'agra, so I'll need you to translate. I suppose it does make sense, though. It does make me wonder what the point of actually transforming would be, but...I guess it would give you arms and hands and such, doesn't it?" He asked Shanja, to which he received a quick nod.

To Tzirret's question, Shanja wrote out the words born werewolf. Although, he did not stop at just answering Tzirret's question, and instead asked one of his own: Where you from.

Despite Sabine's uncertainly, La'khay smiled in her response. "Of course it will make you prettier. Human body hair is so scraggly. Trimming or shaving it makes your entire form look even and smooth, like freshly washed fur. Some of the girls this one used to work with did it all the time. Just trust La'khay, you will look perfect." She said confidently. "And don't worry, we're not going to be submerging your hair again, just washing your body. That oil won't wash out easily, don't worry, but you should at least wait until Peiter sees it before getting it wet again. Normally, La'khay would have done the body first, but she wanted to show you what she could do."

Since Sabine agreed, La'khay got to work trimming down the rest of her hairs. She shaved down the hairs on her armpits and groin to be as short as her claws would allow, then moved on to her legs. Her claws were insufficient for the task of shaving them entirely of hair, but she could go through and cut the hairs she deemed to be too long. "Ciinriel, please get the soap ready. This one is about done here."

Ciinriel complied and grabbed the soap from the shore, then sat by Sabine as she waited for La'khay to finish. For a few moments, she stared at Sabine's head for a few moments in silence before she realized that Sabine had noticed her staring. "Oh, sorry, it's just...your hair is beautiful Sabine. Those streaks of color look nice, kind of like the stripes of a Khajiit. I wish I could have mine look like that."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Shanja acknowledged Tzirret's question, but after a pause, it seemed to take him longer than Peiter would have thought to answer a yes or no question. All at once, he turned away from the pair and walked towards the shore. At first, Peiter worried that he might have offended him somehow, but then he saw that the Senche was scrawling a few words in the mud. Once he swam over to him, Peiter saw a few words written in the mud, but as they were in Ta'agra, he was unable to tell that he had spelled out the words: same size.

La'khay gave a quick, amused grunt at Sabine's question. "Oh, if La'khay could, she would. It is a treat when she can get the soaps, oils, and other nice cosmetics. Strictly speaking, Khajitt does not need those things to get clean, but it is always so much better when she has them. Ahnasha doesn't seem like the type who would care for such things, though." She explained.

Once Sabine's hair was clean enough for La'khay's liking, which meant being almost entirely spotless, she guided her over near the shore once more and instructed her to sit down in the shallows. From there, she began the work on actually styling her hair as desired. She took the oil and lathered it lightly across her head, then carefully and meticulously straightened out each length of hair to near perfection. Once straight, she took the ends of the hairs and pulled them out between her fingers on one hand, then used the claws on the other to cut any excess hair from the longer strands so that they were all the exact same length. She repeated this all around her head until her hair was both perfectly straight and even. It was just as Sabine described that she wanted, but La'khay had one more step that she thought would really make it unique. Taking more of the oil, she applied some of it once more to Sabine's hair, but not evenly this time. Instead, she lathered it on in streaks running down from the top of her head, to the end of the strands. Because she had applied the oil all across her head, all of her hair had a certain lustrous glow to it, but where she had applied it more thickly, there were streaks of an even more vibrant auburn color. Overall, the quality of La'khay's work was that of a professional, and if Sabine liked the style, she would certainly be satisfied.

"There we go. It looks...perfect." La'khay said with a smile. "Go over there if you want to get a look at it." She said, pointing to a slower moving part of the river where her reflection would be more visible. "Now, we just have to work on the rest of the body. La'khay wants to make sure there isn't a speck of dirt on your body when you return to your mate. This one wants you to be perfect. La'khay can trim up the hairs on your armpits and loins, make sure your back is clean, and especially make sure the nails on your fingers and toes are clean as well."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Peiter shrugged his shoulders. "Oh, no reason in particular. Just curious. They just look so...powerful. It's almost like turning into a lycan would just make them smaller...unless that form is even bigger? I'm not sure how that works. The Khajiit are a lot more interesting of a people than I ever would have expected."

By that point, Shanja took some interest in what the pair's conversation, since they were talking about his kind. He stood up from where he was laying in the river and approached them. While Peiter and Tzirret were able to swim around, Shanja still had all fours firmly planted on the riverbed when he stood alongside them. He seemed intent on joining the conversation, even though he couldn't actually speak.

La'khay turned for a moment and eyed the bottle of soap closely for several seconds before giving her answer. "There...should be enough, yes. More than enough, really. Just don't use too much, and you should be fine."

Ciinriel nodded and grabbed the soap, while La'khay brought Sabine to the point where the water came up to her neck, told her to take in a breath, and lowered her head back into the water to wet her hair. La'khay started washing her hair quickly, and quite thoroughly. Given the heat and humidity, and the fact that their group had rarely had the luxury of bathing over the past few weeks, her hair was rather badly knotted and dirty. It would be something that would likely take Sabine quite a while to clean, but La'khay's method was efficient, and effective. It was almost as if she was massaging Sabine's scalp at the same time as she washed her hair. "You know, La'khay thinks you Humans are lucky. This one does like her fur, but it is a real pain in the tail to keep nice and clean. It covers our entire bodies, and picks up all the dirt we come across. Humans just have to worry about the hair on their heads, under their arms, and on their loins. And on the chest, for the men. You have all those short little hairs everywhere else, but they're nothing like our fur."

Meanwhile, Ciinriel split her attention between observing La'khay, and washing herself. She used some of the soap from the bottle on herself, though she was very careful only to use up the minimum amount to keep herself clean. In all likelihood, she could have used much more and still left plenty for Sabine, but she wanted to be safe. It was easy for her to tell that the soap had alchemical properties, as it was not like any she had used before with the way it felt, along with its scent.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Peiter started to laugh at the suggestion that they could be carried away by the river. "Tzirret, you're never going to stop worrying, are you? No one would bathe in this river if it was dangerous enough to carry you away. Besides, it's not like we're in the ocean or anything; you're not going to get lost in the river."

Looking around for a moment, Peiter's eyes settled on the Senche a short distance away upstream. "Say, have you ever seen a Senche before today?" He asked Tzirret.

La'khay seemed surprised when Sabine described what the oil could do. It was not exactly what she expected, but it only took a few moments for some ideas to come to her mind. "Glowing, you say? That's...yes, La'khay thinks she can do something with that."

Setting down the bottle on the shore nearby, La'khay brought herself in front of Sabine, placed both hands on her cheeks, and started moving around her head to look at it from different angles. "Long, straight hair with a bit of...yes, that would work nicely. Very nicely. This one thinks it is a good choice, don't worry. She won't cut your hair; she may need to trim the ends a bit to make them even, but she will keep it long. She will wash it really well, get out all the knots, then make it nice and even. The oil can make it even, and maybe something else La'khay is thinking. And after your hair, we can wash up your body. So, long, straight, and lustrous hair; you sure that's what you want? If so, just come with this one over to some of the deeper parts and we'll start washing."

Ciinriel had already lowered herself up to her neck in the water and was listening to La'khay explain what she intended to do. While La'khay worked on her hair, Ciinriel figured she would go ahead and wash herself, though she did find herself eyeing the soap next to the oil on the shore. "Sabine...do you think there's enough of that soap that...I might be able to use it too?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Peiter shrugged his shoulders at Tzirret before lowering himself down into the deeper parts of the water. "I'm not entirely sure, really. Sabine made some special soaps and oils for herself, but doesn't know how to use them like they're meant to be. Apparently, La'khay knows what to do with them, but she doesn't want me seeing it yet, for some reason."

Ciinriel was also interested to see what La'khay was doing. She personally had never asked La'khay to fix up her appearance, though she had seen what La'khay could do to herself, so she knew that La'khay was not lying about her experience. When Sabine asked for her to come along, she nodded to Sabine. "Oh, sure. I'd like to watch...if that's okay." She said, looking at La'khay questioningly.

"Certainly, you can come along, Ciinriel." La'khay answered, motioning for the Bosmer to follow. Once they were a bit farther away, La'khay continued. "See, you don't want Peiter seeing you before La'khay is done, because then he will expect it. You want to surprise him with it, so he'll have to take it in all at once. It will make you look even prettier to him."

After a short walk, they were mostly out of sight, near the edge of the river where it was more shallow. La'khay uncorked the oil and took a few sniffs of it. "Now, before we start, La'khay has two questions. The first is to ask exactly what this oil is meant to do. She thinks she knows from the smell, but she just wants to make sure. You know how alchemy can be. The second is: how do you want your hair to look? La'khay can keep your hair at it's current length, or cut it down shorter. She can make it long, straight, and smooth, or, if this oil is what she thinks it is, give it any kind of other style. This one thinks that a lot of things would look good on you."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Once everyone finished their meals, it was not long before they started making their way into the water. It was a proper river, rather than a simple stream like at the last outpost, so it was possible for most of them to actually swim in some areas, apart from Shanja, who had to be content with laying down in the water.

"Um, no, no, give that to La'khay." She answered to Sabine, quickly taking the oil. "This one will use it on your hair; make you look however you want. The soap is for your body, mostly to make it smell nice." La'khay explained. Peiter of course entered the water nearby and took an interest in watching La'khay work, but as soon as she noticed him looking, she reached down and grabbed Sabine's hand, as if to help her to her feet. "Ah, but this won't do at all, not right here. No, if La'khay is going to work on your hair, then your curious mate here cannot watch. He needs to wait until La'khay is completely done before he can see it. Come, let's go a bit further downstream. It will just take a few minutes."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I just got back home. I went to a funeral and have been with my family for most of the day. I need to do some things at the moment, and I'll write a response as soon as I'm done.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I probably need to head to bed now. Goodnight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With Tzirret's reaction, La'khay assumed that he was in agreement, so she let go of him and returned to her meal. As for Ciinriel, she looked at Sabine's hair with some uncertainty when she asked for her help. She wanted to help, but in this case, she did not know how well she could actually do that. "I, oh, I don't know. I wouldn't really know how to use it either; I've never even heard of using oils in your hair. What are they for?" She asked. However, upon hearing the exchange, La'khay took interest once again.

"Soaps and oils you say? It sounds like you're trying to...pretty yourself up, right? You want to look nice for a certain handsome man?" La'khay asked rhetorically while grinning widely at both Sabine and Peiter. "Well, La'khay is very experienced in that. She had to make herself look as ravishing as possible back at the brothel. She helped the other girls with it too. If you want some help, La'khay can have you looking as elegant as a Whispering Fang priestess."