The games are quiet. Laughing. The rattle of dice. The roar of a win or the grumbling of a loss. A round of drinks in victory. A set of drinks to drown losses. Olgarkin tended the bar, watched the room and glanced periodically at the hawk headed demon that was his bouncer and guard. It stands like a statue in the rafter corner, folded feathered wings of black and gold behind it, arms crossed with obsidian claws of it’s paws showing on the tawny arms. The beams gripped by the taloned feet at the end of yellow scaled legs. Olgarkin is a large bear of a man, balding with a fringe of grey hair and a thick grey moustache and a beard that reaches down to his chest. Thick arms exit his padded leather vest, covered in tattoos of ships, and mermaids and other creatures and casks, each dominated by a large scorpion. He pulls the woven grass steam tray from the water pot, dumps it on a plate and pours more dumplings from a bag and replaces the steamer.

Good house tonight, humans, a few goblins, a pair of maned feline Bahku and a group of three Ghenid, big dog like creatures with large perky round tipped ears, manes braided or dyed, and coats with spots or stripes and ranging from blonde, to brown with green, and red-brown. His younger cousin, a woman named Glynni, is pouring ale or wine. Carrying out trays of the dumplings Olgarkin that is steaming behind the bar. She has taken a pitcher of the nasty Ghenid drink, Crua, to their table - greasy, salty, spiced with some aromatic herbs or berries, half rotted meat and curled milk alcohol with a burn to make you gasp before vomiting the horrid stuff back up and laying sick for hours. Ghenid, Bahku and Goblins seem to like it and suffer none the worse than drinking beer or ale. Toxic to humans, elves and dwarfs. Vorrik the demon doesn’t mind it either, but prefers fresh meat and ritual offerings of blood or small animals. Plus the occasional accident. Olgarkin does enough business with Bahku and Goblins, as well as the occasional Ghenid or even Kobold that he keeps some Crua in the cellar.

A new guest enters - nearly 7 foot, dark, nearly black muzzle, wide and blocky, leathery wide nose, squared cheekbones and determined eyes set under deep brows. Narrow stripes on dark gold-brown, the red green flecked eyes of Ghenid. Her short mane is black, showing purple dye at the tips and cut short at the collar of her shirt and it’s underlying leather. She is wearing a chain mail shirt and leather breeches notched to make room for a short upcurved triangular tail, sword over the shoulder, blades on each hip. The lower legs bare with black clawed toes and back bending knees like a chicken. Olgarkin glances up at Vorrik, the hawk headed ape bodied demon bouncer,  who remains unmoving with yellow eyes staring across the room.

The female walks without pause to the Ghenid corner, barking at Olgarkin with a sideways glance “Another of what they have.” as she passes the bar. She leans over them and says something. One laughs and says something back, another shakes his head. Then in a blink she has one on each side held up off the ground with her claws on their necks. These guys are six-four, six-five and 200 or 220 hundred pounds each and she’s holding them up like bags of flour. Ghenid are strong, but that is beyond reckoning. The gamblers are deep in their dice and don’t notice..Yet. The tall female drops the males, who fall with thumps, tipping chairs and spreading black Crua across the rocking table. “You want to be on the winning side.” she says to them. Glynni glances at her cousin, who nods and hands her the pitcher of Crua. She takes it to the beasts who are speaking their native language in high pitched whiny voices and sets the pitcher on the table, along with a cloth to wipe up the spill. The female lays 5 gold coin by the pitcher saying in a breathy squeeky voice “No trouble.” It is almost funny, these big cannibals, monsters in the wilds who talk with voices like a hinge needing grease. The Ghenid pours a cup and downs it in several gulps. "Ah, good" she says, wiping her muzzle with the back of her furred arm. Glynni takes the coins and returns to the bar handing 4 to her cousin who sweeps them into his box behind the bar, next to the spiked club.

A sharp yelp from the dark corner gets a turn of heads around the barroom. One of the males has his arm at his mouth as the female taps her dagger into it’s sheath at her leg and then rests the arm on the table. She leans in close and speaks quietly. The bar quickly loses interest with the lack of active violence. The female stands, the chain shirt shifting with a hiss. She walks out past the bar, nodding to Olgarkin and looking up at Vorrik, her lower jaw dropped with just tips of upper teeth showing with the lowers that is the Ghenid smile, she also nods to it. Then out the door. The males lean in close and whisper to each other, drinking Crua until both pitchers are empty. Then they too leave.

The next morning she is at the Red Sands Arena.  At the gate she tells them she wants to fight. Everyone knows Ghenid are fighters. Just as they know the Arena always wants fresh blood.  She is passed into a room where a thin narrow human sits on cushions making notes on wax tablets. Several scarred burly humans are practicing with wooden swords while one is being massaged on a table by a stout gnome walking on benches clustered around the table.  The thin man looks at her “So creature, you wish to fight in the arena for a purse?”  

“Mostly to fight.  I am veteran of Swordsman’s Guild.”  Her gaze is cold. 

 “Do you fight First blood, surrender or death?” Asks the thin man scratching his tablet with a stylus. She watches for a moment before replying. “Yes, any.”  

He looks up at her, appraising. “Monsters and beasts, or gladiators?”

“Yes.”

“What am I to call you, former soldier of the Swordsman Guild?” The stylus pauses.

“I am Eehava of the R’Ngau.”  

The thin man smiles.  “Let us see you at work.  Bavil! Swap with this!” The thin man points at a man with a wooden sword and then at the Ghenid next to him. The burly one nods and bows, coming to give his sword to the tall, furry beast.  She takes the scabbard and sword from her shoulder, unbuckles the belt with two swords and a leg sheath with three daggers and drops them.  She walks to the practice area testing the balance and weight of the weapon in her hand. A chime rings behind her and the thin man’s voice rings out “Go!”  The human she faces is a head and a half  shorter,  He charges with a downward slash. But she is not in front.  Instead, at his side making a thrust. His slash is turned to the side and deflects her sword with a clap. Her reply is a curved sweep  that he  moves to block. But she reverses and slips under his blade to land a hit that makes him grunt and stagger back. She presses feints and counters using reach and strength to push him back and back to the wall in a series of sharp clacks of wood against wood. A set of slashes and a side sweep, he blocks but is caught by a kick that crashes him against the wall, then collapsing  doubled over gasping.  The chime rings.  “Enough.”

The tall furred Ghenid bows and offers a paw to the man on the ground.

“Bavil, take this coin and buy us some monster from the beast seller for our new challenger to fight this afternoon.  Sarmaso, get up and put away the training things. Eehava, the swordsmen have trained you well in blades and civil behavior”.  

She looks at him stone faced, ears up as she helps Sarmaso to his feet. “I knew one already.” She bows and then gathers up her things.

Outside she talks with a stooped over sagging Ghenid with dark sunken eyes. A bag passes to the stooped one and he slinks away into the alleys. 

Eehava returns for the afternoon events.  She looks at the lists with a small curl to her lip. A few gladiator fights, professional, first blood. A few wrestler's matches. She finds out her match and asks after others, getting the names and references on the few other ghenid fighters.  Her round is announced and she goes to the sands armed and ready.  A ratcheting and clank, as a cage is lifted up and a large spiderbear is released. It is about  five feet at the shoulder, dark brown furred with a wide head ringed in a band of eight black eyes and large mandible fangs in the front. On it’s back legs, it would stand taller than her, it’s powerful forepaws capable of delivering swipes with  long sharp claws.   Aware of the crowd’s hoots and cries, she salutes the seats, keeping an ear turned to the opponent.  It is starting to circle her, swaying its head from side to side.  Eehava turns, with a slow shoulder lead and roll that ends with broadsword in one hand, a dagger let fly and her facing the creature. The dagger hits the body, below the shoulder. The spiderbear hisses and charges.  She spins and twists from its bite and paw swing, and scores a long slice along it’s flank. 

A mix of cheers and boos. “Unsure of which side they like.” she thinks.

She knows what they want. She knows what she wants. The next round she blocks the bite and dodges just a moment too slow, catching a slamming blow on her off shoulder. The crowd howls. She leaves another dagger in the bear.  It rises to strike with both paws. Ducking, she makes a dodge and blocks the jaws with the blade. The next claw swipe, a side swing to her flank, spins her around and she uses the force of it to stab the beast deep in the side, and pull away. It bellows a roar, and bites where she had just been. It’s roar mixed with the crowd’s. She grins. Feeling the fire. The sword stabs again, and claws swing around raking the air.  She lunges in, stabbing the shoulder while grabbing the other paw, the spiderbear rearing back and bellowing before her jaws clamp onto it’s neck with a savage shaking of her head. Cheers fill the air. The warm coppery flavor of blood in her mouth. The taste is the exhilaration of Yahn, the ghenid word for joyful victory. It’s roar now a coughing. Her claws ripping into it’s body as it tries to crush her in a hug. The cough becomes a grunt as she pulls a paw of guts from it’s gaping body. Jerking back she tears a chunk from the creature’s neck with her teeth. Now she has won the crowd and lets the  monster fall back, bleeding heavily from the neck and dragging entrails. Grinning savagely, laughing, she pulls her second sword and finishes spiderbear to the cheers and cries of the crowd, licking the blood from her muzzle and lips.  She gathers her daggers and the broadsword and exits the pit of the arena. Attendants will clear the field for the next match. She takes the congratulations of the other fighters and their hearty slaps on the back, before taking a bench and cloth to clean her weapons. Licking her paws  and arms clean. She has made her statement to the gladiators. The Ghenid fighters will hear as well. Washing her face and arms in a water bucket, rinsing her chain shirt with another. Cleaned up she goes to the stable chief. “I’m leaving and will collect my money tomorrow.”

 “I dunno…” the words trail off under her heated glare and a bared fangs radiating menace.

“Tomorrow.” 

The Stable Chief nods. “Yes.” 

Down the street at a wine shop that will serve her kind, she meets the dark eyed male to collect her winnings. They have their cups. “You have their dens?’ she asks. 

He nods.’”Some of them. Many are down in the Undercity.” 

 “Undercity?” She  lifts a  brow.

“A ruined city in a cavern under the city.” He grumbles, pointing at the ground.

 Head dropped she asks “More above or below?” 

 “More below.”  says he.

“We start our claim now, come!” Together they stalk off into the city.

Vukh is a young city ghenid of the R’Ngau clan, squatting in an empty building that might have been a house or warehouse. Her younger brother and a pretty male are working for her as muscle and hounds to moneylenders. She and her shadow, guard the squat and the gold. She peeks out the window to see who is pounding on the door.  Watch? The owner? No. An old female ghenid.  Vukh shouts” Whadda ya want?” 

“Clan business.” Replies a strange female. 

“Don’t know you.”  

The older female shows her golden brown coat with narrow dark bands that mark her as R’Ngau.  Vukh calls out “What business?”

 “Not to be shouted on the street, cub!” snarls the stranger.

 Vukh considers.  “Come speak to my window.”  

“The hell I will cub! I’m Eehava and you had best come to me!”   

Vukh  chuckled. Let the old one bark!  She put up the window cover and barred it. And jumped when there came a loud crash and sharp snap from the door. Another crash with the crack of broken wood and the thump of some heavy wood hitting the ground.  She rushed around to the entry where the door was broken and laying on the ground and this, Eehava, was in the entry. The stout wooden bar split and the door frame cracked.  Vukh had her club up. “Now you messed up auntie!”  The stranger moved like lightning and with a flash from the punch to the face, Vukh found herself sitting on the floor with her club nearby.

"Too slow little sister!"  The strange female snarled in her face “I’ve come to take the clan. Take my chain and obey or be sent to the grandmothers in the underworld!”  

Vukh launched herself at the invader, but met a set of blows that drove the breath from her lungs and pounded her to the ground. An iron grip set claws at her throat and dragged her over to her side. A stooped over male stood behind the female in the doorway.  "Really? The best you can do?" Eehava looked her in the eye. “You are half way to your knees. Chain or die?” It wasn't a question. It was a demand for recognized submission.

 “Chain” Vukh gasped. She hadn’t even landed a blow. This demon female had broken down the barred heavy wooden door like it was nothing. The grip on her throat loosened only a little while Eehava’s other hand  made a mark with spit on her face and the ritual of the Aedoteerua placed the Soul Chain on her that bound her to this Eehava’s will in this life and the next. “Good Niece! You chose well and will profit by it.” She pulled out a pouch and shook out a handfull of gold, 50 or 60 coins. “For the door and obedience.” She repeated the Aedoteerua. “Two other share this den?” 

“Yes aunt.” Her gaze averted and ears down

Hard toned and hard  faced beside her came back a snarled“Grandmother!”. Then, “Where are they?” 

“I don’t know - working for the money changer or out drinking.” Vukh whined.

“The rite of Calling? With that you know which way and how far”  says Eehava. 

“I don’t know it ah.....Grandmother.”  

Eehava flexed claws on her own arm bringing up red droplets of blood, then scratched Vukh. “The clan matriarch you have is an idiot.  The Rite of Marking. You will obey. You will be mine in the Clan.” Vuhk’s ears went flat sideways in dismay and defeat. Eehava recited the words and motions and told Vukh to do the same, which she did. The male, Din, got some food and drink and they waited for the two males. Eehava repeated the Chains binding several times and asked about the Clan and the Undercity. Darkness crept over the city.  Nosey neighbors and others were sent away by Din.  When her brother Fnoa’hue and Avan showed up, Eehava beat them to the ground and with foot or claws on their necks, offered them the terms she had offered Vukh. Vukh had never seen anything like it.  The males submitted and took the Aedoteerua and the Marking.  Vukh consulted her Shadow and both Eehava and Din’s shadows were equally more powerful than her’s and her brothers, as Eehava was above her.  The Shadows guarded the door and the small band ate, drank and slept. Eehava had each of them Chained a dozen times or more. Enough to force obedience in close proximity.

In the predawn darkness Eehava left, instructing Din to assist with the door and then to meet her at the Arena at mid-day. She told Vukh, Fnoa’hue and Avan she would be back this evening and take them for some Crua.

Eehava came to the arena and found the thin man. “Time for my pay.” Her gaze was unwavering.  He instructed Sarmaso to fetch the money from the lock box under the accountant’s keeping.  “How about a nonlethal fight tomorrow.  You should be less sore by then.”

 “Your spiderbear was weak.  I’m not sore, or wounded.” A snort of dismissal. 

“Really? Remarkable!  How about a massage?” 

Eehava looked sideways at the table with the gnome working on another fighter.  “I’m no pet.” 

“Oh no, it works the muscles and builds strength and refreshes!” Assured the thin man.

“Pah! I would break your gnome!” she laughed.

  The thin man smiled. “So a match today?”

 “Yes.  One.” she nodded. “Maybe two.”

“Nonlethal, wood  club or sword?” He asked, stylus at work.

 “They are all the same.”  She went to the tavern for drink and food and then returned and waited at the arena training rooms.  Ghenids came to investigate the stranger and she offered them to take her Chain and give her obedience. She beat the first two and the other two held back, tails down and tucked tight and not letting her close with a chance to fight. “Be my warband for the good of us all.” she growled to them.

Din came and she talked with him outside again and  gave him money to place bets.  The match against a human fighter she played, letting him score a few hits before she knocked him out. She had convinced the Thin man to send one of the other ghenids for a second match. This one she beat down, disarmed and held by the throat until he surrendered, and took her Chain.  That evening she took her new band to get meat, then gathered up Vukh and her males and took the group of 8 and herself to the Old Fort district and the basement of a tenement courtyard under a sign of of a howling dog skull.

They entered the small, lantern lit bar - iron bars over the windows and the door framed and bound in iron. A Ghenid behind the bar and one at a table eating a bread bowl of stew. Eehava tipped her ears towards the door and Din stood there. The female at the bar spoke “This is my house, the Screaming Skull.  What do you want?”  Eehava smiled.  She was looking forward to this. “Crua for all my band, cousin.” The bartender was wide and heavy, golden brown and thin stripped.  She lifted a cask and turned the spout to fill a pair of ceramic pitchers.  Eehava turned to her band and told them to take seats. The stew eating female got up and made to leave, but was blocked by Din. “Not until our business is done” He whispered. 

The bartender thumped the floor. Eehava’s ears whipped around and head and body followed, and in a flowing motion she was on the bar with a hand on the other’s shoulder. “Cousin, you aren’t being stupid are you?” 

The female brought her arms up in an attempt to break Eehava’s grip on her.  It didn’t work. Eehava met the barkeep’s eyes with a grin of teeth. “I am the new R’Ngau S’Oang. You are with me or you are against me. What is your choice?” 

 There was the thump of a door slammed or something dropped beyond a door behind the bar. “You can’t touch me, my crua is for all the S’oang of all the clans and for many grandmothers below.” snarled the barkeep.

 “I can touch you.” assured Eehava, slipping from the bar while keeping grip on the larger female. The door opened with another Ghenid, a male with the narrow stripes, Eehav landed a kick that sent him falling back, the door hitting the inner wall. She then hefted the bartender off the ground and swung her around to block the doorway, taking the kicks and ignoring the claws trying to pull her grip off.  “You kick like a new born cub Yegtee, and your weak son is no better. Do you take my chain?” 

Yegtee spit.  Eehava slammed Yegtee into the doorway before slamming several punches that brought grunts from Yegtee. Then a knee to the wide stomach. 

“One.” Eehava said, tilting her head sideways slightly. Yegtee tried a punch, but was blocked and hit with an upper cut that sent her nose skywards. Left and right with bone rattling power. Then two fists together in a hammer slam to the head left Yegtee slumped and senseless.  The male in the small doorway had pulled a spear, which he thrust over his matron. Eehava avoided it with ease. Gripped and twisting, she yanked the male half over his mother while wrenching the spear from his grip. She reversed it and stabbed his shoulder.

“I make this clear. You are mine.” None of the others had moved. She tossed the spear sideways to Din, who caught it and resumed guard of the door.  Eehava pulled the pitchers with Crua, and stepping around the bar, set them at the tables of her crew, the young ones wide eyed and ears down.  She then walked the perimeter of the room dripping urine down her leg. Chanting. Unlacing and reaching down into her pants to take some on her hand and smearing the door, the walls, the tables. Shaking her wet hand to spatter the ceiling, marking the whole of it and binding it with her Chains. “The grandmothers will kill you!” growled Yegtee’s son.  

Eehava laughed.“I’m the new Grandmother for the clan. You will stand, rise or fall as I judge.”  Turning to the male “Second chance.” she said while cinching up her breeches and tying them. The male retreated from the doorway.

Eehava grabbed a cup from  one of the young males in her crew and walked to one of the lanterns. Yegtee’s brat wasn’t bending enough. She needed a bit more show.   Now she chanted the Rite of Offering, stabbing her arm with a claw and opening the path with blood offered to the flame. Just a few drops. Then a few drops of the crua sizzling in the lantern’s flame.. “By Negheru’s will and our chains I call you forth Greatauntie Oakrhue, T’aedoteerua ahna V’angrhu, ikhi esueh cra maupda!”  As she spoke, a mist formed next to her, seeming drawn from the steam of the dripping crua. Slowly thickening to a ghenid shape, but the lower body less formed and legs indistinct. The upper body of a gaunt, near skeletal Ghenid female, with exaggerated teeth and jaw, and spikes of bone protruding from her arms. The six teats  with long dangling nipples showing half apples of swelling in two lines down over the protruding ribs of the thorax.  Tipping her head to face her Shadow now at her side, Eehava commanded “Rip the female behind the bar.” Her ghostly companion floated to the prone female, passing through the bar, and then setting one paw on a shoulder, the other ghostly paw passing the flesh of the stomach and pulling up a phantom of Yegtee from her body. Eehava passed the bar and crouching down, dropped blood on the ghost of Yegtee while chanting the Chaining. The son had scurried back and now watched staring, eyes wide and black at the edges. Looking at him over his prone mother. “Ready to join me?” She had learned this trick long ago, binding the body ghost, called the Po which dwells in the stomach. She performed another on the passed out female. She had claws in a handful now, no real warband, just her addict son, Din, who came when she had pulled the Chains and a few weak youngsters of the clan and the 4 arena fighters, poor males. Her daughters resisted, having many strong chains of their own but had sent their shadows in the fast way of ghosts, cutting distances in the underworld. They had told her Shadow that her daughters would not come.  The Dead she could call from the underworld, if needed for a night.  She might call on a few Swordsmen from the guild who owed her in the strange reckoning of humans, elfs, dwarfs and 4 legs. Or better, fellow veterans from her 5 years fighting with the Bahku Urr Mercenaries, where again she was owed debts. No other ghenid had that, most were monsters and enemies to the other races.

Yegtee’s Po would make for a good show and story to spread her reputation and aura of Esueh, which was power and authority.  Yegtee would bring the chains on her sons. She had put the scare on the others at the Black Bear tavern and the ones she had beaten where they were supposedly working as guards. She would teach them how to be guards.  The Old crone S’Oang of the R’Ngau would be pulling chains and hunting for her.  One other house in the Old Fort for them to hit, then fall back to an Inn by the Urr’s Keep. The R’Ngau grandmother will have to come up from the Undercity. Eehava plans to taunt the old bitch into attacking, moving from her secure hold down below, up into the  city where she has fewer Chains to pull on.

Eehava marched her band north deeper into the Old Fort.  The residents made way for the cluster of Ghenid led by the hard faced female. Unseen by most, each was accompanied by a ghost. Their Shadow familiar- a dead ancestor chained to them by mothers, but typically under control and direction of grandmothers or Great grandmothers who were pulling strings from the Underworld to put their chained minions into positions of reward and power in the living world. Everything likely reported to the others who hold more chains on the ghost;  but bribed with fresh chains on slaves, on others and with offerings burnt and dedicated to the Shadow’s personal tomb. They traveled to the wall at the edge of the Thieves quarter, close to the Necropolis where the city’s dead lay, mostly as cremated ashes, in crypts and memorials. The small house was of grey stone and timber.  Eehava checked the scents, confirming the smell of ghenid...the urine marks around the building stating territory. She strode to the wooden door and  pulled the chain suspended nearby, while placing herself to fully occupy the view of the metal covered viewing hole. A bell could be heard within.   The small metal plate opened and a red eye could be seen in the spy hole. Creaking voice from the other side was gravely. “What?”  

“I want to see the Grandmother Aeusthih.”  she said to the eye, grinning.

“Why?”  Came the gravelly reply.

“So I can kiss her ass and take her chain as part of her band in the city!”

 A  chuckle from the other side.  “Very good!”

The sound of chain and bar moved, the door starting to open, suddenly hit by Eehava’s shoulder and flying wide and smashing the door guard into the wall.  Eehava is in and around, grabbing the gasping guard and tossing him across the room into another guard.  Din and the others follow to occupy the doorway.  “Idiots! Bata! I am the new Grandmother, S’Oang of the R’Ngau and I am called Eehava.  Tell your  Cra’Oang I am here!”

The two guards getting up, eye the other eight ghenid and wordlessly consult their Shadows. One guard bows to the invader and hurries away out an archway.  There is the  sound of armored bodies hurrying up a passage towards the entry. 

Eehava, leans against the wall, picking her teeth with a claw.  Her Shadows were to block the Whalua clan Shadows.  This is the top clan, the leaders of Ghenid in the city.  She feels a ghostly grip on her, like something trying to crawl into her skin.  “No. Not happening bata!”  she growls.  With a snarl she focuses her power and punches and spins, shaking the invisible presence. Claw swipes, her hands glowing with a violet aura, followed by a bite at something invisible, that same violet light in her mouth. Head shake as if savaging some prey. The clawed paws making a flurry of swipes.  The others look at her strange seizure of violence seemingly against the air.  The snapping jaws and the strange light.  

A wailing cry comes from down the hall.  Eehava shakes herself out grinning like a fiend with that violet light in her mouth and eyes and around her hands, and calls. “That was fun!  Next!”   A  handful of armed and armored Ghenids, coats in pale blonde to light tawny brown, dark spotted. They part for one who is almost a silvery white with pale grey spots. Hardset face with tight pursed lips and stern eyes more orange with green and brown. Her bleached mane showing grey roots, is worked with bits of silver and gold and she has gold rings and sparkling green gems in her earrings. She wears leather armor that shows wear and tear. 

“I am Aeusthih, Cra’Oang of Incaras in shakle to DuGh’Kru the S’Oang of Whalua and all the clans of the city. Bow down!”   

Eehava pushes off the wall with a slow head shake. “The fuck I will bow to some soft, over deorated second. I’ve come to take the S’Oang of the City’s chain, not her cub’s, and not some khaengsua in her band!”  The ghenid of the house look to their leader with ears back and anger on their faces, but anxiety in their eyes flicking to the strangely glowing female in the atrium. Eehava has called their leader Dust of the underworld, something underfoot, a slave beneath notice. 

“Kill them” says Aeusthih with near shaking rage.  

The armed ghenid leap forward, several heading to the party behind Eehava, most seeing that she is the leader and main threat. Eehava continues grinning, drawing her sword and  a dagger, back to the wall but with room to move.  She twists and turns avoiding their attacks, blocking or deflecting some with longer reach. She notes to herself that these bata have no bows or crossbows.  And then she launches the counter attack, 3 blows faster than they can follow and one opponent is down, then a second. The thrown dagger wounds a third.  Sounds of fighting to her side. Peripheral. She watches the weapons facing her, judging their movements - not used to formation fighting so preparing to strike but realizing they will entange with allies on certain lines. Or knocking each other off target. Mace needs a swing, and in close can only be overhead or upward, same for an axe, though the small ones can be thrown. Sword or spear can thrust on limited lines. She plays to their clumsy eagerness, knocking away attacks or slipping around them in her favorite dance. And down go another three. She now faces just 2 and Aeusthih who brings a jade sword and black dagger of underworld steel. Normal jade couldn’t work as a sword, so Eehava knows she faces something taken from the Fae, a work of magic and matter. The Ghosthide warqueen uses her sword with skill, feinting and whipping around to thrust for the gut, missing, The dagger deflected. The others making attacks that she skips aside from or parries. Eehava’ s strange glow reflected on the pale coat of the one and the eyes of the others. 

She says “I am the S’oang of the R’Ngau.”   

“Ka-oofah is the R’Ngau S’Oang.” growls the Cra-Oang. 

“Not much longer.”  Eehava ducks under a swing and comes up to body check and slam one of the other two fighters into the wall. Knocking the sword from the other’s hand and kicking her back.  Aeusthih’s  sword blows dodged and turned by Eehva’s blade. Still, she lands a hit with the dagger on the off  arm, the wound a stabbing cold that makes Eehav’s hand clench.  “The Whalua clans are the strongest, the most numerous.  I come to recognize that and take the chain of DuGh’Kru the S’Oang and only that chain.”

“You will get no Chain, bitch. I’ll give your head to Ka-oofah” spits Aeusthih.

Eehava swung, feint and spun, pulling a dagger from her belt, the other blocking or avoiding. “Blondie, you fight well - but of all your fighters only you hit me. I even sent that Skinrider ghost back to the underworld tail between it’s legs. Try thinking about that for a second.” 

The pale one snorted and  countered with a rain of attacks, one after another. The sword hitting but turned by the chain shirt, the dagger scoring another hit on Eehava’s side that took her breath with it’s cold. Cackling from the Whalua leader. Eehava uses her years of training, moving first, faster than fast and bringing the Earth form avalanche attack to smash through the defense, knocking her opponent back and then down with a long slash through the leather armor.  “Get your boss.” She barks at the Whalua warqueen. 

A lunge attack as the Ghosthide rises. The jade sword deflected, knocked away across the floor.  The black dagger hand caught. The narrow stripe in chain leans close to the pale one in leather. “You are pissing me off.” She growls. This is a contest of wills and strength, eyes locked as they contest for control of the dagger.  The blonde jerks and makes a biting attack to free her hand.  Then yelps, releasing the dagger as she falls back dazed and seeing balls of light in her vision from Eehava’s butting of heads.  Clutching the dagger, Eehava bows. “You stupid cunt, I want DuGh’Kru. Under her, I recognize the Whalua clans as the tribal leaders in the city. I’ll make the Whalua stronger. And you will support me as S’Oang of the R’Ngau  - I will bind them to me and by me to Whalua S’Oang. But I’ll give you one.  Are we agreed?”  

“You don’t have the strength of the clan.”

“I will. And  you will back me, yes?” 

Aeusthih nods, and swiping blood from the gash in her armor makes her mark and recites the ritual. Unknown to Aeusthih, Eehava coaxes her Po to the surface to take the mark.  Eehava rises and backs to the wall while Aeusthih gets up, calling off the attack. “All of yours will take the Chain of DuGh’Kru.”  Eehava nods, first dropping the black dagger, then pulling a cloth from her pocket and pushing back the sleeve of her shirt to bind the cut.  The side she gave to the Po to repair using the secrets of the bodyghost.  She looks to her group- they appear to have held the Whalua at bay.  More of the light coated Whalula appear, pulling the dead aside and the wounded picked up and taken out down the hall to the garden.  “So bring out DuGhu’Kru! Let’s be done!”  “The S’Oang is in the Undercity.”  hissed the Cra-Oang.

“I’ll return tomorrow in the Daylight, before noon and we will get the Aedoteerua..”   She turned her back to Aesuthih and motioned to get her troop moving out the door, then followed them out. Chuckling to herself. 

As she guides them, Eehava tells them that they will be staying at an inn where she has arranged rooms. They ask about the glowing aura, the moves and techniques.  She tells them of years trained with the Bahku Urr, learning their channeling of power to strike at spirits and creatures across the barrier between  realms. She has been a Mercenary when she grew tired of the cycles of life in the tribes of the Western Thunderer Mountains and the ice fields and glaciers that crowned the mountain range. Wanting more. She tells them that they go back in the morning. No Shadows will be able to withstand the sunlight and they will be hiding in the Underworld. They will face the Whalua S’Oang, their matriarch, who is the Matriarch of the city and they will deal with Ka-oofah, who will make an appearance and a move - thinking her opponent is as stupid as she is.

She takes them to the inn and sees them settled, then plans with Din. He gives her  four packets of powder for the arena fighters. His crutch and boost that also rides him and gnaws at his insides. She goes to make one more stop for the night.

In the morning she sees her band fed, eggs and grilled meat and watered wine.  Din heads off to scout ahead.  Eehava turns to the arena fighters giving them the packets of powder.  “This will make you stronger and tougher, but keep control and listen to me.  If I tell you to stop, you will stop.  Understood?”

They nod sniffing the packets. One looks to her “Take now?”  

She nods and watches them pour it out and drink it down in the wine. “You and the band will go straight to the house. Obey Vukh.”  She turns to face the younger female  “And you Vukh, go to the  Whalua house. Wait in the street and call for the Whalua S’Oang, DuGhu’Kru and her Cra-Oang, Aesuthih.  Ka-oofah will make her second move. She can’t be seen as weak.  Din and I will have dealt with her first move.  Fight if attacked.”  She invoked the Chain, staring at Vukh. “You will leave and go straight to the Whalua house in half an hour.”

Eehava belted on her blades and walked out before setting off at a jogging trot in the street.

A few blocks away she met a feline Bahku carrying her old Great Bow and told her what the scouts she had hired had seen.  She grinned, slapping the lionman on the shoulder. “Good work!” and they set off north to the Old Fort District. 

Ka-oofah’s most loyal fighters, daughters or chained males would be the ones in place.  Eehava had the advantage from her scouts.  Ghenid would never suspect Bahku working with her. Too much old wild tribe thinking.  The city is different.  She will shake things up and start positioning for the next coup. 

They arrived near the first position and the Bahku made a bounding leap thirty feet up a building to a balcony, and another to catch and swing over onto the roof.  She was slower climbing the walls.

From the rooftop they could see the R’Ngau, a few rooftops away and overlooking the Whalua clan house. Eehava set her arrows, nocked the first, aimed and fired, sending another five in rapid succession. She was satisfied with the results and was running to jump from roof to roof with her Bahku companion.  Three sets of archers or crossbow she has taken out.  The Bahku will tie up the living for her to deal with later.  

She spots Din and moves to intercept.  She has also seen the ghenid hidden waiting in alleys near the Whalua house.  She calls down to him and gives him his instruction.  Din heads over to one of the alleys, she follows on the roofs.

“Hey milk lickers!” He shouts down the alley making a suggestive dance.  Snarls and drawn weapons, a bow drawn. Instead a rapid series of twangs from above sends arrows into the street fighters.  Din finishes a few who might rise to fight. He gulps down his powder. Then on to the next hidden group.  This time Eehava drops from above into their midst, a whirl of blades. Din rushes in frothing, fighting with madness in his sunken eyes, shaking off wounds and slashing or smashing past defenses.  They hear Vuhk calling out and hurry to the Whalua Clanhouse.

As expected  Fa-oofah has her guard around her and loyal followers at her sides.  They shout for their hidden forces.  Silence.  

“What is this?  You insolent cub!”  Fa-oofah is marked with grey, thin and clearly old. Her teeth worn and dark. “You dare challenge me?” she shouts at  Vuhk and the warband. 

“No, that is me! Stupid bata, shit for brains!”  Eehava comes around the edge of the house, using stunning and flat edge hits and sending the loyalists sprawling. 

“You will die!” Shouts Fa-oofah. “Now!  Now!” she cries to her hidden forces, the ones Eehava has already taken out.  Fa-oofah rapidly looks up and down the street, her brow wrinkled and lips pursed between teeth. None of her fighters appear.

"Missing something?  Your plan was so bad I smelled it half way across the city! They aren't joining us here." The City watch will also keep away from this run down back corner of the Old City.  Few care if the monsters kill each other so long as the good people of the rest of city are left alone. A few faces peek from behind blankets at upper floor windows of other buildings along the street.  Free entertainment with the Ghenid street fight. 

Din staggers around the other side slashing with a sword and takes out two opponents before they even know what is there. He is panting, spitting froth and his eyes are black pits instead of the normal red. Eehava shouts “To me, fight!’ and the arena fighters run forward with the same black eyes as Din, and attack ferociously, hacking at R’Ngau around their matriarch.

Eehava is fighting with sword and long dagger, taking down one after another with only a few landing blows. She tosses aside one and splits open another as she is closing on the Old matriarch, who has a short two-headed battle axe at her side and a crossbow in her hands. She fires and hits, wounding Eehava’s sword arm shoulder. Then snatching up the battle axe she leaps forward.

Eehava ignores the bolt and  flicks the dagger into one of Fa-oofah’s followers while shifting her sword to her off side and dodging the swing of the axe. The swing is wide and the younger female stabs into the opening scoring a hit, but only slightly turns the counter stroke that bashes into her chain armor. Another thrust, batted away by the axe and the axe swing dodged, followed by another fast thrust.   They circle, giving Eehava a chance to take in the combat, which has gone her way in the street.  They strike, feint and counter.

"Weak, stupid and toothless. You are past your time Fa-oofah. You should have gone to the underworld when you weren't old and broken down!" Eehava taunts. She steps back, drawing up her focus and allowing the old Matriarch to over extend herself. The axe is knocked upwards in deflection and the sword scores another slashing cut, while Eehava leaves herself close and takes another axe blow to the body. Her wounded hand grabs the axe arm, as she spins in with a deadly thrust to the chest. Fa-oofah coughs blood and falls, crumpling to the ground, jaw gasping. A last stab and a gurling gasp.  Eehava looks around. The arena  fighters have gone mad, tearing  into defenders and leaving a trail of carnage, followed by Vuhk and her two and the few others.  Din had done the same on the far side of the house.  Clearly wounded, he is standing and looking ready to attack the next thing that moves. The black eyes in a thousand-mile stare.  “Halt!  Stand down!” Shouts Eehava.  She has to dodge blows and punch one in the throat and repeat herself to get the Arena fighters to stop.  She turns to the Whalua  house door and pounds on it.  “I am here  to offer the R’Ngau to the S’Oang  DuGhu’Kru.  I offer her the chain of the matriarch of R’ngau!”  She steps back ready for an attack. The door opens and the jade blade  leads Aesuthih and a pair of her clan.  “ I could kill you now.” mutters Aesuthih.  

“You could try.” grins Eehava. “Or I could finish you from lastnight.” She leans forward. “Get the Grandmother and let’s be done. I have a clan to put into order.”