EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri'vashi shook her head. "No, Ri'vashi thinks that is all she needed. Victory or no...she needed the challenge." She answered. She started to turn around to head back to her belongings, but stopped before taking a step. Turning back to face Gallus, she glanced between him and the ground nervously. "Ri'vashi...knows that she must be insufferable right now. Arguing, doubting herself, falling to tears...that is not how a clan leader should be. She is sorry for all the trouble. She knows you have other places to be, and you're just staying here to try and help ease this one's mind. She thanks you for it; many others probably would have just agreed with her decision to resign. You are a friend."

With only a brief moment of hesitation, Ri'vashi reached out and pulled Gallus into a hug. "Thank you." She said with a voice both emotional and friendly.

---

While La'khay was smiling at all of the praise, Peiter looked down at his own body and immediately remembered all of the grooming La'khay had done to him. He felt like covering himself, though it was already far too late for that. For a few seconds, he froze up and looked away nervously, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. "Umm, well yes, but...okay, in my defense, it was La'khay's idea, and Sabine said she would like it."

Peiter turned his head to Sabine as he was rubbing his hand down her back. "You do like it, don't you? The way it looks and feels?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With Gallus’ attempt to break the stalemate, he did something that even Ri’vashi did not find likely. It was obvious to both of them that Gallus could not outmatch Ri’vashi in terms of raw strength. But, with his momentum and the force he could use to grab her shield, he did delay her, if only briefly. Had she the use of her other hand, she would have had more options, but that was not the situation she had to deal with. She reacted just as quickly as ever and attempted to bash the rim of her shield against his blade. She did indeed overpower Gallus’ grip and successfully hit the blade, but Gallus’ delaying tactic gave him just enough time. While the blade did not hit exactly where Gallus had aimed it, it did slash across her side, just above her hip. It was difficult to say what kind of damage it would have done in a real fight, but it was enough to end the duel.

“Ah!” Ri’vashi exclaimed, standing up straight and lowering her guard. “Well done. You got through unscathed…well, mostly.”

---

The moment they were given the word, Peiter and Sabine stood up together. Peiter groaned as his joints popped and his muscles were finally allowed to stretch. He quickly noticed how sore he had become, though it would just take a few minutes of walking around to recover. Naturally, he was just as curious as Tzirret, perhaps even moreso, about the progress that La’khay had made on the painting. He was not even sure how much time he and Sabine had spent modeling for it, but he certainly wanted to see the results of all of the effort they had put in to it. He walked around to the other side of the easel, and to his surprise, actually found himself smiling at what he saw. In his upbringing in Chorrol, he had only limited exposure to actual artwork. Like most of the residents, he was used to seeing the statue just inside the city gates, and the stained-glass windows of the city’s chapel, but paintings were more rare. They could, of course, be found in the city’s keep and the homes of its upper class residents, but he had never once set foot in either of those. Some merchants had paintings hanging on their walls, but they did not commission portraits of themselves. To see his own image painted onto a canvas was not something he had ever thought he would see.

When Sabine came close, Peiter put his arm around her waist. “I think it’s looking pretty good.” He commented. For the moment, he was distracted enough that he had forgotten about his current lack of body hair and was not attempting to hide it from Tzirret.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I think after the bout between Ri'vashi and Gallus is over, we should skip to the point where the warband is about to leave. I feel we should start moving on the story towards the attack. As for now, I think I'm heading to bed. I'm rather tired right now. Goodnight.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With the mix of advantages and disadvantages that both of them held, Ri'vashi and Gallus were reaching a stalemate. Each strike Gallus made, Ri'vashi could predict, but she lacked the ability to effectively retaliate. The shield made it easy to block or parry a blow, but it was also the only weapon she had available. Indeed, she did attempt to deliver a few strong bashes, and may have bruised Gallus' hands and arms in the process, but he could threaten her enough with his sword to keep her from doing anything that might end the bout.

At the current rate, there was a possibility of the fight simply ending when one of them became too tired to continue, but there was one advantage Gallus did have over Ri'vashi in the form of his free hand. He could not overpower her, and as of yet had not been able to do much with it, but it still presented him with options. Disrupting her defense, even for a brief moment, would be enough to allow him to land a solid strike against a more important part of her than a hand.

---

La'tahne gave a smile and a nod before opening the door fully to allow the pair inside. While what they were doing was more innocent than Tzirret had been worrying, seeing Peiter and Sabine modeling for a painting was still quite unusual. Although, Ma'tanza was not entirely surprised. As a well-known, and somewhat infamous, member of the Senchal clan, La'khay's affinity for artistic works was at least known to Ma'tanza.

Peiter was becoming just becoming just as uncomfortable physically as Sabine from sitting for such an extended time. He was not sure how long they had been posing for La'khay, but he had a feeling they would be stopping for the day sometime soon. As for Tzirret and Ma'tanza, he was not particularly embarrassed about being seen in such a position. Intimate embraces between himself and Sabine were nothing new, even if they did try to refrain from doing anything too personal in public.

When the pair entered the room, it was enough to prematurely end La'khay's story as she greeted them. "Ah, good evening you two. It is nice to have some of the cutest pairs in the clan all together in one place. This one hopes you did not come for a painting, though. She is afraid she cannot take on another right now."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

As soon as she had wrestled the shield from Gallus' hand, Ri'vashi's first reaction was to disengage and back away from his retaliation. Still, even with her quick reactions, she only scarcely managed to evade his swing towards her hip. Still gripping it by its edge, she swung the shield towards Gallus' blade to prevent him from following through, then took a few more steps back to get distance between them. With the brief pause in the fight, she glanced to her off-hand with a disappointed expression. Her attempt at a parry had not wholly succeeded, so she pulled the hand behind her back, indicating that it was disabled. With a quick, deft movement, she moved her grip on the shield from its edge, to its center grip.

The shield was small for Gallus, and comparatively even smaller for her, like a buckler, but she now had a tool with which to parry his strikes. Unfortunately. she was now essentially restricted to one hand. As skilled as she was, to win the fight in her current situation was not something even she expected.

---

Ma'tanza shook her head. "No, it is fine. Ma'tanza is not angry, but she still needs some time to get past this. Let's just do something else to get our minds off of it. If we can get more people together, maybe we can come up with something new." She suggested.

As Peiter and Sabine's room was near to the dining hall, it did not take long for the pair to reach it. Ma'tanza did not see anything out of ordinary at the door, so after glancing briefly to Tzirret for confirmation, she gave the door a few knocks. "Hello? It's Ma'tanza, and Tzirret. Are you there, can we come in?"

Inside, the knocks at the door caught everyone's attention, though it did not phase La'khay in her work. She continued painting without interruption, and instead simply looked briefly back towards La'tahne. "Oh, hello. Could you let them in, La'tahne?" She requested. Evidently, she did not consider visitors to be much of a disruption, and since they were close friends, she assumed Peiter and Sabine would want them to come in. Their arrival only briefly interrupted the story she was telling. She had said before she started the painting that she would tell Sabine and Peiter the story of her first time mating, and whether they asked about it or not, she had followed through on that promise. Presently, she was explaining the the embarrassing parts of the act itself, and was not sparing any details.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

That can be difficult, especially since people in ES definitely use expressions that don't make sense for them.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

For the start of their duel, Ri'vashi had been cautious. Without a weapon, she was at a disadvantage, so Gallus could easily put her on the defensive. However, with this attack, she completely inverted her behavior. Instead of dodging his attack, she actually moved into it. For an unarmed combatant, rushing in against a blade was seemingly suicide, and yet it was exactly what she was doing. She did not push away his shield; she grabbed it. With all of the might a Cathay werebear could muster, she yanked at the shield in an attempt to pull it from his hands. However, the other part of her attack was where she was more likely to fail. With her other hand, she attempted to strike at the flat of his blade to protect herself from it. If her hand did not touch its edge, then she would be safe, but failing in that would mean injury. In an actual fight, such an injury would not likely be lethal, and would not end the fight, but it could disable her use of that hand. If her strike landed wrongly in this duel, she would have to continue with only her other arm.

---

Ma'tanza gave another, brief sigh, then hummed lightly to bide time as she thought of a response. She was not necessarily angry with Tzirret, but evidently, she still was not exactly pleased with him either. Regardless, once she made up her mind, she gave a smile that was only moderately forced before she responded.

"Yes...yes, we can talk, this one thinks. Maybe do something else as well. We could go for a swim, or find some of the others? Bheja and Qa'habi are training, Ma'tanza thinks. Do you know if Sabine and Peiter are doing anything?" She asked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

By her appearance, Ri'vashi seemed to be even more attentive than during their last bout, if that were physically possible. Her eyes were watching him closely enough that she may has well have been looking into his soul. For this bout, she was not looking for an even fight; she was looking to challenge herself. She wanted to place herself into a worst-case scenario position, unarmed and unarmored against an armed foe, and see if she could overcome. In this situation, the victor would not be nearly as clear as in their last fight.

Just as Ri'vashi had demonstrated in their last fight, she was exceptionally aware of anything Gallus was doing. His feint produced only a quick twitch from her as she prepared to move, in the event that the attack was genuine. When he actually did attack, she jumped back to get out of range of the swing with plenty of time to spare. However, without a weapon of her own, she could not counterattack safely. Her fists were at the ready, and she was strafing around him, but without the ability to parry his strikes, she could not safely attack. What she was seeking was an opportunity, even if it was just a momentary slip up or misstep, that she could capitalize on to turn the fight in her favor.

---

Ma'tanza did not appear to be outwardly angry towards Tzirret, though neither did she give a heartfelt acceptance of his apology. Overall, her expression was conflicted, and uncertain. A full ten seconds passed before Ma'tanza reached out and grabbed Tzirret's hands in her own. "Tzirret...we have already spoken about all of this, yes? Earlier, when Sabine and Peiter brought this one to you. You already apologized then, so you don't have to keep apologizing now. You know you were wrong. It did hurt Ma'tanza that you lied to her, but we don't have to keep dwelling on it. You apologized, so we can move on, as long as you don't do it again. Alright?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri'vashi lost focus on much of what was happening around her as she continued to land blows on the dummy. Her gaze was intense, and her strikes became even more forceful. She bared her teeth, and with each punch, let out a satisfied huff. The entire dummy shook with each hit, and the occasional crack could be heard from within on the particularly hard hits. Gallus' observations were correct in that she was using it as a method of venting her frustration. Her strikes were growing steadily stronger, until finally, she landed a blow to the dummy's head that caused the wooden post inside to snap. The cloth kept the head attached, but it did start to hang down from the torso, clearly separated from the rest of the dummy.

For a few moments, Ri'vashi simply stood, her hands clenched into fists, and her breaths frequent and heavy. Only Gallus' apology brought her back into reality. "Let us...just move past it, alright? This one is sure you mean well." She answered. Though Gallus might have expected her to grab a weapon, Ri'vashi instead took her position opposite of him and raised up her fists. Evidently, she intended to enter this fight unarmed.

---

By Tzirret's second shout, Ma'tanza noticed her name being called and turned her head towards the source. In the crowd, it took a few moments for her to pick out where the voice was coming from, but with Tzirret chasing after her, it did not take long for her to spot him. "Oh, hello Tzirret." She responded.

Since they were in the middle of the crowd, with people attempting to move past them, Ma'tanza motioned for Tzirret to follow her closer to the edge of the hall. "You...seem like you want to speak with Ma'tanza about something." She continued.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The nature of Ri'vashi's current mood was difficult to pinpoint at the moment. She was not exactly angry, but the tension from their previous conversation had not left her. As they walked through the halls, her footsteps were heavy, and each breath held a hint of irritation. However, she was not directing her frustration specifically at Gallus, as her tone when responding to him was quite normal.

"Ri'vashi does not know what she will do with Dro'cahi; she thinks it is best not to worry about such things right now. The most present concern is Vile's fortress, and how we are going to attack it. Once that is over, and that threat is gone, Ri'vashi can worry about those other concerns. Trying to deal with too much at once will just distract Ri'vashi, and make her less effective. You agree that Ri'vashi should be focused on the task at hand, yes?" She asked just as they reached the training room.

Once inside, Ri'vashi found a place to discard her cloak and other belongings, apart from a loincloth, then approached some of the training dummies at the back of the room. "Select any weapon you like. Ri'vashi needs a moment to warm up." She explained. At first, she simply performed a few stretches, but then moved on to throwing a few punches at one of the dummies. Even without paying close attention to her, it was easy to see, and hear, that she was not holding back. The dummy consisted of thickly wrapped cloth around a wooden post, in the shape of a person's torso and head. The cloth naturally muffled the sound of blows against it, but her strikes could still easily be heard from where Gallus was standing. They each held an almost frightening amount of weight, like a mace bashing at full force against a shield, or piece of armor.

---

Ma'tanza had indeed gone to the dining hall for her dinner, though just as he was arriving, he would see that Ma'tanza was leaving. It was crowded, so she did not notice him immediately. If he wished to speak to her, he would need to follow her.