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Shinn nodded. "Okay, then. Hang on tight!" He said before he started to bound forward through the caves, sniffing all the while to keep on the trail that their parents and the strange guest had taken.

Logain smiled faintly at Elizabeth's inquiries. "I know many things about werewolves, but I only because I've taken the time to study all races as best as I can. Based from what I do know about most tribes, and from what I sense, your countrymen are fine, if nervous or afraid of those they have encountered." The smile on Logain's face lingered benevolently, partly to reassure the woman, and partly because of the fact that fear had actually produced a positive result. The whimsical though of fear being productive rather than destructive faded quickly however. It was obvious that a mutual fear of sorts had resulted in the cessation of hostilities. The Bedaian soldiers, were obviously afraid of starting a fight because they lacked the proper equipment and personnel to fight werewolves on their own turf, whereas the werewolves feared persecution, and as a result were paranoid of all intruders on their turf.

"I think the soldiers are being kept at arms length, until they are ready to talk with them." Logain told Elizabeth. "In all likelihood, I think they are simply being kept outside the village until the tribe's leaders are composed enough to deal with them. Ah, speaking of, I think we found some of them now," he said, as he caught sight of the small scouting group, regathered back at the point where Alunn had somewhat inadvertently attacked Elizabeth and the young male solider.

Canor, now having recovered from the venom, was crawling through the bushes on hands and knees, seeing if he could find his weapons. The only piece of equipment he found was the now completely torn cloak. It would take weeks just to be able to afford a new one, and while he was somewhat certain that his weapons could be replaced without too much discussion, as weapons were often lost in battle. No getting the weapons replaced was no real issue, but inside himself, he felt that doing so would show him unworthy, and lower whatever chance he had at getting his family escalated. Canor had never heard of Parivir losing their weapons except in the most spectacular battles of legend.

His younger siblings had the best chances of being escalated. His brother was showing was showing significant talent in his work as a blacksmiths assistant, and he suspected that the blacksmith might already be considering him for an apprentice. His sister, somehow or another, had managed to grow the most beautiful exotic flowers in the apartments that they called home, and had convinced a small time merchant to sell them. Those flowers brought shocking demand to the merchant. Canor had hoped it meant that either Aisha had talent as magic user, and would likely be scouted, or was incredibly talented as a botanist, each would manage to get her somewhere. That would be good for them, but Canor wanted to bring honor to his whole family, and was not exactly content with his lot in life. Canor's difficulty had always been that he had no particular talents. He was very competent with the tasks he was given, and certainly a dependable, hardy worker, having only once succumbed to illness, but that would not bring recognition. He needed either explicit talent, or patronage to have a chance at escalation. For his siblings and others, their was a bright future and promise, but for himself he saw no hope.

Looking up from his increasingly futile search, he saw a tall man with long dark hair enter the clearing, with Elizabeth following in step. At the sight of Elizabeth, his widened in both relief and fear. Canor remained on his hands and knees, and bowed his head low, his helmet falling off his head, and exposing his neck to her clearly. "By all that I am, I am relieved to see you well." He said respectfully, "would I were more vigilant, that creature would not have caught us unaware. The failure and blame is solely mine." Canor said, somewhat by rote, addressing her to her caste. Showing his neck was an offering of apology, but seldom did one in her position accept, it was usually either rejected, resulting in punishment, or ignored, no action taken but forever a blot to one's honor. Though he kept his fear out of his voice, he swallowed hard. The most common punishment was death, immediate decapitation, which had arisen the practice of exposing one's neck in apology, but severe beating, torture, services not rightly spoken in public, imprisonment were also common. But the punishment that he feared most was being named Hi'Sheen. A Shunning would forever destroy him and his family, unless it was determined the only blood corrupted was his personally. As he knelt submissively, waiting for reply, he prayed, hoping to make some appeal that would reach the gods and let it be known of his plight.

Laezul relaxed in a tub of blood, necessary after the rebirth process. The crimson liquid clung to her pale moon skin. She alone of the vampires would burn in the sunlight, the rest of her children would merely become lethargic, their Dark Arts almost worthless. Standing safely outside her reach stood the various Nobles, leaders of the respective Houses of the Court. "So you are telling me that one single Winged One destroyed an entire bloodline? Why do I see not his body crucified with his wings torn off and his body soaked in blood." One of the Nobles stepped forward. "We attempted to, but he sought protection with his King, and Father was preparing to rest, we did not have the political power to pursue him. One correction I must make. He almost destroyed the bloodline, there is a survivor."

Laezul sat up, eyes staring at the speaker as she motioned him further. "A survivor? Who?" the Noble came within her reach "Alunn Blaewing, the unchanged Bloodchief." Laezul grabbed him by the collar wrenching his face close to hers. "You are telling me, that there is a Bloodchief, let alone one that has no yet arrived into his powers, that has not come into contact with the Court, wandering around out there, AND YOU HAVE NOT BROUGHT HIM TO ME!" Her voice rose to a screech as she pushed the noble away, standing up and stepping out of the bathtub, stomping towards the door that would lead her to the Court. One of the nobles started towards her "Mother, your robe!" he said. She waved her hand dismissively "This will motivate them more." She then strode through the door, the nobles following behind, to 'motivate' the court to find her lost little sheep.

Elizabeth nodded to Logain before she moved on past Canor further into the tent. “That’s better.” She said softly, more tenderly. “Good work Commander.” She said in the harder tone of a leader. “This is a rather troublesome development.” She reported as her hand vaguely brushed over the place where she had been bitten. “I am glad to hear that no blood has been spilt, yet, but our trials are far from over.” She said bitterly.

Shera held her breath. Never before had she disobeyed her parents in this fashion. She was eager to see what was going on with them though, and she hoped that it wasn’t something bad. Her heart was racing, but she felt like she and her brother needed to be there to help them.

Miluiel sighed before entering the tent. Once she had regain her composure and believed that she was ready to go she stepped into the room. She was in her elven form as she walked by. She walked into the room tall and proud. “Welcome.” She said kindly to the people assembled. “I am sorry for this issue, but it appears that perhaps we have an arising issue. I wish to discuss this with you.” She said kindly enough. “Oh, and forgive me, but you may call me Miluiel. Please have a seat.” She said with a gesture to the area around the small fire built in the center of the room. She had a seat herself in hopes of calming their guests.

Azrael approached the group of intruders, and nodded to them curtly. "Please, follow me. We shall discuss this in the warmth. New spring is rarely warm for outsiders." He said as he led them into the hall where Miluiel would presumably be waiting. After the Miluiel had entered and sat down to begin, he sat by her side, keeping to his werewolf form for the time being.

"Indeed," the commander agreed quietly but heartily. When the werewolf chief instructed them to follow he pointed out two of the lesser soldiers that were standing at attention, or milling about trying to stave off the chill. One of them was the young conscript who stood bereft of his weapons. "You two, leave your weapons with the others and come with me" He said, despite one of them being unarmed already. While the commander had no intention of giving up his own weapon, if the conscripts were unarmed, who weren't likely to be much of a match for these beasts anyways, they could convey they had no intentions of striking first.

Canor and the other soldier saluted and the three proceeded to follow Azrael into the large structure on the hilltop. They entered the building and made gestures of appreciation when the female entered and introduced herself and showed them to their seats. Canor sat down after a respectable delay after the commander had seated, and did his best to hide how nervous he was. Everything about the place seemed strange, the totems that lined the walls were discomforting, and the fur hide that lined the seating area on the floor was too thick and course for even his simple tastes. The big werewolf loped over to the elf female who sat across from them, and sat next to her. Apart from Grell raiders, Canor had only seen elves a few times, and to see one here in this lost corner of the world caused him to puzzle over the situation, providing a distraction from his nervousness. Is it possible that she could be in charge of these creatures? Is she some sort of magic user, using the creatures for her own ends? Canor thought to himself, not paying attention to the conversation that was starting.

After he and his two escorts were situated, the commander paused for a moment and tried to puzzle out the elf maiden who sat before him, appearing to hold the loyalties of these werewolves. She was clad in rough hides, but held herself with the a grace that bespoke of a civilized upbringing, and her manner of speaking cultured and refined to indicate some form of nobility. Finally he said politely, "Indeed we do seem to have reached a misunderstanding with the... residents of this forest. I am Yeren Kal-Hurol, the commander of my party. A member of my party was attacked and taken when we came upon this, uh, settlement." He resisted the urge to shift on the hide rug, to dispel an itch conjured by the rough fur.

Shinn reached the trapdoor in record time and sprang up the incline, pushing the trapdoor open carelessly with his nose leading. The trapdoor flew open and crashed back down after they had passed through, though thankfully no one was in the tent that they had emerged into. He stopped for a moment to sniff and sneeze after hitting his nose so hard on the door, but then restarted his run, following after the mixed scent of other werewolves and much less familiar scents. He continued on quickly, his path taking in the direction of the Honor Lodge.

"I'm okay!" Shinn replied as he ran bounding after the trail that was leading to the honor lodge. As he got close he saw a group of humans milling about nervously, and stopped, popping behind a tree. He assumed that they were under watch, but he was still suspicious of them, expectant of some impending treachery.

Yeren shifted his shoulders to hide his surprise at hearing the elf call the great beast beside her "husband," though that did partially answer the question of how she acting as the voice of these monsters. As he listened to the elf describe the plight of these indigenous werewolves, he felt some desire to try and plead for a relocation or a trial by single combat, but he suppressed those feelings. The battle was ordained by the Praelate, and unless the priests and sages present in the two armies received a sending, and both sides agreed that following through with the battle would incur retribution it would not happen. Yeren also was hardly in the position or mood to do anything to compensate for whatever inconvenience these people faced by not simply having the sense to find some other place to be. "Your situation is most assuredly unfortunate, but it is my regret to say that there is little I can do personally to help you," Yeren said, "as of right now, I can offer little more than to say that the battle will not likely occur today, given how late it is. I suggest that you either use the time to relocate away from this territory, which by the grace of the heavens will be blocked from you anyway upon the joining of battle, or you try to appeal to Grand General Balbaros and Praeliot Jeshun, the Hands of Bedaiouses authority."

Azrael was unable to hold back a bitter snort. "This land will be 'barred' to us, you say? What arrogance teaches you that land can be claimed blindly on whim, to the exclusion of others?" He said softly, his voice full of indignation and amusement at the claims of the strangers.

Canor stirred with surprise, but kept his mouth shut, careful to keep his place. Even the most wretched Hi'Sheen would never dare think of making such a statement. Were there truly people who were so uncivilized to have never heard even the broadest of Divine Mandates? Even if these creatures were ignorant infidels, surely their belief would be similar enough not call something so simple into question.

Miluiel was honestly startled by the man's response. Her heart fluttered nervously and she shook with surprise. Miluiel looked from her husband back to the people assembled before her. "What dictates that a battle must take place here? Why must there be a battle at all?" She asked. "Please, I beg you, leave here. This is a land that has belonged to this tribe for many years. Rituals were born here, as were many of the residence. You do not expect cities to move for you, do you?" She asked in the same unbelieving tone.

Elizabeth listened, nodding along with Yeren. In response to the two leaders of the wolf tribe she said, "Battle is battle. We get no decision as to where the battle takes place. It just so happens that it is here where our boundaries meet. When there is war then no place is safe. Towns have been wrecked and ruined with little thought. As my comrade said, if you do not wish to be involved then you should leave." She said in the same tone of superiority.

A guard standing at the ready watched with intensity as the strangers approached the camp. The hackles on one guard's neck rose as a warning to the strangers that no funny business would be aloud. One guard glanced at the other. They seemed to communicate through a series of grunts and growls before one of the guards looked at the two. "This way." He said roughly and turned to lead the two to the tent where the meeting was being held. (You're welcome to enter, I believe. )

Shera nodded against her brother's back. She knew he would feel it and know that she had responded. She looked around as her brother ran beneath her. After a moment she spotted two strangers and tightened her hold on Shinn's back. "W-what are they?" She asked her brother softly.

Lia and Len followed the guard, closing their umbrellas as they did so, taking in deep breaths to gather all the scents available.

"I scent mortals, a moonchild, and something else new to me, but I don't find that other one from earlier" Lia muttered under her breath to her brother

"You could always be wrong, dear sister"

The twins emerged into the hall, walking to a polite distance from the meeting in place before bowing.

"Cousin Moon, we ask forgiveness for this interruption. We, representatives of Mother's Court and nobles of the line of Skael, request permission to join this social interaction, and upon our Mother's honor pledge civilized behavior."