<strong>Eshalu - in the Wilds of Dra Sirdu after the reptile raid</strong><br/><br/>The sudden collapse of the spear-lizards into a frantic, scrabbling mob was a surprise to Eshalu. She had expected them, perhaps by the weight of their ferocious reputation in legend, to continue the struggle. But Aeryn's fierce shouting and Reliyian's powerful sorcery appeared to have instilled the scaly creatures with an almost unnatural terror. That their mighty leader had fled the scene could not have helped. Eshalu knew well enough that such raiding bands were often held together by coercion based on the fear of violent retaliation from a more powerful leader if any of its followers ever fell out line.<br/><br/>So she let the two spear-wielding saurians she had been engaging slip away, even when her hunting instinct echoed in the depths of her conscious mind, urging her forward, speaking of spilling their blood to offer to the Moon Huntress. Eshalu forced herself to discard that thought. She sheathed her blades and turned to Aeryn.<br/><br/>"Are you well? I fear I was inattentive - and allowed them to ambush us." When she spoke, she realised just how out of breath she was. The thundering urgency in her blood and muscles had begun to subside, leaving a mellow, relieved sensation of tiredness. Her endurance had suffered somewhat since coming to human lands. Deprived of her daily hunts and patrols, the only really pleasurable physical exertions she had experienced recently were coupling with Aeryn. Time in the wilderness, though, would restore her strength soon enough.<br/><br/>Eshalu took a moment to scan her surroundings, making sure that no ambush of counter-attack was being planned, and then walked a few paces to where Reliyian stood, her clothing torn by the marauding reptilians. She was visibly relieved that her sorceress companion was unharmed and marvelled at the effectiveness of her icy sorcery, which conjured up icicles and frost sharp like blades.<br/><br/>Retrieving her own long, woodland-tan elven cloak she handed it to Reliyian, "Here,<em>Far-Seer</em>, the night is cold and though frost does your bidding, I am certain that you would rather be warm - my homeland is colder than this island and even I feel its chill." She looked at the remnants of the fine fabric of Reliyian's sleepwear and the lifeless forms of the twisted, half-frozen saurians beside it and wondered what the motivations of their raid - besides mere hunger or territoriality - might have been, "This," she continued with a smile, easing, her cloak around Reliyian's shoulders, "is why I either sleep in full battle-dress, or naked."<br/><br/>She was close enough to observe the rich voluptuousness of Reliyian's body and how it differed so much from the women in her own clan - even druids who had borne three children -<em>she has the abundance of a cypress-dryad</em>. But she said nothing, fearful of sounding foolish. For all she knew, all elves of Reliyian's clan, separated in the mists of vast and trackless time from their forest-dwelling cousins, had a similar constitution.<br/><br/>"We should seek out Lazerette's captors," Eshalu continued, addressing both Reliyian and Aeryn, "for now, perhaps we could rest until dawn, but when the last stars fade, we should be on our way. I wounded their leader - it will leave a blood-trail and we may follow that. Forgive me if this puts you in danger, but I am sworn to the spirits of the Hunt never to abandon my companions. I hope she may yet live, for these creatures seem strange to me - and the manner in which they attacked us almost curious, maybe with a purpose unknown to us. I heard of upright reptiles like these in the stories of the loreweavers, but my learning is that of the Hunt and of the Track. My blades thirst for their blood, but their stories are silent to me."<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">Being an <em>Initiate of the Lodge of Rangers</em>, Eshalu is now determined to get Lazerette back - failure to do so would invite serious displeasure of the patron spirits of the ranger-caste and her Lodge (which predictably have a mean and bloody streak when wronged).<br/><br/>She proposes to follow the lizard alpha's blood trail and I would propose that her training to be a specialised <em>Caern Warder</em> for whom all combat is a form of hunt would at least give her the opportunity to track a marked quarry across the forest, with due adjustments for the unfamiliar and unnatural ecology of Dra Sirdu.</div></div>