Serpent Lake alloy

tavina was a logical sort and as such her mind turned immediately to why indeed she had been so offended. the queen had snapped at her many times and ramesses had brushed by her in the halls on too many occasions to note. her long time at the bedside had made her the target of wrath by many patients, especially those terminally ill.

and none of those times had ever stung so much as this.

the sesh did a mental inventorying of her physical self first. she had been rather uncommonly warm as of late, though she attributed it to spending longer times beneath the mesa. today was the first she had felt so aligned. and today was the first time she had ever felt such a fool. tavina watched gucci frenetically groom himself, somewhat detached as she tried to make sense of herself and her own reaction.

the sesh then had a thought that was so absurd she nearly allowed a nervous chuckle to escape into the spring air. it felt as though she had — her mind spun circles, trying to avoid bringing the sentiment into existence. her thoughts hopped on one foot and began to pull faces, all manner of increasingly more ridiculous things to avert manifesting the words.

with his new discovery about the inhabitants of the mesa and her most recent explanation that he would not be eaten, why, that left nothing else. 

gucci gave a loquacious apology. tavina smiled. it is forgotten, her eyes said, though her entire manner stiffened with surprise when he put his paw over her own. she stared at the contrast of light and of dark, of small and of large, of dog and wolf —

at the way his stomach seemed irreverently held.

tavina sought her normal composure, dreadfully questioning herself, her motives, her — predilections. "it has been a very jarring day for you, neb," she said softly. "i don't hold any of your reactions against you. just know that your place in akashingo is as assured as it ever was, dog or wolf or otherwise."