Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Werelions, hm?" Gallus said, a little surprised, "I should have guessed. Do you know where they are holding them?"

Before Colours could respond, Janius walked through the door, recently transformed and short of breath. "Meesei, I found Sabine and Peiter, they ran into a group of werewolf hunters with silver outside and tried to lead them away, I think. There were at least nine of them, Peiter and Sabine dispatched one or two beforehand, I believe. They injured Peiter, but he's stable now, they're both coming up the lift. I managed to kill one of them and force them to stop pursuing. Last I checked, they were headed to the road to Senchal."

Gallus exhaled through a pout, inflating his cheeks and looking overwhelmed. "So there are, how many? Seven?" He asked.

"By my count, eight strong, a couple with superficial injuries, one of them is big, the leader, he was a Cathay-raht. Those are the big ones, right?" Janius noticed Newt and walked over to check on him.

"Well, we can't wait around," Gallus turned to Meesei, "We've got to tail them, at least. Find out where they're headed."

---

Sabine stood up with Peiter and took on a worried look. She put a hand on his shoulder as he rose. "No, stay down, you are..." Sabine was silenced by Peiter's embrace. As strong as she was trying to be, she resumed shedding tears as well as she slowly brought her arms up around his shoulders. She would have hugged him just as tightly as he was, but for the sake of his wounds, Sabine restricted herself to pressing her face into his shoulder and sobbing.

"You...you didn't have to come back," She said between strained breaths, "Stop saying thank you!" Despite Sabine's words, she didn't let Peiter go and it didn't seem like she would.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

A lot of heavy information ran through Gallus' mind like a whirlwind. He opened and closed his mouth repeatedly, trying to pick one of the many questions he now had, both for Meesei and Colours. Each time, he either thought of another question, or was interrupted by Colours or Meesei.

With Colours' final plea, Gallus somehow looked even more confused. He angled his head to the side and responded. "Your pride? I hardly think your ego is our biggest concern here. We have lookouts for any reinforcements, now, but there weren't any trace of them while we were fighting. Now, what were you saying before? Tell us why else you were with them."

---

Through the jungle, Fendros could see a rustling disturbance from his side of the outpost. As quickly as he could, he drew and arrow and aimed, focussing on the shape moving towards them. He didn't know what it was yet. As it closed in faster, he was about to shout out in alarm, but then the shape took on features he recognised. It was Janius' beast form. A naked and bloodstained Peiter was in his arms, and the pale shape clutching onto his back must have been Sabine.

Fendros slowly lowered his bow. Holding the slack arrow with the fingers of his left hand, he turned to the others on their platforms and cupped his right hand around his mouth. "Janius is back! He found Sabine and Peiter."

Down on the ground, Janius didn't regard Kaleeth or Lorag with so much as a greeting as he approached them, slowing his jog. He stopped, panting deeply in the heat, and lowered Peiter to the ground. "The lift. Peiter is injured."

Now that they were this close to the tree with the lift platform, Sabine slid off Janius' back and once again knelt down by Peiter. Just because his bleeding had stopped, it did not change the fact that he was heavily injured. She brought about more healing magic to soothe his pain and tried to help close the injuries, but there was only so much that she could do about silver. By this point, she was not crying any more, but the previous tears were still on her face and her eyes were heavy-lidded with fatigue. She managed to give him a desperate smile.

Fendros had already rushed over to the winch to lower the lift platform, but Janius had taken his own initiative and climbed up the tree in beast form. Upon reaching the top, he was able to help Fendros to the point where Janius was doing most of the physical work. Once the lift was lowered, Janius returned to Imperial form and made his way to find Meesei as soon as possible. Fendros was left to lift Peiter and Sabine up on the platform once they had helped him onto it.

---

After finding nothing in a cursory search of one of the sleeping huts, Tzirret had decided to rush over to storage hut as it was the next nearest. His heart sank as he looked across all the potential hiding spots. Sighing, he leaned his spear against a wall and tried a barrel. It was full of grain. He then tried a crate. "Rhazii!" He called out, emphasising the vowels as to summon them. The crate was full of medical supplies and spare clothes. "Newt!" The next crate had nothing, and the next, and the next. "Rhazii!"

Then there was a small muffled sob from the other side of the room. Tzirret's ears perked up. He didn't know how he didn't spot the blankets haphazardly tossed around on that side of the storage room, but he knew what that sound was. Within another minute, Tzirret had both children, holding them by the hands. Rhazii pulled towards his mother and cried out as soon as he saw her on lookout. Tzirret didn't let him go so as to prevent him from falling off, but he did lead him to her. "Rhazii is unharmed," Tzirret said simply before leading Newt to the main hut.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It's all good. I can read it when I get home.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I've got work in half an hour. If I don't show signs of life before then, I'll speak to you tomorrow!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"Good work, Irenya," Gallus kept his eyes on Colours the entire time as soon as he stepped into the room. He strode over to the bag that Meesei pointed out and lifted the whole thing, placing it by Irenya. "Ra'maranja and his pack tried to flee, but we dealt with them," Gallus began to report, facing Meesei, but looking at Colours, "He mentioned reinforcements, but I don't think they arrived. Maybe they were delayed. Once we rally everyone, I suggest we find somewhere else to stay."

Up until now, Gallus had done well to hide it, but where his hand was apparently holding onto his cuff was actually the handle of a knife. In a moment's notice, he could stick Colour's throat to the hilt. "Sees-No-Colours, was it? I need you to sit down over there. Why did you not attack? Tell us everything, now." Gallus had no humour in his voice. People had nearly been killed just now and this was no time to joke around.

---

Hearing Peiter's scream in the distance was enough to give Janius pause, but he only redoubled his efforts. He was headed in the right direction.

Sabine was only half-listening to Peiter as she lead him back to the stream. As he was, leaning on her shoulder for support, he was in no shape to keep running, but they had to keep moving.

Before they reached the water, Sabine halted, wide-eyed and terrified. She could hear splashing steps in the stream. How did they catch up so fast? How did they know where they were going? It made no sense, but she knew they had no choice but to hide. "Get back! Get back!" Sabine whispered, getting to a rudimentary hiding spot; a tree with lots of shrubs around it between them and the stream. Sabine laid Peiter down, sitting up against the tree trunk and peeked around it to see what was coming. She was breathing so shallowly that she was nearly silent.

The splashing got louder and louder. It was moving faster than the hunters were. Were they lycans too? They didn't smell like lycans. The scent of their pursuer came into Sabine's nostrils as soon as it came into her view. Janius slowed to a halt where Sabine had dragged Peiter out of the water and began sniffing around closely. Sabine recognised him immediately.

"Psst! Janius!" Sabine said weakly, trying not to be too loud. She relieved to see him, but still looked fearful.

Janius' head snapped up to the sound and padded over to them both. Sniffing the air and looking over their wounds. "Are you hurt?"

"Are they still following us? There were nine of them, they had silver arrows. Peiter, he..." Sabine choked up.

Janius scooped Peiter up in his arms. "They withdrew, I drove them off," Janius' throat rumbled through his snout, "We must get back to the pack. Quickly. Can you run?"

Sabine was exhausted, but she nodded.

"Get on my back anyway," Janius could see that she was not going to be going fast with her quivering legs. Sabine did as she was told and climbed onto Janius' back, wrapping her hands around his neck to brace herself. As well as Janius could navigate, they headed back to the outpost.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I think you did a pretty good job. There was no real way of knowing for sure either way.

As for the others, Sabine didn't drag Peiter too far away from the stream. I think Janius'll find them easily enough.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I'll admit, That was pretty awesome.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I think I accidentally turned Gallus' hammer into an axe in that last fight. I'll go through and edit.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Gallus stepped up to the edge that Ra'maranja fell and observed the source of the final hollow thud on the ground that was his death. After confirming that the bodies of the traitors were broken on the ground, he turned and walked nearer to the centre of the platform. He turned on his heel and gave everyone a serious look. "Kaleeth, Lorag," Gallus gestured to the ropes, "Head to the ground and check if there were any survivors. We might be able to question them, but kill them if you can't keep them down. Once they're secure, have a quick look around for Peiter and Sabine." Gallus turned to the others and pointed around to the other platforms, "Ahnasha, Fendros, Uthri, get bows and keep a eyes out on each side. He mentioned reinforcements, look out for them. Tzirret?" Gallus looked down at Tzirret, who was clutching a spear unsurely. He had been at the rear for almost the entire fight, "Look around, try to find Janius and the children. They can't have got far without using the lift platform." He looked around to everyone, "I'm going to check on Meesei and Irenya. Shout out if you need help."

Gallus' pack mates each nodded and went to their tasks, Fendros saw no reason not to obey either. Gallus put his weapons away and jogged back to the smoking living hut to check on the situation.

---

As the hunters withdrew, Janius stalked them until he was sure that they would not return. Their retreat was not optimal, but at least they would not pose a threat for now.

While making his way back, Janius picked up the trail of Peiter and Sabine. The blood made it simple to find, but it was also concerning. If they were wounded by silver, they would need to get back to Meesei as soon as possible. He quickened his pace now that stealth wasn't a concern. When he reached the stream, he could smell the blood in both directions. He deduced that it was flowing from upstream and began splashing his way in that direction.

---

In her panicked mind, Sabine tried to avoid trying Peiter's suggestion, but it only took moments for her to realise that her healing would not be enough. Sabine looked about frantically, and then dragged Peiter right out of the water by the armpits. Once they were in a clear spot, Sabine's magic went from a friendly glow to a flickering orange.

She hovered her hands over the wounds hesitantly. She had not done this technique before, she had only observed it. "I'm sorry," she whispered, barely able to watch as she charged the spells over Peiter's wounds. The outcome was not nearly as precise and swift as the practised healing hands of her mentor, but Sabine was nothing if not thorough in her desperation. The light touch of her hands turned into a grip as she attempted to hold Peiter still while cauterising his wounds.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

It's a pretty stylish ride, in my opinion.