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

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros leaned back in sync with Ahnasha leaning forward, he worried that history was repeating itself. "Yes." Fendros said flatly. With the alcohol circulating, Fendros had never played a game of questions without that question asked to someone. He was neither here nor there about wanting to elaborate his answer, but thankfully the rules of the game allowed him to postpone such a recount.

In the next fraction of a second Fendros asked a question faster than his inebriated mind could think about it. "Janius, am I her type?"

Fendros managed to catch Janius as he was about to swallow more wine, and in the first fracture of his grace that evening, he drew his head forward and tried to cover his mouth. There was a spray of wine from between his mouth and his hand as he utterly failed to suppress his laughter. As the remaining wine in his hand trickled onto the ground his laughs turned to breathless coughs and everyone else started to get caught up in his mirth and laughed along with him. Recovering, Janius wiped his mouth with his arm and revealed a wide grin. "Fendros, I commend your skill with this game," Janius said with a little gravel in his voice. He cleared his throat before he continued, "I wouldn't have a clue," he replied, before taking the last gulp of wine from his bottle. "Ahnasha, is Fendros your type?"

Fendros put his hand to his forehead, covering one eye. He had a feeling that it was his fault that the situation had escalated. This damn wine...

[EliteCommander]

Ahnasha started laughing once more, taking another drink. She had given up on even trying at this point, accepting the fact that she was going to drink every time someone spoke to her. She put her arm over Fendros' shoulder pulling him closer to her. "Yeeeess." She said, letting out another laugh and taking another drink. "Fendros, do you like my fur?" She asked with a smile.

Meesei had joined in with the laughter, and had subsequently taken drinks with the others. Under normal circumstances, she probably would have reigned in Ahnasha, but she was hardly in a position of good judgement at the moment. She had already finished off half of her rather strong drink, and she thought the Khajiit's advances were rather amusing. Who knows, maybe Fendros would actually like it? She decided to do nothing for now; surely she would have the judgement to prevent anyone from making mistakes if it went that far?

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros' chuckles turned a tad nervous. Ahnasha's breath was like everyone else here; not charming, but her touch was warm. Fendros wasn't exactly attracted to Khajiits under regular circumstances, but the front of his mind had all but numbed itself with the wine. He decided to take his hesitation drink, along with the last quarter of his bottle at once. He threw his own arm around Ahnashas shoulder, challenge accepted, catty-lady.

"Yeah." Fendros said with his own scent of breath. It was the truth, Fendros found the fur somewhat pleasant to touch, "Ahnasha, would you get-" Fendros burped in his mouth for a second, "-fetch me another bottle of wine?" Fendros tilted his head toward Ahnasha, discarding his own slurring words and looking at her face daringly. He only just start to notice his heart beating faster and the empty bottle shiver in his hand. Your move. Are you game, little Khajiit?

[EliteCommander]

"Sure." Ahnasha responded, bringing herself to her feet, albeit nearly falling in the process. As she was walking over to grab another drink, she figured she might as well ask her question. "Lorag, can I borrow your bedroll later? It has more...space than mine." She asked, picking up another bottle and giving Fendros a smirk, not even realizing she had answered a question at least mostly correctly for the first time.

Lorag burst out laughing. He had been pretty good with answering questions so far, so he had stopped holding back his laughter simply so he could drink. "We'll see." Ahnasha walked back over to Fendros somewhat unsteadily, then laid down on her back across his lap, looking up at him and holding the bottle of wine up in front of his face for him to take, smiling the entire time.

Lorag chuckled and looked to the Dunmer. "Fendros, have any regrets?"

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros carefully took the bottle from Ahnasha's hands and removed its cork. "Not t'night," Fendros held his new bottle out in front of him, before raising the bottle to his lips. This wine was worse than the last one, but he was at the point where details didn't matter at all. To be playful, Fendros lightly brushed the tips of his fingers over Ahnasha's navel, genuinely curious whether Khajiit women, or at least Ahnasha, were ticklish. Don't think I've given up yet, catty.

"Meesei, do you want to join in?" Fendros asked, smiling with droopy eyes and a slight sway. There was an uproar of laughter from Janius and Lorag. Again, the details didn't matter to Fendros anymore.

[EliteCommander]

Meesei took a drink, taking longer than she cared to admit in her muddled state to make up her mind on an answer. "No...I'm good." She finally answered. She was not quite that drunk yet, though she likely should have considered herself fortunate they did not have another bottle of that brandy on hand. Once she finished off what she had, she would be forced to be done drinking for the night.

"Ahnasha, are you in danger of dying from drinking too much anytime soon?" Meesei asked. Ahnasha, who was purring like a kitten from Fendros rubbing her stomach, sat up and threw one arm over Fendros' shoulder while wrapping her tail around his waist. "No....maybe." She responded, taking yet another drink. "Fendros, are you comfortable?" She asked, her words even more slurred than before.

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros kept his smile, but leaned his head to one side and made a small groan of pretend disappointment at Meesei's answer. At Ahnasha nearly pulling him enough to cause him to fall out of his seat, Fendros rebalanced and responded, "No," before half leaning down and half pushing her on her back to bring his mouth close to her large ear, "I would be much more comfortable laying down," Fendros whispered to her.

At this point, Fendros took another drink automatically rather than by remembering the rules of the game. Raising his head up and compensating for his head moving a few degrees further than straight, Fendros looked over at Lorag. "Lorag, you great, green..." Fendros stopped that train of thought, "Do you want to keep playing? Your obviously not drinking enough."

[EliteCommander]

"Agreed." Ahnasha responded. She wrapped her arms and tail around him once more, relaxing for a moment. Unfortunately for her, there wasn't much more she could do for the moment, so she simply looked around at the others to see what they were doing.

"Thought you'd never ask. It's been fun and all, but I don't know how much I can like a game that actually stops me from drinking. Besides, you look...busy." Lorag responded with a chuckle before finishing off the rest of his wine in a single, large swig. Meesei finished off the rest of her drink at the same time, though unlike Lorag, she could not simply get another. She grabbed herself a cut of ogre meat from the sack beside the fire, as well as a bottle of wine for Lorag, since he was undoubtedly going to ask for another. She tossed the bottle to him, though in her inebriated state, it was a rather bad throw. Fortunately, Lorag was still sober enough to actually catch it.

Meesei took a bite of meat and smiled as she looked over the group. "I'm glad we can take these times to enjoy ourselves...in one way or another." She commented, glancing over to Fendros and Ahnasha. "We...might have to delay training in the morning, but it's worth it."

"Definitely worth it." Ahnasha added, giving Fendros a suggestive look.

[Muttonhawk]

Beyond those last words by Ahnasha, Fendros' memory was patchy at best. He remembered some more ill conceived jokes, even some singing. After that was an interesting bout consisting of Lorag out-drinking Janius in a little competition that sunk down much of the remaining wine. Fendros still didn't know how either of them didn't purge their stomachs by the end of the night. There was also the inevitable conclusion of Ahnasha and Fendros' almost competitive flirting, an event that Fendros managed to convince Ahnasha to commence out of earshot of the campsite by taking her by the hand and leading her away. Both of them nearly tripped over several times in the walk, to much giggling between them. They ended up tripping over one last time at their destination.

---

There was a light breeze that made what sounded like leaves rustling stir Fendros from his sleep. He could detect a dark orange light through his eyelids heralding the sun, but his body was completely relaxed. He was content to snooze for now. He took in a breath and detected a familiar smell, upon processing this, his consciousness slowly returned. He was about to move his arms to stretch when he felt the texture of soft fur against his skin. Soft fur? Fendros' eyes shot open and he beheld a brown ear, moving slightly as if with a heartbeat. Looking down, he saw the back of Ahnasha's head. It appeared that he had his arms around her, one of which was numb from being slept on during the night. Oh, I didn't... Fendros brought his free hand up and wiped down his face, taking in another deep breath. His mouth was all dry and gluggy. He attempted to get up, sliding his arm out from under Ahnasha's side and stopped to clench his teeth once he had sat up. A pain like a needle through his temples struck him. By Azura, what have I done?

He shook his arm to try and get some blood back into it. Ancestors, my head! My ankles! Fendros' mind raced, I'm naked, I was naked with them all in the lake, then this. Fendros sat cross legged and leaned his elbows on his knees, holding his throbbing head between his hands. Oh, that's right, and I'm still a werewolf. Great, just great. And how to you propose to lower yourself further today, hey Fendros!? I'm sure you'll find a bloody way! Fendros caught himself mumbling that last sentence by mistake. Detecting movement, he felt a squirm against his side and a stirring from Ahnasha.

[EliteCommander]

Ahnasha began to awaken shortly after Fendros began moving around. She opened her eyes only to immediately close them once more when the light from the sun assaulted her eyes. She held her hands over her eyes as she sat up, groaning from her throbbing headache. At first, she didn't realize exactly where she was, but then her memories started to come back to her. There were some moments she had no recollection of, but she still had the highlights of the evening. She remembered the drinking game, some flirting, running off with Fendros, and the events that followed. She turned her head as she recalled the last part, confirming her memories when she saw him next to her.

"Oh...hello there." She said, remaining calm despite the circumstances. "I guess that was an...interesting night, if you can remember it." Ahnasha was not quite sure how to feel about the situation. Obviously, it would not have happened if she was sober, but this was not the first time this had happened to her, and there was nothing she could do to change it now.

---

Meesei awoke at the bottom of a riverbed, and wearing all of her normal clothes for some reason. She was terribly confused, so she swam up to the surface as quickly as possible to get her bearings. "How on Nirn did I get here?" She said aloud, her memories not immediately returning to her.

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros turned his head to Ahnasha, who had awoken and seemed to have disheveled... bed hair, he suppose it would be called. "I uh... I remember some of it, yes. It was... certainly very different," Fendros grumbled, looking baggy-eyed and a little worse for wear himself. "I'm... I apologise, Ahnasha. I didn't plan for this to happen," Fendros said, running his fingers through his hair, "I understand if you're angry with me, I should have stayed in control." In reality, Fendros was mostly angry at himself for laying with a Khajiit. He never even would have dreamed of such a thing before, much less consider it. He didn't even know it was possible.

The schtick that he was reciting was something he often found himself doing after waking up next to a woman after a drunken night. Most of the time they were local imperial girls, those events made him feel strange enough, nothing said about those of the beast races. Father would murder me if he found out about this... Fendros thought.

[EliteCommander]

Ahnasha stretched out her muscles and let out a deep sigh. "Calm down there. If my memory serves me correctly, I was just as complicit in the act as you. Nothing you can say or do now can change what happened, so there is no real point in worrying about it. I'll speak to Meesei as soon as I can. She can use her magic to temporarily reduce my...fertility, so there is nothing that is going to come of this. Just try to relax."

Ahnasha shrugged her shoulders. "Hey, on the bright side, I suppose you can at least say you enjoyed yourself." She said, trying to add some levity to the situation, though it did seem a bit forced. It would have been nice if she could have stopped herself from going through with it, as this probably was not the best way to introduce Fendros to the pack, but at least there was no real harm. Given the situation, no one was going to be angry with her over it, and it wasn't as if encounters such as this didn't happen occasionally between pack members. Perhaps her biggest regret was that Lorag was going to be able to hold this over her for months, if not longer.

[Muttonhawk]

Wait, since when could...? Fendros let his hands fall from his head and sat up straighter, struggling to try and imagine a hybrid of Khajiit and Dunmer, much less the concept of contraception. Dunmer were notoriously infertile as it was, so he had never worry about that kind of thing. "That just conjured up... possibly the strangest images in my mind that I've ever witnessed," Fendros said slowly. He carefully lay himself back down to rest his throbbing head, folding his hands together between the back of his head and the ground, at least they picked a spot where the grass was dense enough to be comfortable. He closed his eyes, "this is so bizarre, I just slept with a Khajiit..." He took her advice and tried to relax, "I suppose I should ask if there are any other strings attach-" Fendros slowly opened his eyes and beheld Sabine's face upside down, leaning over him. Jolting at being sneaked up on again, Fendros quickly sat up and turned to face her, "Where in oblivion did you come from?" He stammered.

Sabine was standing next to the two, still with that curious look in her eyes, but distinctly without any trace of judgement. A thin arm holding two vials of opaque green liquid extended from her fur cloak. "Drink," she simply said.

Fendros glanced over at Ahnasha and reluctantly took one of the vials from her hand. He removed its cork and smelled its contents. "Is this what I think it is, Runt?" Fendros said to Sabine, one eyebrow raised. The mixture smelled of what the apothecary at Cheydinhal advertised as an 'electrolytic hangover cure', but with more of a herb-like aroma. Once Ahnasha had taken her vial, Sabine turned and walked away. "Does she make these every time there's wine?" Fendros asked Ahnasha, wondering if it would be wise to take Runt's word for it and drink it.

[EliteCommander]

Ahnasha had not expected Runt to show up, although she had not been nearly as startled by her as Fendros, since she saw her approach. She nodded and smiled to her in thanks for her cure, then turned her attention back to Fendros. The Dunmer seemed to be stressed by the situation, which was understandable, but she couldn't help but to wonder if she should feel offended or not. His biggest problem seemed to be the fact that she was Khajiit.

"Only if she has the ingredients to spare. Go ahead and drink up; it tastes terrible, but the effect is definitely worth it." Ahnasha said before quickly drinking her vial. "And I wouldn't be so suspicious about the possibility of a hybrid child. One's race in inherited from their mother, if you were unaware. My father actually was not Khajiit, he was a Bosmer. Like I said though, I will speak to Meesei about it. You shouldn't have to worry about having cubs of your own anytime soon."

Ahnasha moved to sit next to Fendros, then put a hand on his shoulder and looked at him sympathetically. "Come on, cheer up. Remember yesterday when we had that game of tag? I explained how no one out here is going to judge you for it? Well, that applies to drunken mating just as much as it does to children's games. Lorag will probably make jokes about it for a while, but no one is really going to care. Besides, its not like they haven't had encounters like this before. Not always drunk, but still, same thing. Well, other than Runt; she's too young."

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros looked down at his vial while Ahnasha spoke. A wood elf, that would explain some things, Fendros thought. He turned his eyes to look up at her when she put her hand on his shoulder, he appreciated the sentiment and placed his own hand over hers. "Thanks... Ahna," he nodded. This is just too strange, I need to calm myself and think. Fendros let go and downing Sabine's brew in one go. He scrunched his eyes as if went down his throat, it was indeed disgusting. A second or so later he retched, but managed to keep it down. Fendros didn't know whether it was his mind or the ingredients, but he started to feel better almost immediately.

Turning his head around to inspect the area, Fendros found his loincloth and stood up to slide it back on. "I just wonder where we've wandered off to..." Fendros looked around and spotted a glint of light on water through the trees, "oh, there's the river. The camp must be just over there." Fendros extended a hand for Ahnasha, "potion or no, I think some water is called for, don't you?"

[EliteCommander]

Ahnasha went to gather up her clothes at the same time as Fendros did, but unlike him, she had to pick up her necklaces, bracelets, leather straps, fur pelts, bracers, and an assortment of other jewelry as well. She put on her loincloth and the leather straps and pelt that covered her chest, but just held the assortment of other items in her arms. She would deal with putting the rest on back at camp. "Agreed, some breakfast too. I wonder what the others got up to while we were gone? Just be ready to come up with some witty responses for what Lorag has to say, because he will say something.

Ahnasha walked over beside him and nudged him with her elbow. "If he gives you a hard time, just tell him I said you are better at it than he is." She said with a chuckle.

---

Meesei swam to shore, but just as she was climbing out of the water, she felt a sharp, intense pain coming from her tail. She jolted out of the water and fell on her back out of surprise. She quickly whipped her tail around in front of her only to see a young slaughterfish latched on to the end of it. Flicking her tail, she sent the creature flying. After it landed on the ground a few feet away, Meesei charged a lighting bolt in her hand and struck the little monster with it, more out of anger than anything else. Her tail was bleeding, but she was not seriously hurt, so she stood up and looked around to see if she knew where she was. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the area that she came even close to recognizing. This troubled her a good deal, as she had explored quite a large area around the camp, so that meant she had wandered far from their camp. She was at least by the river, so she reasoned she had probably followed it for quite a while for some strange reason. The question was, had she followed it upstream, or downstream?

Meesei sniffed the air a few times to see if she could pick up on the trail of her own scent, but it was at that point she recognized something that she had been too distracted to notice before. There was a rather foul, strange odor in the air, like a rotting corpse mixed with honey. She spent a few moments trying to find the source only to realize that it was herself. She smelled absolutely terrible, and evidently, the water had not washed it off. The scent overpowered her sense of smell, so it was difficult for her to track her own path.

"Great." Meesei mumbled, rubbing her head as she tried to think about what to do next.

[Muttonhawk]

"I'm sure I'll think of something," Fendros chuckled, walking towards the camp.

They were greeted by the smell of Janius' own breakfast rotating above the renewed campfire. Boar, it seemed to be. Sitting by Janius next to the fire was Sabine, quietly chewing on a shank of some description with her usual closed demeanour. As they got closer, Janius turned his head to the couple, he looked to be in a worse state than the both of them. "'Morning, you two," He said with a sore throat and a mischievous half-smile.

"Good morning," Fendros replied. A loud grumble sounded and Fendros initially thought it was his stomach, but quickly realised that it was emanating from a Lorag-sized pile of furs in one corner of the camp. Listening closely, he could hear mumblings pleading for everyone to shut up, or something.

Janius stood up from his spit and sighed, "Lorag, I told you, Runt left you a cure right next to you! Drink up or you'll be there all day." More unintelligible grumbling sounded and Lorag's thick green arm shot out from the side of the pile, his hand padding the ground searching for Runt's vial sitting on its base near him. He knocked over the vial with his upper arm before he grabbed it, his arm receding like a chameleon's tongue that had just caught and insect.

Sitting down again, Janius removed the boar meat from over the fire and cut a portion off for Fendros, handing the food to him on the end of an old fork. "There you are. Careful it doesn't drip on you, it's hot."

Fendros took the fork carefully from Janius and bit into it gratefully. He didn't realise how hungry he was until then. "Thank you," Fendros said after swallowing. Before sitting down, Fendros took a moment to look around for his water skin and took it in his other hand to sit by the campfire with, drinking from it to help recover. "Any sign of Meesei?" Fendros asked, wondering about the last unaccounted for pack member.

"No sign yet. She might have wandered off at some point during the night, I can't remember." Janius said with a slight wheeze, "Sometimes she can be gone for a while on errands, so we decided to start breakfast without her."

[EliteCommander]

While Fendros started on his breakfast, Ahnasha went through the process of putting on each of her pieces of jewelry, her bracers, and so on, until she was fully dressed. The smell of meat cooking over the fire was certainly an enticing one, but she still pulled a cut of raw ogre meat from the sack near the fire and sat down near the others. She was about to start poking fun at Lorag when she heard Janius mention that Meesei had not yet returned to camp. This caught her attention, but she was not yet worried. After all, what Janius said was true, she did occasionally go on errands in the morning. As long as she was able to speak to her within a few hours, she was confident she would have nothing to worry about.

"Well, I would like to speak to her as soon as possible...as you can imagine. I'm sure she'll be back soon, though." She commented before taking her first bite of her breakfast. "So, what did you all end up doing last night? Did Lorag perform any more plays, or do you even remember any of it?"

---

By the grace of Hircine, Meesei was able to locate traces of her footsteps along the edge of the water, even with her own stench overpowering her nose. At first, she had assumed that she passed out and floated downstream, but her tracks were actually coming from downstream, which meant she had actually walked upstream. She had no idea why she would do that, but at least she had a direction to follow. Walking through the forest smelling like a carcass was not a particularly pleasant experience, but she had little choice in the matter at the moment.

[Muttonhawk]

Fendros' chewing slowed as some worry welled up inside of him. She'll be back, don't worry about it.

"Right. Ah... I was just trying to piece last night together myself," Janius said, "let's see, after you two stumbled away all frisky, er... when we ran out of wine to drink, Lorag and I started to arm wrestle. I don't know how I thought I could beat him, and he did mostly, but after about the fifth rematch, he passed out." Janius licked his teeth to try and recall further, "Then I dragged him to his bedroll and piled furs on top of him. Runt woke me up."

"Hold on," Lorag's muffled voice caused everyone to turn to his bedroll as he virtually erupted from the pile of pelts while sitting up. He pointed to Janius and squinted his eyes to the sun, "I didn't pass out, you passed out- ah!" Lorag pressed a hand to the side of his head, he had sat up too quickly, "You passed out and I dragged you to your bedroll. I remember because I piled those furs on myself, it was cold last night. Also, Meesei wandered off to go fishing or pearl diving or something after you passed out." Lorag then looked to the sky and rubbed his chin with his hand, "or was that before we arm-wrestled?"

"I think it was while we were on our third arm-wrestle, or something, that she wandered off. I got close to beating you that round." Janius said, the last sentence with a very matter-of-fact tone.

Lorag got up and went to fetch his own breakfast, this time pacing himself so that he wouldn't irritate his headache. "Pfft, keep dreaming, boy," He said dismissively.

Fendros had to squint his eyes on occasion, the talking was causing himself some pain as Janius and Lorag raised their voices. "Uh, if I may... how long does Meesei normally take on these errands?" Fendros wasn't on the verge of panicking yet, but when you planned to have children only after a century at least, not having control over a situation such as this was making him tense.

[EliteCommander]

"Alpha's not here?" Lorag responded immediately, looking around the camp as he ate his breakfast. "Huh, guess she isn't." He said, not answering Fendros' question in the slightest.

Janius swallowed the bite he was chewing and answered a bit more helpfully. "I've never known her to be away for more than two hours. I have been up for an hour, so she has been away for at least that long."

"Hmm, I guess she will be back any minute then." Ahnasha said in a reassuring tone between bites. It seemed like Meesei's errand run was on the long side, but she hadn't been gone long enough for it to be strange yet. She was sure she had nothing to worry about.

Minutes went by and at first, Ahnasha was still calm. She finished her breakfast, then ended up going back and forth a few times with Lorag making fun of each other, mostly so he wouldn't be going after Fendros instead. After half an hour passed, her heart rate started to shoot up, and she kept looking out over the forest to see if she could spot their Alpha approaching. She asked Runt if she could mix a potion to help her, and while such a potion could be created, she did not have the appropriate ingredients to make one. Eventually, an hour had passed with no sign of Meesei, so Ahnasha decided that something must be done.

The Khajiit walked up to Fendros, glancing toward the forest and speaking in a worried tone. "So, um, Fendros. I think it might be time to consider looking for Meesei. I don't know where she could have gone, but she may be lost...or worse. I, uh, I don't want to alarm you or anything, and the chances of it happening even without Meesei doing anything are, uh, slim. But...there is a small possibility...one we probably don't have to worry about....that, uh, I could become...pregnant. It's a small chance, of course, I mean, you are Dunmer. I just...we shouldn't take any chances. We should see if we can get the others to help find her."

---

Meesei had made another, rather annoying discovery as she was walking along the river. The thing that was causing her to smell was some kind of sticky substance coating most of her body, a substance that attracted flies and all other types of insects. She was constantly swatting them away in vain. She had attempted to wash it off in the river, but whatever it was simply would not come off. The scent was evidently strong enough to attract scavengers, as she could see what looked like vultures flying overhead.

It was taking a strangely long time for her nose to adapt to the scent, so she did not notice when one of the vultures started to fly lower. After a few minutes it swooped down from behind, seemingly attacking her. Flaring up with magical energy, she telekinetically tossed the large bird away while cursing aloud from the surprise. "Ah, what? I thought you were only supposed to eat dead things?" She said angrily, looking at the bird as it regained its footing and flew away. What is it about this scent that is making these creatures behave so strangely? She thought to herself. Whatever was covering her was certainly nothing normal. She continued on along the river, though she was unaware of the few dozen feathers that had stuck to her back.