A Demon Hunting We Will Go!

[Dulcie]

Chances were that Drache wouldn't see much even if she was peeking outside the window. Kacela had found a place behind the bushes where no one would see her unless they were actually standing out there with her. Kals was right, she was sensitive about these things. The howling would cease and she'd make her way out from the bushes, paws padding through the snow and leaving behind her massive prints as she made her way towards the porch steps when she would wait.

She would try to reach out to Kals with her mind, finding it easier in this form than in her other, though she remembered from their first experience not to be too loud. No one else would be able to hear her, but she hoped that her link with Kals would help her to communicate with the others. ~I'm ready, if you can hear me~.She waited then, standing in front of the tavern's porch. For those that haven't seen her she might be something of a shock because where there had once been the wild woman there was now an overly large beast that could easily be mistaken for a grizzly bear when one saw her size and her coloring. The truth was however that if a person could withhold themselves from fright they would see that her muzzle and tail were distinctly that of a wolf, just much, much larger. For those who were paying close attention however her deep brown colored eyes had a certain degree of human intelligence that seemed to rest in them while she was waiting.

[Drache]

She quirked a rather reproachful brow at Kals as she rejoined the group and dropped one of the talismans into his hand. "Observing is not rude," she protested flatly. It was almost amusing, and she wondered what would happen if she complained every time someone looked at her funny. "It'sss been a long time sssinccce I sssaw a moon-shifter. Kacccela reminds me of a friend I lossst a long time ago. We have work to do, and we aren't going to get very far today if looking at each other is going to cause offenssse." She sighed hotly and resettled her wings, turning her attention to Agnie as the chairwoman doled out her instructions, and she glanced around as other voiced their own suggestions and concerns. The name Kerrak rang a bell. The man who also had a talent with flames. A person she likely would have had much in common with had he not so awkwardly spawned in one of the deeper caverns of her Lair. She swore up and down that it still stank of the gruesome moose-creature down there.

Aleksei's plan to bind the creature was met with a clack of her teeth and an acquiescing nod. She turned to follow the rest, waiting for a moment so that she might walk next to Aleks. "Do you have the runes written where I can sssee them? I'll be able to move much quicker if I know them ahead of time. Are you planning to bind thisss creature to what it already posssessses, or to an object...?" She didn't mind lending her support, but she knew that there was more than one way to tackle the same problem, even with arcane power, and mages working together would do well to be on the same page. The necklace that went unclaimed was deftly fastened around her own neck, though as mentally deaf as she already was, the trinket wouldn't likely do her much practical good. Her nostrils flared a little as she stayed next to him, and it wasn't because of the sudden strong scent of wolf.

[channe]

When she was younger, her parents used to tell her awful stories of werewolves -- it was a New Dauntless special, that, the tales of how werewolves would come and abduct young, misbehaving children. Agnieszka's a long time from the cradle, but her dirt-farmer background allows her to swallow once, cast her face towards the door, and start walking towards it.

"Yes. Talk on the way."

[BetaFlame]

His book is produced, and he flips through it, before tearing a page from it and offering it to Drache. Its a circle alright, but its neither arcane not divine. It's pretty clear its a different form of binding than most use. It seems to me almost.. mathematical. Geometric shapes dominate it. "You can have this. I have a larger one that can be put down and used as a template. As far what to do if you can't reach me.. well." He just shrugs helplessly. He doesn't have a good answer for that. "Try not to die? I have no way to communicate with you long distances. I did this sort of thing alone back home.."

He justs sighs and heads toward Kerrak's home while he is talking, hopeful they can at least track down one of the two today.

[Suede]

"There's a difference looking at someone and gawking at something more private." The trader's response to Drache.

Kals gave Aleksei a look hidden by his veils, frozen a moment in the appearance of being ready to speak as he listened to Kacela speak to him through that bond. Finally he glanced over to Agnie and followed her out the door. "Have any of you ever had Rhaena use her skill on you? I can do that, and could possibly reach you at a distance if I have to. But it would be a voice in your head, so I don't know that you'd be willing to trust it."

After all, the scholar had already warned them against such things. When he was outside he descended the steps, eyes finding Kacela. He grinned, far less intimidated by her appearance than his initial view of her. Where Agnie hesitated he had the gall to walk right up to the massive wolf and reach out to set a hand on her muzzle if allowed. We're ready, they said we're going to the house they saw this walking head at last.~ He spoke the words aloud as well, so the others could understand the conversation.

[Dulcie]

She looked at the others as they came out of the tavern, waiting there a moment as she gauged their reactions and their level of fright at seeing her. Over all she was impressed with how the group handled the whole thing. Kals offered out his hand and she'd trot over towards him easily. While she was extraordinarily large she moved quickly and it was more than apparent the amount of strength that were contained in her limbs. She'd move to him and bump his hand lightly with her muzzle, before she'd dip her entire head down, almost like a human does when they nod. It was a strange action for a wolf to take, but it was just further indication of who was in control of this body. At the mention of going to the house she simply turned and immediately began running towards the downtown, but she got no further than a few paces when she remembered her company. She paused and turned, waiting for the others to catch up before she would begin again, walking this time so the others could keep up.

[Drache]

Drache simply shrugged her wings at Kals and shook her horns a little. How was she supposed to know it was private? She wasn't a mind-reader. And on that same vein, "Never, fortunately. But unfortunately I am fairly cccertain I wouldn't be able to hear you anyways. Perhapsss that makes me the leassst likely target of thisss demon. You are welcome to try." Not an invitation she tossed about casually. With a spreading of her claws in a helpless gesture and grinned wryly.. "Being mind-mute has it'sss benefits, I sssuppose." Trying to reach her over distance would require a bit more creativity than a mind-link, it seamed. "If I need one of you, you'll know." Probably by way of some form of explosion.

The dragoness tucked her wings tight along her back, preserving their warmth as they hurried along. Flying would be so much quicker! She plucked the torn paper from Aleks with her claws and eyed it speculatively, her pupil widening and narrowing as it flitted over the geometric patterns. It was definitely not the type of binding she was used to seeing, and the usage of symbols in general was not her forte. But she nodded curtly and folded the sheet, tucking it into the top of her tight vest. "I think I can work with thisss. Anything elssse I should know?" For a moment her eyes, for it was truly both of them in spite of the eyepatch, lingered on Aleks's bicep of all things. Perhaps he had something on his sleeve. She said nothing about it.

[channe]

Oblivious for the moment to Drache's looks, she walks slightly ahead of the others in the group, keeping her eyes out for possible danger on the sides -- and definitely not looking directly at Kacela, who remains in front of her. A dirt-farmer's history runs deep. At any rate, she nods to Kals.

"I have. I'll pass anything on to Aleksei," she says in a tone that brooks no argument for the young knight-magician. "Drache, why don't you stay close to us; we'll do two teams."

[BetaFlame]

A grin and a shrug for Drache. Anything else she should know? He had no idea. "Don't get killed? If you draw the pattern in the reverse, it serve to keep a demon from coming into the circle, rather than trapping it on the inside." If he noticed the look she gave his arm, he chose to say nothing of it. He hoped that would give her a better idea how the magic of it actually worked. He turns and trots up to walk next to Agnie, still not really willing to let her get too far ahead of him. He's responsible for her safety against the demons, or so he feels in his mind.

Kals question draws a blink and a blank look,"No, I--" He frowns at Agnie. He really could deal with someone in his head better than she thinks, but he just falls silent. He was not in charge, and was having to work with other people. Something he was not used too on Hunter missions. The whole thing felt a little wrong. Three of the people he was traveling with.. would have been the subject of a Hunt, after all.

"I can still feel the taint of them Agnie, I should be able to tell when we are close."

[Suede]

Kals followed behind Agnie with his longer legs letting him keep pace relatively easily as he listened to the discussion of the rune circle. "Alright then, I'll give you a whistle if we see anything, Agnie. May as well make it literally, too, so you know it's me before I talk."

Kacela had bounded on ahead, and she might feel his amusement at her eagerness, something he'd not seen out of her many times. At least not to this level.

"What sort of taint?" The trader gave Aleksei his full regard. He knew something had been in the body, but the hand had really just appeared to be a hand to him. Unfortunately he lacked the sense of smell Kacela had.

[Dulcie]

As the wolf waited she seemed to almost be grinning at them, those massive fangs revealed as her tongue lolls in something of a wolfish grin and Kals could surely feel her own sense of amusement that he was amused with her enthusiasm. Those feelings of two beings were difficult to tell, their spirits and emotions wound and woven together so that one was hard to discern from the other. She'd let the other ones talk and she'd wait until they all caught up to her.

She led the way to the house then even thugh some of the others knew where it was at. She'd lead in the same manner she had started out in, bounding ahead and then pausing to stare back at the others, waiting until they were close enough until she'd be bounding off again. As they neared closer to the house Kals could likely feel her anticipation, her excitement of getting closer to what they were hunting. The scents of the evil things so much clearer there that she couldn't wait to get on with the hunt.

The others might talk and plan how they would manage the demon, but once they were at the house Kacela would take to her task as the tracker, sniffing each inch of snow around the building, her deep brown eyes fixed on the ground looking for signs of tracks or other evidence of where the head had wandered off to.

[Drache]

Hanging out near the rear of the group with Aleks, she offered an approving clack of her teeth to Agnie, "That sssuitsss me fine." And a wry snort to the knight-magician himself. "I'll keep that in mind." And as far as the rune circle, she nodded her understanding. It sounded like it worked about the same as the Summoning circle she'd set up in her Lair. Falling silent, she listened to him speak of the demonic taint and couldn't help but sniff at him a little, reptilian nostrils puffing faint smoke. The dragoness was a fairly neutral sort of creature as far as blessed and evil things went, but sometimes she could sense them. To her, Aleks seemed to be the opposite of tainted, but she didn't argue. Occasionally she turned her head, as though looking over her shoulder and the curve of her wing with her missing eye.

Once they reached Kerrak's home, her wings ruffled a little bit and she looked around. "What'sss next?"

[channe]

"The tailor said the head ran off in that direction," says Agnieszka, pointing in the proper direction -- towards the woods, most likely. She looks at Drache. "Now we listen to Kacela."

[BetaFlame]

When questioned about the taint, he just rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. He wasn't really familiar with these people, and.. too many secrets. "Their presence, that of the daemons, just feels wrong, and I am sensitive to it. " He didn't really want to get into specifics. So, he just followed Agnie's lead for now. He just shifts his pack on his shoulders and sighs.

It felt like being home again, this hunting.

[Suede]

Kals didn't really know what to do with himself once he was standing outside the house. He'd come along because he didn't want Kacela to go alone, and she had invited him, but he was no tracker. No hunter. Agnie was the Myrken representative, Aleksei seemed to understand what was going on, Drache... well she was part dragon among other things.

Agnie's statement seemed like the best suggestion, so he'd do his best to stay out of Kacela's way and not mess her attempts up while looking up at the house. He'd tentatively reach out with his Skill, feeling for anyone or anything nearby worth being aware of, but ready to snap back inside should the need arise. "Why was it even here to begin with?"