Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The moment that Sabine confirmed that the man with the knife was walking to her, the threat of the situation became a level more real. The bows levelled at them was all that was stopping her from lashing out. Grimacing, she pulled her head back and to one side as the knife scraped over her skin. Her eyes narrowing to a near shut made the sudden grapple from the man jarring. With how cold the knife was, she couldn't tell if the last drops of water running down her neck included her own blood. She just kept her chin angled upwards and her mouth sealed shut. Her breathing was involuntarily shallow and shuddering in and out of her nose.

They paced slowly up the hill. Through the whirling storm of panic in her mind, she desperately tried to remember how Meesei had taught her to paralyse someone with magic. She had not mastered it yet, it was an advanced spell. She had to do something of that nature or the worst would happen, she knew it. The outline of Leaps as he crested the hill caused Sabine's eyes to widen. Leaps could shock this man. It would surprise him, daze him maybe. That would give enough time for Sabine to follow up. She knew she could kill him quickly if she had that chance. She didn't think on it any further. She just had to make sure that she wasn't so close to the other bandits.

Janius and Fendros' eyes each glanced up the hill as well. Janius' plan of waiting until they left were already being deconstructed as he considered that they might take Sabine with them, but Leaps was apparently forcing the last few bricks to tumble all at once. He braced himself, holding his hand behind his back and beginning to charge an ice spike. Fendros wasn't as armed, but he knew that he would have to spring into action soon as well. Seeing the fear in Sabine's eyes, they both knew that they wouldn't forgive these bandits. Hopefully the others, particularly Irenya, would recognise the situation and ready themselves as well.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Tzirret's triumphant smile turned to terror as he saw the armed group. He gasped and backed into Peiter before he got the message to stay still. Sabine had to cover her mouth not to scream. Both Fendros and Janius turned their heads as soon as they heard the voices.

Rhazii paddled around obliviously for a few moments longer. "Newt, where did you go?" He asked innocently.

"To me, Rhazii. Now." Fendros said sternly, holding out an arm.

Now considerably more frightened, Rhazii paddled to Fendros' arms and followed him out of the water.

"Who are-?"

"-Quiet." Fendros put on a facade of anger to hide his fear and kept his eyes on the bowmen. In response to the crossbowman aiming at Rhazii, Fendros tried to keep his son behind him.

They were the only words heard. Everyone else gathered at the standing stone where the race had ended, completely silent.

Tzirret felt Sabine's hand grab his arm tightly. "Don't run," Sabine breathed with wide eyes, "You must not run." Tzirret was grateful for the grounding, despite the situation. He could hardly think, he didn't have his armour or his spear. The felt vulnerable. He tried to concentrate on keeping his beast spirit in check. It was always strongest when he was genuinely afraid.

Sabine's own heart was pounding. She tried to weigh the options. The weapons that the bandits used didn't look like silver, so it was likely that they didn't know that they were facing down a line up of Lycans. She could shock one of them, but the other would shoot, and they wouldn't have enough time to transform before the others transformed. Perhaps she could coordinate with Irenya, but even if she tried, they might let off a shot and hurt or kill someone. By the looks of it, Newt and Kaleeth hadn't come out of the water and hadn't been noticed yet. Additionally, Meesei might show up. If either showed up, that could be the time to strike. It was rash, but no one could tell her as much right now.

While Sabine was more invested in an oncoming fight, Janius was more collected and patient in his thoughts. These were probably just highwaymen who didn't know that they were out of their league yet. If they weren't slaughtered by an ambush by Meesei, Lorag, Uthri, Ahnasha, and Gallus while they were rifling through their things, that wouldn't be the end of it. Even if they had others amongst their number, which Janius tried to spot in the features around them, it didn't matter. As soon as this band walked away, they would leave a trail and the tide would turn. The best hope they had was to not give them an excuse to try and kill any of them.

The priority in Fendros' mind, above all else, was Rhazii's safety. As soon as an arrow was loosed, he would drop and shield him from any further fire. If he could still move by then, he would carry him away. Then, he would fight or warn the others.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine and Tzirret looked at each other. A silent conversation passed within a couple of seconds, weighing up whether to take Peiter's words as a challenge. Saying that he could take them both in a competition of strength was pushing his abilities out of reality. Speaking of reality, however, neither of them were particularly interested. Sabine might like a physical joke, but she has never enjoyed playfights, sparring, or much of any kind of violence. In turn, Tzirret didn't really have the confidence to initiate a wrestling match with Peiter in that moment.

Far from letting Peiter's ego stand, Sabine came up with a compromise to help Tzirret's confidence. She looked around the edges of the lake for a moment, then faced Tzirret and Peiter with a grin. "A race to that rock," Sabine pointed to a large standing stone further down the beach, "The last one to touch it must give Leaps a kiss."

Tzirret didn't even need Sabine to say when to go. He had turned in the water and began swimming as fast as he could to the stone. Sabine kept up an average pace, but couldn't keep up with Tzirret at all. He wasn't as fast a swimmer as Meesei or Kaleeth, but his speed on land gave him at least a moderate edge in the water. While Tzirret swam fast so he wouldn't have to go near Leaps at all, Sabine found the image of Peiter putting his lips to Leaps' licking tongue to be too amusing to pass up.

Seeing Tzirret's blistering pace through the water, Janius frowned with a high brow, impressed. "The boy is quick, that's a talent. I suppose putting Peiter in his place will have to wait for another time," Janius laughed through his nose. The next thought that crossed Janius' mind during Irenya's response was one that he decided to address with caution. He looked at her while facing off to the side. "I notice you call him 'cat'. That might cause some confusion with what Lorag calls Ahnasha. You don't seem like the type for nicknames, though. Do you have them for anyone else in your pack?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Tzirret thought he had finally earned a reprieve now that he was in the water fully, but Peiter's plans swiftly brought an end to that notion. "Oh, what is it now?" Tzirret moaned.

An sympathetic look spread across Sabine's face. She had noticed that sometimes the rest of Tzirret's pack gave him too much of a hard time. It was approaching that point again now, but she couldn't know until Peiter revealed what he had in mind. She could always stop and protest if it crossed the line. She looked at Peiter with an arched eyebrow. "Of course," she gave a predatory grin, "let us begin..."

Tzirret passively began to creep away backwards, somewhat fearfully.

While Newt darted around under the surface of the water under Kaleeth's supervision, Janius eventually realised that he wasn't helping. Noticing the scheme that Sabine and Peiter were hatching, he decided to approach Irenya surreptitiously and chat. "Huh, Sabine's been a deceptive prankster for a while, but this just looks terrifying." Janius commented, "Poor Tzirret. Has he always been the butt of these jokes?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

After everyone put their clothing aside, Fendros lead Rhazii into the water similarly to Kaleeth with Newt. Though, Rhazii was more reluctant than Newt. They progressed slowly until Rhazii was waist deep in the water. Rhazii simply stood still with his arms up and looking with a measure of uncertainty at where his feet were through the murk. "Dada, it's cold," Rhazii complained, "the ground is squishy..."

Fendros lowered himself into the water and shifted to a squat in front of Rhazii, facing him. "It feels better once you dive in at once, like Newt did." Fendros brought his hand above the water and beckoned Rhazii towards him, "Come, try it."

Making lots of noise splashing just next to them, Janius decided to waste no time as he bounded into the water and dove straight in, hands first. It wasn't the most elegant of dives, causing an audible and likely stinging slap as his middle hit the water, but a few moments later, he surfaced and shook his head out of the way. "Crisp and refreshing, just as I remember! Are the rest of you coming or aren't you?"

Rhazii twitched as the wake of Janius' dive hit his dry fur. He didn't motion to move any further, and was beginning to look tense as the pressure he was under to act built.

Noticing the discomfort, Fendros intervened. "Let's try this, Rhazii. I'll count to three, and we both put our heads under the water. Ready?" Fendros brought up his fingers to count. "One, two, three!"

The encouragement and sudden gesture was enough to get Rhazii to sit into the water. He surfaced looking decidedly smaller as his wet fur clung to his head and neck, but after blowing the water from his nose and shaking the water off his head, he gave a grin and a laugh and tried to chase after Newt. As young as he was, Rhazii was not nearly as strong a swimmer as Newt, but he was taught well enough to keep his head above the water and have fun.

During the entire time, Tzirret was leaning back against Peiter's hand, desperately making up excuses not to go and swim. "This one...I mustn't get my fur wet! There might be mudcrabs that nip at my foot, I...I don't want to. Please, Peiter..."

Sabine joined in encouraging Tzirret and put a hand on his back as well. The added pressure forced Tzirret to start taking steps forward. "Go," Sabine insisted with a smile. After another few steps - barely enough to get Tzirret's ankles wet - Sabine sighed and took a step back.

"Well, good, can you let me-Ah!" Tzirret suddenly jumped, spun to look at the ground, and lost his footing, staggering all the way into the water backwards with flattened ears. He lifted his foot from the water and looked at it while frantically breathing. With equal measures of relief and defeat, he slumped into the water and let his ears run backwards.

"You are too scared of nothing, Tzirret," Sabine said with a barely contained laugh. "Now you can swim with us. The water is nice, yes?"

"Yeah..." Tzirret mumbled just above the water's surface. It wasn't a lie, but he didn't want to admit that he was enjoying it.

If Tzirret had looked back at exactly why Sabine had stepped behind him, he would have noticed her squatting down and pinching Tzirret's heel with a tiny blue shock of magic. Sabine had charged a small lightning spell between her fingers that she made to linger slightly, like a crab's pincers. It had worked better than she ever could have hoped.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I'm curious to see how Irenya interacts with everyone directly. Also, I think Leaps is due to giving Tzirret a wakeup at some morning in the future. Didn't think of it until I posted.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The relaxed approach to seating arrangements and the hardness of the seating meant that each of the packs intermingled to some degree or another during the journey. There was a different seating arrangement after almost every stop. Despite the code language that had to be used around the carriage drivers, most everyone got to know each other well.

During the trip, the packs had picked one day each to make camp in a slightly obscured position to everyone else, except Rhazii and Newt. The drivers didn't ask too many questions, but thankfully they didn't have enough curiosity to check on the camp out of the way and find it empty during the night. The howls during the night kept them with the larger group.

For the children, all of the new sights, smells and sounds kept their eyes transfixed on the world around them. Rhazii had never seen so much grass and so many trees in as long as he could remember. In fact, he was so fascinated that he either still didn't realise or didn't mind how long they would be away from the clan. Newt and Leaps were always around to play with whenever they camped.

Much of Rhazii's curiosity about the world, features great and small, came forth in the form of questions that Fendros answered to the best of his ability. Fendros had to admit that his patience was occasionally tested by the never-ceasing tide of enquiries, but he managed to keep a cap on his temper for the entire way so far.

Sabine spent most of her free time in Peiter's company, if only because she was most familiar with him compared to others outside of the pack. They would trade stories, make idle chatter, or sometimes just spent silent hours looking into the wilderness. The other members of Gallus' pack had to address her directly to get into a conversation with her.

The main difficulty that Janius faced in the first few days was getting Leaps used to the shuddering and cramped space on the carriages. Leaps would be uncomfortable and tried to vault over the back a number of times. For a while, he was so restless that Janius considered disembarking and walking him alongside the carriages, but that would have slowed them down. Before too long, however, the packs worked together to help Leaps calm and he soon learned to trust the carriage, lying flat and taking in the sun.

Though the white-gold tower was visible for most of their journey, upon reaching Lake Rumare it was properly connected to the vast wall of the Imperial City across the water. It brought its unfathomable size into perspective for everyone. Those that hadn't seen it this close before, Tzirret, Rhazii, Peiter, and Newt included, had their eyes locked on it almost all the way to where they set up camp.

Prospects of a swim had Janius initially dubious. He squinted at water and rubbed his chin. "As long as we don't go too far out and we get back before dark, I don't see what's wrong with a quick swim."

Upon Rhazii giving an "Okay," Fendros took him by the hand with a smile. "We'll go," Fendros said, "You've probably not seen so much water at once, haven't you, little one?"

Rhazii shook his head. He wasn't as ecstatic as Newt due to travelling all day, but he was curious about the lake.

"Um...this one heard that there are slaughterfish in the lake," Tzirret responded to Peiter, "Is it safe?"

Janius gave a short laugh, "As long as we don't go too far out or start throwing bait in the water, Tzirret, there'll be no slaughterfish."

"This one will...dip his toes only," Tzirret conceded.

After giving a nod to Peiter, Sabine stood up and strode to Tzirret quickly. She took the nervous Khajiit by the arm and quickened his pace towards the lake shore. "You will swim!" Sabine declared.

Apart from some surprised stammering, Tzirret didn't respond. His resistance was made up of stumbling with every second step.

"I think I'll stay around here," Gallus said while seated near the centre of the camp, "Someone has to keep the fire stoked for when you come back."

At that point in time, Uthri was on firewood duty. If she were to join them, she would do so when she came back.

On the walk to the beach, Janius put his hand on Kaleeth's shoulder and gently pulled her close. "Our child swims faster than I do, even at his age," Janius muttered, "Will you make sure that he doesn't swim too far?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The chuckle that Gallus gave to align with Lorag's was decidedly more nervous. "I dread to think," he remarked.

---

Fendros and the children came back after roughly twenty minutes. Rhazii and Newt each had half a sweetroll each and were doing a fantastic job of getting crumbs and icing down their fronts and around their mouths. With little bites, however, they seemed to be enjoying their snacks. Rhazii only dropped his into the dirty snow once, but he didn't get it too muddy for a quick brush off to fix.

Sabine returned on her own shortly after, perhaps another ten minutes. Evidently she had to take some time to re-write her letter, but it was given over to be sent successfully.

The rest of the wait was not unbearable. The children played in the snow for a bit, everyone was well covered against the mild weather, and Meesei returned before long with news of their future passage.

Across the entire group, bags were picked up and everyone stood to gather. "We're all set, I believe," Janius said, looking briefly around to everyone to confirm, "We might pass some salted meat around for lunch, other than that...Who will be riding with whom?"

"We could have a pack take a carriage each, but what's the fun in that?" Gallus commented, "I suggest we trade a few members for conversation."

"Are we riding on horses?" Rhazii asked slowly, looking up at Meesei, "Can I please ride with Newt?"

Fendros shrugged at Meesei and Gallus, "I don't mind much."

Sabine didn't say anything. That and Janius' lack of opinion suggested that they shared Fendros' sentiments.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Cool. I'll get another post up, then I have to get back to study.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Hey! Things are good. My exam is in two days, then I should be free for at least a week and a half. You?

The plans sound good. Maybe this time Ahnasha will fail to avoid her family, haha.