Anarion

Return to Thellamie

"Oh gosh, this is so cloak and dagger! This is much better than trying to show up with an army! We can sneak in as travelers, maneuver through the space even if the Khatun shows up."

Yuki is grinning big and wide, from ear to ear. It's probably a little unnerving on a Kel, showing off cute little fangs as her ears twitch happily. It's like Suli put her in charge of her own adventure novel! And everybody knew that a couple of heroes can go a lot further and get into a lot more places than an army. An army has to make a big deal of moving itself around! You have to, like, pack food, and pitch camps, and house everybody, which you should normally try not to drop on a random town because forcing people to house a bunch of soldiers they weren't expecting is rude! But a few may go where many could not.

Okay, okay, Yuki is resisting the urge to literally make a fellowship of nine here. But something like that. "Let's take Pasenne. She's been super helpful and has been listening to all our planning anyway, so you must trust her, right? And maybe, like, two or three other Nagi that you trust. Enough that when we're traveling all together we look like a solid group that nobody wants to mess with, but not so big that we can't all sit down at a restaurant and have a meal at one table. If you've got someone that knows Aestival really well, bring them, plus I want to learn all about the terrain so someone who's been there can tell me about it on the way. And I guess at least one guard in case we need to do some fighting, but like, not one that's gonna pull her heartblade at the first sign of trouble!"

Yuki rubs her chin. "Hmm, how recognizable do you think you are outside of Crevas? You're like, royalty now, so do you need a special disguise? Do you need to bring a makeup person with you for that? Or a costumer? Also like, what's your um, expected traveling accommodations? Do we need to stay in the nicest places wherever we go? Be honest about it, cuz I went to camp with plenty of people who said they liked roughing it, but the second that a leaf touched them they were freaking out and couldn't recognize poison oak if you gave them a field guide with the picture and held it right next to the damn stuff." She blushes, this is obviously a sore spot. "A-anyway, my point is, just be honest if you need nicer places and make sure we bring enough money for what we plan to do and then we'll make that work, we don't have to make you suffer."

She thinks again, taps her foot. "Oh, also, also, what's the weather like in Aestival? I brought a snow jacket that I mostly haven't worn here cuz it's cold where I'm from and it's cold in the Kel mountains. But is Aestival usually really hot? What kind of stuff should we wear to blend in? Can we do cloaks with hoods? Or is that weird? I kinda want a cloak with a hood though, it's the adventuriest piece of clothing!"

All of this is happening as they move in and out of rooms. As Yuki stops to use the bathroom and wash her face and her hair and fluff her ears. As she gets her old, rusted sword and the clothes she has, along with her bag and her phone and her tablet. She doesn't carry a ton on her normally, but her bag has a few dice and a handful of buttons that she got at a Magic prerelease and stuffed in there cuz they were cute and she liked the blue and green color scheme on the dice.

Hoping she hasn't bewildered Suli too much, she stops and tries to summarize. "Okay so, you, me, Pasenne if that's cool with you. One Aestival expert who can be a guide and teach us or at least me about the place. A person for your disguises if you need one. And one guard/fighter person who isn't going to cause us too much trouble but can back us up if we need it. How's that work for a traveling party?"

"Oh, wait, crap, what about the people you're leaving behind? Is it a political problem if you're out of the city and nobody knows where you are for too long? Do we need to, like, bring Purnima or one of her close allies with us so they don't all plot against you while you're outside the city? Not that I want to see an enemies to lovers run or anything" No, she didn't say that last part, shut up.

Return to Thellamie

"Oh! Ah...Ah...I see." Yuki blushes in turn because she was dumb, and the whole lecture on what to do later, and everything was just...well...oops. "You're...you're really committed Suli. I mean, I guess you would be, the ceremony for the crown of light was here in Crevas, and you were crowned as one of the possible candidates to tame the golden fawn, so it makes sense. I'm just worried, y'know?"

Yuki paces in front of Sulochana, teacup in hand, sipping and thinking. Her other hand is also on the teacup, keeping her occupied. "Dang, I hate leaving Aadya, but I have to go with you. I mean, like, every which way I think about it. Yuki and Suli against the world. But also I gotta make sure you don't lose your head either. I'll tell you the same thing I told Juni. Hazel's...well...he's a little shy and he's never had a girlfriend. If you come on too strong, I don't think it will tame him, it will just spook him. I'm not sure the Khanate can so easily tame him either. Whatever it means, it's different than capturing him or forcing him to serve. Locking him up in the middle of nowhere will just make him want to escape, not tame him."

She sets her empty teacup down, she's been sipping at it constantly and now it's down. She gives Pasenne another smile as Yuki puts the cup on the tree that the Nagi maid is bringing.

"Man, this sucks though. I mean, not us hanging out! That distinctly does NOT suck, it is awesome. I'm just so curious to know what happened with Aadya though, I wish we could do both! Like, first off, somebody managed to beat her up, and like, I'm pretty sure she'll be fine even without me to help with her bruise ointments. But that's pretty rare, she's super strong. And she's on an investigation, which is...uh...not really Aadya's forte last I checked. I feel like we're setting her up on a Boromir story route here, and I really hope that's not the case. I mean, at least getting shot with heart arrows by the Khatun doesn't kill you, but it clearly sucks." Yuki offers a sympathetic glance at Sulochana. "You probably have no idea what I just said, but I just mean that we're kinda leaving Aadya to be the big dumb strong person who's gonna get confused and maybe corrupted if she's left alone too long. And then she'll try to redeem herself because her hearts in a good place, but she'll probably do it by taking on a fight against overwhelming odds and get herself beat up even more in the process. Or maybe taken captive by the Khatun in our version of events. That seems to be the big thing everybody but Juni's worried about, right?"

Yuki sighs, then gives herself a shake, takes a few steps, and loosens up her shoulders. "Okay, enough getting worried over stuff I can't handle. Today, it's you and me and however much of an army you pull together traveling to Aestival! And then we'll figure things out from there. Just try and be nice when you finally meet Hazel, kay? Now let's..." she was about to say let's go, but Yuki gives a glance at her empty cup and Suli's giant breakfast and her own nervous energy. "Let's freshen up and get our stuff together, and let me get my coat and all my stuff. And then let's go!"

Chatted to home-away-from-home
>[.snowkitten]
>chatted with Suli. I'm going to stick with her. Sorry Aadya, I really miss you! But I spent all last night running off after every single new face I saw and everything kinda went wrong. So I want to make sure things go well with Suli, and then we'll figure stuff out from there. Maybe whatever you're dealing with will bring us to the same place and if so we will definitely make up there. Pinkie promise!

Return to Thellamie

Yuki offers Sulochana a weak smile, and turns to Pasenne at just such an angle that if Sulochana were to, say, immediately drop all manners and dig in as fast as she could, nobody would notice for a moment or two. "I don't think I'm radiant. At least, not this time. This time it's just Yuki. But I really do hope you can get your parents a house, that sounds really nice! I think...well...no...I...I don't know how this contest will end, but I think that whoever's in charge should know about the needs of Crevas no matter what."

She looks at Pasenne a bit longer. She's not sure about the tail and the ribbons but she decides to venture her opinion. "Oh and I love the sound your tail makes, it's very soothing." A smile with that as well, a little bit lowering her ears, a sip of tea immediately after to hide her face because she's worried that was a social faux paus but also really hoping it was helpful and good, and it was how she really felt so that probably counted for something too.

After that, she turns back to Sulochana. Decides to grab some more chai first, and hmms while she fills her cup, tail flicking as she thinks. "Yeah, today, Yuki and Suli against the world" she says as she sits down. She gives Sulochana a serious face though. "I doubt my axe will really matter much in a huge fight though, and I don't really want to fight the Khanate even though you're competing with them. You know that's going to end up with you and Juni each trying to kidnap me from the other a bunch." She grins because that part was kind of a joke, or at least kind of funny and fun and, well having a bunch of her friends all trying to kidnap her back and forth didn't sound like the worst thing in the world at any rate.

But then it's back to serious Yuki, looking Suli right in the face, ears up, eyes clear. "You deserve a hangout day, and I'll come with you to the council and support you however I can. And after that, we're both going to find Aadya once she's done with her council thing. Cuz like, seriously, who beats up Aadya?! Aren't you dying of curiosity, Suli?"

She waits for Sulochana's response before she chats the group to confirm.

Return to Thellamie

As Yuki hastily straightens her tea, her first thought, absurdly, is that she should have shared more selfies. She is thinking that while blushing. Imagining Aadya's muscular, naked body. And yes, she needs to respond to Juniper, but just give her a second, okay?! It's like, Aadya's still thinking about her like she's twelve, skinny and twiggy and there to be brave and play. Aadya is not thinking about how Yuki will feel about her now. Aadya is dumb as the rock in her name, and all the more beautiful for it. But maybe if Yuki had shared more selfies, Aadya would be seeing her differently now.

She lifts a shaky cup of the chai up to her face, sniffs in the beautiful steam that smells of cardamom and cinnamon. She takes a sip and lets the sweet warmth flow over her tongue and then breathes it out through her nose. Tea was good.

"Your name was Pasenne?" she asks, looking over at the maid. "Did you make this tea? If so, thank you! And if not, please thank the kitchen staff for me, okay?" She smiles at the maid, only still blushing a little bit at her fumble that Pasenne had obviously just watched. She turns down to her tablet, but then on second thought looks up at the maid again. "So, what do you make of all this crown of light, destiny stuff?" She asks.

She looks back down and starts typing, but glances back and forth at Pasenne, doing her best to signal that she wants conversation while she's working.

To Juniper
>[.snowkitten]
>I'm mostly okay. Suli's mostly okay too, she's on the mend, makeup doing a lot of work. 😊 The Khatun's pretty vicious though.
>But yeah, I think you could DM her, but give it a little bit so you're not interrupting her morning routine. Maybe hit her up in like half an hour.
Here she looks down, and if Juniper's watching the messages come in, she'll have a bit of a gap, maybe even respond first
>I'm sorry about last night. I kept seeing someone new and running off. First Suli, then you, then I ran off from you cuz I saw Eclair, that maid knight from all those years ago. I'm glad you're okay at least.

To Aadya
>[.snowkitten]
>I can probably come by. Currently with Suli, she got stabbed by the Khatun last night :(
>But she's almost done getting ready, so maybe we'll both come out together. Let me chat the group, actually.
>...wait hold up. Who managed to beat YOU up?

To Home-away-from-home
>[.snowkitten]
>okay, hi. So like, Aadya needs some help, I'm hanging with Suli, and I jumped over to Juni last night and then dashed off. We need, like, a plan for what we're doing today. And maybe some way to start thinking about what we're doing with the whole magical deerboy thing. Cuz he's my friend and I want to help him too, I left him alone at the festival and he got hit with the destiny hammer and now he's run off somewhere with the fox twins of all people 😕. Not sure what to do.
[Invoking family meeting here]

She's looking back and forth at Pasenne this whole time. Listening between messages. Sipping her tea. Occasionally putting the tablet down to cut herself a piece of sausage and eat some egg. Yuki's absolutely starving, in fact, and seven course breakfast really hits the spot.

Return to Thellamie

Her first reaction was not to wake up at all. Screw the sun, this was comfy! Yuki turns her head the other way, away from the light beams and buries her face in the nice warm coils. Her ear tickles across them and twitches. This is good. This is ideal. She hugs the coils close, scrunches her own body, and tries to go back to dreamland. She holds onto this for a minute or two. No light, no vision. But there's too many things. Her nose wiggles with the smell of chai, she wants some. Her ear keeps twitching with each breath of wind, it's so much more sensitive here, and she can hear the motion of the air in the room, can feel it as much as hear it. The sun keeps moving and even turned away, she can tell the room is a little lighter, the curtains are not trying to be blackout curtains, they just want to smooth it out a bit so it's not too harsh.

She turns her head back to the sun, opens her eyes. Sulochana is still asleep, she can tell because of the slow rhythmic breathing. Sulochana needed that. She'd actually been stabbed last night and then left by the Khatun. That must have had its own special sort of pain. Not being taken, not being cared for. From what Yuki knew of Thellamie, that was considered a bit cruel. Maybe necessary in the big fight, nothing personal in that sense perhaps, but still kind of cold at best. The kind of cold that says that what you're doing is more important than stopping to make sure your opponent is okay. Hmm. The clinical part of Yuki's mind finds that interesting. Quite the contrast with Juniper and Olesnya. Really stands out. Maybe that's just because the Khatun had bigger things on her mind. Maybe that's just who she was. She had attracted Yuki's attention because she'd uniquely observed what was happening faster than anyone else. So...maybe that's just part of who she was and it took something really special to get her to actually care about you?

She shook her head gently, making sure not to tickle Sulochana, but she needed that motion to clear her thoughts out. She could run in circles on the Khatun forever. Lots of data, but not enough to know anything for certain. People were too complex for that. Too hard to get a read on them from one conversation, even one fight usually. You could get something, but not the whole person, and if she let it, she'd just speculate about this forever. What if the Khatun had just been hungry that night since they didn't get to the booked out restaurant that Juniper wanted Yuki to attend? And...yeah, just who knows, right?

She breathes in, slowly through her nose, taking in the scent of the chai again. That was good. She was definitely going to have some chai when she got up. But...not yet. She really didn't want to disturb Sulochana. Her fault, her mistake. So she needed to put Suli ahead of herself and let her rest, at least until she woke up naturally. Then they could plan together. She had to help Hazel too, and Juni, and figure out how to balance the whole competing crowns of light thing. Though like, she knew that wasn't really her problem exactly, but it kind of was because all of them were close to her friends for some reason. And she just knew in her heart that if she didn't figure it out, they'd fall apart over this.

The coils are still warm. It's nice how warm Suli's coils are. It's unfair. Yuki wants to just be held like this. To have someone take care of her, keep her warm, hold her close and safe. But...she's always got to be the one to handle things. It's not...when she thinks to herself it's not like there's any one big trauma. Her parents are together and nobody died or anything. It was just that...her friend when Yuki was like eight who lived down the street never called her. She always had to do it, and eventually her friend started making excuses. She was older, she had other activities to do. Family stuff too. Mom always had Yuki do the scheduling for things. She was good at it! She knew computers! But that meant if Yuki got busy, stuff just...didn't happen. She had booked her own camp stuff because her parents didn't really know how to help and she'd known what she wanted after Thellamie anyway. School clubs, same deal, she'd organized the literature club in high school and when she'd left, she heard a bunch of other people did too cuz nobody planned for how to bring snacks to the meeting or made sure to keep the teacher sponsor forms up to date or anything. Hangouts, weekends. Whatever, Yuki had to make it happen if she wanted her friends to be together. Being held by Suli was the weird thing. If Yuki didn't figure a way out of this, everybody would be at each other's throats.

Another deep breath. She finishes working her arm out of the coils, something that had been slowly happening as she contemplated, the careful shifting kept her body focused while her mind wandered. So, arm out, check the tablet. Message from Hazel. Did he mean Keli and Seli? The fuck? She'd definitely told him about them. They could keep him safe, but they were for sure going to collect payment and if it went anything like Yuki's adventure, they'd happily "turn in" the golden faun for a big reward and maybe have a rescue plan after. If nothing else, they were going to let Hazel build up a big debt of services without even knowing he was doing it. But he was suspicious of her hunter thing too, which was fair enough. No point upsetting him.

>[.snowkitten]
>k glad you're safe, I'm okay, my nagi friend got stabbed though :(
>helping her for now. She's um...also a hunter though. There's a bunch of people that were supposed to get a crown of light but they need you for that I think. I dunno what it means, but just try and stay safe
>oh but, just make sure you know what you agreed to okay? If it's the foxgirls, they might be secretly expecting a bunch of favors without saying that out loud, so just pay attention. Please.
>I...I'll find you eventually and we'll figure out how to make this okay for everyone. ...sorry I left you alone in Crevas.

Yuki taps this all out with her free hand. She hovers for several minutes, thinking about a follow up line. Promises to make everything okay. Promises that she can't keep. She sighs and hits send. Then she curls back into the coils and waits for Sulochana to wake with the rising sun.

Return to Thellamie

Her first mistake had been dropping her heartblade. When she saw Eclair fall (and that had to be Eclair, there weren’t that many purple haired maids, right?), she had tried to rush to her. Her second mistake had been not paying attention to what was in front of her feet. She thought all the firecrackers had gone off! They were all the same length, all the same design, why wouldn’t they all have gone off together?! Her third mistake was thinking she could explain herself and anybody would listen.

No, no, her first mistake had been jumping into the crowd. She was safe and had a little team and she’d left them. For what? So she could run hopelessly into a mob trying to catch Keli and Seli for god sakes?! She’d left her team behind.

No, no that was her second mistake because she’d done the same with Sulochana. Granted, she’d left Sulochana before she knew a riot was going to break out, but she’d still left her when something important was happening instead of staying with her! That had been stupid. Stupid, bad friend Yuki. Jumping off after whatever was happening.

No, no that still wasn’t her first mistake. Her first mistake had been sending Hazel off to enjoy the festival. She shouldn’t have split up with him! He was new to Thellamie. They should have stayed together, he could have come with her, or she could have explained to her other friends she needed to show him around first instead of sending him off to fend for himself.

Her fault. All of them her fault. One after another. Hazel gone and in danger. Sulochana stabbed. Juni abandoned (probably stabbed too? Who knows, not Yuki, that’s for sure!!!). And she couldn’t even help Eclair, the latest in her haring off after the latest acquaintance. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

She pounds a fist on the floor weakly, barely enough to make a sound, not enough to even alert the Nagi guard on top of her that she was moving.

Yuki hated being alone. It happened, obviously, but she hated it. She’d just run through all her memories over and over. Mistakes she had made. Occasionally fond memories. Maybe something that tasted good, or something fun she had done. But then she’d just miss it all the more. She remembered Thellamie so, so fondly. Sure everyone had been worried, but they’d worked together and saved it and it had been so wonderful. She never really appreciated the danger last time. How could she, cloaked in light and surrounded by people helping her. Even Seli’s betrayal was okay, things had worked out, nobody had really hurt her. Not really, though Azaza had wanted to, hadn’t she? God she’d never really thought about it like that? Had dumb had she been as a kid? How blind?

She just wanted to come back and see all her friends again. Hang out in person. Try the good food, listen to music, see the world. Was that seriously too much to ask? Were people only summoned to Thellamie for super special emergencies? Why had she even been brought back then?!

When Sulochana arrives, she’ll find Yuki with her face against the floor. There is a small dark spot on the stone, and when she lifts her eyes, they are wet with silent tears.

[Yuki is Guilty]

Return to Thellamie

For Yuki, when she remembers this later, the scene at the Welcoming Plaza splits into two distinct moments. The first is the sight of the maid. The second is everything else.

The sound of the skateboard was so unexpected. She’d told people about skateboards of course! Several people when she was here last time. She liked skateboarding. Yuki was a motion girl, she liked anything that got her moving. The stomach drop on rollercoasters, the wind in her hair when running (even before she had fluffy triangles that could sense every change in the air!), the sudden swift shift of a fencing stance, and for sure the ground rolling away from her when she got on a skateboard.

So, when she heard it, it snapped her head to it, and before her eyes was a maid knight. She’d only met the one, Eclair, last time around. Yuki still remembered her. She had lost her notepad and was looking for it the whole adventure, they kept running into each other. Only, at the end, well, Yuki thought the victory had really been Eclair’s. Sure, Yuki had the sword of legend, infused with light and all that. But she had thrust it exactly one time into Azaza, a single strike that infused the star with so much light that she could not maintain herself and was imprisoned within the mirrors she so loved. Yuki had no expertise, no particular skill at the time. Eclair had taken that duel, had moved like a blinding flash of violet hair and black and white robes. Faster than Azaza. Faster than Yuki could follow. It had been so unexpected. So incredible. It had been like watching a person fly. Azaza had been so utterly occupied, forced to bring all her powers to bear, to use the magic of her star to cheat because she was going to lose to the maid! And so her defenses were lowered, and Yuki was free to thrust the sword of light into her side and consume her and all her reflections in the blinding glare.

So, now Yuki stares. At a new maid with a halo of curly light orange hair and a black and white mask over her face to match her outfit. Well…no, the mask didn’t match the outfit. The maid outfit called for a friendly smile lighting up raised cheeks and sparkling eyes. The mask may have color-matched, but it felt flat by comparison, black and white with no emotion and a sinister curl to the smile painted upon it. Yuki stared as the maid came over the roofs with her skateboard, stared as the “tails” of firecrackers flared into colors. Stared as the maid’s sword fluttered undrawn at her side.

A part of her mind is thinking hottest villain, 100%, gotta see what’s under that mask and kiss it. The rest of her is reacting to the firecrackers, jumping towards Juni and realizing that Olesya is bigger and closer, and is going to get there first.

The second part of the scene is the chaos after the sight of the maid, who hangs still in Yuki’s mind’s eye. The firecrackers going off were like time suddenly going from slow motion to warp speed. Like the orcs flooding past Grond into Minis Tirith (later, it would occur to her that the way the view changed also made her think of this, like a gate having been broken to show a different world past it from which everyone comes flooding in).

Yuki acts on instinct. Realizing that Olesya has swept up Juniper, she pivots so hard her foot slides on the stone tile and her tail whips up into the air for balance. Her other foot steps and pushes, causing her to spin towards the crowd. And she she spins, her heartblade is already forming in the air. A great crescent axe glowing with the cool white of Kel moonlight at the end of a long pole with a sharpened end. Yuki grips it in both hands, her right hand near the base, her left just below the center. And as she completes the spin, the axe forms into a wide sweep already occurring, taking a Nagi and a member of the pack completely off their feet in the same sweeping motion.

That sweep creates the space that Yuki needs to sprint. Not out of the crowd, but into it, coming at it from the side and cutting through at a diagonal. Though her axe is no sword, her fencing training carries her forward, each sweep matched by advancing footwork, the momentum of the heavy axe pulling her into the run to keep up with herself, and the spinning blade either scattering the crowd or dropping them before her.

“Hazel!” She calls, as loud as she can. But her voice can’t carry above the deafening explosions. And no matter how fast she goes, she can’t cut down a whole crowd by herself, nor outsprint the fastest Nagi and Serigalamu. Not with her short little legs. There is no amount of puissance that will let her catch up to Seli and Keli (of all people!) dragging Hazel along and out the gates. Instead, she’ll have to let the crowd dictate where she goes until she cuts her way free. “Hazeeeeeel!” But her voice is even further away. She should never have left him alone.

[Yuki attempts to defy disaster through the crowd with daring: 3+1+1=5]

Return to Thellamie

“You’re laying the traps, not the…uh Baygum?” That one kind of slips out, pure surprise. Didn’t quite seem like it matched up with the relationship, especially the whole ritual life is forfeit thing that Juni had just gone off about. If Olesya was the one marked by light, wasn’t she supposed to lay the trap for capturing the faun so that she could tame him? Or was there a transitive property thing where anything that her captive did was to her credit no matter what? If so, that didn’t seem particularly fair, especially if Juni…no, no it was clear Juni was fine with it. Moving on.

She walks around the Welcoming Plaza. This place she knows. They start parades here sometimes. Open stones laid out in a circle that leads you to the street into the city proper, and cool stone walls. Crevas had a style and lived it. She watches Juni putting the net down, trying to set it up, wondering how she was going to camouflage it into stone of all things. Maybe she had some kind of magic? Or maybe she could just color match it with some loose gravel.

Her mind spins over the last conversation as she watches the pack move about as well, climbing the walls and spreading through the city at impossible angles. Wondering if the Nagi had anything to match that. Winged Lamia guards maybe? Or jetpacks. Had she ever told Sulochana about jetpacks, as a concept? Nagi would probably love jetpacks, they’d be able to pounce someone tail first with them. Maybe powered by magic crystals or something.

But anyway, she was pondering what Olesya said when she saw all the mounts, “also, if she knows what? I’m sorry, but I never really met the Serigalamu when I was here last time, so if there’s something with the goblin mounts and the Khatun, can you spell it out for me?” A guess, maybe a dumb one, Yuki wasn’t even sure what the She was, but Olesya only seemed to care about the Khatun’s opinion, so that was where Yuki was starting with her guess.

A little time passes. Yuki is fretting and checking her tablet. No answer from Hazel, but also no visible Hazel. Could mean he was hiding and unable to safely pull his tablet out. But that could mean somewhere dark, which would mean the whole cut off the entrance plan might not pan out. Did she even want to catch him in a net? She had been hoping that he’d willingly join her despite Olesya’s presence and they’d be able to sort things out more quietly after that. She was ready to heart duel for Hazel’s freedom if she had to, but hoped it wouldn’t come to that, especially if it would make Juni mad.

Yuki taps her foot on the stone streets, and then her ears twitch. What was that sound? That sounded like a skateboard. Distinctive wheel scraping on stone sound. Sensitive cat ears don’t lie about that kind of thing. It was an Earth sound, not at all like the big wheels of wagons or carts, the sound that only came from small hard wheels spinning quickly over an equally hard surface. Her head whips around to look for it.

Return to Thellamie

Juniper is lucky her tail is wagging and she can't hide her glee. Well no, Juniper is whatever. Olesnya is the one that's lucky that Juni is lucky. If Juni wasn't into it and was getting that look, Yuki would have been in Olesnya's face so fast. Like blink and you missed it fast.

Even so, Yuki's tail flicks just once, in irritation. Tails were good for that. You hardly get to give Yuki the same look because she's new and doesn't have the words for it. And if Juni is that sensitive about it, maybe there's something to be sensitive about. Whatever, this train of thought wasn't getting her anywhere.

In a different moment, being asked for her tracking skills would have had Yuki panicking. That wasn't something that she'd learned. She wasn't a girl scout, and her summer camp and after school stuff had been sports related. Thellamie made her fall in love with swords and fantasy. She thought she'd been smart to live that out and get in good shape, and she had. But that didn't magic up a super sense of smell or the ability to know what signs a fleeing deerboy would leave in the middle of a city she hadn't visited in over half a decade. Assuming any of those signs weren't immediately trampled by a hundred racing wolfgirls and snakegirls.

But now, well, Oleysnya had gotten Yuki's goat, so to speak. A challenge, a withering glare that she didn't deserve, and a useful reminder on top of that. ...we track naturally, even in unnatural places. Yeah, okay, she was up to that.

"You're right, I've been going about this wrong. Money bet is Hazel's not smart right now. He's overwhelmed. So...even though he could have lost most everyone by doubling back, he's not going to think about that. He's going to be in flight mode. We saw him turn down that way, and then turn a corner and go out of sight. Let's follow from the roofs, we've got better sight than the pack this way. So ignore the pack, they weren't close enough to see any better than we could and it doesn't matter where they are. Look for the closest clear line of sight the way he ran. We'll either see him, or that tells us that he hid somewhere between where we are and where the view clears up."

And then for good measure, she quickly pulls her tablet out and starts a DM.
>[.snowkitten]
>Hazel, you okay? Know where you are?
>I'm with one of my friends and... a hunter 🙃
>...better than the alternative I think, we can sneak you out of the city, figure it out from there

Return to Thellamie

"Tame?" Yuki hadn't really thought about that part. Everyone had been so intent on the hunt part. She had been too, the Golden Fawn (i.e. poor confused Hazel) was the chosen one, everybody wanted him. Yuki had been focused on protecting him, it hadn't really clicked that there was something about taming him.

That was really different than her experience. She'd drawn the sword from the stone, so to speak. Not...literally, but really close! Her hand patted the weathered blade she wore. A keepsake. Apparently it had been hung up after she left and since it had been a powerful glowing legendary sword, nobody had thought to oil it or sharpen it, so it tarnished over the years, became dull and a little rusted. A good metaphor for how things changed, but she loved it for that, had immediately taken it from Kel on her return, no questions asked, no time to try and fix it up, and she didn't even really want to.

She follows to the next rooftop. It was a good question, and she was glad to have her mind elsewhere. It felt like the city was bewitched as far as directions go and the easiest thing there was to stop trying, let Olesnya decide their route based on what she knows about her pack, and maybe buy a city map later. And some other maps for that matter, she was going to have a different journey this time around, she could tell.

"Hazel is...uh, kind of a sweetie, I think? He's really shy. Like, not about everything. He loves good food, especially sweet treats, he's got a sweet tooth like he's a five year old honestly. Oh man, and one time, we were out and he tripped and spilled ice cream all over his shirt and pants like he was five too. I mean, honestly it was super cute though. And he's not uncoordinated or anything normally! He loves games, especially rhythm games, he's really good at them. I think he's good at learning rules and timing and has good hand eye coordination, that sort of thing, and he tries to be a good boy and do everything right, so he gets really into games until he's super good at them! He just, kinda gets distracted by stuff sometimes when he's out places, so he can make mistakes or mess something up, y'know?" That hadn't come out quite how Yuki meant it to, but with the running and the thinking, her brain was just on gush as far as the part she was supposed to talk about. She was saying out loud and thinking at the same time here, not enough mental energy left for the filter.

"Kind of makes him hard to tame though cuz he's already really tame. Like with everyone pretty much. How do you make someone who's shy and tame and tries to be really proper and polite more tame, y'know? Like, if you caught him, he'd totally just do whatever you told him to. I mean, like, he'd try to escape if you put him in a cell, but if you were just like 'hey, please, this is really important and it'd be rude if you didn't respect my culture' I'm pretty sure he'd just do whatever you asked. At least for a while until he was somewhere safe and could leave with his friends. Though, like, well, maybe not everything? Some of the stuff you've been telling me about, Juni, he'd probably be too embarrassed to do. Far as I know, he never dated anybody in high school, like, not even casually. I don't think he's had his first kiss ever, not that I've heard about. And like, I dunno if I've ever seen Hazel hug anybody who's not his mom, which I shouldn't laugh at him about, he tries so hard to be nice and not offend anyone. But, so like he'd probably be kinda traumatized if you tried to make him a...er...like a slave for you? Um, I mean, I'm not saying you practice slavery, I just don't know the right word, but like, the thing where you catch him and force him to do stuff, like you were kinda saying, Olesnya" (whoops) "like making Juni tutor him whether he wants to or not, I think he'd get really embarrassed about that stuff. But like, I dunno, we're waaaaay off from taming here, not sure I answered your question?"

Yuki blushes, brushes her pigtails back with her hand, resets her footing, keeps moving, staying close to Olesya (ya, bad girl!), tries to see how close they're getting to the city walls, or if the types of roofs are changing or anything. Something, anything that would situate her in Crevas.