Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I'm really sorry to stall right before the sea exploration with Janius and Kaleeth, but as hinted by the three AM post last night, I'm really quite tired tonight. I can hardly concentrate on getting out a post. I think I'll just get dinner, head to bed, and get a post up tomorrow.

G'night!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine ate up every word, but unfortunately most of Ahnasha's answer simply multiplied the amount of questions in her head. Did Fendros want a wedding with Ahnasha? What were Dunmer weddings like? Would it happen at all? Sabine felt as though some of the questions might be better directed towards Fendros than Ariel or Ahnasha. Even though Ariel had been amongst Dunmer culture as well, her thoughtful expression and silence suggested that she didn't have the answers either.

The next thread of thought Sabine went along brought her questions inwards. "I wonder if I would get married some day?" She thought out loud quietly.

"Oh Sabine," Ariel put a hand on her sister's shoulder endearingly, "you are young enough that you don't have to worry about such things. You might meet someone and decide to have a wedding ceremony, or just to live and love with them like Ahnasha and Fendros do each other."

Sabine's eyes looked down into the water, "What is love like?" She asked.

Ariel hung her own head suddenly and sighed with a wide smile, nearly blowing bubbles in the water under her face. Each question Sabine gave just seemed to get more and more deep. "That is not a simple question to answer, sister. Let's see..." Ariel slowly looked away and tried to think of something. "Well, I know at least each time I've fallen in love it's been slightly different. That might just be experience, or something else. Hmm..." after a few more seconds, Ariel found herself at a loss, "I would have to think about that to put in into words properly, but I can at least say it is a state of mind that influences you. I think you'll know it when it happens, Sabine." Ariel moved her eyes to Ahnasha, "Have you got an interpretation, Ahnasha? I'm never good with explaining things like this."

The answer Meesei gave was about what Janius expected, but that it was possible was heartening. Janius looked at Kaleeth, then at Meesei again. He didn't take long to decide what to do. "Sure," he responded confidently, "let's test it. Kaleeth, what should I do if the spell runs out and I need to get to the surface? Talking underwater doesn't really work."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Well, it might be nice," Ariel looked sideways to the shore where Fendros was, "I suppose whatever works for the both of you is fine."

"Are you going to marry Rukeewei, Ariel?" Sabine asked innocently.

Ariel closed her eyes and laughed through a sigh. Sabine's new boldness made her questions so unexpected that it was difficult to get used to. "I don't know, Sabine," She opened her eyes and smiled, "Maybe. It depends if he asks. I think I would like to make it up to him for insulting his inn first."

Sabine's attention went from Ariel to Ahnasha, "I've never been to a marriage before. What would happen if you had a marriage ceremony, Ahnasha? What would it be like?" Sabine seemed hungry for knowledge here. She had only seen married couples and understood the idea of marriage, but she didn't know exactly how it was represented.

Janius thought for a moment while biting down lightly on both lips curled in. He couldn't hold his breath for particularly long. Even with Kaleeth's help, he didn't like his chances of diving so deep under the water without incident. Perhaps he should ask for help here. Though it was farfetched, he knew where his best chances lay. "I may not have the expertise to magically breath underwater, but maybe, just maybe..." Janius craned his head up and looked around for Meesei. Once he spotted her, Janius raised an arm. "Hey! Meesei! You wouldn't, by any chance, know a waterbreathing spell, would you?" Asking an Argonian this question made Janius feel as silly as he predicted it would, but Meesei was passionate about magic. Perhaps she had learned the spell for fun at some point.

The Depths of Deception

Hey cqbexpt, Shuo is in a position to do something now :P . And Kyelin, we need some postin' from your direction as well, my good dudeman.

You guys still alive out there?

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

While Ariel thought it a little sad that Ahnasha had to separate herself from her family entirely, she nodded in understanding. Not all circumstances were alike with Ariel and Sabine. In fact, Ahnasha's case was probably rather common.

Ariel's reaction to Ahnasha asking a similar question of her was to hold her mouth open in confusion and look around until her mind processed it. "Er...me and Rukeewei? Um, well, I suppose we have been together for long enough to count as 'mates', as you say. Hmm, what would the coven think though?" Ahnasha scratched her head, "There were a couple of witches in the coven with...old-fashioned views on Argonians, but I think the main problem would be with me taking a partner in the first place. There were traditions to uphold. You couldn't really marry and live in the coven." Ariel shrugged, then looked at Ahnasha with a smirk, "Has Fendros asked you to marry him? He was raised in Cyrodiil as well, was he not?"

Janius half-smiled and nodded. "That sounds like a pearl," He responded. As for the question on staying underwater, he took a slow breath and looked at Kaleeth directly, "As a matter of fact, there is. Mages have used waterbreathing spells for hundreds of years now. There are even alchemical concoctions that do more or less the same thing for a time, that's how I was introduced to the effect. Not only that, the effect can be imbued into jewellery permanently, but those tend to be rather expensive." Janius' enthusiasm waned a little as he continued, "It's not really my field, however. Alteration magic is the school where the spell falls under. It would be a nice spell to have, I'll admit." Janius tilted his head to one side for a moment and looked at the shell again, "Who knows? Maybe Sabine has ingredients for a waterbreathing potion lying around. Better yet, Ariel might have one ready made. It would depend on how much they would cost, I suppose."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Your father was a Bosmer?" Ariel asked rhetorically with a face of mild surprise, "Hmm, I never would have picked it. Then again, how could I, right?" The corners of Ariel's mouth twitched and she looked away realising that she was probably being rather insensitive. Ariel stumbled to continue talking, but quickly got back on track, "I-I've heard similar things of Valenwood. You could say it is what sparked my interest."

Up to this point, Sabine had been passively listening, but with the pause came some words of her own. "Maybe in some years, you could travel with us again."

Ariel gained a wide smile at the prospect, but knew it wouldn't be foreseeable. "Perhaps, Sabine. However, it would be a long time before that could happen, even if everyone agreed to it. It's too far into the future to say with certainty."

Sabine looked down again. It was a nice thought, however short lived.

After another moment, Ariel took a breath and faced Ahnasha again. "Do you get to see your father at any point? Or any other family? How do you think they would react to learn you had a child?"

Janius stole a glance at Kaleeth and had a quick laugh through his nose, trying to imagine a shark living in a shell. "No, I think this still counts as a clam shell. It's just...a different kind of clam." Janius' face spoke of deeper thought, "It actually looks similar in shape to an oyster." He pointed to the centre of the shells insides and looked at Kaleeth to explain, "Sometimes, if you find a clam that lives in these, it will have a pearl inside of it. Or at least the ones at Leyawiin did when an old friend of mine showed me a long time ago, I don't know if this one would. Do the clams in the swamp make pearls?"

ParaCom: Adversary Inside

As soon as contact was called out, both Luc and Angus glanced in the ghoul's direction and moved to cover. The amount of distance that the team had on the ghouls and the element of surprise they maintained meant that the opening shots would ideally come from the sniper. Other movements were sounded by the Lieutenant as a flanking operation began.

Luc knew he was out of effective range of the ghouls at this stage. He could barely see them, but he knew his weapon wouldn't be much of a threat in this mess of cover. Angus came to a similar conclusion and they both advanced to further cover, keeping their heads down. Even though the squad's plan had a good perceived outcome, they both moved to overwatch in case the ghouls decided to run, or if anything else came out to play.

Luc mustered as much discipline as he could to not just let loose on the ghouls and break their element of surprise. He was too angry to even say something smart.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sorry for the delay, today has been a series of distractions :p

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

When Ahnasha approached Sabine and Ariel, they both looked up to her and put the topic of her scar to the back of their minds. They both understood that Ahnasha's relaxed veneer hid painful memories, so Sabine couldn't quite bring herself to smile as cheerfully as Ariel did upon addressing her. Ariel laughed knowingly at the mention of the weather before replying, "I've not really put much more though into the future than I've already mentioned. To be perfectly honest, I've been content with what I have so far. I've always loved alchemy, and helping others along with it, and there's nothing else I would rather have for a profession." Ariel looked into the water in front of her, "Although, it might be nice to travel some more. See the white-gold tower, the forests of Valenwood, the mountain ranges of Skyrim." She interrupted herself with low hum, "I think tourism might be a bit beyond my means right now, though." A short fantasy popped into Ariel's mind where she could be strong and wealthy enough to travel Tamriel with impunity, but even she knew that was unlikely to happen at all.

Ariel raised her brow and looked at Ahnasha again, "How about you? I know that life in the pack is probably ideal for you, but now that you have a child, do you have any plans to settle some time in the future to raise Rhazii? I mean, I'm not sure whether or not you even intend to, it might be that raising him amongst the pack while travelling will work, or whether a stable environment would help." Ariel became a little apologetic with her tone, "Ah, either way is fine, I'm sure. I don't know how to raise a child." Ariel let out an uneasy laugh.

Nearby, Janius was floating along the surface of the water when he suddenly leaned himself backwards and dove under the surface. It was hard to see anything in the fading light under the water, but he searched around for anything interesting. There wasn't much here on the beach so close to the shore except for sea shells. Most were shattered pieces, but Janius' luck had him spot an iridescent pattern just under the sand. Carefully, he pulled free a round sea shell, about the size of his palm. The convex side was covered in scale and dead barnacles, while the concave side was perfectly smooth and reflected spots of colour off its grey surface. Whatever inhabited the shell was long since gone, but the shell was a beautiful specimen. He surfaced and held the shell against the light, marveling in its patterns some more. "Hey, Kaleeth, come and look at this," he said, "This was the home for a sea creature at some point. I've not seen one like this before."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Janius, Fendros, Ariel and Sabine took some time to strip down before approaching the water. Ariel did notice Kaleeth's tattoos, and it was very much a confirmation that she was a tribal Argonian. Ahnasha's scar down her front, however, quietened Ariel. That might have been gained at the xanmeer.

Fendros waded in first until he was about waist deep and dove under the surface. He emerged with a breath and his hair slicked back from the water. After he wiped the water from his face, he looked around to find Ahnasha and Rhazii and walked back over to them. Rhazii's head followed the strange dripping father-shaped character as he sat down by him. "I bet you're as overheated in that fur as your mother, little one." Fendros said with a grin, cupping his hands in the water and pouring some over Rhazii's back. Fendros noticed that Ahnasha had not wet her fur beyond where her legs were below the water either. "Are you going to have a quick dive?" Fendros asked, "Go and duck your head under, the water is very nice. I'll hold onto Rhazii for a moment."

While Janius entered the water in a similar fashion to Fendros, he stayed in an area he could swim around in. He let out a newly awakened breath, "Phew! Perhaps anything that doesn't swim in Black Marsh dies due to the heat! I know I would have given up by now if I couldn't swim."

Ariel let out a short chuckle and waded into the water in her undergarments with Sabine. She was used to the nudity of the pack, but her modesty was reinforced after living in a city for a while. Once she reached a point where she could lower herself to be neck deep underwater, she suddenly frowned and turned around to Ahnasha, Rhazii, and Fendros. She confirmed that they were out of earshot and looked at Sabine with some worry. "Sabine, that mark down Ahnasha's front, how did that get there?"

Previously, Sabine had worn a small smile caused by succeeding in imploring her sister to swim, but the mention of Ahnasha's scar caused it to lower. Sabine spoke quietly enough such that they were truly out of earshot, and with her back towards Ahnasha. "Fendros and Ahnasha were caught by the mercenaries that were fighting the cult." Sabine glanced back, then at Ariel again, "I don't know what exactly happened, but Ahnasha said that they..." for lack of words in that moment, Sabine ran a finger down her front then ran her fingers outwards from the middle of her chest as if she was pulling her middle open, "...cut her open. She doesn't like to talk about it. Neither does Fendros. When we rescued them, Fendros was chained up opposite to her. I think he had to watch." Sabine swallowed, "They keep having bad nightmares about it."

"Azura's light..." Ariel breathed in astonishment, her eyes wide. She glanced over to Ahnasha similarly to Sabine. "That's horrible, no wonder there are such bad memories of that place. I shall try not to bring it up any further."

"I'm worried about them, sister," Sabine said, tugging lightly on Ariel's arm, "I'm scared that they will be like I was."

Ariel put a hand on Sabine's shoulder, but still held a worried look, "Sabine, I would be surprised if you weren't worried about them, but there isn't much I can do in these situations. I've never been good at it. Ahnasha and Fendros' roads will be different to yours, I guarantee it. Just...be there for them, as family."

Sabine wasn't quite satisfied by the answer, but looked down and conceded for now.