"Is everyone ready?" Jayhawk asked.
Everyone nodded. Then Gustavia looked around. "Where's Lion Tamer?" she asked.
"Over here!" Lion Tamer, being somewhat experienced around (and very fond of) big cats, had made friends with the cheetah keepers and their cheetahs, and was presently hand-feeding one of the trained felines some beef jerky.
Luthor sat some distance away, looking on in disgust as his personal beef jerky stash went down the gullet of a sleek cheetah.
"Fair enough," Gustavia then said. "So...where's Incontinentia?"
"Be right with you!" came the call from Incon's room. They all looked around.
Incon came staggering out laiden down with every hunting, fighting and killing implement known to the Ancient World. Bandoliers of slingshot stones hung from each shoulder. Around her waist was a belt stocked with daggers, knives, dagger and knife sharpening implements, 2 swords and a scimitar. Strapped to her back were 3 pikes, 2 spears, a Personal Catapult, a quarter-staff and a fishing rod. In each hand she lugged a crossbow, a longbow, 4 slingshots, a bullwhip and a large net.
"Erm, Incon...where on earth to you think we're going? To war?" mouse couldn't resist asking.
"I just want to be prepared!" Incon replied, grinning. "I've never been hunting before."
"Well, you won't be needing all that," Et Flavius assured her.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"Because we're hunting gazelle! Gazelles don't fight back, Incon!"
"How do you know?" she eyed him uncertainly. "They've got horns, don't they? You can do a lot of damage with a well-aimed horn. And I'm speaking as someone who works with large-tusked animals on a daily basis!"
Tusky looked up from his morning bail of hay and grinned smugly at them.
"Incon, we promise - the gazelles won't gang up on you," Jayhawk tried to put her mind at rest.
"How can we be sure of this, Jayhawk?" Incon stood her ground. "I mean, think of it...a few gazelles, really ticked off at their numbers being thinned by Egyptian hunters, get a bit of a - a *union* going...start planning weekly meetings, start patrolling their territory, start learning martial arts self-defence techniques..."
"Incon - have you been dipping into my special blend lately?" MRed cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Just think about it, is all I'm asking," Incon insisted.
"Our chariots are ready," Jayhawk put an end to the discussion, and decided to keep an eye on "Incon-Rambo" as the day progressed.
"Tusky! Here boy!" Incon called. Tusky obediently trotted up to her side.
"You're bringing him?" Lion Tamer asked, helping the cheetah keepers pack up their chariot.
"You don't think I'm going out into a field of blood-thirsty, pissed-off, horned gazelles without back-up, do you?!" Incon looked at him as though he were joking.
With that, the hunting party set off for a day's fun...or, in certain a party's case, a day of Extreme Defence...