EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei shook her head. "No, unfortunately, I believe that would be beyond my capabilities. It would not be a simple thing to undo thousands of years of...honestly justified fear. No matter how much we want to keep to ourselves, untrained, undisciplined lycans are still very dangerous. It is the safe course of action to regard a lycan with caution and fear. What I intend to do is to stop the organizations hunting us. Then, we will not have to worry about everything we do being scrutinized and investigated."

Ahnasha could not say for certain what exactly Monderyn was going to speak to Fendros about, though she certainly had some ideas in her mind. Looking down to Rhazii, she put her arm around him and pulled him closer, up to her side. "No, little one. Monderyn probably just wants to talk to his brother about something in private. I don't know what about, but probably just something with their family. Why don't we go see your grandmother? She hasn't had too much time with you yet."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

We can move on to wherever you'd like.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei gave an understanding nod. "Hmm, I had heard he did not accept the situation as the rest of you had. There is a part of me that wishes I could meet him in person so that I might hear his arguments for myself, to have an open discussion on the issue, but that may not be wise. Regardless, perhaps there may be opportunity in the future for us to meet again. Perhaps one day, I will not have to worry about keeping our home's whereabouts such a closely-guarded secret, and we will not need to approach meetings with the outside world with such caution. If my work comes to fruition, that may one day be the case."

Ahnasha nudged Fendros' side and grinned. "Are you sure we can't say more? He might have some suggestions for what to do with all those dragon bones." She said continuing to laugh. Most likely, Monderyn would assume her to be simply joking, which only further amused her.

"I don't think even the Bosmer could do anything with a dragon, unfortunately." Ahnasha continued. "From what I understand, they're smart like us. They have their own magic language or something."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei let out a sigh. "Not often, I am afraid. We are not precisely going to be visiting my home; at least not my village. We are going to my homeland because we need to speak with someone specific, who may be of help to us. While, for our safety as well as yours, I cannot say where we have made our home in much detail, I can safely say that it is far from here, in Skyrim. I do not like being even that specific, but if you intent to write to Fendros, as I have no doubt he intends to write to you, then you will be sending your letters to Windhelm. If our travels bring us to eastern Cyrodiil, I can say that I am certainly willing to detour to the city if at all possible, but I can offer no definite answers as to how often that will be. I do wish there was a more convenient arrangement, but our safety must be paramount, and our home is the safest place for us."

Ahnasha gave a chuckle towards Fendros. "Well we'll have to do something with all those eggs. And we are at least going to have to train Leaps to get along with them, probably."

Briefly, Ahnasha turned her attention back to Monderyn. "When we send those ingredients, I might also send an extra box or two of chaurus eggs. I'll send a recipe for this chaurus egg omelette one of our chefs came up with. It is actually surprisingly good."

For Rhazii's guess, Ahnasha shook her head. "Not that small. Leaps is going to take a lot of effort to take care of. Besides, you still love Leaps, don't you? He has been your friend for your whole life. You wouldn't want to stop giving him enough attention and make him think you don't care about him anymore, would you? Maybe once Leaps gets grown up, you can have a pet." Ahnasha conceded, knowing fully well that it would be many years before Leaps became an adult.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"My accent is not as thick as it used to be, as I have been told. I have been away from the Marsh for a while; I do look forward to returning, if only for a short time." Meesei mused, giving a short pause before she continued. "If I were to be challenged, then I would face my challenger in singe combat, and the victor would bear the title of Champion, along with the Ring. Such challenges are not necessarily to the death, though they are of course dangerous. As I said, lycans can survive terrible wounds. I have not been challenged in quite a long time, though. The...atmosphere of our clans is not such that many people are particularly eager or willing to at the moment. Anyone who works with me knows of the depths of my responsibilities, and I do not believe many of them envy my position because of it."

Ahnasha shook her head, though could not help but to smile. "I think we're going to have enough problems with just Leaps by himself. Besides, birds are not easy to train, especially compared to something like a dog. There were good reasons that I didn't have pets as a cub. I would say that you could have one if you could take care of Leaps, but...that probably isn't a good idea. It would also probably be difficult to find the right kind of bird to begin with. You may end up having to settle for a chaurus." Ahnasha laughed.

Leaning forward to peer past Fendros, Ahnasha looked directly to Rhazii. "Do you know how big Leaps will get, little one?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei did not expect that the memory of Fendros' "death" was pleasant in any sense, but at the very least, Calia now had the knowledge that Fendros was perfectly safe to temper the pain of recalling it. Regardless, she was quick to move on from the topic. "If Fendros ever decides that he wants to explore learning magic again, I will certainly be willing to teach him. There are ways to train an atronach without relying on potions. They absorb beneficial spells from outside sources just as much as they do harmful ones. In that way, an instructor can regenerate the magicka of an atronach pupil manually. As for myself, I was originally trained by my father, ever since I could form memories. He was what my people call a Treeminder. It is a title that holds slightly different meanings in different villages, but in mine, he was a magical and spiritual leader. I was to be his replacement, so he trained me all his life. After he died, I did take his place, though that was only for a short time before I came to Hircine. Ever since then, I have been studying into the higher mysteries of magic on my own. It is a passion of mine. My father always told me that I was particularly in tune with the arcane, and while that could be attributed to parental bias, I have learned more in a shorter time than most."

Meesei gave a shrug, also following Ahnasha's trend of useless physical expressions. "I was able to become Hircine's Champion, the leader of all of his followers across Tamriel, and beyond. Among lycans, strength is what grants the right to leadership, and I can be challenged by any lycan for my title. Theoretically, at least, I am the most powerful lycan in Tamriel. Whether or not that is true depends on if there is a more powerful lycan out there that I simply have not met."

"Teach it to hunt, obviously." Ahnasha answered fairly quickly. "I imagine it is much easier to track prey from the sky, so if I could train a bird right, then I'd never lose my prey. And it could probably catch small creatures too. It would be better than a housecat in every way, really. Unfortunately, I never had any real idea of how to tame or train animals. There were no beast taming books passing through my parents' store. One time I captured a young mudcrab and tried to tame it, but that lasted only a few weeks. It nearly pinched off my finger, so I ate it."

Ahnasha happened to be referring to the finger she had lost years ago, and when she raised up her hand and looked at the where it once was, she gave an amused huff. "Maybe the little beast put a curse on it."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei shook her head. "I wish Hircine could give us such knowledge, but unfortunately, he is not a Daedra who peers into the future. No, I believe Hircine saw his potential by observing him in the moment. He knows the marks of a skilled hunter, naturally. What Fendros accomplished, killing a werewolf alone in close combat, is no small feat. Now, I can give my judgment of his potential based on my own experiences with him. Overall, he is a fast learner. With the training of Ahnasha, Lorag, and several others, he has become quite the skilled archer, and is talented with a blade. He can hunt as well as any of us, despite not having been a lycan for as long. I believe that if he truly dedicates himself to a task, he will accomplish it. Being an atronach, I would say that he also has the potential to be a powerful mage, but he has never shown a real interest in magic, to my knowledge. At the very least, he is more resistant to magic than the average person."

After thinking about her own explanation for a few moments, another thought came into Meesei's mind. "I have a question, actually. Given the scene you found with the werewolf, but without Fendros' body, did you suspect the truth of what happened?"

Aside from hunting animals, Ahnasha was actually rather fond of pets. Or at least, some types of pets. Looking between the two brothers, Ahnasha gave a shrug. "Eh, personally, cats have always annoyed me. I'll concede that they can be useful if they kill vermin, but they are just so lazy most of the time. You never really get the feeling that a housecat actually cares about its owner, like a dog does. It's even worse when you have a cat that is just pampered by its owner; then they don't even kill rats. You certainly can't train them to do much of anything. I remember when I was a cub. I wanted to tame a bird of some kind; I had all sorts of ideas in my head of what I could train it to do." Ahnasha explained, not seeing any form of irony in any of her words.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei did not appear bothered in the slightest by Calia's turn of phrase. Intent meant much more to her than anything else. Otherwise, Lorag would offend her rather frequently. "Yes, I still remember that day rather clearly. It happened before I became Champion, but I have always had a strong connection with Hircine, ever since I first became one of his followers. He visited me in a dream, instructed me to search for your son. Daedra, as I am sure you know, have only limited power in Tamriel, but they do bear at least some connection to their own creations. Not enough to control them, but enough to be aware of them. I believe Hircine knew what that feral lycan who attacked Fendros had done, and he saw something in him. Potential. You see, your son, by himself, had killed the werewolf that ambushed him, but he was badly wounded and quickly infected. Enough of the lycan's blood found its way into his body that he transformed that very night. I tracked him down the next morning and found him unconscious. Lycans regenerate quickly, and can survive wounds that would kill a normal person, so he would have survived, but I healed him regardless. I took him to my pack, explained what happened to the best of my knowledge, and explained to him what he was. Naturally, he was hesitant to trust us at first, but he understood that he could not return to his old life."

"Wamasu are said to have 'lightning for blood.'" Ahnasha added. "I'm...pretty sure that's just metaphorical, but it is an apt one. There's actually not a lot written about them, but from what I know, their whole bodies can become electrified when they're threatened. They're more massive than a daedroth as adults, but it will be a while before Leaps is near that size. Plenty of time for plenty of training. As long as he continues learning as well as he has, we'll have a pretty tough protector on our side. Better than any pet I wanted as a cub, I would say." She said with a chuckle.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Meesei gave a curious look at Calia after her rather forward request. Though, at least Calia herself acknowledged it. "Ah, so Ahnasha has informed you of my position. I assume she has not been too specific, so I may be able to clarify some things, if you have any questions. Obviously, you must know of my Ring and its importance. Here, you can look...or, I suppose you will need to actually touch it."

Meesei extended her hand forward, gently touching Calia's to let her know where it was. She was perfectly fine with allowing Calia to inspect the ring while she was wearing it, though Meesei did not like to actually remove her ring unless she had a very good reason.

Ahnasha, meanwhile, took a seat next to Fendros, and by the time she had settled in, had picked up on what the others were discussing. She wished they had Leaps with them to show to Monderyn, but it likely would not have been wise to bring him into the temple. "Luckily, Leaps isn't too electric yet. At least, he doesn't shock people all the time. Every one in a while, you'll get a pretty big static shock from touching him, but as long as you're holding on to him, it doesn't seem to happen. Maybe once he gets older, he'll actually be able to control it better."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Were she closer to him, Meesei would have given Rhazii a pat on the back. "Indeed. I am sure you will find other forms of competition over time, something more fair." She commented before turning her attention back to the brothers. "And both of them are going to have Leaps to protect them. He is going to be one fearsome guard dog, especially as he matures. I was worried we were going to be forced to be rid of our wamasu eventually, but now that we have access to professional beast tamers, I believe he will be a safe companion."

At about that time, Ahnasha walked over, guiding Calia just behind her. She had not been particularly happy that Rossarm could even be pushed to the point of violence against his own family, but it was good to hear that they did not simply accept it without argument. She stayed ahead of Calia while keeping a hold of her hand to make sure she did not walk her into anything, and would help her down onto the pew if necessary. She supposed the sound of their voices would be enough to notify Calia that they had arrived, so she did not need to say it explicitly.

"Greetings. Calia, correct? It is a pleasure to meet you." Meesei greeted as they approached.