Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Uthri frowned and twisted her mouth. It was worse that they might have known rather than outright knowing they were ignorant, but she was willing to humour them enough. She gave another look at S'ajira and tried to think of a good identifier. It seemed like it would be hard before she actually thought about it - there were actually plenty of things that stood out about her.

"Well," Uthri turned to the one Khajiit who showed some recognition. She extended her hand with the hatchet in a non-aggressive gesture, "She has an adopted daughter. A Bosmer, a middling teenager. Does that help?" Uthri figured that a Khajiit adopting a Bosmer would not be too common. If not, she supposed that she could give the name of Ciinriel.

While Sabine and the others might have still been tense, Uthri was beginning to see all of this as silly at this point. Unless these people were extremely skilled actors, there was nothing suggesting that they were agents of Vile, especially with their position of advantage.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Ah, I thought you'd gone to sleep already. G'night!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Uthri looked sideways, not particularly happy that Sabine had divulged information on who they were searching for so freely. Anything they said would have to be restricted to what they could infer themselves until they knew that these strangers could be trusted. "I would rather wait until they returned before answering that," Uthri said, "We have been at risk ever since we made landfall. I would not compromise-"

"-Can you name this Pahmar? She is from the Senchal clan," Sabine interrupted in a challenging voice. She had almost blurted out if they knew 'S'ajira' in a more trusting manner, but Uthri's demeanour, as well as the specificity of S'ajira's request, helped her to understand.

Sabine's tone made Leaps uneasy and he made a low, threatening hiss. "Leaps! Heel!" Uthri ordered. Leaps complied, backing towards Uthri. Turning her head to look at Sabine, Uthri wasn't quite as annoyed. There would be no guarantee, but the idea was sound. "Name our friend correctly and we trust you," Uthri clarified.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

There was a moment of silence. Uthri weighed up the possibilities with her weapons still raised. She took a quick look at S'ajira, who was still poised to defend herself, but Uthri still had doubt in her mind. Reluctantly, she lowered her guard and looked the Imperial in the eye with a stern expression. "We're fighting the war against Vile. We are here with others, searching." Uthri took a careful step forward and leaned forward slightly. She sniffed at the Imperial to confirm her suspicions. "I don't know why else you would mask your scent with durzog stink. Except that we may have found who we were looking for," Uthri leaned to take a closer look at how the head of the Orc's javelin reflected light, it just seemed to be steel.

Sabine had suspected by the posture of these strangers that they may have been from the Senchal clan, but this all but confirmed it. She let her spells wink out of existence as she lowered her hands. "You are from the Senchal clan?" she asked.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Leaps stuck near everyone else as they circled. They were all sprung, waiting for something to leap out of the bushes around them. What they beheld was not something they expected, but the surprise wasn't pleasant.

The people around them outnumbered them as they emerged from the bushes, but they did not have their weapons raised. Uthri was confused, but she did not lower her guard. "This is bad..." she proclaimed quietly. A glance to the Imperial that spoke preceded a proper answer, not quite as confident as the demand to lower their weapons, "Who are you? What do you want? There are only two kinds of people we would expect to find in this place, and one is a mortal enemy."

"Uthri," Sabine whispered, "Uthri, I don't think we can fight." Sabine lowered her hands slightly, but still kept an eye on those around her. She would have to use a ward if Uthri aggravated them any further, but even she knew they could be overwhelmed here.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

While she would have liked to answer Peiter's compliment, indulgent as it was, the tension in the camp had risen to the point where Sabine stood up herself. She left her alchemy where it was and walked up behind Leaps and S'ajira. What she recognised in the air was something she had not smelled since Morrowind, years ago, but it was not something she had forgotten.

"Durzogs," Sabine said, turning to Uthri with concern, but not panic, "They might go after the children."

Uthri took on a similar look when Sabine mentioned the children. She pulled out a hatchet and a sword before speaking, "They would be brave to try anything, but I would sooner be careful. Everyone!" Uthri beckoned with her sword hand, "Come here, get close to the kids." Uthri then looked down to Rhazii and Newt. Rhazii was looking up at them with a scared expression, holding one of the whittled figurines close to his chest. "Alright, you two," Uthri tried to take on a higher, less serious voice, "Stay close to us, do not run off, okay?"

Sabine brought frost spells to both hands, making cloudy vapour stream down slowly from her palms. She quickly stepped up to the children and covered an angle watching the surrounding undergrowth.

"You know," Uthri mused while she watched her own angle, "Perhaps one of us should transform and take the little ones up a tree. Then the rest of us can simply catch the rest for dinner. What do you all think?" It was unclear whether Uthri knew what durzogs were, specifically.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine's smile lowered slowly when Peiter mentioned gasses. She did not really want to mention being the subject of the suppression gas while it was developed by Ariel, but the memories still affected her expression. "It is not that simple," she answered, observing the melting wax over her hand. As no other words followed up, the answer lingered as in response to all of Peiter's questions. However, Sabine did eventually continue right before Peiter could respond, "It can be very complicated when trying to replicate some magic. There are many things I would not know how to do at all, like when Meesei turns into lightning and moves fast."

Once the wax had melted enough, Sabine took a cloth and poured the contents of the dish into her mortar, mixing it with the ingredients that had glowed beforehand.

Uthri read S'ajira's words and nodded. "I'm sure he'll calm down eventually," she said as she held her hands behind her head and relaxed. The children played pretend with the figurines Uthri had made, giving them names and playing out grand battles that snapped the wood on multiple occasions. It suited Uthri just fine, as she only had to make sure they didn't try putting them in their mouths.

Leaps looked like he was going to persist irritating S'ajira, but something on the breeze caught his attention. He stopped suddenly and held his head high into the air, smelling it. It looked as if he had found something interesting; he scuttled across the camp until at the edge, facing upwind and still smelling. Leaps let out an agitated croak as if warning of danger.

It was known to the group that Leaps often reacted this way when he came across something unfamiliar near camp, mostly animals. However, it was still enough to get Sabine and Uthri's attention.

"What do you smell, Leaps?" Sabine asked. Being surrounded by her alchemy made detecting faint scents difficult.

Uthri stood up to try and get a better look, furrowing her brow. She wasn't sure what it was, but there was something.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"I sometimes do," Sabine answered, "We do not often use them. There are many effects I can make, but if I were to tell you all of them, it would be sunset before I finished." Sabine's tone was sure enough that she did not appear to just be bragging. "I can tell you some, though..." Sabine paused to put a lump of some kind of sap or wax onto a small, glazed ceramic bowl on a tripod and began to heat the underside of it with a small fire spell, "There are poisons for killing, like you would think, but also for sapping strength, skill, intelligence, just about anything. It can do it permanently or temporarily. For potions, there are more effects than just restoring energy or healing. There are ways to resist or absorb magic, even reflect magic back at the caster, but that is hard to make. There are ways to make people's life force light up in your eyes, even through walls. There are effects that can make you faster or stronger. If I had the right ingredients, I could make a potion to turn you invisible for a while. All of that is temporary, though."

It was unclear how well S'ajira's signals were working. Leaps stopped in his tracks, but he was mistaken into thinking that S'ajira's body language was attempting to be playful. He kept his distance, but began running and stopping intermittently around S'ajira, trying to tempt her into a play fight or a chase like a dog would do.

"Need some help there?" Uthri asked from nearby. She was smiling at the contrast between playful and grumpy in front of her. It really was like a cat and a dog, even though the subjects were vastly different.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

"It is...very similar." Sabine considered attempting to explain how the alchemy worked in more depth, but the more she though about it, the more she realised that it would probably be too much information at once. "There are few things that can be done with magic that cannot be done with alchemy. Many things are the same. It is not really the same as magicka, but it can still affect magicka."

Sabine reached and took back the mortar with a smile. She still had her previous project to continue working on. "I just thought it might be interesting. These two ingredients mixed like this is used for something I am making, but it is a surprise."

Soon enough, the groups all spread out and departed for the day, as was the routine. Tzirret concentrated on the search as well as always, but during spare moments, he pulled out a small piece of horn and carefully carved at it with a dagger or a small whetstone he carried.

Now that Janius and Kaleeth were not around, Leaps got a little braver in approaching S'ajira. After giving another rough figurine of an animal for Newt and Rhazii to play with, Uthri spotted the wamasu's antics and raised an eyebrow.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine wasn't expecting Peiter to be so spooked by the light. She held the back of one hand in front of her mouth and laughed. "It will not hurt you, Peiter," she affirmed, before pointing to the bowl, "When you mix alkanet petals and the seeds from a common thistle, they do the same thing as a light spell. It is alchemy." Sabine craned her head to look in the bowl, "There are still some left. You can crush the rest together and you might see how they do it."

Though it was unreasonable to expect S'ajira to communicate with Leaps without being able to vocalise commands, it seemed the situation was resolved for now. Janius nodded to S'ajira. "Alright, just let us know if he still gives you trouble."

"Oh, there is no reason, really," Tzirret said, lying poorly. "This one was just...making some things." Tzirret looked to La'khay and held her gaze for a few moments, before he stood up and went back to getting ready to leave. "Good luck searching today."