Anarion

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As it turns out, time does not actually slow down when you go flying through a cafe. There's no time to lament the loss of the beautiful porcelain tea sets, now in shards all around her. No time to consider where everyone else might be and how they're recovering. No time to think of a complex strategy to lure this monstrosity somewhere without getting murdered.

Even so, there's a lot going on in Yuki's head right now. Her mind is burning and she still clutches her axe. Fear, despair and anger war in her head.

Fear of being injured by her opponent, of being laid up in a foreign place. Hers is a primal fear, the desire to run and hide because, well, who's ever been in a real fight before? Would this woman who seems to hold the power of a star truly hurt her so badly, perhaps even kill her if she makes a mistake?

Despair at a fight she could not possibly win. She does not believe that she can gain a victory here, not after that last blow, not after her axe has been so ineffective. Whatever she needs to win, she doesn't have it. Not this time, not here. The sword that she bore when she was younger glows with no light. It is dull, and it was rusted until she polished it. She bears it as a reminder of what came before, of the fun and joy and light that Thellamie held to her. But she's not that person now, and the skills of a fencer and a knight are not up to the task of defeating whatever she's fighting. She is, perhaps, beginning to have an inkling that this is a chosen of a star or some such magic, and she doesn't know how to combat that. She has learned no spells to sever such a power source, if any even exist.

[Yuki takes the condition Hopeless]

But even knowing that she cannot win, her heart is still stirred. This is the person who threatened Hazel. A villain who might have abused him. Who nearly tore apart her fellowship and would have hurt Pasenne and Suli! Her heart burns. And on top of that, she's being mocked? Threatened? What kind of person is this who imagines taking her and molding her into some title?! How dare! It is this that keeps her hands on her axe, keeps it materialized before her.

She uses her arm to balance the axe handle on the ground and puts one foot under her. She gingerly raises herself to bent knee, then to a stand as she brushes porcelain off herself. There was one more thing gently nibbling at the edge of her thoughts. The voice of the other woman, the flower one who had tried to grab Hazel. The voice is wondering what this monster has to hide?

She hefts her axe. "I'm sorry to tell you that I haven't earned a knight's title yet" she says, slowly advancing. Her legs are shaking too much to stand still and her voice quivers, but she can walk, slowly. Back through the path of destruction, away from people who might get hurt, things that aren't destroyed yet, the people she needs to protect. She breathes, a slow, long breath, and her nostrils flare. "Why did you try to kidnap the golden faun?" She says, taking another step forward. It is either that or flee and flee and never stop running.

"And why are you...why are you fighting like this? Where's your fucking heartblade to meet my axe? Is this really what you want for Thellamie? Or the queen you serve who told you not to talk? Cuz the Khatun might be a jerk, but I'll take her over this any day." She charges then, axe forward, hoping in her heart that something, anything comes to help her but unwilling to back off until...she's not sure. Until she knows her friends are safe maybe? Or until she's satisfied herself in this fight.

[Rolling to figure out Aria Thendragon: 5+3+1=9. This is a two question plus physical conflict roll, Aria gets to ask Yuki a question. My questions are:
What do you hope to get from the Golden Faun? How could I get you to fight with a Heartblade like Thellamie combat is supposed to work? and how could I help you deal with your problem?]

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This wasn't...this wasn't how Thellamie was supposed to work. Everyone fought with Heartblades! And, sure, a kick or a shove, or uh whatever happened with the skateboard firecracker paint thing back in Crevas. But not this. This was brutal. Anka had flown off the building! And Timatheo was, okay, hopefully? The chair was weaker than his spine, but, but what if it hadn't been?!?!?!

Part of Yuki wanted to just run and hide. She hadn't signed up for broken ribs and months of rehabilitation! Hazel certainly hadn't! In that brief instant, her heart simply wanted to get her and Hazel out of Thellamie right now. She's already defeated one star, how much can this world demand of them?! Dimly, she registers that something is happening behind her that would make it difficult to run and hide with Hazel, but her facing and her focus had been to make sure that Walking Elm and Aria were both in her clear view, so she's not actually looking at where they're all standing.

No, her focus now is on Pasenne. Poor, brave Pasenne who hasn't made an attempt at anything yet as her tail rattles with fear. Pasenne, whose talent is making a good cup of tea and doing excellent makeup and looking great dressed as a slave girl for her disguise. She doesn't deserve any of this, and she certainly doesn't deserve to get yeeted off a fucking roof! Whatever's happening with Suli and Hazel, they'll have to deal with it and make their break to safety. Yuki can't afford to turn around now. And whatever part of her heart was quailing grows silent in the face of her outrage.

Yuki lets out a primal scream she didn't even know was in her and lunges towards Aria Thendragon, ripping her heartaxe towards the side of the monster at full sprint. "What the hell?!" she shouts without ever stopping, learning from Anka's moves that her speed is the only thing keeping her from getting her chest caved in.

"Who the fuck even are you?" She pivots on her foot at full sprint, slides behind Aria and kicks away from her, ripping her cloak off in the same motion to block Aria's view and free up her movement. She launches herself away from Aria and in the opposite direction as Pasenne and Suli, praying she's too far for the counterstroke that could send her flying in one blow. But she doesn't keep going to safety. Instead of running away further, she turns again, using a neighboring wall to kick up and and twist herself towards Aria again. She's moved to be ready to bring down her axe with all her momentum in case Aria sprinted after her. Her muscles flex as she goes almost four feet in the air, her tail whips behind her, and her armor gleams in the evening sun as she comes back down with a rattle and a thunk. She stands and hefts her long heartaxe, the only thing that's actually bitten this monster.

Yuki's lungs are burning and her hair is gleaming with sweat as she raises her face to the monster that's threatening her friends. Her ears twitch, and she manages to pull a thin, feral smile across her face. "You want someone here?!..." she speaks through heavy breaths as she keeps on the balls of her feet to dodge whatever's about to be thrown at her and prepares to run back in again. "You go through me, bitch!"

[Entice: 6+2+2=10.]

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Oh no. Oh no. Suli’s done everything right, but she set this up as a standoff. She’s too kind by half. Maybe this is a sign she’d make a good queen of light. It speaks well of her that faced with this sudden turn of events (the real Hazel! Two dangerous plant people!) that instead of merely stabbing as Yuki had done, Suli had gone for the standoff and the demand to release Hazel. Perhaps she imagined that the radiant one was the most important, and so a threat to drop her with a heartblade to the throat would be enough not only to get her to let Hazel go, but would also be understood by flower one Yuki had knocked down as reason not to attack. And then they could back off slowly with Hazel.

But Suli hadn’t thought this through all the way. Back off to where exactly? The flower couple had been trying to make this quiet and maybe if left alone they would have simply walked out with Hazel while making it look like he’d walked out to take a break. But now there had been a fight. If the Fellowship left with Hazel, they’d be the ones kidnapping Chrysanthemum staff, so they were hardly going to be able to run back to their rooms. Maybe straight to the road out of Vespergift and hope to reach Crevas without violence? But if so, Suli needed to be moving already, not setting up for a standoff. And that, of course, wasn’t accounting for the extremely loud roar and rumble that was happening directly behind them that Yuki suspected was going to be an extreme problem for a standoff situation the second she turned around.

But. But, well, Suli had pulled Hazel into her coils and now they had to be careful not to rip his arm off. Damn it. If Yuki just slashed at radiant plant girl and hit the arm, would it go dead and drop or would it go dead and the grip would lock in place? Too unreliable. Plus she might hit Suli or Hazel if she went in for a second big axe chop with her full sprint momentum as she jumped over the table (carefully dodging the platter of cinnamoon rolls, which remain pristine except for the one she dropped as she clears them by a scant inch).

Instead, she lands, thrusts her heartblade into the ground as a pivot, and turns all of her momentum into a full body kick into radiant plantgirl’s elbow, breaking her grip on Hazel’s wrist completely and sending her reeling back from the impact and the loss of balance of pulling on Hazel. A shudder runs through her as her foot touches the hand, memories of a glowing sword and starlight from years prior. Starlight that she misses dearly, but that isn’t for her.

But, there’s no time for that, no time for anything. She gives Suli a nod and sets her own feet in front of Suli and a now fully encoiled Hazel, bringing her axe up level and pointed out, hopefully so that she can keep track of both radiant and flower at the same time as everything comes crashing in on them. They’ll have to go through Yuki first.

And…if she’s still standing afterwards, she’ll try her best to persuade Suli to gently put down the deerboy because they’ve finished defending him and nobody wants to kidnap an actively working member of the waitstaff of a Chrysanthemum host club. Right?

[Yuki rolls to defy disaster with daring, 5+4+1=10. She risked all her advantage from running in, but managed to do it with aplomb.]

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The first thing that happened is that Yuki was handed an absolutely delicious and adorable cinnamon roll by her dear friend Hazel. Who was dressed in a very revealing work outfit. Which, you know what, she'd never have guessed it for him, but if he'd taken a job here to hide, well, honestly, Keli and Seli could have done a lot worse to him actually. This was within scope of actual foxgirl help and that was great, and Hazel really seemed like he was enjoying himself and that was great too. She wouldn't mistake him for anyone else, and she had a lot of questions, but she was hardly going to be asking those in front of the double Yakuza team. No, she happily took the cinnamon roll and raised it up to take a bite immediately. A bite would be a great way to take stock of the situation, figure out who might be recognizing Hazel rather than a waiter, look at her friends and signal them. Also it was a delicious cinnamon roll, this was definitely the best approach to the situation.

Except: the woman in the dress didn't take a pastry. She took a deerboy.

Typically, there's a decorum for a place like this. Guests are supposed to maintain respect for the staff. Because the staff are engaged in a performance. And it's a fun and lovely performance, but they can hardly manage that at either a physical or mental level if the guests are getting inappropriately handsy. That's a general sort of thing. Then there's the expression Hazel made. The expression that said that he did not in fact want this, that something was wrong here. Wrong well beyond merely grabbing someone inappropriately. Wrong in the sort of magical way that says that a person is being...violated? Yes, if you asked Yuki to describe it later, she'd say this crossed into violated in a sense.

She's not actively thinking in this moment though. Thinking is for later. Right now, Yuki is up, her tail flicked up and out for balance, her legs springing her forward, her arms held one fist above the other as though they're grasping an invisible handle in the air, her shoulders rotating.

You have to understand that if there's one core thing about Yuki, it's defending her friends. She's still thinking very hard about what she wants for herself. What a happy life looks like, how to keep all her friends together when they all have so many different and sometimes competing interests. That's hard, especially when her friends might be fighting with each other or hurt each other. But defending her friends from someone else. That's so easy. She will always defend her friends when they need it. She will leap to their defense immediately, she will go all out for them, she will give everything of herself for them. Every time without fail.

She's practiced this a thousand times. There may not be any heartblades on Earth, but Yuki knew the feel of hers from her last visit. She had imagined drawing it. She'd imagined her fencing footwork and how to hold her hands so that instead of thrusting with a foil she was cleaving with an axe. She'd done it in her mind lying in bed, she'd done it while stretching in slow motion, she'd done it in a mirror at full speed when nobody was watching.

The heartblade axe materializes in her hands in full swing, one hand at the base, one hand in the middle. Instead of slowing down, the weight of it adds to the momentum of her pivot, and the blade connects with Flower Yakuza at the same time as she's shifting her stance to go for Suli. The same time as Yuki catches that gleam in her eyes hiding behind the starglasses. The same time that it registers that she's using real flowers. Yuki's arms flex, and the blade connects hard. Flower may be strong and supernatural, but it's a hard thing to keep your balance when a full momentum axe rams into you above your center of mass. Flower's going over backwards, Sulochana is running forwards, Yuki is already leaping after her, powerful leopard legs balance by that extremely useful tail.

This all happens in a fraction of a second, even as a flash of light bursts from Hazel. Flower's going to get up and she's going to be mad. And god knows there's going to be consequences for all this. But that's for thinking about later. Now is for protecting her friends.

[Yuki rolls to fight. 4+2+1=7. She will create an opportunity for whichever of Sulochana or Hazel is more fitting for the scene through her prowess. And she will seize a superior position by dropping Flower with a heartblade axe blow, whether that's from the heartblade itself or the power of the hit even if Flower has some supernatural resistance. Flower gets to pick an option in return.]

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“W vs. U? I didn’t even know there was a different way to say the two, but you definitely managed it.” She answers about nothing while she thinks. Because Yuki’s hackles are up. Every part of her hates this. Not even sure exactly why. It’s the tall one though. The one that seems nicer. Hate it hate it hate it, burn it with fire. She reads like some of Yuki’s extended family members. Who may even be in the Yakuza for all she knows, but there’s this comfort with her. Like she’s never even considered the possibility that she might not be able to do whatever she wants. You can feel it around her, that pressure to just relax and be comfortable and pleasant with her and let her do her thing and no fuck no burn burn burn.

She turns to suit instead. Suit is a normal problem. A very simple I don’t want you here and now I have to deal with you. She can focus on that. “My apologies my lady” she says, turning to Sulochana rather than continuing the conversation with either of them. “I appear to have erm, moved too quickly when we heard about the Golden Faun” (said with the U). “I am on business, to serve as a guard for my lady, and she wishes to go here. I’m sure you know that a knight on errantry doesn’t do things by half measures.”

She’s trying to be formal, and it’s probably working here. She doesn’t need to fake the glower or the stern look. She’s barely keeping herself from putting a hand out to summon her heartblade. It’s not appropriate for these streets, certainly not appropriate to start a duel in the middle of the line to the latest craze cafe, and so she won’t be the one to instigate, at least while in control of her own faculties. But she’d welcome it if these two made something happen. The combination of threat and condescension is quite nearly too much.

No, better to play her part, act the bodyguard, let Sulochana speak as much or as little as she wants about why they’re here, while she stares daggers at the pair and they all wait calmly in line.

Hazel, when you find them in line, you’re not going to see a particularly happy-looking Yuki. In fact, as a cutie host, it’s probably your job to notice the tension and try to ease it. Don’t want the customers complaining about shoulder and neck pain after waiting in line at the Golden Faun, after all!

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“Did you hear that?” Yuki says, steadying herself against Suli’s extremely steadyable yourself against coils. “Cafe la faune, is that like, uh, wow now I need to wonder if Thellamie has some kind of universal translator thing happening and I heard that in French because that’s like the universal signifier for someone being pretentious.” Yuki blushes, straightens her cloak and stands back up. “Well, we need to check it out at any rate. Even if it’s just a costume cafe, it’s a great starting point. Plus those two down below us kind of looked like hunters. I mean, I dunno, they looked like what I’d think hunters would look like, like, they had a strong aura you know?”

Yuki glances slightly away, partially to follow where they went and partially because powerful aura was also code for wow that dress with those curls was hot, huh, yeah. By the time she collects herself and the search party is about to get moving, however, there’s a crowd. And quite a crowd! Yuki’s never been to an opera, but she’s been to several soccer matches and normally with that sort of thing there’s, like, a regulated space for the crowd. Everybody is supposed to go in and out a certain way and then once they’re out there’s space for them to spread out and it’s not a big deal unless you get stuck right at the entrance. This is much more chaotic, the opera house letting out directly onto the street and the crowd all seemingly trying to get somewhere with considerable haste, despite most of them looking like they have nothing better to do but relax at their next venue.

Even so, Yuki’s always considered herself good at moving through crowds. It’s one of the advantages of being on the smaller side. And the fellowship of the golden faun is full of competent people who know how to take advantage of an opportunity. So, Yuki strides forward confidently, with all the authority and boldness of a Kel knight about her work. And she forms the tip of the spear, creating the space between people as she goes that forces people to widen and move aside for the Nagi behind her. Though it’s by no means subtle and risks angering someone important if they were to misstep, there are no missteps. Yuki nails the look and and she nails the route to make sure that people see that look. Nobody wants to be the person who got in the way of a knight, and Yuki makes sure that they’re moving so that everyone sees that rather than any fools crashing into her by accident absorbed in conversation or their tablets. So the crowd parts for her and for the fellowship and they rush after the unusual pair headed to cafe la faune.

[Defy disaster with Daring to rush through the crowd without losing the Yakuza pair. Risking a blunder into someone important. 5+6+1=12.]

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It's not that Yuki intended to spend the whole day relaxing. She knew they needed to search for Hazel and it was her duty as a knight to lead that search (well, it's Timatheo's duty to lead it from a planning perspective, but it was Yuki's duty to actually get out there.). No, it's just, well, sometimes time has a way of tricking you, especially when you spend it in the company of friends.

If Yuki had been alone, she'd have had a light breakfast, cleaned herself off properly and then taken a refreshing soak in the hot springs, and then she would have gone to her rooms, gotten dressed, and headed out to search the town, asking around for rumors about the Golden Faun and following whatever leads Timatheo had cooked up from his contacts. She'd have felt strong and refreshed, and the day would have gone great, with lots of energy for the search!

In Yuki's head, that was how things were going. But it was just, well, breakfast hadn't been that quick at all. Suli had insisted on the fluffy stack of huge pancakes slathered with syrup, eaten at one of the restaurants high up the branches that gave a full view of the entryway. She'd said it was so they could get the lay of the land and look at the guests for information, and Yuki supposed Timatheo had done a bit of that. But after that huge meal, everyone was so full that they had to take it slow and savor their tea until they'd digested enough to get moving. Anka had been the only one who insisted on a black coffee, and had given Yuki a mild look of reproach for partaking in the super sweet pancakes, but she had a sweet tooth and they were yummy and she had to at least try a bite, right?!

And then, well, their suite included access to a private spa down below the roots, right near the base of the great tree. The ceiling was woven into the roots so that above their heads they could see bits of the tree itself. Paper talismans hung from them, blessing the spa room. And so Suli and Pasenne had gone in to enjoy and insisted that Yuki come, and there was something special to cuddling with a group of Nagi. The weight of those coils pressing just hard enough into Yuki's toned core muscles as they relaxed in the heat. That made it far too difficult to even suggest moving, and in her head Yuki was thinking I wish I could cast Time Stop right now. And in a way she could because nobody else was moving either and they could enjoy the moment as long as they wanted! It's just that, y'know, time didn't actually stop.

And, well, after that long in the hot sauna, everyone was kind of wiped out and they needed to hydrate properly. Yuki hung up a prayer strip for luck as well, it seemed appropriate and in her mind she was sure she was about to depart for a morning of searching at last. Except that her stomach growled at the same time as Magasha's and would you believe that it was already lunch time and they'd used a lot of energy just existing in the spa! And, well, Pasenne had been looking at that pet cafe with such longing on the way down, so they really had to get lunch there, it made her squeal with delight when they went in!

And at lunch, well, Yuki and Suli got to sit together and pet all the different animals. They had cats and rabbits, and some goblins that Yuki didn't quite recognize but looked sort of like an indeterminate cross between a mouse and a cat and had the most velvety soft white fur you'd ever felt. And that was just super nice.

So, by the time that the crew had eaten two meals, enjoyed the spa, refreshed themselves, and dressed to exit the Chrysanthemum, the sun was already on its way down the horizon and the shadows were getting a little long. They could still search, of course! It was just going to turn into a night market sort of search. And it's not like anything major had happened that day, right?

[Writing off Suli's need]

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Yuki squirms under that blank stare. She's doing her job, right, talking with the princess while Sulochana and Pasenne do the serving. A guard isn't supposed to serve, she's supposed to guard while other people do their thing. But that also means that she's the one getting the stare, and the total lack of feedback is hard for her composure. She feels sort of like being younger and getting called in to talk to the principal because she was being too disruptive in class. And y'know, like, it's the principal and you're supposed to just stand there and listen, so it's kind of the opposite of this where she's supposed to just stand here and talk about whatever she's supposed to talk about. But like, there's this inherent sameness to it, this feeling of authority where you're on the hook to perform properly and you're in big trouble if the person on the other side isn't happy with you, but you can't really get a read on them because they're doing their own thing and you just sort of have to guess and hope that you're following the right script.

At l-least, the hand gesture is helpful, from the seneschal (come to think of it, Yuki's mind wondered, what really was a seneschal anyway? Was it like a fancy butler? Probably close enough? Probably not the thing to be thinking about when she's supposed to be telling a story.)

"I um..." okay, okay, focus. They're on a mission here right. And, well, Suli was being a bit rough about it, but she'd want her claim favored, and Yuki had one really good story that might help on that front.

"um...well, how about the story of the Khatun then? She's famous, and maybe you even know her. I mean, um, of course you know her, she's an important leader! And everybody says she's one of the most special people in Thellamie. She's um, unique because she can travel the Outside without using the Roads. And everyone says she holds her entire people together with just her force of personality. I don't know how she united them, or how old she is or how long she's been a Khatun. You might know those things better than I would, s-so I don't need to waste your time on that. But, um I know how she was at the Festival of Light in Crevas. She was sharp. Uniquely sharp. I saw her when...when the crow landed on the Golden Faun. There was a moment where the Crown of Light settled on different factions, especially on Princess Sulochana Arju and on the um..." (crap crap, would Yuki know Oley's name??? A Kel knight probably wouldn't know the names of most of the Khatun's followers, but people had been cataloguing the hunters and word was going around of who had been known to be selected in Crevas already and Oley had been a really visible one)

"...the b-baygum Olesnya. And um, each of their factions started celebrating them without noticing the others, but the Khatun saw them both and immediately started figuring out that something was weird. She looked super smart and like she was paying more attention than anybody else! And then, then when the fighting started and everyone went to capture the Golden Faun, the Khatun leapt into action faster than anybody because I think that maybe she understood the contest faster than anybody. I, I didn't know that heartblades could morph like that either. She had a bow and arrow, but then when she closed with the princess, she somehow pulled a terrible dagger from within her bow, or part of her bow."

Yuki pauses, considers, asks a question. "Do you know, perhaps, if that can be learned? The skill of changing or splitting your heartblade like that, I mean? I should be quite interested to improve my own swordsmanship if trying the technique isn't a waste of my time." She tries to speak that formally like she thinks a knight would speak when discussing their professional skills. She holds herself straighter, squares her shoulders as she does it, and tries to imagine herself truly a knight. This was her craft, a craft she aspired to master, and surely the Hero or one of her servants would have such knowledge of the world. But...of course, it was on her to finish her story first and ensure that the Hero was pleased with her, not interrupt to demand a training lesson. Probably at least.

"At any rate, what happened next was that the Princess of Crevas was surprised, and um...in that moment of surprise, she was stabbed through the heart without any guards to defend her. Because, well, who would have thought she'd need a defense when seated at the highest point of a festival held in her own city, right? And then the Khatun left. Moving on with her pack, I guess. And...neither she nor any of her attendants stopped to tend to the Princess Arju. Which, though I don't know all the customs of Thellamie, seems strange to me. I thought you were supposed to take prisoners, or take care of the defeated. I suppose this wasn't a duel, but it was an attack in the middle of a festival and shouldn't the Khatun have shown basic courtesy at least? It makes me worried if her pack tames the Golden Faun. I don't think they would take care of the rest of Thellamie, no matter how much it's needed."

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Their stories? A moment of panic flashes through Yuki’s mind, though the advantage of a playing the guard and trying to put on a role is that she keeps it off their face. She can’t lie though. What if the Legendary Hero had some kind of lie detection spell on her? Or, like, a lie detection magic item or something? She had a lot of very pretty jewelry and her attendants could have who knows what on them hidden in a pocket or something. She’d heard a lot about the Hero, so lying was right out.

“I want to be a knight” she says at last. “I don’t…know if that’s a good story or not, but I will fight for my friends and bring their dreams to reality. I can…tell you perhaps of what I’ve seen recently? The story of Eclair, the…um…the lavender-haired maid knight who skateboarded through Crevas only to be tricked into some kind of fireworks explosion and knocked out. Or the story of the myriad golden fawns running all about Aestival, though perhaps you’ve already heard those rumors? I could tell you a story of the Khatun and how she and…she alone perceived the whole of the contest of the golden fawn in its opening moments. But also of how mean she was, how she stabbed Princess Sulochana Arju with her Heartblade and then simply left her with no care. Or…I could tell you a more distant story, maybe? Have you heard the myth of Artemis and Atalanta and the Caledonian boar, maybe?”

She looks with hopeful eyes. Has she answered the question properly? She tries to hide her anxiety, though her tail flicks side to side. She hopes that she hasn’t upset the Hero in their first ever meeting.

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Yuki is by herself as far as warriors go. So, she does her best when they reach the campfire to look stern and a bit dour. She’s not really sure what dour actually looks like though? How many times do you sit around and think to yourself that you want to look dour? Outside of trying to be somebody’s bodyguard, it doesn’t really come up. She thinks it looks sort of frowny, but like, without trying, like if you could frown with fewer muscles and without actually looking sad but just kinda not happy instead. Mostly she looks like she’s pouting though.

Of course, there’s not much reason to actually be guarding anybody on the Roads. The meal ritual is part of the travel and it’s very rare to have fights here. Certainly, nobody would actually try to assault a merchant on the Roads, they’d put such a huge target on themselves for everyone else everywhere. Travel had to be safe. So guarding was more of a theoretical thing. It just felt right with both Anna and Magasha at another camp. She was the only guard, so she had to look guardy! Guardesque! Like a guard!

But, when the announcement is for Heron herself, the great hero of the ages, well, it’s hard to hold a pouty dour face. Instead, her tail flips up in excitement. Before she can think the better of it, she gushes “Oh gosh, I never got to meet you the last time I was here!” Suli coughs, and Yuki blushes. “Um…that is, this is m-my um first ever errantry and um, I was busy with training when you last came through Kel, and I’ve only ever visited Aestival once before, s-so I’ve never met the Hero before and it’s a very great honor. We are merchants returning to Aestival after the Crevas festival. I have taken a contract to protect this honorable trader and her servant and see that they come to no harm during their travels.”

She offers a belated bow. “Um, as to your granddaughter’s request. We um…well I suppose I don’t know what animals count, but I was at the er, the light crown ceremony in Crevas and there was a very strange large and heavy crow that arrived during it and transferred the power of light into the golden fawn that everyone seems to be hunting now. I um, imagine that would be interesting. Oh a-and thank you for sharing your food your um…h-highness…hero-ness?”