Muttonhawk

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

The short amount of time allowed for misinterpretation and confusion. Tzirret responded with his head angled to one side, "You fought a werewolf bef-?"

This time, Tzirret was not ambushed by Ma'tanza's leap, but he was forced back by it. Trying to dodge it was not especially successful, but he was able to grab her shoulders and take some steps beck in the water to avoid loosing his footing again. A short struggle ensued before Tzirret's strength prevailed. He threw Ma'tanza off to one side and dove under the water himself.

Tzirret was not the most elegant swimmer, especially not in beast form, but he was able to claw his way along the riverbed for extra control. He intended to get behind Ma'tanza when she stood up, then jump out, wrap his arms around her middle, and drag her backwards. He could throw her onto her front on the riverbed after that and hopefully win their little bout.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

G'night!

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine gave her opinion after Peiter did, "I think I prefer it when we are like this, instead of beast form. It is more gentle." Feeling a strain in her neck from keeping hear head above Peiter's, Sabine lowered her cheek onto his shoulder, "I do not think the cuts will be a problem. If they do not heal before we return, we can say we both ran into a thorn bush," Sabine giggled as she recalled that memory.

As for what to do next, Peiter's ministrations gave a suggestion. Sabine gave him an amused smile, "I can see what you want to do." She brought her hands to his to hold them away for a moment while she stared at him, speaking more seriously, "I have a magic lesson with Meesei later. Let us not take too long, okay?"

Once the water settled from Tzirret's entrance into the river, he raised his head and shook some of the water off, looking for where Ma'tanza might have surfaced from her dive. The water still rippled with their passing, but she seemed to just disappear. As easily as she did, however, Tzirret saw a light tan shape appear under the water. A fraction of a second later, there was a splash and the tan shape had collided with him, toppling him back under. Even through the surprise of the moment, Tzirret felt some deja vu.

While under the water, Tzirret was so shocked that he did not put up any resistance for a few seconds. He simply opened his eyes and saw the blurry shape of Ma'tanza's werelion form pinning him. He would have started laughing had he not needed to hold his breath. Unlike last the time he was in this situation, Tzirret's beast form lent him the strength to roll Ma'tanza off to one side, lifting himself out from her grapple. Of course, many things could happen in the moment that followed, but he intended to try and get back on his feet and wait until she tried something else. He wanted to dodge her once and then wrestle her in the water on equal footing instead of by surprise.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

All good.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Seeing Peiter shrink back into Breton form came as a bit of a shock to Sabine. While she was mildly disappointed that she wouldn't get to play fight, she found the situation funny in its timing. She gave Peiter a couple of enthusiastic licks on the face before she shifted back to a Breton on top of him. As soon as she became human enough, she broke into laughter. "I can be sometimes," she said through her grin. Once her laughter had subsided, she pushed herself up to Peiter's mouth and kissed him deeply.

As usual, the kiss was longer than Sabine had planned. She spoke softly after she pulled back, but still had a grin. "I am sorry if I hurt you before." She ran a hand down one of the still red scratches that Sabine had inflicted on Peiter's shoulder. "It is hard not to...well, act like an animal when in that form." Her eyes went to his again, "What did you think of it?"

Tzirret liked the idea. It would be a good way to expend some energy. "Let's swim, then," he said in as cheerful a voice as his form would allow. He knew where the river was, so he got up and ran straight for it at full speed. Observing Ma'tanza's pace meant that he knew that she could follow.

It took a few minutes, but once they reached the river, Tzirret did not hesitate. He rushed straight in, making a splash and a wake as the water slowed his body down. His beast spirit was always excited to swim when it wasn't hungry or afraid.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Taking the moment to relax was as enjoyable as ever for Sabine, but she too had to get up and move. She slowly pushed herself off Peiter and stood to her feet, looking around and sniffing the air. There was no game that she could detect save for birds. She did feel somewhat hungry, but she did not feel the urge to hunt as strongly as she would have thought. She just needed to do something, anything. Her eyes scanned around, but landed on Peiter again. She waited until he got up, then crouched low and pounced at him. She was not normally one for play fighting, but she was different in this form. It would be good for getting out some extra energy and having some fun before they shifted back.

The reluctant pieces that each Tzirret and Ma'tanza took from the sow made it look less like the strongest getting the biggest share and more like two people being polite to the point of fault. It dragged out the meal to the point where Tzirret actually felt surprisingly full by the end of it. Tzirret tore the last tendon off the now very skeletal looking sow and looked to Ma'tanza as he snapped it up. He licked at his teeth and the blood on his arms for a few moments, but found that he was at a loss. A werelion face was not as expressive as a Khajiit face, so Tzirret got the odd feeling that he was being judged as Ma'tanza looked on.

"Are you...still hungry?" Tzirret asked, speaking for the first time in this form today, "Not much game left in this place, this one thinks."

In an effort to be more friendly, Tzirret nervously strode over to Ma'tanza's side and seated himself. He did not quite resist his beast spirit's whim to lick the blood on her face until he had already done so once. This time, though, he tried not apologising.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine was staring right up at Peiter, blissfully. The vocalisation he made, essentially a purr, even though he was not a cat, sounded relaxing to Sabine. She readjusted and wiped the side of her snout across the warm, soft fur on his chest and seemed to nestle in closer. "I feel...warm. Relaxed." Sabine's form of course made her voice deeper and scratchier, but she sounded content. "This is...new, but I liked it."

When Tzirret tore off the leg he had wanted to take aside, he glanced curiously at Ma'tanza as she stepped away with her own chunk of the kill. She didn't seem to want any conflict. Right now, Tzirret was so hungry that he just tore into the leg he had taken while she ate her portion. By the time Ma'tanza returned, Tzirret had partly sated his hunger and was in a little more control. Instead of snapping his jaw to warn Ma'tanza away, he actually nudged the rest of the corpse forward slightly with his snout and one hand. Then he backed off, motioning for Ma'tanza to eat what she wanted first.

The Jade Stream

Kyang followed the blood-stained Torako through the woods with her glaive trailing from her hand behind herself. She used the pertinence of the fight to clear her mind of what she saw before, knowing that there were more important things to think about. If anything, Torako had played her hand, and now Kyang knew of her capabilities. Perhaps not her limits, but that was not something she dwelt on.

The direction they ran did not seem to show much promise in finding Xin, but there was the sound of conflict in a fairly short distance. It was hard to pinpoint in this forest. Their strained hearing was suddenly overwhelmed when a colossal shout sounded in the distance. It was not the shout of any regular man; not even a small army could concentrate such a war cry. Needless to say, it gave them a clearer direction.

Torako and Kyang came across Xin to find him in something of a more difficult situation to their previous one. He was fighting multiple opponents that were putting up much more of a fight than the instructor at the school he had invaded that morning.

"More ki warriors," Kyang observed, "I think these guys are out of my league, but maybe you could take one by surprise, Torako."

In an effort to find some way to be useful, Kyang looked over all the battered and crushed bodies of Xin's previous kills littered about. There was a crossbow amongst one, a weapon Kyang could use to at least provide a distraction. She waited for a moment in the chaos of combat to try and retrieve it.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

Sabine had tired out her beast spirit at this point and it was not putting up any protest to her rational mind. She twisted her snout around Peiter's in an effort to lick him in turn, ensuing a sort of playful fencing between them. Sabine found it amusing. Afterwards, she ended up bringing her arm up and around Peiter's shoulder and trying to pull him onto the ground with her so that she could lay her head on his chest and just be in his scent for a while. For all the fight that she gave beforehand, it seemed that it was more out of instinct than fear or trauma, thus her opinion of Peiter had not changed.

There was a shifting in the undergrowth ahead as Tzirret ran; a stout brown creature trying to bolt off. There it was, his prey. Tzirret was closing the distance fast, but he was surprised to see Ma'tanza shoot past him even as he was running full speed. She caught the sow first, making it squeal in panic before she cracked its neck into silence.

Tzirret slid to a halt again, kicking up leaves in the wake of air he displaced while running. His immediate reaction was a welling of primal anger. This werelion, this smaller creature, it was not powerful enough to challenge his right to a kill! Thankfully, Tzirret caught the thought in its tracks before he could so much as bare his teeth. Ma'tanza was a potential mate, so he implored his beast spirit to share. The conflict between mating and eating was not the easiest one to resolve in Tzirret's transformed mind, but mating eventually won out and he calmed down.

Still, Tzirret licked around his snout as he looked upon the sow being eaten. He was hungry. Perhaps Ma'tanza would not mind sharing either. He padded up to Ma'tanza, sliding up alongside her, and attempted to tear off a leg of the dead sow for himself.

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

While Sabine was also unsure of how her beast spirit would react to Peiter's advances, it was not so easily convinced as Peiter's was. Perhaps it was Sabine's previous worries creeping up, despite that it was still Peiter that she was with, or perhaps it was something else, but she ended up resisting for a short while. At no point did they seriously hurt each other, but Sabine ended up flattening her ears and baring her teeth, clawing and biting Peiter away lightly, even growling a bit. It took roughly ten minutes of patient encouragement from Peiter for Sabine's beast spirit to submit. Sabine did seem to enjoy it, but interestingly, she tried to fight for dominance halfway through. Again, it was not particularly harmful, but Peiter had to work to keep in control. Sabine's attempts failed, of course, due to Peiter's relative strength, but it certainly sealed the experience as different in Sabine's mind. The animalistic bent of it all had its charm, but Sabine knew she would probably have some apologies to make after they shifted back.

It occurred to Tzirret that he had not seen Ma'tanza in her werelion form before. She was smaller than La'khay, but her appearance did trigger the memory of his last 'lesson' briefly. His beast spirit was as curious about her as she was about the environment around her, but he too had to focus. He was there to hunt, and this odd creature that he had not hunted with before would be joining him. It didn't feel quite as right as hunting with werewolves, but he could tolerate it. Ma'tanza was a trusted figure in Tzirret's mind, not to mention a potential mate. The latter concept that was still a little surreal in the mind of his beast spirit.

Tzirret stood up in the air and sniffed at the breeze. Just as he predicted, there were many lycans in the vicinity and not much game. He sprinted off in one direction rather suddenly to find their own hunting spot. The run itself was cathartic enough after so long being cooped up in a ship for a while. Tzirret felt fast, powerful, and free in his beast form, at least when he wasn't scared. He relished all the smells and sights that whizzed by, barely managing to remember to look behind to see if Ma'tanza was following.

Just as suddenly as he ran off, Tzirret dug his feet and hands into the ground and slid to a halt. He had his nose to the air. He had found something. A wild sow. A big one. His mouth watered already; he wouldn't have to share this with anyone! - except Ma'tanza, he reminded himself of that after a couple of seconds.

He glanced at Ma'tanza for just a moment. Such an odd creature, a werelion is. He found his mind wandering under his beast spirit's control and tried to refocus it. The sow! Yes! It was time to chase it down! Tzirret sprinted off again. This first catch would probably be an easy one, but not something to completely satisfy him in a hunt, like a wild horse or bear would be.