EliteCommander

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Julan smiled at Aurana's enthusiasm, though he could not give her a direct answer. "Um, I haven't really been there before. Well, I have, but I was too young to really remember anything. I just know what my parents have told me about it. And my aunt Meesei. From what they told me, my mother used to live in a small village way out in the swamp. She was probably around your age, or a bit older, when my father visited her village." He guessed, not entirely knowing how old Aurana actually was. "They fell in love, so she joined him when he left. She was going to be a hunter in her village; she has all these really nice-looking red tattoos all over her body that look like vines. She says she got them in her village, but now she, um, works with my father."

"My father is a strong warrior and mage. He's taught me a lot, but I know it will be years before I can do what he can do. Your father became important in the Legion, right? I'd guess he'd be proud of my father for doing basically the same thing, just not in the Legion." Julan added.

---

Kaleeth showed some brief surprise when the Khajiit woman approached the group with her question. "Aetius? That's..." She started quietly, but she quickly cut herself off and tried to straighten up her expression. If this Khajiit was a part of the household of Janius' parents, she did not want to let on as to his identity. "No, I'm sorry, but we haven't seen her." Kaleeth answered, more loudly and clearly. "We haven't been out in the street all that long tonight."

Ahnasha too was caught off guard by the name the Khajiit gave for the person she was trying to find. Even without being a part of the conversation that Janius and Kaleeth had earlier with the children, Ahnasha could guess that Janius would not want to reveal who he was. Even if he did, it would be his choice as to how and when to do that. Ahnasha retained her composure and quickly thought of a polite response to give to the woman. "I'm sorry we can't be of that much help, but if we do happen to see her, we can come and tell you, or just send her to you. Where could we find you?" She asked. However, there was one detail that Ahnasha was not considering, not at all related to her question itself. Ahnasha bore a strong familial resemblance to her son, and since the woman was Khajiit, she could potentially recognize it.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

My response may be somewhat delayed tonight, as I need to prepare for a presentation tomorrow.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Julan followed suit with Rhazii, undressing and jumping in after him. As long as they were in the water when their parents inevitably found them, their story could still make sense, he reasoned. In the meantime, he would have a chance to get to know his aunt. He surfaced from underneath the water and swam up next to the dock that Aurana was sitting on.

"You don't know what the Penitus Oculatus is? I thought everyone in the Empire did? They're, um, well they're very important." Julan began. He had assumed that people in the city would be familiar with the Penitus Oculatus, since the guards in the castle seemed to defer to Marod almost completely, as if he were in charge of them. Julan himself did not actually know much about who they were or what they did. "I know Imperial soldiers listen to them. I don't know everything, but...I think they do a lot for the Empire. They're all pretty secret about everything. But, um, he hasn't been in Bravil, no. This is the first time he's been back in a very long time, I think. My mother's name is Kaleeth. He met her in Black Marsh. They, um, work together now."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Julan was equally as perplexed at Rhazii that Aurana, as old as she was, could not have learned to swim. He understood that anyone who was not Argonian would have to learn instead of knowing by instinct, but the notion of never learning seemed bizarre. Regardless, it was not the first strange thing about city dwellers that he had learned, so he just accepted it for now. "Okay...yeah, I'm sure we can make it work."

The trio continued on down the alley, then made their way carefully down to the edge of the canal. While the water did have something of a foul odor overall, the farther upstream they went, the cleaner it became. Once they reached the city wall, where the water flowed into the city, it seemed just about as clean as any other body of water. At the very least, it did not have any noticeable odor.

It was well after nightfall, and while Julan's lycanthropy gave him enhanced night vision, he still had a hard time seeing into the water from above. Rhazii could probably see more clearly, but he wanted to get a better look for himself. Julan held his hands just slightly apart in front of him and closed his eyes, concentrating. Julan was at the age where he was beginning several types of training, from hunting to basic combat. His father and all of his aunts were skilled with magic, so naturally, he had taken an interest as well. Granted, he was also quite new to the practice, but dedicated, just like with anything in which he could be competitive with Rhazii.

After a few moments, a small light flickered to life between Julan's hands, which he sent out over the water. While it was not the brightest of lights, it did give a good enough view as to the depth of the water. "It, um, looks like the water is kind of deep out in the middle of the canal, but you could probably just stand in the water over near the sides. You don't need to swim to do that. Does that sound good?" Julan asked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Julan looked down at the ground, obviously feeling bad for Aurana. She essentially just wanted the same thing that he did. She asked him if he could just describe his father to her, but he wanted her to be able to meet him too. Not to mention, if she was right and her parents were lying to him about going to the courtyard the next day, then Julan would not have had much time at all to spend with them. He wanted to take the time to speak with Aurana too, but it did not seem like that was going to happen the next day. If he was going to talk to her, it would need to be right then and there.

"Um, well maybe..." Julan began, rubbing the back of his neck. "I want you to be able to meet him too. I just know father would love to meet you. He just, um...well he didn't want anyone here to know he's alive. Since he's with the Penitus Occulatus. I just don't want to get in too much trouble. Like I said, we were going to go act like we were swimming in the canal. Maybe...do you think we could say we found you already there? We could say we went out to swim and you were just already there swimming too. I know I saw people swimming earlier today, so there has to be some place clean. Do people swim at night here? I always love swimming at night; it makes the water feel warmer."

Julan started to look a bit more excited as, at least in his head, his plan was seeming to make some sense. "Maybe we don't even have to say that we knew you were my aunt? If we wait long enough, father will come looking for me eventually. I know it. He won't go to sleep with us gone. We could just wait in the canal for him to find us, then you can meet him there. If you introduce yourself, he'll know you're his sister. Maybe that could work?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I suppose that we can pick up again with their parents whenever you would like to have them find them.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Julan was appreciative to Rhazii's sympathy, but he did not have much time to respond before they were interrupted by Aurana. Julan was confused at first, but once she drew close enough for him to recognize her face, he relaxed. She was older than either of them, so she was not a child, but Julan still doubted that her parents would be happy that she had followed them. In the short time Julan had been around them, he had the impression that they were...strict.

"Yeah, I'm Kaj-Julan. This is my brother, Rhazii. If you're my father's sister, then...that makes you my aunt. I'm glad to meet you too. I was really hoping to be able to meet my grandparents and the rest of my family. I guess I kinda have, at least for my father's family. My mother's family is still all in Black Marsh, and we don't go there very often." Julan said, though he quickly realized he had gone off on a tangent.

"Anyways, um...you said you want to meet my father? Janius? I, well, I guess you would want to meet your brother, just like I want to meet my grandparents." Julan reasoned, but after thinking about it for a few moments, he became worried. "Will you, um, be going to the courtyard with your parents tomorrow? That was where I was going to try and get my father to go, so he could meet his family again. He really didn't want to come visit you all earlier; I think he's afraid to, since it's been so long. He would be really mad at me if he knew we came and saw you all, and I, uh, don't want to get in too much trouble. And I don't want my brother's parents to get mad at him either. I want to take you to see him right now, but if we did that, then wouldn't he know that we went to your house? We were just about to go to the canal to see if we could find a clean place to swim so we could act like we went for a bath. Our parents probably wouldn't be as mad at that. If they know we left by now, then they'll probably even come to look for us."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ahnasha was already starting to move closer to the door to wait for the others to start following. She wanted to find the boys as quickly as possible. "Everything on this side of the canal is just housing for wealthy nobles, right? i can't imagine it would be that interesting for anything except the fact that you grew up there."

Kaleeth quickly started to share Janius' look of concern. "Julan had a lot of questions about your parents before. He really wanted to meet them. You don't think...he'd do anything rash, do you?"

---

Julan gave a sigh. "Okay." He conceded, standing up with Rhazii and proceeded to follow Harald back to the front door. His mind was thoroughly occupied with any and every excuse he could possibly conceive of as for why they had left the castle. If they were lucky, their parents would not yet know they had left, but it had been long enough that he was not hopeful.

As he did have some practice coming up with small lies and excuses, his thought process started in a logical place with the dinner they were supposed to have been eating. His note had claimed that they had gone to the kitchen, so that would have to be a part of their story. But, how could going to the kitchen lead to leaving the entire castle? That was not something that would normally happen, so their story would have to contain something that did not normally happen to motivate them to leave. As he and Rhazii stepped out of the house, it was a faint, constant sound in the air that gave him inspiration. The canal was close by.

"Okay, so...we need to make it make sense that we left. They're going to be upset no matter what, unless someone forced us to leave. But...I don't think we could make them believe that. But maybe we can make it seem...less bad? Maybe we could get in the canal, for a bath? There isn't any water we could use in the castle, so that's the only place we could do it. We could say we got dirty somehow, maybe when we were eating? Maybe something got in your fur? I know the canal smelled pretty bad before, but I still think I saw some people in it when we were walking over the bridge. I think they were up at the part near the wall where it comes into the city. Maybe it's cleaner there? I don't think they'd get nearly as mad about a bath. Should we try it?" Julan asked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Kaleeth's expression rather quickly went from being concerned, to visibly upset. She crossed her arms and started to just slightly show her teeth. "Left the castle? I know we did not give them permission for that. We need to go get them."

Ahnasha was also upset, but her expression was also mixed with some confusion. "I could expect them to want to explore the castle, but leaving it? Usually when Rhazii gets himself into trouble, he at least tries to give himself some room to make excuses. What would make them want to go into the city?"

---

Julan began to appear while openly glad when Remus started to show himself as being more accepting, but he quickly became afraid when he mentioned meeting Janius the next day. He was hesitant to leave. "Um...are you sure you don't want to see him tonight? I...my father is going to be mad if he figures out we came here. We left a note saying we went to get food from the kitchen, but...we've been gone for a while. I asked him before when he was showing us the city if we could visit you, but he said no, and he got mad when I kept asking about it. If we go back and he knows we left, he'll punish us. I think he's afraid to see you. I just know he'll change his mind if he meets you, though. Anyone would be glad to see their parents again after so long."

Facing the prospect of having to go back to the castle without his grandparents, Julan was starting to get a hint of regret. "Do you think I...did the right thing? We could go back and try to get him to the courtyard tomorrow morning, but...I don't know how to explain why we left." He asked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

With no arguments, Ahnasha and Kaleeth joined Fendros and Janius in heading to the kitchen in search of their children. It was around the time of night that the guard was changing so those that were ending their shifts were heading to the kitchen for their own meals as well. It was somewhat unusual for guests to the castle to take food or drink from the same place as the guards, but any association with the Penitus Occulatus meant that they went unquestioned, apart from a few curious looks. They of course did not find the boys at the kitchen, but that was not immediately alarming, as they could have gone to one of the dining rooms. It would not be until the group had gotten their drinks and started to search around that they would have cause to be worried.

---

Julan, still undeterred by Remus' skepticism, held up his hands as he answered back. "No, I promise I'm telling the truth! My father didn't die all that time ago in the spider cave. He lived, he just couldn't come back here. I'm sure he would have wanted to if he could. I...can describe him for you!"

Julan proceeded to give Remus and Aeramina the same kind of description of his father as he had to Harold, though in a bit more detail this time. He even told whatever he could recall about small physical features, like the shape of his ears and the rough size of his nose. He also demonstrated that he knew that Janius went into the cave as a part of a Fighter's Guild contract, and he repeated everything that his father had told him about his own childhood and what their family had been like at that time. Although, he did not include the parts about Janius' parents that Julan thought sounded a bit insulting. At the very least, it could not be denied that Julan knew quite a bit about someone who had supposedly died years before he was even born. In particular, he knew exactly how old Janius would be down to the day, since his mother was keen on celebrating Janius' birthday every year. That had not always been true, since birthdays had not been celebrated in Kaleeth's village, but she had been doing so ever since she learned about the custom.

After he finished giving his description of his father, Julan struggled for a moment to attempt to find more ways to convince his grandparents that he was telling the truth. "Other than that, um...well it wouldn't really be that hard to prove for sure. My father is right here in the city's castle, with the, um...sorry, I always have trouble saying it. Pen-it-us Occu-latus." He said, slowly and deliberately. "I could take you right to him."