Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"This one wishes that he knew how to do that magic," Tzirret mumbled to himself.

Fendros looked up after Sabine and Peiter, following where Rhazii was looking. Rhazii seemed mildly disappointed that he didn't get to climb himself, but he was still watching the race. Fendros gave a quiet comment to Ahnasha, "Those two remind me of a couple I know." He looked at Ahnasha properly, "Do you want to take Rhazii up, or shall I?"

As much practice as Sabine had with climbing, Peiter had the strength and the speed to overtake her. She hoisted herself up to the platform to find Peiter on his back and breathing fast. Faster than simply being out of breath. Sabine stood up on the platform with no particular fear of falling and made her way over to him, catching her own breath. She squat down beside him. "We won't fall," Sabine said simply. She angled her head back slightly and looked down her nose at him, smiling, "You win." She sat herself down, "What do you want to do? Swords or spells?"

"Sabine! The lift, please!" Fendros' voice rang out patiently from below.

Sabine rolled her eyes and stood up to find out how the lift worked. It seemed to be some kind of geared and ratcheted crank; much safer than heaving it up and down by hand. It took about half a minute for Sabine to work out how to release the ratchet and lower the platform to the ground.

Once Kaleeth began up one of the ropes, Gallus gave Ra'maranja a nod. "Very well, Uthri, Irenya, Tzirret," Gallus looked to his pack mates, "Queue up, orderly now."

Tzirret sighed and stood up, but was beaten to the rope by Uthri, who didn't waste any time ascending the tree. Being an outdoors woman gave her no small proficiency in climbing.

When Irenya approached, however, Gallus approached her and lifted a hand to halt her. With a half-smile, he placed a hand on her shoulder. He spoke to her quietly, "My friend, you and I will remain a moment longer to load baggage onto the lift." Gallus' look did not leave a difficult guess as to why Irenya had been chosen for the task. Any single person could have dealt with the baggage themselves.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

There was a laugh from Janius upon the structures above being pointed out. He put his hands on his hips and commented, "Amazing! I never would have found this without knowing. Hey, Kaleeth," Janius looked to her, "Did you want to climb or take the platform?"

Enthusiastic, Rhazii motioned to climb down from Fendros' back, where he was being carried. He was the first to run up to the rope Ra'maranja was holding to try and climb it. "Wait, hold on, Rhazii!" Fendros stepped up after him and caught him by the waist before the cub could climb higher than a metre. With a laugh, Fendros held onto him and lowered him onto the ground. "It's a long way up, Rhazii. We'll take the pulley platform."

Sabine was just as amazed by the treetop platforms. She took a few moments to respond to Peiter as he asked about the training. Instead of saying any words immediately, she looked at him, then walked to the trunk of the tree with the rope. After some rummaging, she found a second rope leading up. She then shot Peiter a challenging grin.

While there was much growing in Sabine since her ritual, one vestige of her childhood she still enjoyed was climbing trees. She didn't get to do much of any tree climbing in the clan for three straight years, but this opportunity was for a higher climb than normal. She wouldn't pass it up. "If you get to the top before me, you get to pick swords or spells," Sabine said, before grabbing one of the ropes with both hands and striding up the tree trunk at speed. She was a little slower than usual, courtesy of the journey, but she wasn't playing to lose.

Tzirret was breathing heavily through his mouth and sat down after the group stopped. His ears had been flat the entire time as they trudged through the heat. The weather had done well to sap his strength. He looked up with astonishment at Sabine. "There is no energy in this one. How is there energy in that one?" he asked no one in particular.

Gallus ran his tongue around in his mouth for a moment, regarding the outpost. "I guess they'll get the lift for us," he said, before looking to Ra'maranja, "How strong are those ropes? Can they hold more than one at a time?"

Perhaps observing what he thought he would look like climbing up the tree in Sabine and Peiter, Rhazii had an open-mouthed smile as he watched them. "Mama, dada, I want to climb the tree!" Rhazii pleaded.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Cool.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sorry about the delay there.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine stopped and let her spell fade. She looked to the woman ahead of them while she spoke and figured there probably wasn't much of any helpful healing to do if that was the case. As for Colours' compliment, Sabine wasn't quite sure how to take it. She dubiously glanced to Peiter, then back to Colours. "Your welcome," she said finally and unsurely, more as an automatic response than anything else. Now she knew how Meesei had felt.

"Don't tease the girl, Colours," Janius said after a chuckle, "She's young and impressionable."

"I am an adult," Sabine said to Janius, somewhat annoyed.

Janius looked back to her and immediately contradicted his own advice, "Oh? So you are interested, are you?"

Sabine went red with anger and embarrassment. There was no hesitation in her response, "No!"

With nothing else but a laugh, Janius continued onwards. It wasn't often that he got the opportunity to get Sabine back for the pranks she had pulled on him.

Sabine just fell back to where she had been previously in the group, looking rather glum.

"So, how many are in the clan, approximately?" Janius asked, continuing where they had left off.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"That sounds good. More stable than we were up north a few years ago by the sounds. Though, I can't say the weather is an advantage down here." Janius let out a small laugh.

Sabine was sweating like a rain cloud as well, but at least she had some practice in the tropical weather. She peered up curiously when asked to check on Colours' wound. She started to move towards him despite his protests and began to charge a bright yellow spell in one hand. "I can mend it while we walk," she said, "If it is not bad, it will not be difficult."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

We don't have to keep Janius and Colours' conversation going for too long. It was just to interact with the escorting pack a little.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The droning and the heat of the jungle hit almost all of them hard. It wasn't ten minutes before the familiar fatigue that the humid heat brought on returned. There was at least solid ground here, unlike Black Marsh, but it was far from even. Not even the road was smooth enough not to catch one's foot on the occasional root.

"Ah, I see," Janius said, not sure if he should laugh or feel bad for Colours. In any case, he extended his hand, "My name's Janius- er..." Janius realised that he had extended a hand that would match Colours' wounded palm, so he switched hands quickly. "Have you been part of the clan for long? What is it like?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Apart from a few small bouts of conversation, the impact of the previous argument had a lingering impact. Everyone was quiet as they finished their food and drink. Fendros was as frustrated as Ahnasha that the problem with Irenya could not be resolved there, but he stopped short of becoming as angry as she was. Rhazii was scared by the confrontation, but more importantly then, he didn't want any further attention drawn to themselves in the city.

Tzirret, Sabine, and Peiter arrived back to see the tension first hand, but without context, it was rather awkward. After hearing about what happened from Janius after they began moving out, Sabine wasn't slightly glad that she wasn't around for the argument.

As the packs followed Ra'maranja out of the city with, presumably, extra supplies carried by his pack, Fendros felt at the same time safer and less safe. They were out of the city, and a seedy city it was, but he had to place trust in strangers where the situation with the Senchal clan was not certain. Not only that, but he had to hope that Ahnasha and Irenya would not decide to renew their feud at the first opportunity without some kind of mediation.

In some effort to ease the mistrust, Janius approached Colours on the road. "What happened to your hand?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Mkay.