Oh, a Hunting we will go, but not for Food!

[Leto Sunsinger]

Timestamp: Early Afternoon, 62 of Winter, Year 511 A.V.

Laying in a corner of the cave, a bit apart from the main of the group, Leto allowed the dim firelight of the fire to light what he was looking at while wrapped in his sleeping bedroll to keep himself even warmer. He was taking a brief look at some of the healing glyphs that him and Kavala had made the past season in order to prepare for the trip ahead of them. Each of the glyphs had a focus, barrier, and trigger so as was proper for the sigils of glyphing. Slowly stowing them back within his backpack, and carefully so as to not rip any of the parchment of the glyphs, he laid his head back, and looked up towards the ceiling of the cave.

Thoughts he probably shouldn't be having crossed his mind, thoughts of Issima and Sama'el, thoughts of Denen and Sama'el, but all in all, they were mostly thoughts of Sama'el. A smile crept up upon his face as he remembered what Sama'el had said one time when they were practicing summoning, and things went awry. "These too are holy" And he was referring to the scars that covered Leto's upper half of his body, and portions of his lower half. Most had been covered with tattoos of nondescript glyphs that described qualities which Leto felt had described himself accurately. But there were some that were still visible, and Leto wasn't wearing his normal leather vest at that point in time, thus if he sat up out of his sleeping bedroll, they would be visible on his body.

Sighing a bit, and rolling over, there wasn't much they could do whilst trapped in the cave other than rest up, portion out their rations, and talk to one another. Leto felt as if his anti-social nature was creeping up on him again as he was sort of aloof from the group at the moment, but that was just his nature. Sama'el had managed to break him out of his shell a bit, but they hadn't really had much personal time together while on this trip. It didn't bother Leto that much, as he knew that Sama'el was happy with his new wife, or at least suspected it to be so, and thus had to be happy for him. He still hadn't told him what he wanted to, but knew that it would never be returned the same way, so simply would follow what Kavala said he should do, which is to love Sama'el by helping the children of his pavilion grow strong, and into good drykas people...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"I told you so," said Pip, the wee Pycon, preceding Sama'el into the cave, his clay arms wrapped around a dead snow hare that his trap had killed. The young man entered behind him, cheeks flushed with the cold, but eyes alight, a brace of hares hanging from his hand to be properly dressed. They would eat well yet, and their stores of grain and feed for the horses remained what they should be. They should reach Avanthal by early Spring, before much of Taldera had a chance to thaw. When he saw Leto looking at him from the depths of the cave, he set those hares aside. "If you can manage that without bollocksing it up, you can start on these too. Earn your keep. I'll help in a bit." That said, he went deeper into the gloom toward the sullen summoner, dropping down into a corbie crouch beside him with his usual smile. "Hibernating, Leto-bear?"

[Leto Sunsinger]

"Hibernating would depict me actually sleeping Sama'el," said Leto, as he turned over to look towards him, sitting up on the backs of his elbows a bit, a smirk upon his face. "No... I was just reviewing the healing glyphs that myself and Kavala had created for this journey in particular... Nothing really important one might say," said Leto smiling and responding eagerly to Sama'el's question. Obsidian orbs drifting over towards the pycon, then returning towards Sama'el, he said, "I take it the hunt was good?" As he posed his question, he wondered what he might be able to do to assist Sama'el, anything he could do rather than just laying down and doing nothing really, other than review the glyphs in case they needed to use one if somebody got injured.

"If there is anything I can do to assist you Sama'el, just let me know, and i'll be more than happy to help you out... I know my knowledge merely pertains to the mysteries, but i'd rather not be entirely useless on this trip, save for the emergencies we might run into, where my and Kavala's healing glyphs would come in handy..." he then said to the soon-to-be ankal, a worried look crossing his face as he watched Sama'el carefully through the dim light...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"It was mostly trapping today, but yes, more rabbit stew for us." He grinned. "You have been a help already, the way you have taught me glyphs. It helps with the origin stones. I like knowing I can leave the cave and you might have a scroll up your sleeves that will help... either with protection or healing. You can assist Denen with healing, and... Hey, maybe I should help you trap a few fireballs into one of your sigils? Then you can fight with Fire while I am not here to call it?" He peered at Leto, hoping he was able to sleep. Perhaps Denen had something to help him sleep; he would be no use to anyone if he was worn down from lack of sleep, after all, and the cold could sap a person's strength too quickly.

[Leto Sunsinger]

Leto did look a little worse for the wear, but he was feeling okay. Looking up towards Sama'el he said, "I think I have an unused sigil or two that could be used for fireballs, or unleashing flames in some way..." As he spoke about it, he thought briefly, then pulled his bag over. If he didn't have a sigil created yet, he still had parchment, and some ink, he could quickly draw up a sigil to create one for fireballs, but then again, he was thinking about other things as well, like how Issima and Sama'el were doing together, how Denen was coping with it, and perhaps how Ronana was doing. Smiling at Sama'el, he said, "I don't seem to have any already pre-made, but i'm sure I could draw some up later if you'd like... perhaps we could see what is further in this cave or something... perhaps make sure we're truly safe in here given we just found this cave to get out of the winter's weather..."

In all reality, he was thinking of perhaps trying to find some spiders or something and try to extract thier venom, or at least collect it for later, given Leto had gotten a few vials for such a thing previously in their trip to Riverfall. But he didn't say that at first, perhaps Sama'el might figure it out upon his own in time, but for now Leto didn't speak of his ultimate goal, which was to provide assistance to The Watch, through usage of poisonous arrows, and things of the sort...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

"Sure, all right. Later," he agreed with an easy smile, though he was a bit worried about Leto all the same. "You can use the parchment, and I'll just draw in the dirt for practice. Don't want to waste your parchment on my dumbass chicken scratchings." He grinned wider at his own expense, hoping to ease a real smile out of Leto. With a snap of his fingers, he called Fire. It was easy to produce just enough djed on the pads of his fingers for that little trick, though the friction was not at all required for ignition. That came from him. His hand fell away and the witchlight remained, ready to light their path deeper into the dark of the caves to go spelunking. They should be rather good at it by now, having had to go to ground in caves whenever the weather got too bad, and really they found them even when the weather was not dire if they could, because it was easier to keep the horses together and everyone warm, their pavilions of stone and darkness. "I didn't have to kill a bear for ownership of this one," he said, "but there were spiderwebs deeper in. We'll have to be careful, unless... unless this is all part of your master plan. We started learning about poisons in Riverfall, remember? And eventually you want to call the vileleaf or whatever it was." Sam was willing to help, but he was certainly no expert on summoning, poison, or extraterrestrial mycology.

[Leto Sunsinger]

"I guess i'm that easy to read," said Leto, a laugh escaping his lips. "Spiders yes... their venom can be made into a decent poison I suspect that the Watch could use upon the tips of their arrows... But first... we'll need to take on or two of them down, and collect the venom." A smile crossed his face as he sat up out of the sleeping pad, his bare chest showing. Reaching over and grabbing his leather vest, he would slide that upon his body, and tie it closed around him. Looking back towards Sama'el, he said, "Whenever you're ready, i'm ready as well. I'll bring my pack of healing glyphs just in case something happens, we'll be ready for it..."

And with that, he slowly got up out of the sleeping pad, slung his sack of glyphs over his back, and picked up his glaive in his right hand. "And about the glyphs... don't worry about your chicken scratchings, it takes time to get better at these things, trust me... I didn't become competent at it overnight," he said, grinning at Sama'el, obvious that he had managed to make Leto smile a bit, as was his goal. Whenever Sama'el was ready, Leto would allow him to lead the way deeper into the cave...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

Sam grinned and ruffled Leto's hair as if he were a boy rather than a man older than him. Despite Leto's age, he seemed younger in many ways, perhaps because he spent so much time alone without the company of others. But Ronan too was perhaps slow to achieve so far as things went, Sama'el's senior, but not so accomplished. Then again, these two hadn't had quite the fire under his arse that Sama'el did, the last of his tribe. Though Leto seemed like he might be the last of his unless he married and produced heirs. Perhaps if he even produced one, he could die knowing he hadn't let down his ancestors. A boy could carry on as Ankal, or a girl even. If they didn't wish the responsibility, they could marry into Sama'el's pavilion to the increase of both. Leto was lucky the cave was warm from the bodies and the fire, so his vest was quite enough to keep him warm. Sama'el cupped his hands around the little witchlight he kept fed with tiny scraps of his soul transmuted into res, blowing on it, it diminished until it was a tiny prick of red light, and as Leto got ready, Sam waited for their eyes to adjust. Red light didn't ruin night vision; this bit of wisdom had proven helpful to him many times since he had learned to call Fire. "Come, then," he said when Leto was ready, and took his hand to lead him deeper into the caves lest his eyes not be quite so well adjusted to the gloom. "Careful," he warned when the narrow shaft opened into a larger gallery. They paused there and he cast his light up toward the roof, toward the edges of his control, a few meters now, so they could take it all in. "Huh. It looks like there are openings in the ceiling. Maybe that's why they don't bother us... they can get out that way." He didn't see any of them yet. "I wonder if they hibernate too, or if they... I don't know, find animal lairs and feed on them while they hibernate? This is where I should lay an Origin before we go. Not many people will ever find this cave, I suppose, and fewer still will want to tangle with spiderwebs and, you know, spiders." Many had an atavistic fear of the little creatures; Sama'el respected them, but wouldn't squeal like a little girl if one landed on his shoulder. "What do you think?"

[Leto Sunsinger]

"I think they might know of our presence and be wary of coming out because we are here... we'll probably have to go looking for them, as opposed to them finding us," said Leto as he allowed Sama'el to take his hand, and lead him further into the cave, his glaive within his other hand. His eyes had adjusted to the darkness by the time they made their way deeper into the cavern, and he smiled as he felt the warmth of Sama'el's hand in his. Looking around, he wondered where exactly the spiders might be hiding at, and if they would be able to find them and utilize their venom as a sufficient poison for the Watch back in Endrykas.

In his pack on his back, he had a few vials that could be used to collect the venom, and hopefully store it until he successfully learned how to turn it into a viable poison. But that would have to wait until they managed to kill a giant spider or two. For now, Leto would be careful and wary himself of the spiders that could come out and attack them at anytime. Soft obsidian orbs looked further into the cave, and then up towards the ceiling where the spiders obviously could get out of. "Let's just hope they don't drop in on us like we're a healthy snack to them... and that they really are more scared of us than we of them..." he finished speaking, trying to be as brave as possible, but not very successful at it as a slight tremor in his voice could be heard...

[Sama'el Sunsinger]

He wondered if he could learn a thing or two about Webbing from the way these creatures wove their webs; likely, he thought, as the Mysteries were best explained to him through natural metaphors, but he was no expert, so it was only a guess. He glanced back at the way his witchlight flickered against Leto's glaive, the which he had never really seen him use. They would have to spar sometime. "Do you really think that will be necessary?" he asked. But perhaps Leto had seen a bigger one than Sam had. "I've my Fire if they try to swarm us. We'll just have to try to kill one of the bigger ones, figure out where it stores its poison, and try to... somehow... get it out, I guess." He glanced to Leto again. Sam certainly wasn't an expert on cave-dwelling insects or poison; this was supposed to be a learning experience, though.