Koto belongs to littleraccoondemon. If you want to find her art and whatnot of him and his little sister Sarah, go visit her dA account (under the name of littleraccondemon if you were confused).
Risa belongs to (shockers!) Risa, as does Kenlath. AKA Chandrisa Silvara on here and dA.
I don't own the song I referenced in the title. Or K'thonya's name. I accidentally took that from Earthsong (a webcomic). Her name has since been changed, but I prefer to use the name she was under during these roleplays.
Chapter Four
Matchmaker, Matchmaker~
After leaving the two kids to settle in, Gwen returned to her usual place of residence. She'd deal with what she needed to handle with Draug later. For now, she needed to do some research, which meant leaving her comfy palace suite, and going to the library. She stuck out horribly in the Dragon Realms, by virtue of not wearing dresses and by wearing shoes. As such, she was avoided in the hallway. A lonely life, she sometimes thought, but usually, she was convinced her life was fine. It was a lie she fed herself, to make things more bearable. What else could she do, when even her closest friends dreaded her smallest outbursts? The only person who wasn't afraid of her wasn't there. When she passed his door, the familiar ache that hit was quickly quashed. "I'm fine," she insisted to the hallway, barely even noticing the wary looks by the current occupants of the hall. She trained her eyes on the floor and walked away as fast as she could. She forgot the purpose of what she was doing, and let her feet take their own path. They took her to the gardens, as usual, to the exact same spot they'd taken her many times before.
When she noticed her surroundings again, it was late. The fountain in the middle of this particular part of the gardens was empty - freezes came early in the Realms, and the magic that powered it shut off for winter. No reason to waste magic. Her eyes drifted to the ground absently. "I. Don't. Miss. Him." She snarled at the open air, and flung herself from the bench. If only moving her feet was as easy. She stared blankly at the fountain before she mustered the willpower to leave. She managed to take herself to the library, and wandered to a section she knew too well. She'd spent copious amounts of time here as a teenager, and knew most of the books by heart. It was no Earthly library, with someone monitoring others - no librarian telling a person to shut up or get out.
Sometimes Gwen hated the library. But it was her safe place, where she could hide among the stacks and forget responsibilities, forget the world, and leave her dumb emotions and stupid fears behind. She wandered blindly into the stacks, fingers trailing as she breathed in the scent of books. She stopped midway down one row, rested her head briefly against the wall, and began to be aware of details. She knew it by heart, anyhow. They kept the darkest books in this section, everything from the book that detailed the spells of Bloodmagic to the deadliest spell in the world, the Ishglakra. Fingers moving, she skittered through books that were falling to pieces, pages tugged from some rotting binding, whole reams of pages that had been carefully organized but left unbound, and some decently preserved tomes. Eventually, she found her query, a slim, leather-bound volume that had been well kept. Only one corner of the cover was dog-eared, from misuse during the brief period it had been in the possession of Vilgax. She took it over to one of the small tables in the library and sat on the window seat that backed the table. At some point, she found herself yawning and not certain of what she was reading. Eventually, her head tilted back against the window, and the book slid from her grip.
When she felt her back heating up, Gwen stretched slowly, eyes fluttering open. Her vision blurred, came into focus, and then briefly went white for a moment, as her eyes adjusted to the light. She yawned into her hand, and finally noticed the person sitting across from her, bemused expression on his face. Her mouth dropped for a second, then closed long enough for her to manage a smile. If she'd opened it again, she might have done something incredibly embarrassing, like screaming his name, or proclaiming how much she'd missed him, or tackling him and kissing him right then and there. (And not doing the last one was still taking incredible restraint...)
"Er...are you okay, Gwen?" Koto finally asked, rubbing the back of his head nervously.
She nodded fervently, leaning to pick up the book from the floor. In her effort to regain control of her body, she managed to tip off the seat. As he started to his feet, worried, she managed to flap a hand at him. "I'm fine. Just stiff from sleeping." Probably a good thing he couldn't see her blush, she figured. Well, that and the fact he never noticed blushing anyhow...
Koto pulled her to her feet abruptly, hugged her briefly, then released her. It was very good he didn't recognize blushes for what they were, or he'd be disturbed by her bright red face. As it was, he grinned at her. "You were reading till you passed out again?"
"Yeah," she said, glancing away. "There's...issues starting up. Again."
"I figured as much. Draug actually let me know I should come back. I didn't know he was capable of that strong magic..."
"He's very powerful when he cares to be," Gwen said. "Did he tell you what?"
"Some kid pulled a coup in Hell...or something like that."
"Yeah, basically. He let out a demon, the Beast, that's been sealed for...a really long time. I was reading up on that." She yawned, involuntarily shuddering and stretching. "Aaaanyhow, trying to find any documented ways to deal with the problem before I go all unorthodox on its ass."
Koto grinned. "Well, I'm sure you can handle it. Where're Risa and Ben?"
I hope so. "This time...their bedroom, probably. I hope. Where's Sarah?"
"Left her with our parents. The last thing she needs is to be involved in another fight. I used the cloaking charm you had Hex made for her, and it's working beautifully. Nothing had come looking for her yet." He beamed.
"It's about time something worked," Gwen sighed. She smoothed down her jeans, wrinkled things they were, and glanced at Koto, trying not to blush any further.
Risa burst into the library abruptly, her long silver hair floating behind her. She marched past startled librarians who gaped at her, to the back table. "Gwen! There's a-"
"-problem? Yeah, I know." Gwen ran a hand through her short hair. "Before you ask-"
"Why haven't you taken care of it already?"
"Because I can't. Not yet. This is beyond me, Risa."
Risa's jaw dropped. "But- you're- you're practically a goddess! You're a Star. You should- Nothing?"
"Nothing," Gwen confirmed. "I'm not all-powerful, okay?" She felt her eyes starting to glow and covered them, trying to calm herself. Getting emotional was so not the best thing to do.
Risa stepped back slightly, "Gwen, I-"
"It's fine," she said, cutting her off. "Could you just...not be so nervous?"
"Kind of hard when I've seen you blow entire buildings up, but I guess I'll try."
Koto looked bemused. "How did you find out you can't do anything about it?" he asked.
Gwen held up the book in her hands. "Written by the last person to lock the Beast up. It also chronicled the history of the Beast, from accounts by Stars and those old enough to remember its creation. It is, in essence, impervious to magic. You have to kill the master, and that gets harder because the Beast's strength gets passed Nobody seems to know what the fuck it's supposed to do." She stuffed the book into her pocket. "I need food. Food, and some, like. I dunno. Paper? And something to write with."
"Why?" Risa asked, beginning to lead her towards the dining hall.
"Food, because food is goodness itself and my jeans are trying to fall off again, and stuff to write with because I need to get what I know and don't organized." She covered another yawn. "And maybe some coffee. I could use the ability to function."
Breakfast in the Realms was an extraodinarily boring function. Unlike the occasional fancy banquets thrown, royalty was not the priority. Instead, everyone was blobbed together, gossipping and reaching over and under each others arms for food. Of course, the second Gwen and her noticeable appearance took a seat, the seats on either side of her were vacated. Risa and Koto took them instead, sparing others from feeling the need to move. Gwen kept her eyes down, avoiding skin contact with others when she reach to grab some food. Slowly, talk around them resumed between those Risa had not engaged.
"Gwen, are you okay?" Koto asked, peering at her as she ate.
"I'm fine," she said. "Just glad you're back."
"Gwen..."
"Honest, I'm fine." She flashed a cheerful smile at him. "We'll figure something out for this."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it."
"That's fine too." He'd only hate her like the rest of them if he figured out that they hated her, anyhow. Everyone just went with the crowd. They were all afraid of her, and so many of them hated her. She couldn't blame them. She hated her. How could she not? She was horrible. Horrible. A horrible excuse for a creature, living here like a parasite or something. All she did was botch the spells a little kid could get right. Stupid, stupid, stupid! She just needed to stop thinking and figure this problem out and then she could hide in her chambers and block them and the stares and the hurt and the fear and the everything out again and forget any of it existed except the few friends she had left and one day they'd leave her and she'd kill herself and still live on with nothing to live for anyhow because she'd been stupid and absorbed immortal things and it wasn't her fault she hadn't known and she just wanted them to stop being scared of her.
"Gwen?" Risa asked, bringing her back to herself. Her fork had broken in two. Luckily, nobody else had noticed. Quickly, so as not to disturb anyone, she fixed it under the table.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled. "I got distracted."
"That's fine," Koto said, glancing over. "Really, Gwen."
She gave him a small smile and excused herself. "I'm going to see if there's anything else in my rooms I can get something out of," she said, and hurried off. Only a small portion of her plate had been touched, due to her hurry to escape.
Risa rubbed her forehead. "I'm so glad you came back, Koto. She hasn't been at all normal lately. She only leaves her rooms if ordered to, or if she's hiding in the library, or wandered out to the gardens and sat there staring at nothing for hours. She's hardly eaten, or, or- I don't even know if she sleeps!" she burst out, the last sentence startling the elf next to her slightly. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," she apologized, smiling gently at him. Reassured, he resettled.
"How long has she been like that?" he asked.
"Since you left."
"That's weird," he said, looking utterly baffled.
"Yeah..." she shook her head slightly. Was he blind? Had he not noticed how much Gwen blushed around him? How her eye would follow his every move, no matter the situation? The way she treated his sister like she was her daughter? Well, okay, it wasn't just Gwen who did that last one, but still! Gwen was the most obvious girl-in-love in the history of the universe! HOW HAD HE NOT NOTICED?
"Is something wrong, Risa? You look frustrated."
"I am, just a little bit," Risa grumbled.
"What's wrong?"
She glanced at his plate. He was done, good. "Walk and talk," she said, standing gracefully and beckoning to him. They meandered into the hall. "What exactly do you think of Gwen?" she asked, careful to keep her voice cool, and with a touch of the regal air she used during official functions and private meetings.
"What do you mean? I mean, she's a good friend...probably my best. And she really cares about Sarah, and you, and even Ben, even though he's always being horrible to her..."
"No, I mean personally. How do you...feel about her?"
"I care about her. Isn't that what friends are supposed to do?"
She'd have believed it if his ears hadn't flattened, and his tail hadn't tucked between his legs. What an utterly brilliant act. Too bad he couldn't blush and didn't get them, no matter how often they were explained. It would've made things so much easier. "Koto, your tail's giving you away," she said dryly. Maybe Gwen needed to notice his body language too...
"What?" He looked at his tail. It shifted away from his legs. "Oh, that's just...uh, warmer."
"Your ears."
He reached up a hand. "Oh, ah, they're, uh, cold too." He grinned at her.
"Koto. I swear to Athiyk I will kill you if you don't give me a straight answer!" she cried.
"Okay, okay! Geez!" He backed up from the furious dragon. "Calm down, Risa."
She sighed, relaxing. "Spill. Now. I've only been being patient for the past seventeen goddamn years. Now, everything. How you guys met - I missed it, since I wasn't living with her yet - everything. And I mean it. I'm too curious to have waited this long for a half-assed story." She dragged him into her office, shoved him into a chair, and plopped into hers, feet on the desk, up on a few important pieces of paperwork. Nothing magic couldn't fix.
He rubbed his neck, ears flattening again. "Sarah and I had just arrived on Earth. She saw a butterfly and ran off, and so, of course, I got nervous. We'd picked up some of the language, but I mean, we weren't very good, especially not her, and we didn't look like the natives, obviously. I was pretty worried Vilgax would find her, and I was right. He did.
"When I got to the ship, I saw this girl holding Sarah and screaming at Vilgax. I didn't notice much about her, other than the fact that she had my sister almost safe. I attacked Vilgax to buy them the time to get out. Didn't bargain on her cousin showing up to fight Vilgax too. Well, we beat him for that time, till he ran off. Probably would've attacked me next, if Sarah hadn't pulled his cousin and herself between us, and she hadn't looked him in the eye and dared him to fight me. He...didn't. I'm still surprised about that when I watch how they act together now. You'd never guess that either of them actually cared.
"So I tried to take Sarah off with me, but she insisted on introductions. And she wouldn't let me go. "We're both fighting Vilgax. He'll find us seperate or not. Besides, we can feed you, and help you blend." I still don't know why she did that. But she did, and I've been grateful ever since. I know why she could do it, though. Like me, she'd lost her parents just a week prior, also to Vilgax. Ben had been luckier, not losing either. But since they owned that duplex, Gwen argued her way into keeping the other side. I don't know how she did that either. But she had us moved in for almost a month before we found out why we could. I only figured it out because I heard her crying in her room. I wound up in school with her and Ben, after she was attacked by a boy in her grade.
"She really was a magnet for men back then. All ages, they were just kind of drawn to her. All of them wanting to hurt her. I guess she looked vulnerable. You came along around the same time I started school with them, and joined the insanity, so you'd remember. Remember Michael? I think we all want to kill him again for what he did to her. I just remember that she used to care about everyone and everything, even if she hid it. I guess it started when her parents died. She wanted the pain to stop. She didn't want people to see her cry.
"I...I love her. I guess that doesn't surprise you. You're kind of the all-knowing one, as far as emotions go. I've been in love with her since I met her, honestly. Does it matter? She's my friend, whatever else I feel about her. She's still hurting, and I still don't know how to help her. There's not much I can do, honestly. I think Michael hurt her too much for her to...you know. If I could go back in time and destroy him, I would. I know I can't protect her. I can't even help her. So why did you ask?"
Risa set her hands on the arms of her chair. Was he clueless? As far as she could tell, he helped Gwen just by existing and breathing in close to the same space as she did. But he'd noticed more about Gwen than she had, clearly. She hadn't even guessed about why Gwen had become so withdrawn over the years, going from fairly outgoing to reclusive. She'd just figured it was the magic changing her. She hadn't changed too much after the whole Draug incident, besides getting more cautious. Maybe it was that she'd been older, and that she'd been raised to expect that kind of thing to happen in a country where for so long, taking something made it yours. Humans didn't really have that custom. She should have thought of it. If Koto was a failure as a protector, well, she was a failure as a friend. But she couldn't admit that to him; he needed her confidence right now. She could break down later, with Ben, and he wouldn't care.
"I asked because I wanted it confirmed." Risa held back a sigh. What to say without giving away too much? These two idiots had so thoroughly confused themselves that she didn't have the slightest idea - or ability! - to unmuddle their love knot for them. They'd have to manage that themselves. Hopefully before the next millenium was over. "And you do help her, even if you can't see it." She drummed her fingers on her desk. It wasn't like she needed to give them an excuse for close proximity to each other...but at the same time, she did need to, to make sure this sorted itself out. And admittedly, if it didn't, they still made a kickass team, working together. They understood each other on nearly everything, despite missing the incredibly obvious signs that the other was smitten. "Stick close to her," she told him. "Till all this is sorted. Gwen can take care of tons of people, but she needs somebody to make sure she's taking care of herself. Despite being older than me..."
He grinned slightly, ears flicking up. Then one drooped slightly. "Oh, uh, Risa. What was the deal with the people at breakfast? Did I miss something?"
Under no circumstances was she going to tell him that three days after he left, Gwen had blown up an abandoned fortress that had been overrun with orcs. Actually, he'd seen her do worse...
"Did Gwen blow something up?" he asked.
He knew her too well for his own good, clearly. "Yes. One idiot got scared of her and decided to hate her, so they got everyone else upset, and now they're being morons about her, and so she's been hiding this whole time. If I wasn't queen, I'd bash someone's face in, but I can't. It'd be an abuse of power..."
Risa caught the split-second expression on Koto's face and savored it. The look of 'I'm-going-to-slap-a-bitch' was one that definitely suited him. Talk about protective! She gave him a dismissing flick of her hand, swinging her feet off her papers. She could make K'thonya do them...although, the General had threatened to draw decapitated orcs in place of signatures if she had to do political paperwork again, so that probably wasn't a good idea. At least K'thonya was up-front about that stuff... And speaking of K'thonya, she really needed to find a way to ship that girl in a box to her would-be boyfriend, that dragon demon-thing what's-his-face, who she'd fallen so badly for despite only reaching like his waist. And she needed to get K'thonya's sister together with that healer- no, wait, those two already were together, now that she thought about it. Her youngest had walked in on them, hadn't she? Ugh, she needed to have padlocks installed on every single closet in the castle. She made notes of that before getting back to the stupid paperwork. Why did she care about the price of peas when war was probably coming soon and her best friend had turned into a hermit? Maybe she should mimic the humans and appoint some advisory people to handle this stuff...
Koto, meanwhile, had taken to the halls. He'd check up on Gwen when he guessed she was done - probably in around two hours, because that was about how long she tended to take on everything that involved books. For now, he'd check up on some of their group of friends and see what they said. He was going to find and beat the crap out of whatever idiot had decided to make everyone else treat Gwen horribly. And he was going to make it painful as hell. Protective? As far as he was concerned, this was old hat after decades of protecting his little sister from those who would use her.
His first visit was to the Infirmary, headed by a young naga-gorgon female. Graille was K'thonya's far less warlike half-sister (one of many) and was unfortunate enough to have to hop rather than walk or glide, thanks to the...unique structure of her legs and tail. She was exceptionally gifted with healing, able to revive someone at the brink of death, and, to most people, appeared extremely detached and unemotional. To her big sister's friends, however, it was safe to say that the youngster hero-worshipped them, even when she ordered them to not go wandering off in the middle of the woods without a weapon or she wouldn't heal their ribs again...even though she would. It was hard to tell, given that she was blessed with an incredibly grave voice - her laugh sounded a bit like a creaky door, as far as Koto was concerned - and a remarkably inexpressive face. K'thonya had been forced to confirm her sibling's attitude to her friends. The scarlet-skinned female was, no matter her problems with expression, always ready with help on just about anything, as long as she liked a person.
She was inside the Infirmary (he'd never dared to ask if she left, because he wasn't sure what to say if she didn't), finishing what looked like the latest in a long series of healings on Risa's young daughter. She'd probably smashed into a wall again, due to her inability to control her own motion. Koto watched with his usual fascination for magic - when you're surrounded by people who can do magic and aren't able to do any yourself (unless you do something you've vowed never to do and you won't do that), magic becomes even more awe-inspiring than before. He liked to watch Graille work. You could have blown the floor up underneath her, he suspected, and she'd never flinch, just spell a temporary floor into place and finish up her healing. Her sister shared that steadiness, which he had to admit to admiring even more than the magic. He got angry when he got scared, but K'thonya and Graille just rolled their eyes, never even phased. So someone was going to kill their queen? They'd tried that last week too, and it would be dealt with in a few minutes, with time enough to make sure the healers and the council didn't get themselves into trouble.
At last, she finished, and forced the child to down a sedative so it could finish, and made the awkward transition from sitting to standing. It always took an effort not to flinch. From her waist to slightly past her knees, she had a tail, which split off from her legs to become a dragged tail, and from that split to the floor, she had barely mobile legs. And she never accepted help, instead choosing to hop-shuffle along corridors and through rooms. As a healer, she could have changed the composition of that part of her body, but she never had, and he'd never had the guts to ask why. Some day he would, but today he had questions about the deal with Gwen. People didn't shut up around Graille because they never stopped to think she cared what they said, so long as it didn't have to do with the Infirmary or her sister. She was the physically and emotionally crippled little thing, after all, and didn't matter so long as she healed their paper cuts and scratches.
"Hey Graille," Koto greeted her.
Her smile was awkward - she always tried to hide her fangs, and he'd blame at least half of her expressive problems on that constant and futile attempt - but sweet. "Hey Koto." Her voice was probably lower than before, which wasn't surprising. It just seemed to get deeper the longer he knew her, and was another thing he didn't dare ask about. "What's up?"
"I just got back, figured I'd stop to say hi."
"And inquire about why your girlfriend's turned into a reclusive wreck?" She was quicker than she looked, of course. How else would a mere teenager be put in charge of the Royal Infirmary?
"She's not my girlfriend!" he immediately protested, ears flattening. "...but yeah."
She shook her head. "Some day, Queen Chandrisa will stuff the two of you in a closet and that will change...but for now, I've got answers on that." She made her way towards him with her stilted gait. "One of the elves on Her Majesty's council got uppity about how much power Gwen has. He picked up on how vulnerable she was, once you left - don't protest, it's true - and turned a demolition of an orc-overrun fortress into the demolition of a government stronghold on her own planet, so now everyone's terriffied she'll blow up the planet." To the point, as usual.
"That's so stupid."
"That's people," she said, and if she'd been any good with tone, he guessed she'd sound disgusted. It was hard to tell with her, though.
"What was the name?" he asked, after a moment.
"Kenlath Bindrabint," she informed him. "He likes to wear pink, and is the one most often pushing that Her Majesty's marriage be annulled because His Majesty was not born a dragon or an elf. He just wants to force himself on her. Typical political climber." She shook her head. "I need to go check on a dragon with heart problems in the other room. Welcome back." And then she was off, leaving him with the information, and wondering, yet again, why she wasn't promoted to spymaster or something. She basically lived in the Infirmary, but she knew everything and everyone- that should not be possible for a normal being. (He forgot about the existence of crystal balls and scrying, of course, but that was excusable, given how little he understood about magic).
He wandered off towards his second visit, K'thonya, and also braced himself for a tackle by the wild warrior. Half-gorgon, half-elf, K'thonya was devoted and steady to anyone she cared about. And in love with a demon on the other side of the world who she hadn't seen in around ten or more years, much to the chagrin of many a male. Of course, that demon had the advantage of not being involved in the petty power squabbles at the castle, which surely helped her esteem for him stay so powerful through the years. He couldn't imagine not having seen Gwen for years on end. Months had been bad enough. He wouldn't admit to it, but he'd have been coming back soon even had Draug not told him about the problem. He'd missed her so much. He couldn't imagine meeting her and facing the prospect of never seeing her again.
K'thonya was conducting a practice session with a group of young cadets, drilling them to make the sword an instinct. She was quite opposite from her half-sister, though they shared a height. Her dominant feature was not her green skin - in a land that was primarily populated by gorgons (as dragons and elves were a more imported type of species), weird skin colors were highly normal - but instead her enormous mane of snakes, which moved constantly. That was one thing he could never get used to - the moving and flickering tongues. They braided themselves, flipped around, and slunk about her head. She never noticed, but his eyes were always on those snakes. The longest was twined about her waist at that particular minute, and the shortest was trying to stretch over the top of her ear. Another difference was the sheer veil stretched across her eyes. Most gorgons had control over their ability to turn others to stone, but after the incident that required her demon love to be on the other side of the world, which had seriously impacted her, she had lost that ability, and so, wore a veil. Some were immune to this ability, and some could reverse it on their own - Gwen being a prime example of the latter.
He watched for quite a while before giving up on getting any time to talk to her right then. The two hours were wearing out, and he needed to go find Gwen. The walk to the library was quick, as he was focused on finding her. It was half empty, as per usual, bare of all but the usual regulars and a group of magic students cramming for upcoming midterms. Their studying consisted of throwing curses at each other, so Koto carefully avoided them. He obviously did not want his head transformed into a carrot, no matter how briefly.
Gwen was at the same place, in the back, and had evidently not thought to change. She'd taken over several tables, with them all shoved together. There was a haphazard arrangement of books and enormous amounts of paper, and he found himself reminded of finals during high school, walking into the house from football - which he'd done solely because he preferred that to the awkwardness of PE. The only thing he'd learned in PE was how to fall off ropes by virtue of girls in skimpy shorts stretching on the floor below. Thank goodness Ben had never told Gwen or Risa. He'd never have been able to look either of them in the eye.
"You okay, Gwen?" he asked, after a moment, taking a seat at the tables. Four of them, apparently.
She gave a distracted nod. "Sourcing some spells and legends about that thing. With any luck, I'll get some results."
"It's close to lunch," he said. "Er, do you want me to get you something?" He'd get to K'thonya there for a few minutes while he grabbed food for the two of them, then come back. "It's not like they care about food being in here," he added, as she tilted her head, pulled from her thoughts.
"Sure," she said, after a moment.
"And I know- as much meat as possible." She really liked beef and pork, and he vividly recalled staring blankly at her as she demolished a hamburger the size of her face, the first day he knew her. Gwen was a major carnivore, and rivalled her cousin on that. Her momentary grin confirmed that.
He threaded his way back out from the library and down to the Great Hall, already crowded, to retrieve some food, and (to his relief) spied K'thonya. He might have had to visit the army dining hall if she hadn't decided to take her lunch elsewhere. He wove his way over to her. "Hey, 'thonya!" he called, getting up to her side.
"Koto! Oh wow, when'd you get back?" She gave him a quick hug, careful not to rumple her veil.
"This morning," he said, grinning. "Who's Kenlath Bindrabit?"
She frowned. "Where'd you hear about him from?"
"Your sist- er, Graille." It was hard to resist saying 'your sister'. Then she'd ask which one and start listing them. Not exactly helpful.
"And this has to do with Gwen, of course," she said.
His ears flattened, then he remembered himself and tried to keep them upright and his tail normal. It didn't work out too well. K'thonya chuckled. "Of course it is," she said. "If you really want to deal with him - which, by the way, is a waste of time, and also, you'd better make sure it's way secret if you do anything, and don't tell me what - his rooms are in the Red Wing. I won't remember this, by the way." She ruffled his hair from her tiptoes, and meandered over to the highest table (lucnh was rather more formal than breakfast, at the palace, and dinner was of course, quite formal) to slide in place next to Risa. He waved briefly to Ben, who looked ready to pass out in his food, and began making his way out of the hall, reviewing what he knew of the Red Wing. Might have to do some research of his own this afternoon...