Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It's all good.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"...Actually," Janius began, glancing at Ahnasha and Fendros, "I would rather tell you that in private." Being careful to startle the creature, Janius handed the wamasu hatchling back to Kaleeth-Rei. It sounded a chirp of protest while it was being held out but didn't shock anyone this time. "Oh, Kaleeth, all my friends here know about my condition, so if you wanted to tell them the full story of the hunt, go ahead." Once the wamasu was secure again, Janius stood up and started to walk outside while looking to the ground in guilt. He thought for a moment exactly how to tell Meesei, but he figured just recounting from the beginning would be the best idea. That was, if Meesei allowed him to tell it in private at all.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Fendros pulled on some clothes before following Ahnasha up to the wamasu hatchling. The loud tick of the shock it caused Ahnasha made him flinch as well, but he grinned in surprise. It was a feisty one by the looks. A fraction of a second later, what Kaleeth mentioned about the comparison to the real one finally processed in his mind, "Wait, you two ran into a wamasu?" Fendros asked, eager to hear more, "Was it this little one's mother?"

Janius laughed again at the hatchling's antics, then looked up at Fendros. "Yes, quite a story. I'll let Kaleeth recount that one, it was a proud moment for her," Janius paused to to crane his neck and look around, "as long as no other villagers that know Cyrodilic are around. You could get the full... story..." Janius' search was halted when he spotted Meesei sit down by them. Remembering what he needed to tell her, his expression turned more serious and nervous. He would have wrung his hands or itched at the back of his neck if his arms weren't already occupied. "Ah, right, Meesei, speaking of that. I need to talk to you." Janius took a slow breath, "It's the Master-Hunter. I, uh... upset him. Kaleeth told me why he doesn't trust us in the first place, and I don't blame him for it after hearing it, but..." Janius curled his lips and looked at Kaleeth, then to Sabine, then back to Meesei. He kept his voice down so he wouldn't alert Sabine, but he doubted he was ever out of earshot of her. "He's going to talk to the treeminder and the elder again. If he gets the agreement of one, then we will be removed from the village." Janius couldn't quite look Meesei in the eyes as he spoke, such was his guilt, "I'm going to try to talk to him, for whatever help it will do, but you needed to know first."

Janius would have confided the full recount of the previous day to Meesei, but he felt guilty enough about it that he wanted to keep the details private in case the rest of the pack would think less of him for his selfishness. Meesei might have an initial course of action, but Janius expected that she would request more information.

All the king's men.

*Steps into dark echoey thread*

Anybody still here?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

So now that my mid year break is over, today and every following Thursday is 'six hours of back-to-back lectures' day. xP

I'll be heading off for that in a few minutes.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Janius held his hands up when the creature decided to crawl on his lap. It had small sharp claws that felt like needles. "Well, don't ask me, this is the first time I've even seen a wamasu hatchling before," Janius laughed. He slowly tried to pick it up and hold it in his arms and it didn't seem to put up any resistance. Perhaps it liked his body heat. Janius looked up at Kaleeth-Rei, "Do we need to see the village leaders about this? It'll probably die without a mother, but raising it might be difficult."

Even with Meesei's words, Sabine was distraught that her gambit had gone wrong. It took a minute to gather herself, but she decided to start laying out her ingredients to see if there was anything else she could do. She remained somewhat upset throughout. She breathed through her mouth and her expression far from composed. However, once she had it all in front of her, she noticed a few options. With a constrained sniff, she saw that there were a few quick stamina potions in her materials. Also some fatiguing poisons, but she doubted that they would be possible to administer with practice weapons. What else though? Skin irritant? Not worth it. Medicines? She wasn't sick. Cures? She wasn't allowed to counteract the poison. There was a weak strength tonic she could make. Perhaps that and a stamina potion would have to make do. "I'll try," Sabine said weakly to Meesei, putting aside what she needed and making preparations.

Though she glanced over her shoulder a couple of times, Sabine was too busy to show much interest in the wamasu hatchling.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Having stayed up late the night before, Janius at first tried to lazily swat away whatever was nudging him without wanting to wake up. He thought it was Lorag waking him up just to get a rise out of him, likely suspecting that his activities the night before would leave him in a less than well rested state. When his hand felt that the foot was rougher, like scales, he woke up fully. Taking a deep breath, Janius squinted up and found Kaleeth. He lay still for a few moments, blinking and processing what exactly she had said. "What hatched?" Janius grumbled in disbelief. He didn't even get the chance to greet her good morning.

It wasn't until his vision cleared that Janius realised what dark shape in her arms was. The wamasu hatchling sounded a small tweet and moved its head and Janius' curiosity was piqued. He stood up, craned his head to one side and looked down at it with his mouth open, astonished. "My goodness..." He breathed, reaching out a finger to touch it. Janius pulled a grin. "It's a cute little thing, isn't it? What's its name?"

When Fendros awoke and saw what Janius and Kaleeth-Rei were paying attention to, he placed a hand on Ahnasha's shoulder and whispered to awaken her while he looked on from a distance, "Ahna, look at this." It looked like a small, spiny crocodile. Perhaps it was one of the smaller, more timid swimming lizards that Fendros had spotted in the marsh. There was of course the question of what had got Janius in a sour mood yesterday, but there seemed to be no trace of that this morning.

Sabine took a little while longer to wake up than she would have liked. Whether it was anticipation for the next trial or making sure she would give herself the best chance, she had spent some extra time the previous night preparing a potion to sharpen her mind and coordination with an effect of temporarily boosting her skill with weapons. It was a tricky recipe, one she was not completely sure of herself. The tricky part was leaving some very light suspended sediment in the liquid to settle overnight so she could decant the final mixture this morning. Sabine was of course attentive to Meesei and nodded to her in acknowledgement and affirmation, but was eager to check on her potion that she had left in a bottle on a makeshift tripod next to her bedroll. She turned around and carefully picked up the bottle. Holding it up in front of her head to check it.

Turning the bottle in her fingers, Sabine's expression started to change. Before, she betrayed relatively little in her face, but her brow slowly started to tense into worry. In a sudden movement, Sabine placed the potion back onto the tripod with a clink and quickly leaned forward, burying her face into her hands. By the way the liquid moved, it was clear that some foreign body had caused it to thicken or charge such that the sediment would not settle. It might have been a fungus of the marsh, a mistaken ingredient, a property she didn't previously know about, or perhaps just fatigue and worry causing Sabine to make mistakes. In any case, the potion would not work, and she didn't have time to make another one. Sabine quietly started to sniff and wet her palms with her tears.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sorry, had to leave in a hurry. Moving onto the next day is fine, I didn't really have much else for that night.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Despite it not being a solution to her problem completely, Janius smiled. Hopefully just talking about it could have put things in perspective for her. "So you are getting better. Hm, maybe you just need more practice in near death experiences." He almost laughed, but kept himself from doing so and simply shook his head, "No, that's unfair. I understand what you mean. Panicking, all that. Still, I don't think you are as bad as you make yourself out to be. Perhaps it might help you when you have spare moments to try your best to imagine a situation where you're in danger. It probably won't stop you freezing completely, but it might help you to recognise when it happens and act accordingly." Another thought caused him to chuckle properly, then switch his tone to one more sarcastically self-centred, "Or, you could just think of me when you're scared."

The conversation had shifted Janius' mood to a better one. He shifted himself and Kaleeth away from each other slightly so he could look her in the eyes. "Or maybe it'll just be as simple as knowing that everything will be alright in the end." With that, he leaned forward, brought his hand around to the back of her head, and kissed her deeply.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Hmm, okay." Janius thought about it some more, then after a short while he believed he might have come upon the difference. "And... I know it might be uncomfortable, but... what if the wamasu had killed us? What if your father and I hurt each other more? What then?" Janius' tone became more confident, "There might have been a point where you regretted not trying something else, but you couldn't have known. And when you're in the moment, it's often beyond the point of preventing unless you find something at the last minute. I think I might understand it now."

Janius repositioned himself slightly and placed his hand over Kaleeth's neck, "There have been a few times where I've almost died. They weren't all like the wamasu, where I had at least some form of control. Sometimes it was one of the pack that saved my life at the last moment, sometimes it was just plain luck. The first time, though, was before I became a werewolf." He began to lightly stroke his thumb over Kaleeth's neck as much to comfort himself as her. "I was with a group of fighters from a guild that I worked for, we had to clear out a cave that had some bears in it, but there were three fundamental things which went wrong. One, the cave bears were dead, eaten by a large nest of giant spiders. Two, the cave turned out to be larger than we thought. Maze-like. Three, the mouth of the cave collapsed and trapped us all. We all fought but eventually all of my companions were poisoned, killed, dragged away. You could hear their screams for but a moment before the venom swelled their throats and choked them. The only reasons I survived were, like before, I had magic, but also because after fighting for long enough something changed. I accepted that I was going to die." Janius tone was trying to remain stern, but it had shakes in it indicative of bad memories, "There was no escape, no chance. Once I accepted that, everything became clear again. I was still afraid and thrilled, but not of death. Without having to worry about that, I was able to focus and avoid the spiders. Eventually I slew them all. Not without injury, but I was alive."

Janius took a deep breath again to try not to get worked up about it. He looked at Kaleeth's tattoos again. "I have a feeling that, even though it was over a longer period of time, something similar might have happened in your trial. Having nothing in the middle of nowhere would panic many people to a freeze, but there had to be a point where you accepted what you couldn't control and focussed. These tattoos aren't just about resilience, Kaleeth, they're about overcoming the unknown. That's all bravery is. Do you remember when you overcame your fear during that trial?"