EliteCommander

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Ssarak Dyreackthanose

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Ssarak’s sword was already drawn, but upon seeing the veritable wave of ridge hounds before them, he readied his shield as well. As far as underground caves were concerned, the catacombs were fairly large, but they were still more restrictive than he would have liked. Being able to fly above the beasts would have given him more than enough of an advantage, but that was not the situation he was in. In preparation for this excursion into the Ravine, he had naturally taken the time to learn of its common denizens, and fortunately, ridge hounds were anything but unusual. They were like pests, but much more deadly.

In the time since his last mission, Ssarak’s abilities had expanded, and he intended to make use of them. The ridge hounds had no eyes with which to see, but their hearing easily compensated for that weakness. However, their hearing could be “blinded” in much the same way as eyesight. Towards the mass of hounds, he targeted an attack against the few in the front: an illusion of an extremely loud, piercing sound to briefly stun them. As they were leading the charge, any sudden delay was likely to sew some chaos among the crowd and potentially cause them to trip over one another. He then followed that attack with another, targeting some, but not all of the hounds. It would not be necessary to create the illusion for all of them, and would be more efficient with his blood. In their minds, he altered their perception of some of the other hounds around them so that they appeared to be something other than a ridge hound. These creatures were meant to be brutal and aggressive, but not greatly intelligent. They would attack anything they could view as prey. Many of those he targeted were nearer to the front, and a fight there would of course stall the group. Given their temperament, it could potentially draw in others behind them as well.

Ssarak stood directly alongside Tyrael with his weapons still at the ready. If his illusions opened up the proper opportunities, he would possibly move forward to engage them.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Since the question was very sudden, and seemingly random, Qa'habi hesitated for a few moments as he looked to Tzirret strangely. "Um, bows? This one cannot teach you how to shoot them on the ship, but if you just want to learn about the bow itself...he supposes he can. It would give Qa'habi something to do. Were you wanting to learn archery or something? It is a lot different from fighting with a spear. Qa'habi just needs to go get his bow."

Given Ma'tanza's experience with such things, she could identify awkward excuses such as Tzirret's in a heartbeat, but in this case, she couldn't imagine what he was making an excuse for. She could not recall anything happening that usually provoked those kinds of excuses. Eventually, she began to wonder if Tzirret legitimately just wanted to learn about bows. The way he had asked had been awkward, but Tzirret did have a tendency to act awkwardly from time to time.

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

I will be getting to mine tomorrow, if all goes well.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Goodnight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Bheja shook his head in response. He did not seem quite as nervous as Ma'tanza, but he did have some trepidation about joining in this particular outing. "I, uh, I've already seen it before. And even if the Champion is fine with a few people coming along, I do actually doubt she would want a crowd with her. If we're not stopping in the city, then they'll probably be taking a rowboat, which I can't imagine holds all that many people."

Qa'habi nodded in agreement. "Yeah, it's probably best not to ask for too much. Anyway, what should we do now? There really isn't much to do on this ship, and not much space to be creative. Back as the outpost, Qa'habi would just practice with his bow when he was bored, but here? This one may as well just stare at a wall when he is not with all of you."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Good, give them as much as you can. It is not as if we have need of disease cures." Meesei responded. With her worries about the girl satisfied, Meesei stepped back towards the door. "I wish I could stay longer, but I should get back to my duties. Be sure to get some rest, and alert me if anything happens to go wrong."

With that, Meesei took her leave. Just as she promised, she intended to speak to the chef who had been preparing their meals to see if she could change to serving soups.

Ma'tanza did not appear any less nervous, but she was willing to concede at least somewhat. "Um, well, Ma'tanza still does not want to cause any problems, but...if you want to ask the Champion, this one would be willing to come. Just...this one hopes you do not mind if she does not come with you to talk to her. The Champion probably doesn't want to be bothered by someone like this one; Ma'tanza is sure she must have many important things to do." She answered. Evidently, she still held quite a bit of fear about the idea of approaching Meesei.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei hesitated for a brief moment. Materially, there was nothing the family could really do for them. It was unlikely that they had any family or friends who could help them in Elsweyr, else they would have helped Pudaga with his debt. She wished she could ask them to tell others of how their lives were saved by lycans, but it was too dangerous to give them that information, both for the clan and the family. Indeed, she wondered if anything would change in their gratitude if they knew the truth. "Your thanks are sufficient for me, but if you truly wish to do something more, then you can make a promise. When you are settled in your new home and physically able, pass on this charity to someone else who needs it." She suggested with a smile. It was nothing that would help the clan, or likely anyone they knew, but it might at least make the family feel like less of a burden.

Turning to Sabine, Meesei asked another quick question. "Are there enough ingredients among your stock to make any more remedies?"

Ma'tanza looked to the side, running one hand over the other nervously. "Well, um...Ma'tanza does not know about that. She does not want to bother the Champion, or your leader. What if they are doing something important? And they might not have time for us to look around anyway."

Bheja shrugged his shoulders. "Well, you may at least get to see it. If we're going north, then we'll have to pass by the city. The temple is much taller than the walls, so you should be able to see it from the ship, maybe through a porthole?" He suggested. At about that time, Qa'habi finished up his meal, so they would likely be moving on soon. Though, there was not all that much to do aboard the ship.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei shook her head. "No, there aren't unfortunately. We have enough clothing to keep our crew above deck dressed, but not much more. These ships held far more people than supplies to keep them comfortable. I would have us purchase more in Leyawiin, but these ships are stolen, even if it was from slavers. We cannot deal with the port authorities. You need not worry about us, though. We will be fine. As for you, I will see what I can do about your next meal. Perhaps some soup, or just extra cutlery."

To Meesei, it was comforting to see the smiles of the little girl, and the laughter of the old woman. The clan had essentially saved their lives; she just wished she did not have to hide who and what they were from them. Despite all they were doing for the family, they were still being kept isolated from the rest of the ship, almost like prisoners. It was not the kind of treatment she wanted to give to people who had been through so much. It reminded her of the conversation she had with Gallus before departing from the outpost, about how the world would always view them as monsters. Personally, she wondered how many people in Tamriel would call their current actions monstrous. "You can keep the clothes you have for when we reach Leyawiin. We will also give you whatever else we can spare. Food, water, some of the gold we scavenged from the slavers. As I am sure you have seen, I have many people to take care of on these ships, so I regret that I cannot give you too much, but it should support you for a while."

Bheja scratched the back of his neck. "I'm...not sure. I only visited it a few times, and Leyawin's a big place. I hardly remember anything I saw there. The Temple did look pretty impressive, I think. It had these massive, colorful stained glass windows with images of the Imperials' gods on them. I don't think as many people in Leyawiin go to the temple as other Cyrodilic cities; there are a lot of Khajiit and Argonians there that like to do their own thing. Still, that place could probably have held all of them."

Ma'tanza looked ahead at nothing in particular as she tried to imagine what Bheja described. "Hmm, Ma'tanza wishes we could visit the city. This one would like to see a building like that."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei did not intend to be dishonest with the young girl, though neither could she be entirely truthful. She did not want to say that their only reason for attacking the ship was for the ship itself, but she could still give an answer without directly lying. "Well, we did not know you were on this ship, but we did intend to stop those slavers. They cause far too much pain to innocents like you." She explained.

Meesei looked over briefly to F'sresa's parents. "We may arrive at Leyawiin before she is fully recovered, but we should be able to give you some remedies to help in the last part of her recovery." She explained before speaking to the group in general. "Is there anything that you need right now to be more comfortable? It will be a day or so before we arrive."

Ma'tanza smiled as she finished off the last of her meal. "Oh, okay. Well, you do what you think is best. We will be glad to have you around if you want to come with us." She answered.

When Tzirret asked about Cyrodiil, Ma'tanza and Qa'habi shook their heads, but Bheja had an actual response. "Yeah, I think I said before that I was born there. It was a town called Border Watch. Though, to be fair, I don't know if it's fair to say that town is a real part of Cyrodiil. Almost everyone there was Khajiit, and as the name would suggest, it was right on the border. My parents were actually from Leyawiin, though. We ended up visiting there a few times."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei nodded in understanding, then stepped out briefly to pull in one of the guards from outside in order to translate. Overall, it was encouraging to see the family now, compared to when they had first found them. They were now well-fed and, apart from the girl, seemingly healthy. As for the girl, her disease did not seem to be as severe as Meesei had first feared. Though she was still weak, she was improving, and that improvement strongly suggested that she would be able to recover.

"Hello, F'sresa. It is good to see that you are recovering. You will be able to get off of this ship soon, and hopefully, out of that bed. Is there anything else you need to be comfortable?" Meesei asked, her tone soft and kind. Her translator did not necessarily carry the same emotion in his words, but the girl would at least be able to hear her tone.

As usual, Ma'tanza was with Bheja and Qa'habi when Tzirret approached. She and Bheja were near to finishing their meals, though it appeared as if Qa'habi had just started his. "Actually, yes. Ma'tanza is sure that M'ibasa must be wanting to see us, and Bheja also wants to see S'nishi again. Unfortunately, S'nishi can't change ships as easily as we can unless we're at a dock, but this one has heard people saying that we are not stopping in the actual city. We were all thinking about heading over to the other ship when we can get a chance. What were you thinking about doing? Did you want to stay here with your friends?" She asked.