Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Okay, there we go. I changed it to a generic thing. Hopefully there are no more continuity errors on my part xP

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Oh right. Bleh, can't read today. I'll edit to something else.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Hit submit too early accidentally. One moment.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It looked as if Fendros' second assailant's look of reluctance was an act as soon as he sprung to action. This one was a little more practiced, and swung with more control. The first blow he attempted came diagonally up from below. Fendros was able to sidestep, parry, and counter-attack, trying to reach the thug's neck, but the thug managed to duck and swing at Fendros' vulnerable side before he could dodge. Not having armour on, the mace hit hard and Fendros coughed in surprised pain, stumbling to one side. Though winded and with sharp pain persisting, Fendros regained his footing and blocked the next swing at his head, then bounced back to cut the thug across his neck. The thug choked and clutched at his rapidly flowing blood with an open mouth and wide eyes. In a few seconds he collapsed.

Of the last two remaining standing, the one recently kicked away by Lorag looked between Lorag's unprecedented strength and the rapidly dying opponent of Fendros, then sprinted away in fear. These people were not worth his life. The leader, on the other hand, had little rational thought behind his eyes, only mindless anger that rivalled Lorag. The tendons on his neck tensed as he opened his mouth in a furious shout, showing all of his teeth. He then charged forward at Lorag, swinging wildly.

Sabine was pleasantly surprised to find a swimming spot after walking out of the city. She thought they were just following travellers. Meesei was right in the end, though. Sabine began to disrobe to join the group who were already swimming when one dark orange scaled Argonian man spotted them both. He frowned and swam up to them, but not in anger. "Excuse me, young human," He said in surprisingly clear Cyrodilic, "A non-Argonian swum here just last week and came down ill. We suspect there might be something in the water or further upstream. You might get sick here swimming here as well."

Sabine glanced at Meesei, wondering whether she needed to answer at all, let alone use some excuse. She didn't really know the concept of water pollution anyway, it wasn't relevant to her, being near immune to disease. The water was smellier in the city, but not out here, so what was the problem?

"You're probably right." Janius tore off another piece of meat, then tried again. This time, he pressed the base of Leaps' head against the bed before giving him the treat. "Lie down." Leaps didn't seem strong enough to resist, even though he tried. This would likely take some repeating until Leaps learned, though. "A routine training 'stay', 'heel', 'down', 'up', 'lie down', and 'come' will probably do before anything more. That's how my aunt would begin to train the pups to be hunting dogs. But, I only learned for a couple of days, and that was when I was twelve, so I don't remember everything. Not that it'll all work on a wamasu, most likely." Janius pressed Leaps down again, his head curling in an irritated manner. "Lie down," Janius said patiently, before feeding him again.

The Depths of Deception

Deploy PMs. We need proof of life.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The leader braced for Lorag's charge, but had underestimated his momentum and was sent to the ground. The second thug was hit by Lorag's hammer haft, but only stumbled before ducking underneath and regaining balance. A third thug took a swing at Fendros before he could rush after Lorag, and he was barely able to dodge it. Now they were in a much more advantageous position for the moment. Lorag and Fendros both cut off the street they were standing in against the five thugs. The leader scrambled up from the ground, ferociously baring his teeth and shouting in jel. "Get them!"

Two of the thugs stepped up and took swings at Lorag and Fendros, the one going for Lorag was the apparent leader. Fendros didn't have his shield, so he had to rely on his agility. He leaped back, lowered his sword and leaned back far enough for the mace to swing in front of him, then feinted a thrust forward to gain more ground. Fendros attempted to cut the thug on the shoulder, but was blocked by the thug's weapon. Untrained as the thug seemingly was, he simply tried to push forward to get Fendros away, but this was an opportunity that Fendros exploited. When the mace haft blocking Fendros' sword was close enough, Fendros reached out one hand and grabbed it. With all his strength, he twisted the mace to the point where his sword could slice the thug's arm. The thug shouted in pain and kicked at Fendros, if only to disengage, and left his mace in Fendros' hand. Fendros simply dropped it and held his sword forward for the next assailant as soon as he regained balance from the kick. The injured thug cut his losses and ran away clutching his arm, allowing another thug to take his place. This new one was more reluctant after seeing his friend hurt. The leader fighting Lorag was not fazed at all, and fought without regard to his safety.

This time, Sabine didn't have to think for long. Even in the dress she obtained in Thorn, the humid heat of the Marsh was never comfortable. "Might we find the swimming hole?"

"I'm sure we could find out easily. We would just need small rewards so we can train him. Small pieces of meat should do. Actually, I think I still have some salted pieces." Janius began to sit up and leaned over the edge of the bed to look through his rucksack. "Ah ha, here." He carefully lifted Leaps off his body and left Kaleeth's arms to get out of the bed and stand up. Janius then took a slice of dried meat he had kept and stood over Leaps, who was still lying on the bed near Kaleeth. "Hmm, normally with a dog you would start with 'sit', but Leaps doesn't really sit with the legs he has." Janius stroked his chin momentarily, "Maybe..." Janius tore off a piece of the meat and held it above Leaps' head to make him look up, then lowered it to the surface of the bed in front of Leaps. "Lie down."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Oh yeah. I would guess someone just had what looked like a large lizard draped over their shoulders when they came into town. I'm glad the innkeeper doesn't mind, but it is a cheap room after all :P

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Fendros clapped a hand onto Lorag's shoulder and chuckled along with him. Even though Lorag's insecure behaviour about the issue was strange, perhaps Fendros' view of it was an overreaction. He nodded as his smile faded, "Thank you, Lorag."

The walk back to the tavern had some levity to it from then on. It was this complacency perhaps, that made them a target for a group of five thuggish Argonian men that cut off their passage down the now suspiciously clear road. The lead one swung his arm forward and revealed a mace from behind his back and gave them a malicious grin. "Those ordinary clothes you have don't fool us. A Dunmer with the balls to come to this district of this city with a Orc bodyguard has to have some coin. Cough up, kaoc, or we feed you to the river."

Fendros' eyes looked over each of them and cursed his luck. They were surrounded, but thinly so. However, perhaps this could be an outlet for Lorag's frustrations. Fendros put his hand on his sword and scabbard and lowered himself to be ready. "You think you're going to get away with murder? You have your whole life ahead of you, you don't want to do this." Fendros suspected that his words were not going to change the situation here.

"Oh, trust me, I do. Last warning." The other four revealed similar bludgeons and began to tap them against their hands.

There was nothing more to say to talk them down. Fendros pulled out his sword and held it forward to one half of the men. At least his books were tucked away in a bag. "I think I could take three, Lorag, but, after you."

"Goodbye." Sabine waved and watched Reads depart. Hopefully she would find her way to scholarship someday. Before she forgot, Sabine also dropped a coin into the Redguard's money box. "Thank you for the music." Sabine said to him. The Redguard simply smiled and nodded to Sabine in gratitude, then began to play yet another song. Sabine didn't have many coins, so she decided to turn to Meesei and motion to depart. "Where should we go now?"

Janius made a quiet grunt as Leaps' claws dug at his skin. At least they weren't making him bleed yet. "It would seem that way, yes," Janius replied, scratching the hatchling under the chin, "but if we do keep him, I don't think he'll be climbing up my skin forever. Hello there, little one," he said to Leaps endearingly. Before glancing at Kaleeth, "It's probably because I've only ever seen dogs and horses as animal companions, but I've never seen a wild lizard with so much personality. How intelligent are wamasu anyway?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Well, this one ought to do, but the other one..." Fendros picked up the book on Altmer child health and flitted through it. Unfortunately, the few things that weren't specifically for Altmer seemed fairly fixated on elven children. Fendros closed it and looked up to the shop owner. "The nanny's book is good, but...how do I put this...um, do you have anything like this one, but for a Khajiit cub?"

The Altmer looked confused, "Why a Khajiit?"

"Because the child is a Khajiit." Fendros felt more odd saying that than he thought he would.

There was a couple of seconds before the Altmer broke into a smile of realisation. "Ooooh, I see. My apologies, I thought you were the father all along. I was confused. Nevermind, I'll have a quick look."

Fendros looked awkwardly to one side. "Actually it's...nevermind."

"Now, the closest I have is a book written in Ta'agra. Will that be a problem?" The woman produced an older looking book from a high shelf.

"No, I think that will be fine." Fendros couldn't even speak Ta'agra, let alone read it, but Ahnasha could. If it was anything like that Altmer book, it would be helpful.

The bookshop owner brought both books on top of one another and gave a friendly smile. "That will be five gold for the nanny's book, and ten for..." The woman re-read the unintelligble script on the front, "...Kitten Rearing, I believe is the translation."

"Of course, thank you." Fendros said with less enthusiasm than he could have shown. Fifteen gold was all he had. Lorag and Fendros left the bookshop with what they set out for, so they started back towards the Tavern. Fendros would have asked Lorag if there was anything he wanted to see or buy, but he seemed impatient to get back anyway. On the way back, Fendros felt the need to remark, "Lorag, I know having your body slow down would be difficult, but...if you do anything, please don't throw your life away. We all need you still, regardless of your strength."

Sabine lowered her gaze sympathetically, "I see." It seemed to do just about anything in these cities, you needed gold. It was unfair in Sabine's eyes. She looked up again and smiled more hopefully, "I think you could do it if you tried. My sister lived in Morrowind, in Vos, and she always wanted to visit Thorn. It was hard for her, but she was able to open a shop there. She is very happy now. Maybe if you gather gold for yourself, you could do it." Sabine hoped she was being helpful. Giving encouragement was not something she had done much before.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Raising his eyes to look up at Lorag, Fendros took on a legitimately worried expression. As far as Fendros was concerned, Lorag had admitted that he was going to die soon. He didn't know how to react to such a thing, or whether there was even anything he could do at all. He needed to think. He started to walk out of the alley and resume their search for books or advice. The silence between them was palpable in the air.

Searching through the market stalls did not yield much. There were plenty of books, but not a single one on babies or children. Before long, Fendros surmised that it was probably a more specialized subject, so perhaps they would have better luck in a larger bookshop. They found one nearing the middle of the market, with a sign above with some Jel script around a scroll. Walking in, they found none other than an Altmer woman behind the counter writing in a ledger. She looked up at Lorag and Fendros curiously, but didn't greet them. Fendros walked up and placed his hands on the counter, "Greetings. I've been looking around all day with no luck. I was wondering if you had any books in stock on the subject of nurturing children. Babies to be precise."

With a slight surprise in her smile, the woman stood up taller than them both. "I believe your bad luck ends here, I have some books on the matter. Is your wife expecting?"

"Actually, the birth was a few days ago. I thought we would be able to get advice from friends, but travelling around Black Marsh...well, Argonian children are raised differently."

"A Dunmer family travelling around Black Marsh. My, that's a new one. My congratulations to you, all the same." The woman walked around the shop to a particular shelf and pulled out two dusty books, then brought them to the counter. "This one is a primer on taking care of the health of an Altmer baby. It may not completely carry over, but you might find it useful for a Dunmer child. This other one is written by an Imperial nanny, it is more to do with raising children through their first decade. I believe it to be quite versatile."

"Thank you," Fendros took the second book and skimmed through the first few pages. This bookstore owner didn't seem unbearable like most Altmer, even though she sounded just as foppish as any of them. Regardless, some credit must be given to any High Elf that would make a life in an Argonian city. So far, this nanny's book seemed useful.

The woman turned to Lorag while Fendros took a look through the books. "Can I help you with anything, sir?"

Sabine smiled and pointed to where Meesei was standing, "You would like Meesei, she also likes history and old ruins." Sabine considered taking Reads to Meesei, but first, she angled her head to one side curiously, "But, why can't you be a scholar?"