Inn-stinct

Nygozy smiled at Tatsoo and looked at the pictures she had done while listening to Maadox, and the two mabari to make sure they behaved, "I still thank you for that support. It was greatly required in a time when we all needed to stand together. It was brave of your family to stand against that opposition. Macha was almost destroyed by what Howe did. It took a long while to get her to trust but she is one of my greatest friends. I am glad to have her back with us." She stated it in a thankful manner with her commander voice.

Her eyes lifted when he mentioned Durbans and she smirked, "Ah. Yes, Marcus does tend to start relationships calling himself Durbans, after that big axe of his. What kind of statuette did he carve up for one or both of you? They are quite good ... just as these patterns are. Your skills are amazing, Tatsoo."

Hearing that Macha was Nygozy's friend was good. Almost as good as hearing 'have her back with us'. That implies that Macha had rejoined the group since he had talked with Durbans, no...Marcus. "It wasn't easy. Cercium is a relatively young Bannorn, having only been a bannorn since the conclusion of the Fereldan Rebellion. As for Macha, I'm glad that she has survived until now, considering. I remember back when she was a young lass during my squire years in Castle Highever."

"Durbans is that axe of his? I don't think I would be able to use that thing easily, and I have a stronger build then he does. I seem to recall him whittling what looked like an Ogre during our time together, but that was it."

"Marcus, eh? Ah guess we ahl have our worries with peopal." Tatsoo smiled as Nygozy went through the work. She could tell that the woman was impressed much more than she showed and that she was likely to choose something out of those designs. Tatsoo waited and listened, one of her favorite things and she tried to analyze the smaller woman and her actions.

"It was an ogre, yes." Tatsoo agreed, "Good make it was."

"Macha can survive almost anything. I admire her strength and truly believe that if I had not been here she would have been the one to end the blight. She is a strong woman and an amazing friend when she comes to trust you." Nygozy looked up from the pages, "Cercium is a strong Bannorn no matter the youth. Your family has done well with it. There have been many acknowledgements on the growth."

Nygozy sat back, looking between two designs, "These are wonderful but I am having a difficult time choosing. And you can do more things with leather than just boots, I am told. That is good. That is really good. Either way I look at this, whether you qualify as a warden or not then I would appreciate you to work for us."

He wasn't surprised at the praise that Nygozy was giving Macha. He can't expect any less from the Couslands. Hearing praise towards Cercium was a bit surprising, but he can't really say that he really had been in Cercium during it's early years. He didn't think his father had what it takes to administrate Cercium, but having only spent a couple of years there before going to Castle Cousland, he had not noticed how it had grew. He figured it was always how it was when he returned. "Most of the credit would go to my father and brother. The only thing I would take credit for is restoring it's fighting force back to pre-Ostagar numbers and leading our forces in the civil war."

"Since you brought it up, can you tell us what we need to do to qualify?

Tatsoo blushed as she was excited that not only would she be able to test to become a Grey Warden but if she did not pass the tests then she could still go with them and still have a tribe! That was the best part of it.

"Oh, ah can do all leather work. Ah learned from when ah was liddle."

The questions that Maadox asked were ones she wanted answered as well so she kept quiet and waited.

These two asked easy questions comparative to other people, especially the officials.

"Well, I am testing you at this very moment and you will be showing me how well you can fight and how you fight."

She smirked, "See that surly dwarf down there?" Nygozy thought for a moment, "Wait that's redundant. Anyway, you will get a chance to show off your skills using him as a pounding block. Don't worry, you will be using wooden weapons so as to not hurt each other much. While you fight him there will be others coming in to fight as well. It will be a free for all."

Maddox noticed the guy she mentioned earlier. He wondered if there was any reason to, possibly, beat this man up. From what it looked like, that man was trouble. Maddox was no stranger to trouble, but he was put into an arena and has been fighting off several men when they arrived. He didn't seem to be in any condition to fight. Perhaps this is as much a test of them as it was of him.

"Look, I have no problem with a good melee, but is there any particular reason that he is our initial target? Did he volunteer for that or was it forced upon him against his will?"

Nygozy chuckled then motioned for Maadox to come a bit closer as if she were telling a secret, "One word to answer that question: Dwarf."

It seemed to amuse her greatly but she must have figured that Maadox had very little clue about her race so she pointed at Harval, "Harval is another possible warden and he is a normal dwarf in most senses of the word. He's tough. He's rough. And he loves to fight. Just before you came in he was looking for more opponents. It seems the 'little elven stick figures' were not to his liking but he's only been fighting raw recruits so he has no clue what the seasoned fighters here can do."

She smiled widely, "Whoever wins gets to play with me though."

"Just wanted to make sure I wasn't fighting someone against their will. I'm not really fond of doing that." Maddox verified. "I know enough about dwarves to know they won't skip a chance to fight."

Harval was the dwarf's name and it seems he was right about it possibly being a test for him as well. Apparently he has been fighting recruits for a good while. Something Maddox is well acquainted with, having to overlook and train a lot of the new recruits in Cercium. So he was probably only a little worn-down, but nothing too bad. But what Nygozy said last was a bit concerning. 'Whoever wins gets to play with me though.' Does that mean either Maddox, Tatsoo, or Harval would have to fight against Nygozy? Does that mean Maddox and Tatsoo have to fight each other?

"Uh huh. That's...bound to be interesting."

"Oh no I wouldn't give you someone not interested in fighting."
Watching the expressions was interesting to say the least but it was time to get them into the ring to see what they could do.

"Time to get to it I think. It looks like Harval is bored out of his mind. You two do not have to fight each other if you do not wish to. You can even work as a team if you like because there will be more than enough people to fight. Do you have to change into anything different for this or are you alright?"

"Ahm ready." Tatsoo said as she stood up, "But ah don' think ah ken fight Maadox, if ye will."

"No problem. Maadox?"

"Eh! Commander! Ya still awake up there or ye getting yer beauty sleep. Now ye know you don't need that cause yer a beauty enough but ye may want to get earrings they'd look right pretty on ya!"

Right on time, the fighter was up and walking about, bored and waiting to see what was coming next.

"I'd rather fight alongside Tatsoo than against her. I'm ready to go. Don't want to keep Harval waiting much longer."

He noticed Tiberius looked like he wanted to come to, but Maddox knows how he would be if he went to help. "Commander, can you watch over Tiberius for me? I think he'll make things take a turn for the worse if he went down to join us."

"Then that's how it will be." She announced as both preferred to fight together.

Nygozy looked at Tiberius and smiled then barked at him and Torture got up wagging his tail, barked at the other mabari then to Nygozy as if to ask something, "Yes, take him for a run. Does Tiberius like training too? Torture has a love of training the young mabari," She rolled her eyes as Torture barked again, "And checking out the pretty young bitches."

Torture bounced up and down, barking and making sounds discussing a couple lovely mabari females he'd found in the kennels. Nygozy rubbed her temples.

"Tiberius loves to train. He's getting on in years though, so he's starting to slow down a bit, even if he won't admit it. Which he won't." Maddox replied, making a bit of commentary at himself. With all the references to how alike he and Tiberius were earlier, he would be foolish to claim that he wasn't in the same boat. As he watched Tiberius leave with Torture, following Nygozy's comment, he just looked away. He didn't want to know what Tiberius did and Tiberius would, hopefully, know enough to not fill him in.

"Tatsoo, should we go down now? We don't want to keep Harval waiting forever."

Tatsoo had a hand over her mouth, chuckling about the dogs and also about Maddox's claim that Tiberius would not admit to being old. She stood and shook out her legs then nodded, "Aye, ah think we ken do this well enough. Ye be the the bull and ah be da wolf."

She had no idea if he would catch onto what she was suggesting, that she would be the fast one keeping the attention of their prey while he was the brick to do the battering.

The young woman went to his side and nodded, "Let us be down there." She then walked to the stairs and instead of going down them she jumped over the side and landed in a neat kneeling position, her eyes locked on the male dwarf ahead of her.

"Yeah, that sounds like it will work." It seemed like an odd way to word that, but he's heard similiar analogies from his brother in his youth. Tatsoo, the lithe and younger member being the wolf, essentially the faster one who could probably sneak some hits in while dodging. And him, the older, stronger, and more heavy hitting one being the bull. This makes more sense considering how they met, with him tackling one of the guys.

Tatsoo demonstrated just how well she fit into the role she called herself. She skipped the stairs in favor of quickly making it to the bottom. Maddox ran down the stairs in order to keep up. Once he had that wooden sword, which hopefully there was a greatsword equivalent, he won't need to keep up.

"Well it be about time ye younglings." Harval walked about with sword in hand and pointed it towards the rack of wooden weapons, "All the kinds ye can use there lad and lass. Almost every type it seems so ye ken find something of worth I believe."

He grinned as Tatsoo jumped down but watched Maddox a lot more carefully, his eyes assessing the other man with interest, wondering what he could and would do.

Good he seemed to understand what she was saying. Somehow she knew that he would and that was best in her eyes. The weapons were all on bases and ready for anyone's use so she stood and walked over to them, checking over what was there. Big weapons, small weapons, and two weapons she could certainly use. Tatsoo knelt to obtain the two she liked and hooked them to her belt. One was a whip and the other looked like a little bag.

She waited for Maddox as Harval walked back and forth, looking like he was trying to intimidate them by puffing himself up to seem like a big predator. Tatsoo smirked good heartedly, amused with the man's actions then glanced at Maadox, "Ah think this fella be figurin he's a dangerous one."

It was partially discussion with her new friend, a new tribe mate, but it was also partially to start the dwarf into seeing red and get him to lose concentration.

((Sorry, would have posted sooner, but I got distracted with the DA2 Demo))

Maddox approached the rack, having a feeling of being watched. Not from Nygozy, but he can feel Harval's gaze looking at him. He noticed that Tatsoo grabbed a whip and a bag. It was certainly an odd choice. The whip could cause some harm, definitely. But the bag? What could have been in there? Maddox looked and grabbed what looked like a wooden greatsword. It was certainly big and bound to hurt. He quickly looked it over and swung it a couple times, to adjust himself to the weight of the sword.

He looked back towards Harval and accessed from him what Tatsoo had observed. He definitely has developed an ego from his previous encounters. How much of that is deserved it yet to be brought into light. "He thinks he's all tough beating up novices with no real combat experience."

What in the world was that girl doing? A whip and a sodding bag? What the ...

These two were probably actually going to be a workout. How much of one was nothing he could be sure about but he hoped it would be a good fight. The trainees were only appetizers but what he really wanted was to go toe to toe with a fighter or fighters who he could test his mettle with. Not some easy to throw little elves. He needed a thrill, something with teeth.

He wanted a challenge.

((That's ok.))

"Ah think he be struttin' ta see if it scares us, not cause he ken fight the new one." She looked to the sides and grinned, "It like the animals, when a cat be trying to unnerve da otha so the fight be easy. That what ah be thinkin' anways."

She took a deep breath, "Y'think we are ready?"

This was their chance to join the wardens. It was also Harval's chance. If they give Nygozy a good showing, perhaps all three would be accepted. Maddox began thinking talking bad about him may affect things between them down the road, but it's too soon to say. "I don't think he'll be able to become a warden just by psyching out his opponents. Let's see if he has what it takes to back that up."

"Let's get this thing started. The sooner this starts, the sooner we can find out if we impressed the commander."

"Well, so we going to start this. Good thing cause I'm getting hungry lad." He waggled his eyebrows at Maddox and grinned at Tatsoo as he hefted the wooden axe he had been using. It was a strong looking weapon even though it was made of wood and he moved it about with no worries whatsoever.

Harval rushed forward, lifting the axe for a quick sweep at Maadox to make the other man back up.

"Prolly." She answered Maddox just before the dwarf came at him. She rushed to the side and used the whip to swat Harval's weapon hand to put him off guard. She saw with satisfaction that the man glared her way and hoped that would be enough to give Maddox a good attack in as she went towards the dwarf's back side.