"Yeah," Gertrude mumbled as Gerard aptly pointed out the dance Trudy was performing, "it's the Csárdás."

She didn't know whether to feel some sort of rural kinship with the oaf in this moment, or to be mad that [i]he knew[/i] she was as caked in mud as he was. You never [i]could[/i] quite wash it all off. That's how she'd made him earlier, at least. Jeering at Gerard for being a gussied up farm animal was tempting, but the area on that particular spell would be just as unkind to her.

Oh, who was she kidding? She was angry at him. Apparently, so too was the Moonlit Queen. Gertrude snorted as Gerard began glowing. The amazing technicolor oaf.

The lout got it too, but Gertrude was decidedly less keen on his transformation. Now they shared a hair color, and that grossed her out. Interestingly, these weren't the only shifts to the ambient magic in the air. Tyaethe was positively [i]glowing[/i] at the mention of their task being to defeat the Midnight Hunt and Rozenalt, who she'd apparently had a grudge against. It was downright [i]uncomfortable[/i] for Gertrude to be near her. She hadn't known Tyaethe long, but felt it was novel to see this much passion from the woman. Normally she'd pat Tyaethe on the head, but it would probably make her a little sick to get that close. Instead, she shook her head.

"Come off it," Gertrude addressed Tyaethe, rolling her eyes, "it's obvious you want to have a go at him. The mistress isn't going to give you small fry duty. Isn't that right, mistress?"

Gertrude grinned smugly at Fanilly, as if daring the woman to contradict her.

Trudy began contorting back into a broom, which she gently took into her hand as the scoundrel stepped forward. As was too often the case, he had the right of it. As was too often the case, she would refuse to ever admit this out loud. Of course the stakes would need to be defined before they set off as well, but that would come after they defined a win and a loss. They were dealing with a fey, so these things needed to be made clear.

As for the stakes, Gertrude felt it wouldn't be too bad to have the Moonlit Queen herself. The question was how to phrase it without getting smote like the two dunderheads.