Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

I'm off to work soon. G'night!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"There is just one thing," Gallus pointed his finger to the sky while looking at the map, then slowly looked up to both alphas, "When are Masser and Secunda next full? If we cannot find them before then, we might take that opportunity to cover as much ground as we can in beast form. Whomever we encounter might be territorial and aggressive, but the clan will be out in force. They will be much easier to find." Gallus' finger curled down and he instead offered an upturned palm, "Of course, it would all depend on what we find in the meantime." Gallus stood up from the maps, "Otherwise, no more objections from me."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

As was the case with their planning by now, Gallus was with the other alphas and gave his input. "Well, I'll admit I've not been part of a search party looking for werelions in Elsweyr before, but we have some advantages..." he leaned onto the log with one hand and pointed to the map with the other, "We could cover the most ground by searching down from the prevailing wind first and making our way up its direction. That way any scents will carry to us. I doubt a large group of lycans could cover their scent all so effectively. With how the jungle is, the coastal wind won't help for too far, but perhaps we could catch hints if someone climbs up above the canopy every now and then." Gallus took in a small gasp of realisation, "Actually, while up there, we could look for any smoke as well."

Gallus put his hand up over his mouth and tapped his cheek, thinking for a moment. He lowered his hand enough to speak, "Let's see...we have...nineteen strong and a wamasu, split into groups of...three, say? That's six groups. We could space out one hundred or more paces and rake across a direction upwind." Gallus looked up to Meesei and Ra'kalesh, "It will still take a while, but we have many people. We'll be able to cover a lot of ground." Gallus shrugged, "Though, I'm just making this up as I go along, there's probably a better way of doing it."

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The patience of the group, to varying degrees, held fast during the few days that made up the rest of their journey. In contrast to the tumult of the previous days, some time to relax and recover was welcome, but to others it still grated on their temperance.

Sabine, Tzirret, Ciinriel, and Peiter spent the day following their drinking game groaning in pain from what was the worst hangover they had ever suffered. Thankfully, the dim light of the lower hold did not hurt their eyes, but they complained at whatever sound came by their hammocks. Sabine didn't mind too much through the process, however, as it meant more time nestled up with Peiter. The rest of the journey for them was spend killing time in various forms and fashions; talking amongst themselves and the group, playing more games, watching the waves. Though, they didn't end up purchasing another bottle of orange liquor from the quartermaster. None of them wanted to even sip another drink before the hangover had disappeared from their memories. But even if they wanted more, they didn't have the coin.

There was one occasion where Sabine received a magic lesson from Meesei as per routine, but Sabine was distracted by her new feelings and struggled to improve. In addition, Sabine gave Peiter another magic lesson on their last day, but they didn't get very far either. Peiter's understanding of magic had improved, but he still couldn't quite make the light spell.

Life was simple for the rest, with conversation and child-and-wamasu-minding being the dominant activities. Janius ended up joining in on a couple of bouts with the fistfights, but didn't quite find himself doing as well as Kaleeth or Lorag. Any gambling pursuits that Janius or Fendros partook in were not as successful as the first time, but at least they didn't risk nearly as much as Sees-No-Colours did. The only other activity within the group was committed when the privacy of the storage rooms was spread by rumour.

By the end of the voyage, everyone's minds were reinforced with the fact that a life of sailing was not for them. Everyone was packed and ready to go with no protest. Sabine was even the first to begin rappelling off the side of the ship, remembering to quickly say "Goodbye!" an instant before she began descending to the water. Fendros double checked what he had and gave a similar wave. Janius held Leaps under one arm and struggled to step over the side and climb down with the weight, but he managed to lower himself with little more than a small rope burn on his fingers. Tzirret was quiet as he climbed down, but he had a visible energy about him after being cooped up for so long.

The water was a short depth over waist height when members of the group dipped in. It was a cool relief, but they had to resist the temptation to dive under in order to spare their equipment. They waded to the shore in short order, Janius letting Leaps swim at the length of his leash. By the time they were all in the water, the ship was already moving to leave.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Unless there is anything else you wanted to play out, go ahead.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Haha, I didn't think this interaction would go on for so long. It didn't occur to me how much that Ahnasha and Fendros had to catch up on.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Janius leaned against the lower end of a mast in the centre of the hold and returned a smile. "Well, as long as you two didn't burn the ship down, I'd call that a victory. Good to hear." Janius crossed his arms and looked thoughtful, "I have a feeling that Meesei may talk to Irenya when she needs to, but we'll see what happens."

Rhazii and Newt ran between Janius and the hammock in the opposite direction to where they came, this time with Rhazii clomping after Newt's tail. Janius' eyes widened and he pushed off the mast to follow after them. That ended the conversation rather abruptly, but the reasons were self-evident.

"I am glad that Rhazii has a friend like Newt," Fendros said with a similar grin to Ahnasha, "With these long journeys, it would be dreadfully lonely otherwise." Fendros breathed in with a new thought and looked at Ahnasha with a pause, but closed his mouth and let it go.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Fendros laughed quietly and held Ahnasha tightly for a moment. He trusted her to do the right things as she researched.

"I wouldn't even know where to begin searching for something like that," Fendros commented on Azura's star, "As far as I know, the stories just say that Azura hands it out to heroes who do her a service and then it disappears after a long enough time. You could always try praying to Azura?" Fendros laughed, "Though, if it were that easy, everyone would have the star."

At that point there was a high pitched laughing approaching from one end of the hold. Rhazii and Newt ran by, clomping their feet on the wooden deck loudly. It appeared as though Newt was trying to grab onto Rhazii's tail in a chasing game. Rhazii had a large enough stride that he could outrun Newt easily, but he seemed to be holding back for the sake of fun. Janius was not far behind them both, trying to rein them in, "Hey, don't run too far, you two!"

When Janius spotted Fendros and Ahnasha relaxing in their hammock, he gave them a nod and asked, "How did your talk go?"

The Jade Stream

Despite the crowd that had formed, stepping into the school seemed ominous. There would be history and secrets in these cloister walls. The openness of it now made the one man challenger seem like an invading army. The challenger was obviously a master martial artist. His vibrant dress fluttered and snapped with expert movements as he traded blows with a revered instructor. Theirs was a dance without music, but with equal grace and beauty. The way the challenger moved seemed to defy the limits of human strength and speed, and...

...Kyang snorted and failed to stifle a short laugh at Liu's comment. The challenger's hair looked like it was dipped in the same dye as his bright red shirt. It perhaps cracked the atmosphere of the fight in front of them, but it was no less impressive to watch.

The tail end of the fight came about with several well placed hits from the challenger, throwing the instructor along the ground until he had no choice but to give up or die. Kyang was thoroughly impressed with the skill put on display, but what she was really wondering was...

"Why is this guy here, anyway?" Kyang asked no one in particular.

When attention came to Liu in the outrage caused by the challenger's victory, Kyang stepped out of the way of those approaching him. Kyang might have tried to provide useful advice had she been able to watch the entire fight, but that didn't seem an option. "Uh, Liu? Perhaps you could try talking to him!?"

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

What Ahnasha described and how casually she was describing it was a little confronting. Fendros glanced around for a moment, but tried not to be concerned. "That makes sense, I suppose, but..." Fendros let out a sigh, "I'm not sure if the clan would accept a puppet corpse following your commands all the time. You know the stories about necromancers and the kind of people they become. I know you well enough that you wouldn't cause that kind of suffering willingly, but not everyone does."

After a couple of seconds, Fendros closed his eyes and shook his head, breathing out with strain. "This is just very strange, all this," Fendros said, nearly exclaiming, "I mean, actually talking about this one kind of magic that everyone reviles. I know it's the only way to do this without doing something worse, but I can't shake the feeling that we'll end up doing something...bad."