Rose

The first thing that Chen does when you're all done and you ask what to do with her is the wriggle and squirm. She lets out a muffled sigh and tests her bonds. Flex on the back and around the hands but oh gosh it's so tight! She can't move, she can barely manage to rock herself! "mmmph! rrrrrph!" she sighs and tries to press against her gags, but there's no space for her tongue to get anywhere near her teeth or anywhere that would let her make anything more intelligible than a grunt.

She gives you the full opportunity to admire your handiwork, top to bottom. The amethyst in her navel catches the faint candle-light and blazes purple and orange as her stomach gyrates back and forth for you. She can't move it more than an inch, but that's enough for the light to flare across it and back and isn't it just so beautiful, knowing that you've made this? She tries to flex her legs, then clench them, knees together, tries to bend or straighten them, but there's barely any give because you've gotten the tension in the ropes just right. Her toes wiggle through the slippers but they're not going anywhere, no matter how hard she strains and squeaks through all the muffling you've provided. No matter how much she desperately looks like she wants you to kiss every bit of exposed skin so much she's covered with your lips for all to see. It's really a perfect job for your prize.

You remember when you had bindle Chen, all tied up on a stick, squirming and wriggling, utterly bound and helpless in your old world magic-binding caution tape? It might feel like you've had a world between that time and now, and you can see the shape of that here too. But this, this has come so much further than that ever did. Do you know why? It's because after she's strained and tested and grunted and sighed and come to terms with her distress, your little Chen relaxes.

And what she does next is a nuzzle. There's barely enough slack, but there you are so great and strong before her, and she so perfectly bound and trapped. She manages just the slightest little rub of her head, hair loose and soft as she relaxes into you. It's that moment that lets you know that she feels safe and loved. That she doesn't need to worry about anything or think about anything because she can't do anything. She's in the zone, Rose, in a state of blissful trance, all dressed and pretty and safe here for you. That's your doing, Chen's girlfriend, who understands her and she who understands you. And as she snuggles her little chin into your leg, with her purple silks rustling ever so softly, it must be the most perfect thing in the world. At least until you get the chance to switch spots.
[added a comfort and support roll, spending a string: it was a 12 and we each healed a condition.]

***

Yue

What's Chen supposed to say to that, huh? How's she supposed to manage a thousand words all at once when you're crying and hugging and talking about how hard things are. She'd need at least an hour of telling you all her early sword training, the times she sat and cried and was all alone even when she kept swinging her blades. And the times she cried with both her moms. And the times she cried with the handmaidens. And all the times she smiled in between those times. At least an hour for that and that's if she could manage even half the words, which let's be completely clear here, she's got maybe a quarter of them and that's being entirely too generous, you know?

But then, sometimes the thing about friendship is that you don't need to say anything at all. That's one of the most beautiful things about it. When someone who knows both the pain of things being hard and the joy of things being hard all at once gives you that hug and knows exactly when to give your arms a little squeeze to say "I see you" and "I felt the same way" and "you're not alone" all at the same time.

Did you know a little squeeze of the shoulders and a little press together could say all those things all at one time? Maybe you did, actually because you've had all that time with Hyra and before that with your sister and with Kat and with all the sheeps and foxes and the sunstones before that too. In fact, maybe you knew it so well that when you think about it later (even though you'll immediately dismiss the idea because you're a sillyhead) you'll think that maybe the reason people in your life know how to hug you like this is because of you and how special you make them feel.

Because you and Chen are really for real friends now. She's gonna be happy for every step you take, and sad when you're having a hard time, and she'll be there to share the joys and the burdens. Come what may.

***

Hyra

You really couldn't have asked for better chaos, could you? The second that sword leaves Elkibrant's hand, Chen is in motion. That serving tray she was struggling with? She's tossed the whole thing, nuts and grapes trailing in the air, to half the handmaids who have drawn swords to oppose you. And they're going to have to catch it because Keron would expect no less from them than to be able to preserve the fine silver dent free and not even a single grape spilled.

By the time the serving tray is out of her hands, she's snapped a foot down and is in motion to meet the sword in the air. She catches it like it's a feather and to the half of the guards streaming forward who aren't busy with a heavy serving tray, Chen is a whirlwind. You, Hyra, probably remember the fight at Qiu's pyramid better than most. Rose was off her game and Yue at that point wasn't trained, but you saw Chen at the time managing to hold off a handful of guards airborne, but also looking incredibly off her game herself. She had needed to retreat along with the car and it really had seemed like not just Qiu herself, but her army was too much for the plucky do-gooders to take on.

Well, this is night and day to that. Chen's been training with a good partner, body and mind, and for once she's not holding back. She's giving the guards the honor of receiving everything she's got and what that means for them is that the first set trying to run towards you and the countess go flying away like bowling pins.

There are more guards of course, but some of them are caught up fighting the incredible show that Rose from the River has become, wielding her sword in her hair and growing extra arms so that she can fight while bound all at once. And here too, Chen and her girlfriend are in sync beyond expectations. Chen is airborne, dancing her way in and out of Rose's braids like a snake charmer, confusing and dazzling the guards, never letting them get anywhere near you. Oh, did one try to break away from the pack and sprint for the throne? Well she can't do that when a vine is tripping her up and her sword has gone flying the wrong direction, forcing two more guards coming in the door to pull up short and put their own blades up in a sudden block to avoid having to catch that flying sword with their chests!

Last of all, she's up around Jessic, where she takes the moment to give her friend an apologetic shrug before she zips over the top of her and uses her sword to cut the straps for Jessic's bags, sending the dragon princess in a curlicue in upon herself to keep all her things from spilling all over the throne room in a panic.

So it goes, Yue sprinting around the room like a rocket wolf, Rose creating an entire field of impassible monk warrior, and Chen performing a dancing circuit like a dervish from one end of the room to the other tying up Jessic and all the cards as everyone goes flying about. All for you, Hyra, to stand with Keron in the eye of the hurricane, secure that nothing is going to interrupt you.

And once again the world has come back together. It's no fluke, this time. Whatever force tries to break you into three different stories, be it Qiu's blade or simple time and distance, cannot maintain its hold in the face of such harmony. These are not independent moments existing in parallel; they are one moment. One dance. And the partners switch as naturally as rhythm.

Cyanis is squealing through her gag as she is dragged along by Yue, Princess Jessic in hot pursuit. It's not how you might dream a dragon chase might go; there are no snapping fangs or fiery breath. Jessic may be a dragon, after all, but she is a person as well and people use their mouths for eating, talking, kissing, and sometimes holding swords as Yue has demonstrated. You don't just go biting strangers! And so Jessic's pursuit is more catlike than anything, bursts of lightning speed followed by swipe-blows with dragon murder-mittens that bat the poor fluffy tails of girl wolves and fox girls about as she follows so close behind, distracted only by the sudden and unconscionable spillage of her secret notebooks across the floor.

And then in the next moment Yue is racing between the whirl of scattering guards, cast aside by the wroth of the Rose from the River. And that, Rose, is when you find yourself face to face with Princess Jessic; your mistress' mistress. She is momentum furious and focused, secure in her own power - and blind to yours. She has seen you soft, but has not seen you sharp. She is a Princess, one of the greatest dangers of this surface world, but she has no handmaiden here to shield her - as you are here to shield Chen.

And Chen, you do need shielding, as an arrow soars through the air inches away from your leaping. The only reason it doesn't hit you is because it was not intended for you - but the only reason it wasn't intended for you was that it was intended for Hyra, who has run and dived mid-air to take cover behind you. The Maiden of Wolves grins up at you. "Hey. I'm Hyra. Nice to meet you." And then she's off a-scampering with a speed to match that of Yue, a speed that takes time as a wolf to truly understand. She's quite cravenly left you facing down an determined Countess Keron, armed with greatbow and naginata. The Countess draws another heavy arrow, and aims it at you as her guards form a shieldwall around her.

And then, Yue, for a moment you're running alongside Hyra. She grins at you as she goes, feet flashing across the floor, as you rush together for the end of the hall. It's such a grin, too. You know this is her moment, still, but she's not using it to fight Keron, or continue her game of wits, or to defeat a hundred guards, or anything else that seems obvious. She's still got something else in mind. She's got her own story, told to the beat of her own secret ideal, and you somehow know all the important parts while knowing none of the specifics. And right now that story tells her to run alongside you - leaning down as she does to take the protesting and gagged Cyanis from you and heft her over one shoulder with strong arms.

And oh. Maybe her plan has her carrying you the same way? Or perhaps a different way?

So, a funny thing happened on the way to freedom.

Realistically speaking, it shouldn't have happened at all. After all, was anything really different? Sure, she's running just so, so fast. Fast enough to catch the moon, even! But running more swiftly than a song wouldn't make her heart do skipsies in her fluffy chest, right? She's known about the joy of zoomies for a while now, so as nice as it is to finally be moving about after all that time having her entire day spoken for her, it's still a little bit of old hat. Ear? Iono.

And it's not that Chen is shining and ready to do a real Double Super Princess Battle Thing, or that Rose is a one-woman whirlwind who's somehow bold and taunting and demure and teasing and quietly at peace with the whole pile all at once, either. Not that it isn't great to see them, mind you! It's amazing, and wonderful, and, and, and exciting and all that stuff! It is! But when your friends live up to the versions of themselves that you keep inside your chest it doesn't make you do flippy flops and tippy taps with your silly pawsies while you run and run and run away from them, no it does not! And it's, y'know, it's not the first time that either of them have been incredamazing, either. They've always got it in them.

And if it's not that, maybe it's the feeling of being in the moment with them and doing something just as wonderful? But that doesn't feel right either, because she's certain she's felt the thing she's feeling right now before, too.

She looks at Hyra and she... well, she doesn't gasp. We've been over that. But she'd like to. Suddenly she's not running anymore, not quite. She's hopping, skipping, bounding, almost flying for seconds at a time as she zooms alongside her girlfr-- wait a second. Her girlfriend! Is that what's different, all of a sudden?

Oh goshies. Every other time she's gone running, it's just been her. Yue, freshly (or unfreshly) wolfed. Bewoofened. Flufflefied. Awooken. I've got a million of these, don't worry. The point is, she's been admired and smiled at as she's left people in the dust, and she's been chased and dueled and all've that's been super fun and thrilling, but nobody's run with her before. She's, and Hyra's, she looks so, everything is, oh! Oh!! Gosh gosh goshies! Gosh.

Hyra's smiling at her, warm and inviting and impossibly cocky at the same time. She's running with joyous speed with the same air about her that she'd have if she were setting down a plate of chocolate chip pancakes, and just! There it is! Right there, in her fluttery maiden's heart, the feeling she's felt just the one time before! Yue leaps as high and far as four legs can take her and throws her head back in the happiest howl anyone gathered here has ever heard, I promise you that much.

How is it possible? She's already in love! How the heck does a body fall in love twice? And not even with a different person! Yue you sillyhead, you haven't even kissed her yet! Are you really going to fall in love with one girl three times in your life? More? Well, let's get you fitted for a wolf-appropriate (awolfriate?) wedding dress, 'cause honey you're doomed. In just... the best possible way. Honestly. This girl.

And the only way it could get any better is if it could match the way that they'd met, way back at the beginning of our little story. Do you remember? In the dead of night, with river demons surging every which way and turning the safest little house on earth into anything but, and a frightened, squeaky, oh-so-smitten girl slipping into those wiry-muscled arms because she couldn't keep up otherwise? It turned out that was the start of everything, really. And well, she looks a little different right now, but wouldn't it be perfect if it could be the start of something new, too?

It's sweeter than honey when she jumps. It's warmer than cinnamon when she clings to Hyra's spare shoulder and lets her girlfriend take her weight into her spare arm. It's not the same as it was then, which somehow makes it better. She doesn't need it anymore. Now it's about wanting it. Now it's something she's giving to her girlfriend. Now she's gently nipping Hyra's neck and promising she'll take the same. I-i-if that's something Hyra wants to give her. And it's choice, isn't it? It's trust that makes all the difference in the world, that makes it worth falling in love with her again every day for forever if she can manage it. And darn it, she's gonna try now.

The only thing that makes it not perfect is that she's not being princess carried, as I believe it's called, and double maybe also that she's being carried with someone else at the same time. And she could... fix that, y'know? Betcha five whole chickens if she nudged over all sly-like she'd boot Cyanis right off her perch and have Hyra's arms all to herself. Wouldn't even be hard.

But she doesn't. Yue's job, whatever else she might pick up as a hobby, is to be the sweetiest of muffins. It's why we love her. But it's Hyra's job to be the daring, mischievous rogue. And this is all her plan anyway, isn't it? So, um, wh-whatever happens, will happen. Just like it was meant to. Or maybe she's wingin' it! Can never tell what's going on behind those luscious, beautiful, perfect red eyes of hers. But if she means to or no, Hyra's in the business of making miracles happen. Sometimes those require, mmmmm, sacrifices? Every now and again?

I guess we'll see~

There is one person in the room that Rose from the River dances for. One person who she is trying to distract, one person who finds Rose flickering around her, impossibly light on her feet for someone so large. Of course it is Chen, her little sweet Princess, the only one who accepts her for who she is, over and over again.

She did not fear Rose from the River, monster of the Burrows. She did not judge Rose, helpless damsel in distress. She chose Rose from the River, teasing and playful and voracious, and it’s for her that Rose from the River fights. Once again, the old story plays out: a monk has been seduced away from her duties for the love of a Princess. And now Rose from the River dances for Chen, who deserves to see Rose from the River’s skill at arms (in more than one sense), but not devoted towards victory, simply towards the dance, the display, the beauty.

Her sword moves and seems to tug her along after; when she tosses it across the room, one of her mossy braids sings along with it, wrapped tight about the hilt, and she follows on the balls of her feet, as if the sword is merely an afterthought, each sweep of her legs an excuse to draw all eyes to them, until she effortlessly slides the sword out of some pillar or tile where it has sunken so deep that Jessic herself could hardly pull it out. Where she goes, Keron’s minions scatter and dive for cover; lying face-down on the ground, they cannot be knocked from their feet by an explosion of stone or a scything leg.

One plucky young woman almost manages to grab Rose from the River’s bound wrists. Almost. When Rose from the River leans back into those outstretched arms, her momentum turning her into a collapsing mountain, she realizes too late the gravity of her error. Rose from the River falls hard enough to knock the wind out of the poor girl, crushed beneath a falling heavenly pillar, and uses her as a handrest to cartwheel back up to her feet, landing neatly where her sword lies so that she may kick it up into her hand and disarm a dozen guards with one massive sweep that she follows like wind after the storm.

For a moment, it seems as if she will repeat the fall of the cloud-bearing pillar on her little Chen, rocking on her heels, threatening to stumble and flatten the littlest sword saint, but one branch-hand reaches out as she reaches perfect equilibrium and runs a thumb along Chen’s jaw as if it were the edge of a sword. Then she passes through the space where Chen fights, her body flowing through wherever Chen is not, a great shadow of mountains briefly blotting out the light over her head, and then she is through and spinning, leaping, twisting in midair, landing low with one leg sweeping around to carry her momentum through.

Then she leaps, and hooks one leg around Jessic’s mighty throat, continues the momentum upwards, hooks both mighty limbs around the scaled neck, and squeezes— not cruelly, just enough to convey the message. She leans forward, emphasizing the way the fingers of her bound hands flutter and curl helplessly, and presses her gagged lips to the top of Jessic’s head— and her eyes are only for Chen as she does so, wide and playful and delightedly impish, counting coup on a Princess who thinks herself invincible, and someone should make her kneel later and teach her a lesson about her place~

Braids curl around one horn, thighs clench tighter, and the celestial pillar of the peach garden topples to earth once more, bringing with it a confused and very decisively stopped dragon. Claws scrape across the tiles as she goes, a tail lashing furiously, but all the same Jessic ends up on her side, with Rose from the River smoothly ending up straddling her throat.

And that’s when she, wicked she, handmaiden she, squirms. Dragon Jessic may be, but she has a maiden’s heart all the same, and Rose’s performance is the sort to bring trains of thought screeching to a halt in a fiery multi-locomotive pileup, a damsel craving salvation from a fire-breathing beast and helplessly putting her shoulders into the thrashing from side to side, putting as much volume as she can into emphasizing how completely unable she is to say anything intelligible, and if you’re watching the rise and fall of empires, you’re not watching the sword she’s juggling to keep away anyone looking to “save” either damsel or dragon.

What an actress! She wanted to be in those trashy pulp novels, and the freedom to be director and lead actress and stunt coordinator all in one is what Cyanis and Chen granted her in Rose from the River and the Tyrant of the Sky Castle!! (A working title, likely to be available from any reputable fox publisher any day now, possibly with a cover where she’s got Jessic’s tail wrapped around her torso and fearsome claws pushing her scarf-swaddled face away from a certain dashing raven-haired princess.)

[Rose from the River Fights! Her condition cancels out her Daring, leaving her with a sweet 10. She’s earning a third string on Chen, creating an opportunity for Chen to duel Keron without interference, and seizing a superior position on top of Jessic~]

This fight was always a hurricane. What else could it be with the magic that Hyra of the wolves had wielded? It was a fight to make the viewer spin about, to look here and there and see everywhere something happening. Maidens collapsing, explosions, a dragon bursting onto the scene. Then once the team was free, people were dashing across the room, criss-crossing this way and that, toppling groups of guards, slowing the reinforcements, and making a general mess of everything.

Chen had begun as a piece of that hurricane, and Rose had become the whole of the storm. Her eyes were the lightning, her arms the thunder, her hair the swirling clouds. Within it, Chen was flying. She had already circled the room, then found herself momentarily on the back foot as the Countess, freed from her grapple with Hyra, had gathered her bow, her naginata, and her guards. But of those, the latter had been scattered by Rose as Chen dashed in and out among them flowing like water.

It spoke too of their bond that Chen could operate so with Rose. That she manages, in what is almost certainly for her, the best presence of mind she has ever shown, to grow warm with a blush as one of Rose's arms gently brushes her cheek and yet maintain her form perfectly, disarming one of the guards and sending her flying. That she then completes a parry and riposte of another who goes flailing to the floor and in completing the move finds herself with a moment to smile at Rose and, as she slides through the storm again, run her own free hand through Rose's soft, supple hair en route to the countess.

You see, at first, the hurricane was made for Hyra. She was the eye. She stood still amidst the chaos. But, she has vacated that position and Chen has claimed it in her place.

The guards are scattered and as the Countess looses another arrow, Chen's arm is already in motion. Her muscles ripple and her wrist snaps the blade forwards, cleaving the great arrow in two along the tip. Yue, did you catch that one as you were running? That might come in handy at some point.

And then Chen is upon the countess and she's matching her new sword vs. the Countess' naginata. Here, then, is the final lesson of training at the sky castle: winning a duel is about who learns the best.

That's not to say that it's not about other things as well. Speed and strength, conditioning, reflexes, and technique all play a part of course. If one duelist is slow and out of practice, they might well lose to an opponent who attacks quickly before there's even a chance to size anyone up. A reckless beginner may find themselves face first on the floor without even knowing what hit them. But we are imagining skilled combatants, people who have dedicated themselves to the craft and, as with anyone who dedicates themselves to something, have developed their own preferences, specialty, and style. And in such a match, the winner is the one who learns the best.

There is a second part to this grand secret as well. You learn more from losing than from winning. If we may, again, reflect on Qiu for a moment, this is her great source of frustration. If nobody can offer her a proper challenge, she cannot learn and grow. For Keron, the last fight with Chen was an exercise in what she already knew: fight with crushing power and punish a poor fool who hesitated and left an opening. If you didn't want with all your heart, she knew how to punish that and offer something better. But for Chen, it was the start of completely rethinking how she approached her fights. Importantly, it was also rethinking how to fight a naginata.

If you saw the duel between Chen and Yue, you might have figured out what she was testing back then. When she slid backwards in the air in response to Yue getting a good shot, Chen was using the dynamics of magical swords to change the shape of the duel and then she countered before Yue was ready. Keron was much, much stronger than Yue, but that also meant that her swings had that much more momentum to play off.

Chen closes forwards past the arrow, dodges sideways in response to an overhead swing, and then when the countess rotates and brings her naginata around sideways with all the strength of her powerful hips, Chen takes it for a ride. Her sword blocks the blade with a resounding clang and her free hand grabs the haft as she's thrown from the impact, rotating her in a circle around the countess with all the strength of Keron's blow. She comes around the side faster than Keron can rotate after she's already committed to her move and this time, there is no hesitation. Instead, there's a smile and a promise, unspoken, that she had to keep: "we can do something beautiful together." And then she strikes and her thrust hits with enough force to shatter a piece of breastplate and send the Countess flying onto her back.

[Fight: 6+2+2=10. Chen is taking a string on Keron, Seizing a super position of landing a decisive blow and sending her sprawling, and creating an opportunity for Hyra to make her escape. Keron may pick one in return.

This also triggers impressive swordplay and, if Phoe agrees, I want to take a string on Yue, who may be taking a bunch of notes on this as Chen's friend and dueling partner.]

This is that most wonderful of things; a battle where everyone involved is winning. Everyone is getting everything they crave from battle. The world is in alignment.

Countess Keron was not born to this life. She adopted her personality and role in the world as a girl adopts a stray kitten, not knowing at the time that it was a tiger cub... but not flinching from it either. Hers had been a path of temptation, foes who sought to overcome her with beauty and blade, and with each one she had defeated her resolve hardened. Each victory became a heart to defend; if her foes dashed themselves to pieces against her siren's rocks then to fail would be to let each of them down. Her secret strength is her strength - but as she fights against Princess Chen she knows that strength is not enough. This foe is stronger, faster, and will not tire. This foe has a heart reforged in her own shadow. This foe has reached the limits of her control. And so, Countess Keron tosses her Naginata aside -

[Countess Keron creates an opportunity for Princess Jessic]

And Princess Jessic seizes it. Well, eventually. In the immediate sense the flat of it impacts against the side of her head as she stares up at Rose from the River, and the force of the blow shakes her from the hypnotism of the warrior monk's swaying motions. That is enough to draw the dragon's eyes across the hall to where the now unarmed Countess Keron is giving her the evil eye amidst wild dodges of Princess Chen's unstoppable offensive. It's a call to action that even the power of the ancient world cannot deny, and so a new thunder finds Princess Jessic.

It was correct to try to seize a dragon by the heart, for no other chains could be binding. She sweeps the naginata up with her tail and engages, whirling it with shocking prowess before transferring it to the grip of her foreclaws. It is a wild swing in the nature of battle, almost impossible to keep up with. Jessic is no master of this weapon but the sheer novelty of having to fight an armed dragon is enough to break the momentum that had turned against her.

She had not come to this life by accident. It had been the result of deep deliberation and many conscious choices. She was not human and her thoughts and cravings were impossible to explain. There were patterns and authorities that her mind naturally shaped around. She had her own ideas of beauty, some of which were dark and fierce. But she'd found in Keron a halfway point between the human and the draconic; a lens through which she could communicate with a species she did not truly understand. And through that she'd been able to build a trust that was as strange as it was absolute. She didn't know how to relate to a being as fierce and seductive as Rose from the River, so her decision was as it always was in this strange world: to obey Keron, to follow the lead of her partner and translator.

She hooks the naginata up into her tail and uses it to strike like a scorpion's stinger from above her head as she crouches low to the ground. Attempts to evade or encircle her are met with sudden, sharp wing blows. Her technique has its limits but it is enough to drive Rose back - and then turn and lunge, fast as blinking, across the hall to where Chen has Keron on the ropes. She spreads her wings as she reaches the second duel, the clap of her wings transforming all her forwards momentum into a hurricane blast of air to send the winter princess flying clear of her partner.

[Princess Jessic creates an opportunity for Countess Keron]

With a toss, the naginata lands back in Keron's outstretched palm. With a grin, the Countess lifts herself to stand atop her dragon's back. This, then, is their final form. This is their true harmony of battle.

But this is not their day. This is not their scene. This, all of this, has been stolen already by Hyra of the Wolves and the master thieves who trained her. And now it's time for her to bring it to its conclusion.

She presses the detonator. The charges in the ceiling explode, and with an enormous crash, treasure begins to rain down from the second floor. The vault of the Sky Castle pours down in a rain of gold, gemstones and rare video game cartridges to land in an enormous heap in the centre of the floor, separating the four combatants. A gagged and squirming fox is tossed down to land on top of the pile, at once the greatest treasure of the pile and trying to grip as much of it as possible with her tied hands.

And hovering there, in mid-air, is the Sunshard. The gleaming, four meter orange and black tigerseye gemstone, filled with all of the wishes of Princess Jessic. Atop the Sunshard, power glowing up through her boots and running through her fingers, stands Hyra, and in her arms, Yue.

"Make a wish," she says to Yue with a smile.

Then she presses the detonator again. This time it blows out the floor of the main hall, sending all that gold and treasure falling down out of the bottom of the Sky Castle, down and down towards the distant countryside below. Hyra steps from the edge of the Sunshard and falls too, hand holding Yue's hand as they descend amidst a springtime storm of diamonds.

Once upon a time, Yue thought she knew the sun.

Of course she did, y'know? The sun's been her life for basically ever! She pays more attention to the one that still cuts across the sky than anybody I know. How it moves, when it rises and when it sets and even when those things start changing. She's studied what angles make the best light and what that light is like on leaves and rocks and tum-tums and grass and even bare patches of dirt, just to be safe.

She knows how to use it to cure aches and pains, and she knows how to use it to add a little extra zest in a good cup of tea. She knows how to use it to spark a bit of inspiration for a practicing artist, and she knows how to use it to help a really poor sleeper finally take a nap. She knows how to use it to brighten a room, even at night! She knows a thousand plus a hundred little miracles you can do with sunshine, and how long and where to gather the sunlight into her precious beads to make each one of 'em happen. She even knows how to jar it once captured for long lasting magic you can use or sell on the go. Can you pickle sunshine? Yeah, lemme see your recipe.

But the silly thing about anybody who makes a long study of anything, no matter how careful their notes may be or how many cute animals they doodle in the margins when they get bored, is that they get sucked into this notion that there isn't much else for them to learn about it. Which in her case is even sillier than Chen, don't you think? You think so, right Chen? What a sillyhead our Yue is! There's, like, what? Ten whole suns! Or there were, anyway, and the legends all say every one of 'em was special in their own way.

But still. But still. Jessic's sunshard is warm. It's warm. She thought she knew sunlight warm, but this, not even touching it she's so, all at once it overflows from Hyra into her and she's so, it's like, sweaters and snuggles and, just, every little muscle going all, and, y'know it's, but really there's, it's just so, she might've taken a hundred naps just now and not even known about it! It's warm and it's warm, and it's, well, it's warm too, if you can believe that. Her fur is all tingly nice like she just had a bath and a towel and her brain's all fuzzy happy like she'd just seen Chen cut an arrow in half out of the air or something and...

Actually, wait. Hold on. She did see that! Amazing! Amazefully amazing! How did, what the, you can do that??? Oh she is writing that one down just about as soon as she's got thumbs again, don't you even worry about that. Imagine having friends. Just imagine that! And then imagine having your friends be the most incredible people on the earth today. No, no, you're not imagining it hard enough, you can do better than that! You have to imagine the warmth, the warmth of a whole entire sunshard that's hotter and somehow also softer than twenty, no, thirty jars of perfectly farmed beads. Years of work, dwarfed in an instant by the ultimate treasure and you can't even be mad about it. Now, you have to take all that warmth and stuff it inside your heart so that it's too full and keeps sparking any time you look at your dear, perfect friends. And that is what it's like.

It's bright, too. And bright is very good for seeing stuff, whether you were looking for it or not. If you gave her a dozen dozen guesses (which I think is called a... yuck? An ick? Something), Yue wouldn't have gotten close to suggesting her journey would have her glimpsing so much as the tips of the tails of a bunch of dreams. But here they are. They put a naginata in a dragon's tail and made the whole thing feel impossibly majestic. They broke a countess' breastplate with a masterstroke so pure they should make snowflakes out of it, and didn't break a single heart with it for all of its grand strength. They put giggling, teasing softness into the strongest set of arms that have ever gripped a sword in recorded history, and mixed silks and sighs and longing touches with a hurricane to make something so beautiful you can't help but want to see it turn and dance forever.

And it's, there's, Hyra at the center of everything. She's... smiling. Oh gosh, she's smiling. She's holding Yue in both her arms, soft and firm and snug, in a way that makes her woofen body feel seen and even teasingly squeezed and just so perfectly lovely she could gasp out loud. If, y'know, she could gasp out loud. Which she can't. We've been over this. She whines this time, instead. It's the happiest noise since that howl she just howled a little while back. She twists her neck and turns her soft blue eyes toward Hyra's dazzling reds. If only she could smile properly. If only she had words. If only.

What's that? A wish?

Well, she's got a bunch of those. Fifty... three? Give or take. There are more, actually, but she's got no need to wish for freedom when she's either got that or is about to get it just from the luck of who she is and who she knows. She shouldn't blow a wish on something stupid like a brand new tea kettle, even if hers is horribly dented and doesn't whistle properly these days. That would be silly, petty, and entirely too selfish for a wish from the heart made on a glowing stone filled with dragon dreams. And really there are more, stretching into infinity, but she doesn't need to get rich (or die trying) or be granted any fancy titles, and she's good on swords and teachers thank you very much, and there's no adventure you could tempt her with that's even one fifth as good as this one. So yeah. Just the fifty three little wishes. And they all compress down to just one.

I... I want to share a meal with Hyra. I want someone to cook for us and I want to sit across a table from her and look in her eyes and play footsies while we grab our chopsticks and talk until the sun goes down about how good it is. I want to see her face in the daylight, and I want her to see mine. I want. I want to hold her like she deserves to be held. I want her to hold me like I deserve to be held. I want! I want to reach her with my hand and brush her hair smooth around her ears! I want to find a market and waste a whole day trying on clothes with her that neither of us can actually afford!

"And I want to kiss you!" she screams with her very human voice as she flails her very human arms, not really thinking through what that means, "I want to feel your lips and I wanna do that thing where I find out what your teeth taste like with my tongue while we do it! I want you to touch me! I want you to see me! And I wanna see you! I wanna learn every little thing there is to know about your body, and for you to know every part've mine!"

Yue's sliding down a wave of diamonds now with her arms wrapped tight around Hyra's neck. She's burning bright with the light and warmth of a sunshard (probably) and her feet hurt a little bit, but you must admit she cuts a very dramtic, gorgeous figure with her beautiful battle dress fluttering behind her as she flies. Which, of course it does. You think it wouldn't know when she really needed it the most? There's magic in those clothes, you mark my words. Go on, mark 'em! Don't come back till you do!

"I wanna be with you, Hyra! Every day and always! And I want us to have more adventures with my friends, but most of all I want them to start and end each day and night with you! And me! K-ki... oh no."

Yue burns brighter than ten whole suns that turned the earth into whatever wasteland it was before a Princess wise enough to say "That's too many suns" finally turned up and did something about it. She shakes like a freshly planted sapling forest in an autumn breeze. Her two silly, skinny legs almost drop out from under her if not for the timely intervention of Hyra of the Wolves. Who grins, wolfishly. But humanly too. She's perfect like that.

This is a moment. It's not the moment the whole story's been building to, because whatever that is, there's a part in it for everybody. But it's a big moment, just the same. Before she can say something stupid like, 'I wish I was dead' or 'I wish I'd never said anything at all', Hyra grabs her by the back of the head and pulls her in face to face.

And they kiss, y'know? Here and now in front of everybody. Little Yue's first real kiss, and she's lucky enough to get it from the love of her life. And it's. Well. Actually?

Why don't y'all tell me about it? What's it like from where you're sittin', hmm?

Rose from the River falls, but (in a strange reversal of her battle with half of a castle and a naginata-wielding dragon) she does so gracefully. She hops from coin to coin, ruby to sapphire to statue, as if there was nothing at all unusual about the sight, as if she did so every day of the week and twice on Sundays. Her skirt is blown quite up by the wind, but she barely pays it any mind— and, besides, if you’re looking, aren’t those legs worth seeing in all their glory, anyway?

Her serenity is a fitting counterpoint to the wildly flailing, bucking, squirming fox trying to figure out both how to survive the fall (her current plan being “convince somebody to stop me from falling”) and how to grab as much of the treasure tumbling all around her as possible.

Whoosh! Scoop! Squish! Cyanis is picked up and cradled like the most beautiful of princesses by a silenced, smug monk. Her muffled pleas to be untied are met with a boop on her cutie nose and an intensifying of Rose’s smugness. Look at where your pursuit of vain riches and double-triple-trucie-crossies got you, little wish-thief! Smooshed up against the soft silks and firm body of Rose from the River, and the two of you definitely have some discussions to have about, oh, tricking a poor mind-locked girl into aiding and abetting fox crimes, heartlessly throwing her underneath a Countess-shaped bus (not that you have ever seen one, little fox), and attempting to escape your cutie jail sentence.

But then Rose from the River is distracted by a beautiful, perfect kiss. The sort that makes her press Cyanis’s face into paradise to be smothered while she half melts like a squeeing handmaiden. They did it! They really did it! Looking at the two, Rose from the River knows that she no longer has to worry about protecting Yue the Sun Farmer, even if she’s worth more money than the entire world could scrape together. Hyra has Yue well in hand, and if there were ever two girls who deserved to have adventure together, it was those two.

Which means that, really, her part in this adventure should be over. She should sling Cyanis over one shoulder, inform Yue of her windfall, and continue on her way. Unless something wonderful were to happen to her in turn, the sort of thing that would keep her away from her Devotion to the Way, if only for a little longer; a reason to delay Cyanis’s cutie jailing and her own pilgrimage across this beautiful and ever-surprising world. Something to keep her in this story— or someone.

Chen, darling? That’s your cue.

[Rose from the River finally uses her Gallant Rescue to take a string on Cyanis, having Defied Disaster with Grace and scored a hot, hot 11.]

At first, Chen is caught up in the joy of the dance, and the urgency of the moment. She has Keron on the ropes, and her opponent tosses aside her Naginata and flees as Chen takes flight for an advance. But before she can end the fight completely, she realizes that Rose is being forced back by the sheer shock of a dragon wielding a naginata in her tail, and that in turn leads to Chen being thrown back with a wing buffet. And for an instant, Chen is about to zip back in again quick as lightning and rejoin with Rose as she gathers herself so that they can do a proper 2v2 fight to decide the ultimate winner (never mind that more guards were streaming into the room, that was a future Chen problem).

But then, then there are explosions and Hyra making her grand re-entrance and it turns out that Jessic's sunshard is a tiger's eye and it's really huge and beautiful. And and and wow. Hyra is standing on top of it with Yue amid all this treasure and then boom, they're freefalling and the world is rolling over itself like it's trying to get into a circus act.

For a moment, Chen simply lets it take her and relaxes. Falling is freedom, it's escape, and it's an opportunity to let forces that are very much bigger than a little princess like her hold her close all wrapped up in their metaphorical arms.

But only for a moment because there's a lot happening, and a skilled princess has people she needs to look out for ahead of hitting the ground. So Chen opens her eyes and looks around her. The first thing she sees is Rose, and instinctually she flips onto her sword and rushes towards her, but quickly realizes that Rose is quick-stepping from gem to coin like it's nothing and she has nothing to worry about. Chen smiles with a blush of pride at how cool her girlfriend is!

Next, she notices a little bundle of brown and fluff and little white mittens in amid a pile of gold coins and that one actually requires a rush. It's okay Kat, she's got you, she's aaah, no chormps, no chormps! shhh shhhh it's okay no panicking, your second best buddy in the whole world Chen has got you, there there. And she pets Kat with one hand while holding her all bundled up with the other close to her chest so that Kat is shielded from the wind.

Finally, that gives her a moment to actually look around and see...oh. Oh! Oh!!! Yue and Hyra, both girls, no flufferdoodles to be found and they're sharing a kiss that makes Chen blush. The kind of kiss that's like, like the whole world disappears and your heart's flying all by itself and you can see how the two of them are completely absorbed in each other and that kiss and how special it is. That's so special that the fall wouldn't dare interrupt until they're done.

Chen finds herself drifting over to Rose and takes her arm, resting her small head on her girlfriend's strong bicep. It's at once comical as they balance atop flying sword and myriad coins, and yet beautiful as they both look at the pure joy their friends are feeling and let it wash over them. The wind is too loud for words, so Chen just leans her head onto Rose's strong arm (still being sure that her own arm is keeping Kat nice and safe) and with the quickest little flash of mischievous eyes, she gives Rose her own little kiss on that strong strong arm, just above the elbow, and a little nibble too. There'll be more later, it promises. They'll get around to landing eventually, but there's no rush after all.

Back on the Sky Castle, Princess Jessic whines and scratches at the edge of the hole in her castle. Countess Keron holds her back, gloved hand with none of the strength and all of the willpower needed to keep a dragon from her treasure. There will be time to collect gold and jewels again. There will be opportunities for airborne duels in the future. On a different day they might even win, even against hearts like these.

But on this day, true love's first kiss is taking place and it needs no dragons to make it magical.

*

Elkibrant swims through the air towards Vogodoris, pointing with a thief's razor eyes. The War God turns and his eyes alight with fire. They bypass all the falling treasure as they angle their descent, for they are wise as thieves are wise. Gold is worthless, diamonds can be synthesized. No, these thieves know what real treasure is, and they intend to steal it.

They reach the camera just in time, and Elkibrant swings around with it, adjusting lens and optics. Click. Click. Click. Perfect photographs.

And just like that, they turn themselves in the sky and angle themselves away from the others, having the treasure that they've come for. Nobody who has any sense in this wide and beautiful world values dead gold or shiny rocks, but a photograph of a first kiss shared during freefall? That's a treasure for the ages. In exchange for these pictures the thieves might ask for any service from the maidens, or any who sought to provide them with the perfect gift. What better prize for a master thief?

*

Cyanis sees nothing but Rose's chest. She craves nothing but the gold. She tries to reach out blindly to scoop up falling diamonds with her two large and fluffy tails but they just look like they are wagging. Everything is horribly unfair.

Not least of these unfair things was the fact that Countess Keron had correctly identified her as Hyra's inside girl! Such injustice! She had not committed a single crime in her life before having her arm twisted by the wolf maiden, practically blackmailed into participating in this heist. And yet she had been a suspect! On literally no grounds! And the Countess was probably up there even now thinking about how guilty Cyanis was, putting all the blame for this whole thing on her innocent, fluffy head while she was still unjustly tied up and unable to get hardly any gold! And everyone knew that crime didn't count if you didn't get away with the treasure! Attempted robbery!? They didn't give Nobel prizes for attempted chemistry!

She squirms and mmphs as best as she is able in a vain effort to communicate A) her opinions on this incredibly anti-fox legal system and B) that she has learned nothing from any of this.

*

All she wanted was to be someone's everything.

When she performed a complicated magic trick, crowds looked at her. When she did an astoundingly complicated sword technique, opponents reassessed her. When she stole hidden riches, security demons cursed her. She could come into a life like a miracle and change everything. That was what she loved. To capture attention. To see herself reflected in sparkling eyes. The stars that surrounded her then were the measure of the joy she was able to create, a halo that made her feel angelic. A storybook come to life.

But performances ended. After the applause, the curtain. After the moment of transcendent bliss, the quiet, then the return to the long and quiet hours of rehearsal. It took work. It took weeks and months alone with the craft to discover or create a new secret to be revealed at the perfect time. She'd measured her life by counting the moments like this one, where everything perfectly came together in a storm of diamonds falling from the sky. Perfect romance, worthy of her angel self.

What she hadn't expected was how Yue had made every moment in between then and now feel. She had been in the long silence of the wolf. Sitting. Thinking. Planning. A shadow of her greatest self as, piece by piece, she assembled the parts and learned the skills to create another moment like this. A transitional period before she could arise again in light and colour and be someone's everything for another moment.

But for every day of that period she'd been loved. She'd been loved when she was silent. She'd been loved when she was withdrawn. She'd been loved when she'd gone weeks unable to speak or touch as humans do. She'd been loved when she hadn't been ready to be loved. When she hadn't collected the pieces to make someone love her. She hadn't needed to do all this to win Yue's heart. She'd had her heart all along.

This, then, wasn't her fighting for Yue. This wasn't to impress her. This was all just a way to say...

"Thank you for loving me," said Hyra, sparkling eyes reflecting an angel. "I love you too."

Come away with me, for a moment. If you like. Step away from the Sky Castle, from the glittering rains, from harrowing escapes, and join me a little further down the page. A little further ahead. I do not mean to spoil this story, and I will take great pains to say as little as possible about what you’ve yet to see. It was a wonderful journey for me, and I daren’t rob you of the surprise. It’s just, there’s stories everywhere you look. Didn’t you see them on the way here? We must’ve passed at least a hundred or so. Behind, above, beyond, within, before, after, sideways, and every which ways there could be, all of them leaping in and out of each other’s way without end. If you’ve not read to the end of this one, and you don’t want to step aside, then please! Leave me here a while longer, and go on ahead. There’s really no rush at all, you see. When you’re ready, I’ll be here, and we’ll march on together.























Are you ready?

Follow me, then, to a little further in this story, for I have one of my own to tell all of you.

It starts, of course, in a tavern, the ideal habitat for stories. They collect there, you see, with every person who passes through the doors, into the shared company of all who desire food, drink, and friends. They do a tidy business in all three, these days! On the way to Ys, no one really wanted to stop for very long, not when they might miss the action. But now that the duels are all done, who is in a great hurry to leave? The roads are more and less clogged than before. Less, that one can actually make their way to where one wants to go in a reasonable span of time. More, that there are always, always people moseying down the road, and there will be for months to come. There are friends to see, friends to make, and the inns do a fair bit of business between them.

Do I need to tell you of this tavern in particular? Perhaps I should. It would be mean, to say that it’s like all the others, when no two are really alike. This one’s got a huuuuuuuuge tree, growing right in the center of it. There’s no roof, ‘cause the leaves grow thick enough year round to keep out even the wildest of storms, and lamps hang down from the lowest branches to light up the main room. The bar circles around the trunk, and there’s tables out beyond that, all decked out in flowers and sturdy enough to dance on. There’s a big, shiny jukebox for when nobody’s got an instrument, and a little raised stage for when everybody’s got an instrument. Out in the back’s a quiet greenhouse, with even more flowers and bushes and a little stream running right through the middle of it, and smaller tables set up here and there for folks who want some privacy and quiet.

Do I need to tell you of the company within? Of course I do! They change by the minute, they do. In the corner, two ponies swap yarns of wild adventure; one a mocha colt of immaculate grooming, the other clad in biker’s leathers and goggles. A pegasus all wrapped in robes listens with barely-restrained amusement, silently debating if she should join the sad-looking prince poking at his meal at the bar. Two more ponies sit snuggling close together as they listen, the sea-blue stallion with his eyes wide, all but hidden beneath the wing of the ice-cool pegasus next to him. And lest you think they only ought to serve hay here, a stuffy, well-kept lad counts himself among the audience, white as a sheet at hearing such thrilling tales. A scarred kobold sits an intentional few seats away from an outlandishly robed wizard at the bar, both much bothered by all the hullabaloo, yet neither actually getting up to leave. Begrudgingly, they absorb information, while repelling the company with their best scowls. Meanwhile, a blindfolded martial artist dances nimbly from table to table, much to the raucous cheers of an absolute giant of a man. A noble swordsman finally steps inside, having just found a proper place outside to lean his thirty-foot greatsword, and a corgi leaps from his arms to chase a laughing, bumbling little boy about the room.

Their conversation flows ceaselessly from story to story, most telling of the battle they’d all just witnessed. But these, ah, these stories are weeks old now, and most have been heard already. No one says it, but everyone’s heart hungers for it; something new. A fresh tale, something about the people of this battle that they’d never heard before. And it’s then, when the chatter hits a low ebb, that the cloaked figure at the end of the bar raises his voice above them all.

“I was there.”

All fall silent, obligingly letting the mysterious figure fix the lot of them with his hooded gaze.

“I was there when the heroes looted the Sky Castle, and fell from the heavens!”


*************************************************


But first, a word about sheep, and shepherds.

As you may know, sheep are possessed of some of the softest, most open hearts around, which is how they grow such lovely wool. How can they be so warm on the outside without hearts that are just as toasty and welcoming on the inside? Set anything, anything in front of a sheep, and they will jump into it with such a vigor they might get a touch forgetful of things. Such as: Wolves are not friends. I’m not actually able to get back down from this high cliff. My shepherd has always given me plenty to eat, every day of my life, and perhaps I don’t need to take a nip at his lunch to keep from starving.

Sheep stay in herds out of a big love for their fellows, a sense of safety, and a very clever attempt to crowdsource their common sense. After all, if a bunch of sheep are bleating, well, perhaps that’s what you ought to do too! Have you ever tried it? It’s really quite simple, and - no, really, it is the safest thing for them. Maybe, sometimes, occasionally, the herd accidentally gets a silly idea in its head, and it’s quite the adventure to get it out again, but it’s much better than when they’re scattered about! With that many sheep around, it’s so easy to remember where they’re supposed to be, and what they’re supposed to be doing. If a sheep goes lost on its own, one of the first things they’re bound to forget is the way back home. How can they possibly make their way back, when there’s so many interesting, forgetful-inducing things between here and there? Thus, the shepherd! A clever fellow who always, always remembers the right things, and doesn’t scold the sheep for being forgetful, and gives them treats for being so good.

Why have I told you all this? Because our story picks up on a shepherd by the name of Sam, on the trail of a runaway sheep, and now you know the urgency of his quest! That little sheep is lost, and he doesn’t even know it yet! He’s too busy chasing after something mysterious, known only to him, to realize it’s been ages since he’s seen a fluffy face. He’s even too busy to hear the increasingly strained shouts of his dear shepherd. No amount of “c’mon nows!”, “you stop that right now!”, or even “look! I’ll get you some treats when we get back!” can reach him! The shepherd puts on a terrific burst of speed, but, darnit, little sheep sure are full of scampers when they get a mind to it. Every time he gets close, the little guy squeezes through a tight gap in the trees, or ducks under a pile of rocks, and the shepherd has to take the long way around, and he’s fallen behind again. If only the shepherd had a way to get that silly sheep’s attention, just for a moment!

Good news: There was a way!

Bad news: Be careful what you wish for!

KA-BOOM!

A sound so big, it shakes the trees! The ground! The air! Poor Sam goes tumbling, bum over teakettle, right as his quarry freezes in place. Two ships pass in the afternoon, just by a hair, and he tumbles smack into a tree. And here, listener, he proves his worth to the title of shepherd, when he resists the seductive call of lying in a pile of limbs until the world makes sense again. “Woolbur,” he groans, trying to figure out which blob of white was the correct one. “You alright? You-hey! No! Not again! Not that way!”

Too little, too late. Woolbur is off and running. Running the silliest, most least safe way he could. Which is to say, the only direction a curious sheep could run: Straight towards the Biggest Kaboom.

The shepherd scrambles, legs and arms in hot debate over which ones oughta be up and which ones oughta be on the ground, but there’s no time to settle the matter and we’re just gonna have to work it out as we go. Over hills! Through the forests! On the trail of a rascal too troublesome to keep himself out of trouble! “Woolbur! This ain’t a game! You gotta stop and, and-”

He bursts from a clearing, to find Woolbur sitting perfectly still, his fluffy butt parked square on the ground.

“-and, oh. Y’did stop. Why’d you…?”

And he turns his eyes to the Sky.

Everybody knows, dear listener, that every story ever told actually happened somewhere, somehow. Maybe not in the way you heard it, but every story’s born of something. Once upon a time, there were ten suns. The year is 200X. There is a snake curled around the whole wide world. These things happened somewhere, to somebody. And some bodies lived it, and some bodies wrote it down for later, and some bodies told everybody they knew what’d happened. Until there you are, huddled up with a snack and a warm drink, listening wide-eyed to a legend of someplace far, far away. And you hear, and you eat, and you dream about places you’ve never been and people you’ve never seen, and in your heart you know you live in a world of great magic. Where stories both wonderful and terrible live beneath the surface of everything you can see, just waiting to spring forth. Even though they never do, for you. You live in a world of great magic, far away. Somewhere out there, it happens.

Right until it’s your turn.

You stumble into open ground, and turn your eyes to the Sky. There they fall; three of them. And two more. A Princess of the Northern Winds, dressed in the frilly finery of a top-class maid, riding atop her sword. A being of the ancient world, bound willingly in the form of a blushing, squirming maiden. And they hold each other. A girl who might live in your very village, if it weren’t for the rainbow battle dress and shining sword across her back. A lady of wolves, sharp and dangerous and soft and smiling. And they hold each other very, very close. A fox who is also a girl, who is also trying very very very hard to commit crimes. And she’s tied up in a net.

They’re falling, all of them. It’s got to be miles to the ground. That’s got to be a fortune in the air around them. Enough to, to, gosh, to do whatever you could do with money here, and still have money left over. But nobody’s watching the gold. They’re sort of watching the ground, but not worrying about the ground. Right now, all eyes are on the girl and the wolf lady, even two pairs of eyes sitting on the ground. It’s just, it’s where you’re supposed to look. They know it, without a word. Just like they know they’re supposed to gasp when they reach the ground, and it’ll be hours before Sam realizes he wasn’t ever worried they were gonna be hurt. There’s dancing in air, and surfing on swords, and great, big, rainbow-colored sparky explosions of water and light, and he didn’t know any of it was coming, but it all felt so, so right and, and!

And he has to meet these people. Right now.

“Woolbur, c’mon!”

The c’mon is for his own benefit; Woolbur is already off and running. Together they leap through the fields, vault over stone walls, race over bridges, splash headlong through the streams, skid through the grass, plant themselves behind a tree, stare off into the middle distance!

“Uh.”

“Baa.”

“That. Um. They’re sure.”

“Baaaaa.”

“Very. Kissing.”

“Baa.” Woolbur flicks an ear.

“We should. Wait. Over here. ‘Till they’re done.”

”Baa!”

“How long d’you suppose..?”

Woolbur absently munches at his shoelaces.

“Yeah. Yeah we might be here a while...”


*************************************************


One while later, the Princesses are greeted by a simple shepherd, nervously wringing his hat in his hands, as a curious little sheep peeks out from behind his legs. Seeing how your highnesses (and why did they look so tickled by that?) just, er, dropped in, would y’all be needing a place to stay? He had a farmhouse, see, and like any good farmhouse, it had plenty of room for any folks needing a place to stay while they helped tended the flocks. And, well, seeing how the seasons weren’t quite turned yet, he’d lots of spare rooms and no one to fill them. He’d be honored if they’d stay with him? Just a little while?

And wouldn’t you know it; they’re honored as heck to make his acquaintance, and even more honored to accept his hospitality.

That very day, four princesses and a rascally fox - through, really, only one princess, one handmaiden, one Just Yue, one wolf-lady, and a rascally fox - came to stay at a humble shepherd’s farmhouse. He refuses all manner of payment; that those of their station were even helping to cook meals and tend to their own rooms was enough. But as it so happened, they paid him in something far, far more valuable.

Y’see, a shepherd is a master of watching. They gotta be, to keep track of thousands of silly fluffheads. They gotta see mischief, before the mischief happens, and before the mischief-maker realizes they’ve been spotted. So that when a sheep decides that, actually, dashing off across the fields to see how tall that mountain over there really is sounds like a wonderful way to spend an afternoon, the shepherd is right there, ready to scoop them up. How did they get over there so sneaky-like, so casually no sheep thought anything of it? How did they know?! These are the secret arts of the shepherd, and there is no turning them off.

When secret looks pass between such special houseguests, when someone says they’ve never seen the roots of a rainbow before and their special somebody gasps, how can the shepherd not know? How can he be anywhere, but out by the shed, pretending to work, just in case some folks feel like going off on an adventure? And. Well. How could he keep from following, in case they needed something? If they ever spotted him, he’d say he just had to look after Woolbur, who just so happened to also be there, being very quiet, because if a shepherd had tried to shoo him home he would’ve kicked up such a fuss. But nobody ever spotted him. Day after day, their adventures had two extra guests come along at a safe, respectable distance.

Now, between you and me, I think maybe this shepherd wasn’t as clever or as quiet as he thought. For such seasoned explorers, his guests sure did take their sweet time when out for a wander. Never took a hard climb without stopping for a long break afterwards. Never leapt across chasms too wide for sheep and shepherd to cross on their own. Not to mention, there was that one time Hyra of the Wolves kept asking him all sorts of questions of just what he got up to the previous day, and maybe he had to lie a little bit because he was scared they might’ve found out he was there, and she was just. So interested to hear about exactly how one takes sheep out for cross-country swimming practice, and she asked him so nicely to let him show her how it’s done sometime, and kept on smiling with her eyes even as he told her the sheep were too tuckered out and needed a month or two to rest first, terribly sorry, some other time then.

But more than that, when his guests returned home, when they got all cleaned up, and had a nice dinner in front of them, and it came time to remember the stories of the day, they wouldn’t stand for making him stand. This little shepherd got to sit at the table, and listen wide-eyed to the people who lived the stories he’d devoured so thoroughly. These weren’t legends, floating as high and out of reach as the Sky Castle. These were people. Real, living people, who ate dinners, loved petting a good sheep, got sleepy, had bad mornings, good nights, and all the other stuff that makes up a life. All the stuff that makes up a life like his. And they welcomed him as an audience. Questions, ideas, everything and anything that entered his silly head, they wanted to hear it. Heck if he had any idea why. But those nights. Ah, those were some of the best nights of his life.

Now, I could tell you all about the Trouble of Thunderbuzz Shrine, the Mysterious Case of the Wobblin’ Jelly, the Unspeakable Treachery at the Really Cold Pond, and a hundred other adventures. But we’d be here all month if you had to listen to me tell everything seen and heard, and besides, they ain’t exactly my stories in the first place. I’m just a lucky fella who happened to be in the right place at the right time to see something amazing and beautiful. You want the story proper? I bet you’ll be seeing them show up in one of Princess Chen’s works before too long. If she ever gets tired of painting her precious - oh, not to say that I hope she ever does! Can you imagine what she’ll make her Rosepetal look like in just a year from now? I bet it’ll take your breath away, and, er, where was I?

Ahhh. Right. Where my part in the story ends.


*************************************************


‘Cause, it’s gotta end, right? Otherwise, I’d still be there living it, and I wouldn’t be here to tell you all about it.

They had themselves a grand send-off of a feast, didn’t they? Sam got to fixing it up, but he must’ve let something slip when he was out shopping for ingredients, because by the time the sun went down we had the whole village there to celebrate. We had music, dancing, calls to show off swordsmanship, magic, painting, baking, so many wonderful things! But the night ended, eventually. It’s always gotta end.

Bright and early - well, not too early, not after a night like that - found Sam and Woolbur walking their guests out the door, down the path to the main road, where the whole village turned up again for the goodbyes. We had hugs, crying, memories to share, promises to visit, blessings, wisdom, so many wonderful things. But the goodbyes ended, eventually. It’s always gotta end.

Sam stood there, on the crest of the hill, watching five amazing people walk off into the sunrise. They had more stories to tell. Bigger stories, ones he couldn’t even dream of yet, nor how they’d even begin to get to the other side of them.

And as I sit before you, he might’ve made the silliest decision of his life, right there. He might’ve remembered he was a shepherd. He might’ve heard himself, as he said on so many nights, that being a shepherd was a good lot in life, and one he was pretty good at, and so, maybe it was what he ought to keep doing. On that magical morning, he might’ve listened to himself, one more time, and decided to head back home.

Which makes Woolbur a genuine hero, for choosing the perfect moment to scamper between his legs and go a-runnin’ off into the sunrise after them.

“Woolbur-! Ack!”

Even then, he froze. It’s a dangerous business, chasing after little lost sheep.

“Get back here! Right now, mister! Right now!”

Because if you don’t keep your feet?

“Um. Uh. Hey! Folks! Can some of y’all take my share of the flocks? For a bit?!”

Who knows where your heart’ll be swept off to?


*************************************************


And that’s the end of it. The tale, that is, heard for the first time, by many, of how five princesses and princess-adjacent folks changed a shepherd’s life, just by falling into it. But you all know that a story doesn’t end, just because somebody stops telling it, dontcha? There’s a process to this. A proper way of doing things. You’ve been kind enough to follow me this far, I wouldn’t dare cheat you out of the end.

Our mysteriously cloaked figure nods a sagely nod, and takes a real big sip of his drink; the universal sign that the tale was coming to a close. “Baa, I don’t gotta tell you more, do I? That’s the end of the parts I was there for anyhow. Did you know, people can move awful fast, when they can fly, or surf on their swords, or just plain scamper good? Much faster than a shepherd chasing after a silly old sheep. You all know of everything that happened between then, and when we finally caught up with them. The siege, the battle, the coronations, the parties! Thank goodness we got there in time for those last few. It’d been a long time, see, since we’d last seen them, and me and the Princess had some. Unfinished business.”

The hooded cloak falls back from his head. Two sheepy eyes crinkle over a smiling snout, peeking out from beneath a wonderfully wooly head. His hands hug a steaming mug of hot cocoa, so pleased with himself that he can’t help but kick his hoofsies underneath his barstool. “Fortunately, Sunshards make it real easy to speak Sheep.” Woolbur grins. “Man, it’s so hard t’keep a straight face an’ do a mysterious story properly. Thank goodness somebody invented cloaks.”

Secret Sword: I Was A Sheep The Whole Time! A technique so tricky, it takes years to pull off correctly. But when it works? There’s no defense against it. One story becomes another, right before your eyes, and how’re you supposed to withstand that, huh? And to those of you who say you figured me out already? Thanks bunches for not spoiling it, and acting surprised alongside everybody else. I really appreciate it. <3

Anyhow, there I am, a sheep the whole time, and isn’t that ideal for getting us away from the telling part of the story, and into all the bits that come after. Rounds of hearty applause and mugs banging on tables first, of course, but then! But then! Then comes the part where everybody gets involved! Some folks spin off into their little groups, talking about how that story reminds them of a tale of their own, and maybe this time they’ll remember how some sheep bumbled into the tale halfway through. Somebody else decides that it’s time for music, and by golly they’re right, it is time for music! And a whole buncha folks have questions! So many questions! Where’s your shepherd now? Did Princess Chen remember you two? Was it tricky, figuring out what sorta sheep-boy you wanted to be? Actually, could you tell us about the case of wobblin’ jelly?

The biggest question of all comes last. Always does. Cause, it only shows up after everybody else is done. When I’ve finally wound up, alone again, in my little corner of the room, catching my breath after a story well-told. Feeling all cozy-happy, proud as can be of what I’ve done, though not so proud I can’t think of how I might do a little better next time. That’s when my heart asks it, so loud I can’t possibly miss it:

“What now?”

And. Darnit. Ain’t that the trickiest question of all?

I really thought I’d know, by now. Having been on my very own quest and all. That’s all it takes to be an adventurer, right? Going on an adventure? S’not like I gotta get a fancy piece of paper, or have my tale told in so many corners of the world. I’m here. I can do this. Sorta. Kinda. Somewhat. But when I think of the folks who I went chasing after…

My journey started after theirs. When I first thought to dance, they’d been at it for years and years and years and years. That’s a fact. I had to run alllllllll the way across more kingdoms than I ever knew existed, just to see Princess Chen again. Just to reach places she’d passed through long ago. That’s also a fact. Now I got a mouth that can talk all fancy-like, a clever little sword all of my own, and hooves made for walking! Y’know what I don’t got? A clue. A sunshard. A princess t’be a handmaiden to. Or, hand…sheep? That’s a job, I know it is. Princess Chen, Rose from the River, Just Yue, Hyra of the Wolves, I’ve learned from so many great people. But it’s all just a mishmash of skills I picked up along the way. I don’t know what I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m doing with what I got. I don’t have anything to pull it all together into something that feels. Y’know. Complete.

Now, y’might say that’s plenty, and I’m just overthinking it. Maybe I am. I sure think I am, anyway. But I’m still thinkin’ it, and I still think it’s important, ‘cause, well, have you ever heard a duel? No, yeah, I know what I said. Duels have words in em too, y’know. Times to pour out your heart, and put your flag down, and say why you’re even there in the first place.

Princess Chen. Rose from the River. Just Yue. Hyra of the Wolves. They got swords, just like me. They do adventures, just like me. S’not fair to compare us, I know, but it’s so frightfully easy to, y’know? Listen to them duel sometime. They got so much to say about dueling. They know duels, like Chen knows Rose, or Yue knows Hyra. They know so much about what they’re doing, or why they’re doing, or what they want to do with what they’re doing.

And then there’s me.

I wanna love others, sure. I wanna love others by giving them big, good stories. I wanna love others by helping them think about big, incredible things. Those aren’t bad goals or nothing, but, even now, they feel small and half-baked. Not to mention they’re all big, high, fancy goals. What’s that got to do with how I step out the door? What’s that got to do with the duels I’m fighting right now? Barely a thing.

Makes it easy to feel like maybe I didn’t ever make it to Princess Chen after all. Maybe I’m still just a little, lost sheep. Flailing around while others are dancing properly. No real destination in sight. No real good I’m doing. I think that’s enough to make anybody confused. Sheep or not.

So. What now?

Well. You know us sheep. If there’s one thing we’re good at, it’s following our hearts. And mine heard a song, the day I saw those Princesses falling. I chased that song halfway across the world, until I got the chance to play it myself. And when I really sit, and think, I think that I’ve been chasing that song my whole life. Even when I was just a silly little lamb, grazing away at the hillsides, I saw music in the way the grass swayed in the breeze, and the impossible shapes of the clouds above, and the sunlight in my wool, and there was more around me than could ever really be there, and I knew it had to be real. I’d hear the notes, I’d see the ways I might put them together, and oh, it set such a fire in me. I wasn’t a lamb anymore, I was a bundle of fire and dreams in the shape of a lamb, with eyes so, so wide, straining to see the shapes of things too wonderful to touch.

So. I can’t be all clueless, right? Cause I know something’s touched my heart. So some part of me’s got to know what I’m chasing. Even if it’s too small or sheepy to put it into words, some part of me’s got to know.

And…and I’m lucky enough to have friends who want to hear whatever song I sing. Who want my songs, because they’re mine. Not because they were written by a princess. Because they were written by Woolbur.

What now? I dunno. But I don’t need an answer to be loved. Or to love the trip.

Now! Now I really oughta let you go, huh? You’ve got princesses to catch up with, tumbling down out of the Sky Castle. I’ve got a shepherd to rescue from some wily fox. (Though I may take my time on that one. In case his heart needs a little more time to sing.) It was great meeting you! I really mean it. Don’t be too sad, now! We may not see each other again here, but of course my story keeps on going. You’ve got a great story of your own to get back to, and you’ll never get there if you keep listening to silly old me.

So go on! Shoo! Back to princesses, back to blossoming love, back to a tale of sunshards, and hearts, and crossed swords, and stories like you’ve never seen before!

I’ll be right behind you.

The thing they don't tell you about your first kiss is that eventually it's gotta end. And when it's over, that's it. True Love's First Kiss is one of the Seven Ultimate Secret Techniques of the Heart (And Blade!), but it's a literal once-in-a-lifetime use move. The world's not gonna bend over to line up a perfect breeze to play with your hair and skirt and bless you with the perfect ray of sunshine like history's biggest spotlight while every person, fox, cloud, bird, and passing seed or leaf wafting through the skies turns and... stops to gobble up a lil' bit of your magic while it's there.

Y'gotta understand, this is a move that can topple empires when it's timed right. This is a moment that forges alliances forever or shatters them into a billion rainbow shards. It can turn a blinding, deadly snowstorm and turn it into a gentle spring rain and fill you with the power to stand up to your worst nightmares and even best them forever in a flourish of acrobatics that mark the end of a long and painful journey. If you don't believe me, ask Jessic. I'd bet you a floofy new tail she's got it on DVD.

But Yue just spent it on a prison escape. Well, that's not fair exactly, but the point is that it's gone and the world's pretty much the same as it's ever been now that she's just falling, falling, falling through the sky in the firm and delicious arms of Hyra of the Wolves. But then, if she could have kept her feelings from bubbling up out of her until lips found lips and her world melted into the warmest, softest, blinding light she could ever imagine... she wouldn't be Yue, would she? And Hyra would be slipping into the shadows right now to bide her time looking for the next big moment where she could steal somebody's everything again.

True Love's Second Kiss is a technique so paltry they don't even put it in the cheapo scrolls you can find on the bargain mat at the very end of a bazaar. But they probably oughta, y'know? How's it gonna be True Love if you only ever kiss the one time? How're any of these stupidface so-called swordsman and magicians able to sleep at night knowing they never bothered to tell trembling young maidens that the second kiss feels just as nice as the first?

And for that matter, the third. And the fourth. And the fifth. And the sixth, the One Where You're Finally Brave Enough To Try Slipping Your Tongue In Her Mouth might actually be better than all those others put together. And, like, sure. I get it. When you're fallin' and you're fallin' and you're fallin' some more and you take all those kisses and just kinda chain 'em all end to end like that, it just kinda turns into True Love's First Makeout Session, doesn't it? Careful Yue, or it's gonna turn into True Love's First Bra Unhooking and... sweetie? You're just not cut out to have that play out in front of such a big crowd. Save it. Let it be special. Private. Ideally in the moonlight by a waterfall, if you can manage. But that's just, like, my opinion.

But anyway, they come. The kisses, I mean. Light and sweet, then hot and heavy (wow, girl!!), and punctuated with sweet little nothings about her perfectly wonderful girlfriend and all the things that make her somebody's everything whether she's trying to be or not. It bubbles out of her like all the rest of it did, because Y-- oh gosh not again! Princess Yin's (why is that so hard?) stupid curse made it so hard to do this thing right and sooner like she wanted to so she's just been sitting and waiting and sitting and waiting and gosh darn it she's not gonna do it anymore! But also 'cause she can't help being who she is, which is to say a creature of sweetness and softness who fills every tiny hole she sees with happiness.

So after the kisses come the little touches and the squeezing. And after the little touches and the squeezing come the breathless smiles. And after the breathless smiles come the blushing and the squeaking because it's finally finally finally settling in just how bold and, um, lucky she's been. And after the blushing and the squeaking? You'd think it'd be shrieking, y'know, given how she's falling straight out of the Sky Castle down to the earth below without so much as a hot air balloon to help her.

But she's got Hyra. And she's got Rose. And she's got Chen. And... oh, right! Hahaha, sillyhead, she knows how to fly now! So this is just another first in a journey that's been stuffed so full of 'em even a pepper would blush at the idea. So she doesn't shriek at all, see? She laughs. Uproarious, joyful, rolling, delighted laughter that not even the winds of terbimal velocity (look it up, nerds) can snatch from everybody's ears.

"I'm leaving the landing to you!"

Ah, that most classic of lines. She falls, and she's safer than she's ever been. And when she makes it where she's going? She's got a whole bunch've hugs to hand out to all of the most deserving people in the world.

Here's a fun fact about freefall that you might learn if you fly a lot. That feeling of falling that's so scary, that's from changing speeds. Once you hit a point where you're falling as fast as you can, it doesn't really feel like you're falling anymore. When you're wearing a floofy cherry blossom skirt, it only takes about five seconds to reach that point, and then you're just...there. All those muscles relax and your heart stops getting a constant flood of adrenaline (the relaxation response is why cats have a reputation for landing on their feet: they have a good instinct to spread out in a fall and land more safely).

For Chen, it's a moment to just take in everything. To bask in the glow of Yue and Hyra's joy, to lean on Rose's oh so strong arm and feel the pure presence of her girlfriend and have it be the only thing in the whole world she can touch, that's really special. To grin at Cyanis' fluffy tails going swish swish swish amid all the gold and gems, and to lift her head and look back up and wonder which sparkles are loose coins and which one might just be Jessic sparkling through the hole all the way up there.

Chen hoped she'd get to spend time with them again. The sky castle had really been something special. She'd learned all about anime! She'd won a super cool sword duel! She'd made new friends and she felt like she'd found something about herself that she could hold onto. Even when they got back down to the ground and she had to deal with Yin, Qiu, and her Moms. Even then, she had new dreams and wishes and nobody could take those away.

Speaking of getting back down there, how were they all planning the landing? Chen looked down to see the ground starting to have features to it. Streams and rivers, the great lake, roofs of little villages bits of farmland and forest all spread out down there on top of the ruins of the burrows, the occasional distant metal tower or odd ruined building dotting the landscape too with their unusually straight and square shapes. She actually expected that Rose could either stop herself or take the impact with no harm done.

Chen began moving herself with her sword, humming a song from the beginning of one of Jessic's anime games (which they really hadn't had proper time for) where a strange young princess with a ruby necklace in her throat sprouted angel's wings. Later she and her friends seem to be on an epic journey, and there's a cute scene where she leans into her swordsman friend in a town amid the snow and they hold each other close, but Chen doesn't have too much time to reminisce.

She moves herself down and just below Yue and Hyra, giving them a smile and a passing wave if they're not too busy at the moment. And then she starts dancing.

Well, properly, what she's doing is a more complex version of the flight spell Yue had been learning, but with a bit of her own special flare. The story went that the princess who had discovered the sunshard in Sourcefall had originally been scared, but the north wind had called out to her and they had danced over the ice and snow and that's how she had first attuned to her shard. On top of that, Chen had spent her youth in Ys, where Ysel was never afraid to cut loose and where the hot desert sands and cold nights called for dances with flowing, twirling silks and gleaming gems set amid naked chests and bellies.

So Chen, now, is doing what might be a Ysing desert wind dance with her sword, leading with her hips into a step and twirl that sends her cherry blossom skirts twirling amid the breeze and then trailing her chest and lowering her head after. She looks for all the world like a fluttering cherry blossom caught in a breeze dancing up and down, each petal rolling up and down in turn.

And around her, there's more than a breeze! The air swirls and the gems and coins all about them are caught up in a sparkling upwards waterfall, streaming around the lovers. The air slows their fall, gently at first, and then with greater strength as the ground comes closer and closer. Chen angles the air a little so that they don't fall right into a village and break things, instead bringing them to a field full of sheeps milling about.

And so they come to rest, not speeding but gently floating on a swirling blanket of wind. It slows them enough that by the time they reach the field they're going at about the speed of a light jog and can come to rest atop the nearest fluffy coat.

There is an art to walking on air. It is to step so forcefully that the air beneath you is forced into solidity for a moment. And, if you have already come so far? What is the difference, really, between a step and a leap? So don’t you worry, Rose from the River was never really in any danger—

But she follows Princess Chen.

The air is firm beneath her feet as she spins a net from her bindings, works it around a very well-tied fox so that it’s easy to sling her over one strong shoulder. The breeze runs its fingers through her hair as she spins about Chen of the North Wind, an accent to her dance, a backup dancer here to make the princess look good (and to swing a certain mischievous fox along with her, just to make Cyanis close her eyes and squeak and burrow closer).

She pulls the scarf from her lips and it becomes wrapped around her throat, rippling and dancing along with her, and she lifts her head and out comes the water-brook-song of her joy:

Love, come and dance with me by the river
and let the water brush over our feet!
I have tasted the world upon my tongue
but you alone I deem sweet!

How she smiles!

Do you see it, Chen?

White and shining, the flash of her teeth, the wrinkling of her flushed cheeks, the flaunting of her daring outfit? How she looks at you and joy just bursts from her?

By the time she sinks onto a sheep, cradling Cyanis in her net, she’s already starting to retreat back into herself a little. She is, after all, a follower of the Way; she has been rather delinquent, all for the sake of dreams and girlfriends. She will have to leave.

But you saw her, Chen, and you saw her too, Yue, and that is a treasure that you can never misplace, because it will always be in your heart, won’t it? Won’t it just. Rose from the River, freed from bondage, dancing on the very wind with a captured vixen over her shoulder, the image of a merry-making goddess doing the kind of dance that would tempt a sun out of hiding.

Strange how a moment can feel like two weeks.

Hyra's landing is anything but - she's got one last trick. She has angled the two of you towards a lake and does nothing to slow your descent. Instead, her hand moves in the complicated motion of a shielding spell. Red-white stars streak around you for a moment before you hit the water at full speed.

And there's an explosion of colour.

She'd originally learned this spell for battle. It was a way to turn the kinetic energy of an opponent's blow into an explosion of light - blocking their blow and blinding them in the same motion. Turns out the same spell when applied to terminal velocity results in a magnificent blast of colour and light that sends a fountain of water pouring up into the sky, preternaturally illuminated by magic that swirls through every drop. It's bright enough to illuminate every hidden corner of the water; bright enough to send the subterranean monsters of the Burrows scurrying deeper into their aquatic pits. It doesn't last quite as long as she wanted, though - this was something that she hadn't had the opportunity to practice as much as she'd liked. And so, the end result of Hyra's master plan is simply two girls embracing each other in a lake.

But then, maybe that's right. Maybe she didn't need to steal the show this final time, and this was good enough that she could just let it be as what it was.

Strange how two weeks can feel like a moment.

There's some time here, before the final curtain rises again. Time for hearts. Time for dates. Time for kisses. Tell us of your hearts, your dates, and your kisses as new girlfriends.

Helping Yue and Hyra land safely and seeing how much they were focused on each other made Chen's own heart flutter. They were each other's whole world for a little while and that was something special. And that gave her time to turn away from them and let them have their moment in the duck pond while she turns to Rose.

And then there are kisses, Rose from the River! Chen's breathless and excited, her cheeks flushed red from the cold and the wind as she comes and throws herself upon you, raining kisses first on your cheek, and then along your ear (so flowery!) and down your neck before she works her way back up and around to firmly press those lips to yours. In fact, she might bowl you over entirely when she presses herself up and into you and takes a nibble of your lower lip while she's there.

When the two finally part, still breathless in a new way, Chen's concern is evident on her face. Yes, even though she saw you step as though the air was as firm as a mountain, still she's got a cross little look on her face. "Why'd you wait until the last second, huh?" she asks you, Rose. You can see on her face that even though she'd made a tactical move in the air, even though she'd entirely correctly left you to her own devices, she'd actually been worried. What if she had been wrong? What if you'd been distracted or weakened or Cyanis had done something unexpected in the fall and she'd been wrong? So she's hiding it with an in your face accusation. But considering the height difference, doesn't she look like a petulant little toddler that you just want to snap up for hugs and tickles, hm? And doesn't it make you blush, too, knowing that someone cared for you, that your little girlfriend was really honestly worried and wanted to protect you as though you were still a dainty handmaiden who might trip all over herself?

Indeed, Chen is so up in Rose's face that the suddenness of it bowls her onto her back and results in a "don't try and dodge the question!" as Chen comes toppling down on top of her, Cyanis entirely forgotten (and surely too busy trying to wriggle her way out of her new net and scoop up the rain of gold coins all at the same time). And it would all be too much if Chen didn't start laughing upon finding herself directly on top of her girlfriend and coyly bringing her face right up to Rose's face with a smile that requires almost crossing your eyes to look at her in focus. "I'm waiting, are you going to explain yourself?" she says, only just sticking her tongue out at her girlfriend.

Well. Iiiiiiiiiii dunno about you, but. In my opinion? If you wanna know what I think? If, uh, I mean, you... do wanna know what I think, right? Course you do! Course! Right. Well. Well!

I think! Given all the, y'know, the everything, that one day's not askin' too much. Y'know? Just one little day. Let Yue and Hyra have this one single solemntary morning noon and night to drown in each other and leave the rest for figuring out later. Tomorrow when they wake up (late), there'll be time for new adventures. Tomorrow there'll be time for all the little things. Tomorrow there'll be time for friends. And for saying sorry to those friends, who happen to matter more than all the rest.

It's just, a friend's not the same thing as a girlfriend, is it? At least not all the time. Though I guess a girlfriend should always be a friend. But still. There are those people you'd do anything for, and your fluffy tail can't help but wag when you see them, right? Or, uh, the people at the end of the adventure who hug with everything you've got and cry for all you're worth 'cause you know you're about to have to say goodbye for a while and it hurts your heart to do it. But you do it, don't you? For you and for them, 'cause you've all got different lives to live.

But then there's the ones whose suitcases you sit down inside of to keep them from leaving you, aren't there? The ones where your whole world goes bursting into full color when they come in the door and you have to tackle them right then and there before they go away again. The ones you hug and cry with even harder at the end of the journey because you're saying goodbye together. And you wave together and you let everyone else go, because you decided you were gonna live your lives together after all.

Yue's never had that second thing before. And when she and Hyra finally locked together against all odds a whole bunch of other stuff happened (that you just got finished hearing about, you lucky devil!) and made it so she couldn't do any of the special Girfriend Stuff she'd read so much about. So it's not, y'know, it's not unreasonable for her to wanna have a day to start doin' all that before she gets back to all've the everything else. And besides. Besides! If she's gonna have a proper double-date with Rose and Chen she needs practice first, right?

And it's a day they haven't wasted, lemme tell you. First picnic, out under a little persimmon tree. Tea and little cakes and just a tiny bit of duck with crispy bits of skin cut up like little fries. All handmade, of course. And shhhoooooo goodf! Mm! Even if there was barely enough extra for guests, and um, ahaha, if we're being real honest for a second? That's proooooobably 'cause Yue didn't eat her whole share. Still though! Mmmf!! But yeah. First picnic. First time sharin' a sunlit spot with someone she could actually have a conversation with. First time wasting that first time with not sayin' anything worth hearing anyways. First time sittin' in the sunlight, with not a single bead out farming and bein' completely ok with that.

First time runnin' with a pretty girl by her side and getting to feel the wind in her hair and tugging at her skirts 'cause even though she's wolf-light, wolf-swift, wolf-fast, she's actually not a wolf for the first time she's actually gotten to move around like this since learnin' it was something she could do. And it's joyful, a treat among treats, to feel her sandals on the ground and glance over through a mop of frizzled brown hair and seeing the most beautiful girl in the world grinning at her and matching her step for... wait a second, where's she going? Hyra you jerk, you can't go faster than! Ohhhh, you're in trouble when she catches you!

First time stumbling into a room tired and sweaty and needing a bath... and feeling eyes on her when she goes to peel off her clothes.

"Um... d-d'you have to watch like that?"

"Does it bother you?" Hyra is smiling like a sphynx.

"N... no! But I, it's just, oh goshies, I'm all sweaty and gross..."

"I like you sweaty and gross. I should keep training you forever just to keep you looking like this."

"A-and besides! Y-y-you saw me naked for like a whole week! A-a-and you're looking at me like..."

"Yue."

"Meep!"

"I saw a wolf. A very pretty wolf, sure. But now I get to see you, Yue. I get to see the body you belong to, not something someone else tried to force you to be. Of course I'm gonna look! Unless you don't want me to~"

"N-no! I mean yes! I mean gosh, gosh!! I, I... I want you to look, and I, I want you to..."

"You think I need a bath too, is that it?"

"Ye, yu-- uhuh! I think we! I! Please?"

"You poor thing, you're shaking! Well. How about I help you finish getting out of those clothes?"

"...y-yes please."

"And then you,"

"Uhuh?"

"Can help me out of mine."

"adskfgjblbsdf!!"

"There we go, good girl~"

Yue learned a lot of things that night. Like, for one, Hyra's got a mole just above the left side of her waist that's perfect for kissing. And another one a little higher just beneath the collar bone. And that Hyra's tail wags when she runs her fingers down the magic spot on her spine.

Also, remember all that stuff I said before about kissin'? And how you never get your first one twice? Turns out that's not true! 'Cause there's all sorts of places a girl can be kissed. And the first kiss on her neck's very different from the one on her lips. And the one that comes after with the sucking that pulls her skin up and the bite of strong teeth after? That's even better. The line of tiny pecks down her chest feel like something she'd never even dreamed of.

And didja know girls can get licked and kissed across their tummy? And it's the best thing ev-- wait! Wait wait wait, breaking news! Thighs are even better for kissing! Right on the top, like that, like that! Right on... on the inside, and... oh, oh, ohhhh!

Yue learned a lot about kisses that night. About getting them and giving them, and the noises she had inside of her that she never knew she could make. It's a wonderful, incredible, amazing thing to have a girlfriend. To have somebody who loves you with all of their infinite heart. Someone you never have to say goodbye to, not ever. Not even then. It's amazing to give all of yourself to that person. Next time she'll try to learn how to take it back. Or if she's not up to that just yet, maybe she'll learn how many other ways there are to give yourself to a special girl.

The duel is, after all, about the duel. And there's always something new to learn. About technique. About your partner. About yourself and your secretest of secret hearts.

This maneuver has many names: the Elephant and the Mouse, the Corp and the Startup, the Mother and the Girlfriend. Each is, in their own way, the same: a powerful, fearsome force of nature brought down, defeated, by something small and weak. So it is with Rose from the River and Chen, the former finding herself sprawled in the grass, the latter petulant and teasing and possessed of many secret and powerful kisses.

Yes, even though Rose from the River has played with Chen, has made her sing (oh-so-muffled) and has been shown off in front of her, those sorts of kisses are still new and frightening and wonderful. For a moment, this beautiful handmaiden looks up at Chen with the fear of someone who is walking out over the abyss; the fear of someone who doesn’t know where this is going.

But Chen can feel it, can’t she? The powerful thump-a-thump of Rose’s ancient heart, beating so excited, a reassuring counterpoint to that look of helpless awe. And then— ah, there! The once-fierce warrior turns her head and burns with the fire of being cared for.

“I was enjoying the view,” Rose from the River says, almost managing to assert herself in the face of the princess who, by the stars and the shattered suns, cares about her. (Would it be such a bad thing to make the Way wait for her for a few decades? Yes, it would; she must be free, must be its tool, must be an instrument of the common good of everything. But universal eudaimonia seems to fade in the light of Chen, here, hot and vital and full of desire for her.) “How could I not stare? Beauty demands attention: the sunset on the mountains, the breaking of the waves on the shore, the dance of Princess Chen.” And all three are part of this world that she is so, so lucky to be in.

“…you are dangerous, you know,” Rose from the River adds, changing the subject— but only after she has leaned forward and stolen a kiss from Chen. (A traitor’s kiss, a burning sin, so sweet and precious.) “All of you princesses are. You represent the temptation to temporal power and the indulgence of personal aesthetics above the common good, empowered by the Sunshards themselves. Why do you think I have to defeat Princess Qiu and scatter her shards?”

Two hands explore Chen’s lower back, pull her closer, firm and teasing and saying: Princess Chen, I need you. Stay with me. But what Rose from the River says is: “I am a Pilgrim of the Way, princess. I have duties. A fox to see to prison. A universal good to pursue. Do you think I am weak enough to stay just because of a beautiful, clever, brave girl? Do you think I am that easily beguiled?”

But you can feel her underneath you, Chen. You know what she wants you to answer. She wants you to take the responsibility of being strong and helpful and unassailable away from her. She wants to trust you like Jessic trusts Keron; she wants to be a girlfriend rather than a great and terrible monster who can only do good in the world through the monastic life. And if she makes that choice herself, she will think herself selfish and terrible and unworthy of you, and so she is silently pleading with you to tell her that she is weak, easily seduced, and an ordinary girl, one who needs a princess to look after her and keep her safe.

Rose from the River is spending a String on you, Chen. If you immediately do something to claim Rose from the River as yours and validate her desire to be a handmaiden, take an XP and Entice her hard.

Of course, you don’t have to. You can choose to be offended by the fact that Rose from the River is looking for an excuse to choose you, rather than making a grand proclamation of how much more you mean to her. You can be hurt, even, that after all you went through at the Sky Castle, that she’s still struggling with how much she wants you but feels she can’t just decide to be with you, that turning her back on the Way out of caprice would be a failure state for her as a person.

But she could be yours. All yours. All you have to do is accept what she’s telling you with her body, to play along with the stories she tells herself in order to make sense of herself as a person, to lean into the Monastic Erotica genre and tell the blushing, helpless monk that she is doomed to be a simple handmaiden for the princess she’s falling so, so hard for. Just do that and she’s yours, Chen.

You could even make her let Cyanis go, just to rub in how you’re making her choose you and to reward a good girl for helping Hyra, and it would turn Rose from the River on so hard. While we’re sharing.

Oh Rose. Are you still afraid you'll hurt your little Chen? She loves you, and she wants you, and do you know for all her maid dresses and her frilly skirts and how much she loves it when you pick her up and ride her on your shoulder, she loves this part too. It might even become her favorite part.

Her hand presses down on your chest, firm and hard, the pressure pushing your chest up and in. Doesn't that feel so good and make you just want to moan with pleasure? But she won't let you because her other hand is up and over your chin and your mouth, pressing it closed. You know that maybe, if you tried your absolute hardest, you could resist her, but you can't, can you? You can't bring yourself to move at all because this is what you want from your princess, this is everything you want from your princess.

"Yes, and yes" she says, and her smile and her happy blushing cheeks are still there, but the turn of her lips and the gleam of her eyes is feral now. She hasn't had the chance to tell you all her fantasies about getting a sunshard and being a snow leopard herself and giving everyone in her domain some of the powers to transform their bodies that you Rose from the River inspired. But she doesn't need to either because you can hear that purr in her voice.

"I know I'm dangerous, and I know you're that easily beguiled." And here she steals another kiss, still pressing on your breasts and your cheeks as she does it. A deep kiss pressing your lips in and making your mouth feel so thick and full, and then as she pulls away she adds a peck on the nose. "And you're already mine. My girlfriend. And my handmaid, we did such a good job in the sky castle, it's already decided. hee~" and she laughs because it's cute that you thought it wasn't. (And because, you know, she's never going to be as harsh as Keron and isn't going to try. She wants you to see she's enjoying herself, that she's having fun at your expense and for you to want to be a good girl for her because you just can't bear to bring a frown and a pout to those smiling lips, can you?)

"Besides, you forgot" she says, pressing even harder, adding a bit of magical touch to pin you down much harder than that little body of hers could manage on its own. "I promised to pay you back for my introduction to Keron's service. And I'm sorry to say that's going to take days to do properly my little rosepetal." And then she giggles again because she's found a good nickname for you and she couldn't get through that delivery with a straight face. But she's still pressing down on you so hard and she's holding your face and...and now she's asking if you agree to all this and her hand on your chin is making you nod ever so slowly. She's given you all the time in the world to shake your head, but you didn't, did you, and you're too silly to nod it yourself when your whole body wants to melt and have her work her hands over you. And when she's done, she starts doing that, still firmly perched atop you, touching you everywhere, gentle hands rubbing your shoulders and your arms along the outside and then the inside, and then along your sides and over your belly and down the thighs.

As she's working on you, she leans down and whispers sweetly. "I think we're going to have to punish you for being so forgetful, aren't we? So you'll remember next time. We'll just get rid of some of those silly duties of yours so you don't have to worry about them." Then she raises her voice "Cyanis, crawl over here, would you? You did such a good job helping Hyra, rosepetal has decided to let you go with a warning this time! She just told me! Isn't that great?" Then she leans back into her petal with her whisper, "now show me what a good girl you are and let Cyanis out of her net without moving out from under me." Chen's looking at you with the biggest smile and she's still massaging along your legs and up your back now. You're not going to let her down, right petal?

[Entice: 6+4+2=12. So many strings~]

rosepetal. rosepetal rosepetal rosepetal.

That’s not a name for a warrior monk. That’s not a name for an ancient monster, capable of shattering mountains. That’s the name for Rose. Simple, pretty, and diminutive. rosepetal. Rose’s body is a flurry of lightning from head to toes, flashing up and down her body as her future fills with Chen. And that’s not all that’s full of Chen: her head is full of Chen and that playful, youthful energy, that quality of princesses she found so disagreeable because of how enticing it always was; her eyes are full of Chen, that feline smile, that beautiful round face, those dark bangs, that adorable frilly dress; her mouth is full of the taste of Chen’s breath, her lips, her desire to keep Rose close.

Here, then, Rose fails, as so many monks before her have: seduced away from the highest good by a sublime and private love. Here, then, the Way is once again thwarted by the power of the heart. Here, Rose from the River, who wraps her power right around her and gives the universe her leash, is finally defeated by a princess, and what’s a name but a sign of the heart?

The HUNTER-Class 猎犬.

First of the Radiants.

The Briar Pilgrim.

Dòu-zhànshèng-fó.

Rose from the River.

rosepetal.

Rose.

Rose’s fingers are nimble, and she is still strong; she pulls Cyanis across the grass, works at the knots. But, ah, it’s not that easy, is it? Not with Chen on top of her, touching where she pleases, pinching, kneading, stealing kisses; the fingers fumble as Rose groans and tries to wrap her thighs around Chen, who pushes them aside like two halves of a tree’s trunk. And, ah, here is Chen murmuring into Rose’s neck that Rose must be taking her time on purpose, that she’s got such clever fingers and why isn’t Cyanis untied yet? But every time she says something, the task gets longer and more complex as poor Rose finds things to think about that very much are not the net trapping Cyanis.

But only an ingrate and a very silly fox indeed would complain too loudly. After all, Chen’s the one who’s making Rose let the little fox go, and Chen’s the one who’s doing a very good fox job of filling Rose’s heart with desire. Patience, Cyanis, patience! Every time Rose loses track of the ropes, it’s further proof that you’re about to get away scot-free! And besides, think of this excellent new marketing opportunity! Someone is about to need a new wardrobe with a rosepetal theme, and you can absolutely talk Chen into loaning out her handmaiden to cover the costs!

Not that you would ever take advantage of that to get even with someone who tried to send you to cutie jail, Cyanis, pure and innocent maiden that you are. You definitely would not pounce on an opportunity to tease a big buff girl who used to have power over you, with her girlfriend’s complete permission, it’s just that you have licensing fees to pay and shipping and handling isn’t free and after all that time cooped up in the Sky Kingdom you’ve got to turn around all this unexpected windfall!

The chances of you getting even with Rose definitely are not increasing the longer it takes for her to— she’s a sword sage and a dancer and all that, how did she manage to pull those ropes tighter??

What ends up happening is that Rose finally undoes the net and your bindings with her teeth, with Chen lying on top of her, stroking her cheek with the back of one hand and smiling like a girl who just had all her wishes come true. And when Rose looks back up at Chen? She’s helpless. She’s got it so bad. She can’t even get through the warning without breaking into deep, throaty laughter because Chen’s running one finger down her neck, and here the former Equal of Crowns squirms, drumming her heels on the grass and doing her very best not to buck Chen off.

The second you leave them alone, they’re going to start making out furiously, and they’re definitely going to need some new clothes once they’re done. A smart fox would get on that, chop chop!

[Rose gives into desire. She’s all yours, Chen. <3]