Board Thread:Roleplay/@comment-31049256-20171024033731/@comment-28358106-20171025183047

The Ibrahims watch Tirush walk off into the crowd. Her height makes it difficult for her to disappear among the people, but eventually, she becomes little more than a blurry red shape, lost in the jumble.

Losing herself would have been impossible. She has no difficulty moving through the crowd, as people push aside to let her pass. Most are enthusiastically rooting her on, but the enthusiasm of some is replaced by wide-eyed silence as she comes near, her Draconid shape looming above them. Most children cheer madly, and some stare in awe. She says nothing as she passes, only nodding in thanks to a few, but not because she ignores them.

In truth, she is learning a great deal about them---their scents wash around her, drowning her in an invisible chemical sea of emotions and signals. There is one smell, blood-red, dark like smoke, that overrides all the others. A taste, sharp and singular, that sends adrenaline-soaked messages screaming through her muscles, telling her to fly, to shake the mountain with her roar, to bathe the sky in fire. The taste tells her that she rules here, as she does everywhere. That she is a God among insects. They hide it well, but it's still there.

She tastes their fear.

Her Mamono instincts struggle with her Primal self. She ignores it, until she sees a distant souvenir stand.

The vendor, a cheerful Wererabbit, is selling balloons, candy, and trinkets. A hand-painted sign above it says TEAM TIRUSH. Red and black seems to be the theme. Red and black balloons, candies of cherries and dark chocolate, and black shirts with red lettering saying BURN IT ALL are passed on to happy customers. And then she sees the little banners.

Little flag banners that have the symbol of her hidden name. Her True Fire.

They adorn the banners as if they were some sort of symbol for a team.

She stops dead in her tracks, her mouth falling open as she stares with incredulity. She begins shaking with rage, her taloned fist closing into a steel-crushing grip. She gave that mark to the Alice as a mark of a sacred bond, not something to be bandied about for sale. Not even her own daughter knew it. Someone must have seen it, and copied the design, thinking it was just another rune.

She manages to control herself as she strides to the stand. Then, another sight stops her in her tracks.

It's Thomas. Her husband has come up to the stand, and is speaking to the vendor vehemently about something, but the dull roar of the crowd blocks out what it is. He points to the banners and says something, gesturing emphatically, and the Wererabbit shakes her head, saying something and shrugging sheepishly, as if saying that she was sorry. Thomas seems to take this into consideration.

Then, he reaches into his pocket and says something. The vendor looks surprised, and Thomas repeats himself, pulling out his hand and setting a very large handful of gold pieces on the counter. The vendor shrugs, takes every one of the banners down, places them in a supply box behind her, and places the box and two others like it, outside of the stand. Thomas picks the boxes up and, tottering slightly, walks back to his spot on the wall, having just bought every single banner.

Tirush watches her husband leave, having preserved her honor. Her anger melts into an ache, her mouth curling to a smile.

This is why I love him, she thinks. He understands what matters.

She continues on her course to the staging area...