[quote=@Tatterdemalion][b]Adila![/b]

[i]”For she’s a jolly good dragon, for she’s a jolly good dragon, for she’s a jolly good draaaaaagon, which nobody can deny!”[/i]

This isn’t officially a Watch event. It can’t be! The Watch doesn’t exist any more! Adila I said so herself!

This is just a bunch of people who happened to wander into one of the Watch’s favorite taverns together and ordered everything off the menu. This is a spontaneous party for people with a raggedy hole in their heart and badges stuffed in pockets and memories. Lots and lots of memories.

People rotate from table to table as takes their fancy, eat whatever’s in front of them, go looking for tables that ordered their favorites, fill each other’s glasses, and sing. No one’s in charge of the singing; someone just picks a new one after the last one peters out, and if you want to sing it, you join in.

But at your table? You’re trying not to radiate bashfulness as the Watch sings the Good Dragon song. Part of you even suspects this is tactical; the Captain has been pressing you hard, and may be hoping that by flustering you, you’ll be willing to accept an ill-advised deal from her.

You must remain strong.

Two sheep for one silk is a [i]terrible[/i] deal, and you are not going to aid and abet her in getting the Most Princesses score chit.[/quote]

There was one positive effect of having spent time as a dog.

Adila smiled her coldest smile. +Why negotiate,+ she thought, glittering light pushing the Robber piece into the Captain's pastures, +when I can simply [i]take[/i] what I need?+

Her heart is as hard as Rider-ice. She has known what it was to stand on the brink of betraying everything she ever stood for in exchange for a pat and a good-girl. She has known what it is to have no willpower. And now that she has the choice she shall not make those mistakes again, not for all the singing of all the Watch.

There's no hesitation in her heart this time, no fear. The last time she stood before the Captain like this and accused her of being a shape-shifter she'd felt like she was to die, that the worst would come, that her life would end. She'd had secrets then. Her mind had been tangled and incoherent. And now she was as she was at her best; precise, predatory and soon to be Queen of the Sheep.