[IC] Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

[Muttonhawk]

Something of a strange feeling came over Fendros, Janius, and in particular Sabine. A kind of half-relief that came with letting go of the current worry, only for background worries to conspicuously remain. There was still an endless amount of preparation to do back at the camp that they might have been doing instead. However, as Meesei's words sunk in, they could at least return her smile.

"It...would be nice to take a short break," Fendros admitted. "What did you have in mind, Meesei?"

"When in the hunting grounds?" Janius suggested to everyone with a half-smirk.

[EliteCommander]

For Lorag in particular, Janius' suggestion managed to elicit a grin. "Heh, now you're talkin'. Forget sitting around and talking, when's the last time we all went out and killed something together?"

Meesei was unsurprised that Lorag was the most easily enthused by Janius' idea. Excluding Meesei, each one of them did, of course, have to allow their beast spirits to hunt from time to time to sate them, but given their schedules, it had been quite a while since they had organized one together. "I think I would enjoy a hunt, though we should certainly make sure to...respect this place. It is the Hunting Grounds; our prey may have more bite than what we are used to in Tamriel."

Ahnasha did not appear to be entirely decided at first, though that was mostly because she had not yet had the time to think about any other options they might have. Considering her history as a huntress, to make a kill in the Hunting Grounds themselves was enticing. "Hmm, that might not be a bad idea. Does anyone have any objections?"

[Muttonhawk]

There was nothing but a slow shake of the head from Sabine. "Should we hunt in person or transformed?" she asked. "I would like to spend some time together in a more relaxed way afterwards."

"In addition," Fendros added, "we should keep our noses open in case we stumble into the territory of another set of lycans. That woman who arrived to size up Meesei may still be skulking about for a reason to fight."

[EliteCommander]

After a brief pause, Ahnasha was the first to speak up. "Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but my beast spirit is going to be awful agitated to miss the fighting tomorrow if I don't at least give it something to kill now." She answered. She undressed and found a clear spot on the ground on which to neatly stack her belongings, then transformed into her werewolf form. Lorag, then Kaleeth soon followed suit, though Meesei took a moment to examine their surroundings, particularly any scents she could detect.

"I have not sensed Vykosa since we first arrived. Still, I suppose she could be anywhere in these lands. Although...Vykosa does not strike me as the type to ambush us somewhere in a hidden grove. If she wanted to challenge me, I have a feeling she would want to have an audience." Meesei reasoned. "There might be some risk in hunting the beasts here, but if we cannot handle a few wandering Daedra, then what business would we have in trying to lead an army?" She laughed lightly.

Meesei took on her beast form as well and, for a moment, stopped to look over each and every one of the others. Her pack. Even if they all survived the invasion in good health, this still could be their last hunt together. Once all of the responsibilities regarding the invasion had passed, Sabine probably would not need too much more time to finalize her new pack, so she would be an alpha in her own right. Any of the others could certainly take that same step if they chose to, though after all they had been through, Meesei was not so sure how many of her pack would want to be leaders themselves. Some, like Kaleeth, may want to hang up their swords for good. Meesei knew she had long been tired of the fighting. Unlike most of them, she had not chosen the life of a warrior. Or at least, it was never something she had a passion for.

In any case, in this moment, Meesei could at least be grateful for this chance they had now. There was no better place for a lycan to hunt than the Hunting Grounds themselves.

[Muttonhawk]

Janius slapped Fendros on the upper arm. "Meesei's right. Relax! At worst we'll fight some otherworldly creatures of Hircine's creation." He laughed as he pulled off his tunic.

Fendros sighed into a smile. As he followed suit with the others transforming, he had the space in his mind to remember the last time they had hunted all together. They had fewer and fewer chances in recent years. A small surviving part of his old life before catching lycanthropy threw his whole situation into a brief moment of wonder. This had been his life for so long. It could all change tomorrow.

That last thought lingered in the others as well. Thankfully, the worries and doubts were readily pushed aside by the excitement of hunting in a paradise for hunters. It would perhaps be an early glimpse into many hunts they would undertake as a pack in the far future, when they had all passed on. Perhaps Meesei would be there. This hunt would be special, just in case she would not make it.

Shortly after transforming, Fendros felt a breath enter his lungs and, driven by a whim, he roared happily at the sky. Janius and Sabine each made their own noise in his wake.

[EliteCommander]

Meesei's transformation followed suit with the others. There was a certain satisfaction to hearing their howls and roars as she took her place at the front of her pack. Hunting, in itself, was always satisfying for one of their kind, but there was something special about doing so among one's own pack. Only Kaleeth did not innately possess that instinct, but the side of her that had been a tribal Argonian hunter gave her a similar appreciation for it. As for Meesei, after moving to the front of the pack, she let out an enthused roar to the sky that echoed through the forest. Between them all, they might have alerted their prey to their intent, but Meesei would prefer a chase, in any case.

Ever since they had first arrived, it had been easy for any lycan to detect the vibrant scents of this forest. It was a place with an abundance of prey, though apart from a few familiar scents, much of what the pack could detect was new and exotic. There was one scent nearby that felt stronger than most of the others, but even Meesei was not entirely sure of exactly what they were tracking.

After their initial excitement, the pack was moving more slowly and deliberately behind Meesei to avoid alerting their prey before they could find it. In Tamriel, even with the heightened senses of a lycanthrope, tracking was still a discipline of patience that could take hours. While the same skills were still very much relevant here, it did not take as long to find a creature worth hunting.

Upstream from where they had started, through the gaps in the foliage, the pack could see their quarry drinking from the river. Its silhouette was like that of an elk, and a large one at that, but it was clearly a different sort of creature entirely. It was covered in feathers as well as fur, especially along its head, neck, and back. Apart from some brighter blue spots on a few of its larger feathers, its coloration was mostly natural shades of green and brown. On its head, it had four ears, an impressive set of antlers, and a single horn in the middle of its head. This was an Indrik: a creature that Meesei had seen before in Summerset, though only from a distance, and she had never had the pleasure of hunting one. Meesei was not sure if this was a true Indrik, or a Daedric copy of the creature, but it would make for a fascinating hunt regardless.

[Muttonhawk]

The pack fell into their roles stalking their prey as if their last hunt was yesterday. The quarry they found did not appear to be any titanic daedra that would serve as the trophy of a lifetime, but it was something new, not to mention something potentially dangerous should a stray hoof or antler catch them. Sabine used her low profile to sneak between undergrowths to head the creature off from the sides, while Fendros took the other side to find a way to cut the creature off. Janius and Kaleeth were often the instigators of chases, and thus remained behind, ready to leap out.

It all seemed very simple. Often the simple plans were the most effective. They had no idea whether the same held true in this plane of Oblivion, but they hardly minded with what they could potentially adapt to.

[EliteCommander]

The hunt was almost second-nature to the pack, for as long as they had been together. They were approaching primarily from downstream, apart from those that circled around to cover other angles. Their movements were as quick as they could be, while still keeping silent enough to avoid alerting their quarry. A few times, the Indrik did raise its head to watch its surroundings, but each of the pack was able to remain quiet and out of sight. It took a few minutes to properly surround it, but they managed to get themselves in position before it decided to move on.

Lorag moved up alongside Janius, while Kaleeth took the opportunity to slink silently into the river beside them. Meesei had been using a life detection spell to track everyone's positions, and was the one to give the signal to attack. She, Lorag, and Janius all sprinted forward, while Kaleeth swam upstream under the surface. Naturally, the Indrik did hear the sudden movement. The pack expected that either one of the three werewolves would catch it off of the initial ambush, or that it would run away into the waiting claws of one of the other lycans. However, it was neither option that transpired, at least initially.

Lorag was out front, just ahead of Janius, but as he leaped to pounce on the alarmed Indrik, it suddenly vanished into a blue orb of energy, which Lorag passed straight through. The transformed Orc was not prepared for that outcome and ended up tumbling and rolling briefly after he hit the ground. Even Meesei ended up surprised and somewhat disoriented. She had known of Indriks, and the fact that they were creatures of magic, but she did not know their precise abilities.

An instant after it had disappeared, another blue portal appeared off to the side, from which the Indrik came running. It rammed Janius with its antlers, knocking him clean off of his feet. However, despite its surprise attack, the creature had no intention of standing and fighting against three werewolves. Just as quickly as it had reappeared, it bolted off towards the trees, in the direction of Sabine.

[Muttonhawk]

The unexpected action the Indrik took put everyone on their back foot for an instant, not least of which Sabine, who while lying in wait had to act fast. Whether bleeding over from Sabine's own personality or as a result of practiced control, Sabine's behaviour was often more cautious while transformed, but she did not lack assertiveness.

Sabine timed herself to the exact fraction of a second required. She leapt out of the foliage in a flash of bright fur at the periphery of the Indrik's vision. It may have seen a claw flash before Sabine raked into its hind leg, being careful to back off before any kicking hooves could strike back.

The wound was not meant to be a killing blow. Sabine ran after the Indrik in front of the rest of the pack with what she planned to be a strong trail of blood and a slowly weakening quarry.

[EliteCommander]

The Indrik let out a brief, but high-pitched screech upon being wounded by Sabine. Its leg buckled and the creature was nearly brought to the ground, but it just barely managed to keep to its feet as it limped on a few extra steps. Being that the Indrik was moving away from the water, Kaleeth climbed out of the water to give chase on foot. Although, since she was slower on land, and both Lorag and Janius still had to recover from the beast's surprise attack, only Meesei was able to catch up to Sabine in enough time to help.

While Sabine might have planned to give chase, the Indrik, it seemed, had other ideas in mind. It stopped and turned, a bright white light forming on its singular horn. It fired a brilliant white beam of frost magic that traveled quickly enough as to essentially be instant. The chilling cold hit Sabine on her right side for a brief moment before Meesei caught up to block the rest with a ward. Generally, Meesei did not use magic in their hunts, but their usual quarry also generally could not cast spells of its own.

[Muttonhawk]

Their prey was so full of surprises already that Sabine was bewildered to shock before Meesei intervened. The sudden cold caused Sabine to yelp, though she was more than tough enough to withstand the short exposure.

The moment the indrik retaliated gave the rest of the pack a moment to close the distance. Fendros was the next to wheel around and try to knock the creature off its feet. Without a ward, he was just as exposed, but he could take enough punishment for the next person to strike. They had the numbers that the indrik could not deal with all at once unless it had yet another trick.

[EliteCommander]

Despite its surprises so far, the Indrik could not put its focus everywhere at once. In the midst of its frost beam, Fendros was able to tackle it to the ground, his claws and teeth cleaving into its flesh. Ahnasha too came around from the side attempting to dive for its throat, though it jerked away enough that she had to settle for biting down on its leg. It struggled and kicked towards him, but it had remained in place long enough that Kaleeth was finally able to catch up. It easily saw the massive werecrocodile coming, but it could not run, could not escape Fendros' grasp, and could not prevent Kaleeth's maw from clamping down onto its neck with enough force crush every bone within almost in an instant.

The one, final act of revenge that the Indrik had was to let out a burst of arcane lightning in every direction. It was not enough to stop Kaleeth's jaws, but it did deliver a painful electric shock to everyone around it. Meesei had already lowered her ward to try and get her own hold on its neck, so only Lorag and Janius were far enough away to be spared the shock.

Ultimately, the Indrik's arcane death throes were not enough to seriously hurt anyone, but the shock was enough to practically make Meesei jump, and not to mention let out quite a high pitched yelp as she started to shake her mildly burned arm.

[Muttonhawk]

Meesei was not the only one to make a sound from the nasty jolt that struck them all. Janius slid to a stop, sniffing closely over Kaleeth and the others to make sure they were alright. Fendros twitched somewhat but backed away without more than a few burns. Sabine leapt around Meesei and bit into the Indrik four seconds after its death, perhaps as much out of revenge as bewilderment. She let go with a groan of disappointment and padded back to lick her wounds.

Once the moment passed and the pack felt their racing hearts start to level out, they each backed off to admire their kill. And let their alpha take her portion.

[EliteCommander]

Meesei took in the scent of her singed fur as she glanced down at her arm. "I do believe I have read about Indriks before, at some point...perhaps I should have paid closer attention to that book." She commented, walking around behind the head of their lifeless prey. She knelt down and quickly tore out a large chunk of the Indrik's throat, if only to make sure it was actually dead, and would not have any more surprises for them.

Ahnasha, much like most of the rest of the pack, was already staring hungrily at the corpse. But, even as her beast spirit had her salivating, she could not help but to notice some strange behavior on the part of Kaleeth. The werecrocodile was sitting on the ground next to the Indrik, lightly snapping at the air periodically for no apparent reason. "There...something the matter, Kaleeth?" Ahnasha asked.

Kaleeth tilted up her head towards Ahnasha. "Mmysthtongthishore." She replied back in an almost entirely unintelligible slur.

Kaleeth now had some of the others' attention as well, while Ahnasha tilted her head in confusion. "Um...what?"

This time, Kaleeth slowed down and tried to put more emphasis on each word. "Myyth...ffongue...shlocked."

Now that Ahnasha was looking closer when Kaleeth spoke, she could see that there were some burns in Kaleeth's mouth and her tongue was quite swollen. Her jaws had been latched down on the Indrik when it let out its shock, and that jolt had probably went right through her tongue. She doubted that Kaleeth could feel her tongue at all at the moment, and after a brief pause, Ahnasha could not help but to start letting out a deep laugh. A fearsome werecrocodile slurring words like a drunk was simply ridiculous enough that she could not resist.

"Noff...fummy." Kaleeth tried to answer back, but the attempt only made Lorag start laughing as well.

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros spared a huff of amusement. Sabine covered her snout and stifled her laughter, though looked on with some sympathy. Conversely, Janius was not afraid laugh just as heartily as Lorag and Ahnasha. It seemed Kaleeth was without escape.

"Meesei," Sabine managed to say. "You can heal her tongue, yes?"

Calming himself, Janius nuzzled up against Kaleeth's arm, though his ears and voice still betrayed his mirth. "Sorry, my dear. The sound of your voice is ridiculous."

[EliteCommander]

Kaleeth turned her head, moving her gaze between the others laughing around her. After a moment, she huffed and let out a short, low growl. "Shill noff..." She began, but ended up growling again in frustration. Meesei moved to help, but before she could actually do anything to assist, Kaleeth turned away and snapped her jaws down on the Indrik's stomach. She tore it open with hardly any effort and began feasting on its entrails.

Meesei, meanwhile, shrugged and chuckled lightly. "She will be fine. For a werecrocodile, that swelling should go down shortly. Meesei explained. On Meesei's part, she decided to start tearing into its chest, as the heart was her goal. Meesei wondered if there was any part of an Indrik that was inherently magical in some way, though it would hardly be worth stopping the feast in order to find out.

[Muttonhawk]

As was the pack's habit, all but Meesei and Kaleeth were to look on at the ranks higher than them feasting heartily. The indrik was large, but there were suspicions that it would not be their only kill tonight.

Fendros rolled a shoulder and managed to put together enough thoughts beyond his beast wanting food. "I wonder what else this plane has in store?" he wondered out loud.

"Maybe we are cheating," Janius answered, "sampling this place before our deaths?"

[EliteCommander]

Kaleeth was quick to lose any focus as to what the others were saying. Being that her beast was not one with pack instincts, she was not one to wait long to eat, nor to abandon her feast once she began. Meesei, on the other hand, only ate a small amount, including the heart itself, before stepping back and allowing the others to join in. Since she had no need to satisfy her beast spirit, she did so more out of custom.

"I doubt we are the first mortals to hunt here." Ahnasha commented, just before moving in beside Lorag to sink her teeth into their prey, once she was allowed to do so. Although, it did take a while for her to elaborate. It was during hunts, and especially consuming the kill, that she most often allowed her beast spirit to freely influence her thoughts and actions. As such, it took a few minutes of allowing it to eat before her cluttered thoughts returned back to the topic. "I remember, even long ago, reading stories of mortals who had the honor of hunting in Hircine's plane. Back when I was first learning about Hircine. I guess it's hard to say if they were just stories, though. It's still something I've dreamed of doing since I was a child."

Lorag gave only a quick moment to speak. "Hmph, I just want to know if there's something bigger to kill."

[Muttonhawk]

The pack took their turns as usual for that point in time. Since Sabine had taken on her own pack, she was far more prone to aggression at feeding times. Fendros, Meesei, and Lorag were able to push her back easily long ago. Ahnasha had more trouble but retained her rank. Janius, at this point, almost always had to fight to keep his place. Sabine retained enough of her wits to not seriously injure anyone, and by her now-routine apologies after the fact, the pack got the feeling she was holding back.

Janius did not mind so much himself. Sabine had her own pack now, after all.

Their more familial dynamic returned as soon as they all ate.

"At this point we are inspiring the stories," Fendros pointed out. "Now you can say they are true, Ahna."

Janius responded to Lorag. "There must be! No one hunts these things for an eternity. Shall we keep on going?"

[EliteCommander]

By the time the pack was through with the Indrik, its carcass was hardly more than bloody bones surrounded by antlers, bits of fur, and feathers that had been cast aside. Meesei was sat on the ground next to the bones, and after Janius' comment, picked up the horn that had once been at the center of its head and began to look at it closely. "That may have been more dangerous prey for less...experienced hunters. I have to wonder how much of a fight it would have put up had we not ambushed it so quickly. A deer that can teleport, and use frost or shock magic...I may have to spend more time in Summerset after this."

"Hmm, more prey does sound tempting..." Ahnasha remarked. She had been one of the last to finish eating and was currently laying in the grass, picking between her teeth with one claw. "It is so rare to get the chance to eat a Daedra. Most of the time, they are just banished upon death, but here, their bodies will remain."

Kaleeth was likely the one most satisfied by their hunt, and was now even more lucid than when she had first transformed that evening. She was looking off towards the nearby river for a while before finally speaking, slowly and carefully. As long as she was deliberate about how she spoke, she was now intelligible. "Maybe we can...relax a while, first? This forest is a beautiful place."