EliteCommander

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Say, anyone feel like meeting up with Ssarak and Mei to go talk with Lucilia? Presumably, people intending to join the diplomatic mission.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Hey, I didn't want to claw you! That was your fault; you made me do it." Kaleeth shouted back to Janius. Even if she was not pulling her punches, she still avoided bringing her claws and teeth into these fights, as they were simply too dangerous. Usually, if she got a hold of someone, she could keep her grip, but Janius was a quick-moving opponent.

Regardless of the accident, the fight continued on, and Kaleeth continued to be the aggressor. She wanted to go for another tackle, but since he would no doubt step aside, she decided to throw two or three punches towards his head and chest to hopefully distract him long enough for her to attempt the tackle.

---

Peiter nodded lightly to Sabine. He let out a yawn and stretched out his arm before taking another drink. "Yeah, I've just been...not feeling good lately." His voice was not exactly slurred, but his overall body language was unfocused, and he spoke slower than usual. "You could probably tell that. I've been worrying about so much lately. Giving myself a lot to worry about. I just wanted to relax a while. I wanted to come get you, but I think I've been sleeping a lot today."

Leaning his head over, Peiter interrupted himself by giving Sabine a kiss, then offering her the bottle. "Here, have a drink."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha continued reading letters for a while, though she and Fendros did eventually have to return to their responsibilities. Rhazii was now old enough that he did not need to be constantly watched, though they had still left him under the supervision of some of the clan's caregivers, along with many of the other children. Ahnasha decided to go collect him, along with Newt if Janius and Kaleeth were still busy. She wondered what it might be like for Rhazii to see his grandparents, and if it would even have meaning for him. Being raised among a lycan clan, he had family everywhere around him. He may not even recognize what blood relationships are.

---

Kaleeth's hit had connected, though she had been correct that it was unsettling for her to land it. She had hit much harder than she generally did in practice, and she could tell that she had really hurt him. But, in the midst of a fight, her instincts were driving her to continue on just as much as her empathy wanted her to stop. She did not have much time to think before Janius was pushed back into the ring and their fight resumed.

Naturally, Kaleeth followed the general rule of protecting her head and blocked both of his blows, but when he attempted a blow to her chest, Kaleeth decided to make something of a sacrifice. Janius' fist connected painfully to her ribs and knocked the breath out of her, but at the same time, she was reaching for his arm. If she could get a good grip on him, he would have a hard time shaking loose.

---

When Sabine made her way to Gallus' pack's room, she found it empty save for Peiter. He was not sleeping, but even so, it took a few moments before he actually noticed her enter. Sabine had not seen him that day, and from the looks of things, he may have never left his room at all. He was not dressed, and overall had something of a lazy look about him. Most interestingly, he had a half-empty bottle of ale at his side, probably procured the previous day. Peiter had never been one to drink, not without the company of friends, so it was new for him.

Peiter looked up to Sabine from where he was sitting on his bedroll and slowly began to smile. "Sabine, there you are. I was going to go look for you...eventually. You should join me."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I have another scene in mind that would fit in the current moment, to give an update on how Peiter is handling things. You think Sabine might visit him in his room or something?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Fendros did succeed in changing the subject, at least for a moment. Ahnasha grabbed one of the sketches and looked it over curiously. "These are pretty well-done. This is your brother, and I'm assuming these are your parents. She might need practice, but she really could be an artist." She commented. During the brief silence, Ahnasha's expression became more solemn, regretful. "I remember when I started trying to learn to paint. I was nowhere near this good, but I did make some progress. It's a...shame I had to stop practicing. I really enjoyed it. It's just with me learning necromancy, I became so busy and...had to put that off indefinitely."

Ahnasha closed her eyes and breathed out a sigh. "Well, maybe Llarasa can give me a few lessons in person, if there is time when we go see her. Maybe she can give us a drawing of the three of us together? Me, you, and Rhazii. That is something I wouldn't mind decorating our wall, wherever we end up living in a few months."

---

Janius' counter worked just as he had intended. He was able to move to the side, and his kick found its mark just above her hip. She let out a gasp and grit her teeth in pain as she fell to the ground, clutching her side. Though, it would take much more than that to stop her entirely. As quickly as she could, she scrambled to her feet, wasting no momentum as she charged straight for him. It seemed as if she was continuing her pattern of direct, relentless onslaughts, but this attack came with a bit more strategy involved. She stopped just short of him to hopefully confuse him, then delivered a more precise punch straight towards his gut. She was not holding back, so even if blocked, this was going to hurt.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Well, it is not something that will happen soon, certainly." Ahnasha said, moving immediately back to the topic of visiting Cheydinhal. "Moving to Skyrim is going to take a while, I can already tell. We're going to have to move everyone in small groups to get them to the Riften clan. Hopefully, wherever they have made their home is somewhere convenient. After that, we're going to have to clear out an entire Dwarven ruin to get everyone in safely. Scouts can give us a sense of what we're up against, but I'm guessing it going to take a good-sized force to actually make it safe. Can't say I've ever fought a Dwarven automaton before; do arrows even work on them?"

Ahnasha let out a sigh. "Well, that's a problem for later. For now, I think I'll take you up on that offer. Read some more letters. Llarasa is a good person, more than I expected when I first met her. I will write to her as well, let her know how I have been faring. Maybe share a few embarrassing stories about you..." She chuckled. "We just have to be careful about how we handle things when we finally do visit. The last thing we want to do is bring any harm down on her through our visit. We should make sure your parents never know that she has been communicating with you. Or even that she knew you were alive."

---

For a few moments, Kaleeth stood in place across from Janius, breathing deeply and trying to focus. She had already been through a few fights, so she was starting this one with some fatigue, and moderately beaten. She was bruising from the hits she had taken, and not all of the blood on her had even dried.

Finally, Kaleeth was ready to fight, though she did approach their match with some degree of patience. Janius had taken to Ra'kalesh's training better than she had, but she had still learned something. Her instinct was still to overpower her foe with force, but she was no longer clumsy about it. She took a few steps towards him, watching to see if he was going to initiate. He remained defensive, so she took the first attack.

Kaleeth wound back as if she were going to take a swing, then suddenly lunged low in an attempt to tackle him at his waist. She was knowledgeable enough about fighting to know that she would have the advantage in a grapple, so that was what she was going to try.

Blood Act I~ Ghosts of the Past

Ssarak Dyreackthanose

---

Ssarak rubbed his chin as he looked over the map, noting any apparent places of interest. "Hmm, I was wondering what became of the information we uncovered. It is good to see that our work has not gone to waste; or at least, not yet. It will be a diplomatic mission, you say? A few years ago, I would have told you that I was entirely unqualified, except perhaps as a bodyguard, but now, I believe my abilities are strong enough to be of some use. I just hope the other students who join us on the mission are as...cool-headed as us. I would not want someone like Alaira anywhere close to this task."

Being rid of his serious demeanor for a moment, Ssarak grinned towards Meirin. "Though, there are still some things with which I will need your help. If it is a diplomatic mission, I should look the part of a diplomat, but I am not as well-versed in Djarkel fashion as yourself. I do not suppose you have anything in my size, do you?" He joked. "You may need to help dress me up as a 'proper' member of Djarkel high society. With your help, I may not look completely like a fool."

Ssarak stood up from the bed, letting out a breath towards the door. "I suppose I should go speak to Lucilia right away, before the mission is filled completely. I would not want to miss the chance to join you. I may be able to convince her to give us something to purchase proper clothing, if she has not thought of that already. Besides that, I believe I am going to have quite a few questions for you about Djarkel over the next few weeks."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha read through the letter in silence; although, other than the fact that Fendros had hid it from here, she did not find anything objectionable with the letter itself. Indeed, it seemed to cover every angle she could think of where something could go wrong. She supposed she had not read any of the other letters in the chest, but as a first impression, she did not see anything wrong. It still confused her as to why he had been so secretive. "Using aliases; that was smart. It would not surprise me if Monderyn went through her belongings if he suspected something was out of the ordinary. Looks like she is still trying to keep the letters secret from your parents, though. These letters do still seem risky, but to your sister instead of you. Let's just hope she is good at hiding them. I wouldn't want any harm coming to her over it; I remember that she was a good person."

Turning her head to Fendros, Ahnasha placed down the letter beside her. "Unless any of the other letters have something you wouldn't want me to see, I don't really see what was so important that you had to keep it a secret. It does look like your father isn't in the best shape. How old is he? Given how old you are, and how long Dunmer live, he couldn't be that old. Unless he did something really bad to is leg, I imagine he will recover eventually with healers. Though, I imagine that being injured would make him less likely to try something stupid if we happened to visit."

---

Kaleeth at first started to chuckle at the buzz of activity around them from those who had overheard them. Janius had said nothing to show that he was agreeing to the fight, but they were planning for it all the same. Kaleeth was not sure what she wanted to do, until the second person stepped up and denied that she was strong enough to hit her own mate. It was true that she did not like the idea of hurting him, and the thought of him being as bloodied as some of her opponents was not an appealing one. They had sparred many times in the past, of course, but this kind of fighting was something different altogether. Her physical strength had very obviously been proven to the clan, but she did not want them to think of her as weak-willed either.

"I can hit you just as hard as I hit anyone else. I'm not afraid. Come on, we should fight." She said, standing up to her feet and offering him her hand. "You can hit me, right? No going easy on me?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha had been taking some time to relax before Fendros sought her out. As one of the few people aware of the details of the clan's future plans, she of course had some responsibilities to help prepare for their departure. She had recently ordered some of the hunters to take a full account of all of their arrows, bows, and other ranged weapons. Since she had only recently returned to the clan, she could pass it off as her settling back into her role in the clan.

Fendros wanted to show Ahnasha all of these letters he had apparently been writing to his sister. It still made no sense to her why he would want to keep something like that from her. It was a security risk, granted, but as long as he was appropriately vague, it could be safe. She still felt some anger thinking about it, but it was tempered by thoughts of her own secrets. She had kept an entire necromantic laboratory secret from him, and had still not spoken to him about it.

Ahnasha sat down on a crate beside the chest and took the key. She did not know what to expect from the letters, but for Fendros it had apparently been enough to cause him guilt. "So these letters...what were you talking about in them?' Ahnasha asked as she opened up the chest, then the first of the letters.

---

Kaleeth sat down on the floor cross-legged, and short of breath. She gladly took the water, though she was just as keen on washing it over her face to clean the blood from her scales as she was drinking it. She tended to win her fights, but that did not mean she escaped unscathed. She had bruises and small cuts all over, a bloodied nose and what would likely become a black eye. Even her loincloth was scuffed up and torn. Overall, it was exactly what she expected for the day.

"Exhilarating." Kaleeth finally answered. "I don't even know if I feel the pain any more; it's just...energy. It's a satisfying challenge. What about you? Do you think you'll ever fight me?" She asked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I forget, did Fendros mention the existence of the letters to Ahnasha before?