EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"I will inform him." Meesei answered. "For now, you can get some rest. We do still have a long journey ahead of us, so we will have time to complete our planning. I expect we will have many more meetings over the next few weeks to finalize our plan of attack. Now, rest well." Meesei answered before separating from Gallus and Ri'vashi to speak to Ra'jorr.

---

As expected, there were many more meetings during the next week about most aspects of the march. Some were simply about small changes to their planned route to Corinthe, while others were more detailed discussions about how the command structure of Ra'jorr's forces would interact with those of Ri'vashi. Lorag took some time to write out the most comprehensive description he could think of regarding Do'rhajul. It was only after he was confident that he had given all of the information he could, about a week after they left, that they could make more detailed plans.

This time the warband set up camp, they were actually able to get some kind of respite from the days of wandering the desert. They were still over a week from reaching the Tenmar forest, but they had happened to reach one of the Oases along their path just as the sun was beginning to set. As such, they were able to make camp somewhere other than an endless sea of sand. There were a variety of grasses, flowers, bushes, and even a large pond right next to their camp.

Meesei found Gallus while he was still setting up his tent. "There you are. When you are able, I would like you to join us in the main tent. I have gathered the others for a meeting; it is time to decide on a concrete plan of attack for the stronghold itself. At least, as much of one as we can make with the information we have."

On the other side of camp, Ahnasha and Fendros had just finished putting up their tent. Ahnasha had been going through phases of discomfort and worry from being separated from Rhazii, but for the moment, she appeared calm enough that Irenya finally felt comfortable in approaching them. She rather poorly attempted to hide her nervousness as she walked up to the pair. "Good evening...you two. Has everything been going well on the journey so far? Any problems you have encountered?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ri'vashi looked around to see if anyone was paying particularly close attention to them before answering. "Ri'vashi sincerely hopes that Lorag is correct, and this General simply shares that name by coincidence. If not, it will be difficult to overcome him. Having the element of surprise may not even be enough, depending on how far ahead Do'rhajul has planned."

"If that is the case, we will just need to be as unconventional as him." Meesei commented. "Lorag will be fine. He understands duty better than most, and he will let nothing get in the way of us accomplishing this mission."

Though worried about what they could potentially be facing, Ri'vashi would face the issue just the same as she would any other. "Once Lorag is able to write what he knows, we should meet again with Ra'jorr to discuss it. We can look for patterns, and try to find some approach that Do'rhajul's enemies have never tried against him."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

After Lorag finally finished off his second ale, he tossed it aside as well. He was not quite angry any more, though his expression as he looked at Gallus did seem to be at least mildly annoyed. "Unless you want to spend the rest of the night here, I had better just write out what you need. Won't be needing it all 'till we get to the stronghold, anyway."

With a nod, Meesei started to stand up. "Very well. I have some other matters to attend to for now, so I will leave you to yourself for now. With luck, the enemy we face will not be the same commander you knew."

As Meesei left the tent to convene with Ri'vashi, Lorag looked down at the empty bottles in the corner and let out a sigh. "He isn't." He muttered under his breath.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag let out a huff. "We've got weeks of walking to do before we even get close to this fortress; I think I've got plenty of time to write down a few stories. But fine, I guess I can tell you somethin'. After I finished my training in Cyrodiil, I was sent pretty much immediately to Skyrim, and I was assigned to his battalion. My very first posting was a fort in the Reach, protecting the roads to secure silver shipments. That far west, we had to deal more with Forsworn than Stormcloaks. Of course, I didn't get an assignment for at least a few weeks after I got there. When my group of Auxiliaries arrived, he took a few weeks to...break us in, I guess."

At this point, Lorag did not seem to have any interest in sharing his ale, as this bottle was getting close to empty as well. "We went through the usual that new recruits could expect. Surprise barracks inspections, inevitable group punishments for failures, constant drills that were completely pointless except to create discipline. It was like being in training all over again. The thing I didn't expect was that, after about a week, he held something of a contest between all the Auxiliaries; a pretty comprehensive one. Hand-to-hand, swordsmanship, spears, archery, magic, any aspect of fighting. Aside from the, uh, private betting pool the Auxiliaries made, the rewards were just some extra rations and lenient assignments for mundane duties, but I think the point of holding it was so he could learn about what we could do. When it came time to give us actual, important assignments, he used that to assign our roles. If this General is the same commander I knew, don't expect there to be many holes in the defense. The people defending the walls will be doing the jobs he thinks they're best at."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"I don't know!" Lorag shouted angrily. He sneered at Gallus briefly before shaking his head and looking away. His anger was short lived, and was replaced my a degree of emotion only slightly above apathy. "Look, I can't tell you his motivations, 'cause like I said, it doesn't make sense. If he just wanted a cure, then he'd know that others in their little cult are gettin' the same thing for a lot less, by the sound of it. I can tell you about who he was as a soldier, but if it is him, then I can't tell you nothin' about him now."

Meesei interjected, trying to sound as encouraging as possible. "Tell us that, then. About his career as a soldier. His motivations are not really our concern; only how to stop him. How he performed in the war would give us the best idea of how he will perform now."

Lorag grumbled briefly before taking the time to down half of his remaining ale. "Fine, I'll give you all the war stories I've got. Might as well write them down or somethin', so you can...study 'em, for all the good it'll do."

---

Ma'tanza laughed once more. "Tzirret, you try too hard." She said, motioning for him to lay down beside her. As soon as he did, she curled up next to him and rested her head on his upper chest. The air would start to cool soon, so Ma'tanza would likely want to head into her tent and stay under her blankets soon, but she seemed quite content for the moment.

"Ma'tanza...hopes we will be able to relax like this often." She commented.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag shook his head. "He kept himself separate from his men. Professional. He didn't want to get mixed up in attachments with his soldiers. It wasn't like I was friends with him; I respected him. We all respected him, at least all of us that didn't care that he was a cat. He commanded that respect not because he wanted to be our friends, or because he was lenient, or strict, but because his actions demanded it. He was like...a symbol of Imperial might or somethin'. I respected him more than my own father."

Tightening his grip on the bottle of ale, Lorag took a drink with an increasingly frustrated expression. "It just doesn't make any sense, any of it. This isn't like him. Vile is a selfish Daedra that deals with selfish people. He appeals to greed, to pride, to people wantin' power and all that. Do'rhajul was never any of that. He served the legion with honor, and a purpose beyond gold. This can't be the same Khajiit."

---

Ma'tanza gave a slight giggle. "A little." She answered as she laid herself back on the bedroll with her hands behind her head. Her gaze focused on the stars above them, which, with the sun setting over the horizon, were growing brighter by the minute. As per usual in the desert, the sky was perfectly clear, so there was nothing to obstruct her view of the moons and constellations.

"You look like you'll be asleep a lot sooner than this one, though. Promise this one that you won't keep staying up like that on her account, though. You need to be nice and alert on a march like this, especially when it comes time to actually treat the wounded. As a healers' assistant, you can't afford to make any mistakes. A potion of healing, and a potion of fire resistance look very similar, but only one of them will keep someone from bleeding to death while they are waiting on a healer." She commented.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag finished off the rest of his ale and tossed the bottle aside. He was becoming steadily less reluctant to speak about the current topic the longer the conversation went on, and the more he drank. "It was sometimes hard to see how the pieces of his plans fit together, just being a soldier like I was. I was more focused on bashin' in the traitors' skulls than seeing what my commander's grand plan was, but...there were a few times that I saw enough. I guess one of 'em would be after that dragon attack. We were on the way to Fort Kastav, in the Pale. It had been a point of contention between us and the Stormcloaks; we'd gone back and forth on the place a few times, and built up the defenses more every time it changed hands. I don't think the Pale itself was all that valuable; it was a mountainous, frozen wasteland, mostly. But, Dawnstar had a port the Empire could use to bring in more supplies, and that fort was a decent staging ground to mount attacks on Winterhold and Eastmarch."

With a brief pause, Lorag started to eye the bottle of ale Gallus was holding. "Anyway, we were meant to lay siege to the place, but that dragon had cut us down too much for that. Do'rhajul, though, he didn't back down. He came up with a plan, and didn't tell most of us what it was until it was already happening. In the dead of night, he had a portion of our troops get down in the snow, cover ourselves in it, and start crawling towards the fort. It was dark, and he had us stop just behind a small hill as close as we could get without bein' seen. I was one of 'em. He had the alchemists make us some kind of potion to help with the cold, but that was still the coldest I think I've ever been. Knowing how many supplies we lost to that dragon, it might've just been flavored water, to trick us into thinkin' we were warm. Still, it was better than Do'rhajul's job. See, Fort Kastav was a prison for war captives, since trying to escape into that frozen wasteland was practically a death sentence. So, we dressed up some of our Nords in some Stormcloak uniforms we'd taken from enemy patrols, then had them escort some more of our soldiers as "prisoners" straight up to their fort. Do'rhajul made himself one of the prisoners. It was too dark for them to read the orders we forged from the top of the walls, and they thought the group was too small to be a threat if it turned out to be a trick, but...they were wrong. As soon as they were inside, they overpowered the gate guard to keep the gate open. Now, I couldn't see from where I was, but I heard the stories about the fight. Unarmored, and with a sword undersized for his body, our commander put himself at the front of the defense to hold the gate, with every Stormcloak in sight bearing down on them. We charged as soon as we saw the signal. Stood up out of the snow, ran straight through a volley of arrows, and stormed in straight through the open gate to reinforce them. By the time I got there, Do'rhajul had taken an enemy shield and claymore, and kept leading the attack from the front, all while in prisoner rags."

---

Ma'tanza nodded briefly. "Oh, Ma'tanza just found a bigger cord to hang it around her neck. Well, it's more of a rope; this one just took the cord you had and tied it to a rope around her neck. That seems to work fine."

Seeing Tzirret's rather exhausted demeanor produced a yawn from Ma'tanza. She was not as fatigued as him, but she did feel like laying down to relax. She pulled away from Tzirret briefly to reach into her tent and drag her bedroll outside, just in front of the tent. Sitting down on the bedroll, she reached back and started to unwrap her torso. "You do look really tired. This one hopes you don't have to work this much every day of the march. Ma'tanza doesn't see how anyone could do that."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It's about time for me to go to bed. I'm feeling rather tired, my Mondays are pretty long. I'll respond tomorrow. After next week, though, my semester will be over.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Lorag grunted. "Like he'd have ever told me that. He was our commander, a real professional. With his men, everything was strictly business, by the...well, I'd say by the book, but he pretty much wrote his own book. From the time I was assigned to his battalion, to the time I was turned, he never lost a battle against the Stormcloaks. Only time he went through what you could call a loss was when a dragon ambushed us on the way to Fort Kastav, but...well, there wasn't much anyone could've done about that. Lost a good chunk of our force, but he lead us to a victory all the same. So yeah, unless you can get us a dragon, I don't got any surefire way of taking him down."

"We will find a way." Meesei commented, leaning forward towards him. She showed no interest in the ale for the moment, as it would not have any pronounced affect on her anyway. "We just need to get an idea of how he thinks. He was Imperial-trained, correct? Do you think he will employ those tactics."

Lorag hummed briefly as he thought. "Well, yeah, but nothin' like what you would read in some book. He took established Imperial tactics and built on them. Always in different ways; he was adaptable. He liked to set up his men by the book, but would mix things up when it came time to follow through on the attack. I guess at the very least, I'll be able to tell you the things he won't do."

---

Ma'tanza moved herself closer to Tzirret and put her arm around him. "You don't know them, Ma'tanza doesn't think. This one' mentor, Niryana, her assistant and her other apprentice are looking after him. Her assistant isn't a fighter, and her other apprentice is too young to join us. Her assistant is sort of a strange man, an Ohmes-raht that wants to be an author, of all things. But, he is a kind person. Her other apprentice is a Bosmer boy, but he is only a little older than M'ibasa. Honestly, Niryana's assistant will probably be watching after both of them. Ma'tanza trusts him to take care of M'ibasa, but like she said, it's his own worrying that concerns this one."

After letting out a deep breath, Ma'tanza turned her head to Tzirret and attempted to smile. "But, it won't help to dwell on it. We should just try to relax." She said before giving him a quick kiss.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei elected to join Gallus in the tent with Lorag. Being that she was the individual he trusted the most, she felt it would ease his mind further if she was present. Ri'vashi, meanwhile, decided to remain outside since she did not know him nearly as well, and to avoid crowding the tent.

Inside, Lorag was laying down on his bedroll with a half-empty bottle of ale in his hand. He was only vaguely paying attention to the world around him until Gallus called out his name. Letting out a sigh, he sat up lazily and stretched out the muscles in his arms. Lorag groaned as he stared at the bottle Gallus was holding before, with a hint of reluctance, motioning for Gallus and Meesei to sit down. “Whatever, as long as you’re sharin’ it with me.”

Lifting up his own bottle, Lorag downed a quarter of its remaining contents at once before returning his gaze to the other two apathetically. “So, you want somethin’. What is it?”

---

Ma’tanza shrugged her shoulders. “This one doesn’t know. She might be with the other warriors, or other Senche, or Bheja. Probably Bheja. She wouldn’t be hard to find if Ma’tanza wanted to look around.” She answered, though Tzirret’s following question gave her more pause.

Ma’tanza stared down at Tzirret’s hands as she answered. “Ma’tanza is worried about M’ibasa. She knows he won’t be hurt physically or anything, but he has never been alone like this before. Well, we left him in good hands, of course, but he doesn’t know them as well as he knows us. She just knows he will be so worried while we’re away.”