Lion Head Mesa dauphine

maggie led @Nephele into the shadow cast by the monolith. "time for yew to meet my bawd," the lovely thing grinned. "pretty as a posy but cold as a shaft o'ice," she joked, before tilting her delicate crown back to call for @Jawahir.

Nephele was panting. Just a bit. She was fine. No she did not jog into the shade, whatcha talkin’ bout. Nor did she flop onto her haunches. She sat, very delicately, and tried not to fall onto her face and melt.

Ill take your word for it. She joked, flashing a lazy, lopsided grin, before going back to trying not to start screaming like laptop fans when they get too hot.

a brief dip in the creek and stint basking in the sun, their body humming with endorphins, cut short by a call.

spritely goes the courtesan; finding maggie glowing beneath the sun - and not alone. a svelte stranger of shadows.

jawahir slips around them, between the two, investigative. well hello, and who is this?

jawahir was lark swift and upon them, prowling. "this 'ere is polecat," maggie introduced. "the lass ain't certain she wants to be in trade. so i took it upon meself to suggest she be our bully. what guards the door. you know."
the beauty, somehow less consumed by pale vigor in the presence of the lithe creature who had come to investigate. and one who held the ear of the lord by some sort of sinning wickedness.

Nephele waited, tucked into the safe shadows, hasseling and trying valiantly to regain breath in her lungs. The discussing two were out of mind up until her false name came up, and she piped up, still slightly out of breath.

Im trying to come up with a better name than Polecat. Mom didn’t like me much when she named me. She said with the flash of a rueful smile.

a grin spread cleanly across jawahir's face.

ah! i see, it was perhaps the first impressive thing maggie had ever done. they would need more able-bodies to protect the mesa as well as keep business running smoothly. this girl was a fine catch.

still, they ambled around nephele and took great care to study the various scars, awed.

what is it you would like to be called then, if not polecat? jawahir had some thoughts of what to call this divine thing, scars and all.

this is your new beginning! you may as well make the best of it.

polecat quipped. maggie grinned. jawahir seemed gayer today.
for once the beauty held her blistering tongue, wondering what sort of name the bully might give herself now.
and if ramesses would suddenly swagger into their midst, and want to test polecat for himself, in the way only a lord could demand.

Nephele shrugged her shoulders up, blues trying to track the canid curling around her body to, presumably, make sure she was up to snuff. She puffed out her chest a bit.

Not entirely sure, to be honest. I thought about Wolverine, but uh...it’s not fitting real well. Her ears wilted back, before perking.

Do you have a suggestion?

jawahir smiled. sabah. it means 'morning'.
they felt akashingo would be a dawn for the former polecat, striking scars and all.
come back with us now. i will bring you to pharaoh." their eyes went to maggie momentarily. the jewel  turned, uncoiling from sabah with a trilling purr.

sabah. it had a foreign sound to it, not much more than the bawd's own.
"oi kinda like it," the beauty said boldly, taking up beside the bully when jawahir had gone on.
"yew'll like 'im," maggie said of pharaoh, grinning into her new friend's face.

Sabah. Morning. 

This was really happening to her. Slowly, she rose to follow, flashing a quick, nervous grin.

I just hope he likes me, honestly. She said. Breath in, breath out. She was the morning now, even as she jealously guarded Nephele, tucked away in her breast with every other name she’d used and sloughed like a snake when it outgrew its skin.

But for now, she was morning. The grey dawn. And she didn’t mind that.