Valerie's expression as she finally glanced up at his face must have been exceptionally hard to read, as even she herself wasn't entirely sure how she felt about the situation she'd found herself in. Relieved to see him alive and (relatively) well after all this time? Perhaps. Hurt as the emotional wounds caused by their parting suddenly opened themselves up again? Probably. Confused as to just how in the hell they'd ended up reuniting like this?

Most definitely.

At Lesley's suggestion, she managed to once again tear her gaze away from his and prepared to make her hasty exit, but not before giving his hand a quick reassuring squeeze as she finished up working on his bonds.

"I'll be right nearby. If you need me... well, I'll figure something out."

With that, she released her grip and hurriedly dismounted from the caravan, returning to the point she'd been standing a few moments before- hopefully far enough away to avoid too much suspicion, but close enough that she'd be able to intervene in time if necessary.

Axia watched quietly in anticipation as the man struggled to find the right words, shifting her weight restlessly between her feet before letting out a surprised yelp as arrows began to fly past them, coming dangerously close to striking her. It was a good thing that Eln stepped in front of her when he did- if he hadn't done so, it was quite possible that she'd have been caught off guard for long enough for the hunters to hit their mark. It took a moment for her to snap out of her newfound state of shock and realize that the man was still talking to her.

"Okay, umm... just stand still, okay? I'm gonna try some magic. Maybe I can scare 'em off for good this time..."

She sidled up uncomfortably close behind him, peeking her head over his shoulder while pointing one hand past him in a finger-gun-esque pose as the scales along her arm began to light up in preparation. Several thin but intense beams of light were fired from her fingertips, followed by a disconcerting cacophony of wood cracking and splintering as the hunters' cover of trees suddenly burst into flames. Perhaps her plan to flush them out was working a little too well- if the fire got out of hand, it would soon be unsafe for anyone to stick around. She stumbled back, even further drained from her excessive magic usage but still quite aware of the problem she'd just created.

"...Whoops. Okay. Right. Change of plans- we should get out of here. Like, immediately."

Her hand latched around his wrist and she moved to start dragging him away from the hunters and what could very well soon turn into a blazing inferno- although due to her currently weakened state and their general difference in strength, it wasn't likely that she'd be moving him anywhere unless he chose to go along with it.

"Stay focused. We can talk later... provided we're both still alive."

She wasn't mentally prepared to look him in the face and give a straight answer, nor did she have the time for it. Instead, she got to work on his bonds, fiddling and tugging at them until they were in a state she was satisfied with- stable enough that they'd still seem secure to someone not paying too much attention, but loose enough that they were likely to come undone given enough force.

"There. You should be able to break free of them now. Think you can make a break for it when they open the cage?"

Axia stood her ground as the hunters fled, waiting until she was convinced that they wouldn't return before letting out a snort and turning back around to face her new "friend". Except... he didn't look all that pleased with her. In fact, he didn't seem like he was really processing it at all. He was just kinda... sitting there.

Uh oh. She'd broken him, hadn't she? Not this again! She wasn't all that scary, was she? Was it really so much to ask for her to be able to use this form every once in a while without people going all... well, like that? On the other hand, though, the man hadn't gone and bolted yet, so maybe she'd have a chance at fixing things this time! First things first, they'd clearly need to have a little chat in order to calm him down. She slowly lumbered up to him, opening her mouth in preparation to speak before...

...Wait a second. There's no way he'd be able to understand her like this. That was something she probably should have thought about earlier, but usually people would run away before she'd ever get the chance to try! Sheepishly, she stumbled backwards a few steps in a manner that must have looked quite silly for a creature of her size. There was a brief moment of quiet as her scales began to light up in every colour imaginable before her form was enveloped by another blinding flash. By the time the light died down, Axia would once again be standing upright in her human-ish form- although she very nearly toppled over a second later, finding herself surprisingly drained.

Woah. Transforming once usually wan't a problem for her, but apparently doing it twice in such a short time period took a lot out of her. Something she should keep in mind for the future, she supposed, but she had other priorities at the moment. She walked back over to the big guy, her head tilting curiously as she looked him over before remembering that she was supposed to be speaking.

"Oh, right. Uhh, hey there! Sorry about the whole... big scary dragon thing. I was just trying to chase those hunters off, y'know? So you don't need to worry about me hurting you or anything. I mean, not on purpose, at least." She shot the man her best smile, then stuck out her hand in the same way that she'd seen so many humans do when first meeting someone.

"Let's start over, okay? My name's Axia. What's yours?"

Lanai followed Simonea into the tavern- after ducking a bit and awkwardly shuffling her wings around so she could get everything to fit through the door- and took a moment to take in her new surroundings. It was actually quite a rarity for her to wind up indoors, since most of her work took place out in the open and she'd rarely been asked to stick around for too long afterwards. It didn't take long, however, for her "sightseeing" to be interrupted as the woman behind the counter immediately got the wrong idea. In stark contrast to her seeming confidence and carefree attitude only a few moments earlier, Lanai seemed genuinely caught off guard- perhaps even upset- by the misunderstanding.

"What? Wait, no. That's not... I'm not a demon! Just hold on a second!"

Despite her best efforts to defuse the situation, though, Lanai's body would slowly and subtly shift to better fit the young woman's description of her. Her nails sharpened further to more closely resemble claws, and the bright colours of her feathers shifted from their usual sunset hues to more intense purples and even reds. She put her hands out in what was meant to be a non-threatening gesture, but given the circumstances, it was quite possible that it would achieve the opposite effect.

Valerie watched as the they pulled up next to the jail, her hand subconsciously gripping her sword in its sheath as her body began to tense up. If she was going to step in and try to intervene, now would be the time. There was no telling how much trouble she'd be in if she was caught, but if the person being held in the cage was who she thought they were, there was no chance she was going to simply walk away. It was a problem she'd been having more and more recently- when she cared about something, or someone, she had a compulsion to latch on and never let go.

Taking advantage of the temporary window of opportunity as Reddick talked to someone on the other side of the door, Valerie swiftly approached the caravan and climbed up into it- hopefully if any of the townspeople watching spotted her, they'd be too intimidated to speak up. Sure enough, sitting on the other side of the cage's bars was just about the last person she would have expected to run into today.

Lesley... what the hell have you gotten yourself into?

Immediately, countless questions began rattling around inside her head. There was so much she wanted to ask, so much she wanted to say, but this was no time to be standing around chatting. She spoke quietly, but her tone of voice made it quite apparent that she was well aware of the urgency of their current situation.

"Show me your bonds. Quickly."

As was often the case when she went out exploring, Axia had opted for her human form today. Being smaller naturally allowed for easier maneuvering around the various plant life, and this form's far more dextrous hands made picking up and examining whatever strange and wondrous object she might come across much easier. There was that, and... well, while dragons were generally pretty well protected in Adela, there was always the chance that she'd run into another dragon that was less than pleased with her for "intruding" on their territory.

That was how things usually went, anyway, but the moment she spotted one such dragon fall from the sky and crash through the nearby trees, it became obvious that today was going to be quite different. By the time she'd made her way to the site of impact, she found that someone had already beat her there- a sturdy-looking man with what appeared to be horns atop his head. Immediately, her curiosity was piqued- it wasn't the first time she'd seen someone with horns, but his specific set wasn't familiar to her.

Could it really be that one man was capable of taking down a dragon all by himself? It wasn't that he looked weak or anything, but still, that was the kind of tale usually reserved for folk stories and drunken ramblings. It didn't even look like he had a bow on him, which definitely didn't add up with the arrows piercing the dragon's body. No, it seemed far more likely that he was more like her- a wanderer that just so happened to stumble across something strange and had decided to investigate.

She watched and waited quietly for a moment, observing as the horned man slowly made his way around the downed dragon. His stance and expression... she'd recognize the meaning behind them anywhere. It was the kind of feeling that she'd all but dedicated her life to chasing, after all! The discovery of something new and unusual was something she could never bring herself to turn away from, even if it was someone else making the discovery this time around.

She was just about ready to emerge from her temporary hiding place and make her presence known when she picked up on the sudden sounds of shouting and people stumbling their way through the woods, convincing her to stay put long enough to get a clearer picture of the situation. A small group of hunters ... judging by the weapons and equipment they carried with them, they were almost certainly the ones responsible for the dragon's death. And by the way the woman in the front threatened the horned man, dragons weren't the only thing they were willing to kill in order to claim their prize. It didn't take a genius to figure that if she chose not to intervene, he didn't stand much of a chance against the three of them at once.

Was it advisable for a dragon to go poking her nose into the business of a bunch of dragon hunters- especially ones that were clearly capable enough to bring one down? Well, maybe not. Almost certainly not, actually. But she'd never been the type to err on the side of caution, and besides, it couldn't be good for her in the long term if people got it into their heads that dragon slaying was a simple task. And hey, if it came down to it, the big guy would have her back, right?

Probably.

Still, though, she would rather not have to fight the hunters to the death if she didn't have to. Perhaps the sight of another dragon would be enough to scare them off and make them think twice about their preferred targets, especially if she was the one catching them by surprise. It was at least worth a shot, she figured...

Those gathered by the fallen beast would notice a sudden flash of light bursting out from some of the nearby shrubs before Axia's newly draconic form came barreling through, placing herself between the hunters and their prey. She snarled at them before unleashing what she thought was a sufficiently intimidating roar, although truth be told, she wasn't exactly the most fearsome dragon around. Hopefully it would be enough to convince them that it wasn't worth trying to mess with her...

His lack of a proper response was worrying to say the least, and as Katarina hesitantly glanced down at his mangled arm, she had to fight back a wave of nausea. Being left without proper treatment for so long had clearly taken its toll, as it definitely looked worse than how she'd last seen it. She wasn't at all well trained enough to know the best action to take with it at this point- would bandaging it up even do any good? On the other hand, it didn't seem likely that she could make things much worse at this point, and the thought of leaving it once again without being able to help sickened her even more. She debated the best course of action, tail swishing anxiously behind her as she thought, before coming to a decision and retrieving the medical supplies he'd requested from her bag.

"Listen, I'm going to start putting this stuff on now. It's probably going to sting, so... I'll be as gentle as I can this time. Promise." With that, the girl quickly got to work, not expecting him to give her much of a response.

Seeing Simonea going about fixing her appearance, Lanai took it as a cue to work on her own, although what she actually did was more akin to admiring herself. If Simonea were to pay close attention to Lanai's body afterwards, she might notice a few... odd changes that had apparently taken place as they'd been walking over to the tavern. Her arms, while certainly still cut up pretty badly, looked significantly cleaner than before- whatever blood there was left on them was seemingly concentrated around her injuries, leaving little indication that there had ever been any blood present other than her own. In fact, all things considered, there was surprisingly little evidence that she'd been in a fight in the first place. Had she really been that quick to tidy herself up? Or... maybe that's just how she'd always looked?

"Mmm... well, 'okay' probably isn't the right word. I'm sure a lot of them don't know what to think when they first see me. So of course, I get a lot of odd looks from humans, but I can't say I've ever had one be too fussy about it to my face. Besides, if someone's got a problem with how I look and decides they don't want anything to do with me, that's their loss. They're really missing out! But in any case, I wouldn't worry too much about them being upset with you. I imagine they'll be quite taken aback once we go in there, regardless of what you told them at first."

Yet another dead end, Valerie thought to herself as she sat alone near the entrance of the city. Senttus was one of many settlements she'd visited as part of her ongoing quest to hunt down Giyesh. Despite her best efforts, she unfortunately had quite little to go off of when it came to tracking the beast down- she hadn't actually been around to see it attack so she couldn't give anyone a particularly detailed description, and the dragon was elusive enough that the little information she did have access to had yet to yield any meaningful results.

The dragon was known to keep itself hidden for long periods of time, only appearing to attack on rare occasions, but it sure did seem like it was taking its sweet time preparing for its next attack. At least, that's certainly how it felt to Valerie, though it was quite possible that her growing frustration with the beast's disappearing act was causing her mind to exaggerate the actual length of time that had passed. The dragon was the one part of her past that she had any hope of properly coming to terms with, and she was dead set on confronting the damned thing even if she stood little chance against it in direct combat.

She let out a sigh and rested her head against her hand, her fingers brushing against the fabric of her eyepatch. Yet another thing that had been taken from her... it couldn't have been too long since she'd lost it, but she'd adapted surprisingly quickly to the point where it almost felt natural to her. If her mother and Lesley had been around at the time of the incident, they'd probably have fussed over her to no end. In a strange way, being alone for a while might have actually helped her adapt to the loss more quickly... or maybe that was just something she needed to tell herself in order to feel better about the whole situation.

The sound of wheels rolling along the ground pulled Valerie from her thoughts, and she looked up for a moment to take note of its origin. A caravan began to pass in front of her, which she normally wouldn't have paid much attention to, but the symbols displayed on the caravan caught her eye. Those flags... there was no doubt about it.

Bayreds. She'd recognize their symbol anywhere- Lesley had the damned thing tattooed on him, after all. It wasn't a subject they'd discussed too much with each other, understandably so considering its sensitive nature, but she knew enough about them to get the idea that they were really bad news. It was odd to see such an infamous group flying its colours so brazenly in a public place- either the bandits had more influence over the city than she'd initially realized, or they had a really good reason for showing up today. Valerie eyed the caravan with suspicion as it rolled by, but made no move to confront it. If there was a problem, she figured that the city guards could handle it, so there wasn't much reason to cause trouble for herself by getting involved.

At least, that's what she thought at first.

As the caravan passed, Valerie picked up on a few small bits of the conversation happening inside. There were two distinct voices, one that she didn't recognize at all, and another that felt awfully familiar, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it at first. It was enough to get her to perk up and listen in more carefully, though, and she was able to pick up on one particular word just as the caravan rolled away from her...

Striker.

If Valerie had been less informed about the Bayred bandits and particularly one of their former members, she might have thought less of it and simply gone on with her day. Knowing what she did, though, there was no way she could ignore it. Besides, she'd never been the kind of person who was willing to just take a step back and let things go. It seemed that even if she couldn't find anything on Giyesh, her past had decided to rear its head in another way, and she wasn't about to pass up the chance to follow up on it.

Valerie waited a moment for the caravan to pass before getting to her feet and following behind. She didn't exactly want the townspeople to think she was associated with the bandits, and she really didn't want the bandits to figure out she was tailing them. As such, she tried her best to look inconspicuous as she followed along, keeping her eye set dead forward instead of allowing it to wander back over to the caravan. Of course, it probably didn't help that she wasn't exactly the most forgettable-looking person around, but there was little she could do to change that at this point. The most she could do was keep her head up and hope she didn't draw too much attention, at least for now.

QUICK STATS

Name
Valerie, AKA Val. If she has a surname, she's not particularly forthcoming about it.

Age
30

Gender
Female

Species
Human

Ethnicity
Indeterminate. Apparently, her parents aren't from Le'raana.

Height
5'10"

Occupation
Monster hunter

Residence
Formerly, a village in Adela. Currently, she doesn't have a permanent home.

IN-DEPTH STUFF

Physical Description

Valerie is a tall and sturdy woman with dark tanned skin and wild reddish-orange hair. Though she originates from elsewhere, she could quite easily pass as Adelan at a quick glance. Due to her frequent travels and the rough nature of her occupation, she's very rarely "tidy" looking, frequently sporting cuts and bruises as well as disheveled hair and clothing (why bother cleaning it all up when it's just going to get messed up again, she says). She wears an eyepatch over where her left eye used to be, having lost it in a particularly horrific encounter against one of her tougher opponents. It's also rare to see her without some kind of weapon on her person.

Personality

Strong-willed and assertive, Valerie is extremely stubborn when it comes to her beliefs and values and has little interest in keeping her opinions to herself, resulting in many verbal altercations... and a few physical ones. Having experienced more than her fair share of loss and grief, especially in recent years, one might expect her to be more hesitant when it comes to forming new bonds and growing closer to people for fear of once again losing someone important to her. In reality, it's quite the opposite- she grows fond of new acquaintances quickly and will go to great lengths to defend those she cares for, which can lead to bouts of overprotective behaviour. She's highly confident in her own abilities, but she also recognizes that regular practice and refinement is necessary to maintain those skills and thus tries not to get too complacent.

Magic/Abilities

Although she's never been professionally taught, Valerie has trained extensively in the use of both sword and shield. She's pretty damn strong and often relies on that to give her an edge in battle rather than focusing on proper technique. Typically her work involves fighting off monsters and other beasts, but she can hold her own in a fight against other people in a pinch.

Relationships

Lesley - Her former lover, as well as a student of her father.
Lemmick - Her estranged father. Deceased.
Amara - Her mother. Missing, presumed deceased.

History

Her parents split when she was young, with her mother taking her to live a relatively quiet life while her father continued his travels as a wandering swordsman. Valerie spent most of these days helping her mother out with odd jobs around the village, practicing swordplay in her free time. Regardless of who may have been at fault for her parents' separation or how complicated the situation might have been, the young girl ultimately ended up blaming her father, seeing as he couldn't exactly defend himself or offer an explanation. Perhaps this was what inspired her to take up the sword herself- there was a part of her that had always wanted to knock him down a few pegs, coming across him on some fateful day and utterly humiliating him by challenging and handily beating him at his own game. As she would eventually learn, though, that day would never come.

A student of her father came to visit one day, bearing news of her father's death. Valerie was hesitant to talk with the man at first, seeing as she hadn't been particularly fond of her father and thus viewed those associated with him in a negative light, but the man proved to be much more pleasant company than she'd expected. The two bonded quickly and eventually fell for each other, with Valerie even finding her opinion of her father softening due to how fondly her now-lover spoke of him. For a while, she was happy to be spending time with what could have been her lifelong companion, even being content to ease up on her training now that her initial motivation behind it had died out.

It wouldn't last, though. A great white dragon attacked the village where she had lived, resulting in the deaths of many of her friends as well as the disappearance of her mother. Enraged and grief-stricken, Valerie set out to hunt the beast down, determined to prevent it from destroying any more lives. Her lover moved to stop her, believing that the dragon may have had a good reason for attacking, but Valerie was far too upset to hear him out and the two ended up parting ways. She now spends her days hunting down monsters of all shapes and sizes, honing her skills in preparation for the day that the white dragon eventually returns.

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Name
Clover. At least, that's what she tries to communicate to people, but it doesn't always go as planned and often leads to unwanted nicknames (she's not called "Lucky", damn it!)

Age
Early twenties

Gender
Questionable, typically presumed female and doesn't seem to object to it...

Species
Human

Ethnicity
Ambiguous. Looks to be some sort of Adelan/Serenian mix.

Height
5'0"

Occupation
Adventuring and doing odd jobs. Basically whatever people will pay her to do.

Residence
Travelling!

IN-DEPTH STUFF

Physical Description
Clover is not a large individual by any means, but she's quite athletic, built mainly for agility and flexibility. Her ethnicity is difficult to pin down- she has darker skin indicative of Adelan heritage, but the odd silver colouring of her hair and eyes suggest some amount of fae blood. She generally prefers clothes that are unlikely to get in the way in the event that she needs to jump into action, but she admittedly has a fondness for scarves which add a bit of unnecessary flair to her movements. She can always be found wearing a pendant depicting a four-leaf clover (she'll gesture at it in order to tell people her name... or at least attempt to) and will get extremely upset if it's ever removed from her person.

Personality
Clover is quiet by necessity- she doesn't appear to speak at all, though whether this is due to choice or disability is unknown. At the very least, she is quite capable of understanding words being spoken to her. It would be a mistake to interpret her silence as her being shy or cold, as in reality she's easily excitable and greatly enjoys interacting with others despite the occasional roadblocks that arise when attempting to communicate with them. She's a highly expressive person, partly to aid in making her thoughts and feelings known to others and partly because... well, that's just who she is.

Clover is rarely satisfied with the conclusion that something "can't be done", and takes great pleasure in overcoming supposedly impossible challenges with a clever solution or simply through sheer force of will. She can be highly opinionated and is quick to jump into action whenever she feels as though she can solve a problem or make a positive change, which happens... often. She thrives when she's facing a challenge and gets pretty down on herself when she's unable to overcome one.

Those skilled with abilities such as divination, telepathy, or even particularly strong instincts may feel that there is something "off" about her, though it's difficult to place exactly what it is (besides the whole not-speaking thing). Animals don't tend to be too fond of her either, which has led to some dicey encounters with wild animals as well as her being hurriedly ushered away from certain areas in order to prevent all hell from breaking loose.

Abilities
Clover is a skilled swordswoman as well as an experienced dancer. She's at her best when combining elements of the two, incorporating fluid and flashy moves into her swordplay which definitely looks cool but is probably more trouble than it's worth at the end of the day. Don't tell her that, though- she'll probably start sulking. She uses a lightweight, intricate-looking blade in battle.

History
Explaining her own background to people would be a challenge, for what should be obvious reasons. Not that it would help much if she could, considering the fact that she can't seem to remember most of it herself. As far as she's aware, she's always been an adventurer.

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Katarina flinched and shrunk backwards as she was reprimanded, as if she was expecting him to lash out physically instead of just verbally.

"You're right. It is my fault. I should have known I wouldn't be able to fix it. So... I'm sorry for screwing up and hurting you."

It was a pretty far cry from the tone she'd taken with him yesterday, and it wasn't hard to tell from the shakiness of her voice that she was once again on the verge of tears.

"But I promise I wanted to come back here sooner. They wanted me to stay overnight so they could keep an eye on any... changes. I didn't want to cause a panic by sneaking out."

Maddison's defensive posture loosened slightly as Ruger lowered his weapon. She raised an eyebrow at Cullen when yet another one of his jokes sailed completely over his companion's head, but decided it would be best not to make too big a deal of it- they did seem to be making some progress now, and there was little sense in jeopardizing that by getting Ruger any more riled up.

"So you've spoken to him too... that certainly simplifies things. I take it you were out on the lake for the same reason I was, then." She gave Cullen an affirmative nod before cracking a small smile at his joke. "Somehow I doubt his plan involved getting us together. But hey, that is pretty close to what ended up happening. Perhaps the old man is more clever than he gets credit for.

"I'd say that's enough about me, though. What about you? Whose clubhouse have I stumbled my way into?"

"Mhmm! Of course, people are usually surprised to see me at first. I do have a habit of showing up out of the blue, after all! But they do tend to come around eventually, so I must be doing something right," she replied cheerfully, not missing a beat. The idea that people might be more receptive to her and her appearance shortly after she'd swept them out of harm's way had apparently never crossed her mind.

"Scoundrel, indeed. Only the lowest of the low would attack someone in such a vulnerable position." Her expression ever-so-briefly shifted to a frown before she turned to give Simonea a reassuring smile. "There's no sense fretting over the feathers if we're going to go together, though. I think you'll agree that even if you could hide yours, trying to hide mine would be another issue entirely. Not that we should have to hide them in the first place..."

Lanai grew quiet for a moment as they approached the village, temporarily occupied with her own thoughts. It seemed... peaceful? Relatively, at least. It was hard for her to imagine that there had been a situation unfolding here that desperately demanded her attention just a few moments ago, only to resolve itself while she'd been dealing with the demon.

There wasn't much point in hiding the truth now, she supposed- if these two were somehow working for the Grand Duke, they already had plenty reason to arrest her. She leaned back a bit, crossing her arms in front of herself somewhat defensively before addressing Cullen with a nod.

"I work with the Red Legion- mercenary company-turned-army with the goal of fighting back against the Grand Duke. I was out on the lake expecting to receive a drop-off of letters, some of which may have contained important military information. There wasn't supposed to be anyone else there that night, but then there you were, and as inconvenient as that might have been for me, I didn't want my contact to be mistakenly approaching you if you turned out to be an enemy. We started talking- I wanted to see if you would let any information about yourself slip, and I imagine you were doing the same.

"So... there we were. Sizing each other up. I can't say I know how that would have ended if it weren't for those guards showing up and interrupting, but in the end, I suppose we both decided we were better off taking a chance on each other than letting the guards take us both in. Cullen had an escape plan involving a magical artifact but it... didn't exactly work out. We had to do some sneaking around in order to get here safely and neither of us were in particularly good shape afterwards."

Lanai picked up on a particular sensation after Simonea bowed back to her. She didn't even have to look to know what the cause of it was- Simonea was definitely staring at her. She could always tell when someone was staring- which, as it happened, was something that occurred quite frequently. Not that she minded too much, of course! She was certainly eye-catching enough to warrant the extra attention, and she wasn't particularly keen on telling them off when she could instead leave them be and soak in the attention. In fact, she even took the opportunity to show off a bit, subtly stretching her wings out to better display them.

"Mmm, you may be right about that. Most people don't take kindly to someone showing up covered in blood," she replied as she began to follow Simonea's lead, seemingly glossing over the whole "our sorts" thing- perhaps her own experiences with humans differed in some way. "If it helps any, I do seem to have a talent for getting on people's good side.Most of the time, at least. If not, well... I suppose soap and water will have to do. To tell the truth, I've recovered from worse injuries in the past without the help of a healer."

Maddison backed up as far as she could, thankful for the gap in space that Cullen provided by placing himself between the two. She trusted him enough to keep her relatively safe for now, but it never hurt to be careful, and while the two men argued she was silently plotting an escape route in case things went poorly.

"He is right about one thing, though. You don't know who I am, Cullen, and I don't know who you are. At least, not really. It was pure coincidence that we ended up working together. We could just as easily have been at each other's throats if it wasn't for those guards showing up."

She paused, looking Cullen's friend up and down before giving a sigh of her own.

"If it would help settle things down, I could start by giving my side of the story."

Katarina's ears twitched at the sound of his voice croaking something unintelligible at her before she hesitantly made her way into the room. If Tighearnán could see clearly enough, he'd be able to note a couple of changes from her appearance the previous day. A bandage was wrapped beneath her hair, covering up the injury she'd sustained due to the magical explosion, but by far the more interesting addition would be the fluffy pink tail trailing behind her that she'd apparently obtained overnight.

In her arms she carried a pitcher of water which she was careful not to spill as she saw the dire state he was in and hurriedly made her way over to him. She knelt next to him and gently put the pitcher up to his mouth, encouraging him to drink up.

"Shh, shh. Here, you should have some water first. Then we can talk."

Maddison's hands curled up into fists as the man prepared to give her an earful, ready to spring into action to defend herself in case things went south. It didn't come to that, however, as Cullen woke up and immediately defused the situation- apparently the two knew each other? Which was probably a good thing, but it also meant that she was once again out of the loop.

She moved to stand when Cullen did, offering one arm as support if he needed it while her other hand combed and brushed through her hair in an attempt to make herself slightly more presentable. She was content enough to wait and listen to the two men converse for now- well, until he said that.

"B-broad?!"

She went wide-eyed at that, apparently not quite familiar with being referred to in such a fashion. For a moment, she wasn't sure if she was more offended or just plain surprised, but by the time she'd collected herself enough to offer a response other than utter disbelief the conversation had already moved on. For now, she decided to hold her tongue until she had a better idea of who exactly she was dealing with.

"Maddison," she introduced herself rather bluntly, accompanying it with a brief nod. "I get the feeling that the two of you have a better understanding of what's going on here than I do."