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Dear Mr Curly,
I have done little travelling lately because I have been so dreadfully weary. Can it be true as the old Ecclesiastes said; that all things lead to weariness? Surely not. Perhaps the opposite is true: that all nothings lead to weariness. I have a peculiar feeling, Curly, that I am worn out from something I haven't yet done and the more I don't do it, the more exhausted I become. How strange. Could it be something I haven't realised? Perhaps it's something I haven't said? Something I haven't finished! It must be very large and true whatever it is and a lively struggle in the doing but I look forward to it immensely. I know I need it. First, however, I must curl up in my chair and sleep deeply with the duck. Perhaps I'll dream of this thing and wake up refreshed and do it. My fond wishes to you Mr. Curly, and to all Curly Flat.
Yours sleepily,
Vasco Pyjama
xxx
P.S. Not having breakfast can make you weary. That's for sure!
Michael Leunig. The Curly Pyjama Letters.

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The hunt started as almost everyone in the pack bolted off in one direction, kicking up a some dirt and creating a short breeze of air. Ariel watched them leave and disappear, and then walked over to Meesei. Rhazii's innocence didn't fail to bring a wide smile to Ariel's face, but the topic at hand was still serious. "Meesei, I'm not sure if Ahnasha and Fendros have mentioned their problems to you, and I am going to leave it to them to fill you in on the...details, but I would just like to mention that with the medicine I am making for them, while they take that medicine will probably be the most ideal time for them to sort their problems out. Even though I know these medicines and what they can do, I am not a healer of the mind. The medicine cannot help them forever." Ariel took a slow breath, "As you are their leader, I just wanted you to be aware."

Rhazii's attention was momentarily drawn by Ariel's voice and he reached out to touch her own face. Ariel compromised by holding out a finger for him to grasp. Even with the injuries he had sustained, his hold was strong for a child his size. Ariel smiled once again. Rhazii was lucky to be too young to understand his parent's pain at this point.

Just about everyone in the pack slowed their pace for Kaleeth, but for the most part they were focussed completely on picking up the scent of potential prey. It was difficult enough to resist going straight for the smells that were unmistakably coming from the city until they reminded themselves and their beasts spirits of the danger in such an action. Janius, on the other hand, kept checking on Kaleeth to make sure she was still following. Perhaps he was still a little apprehensive about having her along.
Hahahaha! That's just a bit nuts! I'm not sure whether this will keep going quite up to 7x what it is now, but still, that's a lot of words.
So it might end up being a different experience for the both of them, but Janius was willing to see how Kaleeth would handle a group hunt. "Very well," he said, looking to Kaleeth and then to Ariel, "We will see you later, then." He gave a friendly smile before he closed his eyes and began to change forms.

Ariel returned the smile and nodded, but still turned away from what was still an admittedly disturbing site to see, even if she knew that it was what the pack was used to. Sabine was waiting patiently, but was already licking her lips and nose noisily in anticipation. As soon as Ariel opened her mouth to say farewell properly, Sabine sauntered up to her and placed a clawed hand on her shoulder like a dog asking for attention. At this point, Sabine was slightly taller than Ariel, so Ariel was at first a bit nervous with the contact, but soon relaxed and rubbed Sabine under the chin, thinking it an appropriate thing to do. Sabine gave off something between a growl and a whine, but did not protest. Ariel laughed, "I see your just as changed in this form as well. I will see you later, Sabine. Enjoy the hunt." Ariel looked to everyone else briefly, "And the rest of you, too. I will see you tonight!"

To one side, Fendros had already walked back to Ahnasha and helped her to her feet. They were only a few garments from being ready to transform and there was no time to waste. Before they began, however, Fendros took Ahnasha by the cheek and murmured to her one last thing, "Perhaps this hunt will put us in a better mood," he leaned forward and gave her a quick kiss, "And I'm glad that we got help. I think this will be worth it."

As everyone began to change around her, Ariel stepped off to the side, but stood her ground until everyone was on their way. She intended to have a quick word with Meesei before she went off to begin brewing the dream medicine.
"Oi! Din! Where the hell do you think - shit!" Angus barely registered the blinking grenade hurtling towards the insanely gung ho sniper and pulled his body behind cover in time for a loud, bright blast and rocky shrapnel to fly over his head. Once the dust settled, Angus observed that Din was staggered, but not dead by the looks. Crazy bastard. "Poppin' smoke!" Angus declared as he jolted out of cover and tossed a primed smoke grenade between himself and the observing enemy. He had to get out there and pull the sniper out by hand if the grenade hadn't made him smart enough to find some good cover and distance.

Luc searched for targets peeking their heads out. He only had enough ammo in his magazine for another burst of suppression, but he would be damned before he let these bastards get the better of the squad. William had reported in a sniper, but it seemed as though Burkley was taking care of that personally. Just as well, not even he could hit that slippery assault when he got into a sprint. Luc found another overly-brave saurian and decided to put a rain check on his plans of moving, and by rain, he meant bullets. "Keeping one pinned, see if you can get him." Luc's focussed suppression report came alongside an outline of the affected saurian on friendly scopes, courtesy of Luc's holotargeting module.
Ariel smiled to hear that dinner would be going ahead, but her mouth changed to a frown just as quickly when Meesei asked about the lycan blood. "Oh, that is for some medicine that they have asked me to make. I need some of their blood to test and make sure that my recipe will work on lycans, and alter it if appropriate." Ariel was about to explain further when she was interrupted by a set of gruesome sounds behind her. She turned around slowly to behold Kaleeth transforming already, but something was different compared to when the others transformed. Kaleeth didn't grow any fur, and the shape of her head and hail was different. As the transformation continued, Ariel took a couple of steps back involuntarily and widened her eyes as Kaleeth grew larger than any lycan Ariel had ever seen. Ariel struggled to find words, "W-we-we...were...crocodile?"

"Indeed," Janius said casually while pulling off his greaves, "Didn't we mention that Kaleeth was a werecrocodile?"

Ariel kept her eyes locked on Kaleeth's bulk. "I've never seen one before," Ariel mentioned, laughing nervously, "that is fascinating."

Fendros had noticed Meesei's inquiry and waited a few moments longer to finish filling his vial, before collecting Ahnasha's and getting up to walk over to Ariel. As Fendros passed the vials to Ariel, she was snapped out of her fascination and gratefully stowed the blood away in her purse, nodding in thanks. Fendros then turned to Meesei and spoke quietly, "It's okay, Meesei. It's..." Fendros considered his answer, "It's to help us sleep a bit better."

At this point Sabine was part-way through transforming and Janius was just about to begin. Before he began, however, Janius had one last question for Meesei. "Shall we allow Kaleeth to hunt on her own again? Or should I keep track of her while we're this close to the city?" As Kaleeth's hunting patterns were different to werewolves, she and Janius often had to hunt independently of each other. During training her control, Janius had to keep a close watch on Kaleeth to make sure she didn't go astray, but they couldn't work together on hunts very effectively. Lately, however, Kaleeth had been displaying improvement such that Janius trusted her to hunt alone at times if she needed to, but the risk was reduced in the inner-swamp.
Once Ahnasha had responded, Fendros gave his own words, however brief. "Neither of us know where to start, but we will search nonetheless," Fendros' voice wasn't exactly hopeful, but they had to latch on to whatever they could.

"That's good enough for me. I just needed to know that you would take advantage of the time given to you." Ariel's serious expression turned into a sad smile again and she brought both Ahnasha and Fendros into a quick hug. Once she pulled away, she looked over her shoulder, "Sabine?"

Sabine looked up receptively from organising her new equipment.

"Could you fetch me two small vials and a knife?"

There was a quick nod from Sabine and they were quickly brought two vials closed with corked stoppers and one of the pack's iron daggers. Ariel found a small length of string to tie around the neck of one vial, then handed them both with the dagger to Fendros and Ahnasha. "I'll only need you to fill those about halfway. Keep your blood separated, and remember who's is who's with the string."

By this point, the pack was gathered and Lorag and Meesei had stirred. While Fendros ran a small cut down his palm and began to slowly bleed into the vial, Ariel's attention was diverted by Kaleeth-Rei. "Ah, good morning you two," Ariel said, standing up and smiling in equal cheer. The question on hunting made Ariel chuckle to herself before answering. "I was never a good hunter, Kaleeth. I didn't end up on any hunts and I probably would have hindered more than helped. No, I focussed on gathering ingredients where I could and helping Sabine make medicine for Ahnasha. Truthfully, I wish I could have helped more, but I suppose that's why they dropped me off here as quick as they could!" Ariel gave a quick laugh to confirm her sarcasm. Ariel turned to where Meesei and Lorag were sitting up and addressed them, "And good morning to you as well, Lorag, Meesei. Sorry if we were a bit early, Meesei. We didn't know when the hunt would begin."

"You weren't too far off, considering," Janius remarked while unfastening his own equipment.

Ariel nodded to Janius, "I guess." Ariel suddenly looked up to Meesei with some realisation, "Um, one more thing before you set off, Meesei. I had a talk with Rukee yesterday, it turns out the advice I received was correct, but anyway, he's proposed that we might all catch up at the Wamasu's Nest tonight for dinner. I explained that you don't have much spare gold and we discussed the possibility of perhaps doing something similar to last night, but this time where you might bring some meats to cook over the fire in the inn. I understand if you had other things planned, but we thought it might be nice. What do you think?" As Ariel talked, Sabine had also approached as some point and seemed to be displaying quiet support for having everyone together for dinner again.
Janius' eyes were drawn to the campsite as Kaleeth's were and his face became more neutral. "Hm, I didn't expect them so early," he commented, before looking to Kaleeth again, "Very well, I'll have a think and we can resume after the hunt. Hopefully we won't be too drained by the end of it."

Now that instruction was over for now, Janius could relax his demeanour and be more affectionate with Kaleeth. He slid his axe through its belt loop and put his arm around her shoulder as they began to walk.

Never in all the time that she had known her had Ariel seen Ahnasha in such a state of quiet terror. No wonder Sabine was so concerned for them. Even Fendros was looking off to the side with a saddened expression. No doubt he was just as affected. Ariel couldn't begin to imagine what that kind of experience would be like, but she was still open mouthed and wide eyed with empathetic sadness such that she was paralysed for a good, long moment. "Ahnasha, Fendros, I'm...I don't know what to say," Ariel managed to say softly.

Fendros looked up at her, his face unchanging. "Can you help us?"

Ariel blinked and breathed in a short gasp, realising that they had requested a remedy. Her eyes began to dart around and she closed her mouth to swallow. "Er, well, I...dreams are sometimes difficult." She crossed her arms, then brought a hand to her mouth as her mind quickened, "Memory is certainly possible to influence, but it can get dangerous to tamper with. You might forget some more important things as well." Ariel's speech trailed off nearly to a murmur, as if she was less explaining than thinking out loud, "However difficult dreams might be, if may be possible to suppress them. I'm not sure if lycan blood might change the process, so there won't be guarantees, but...hmm...perhaps if I...yes...yes! That could...maybe, but it's an avenue to travel. Alright," Ariel's voice regained its volume and confidence, "I can try and make something to stop, or at least shorten your dreams, but I will need samples of each of your bloods to make sure that lycan beast blood won't cause any unforeseen effects. I should be able to get it done before dinner."

Fendros shoulders lowered as he exhaled. He smiled as if a weight had been lifted from his back. "Thank you, Ariel. I understand that such an order would impact your business. We can pay if you-"

"-Ahpupup," Ariel interrupted by raising her finger, then squat down and put a hand on one each of Fendros and Ahnasha's shoulders. She looked each of them in the eyes with an uncompromising frown on her face. "You are my friends and you are clearly in need of help. You helped to give me a new life, it's only fair that I help yours, if only for a while. My only price is a promise, one promise, okay? Listen carefully:" Ariel's tone was very removed from her usual giggling and smiling nature, it had a professional level to it that spoke of experience, "I have made remedies for wounds of the mind before and the most important detail to note is that this remedy I'm going to make is, and will only ever be a temporary measure. It will not heal your minds, it will only provide relief. However, what it can help with is providing space for you to take other actions to heal your minds. The promise I want you to make me is that, while you take this remedy, you will not avoid your memories, instead you will search for a way to help yourselves cope with your memories so that when the remedy runs out, you won't have to be afraid of them anymore." Ariel broke her stare, "I unfortunately am not an expert in such things, but I know exactly how far my remedies could take you, and it will not be enough on their own." She looked at them both again, "I will be difficult, but can you promise me that much?"
It was no use. Janius only dredged some of the sand with his heels in trying to get away. He had expected Kaleeth to keep the pressure on and strike his shield, but instead she went for his legs. Even with his greaves, Kaleeth's strike would have disabled him if she used all her strength. "Ow! Okay, halt! Halt." Janius let out a laugh as he slowly got up, "That was creative. See what happens when you play to your strength?" Janius grinned as he dusted the sand off his armour, "Now, did you want to practice that a bit more, or try some other drills? Or we could just try another spar and see how you defend against hooking your shield while under a bit more pressure."
"Greetings, Ariel," Fendros said, managing a smile. He glanced over to where Meesei and Lorag were each still sleeping and shrugged, "I'm not sure that there is a set time when we'll hunt. When everyone is ready, I guess."

"I see." Ariel said, looking to where Fendros was glancing as well, "And how are you two, did you sleep well?" Ariel wanted to hit herself for possibly giving away what Sabine had told her, but then again, lycans had nightmares anyway, right?

Fendros twisted his mouth and looked down, "Last night was blessedly uneventful for me, however..." Fendros looked to Ahnasha, then back to Ariel, "...actually, we were going to talk to you about this anyway." Fendros was rather silent at first trying to work out how much they should tell her, "Do you have any potions that...stop dreams?"

Ariel was slightly concerned. Sabine was right about their nightmares. She wanted to hear the justification from their mouths, though. "Why do you need to suppress your dreams? Have your lycan nightmares been getting more difficult?"

Frankly, Fendros was surprised that Ariel didn't appear to have been told about their problems by Sabine, unbeknownst of Ariel's real thought process. He tightened his lips and searched in Ahnasha's eyes for the right answer.
This time, Kaleeth was successful in using her strength to her advantage. There wasn't much effective resistance that Janius could put forth to prevent his own weapon being lifted up, and he couldn't hit her with his shield for fear of a counter-attack from her mace. His best effort was to attempt to kick her in the stomach to push her back, but the pressure she put forth was overwhelming. Janius felt himself lose his balance and fall backwards. As soon as he thudded onto the ground, he was immediately in a better position to unhook his axe, but he had to get away from Kaleeth and get up before she pinned him. He covered his upper body with his shield to block any oncoming strikes and tried to kick backwards along the ground to get some space.
Sabine and Ariel finally reached the campsite to see only Ahnasha and Fendros awake and off to one side. It was very quite save for the occasional crash of metal on wood emanating from the beach. Sabine went to add her new glassware to the pack's belongings while Ariel approached Fendros and Ahnasha with a smile. "Good morning, you two," she whispered, leaning slightly forward to look down at them, "Are we a bit early? When will the hunt start?"
Alright, there's a quick post. How long do you want to keep up the training? I've just been waiting for everyone else to wake up, but my posts are a little short. Perhaps I should start the dialogue between Fendros, Ahnasha, and Ariel about the dream prevention?
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