Winter Raiding Party (Open to first 3 people who post)

[Levakys]

35th Day of Winter, 511 A.V. Levakys was meditating quietly in his room when he heard a knock on his door. Answering the knock, Levakys found a boy 'runner' standing at his doorsteps. "Commander Levamyr has requested your presence at the Tukala Outpost at your earliest convenience," the lad said with a smile; then swooshed off most likely to deliver his next message. Levakys debated the message for a moment. It came from 'Commander Levamyr' not from his father. He was being called to the outpost instead of to his father's quarters. Levakys got excited. He was being called to his first assignment! From time to time all members of society are called to serve the general public. This could be various duties from standing gate duty to standing guard at the mines if scouts spotted barbarian raiders to actually going out on a raid. Levakys loved his position as an Acolyte of Wysar, hoping to become a priest but never having earned a gnosis mark to gain that position, but he also looked forward to those various moments of service within the militia. He had not chosen his father's life style as a city soldier, but he did love combat as much - if not more - than his father did. Not wanting to be to eager, Levakys took his time suiting up in his leathers and sheathing his Lakan Blade and Battleaxe. The axe had actually been specially made for his father who gifted it to Levakys upon passing his Rite of Trial when he was fifteen. though not as dear to him as his Lakan, it was his second most prized possession. Upon entering the outpost, Levakys found his father out front talking to another Commander within the militia. He'd seen the Akalak before though he did not know him. His father clasped the Commander on the shoulder and then came over to his son. "It is time, my boy, for you to accept your first volunteer post. A slaver caravan was spotted a two day march from here. The Cerulean are on other assignment, so we decided to send out a raiding party. Since you have been drawn to attend this raid, I have asked Commander Riaris to lead this raid. Follow his lead and everything will be alright." Levamyr then nodded to Commander Riaris who came over. Levakys reached out to clasp arms with the Commander, "I look froward to this first opportunity to work for the collective of our community, Sir. It is an honor to meet you, Commander Riaris. You will find that I am easy to order and follow directions." Levamyr clasped his son on the shoulder and then left for the two to talk. Riaris returned the greeting and clasped the arm of young Levakys. "I have watched you grow from a distance under your father's tutelage. I have no doubt you, and the others, will do just fine." Commander Riaris looked to the entry of the outpost, "Speaking of, we are awaiting the arrival of the other volunteers. I will lead and Commander in Training Ukatel will serve as my second. there will be eight of us in total. The scouts told us that there are about ten armed guards and two men atop of each of the two caravans carrying about fifteen slaves in total; ten of which looked to be female." Ten females. So this was the reason for the urgency of the raid and not wanting to wait for the Cerulean to return from whatever assignment they had going on. Women in Riverfall were more prized that the gold Mizas themselves. Levakys looked towards the entry to see who else had been called to serve.

OOC: I will wait a few days before moving forward with this. This is a solo/peer mod thread. It is open to the first three people who post (myself not included). I do not wish to run this as a duality type of thread, so you must be joining as part of the raiding party. I look forward to modding/RPing with those of you who join!!

[Kavala]

It might have been a surprise to see a Konti ride up on an overly muscled dapple grey stallion of a breed that was indeterminable. She wore black leathers and had a lakan tucked into the small of her back. A weapons harness over her armor held blow guns, darts, bola, throwing daggers and a crossbow rode her back. The stallion was heavily armored with hardened leather plated in metal. He was as pale as she was and wore no bridle other than an armored head and neck piece and again lacked a saddle though she sat upon a thick leather pad that was held together by a modified Yvas that the armor all attached too. Bags were slung on the Yvas, one on each side holding medical supplies. A silver bracelet adorned her wrist marking her as a Nakivak, property of Riverfall.

Her thick white hair was braided to match the mane and tail of the stallion. Her eyes were empty but she nodded to the commander as he organized the others who were also gathering.

Commander Levamyr nodded to her, and introduced her to the group. "Kavala is our healer for the trip. She'll be held in reserve as befits her status, but we'll be utilizing her skills once we've completed the raid." Kavala furrowed her brow at this just as one of the other raider's horses got too close to her own stallion. Ghost wheeled, squealed, and drove the other horse back with a swing of his haunches as he threatened to kick. The other rider seemed surprised, but Kavala only praised the warhorse and moved him slightly back, away from the other milling animals. He stamped once, gave every mount in the group a dirty look, and screamed a challenge before the Konti had him settled down with an apologetic look and a soft command.

The horse instantly relaxed.

"He's a little excited. I told him we'd be fighting today." She said simply and took out her crossbow while sitting completely relaxed on the seemingly now tranquil stallion. She went over its mechanisms carefully, cocked its double barrel and loaded bolts before slinging it onto her back.

[Kadrath Onktaka]

The tall man saddled up a now nicely trained Lammas and called Fidens, Rock and Chain to him. The Akontak, his boss' horse Lammas, the two hunting dogs and one tall, lean hunting cat made up their own small group, heading toward the Raiding Party.

His green eyes flared with excitement at the thought of the upcoming activities. Although this wasn't Rath's first choice of things to do right now, Uruk was holding the reins now so to speak and he wanted IN. He rechecked the smooth sheath that his Lakan was secured and set off at a brisk pace to join up.

At last the indigo man spotted Kavala and the rest grouped together in a respectable sized gathering. For a solid chime, his green eyes lingered over Kavala's graceful riding seat. That horse of hers had no saddle or bridle and yet she rode like she was part of the animal.

'You just can't teach that kinda thing. You're either born with it or just make do.'

He thought in admiration. Uruk knew that Rath had spent many ten-days of training on this horse so it should be safe to ride. He relied on his other half for the training part of animals, while he himself, enjoyed their obedience. He'd been grateful this morning when Miss Kavala had granted him permission to use the strong young stallion.

Uruk watched Kavala a chime longer and then turned his attention to the other party members. He nodded respectfully to the commander, sitting up a little straighter in the saddle as he did so.The enormous Karabash dog, Fidens, stayed heeled sternly to his left while the huge hunting pair, Rock and Chain flanked him on the near and off sides. They were highly anticipating this moment and each of their faces showed a barely controlled excitement.

(When Rath speaks and when Uruk speaks.)

[Raiha]

Raiha was lukewarm about going on a raiding party. It was a wonderful way, she felt, to show off her spectacular lack of skills, especially in front of Uruk and Rath. Her own particular skillset was less than ideal for this exercise. Nothing spectacular. Kavala already knew about them, having witnessed Raiha’s efforts in the past. But both of her friends were going, and it would be good practice. She did have something that would be useful, though; but for the particular prey that they were hunting, she wasn’t bringing Uzima.

Still, the solemn-faced, young-looking Akontak followed after Uruk and Kavala, her own mount looking positively frivolous by comparison. She didn’t ride on an armored war stallion, but a cat-stepping, long-legged Firemane mare, whose mane and tail had been braided, much like her own was, flat against her scalp. She was dressed in blackened leather, with an assortment of gear on her belt - pouches, a hunting knife, what looked like a dagger, a suvai, and an ugly-looking flanged mace. Attached to her saddle was what looked like a shortbow, and a quiver was slung over her shoulder. What were perhaps the most out of place on her frame were the massive leather gauntlets she wore, and even more, the giant, brown eagle she bore on one arm, its wings partly outstretched, the leather jesses attached to its ankles, its golden eyes as sharp as the girl who carried it.

Uzima was a bad girl, who would hunt for anything Raiha asked her to, but asking her to hunt humans was harder. With a lucky swipe she could blind and slice, but the golden eagle on her arm, however... They wouldn’t have any such problems. The muscular hen was far more aggressive, her talons gripping the toughened, reinforced leather, flexing, wanting to fly. She would hunt with the bird, and look with Auristics. But to do that, she had wanted her own mare, Yakini, rather than borrowing one of the offered stallions who wasn’t used to the drill. The bird, Kiwidinok, replaced Uzima in the four-part team, which saw the addition of the chocolate-brown Dara trotting after Diallo, her massive white deerstalker. While she had flown Kiwidinok many times, using the deerstalkers and Yakini to help bring in deer to feed the people sat Sanctuary, this was the first time she was taking the bird hunting for people.

She wanted to fly. She wanted to hunt. She was bored. Let her fly! HUNT! All of this came through the gift that came from her mother, and Raiha adjusted her arm, slightly upsetting the eagle’s balance to distract her and regain her attention as they regarded one another. Yakini stopped a safe distance from Lammas, having already seen Ghost’s display and wanting absolutely nothing to do with it. Under the bird’s monstrous, albeit partially-displayed wingspan, the Akontak was half-hidden, reins in one hand. “Calm,” she told Kiwidinok, both of them eying each other for a moment longer before Raiha looked at the rest of the assembled group only after the bird looked away. “Is this all of us? We are ready to fly.”