The meeting with Darksight is oddly out in the open, all the way near the Tip at the coffee-and-donut shop. Fried dough isn't something one would associate with Eeee dietary habits, but coffee might be. Tasha spots the all-black Eeee sitting at one of the outside cafe tables.
Tasha knows she's entirely too distinctive to covertly do anything in the open in a crowd of people, so she doesn't even bother and makes her way straight to Darksight's table. When she draws near she lifts a hand in a wave and pauses. "Hello again," she greets the man, but she doesn't move any closer, giving the man time to absorb how much she's changed and to see if he's okay with that.
"Your eyes have changed," Darksight notes, tapping his left one.
"Have they?" Tasha pauses. "May I join you?"
The bat gestures to the chair across from them. "You had feathers around the left one before," he explains. "I can see a bit into the ultraviolet range, so they stood out to me."
"I'm a bit shorter, have this neck ruff, and my voice is higher, and my tail is grabby," Tasha admits as she walks over, then plops herself down on the chair. She takes a moment to flutter her wings and fluff them out before she settles in. Being around Karnors sometimes makes her forget to take care of her wings as much as she could. "There's a few other changes, but those are closer to heart. So." She folds her hands on the table, ears forward, brows up, tail wrapping idly around a chair leg, "Would you prefer small talk and conversation first or should I get right to it?"
The Eeee seems to examine her closer now. "I hadn't noticed the height difference. Tails are.. not something Eeee pay attention to. You were wearing clothes last time, and you're wearing clothes this time, so I assumed your body structure was meant to be kept private. Can the small talk be about Baku's daughter?"
"Certainly. She seems to be doing just fine. I don't interact with her as much as I'd like, but those that do report that she's doing well and seems to be interested in the places we've been." Tasha then spreads her hands. "I, unfortunately, have a lot of people to look after now, so I can't spend as much time as I'd like with everyone. My plan to address that turned out rather differently, too."
"So her mood has been well then, it seems," Darksight says. "Has she been getting exercise?"
"As much as we can manage. A few, erm, locations we've been to have been less than safe, or their dangers unknown, or just.. odd." Tasha's left ear flicks. "But I'm told she's happy and engaged with all the new things. It's a lot to take in, even for me, and let me tell you I have been places lately."
"I'd like to interface with her of course," Darksight says. "Are there any issues with that?"
"None at all. In fact you might have ample opportunity if you accept my offer for you to join us. As an added bonus, we now have the potential means to return you home, assuming it still exists." Tasha doesn't bat an eyelash at the straight-talk. She assumes Darksight has considered it, and she doesn't want to sugar coat things and thus seem insincere, or worse, manipulative. She makes the offer now only because of the convenient segue.
"And what would I be providing by joining you?" the Eeee asks, a bit cautiously.
"Your vision, your skill, your experience, especially in navigation and other areas you excel at. Your dark sight. Things are coming to a bit of a head and, well," Tasha looks around for a moment, then makes a circular, encompassing spin gesture with her right pointer finger. "We'll be stepping up our efforts. And it would be good that we succeed, because our happy reality might not survive otherwise."
"Also we're full of outsiders and misfits, you'll find a place to fit in with us, I'm sure of it," Tasha adds, tail wagging, or at least the free tip of it.
"It feels like I would need to join or refuse before finding out the details," Darksight observes. "I'd want to at least confer with the bioship first."
"Sadly, you are correct. But I can tip my hand a little along the way. Do you want to sit and have something to eat first, or shall we return to the ship and see what the Tadpole thinks?" Tasha looks about to say something else, stops, then grins lopsidedly. "I'll have to order a box of donuts before we leave, or my pack will lynch me."
"Tadpole? That is the name you've given her?" Darksight asks, raising his brows. "What does it signify? I prefer the donuts with nuts on them."
"It's a silly Terran reference, I looked it up and tadpoles are the little babies of amphibians and the like, before they grow in to large forms. I though it sounded a bit disrespectful, but since it stuck I wasn't going to say anything." Tasha shrugs and shakes her head, looking wry. "Ships shouldn't have silly names unless they have silly spirits. But, maybe they know her better than I do, which is very likely. Most of my ship-focus is on our main vessel. And I'll add those kind to the order."
Aaron says, "I'll contact the Baku and let them know I'm going to do my checkup on the child, and may take my leave to provide full-time training and piloting," the Eeee says. "While you put in your order.""
"Tell the ship and the captain hi for me!" Tasha's a little too sing-song about it, not to mention she winks for some reason. Then she detangles her tail, stands up, and heads for the counter.
"Spices on Caltrop are unreasonably expensive," Gabriel complains when he returns from shopping. "How long as Darklight been down there?" he asks. The Eeee has been with the Tadpole for over an hour now, Tasha figures.
"Oh, maybe an hour?" Tasha sitting in the galley, though she's not sitting on anything and is instead reclined in the air spinning around slowly. Every so often she kicks a hoofed leg to maintain her momentum. "Hey since I'm here working on important things, come over here and sit with me a while?"
Gabriel sits down and grabs Tasha's tail to pull her closer.
Tasha does come over! Of course she maintains momentum and so ends up bumping in to him, which then becomes her falling in to his lap. "Hi," she greets him again, and reclines.
"Lets have kids?" It's said right out of the blue, and Tasha isn't even looking at Gabriel when she says it. She's looking off at a wall, though he knows her enough to know she's looking off at something beyond what the eyes can see, off in the far distance of the mind or, perhaps, the future. Somewhere.
"If you think you're ready, then I'm willing to put in the effort," Gabriel says and wags his tail. "How many to start with, three or four?"
"I was thinking of Mariel. How scared I am of accidentally hurting her, of bring this big mess to her door step and ruining her future. But the longer I've avoided her, the more I've felt like I've failed her somehow. She reached out to me and what did I answer with? Silence, I couldn't bring myself to say anything, because I feared to speak to her and I didn't know what to say. If she remembers me at all, do you think she thinks I abandoned her? Does she ask why I don't answer, has she moved on, is she even the same person I knew?" Tasha blinks, sniffing a little too hard. "But I'll never know if I don't say something. And I'll never know what could have been if I avoid my children for the same fears. And some day I might fall again, and I know I'll look back and think I should have chosen differently. So I'm choosing now."
Tasha rubs her eyes and looks back over her shoulder, smiling despite her glossy eyes. "So lets see what happens. As for how many, we'll just have to see how it all works, won't we? An adventure."
"Well, Darksight is going to fly Tadpole back to Abaddon, I assume," Gabriel says. "Send the Teddy-Tasha to Mariel."
"I'll do that. And I'm going to send a better message than the twenty-two I've made and then deleted," Tasha agrees. She finishes wiping off her eyes, grabs a napkin to clean up, and then pats the box on the table. "I got donuts."
"Of course you got donuts, but did you get enough?" Gabriel asks. "And you're over-thinking things again. Just write that you're nervous, and your fears. Mariel is a child but she still has her memories, and she's the one that held us together, along with Fred."
"I'll do that, then." Tasha then frowns in a scrunched-up way that, along with her face, makes her look a lot younger than she is. "I'm either over-thinking or under-thinking, some day, maybe I'll thinking evenly. And of course I got enough. How long have I been around everyone?"
"Just don't eat the ones with nuts, those are for Darksight," Tasha adds, in wolf-warning.
"What about the dragons?" Gabriel asks, and uses a paw to set Tasha spinning faster. "Or is it just Kainudy that likes donuts?"
"I think they prefer hot cheese," Katie says as she arrives with yet more grocery and grocery-adjacent items.
Tasha's hair whips around and she has to stop herself by putting an arm on Gabriel's shoulder. her tongue sticks out a moment as her equilibrium settles. "You know, I don't know what donuts dragons prefer? Only I think they'd be big, and a lot of them. Maybe the kobolds can be taught to make donuts? They seem pretty handy. I'm a little worried about how sad they look all the time, though. I put Sharron on it but she hasn't reported back yet. Maybe sending her to possibly have a hard talking to with multiple dragons was asking a bit much. Also!" Tasha waves Katie to come over. "I decided to have kids. Want some, too?" She waggles her brows in the absolutely-not-serious way.
"I get the pick of the litter you mean?" Katie asks, crossing her arms. "Or do you want me to carry one of them? I think Jonah knows how to do that, it's apparently common for Belter women."
"Well, I was mostly joking but if any of those options interest you, then we can work it out as a family," and so Tasha wags her tail. "A soon to be much bigger family. Maybe we should pick a family name? House of Tasha sounds like a restaurant from the food concourse. Plus, who has a family name that's their first name?"
"What, not House Akkers?" Gabriel suggests. "Although that could be dangerous. Terrans don't have Houses or Clans when it comes to families."
"And Terra might raise a Human-y eyebrow over it, considering you're an original model, and an apex one at that, and it could seem like you're making a /play. That /said/, we /could/ make a play and we might even succeed. We can't challenge any of the Galactics directly, but we can probably do it indirectly enough to be established before they know it and hard to remove, especially if we have scattered alliances and can't be removed without causing a lot of problems, and if we don't make a big deal about it." Tasha scratches her nose. "Not that I've been thinking about it /a lot/, of course. Just a little. Well, I'm sure we'll come up with something."
"Oh and we can't use Argentine, because Nora will be smug foooreeeveer," Tasha quickly adds.
"Well, the obvious solution is to use Vesuvius then," Katie suggests.. smugly.
"We need to put Katie and Nora together, we can use the Alpha-Smugness reaction friction to power the ship. We won't even need Tatha'hem!" Tasha grins, tail wagging. "Who knows, maybe the little version will come out and join us, but it's just as likely she'll strike out on her own."
"I think in most interactions we will be using fake identities anyway," Gabriel points out.
"Hakeber gets by with just one name," Katie points out. "Like all of the Templars."
The elevator dings, which either means Darklight has finished with Tadpole or else there's a stowaway.
"Tasha's kind of ordinary though. I could Aldara, which I rarely use for anything and it doesn't have the problem of being my first name nor being Nora's lastname, which are both personal. Also, it means 'winged gift', so it would be the House of the Winged Gift. Better PR, too." Tasha looks to say more, but hears the ding. "Quick question, do you like Aldara? If so then we'll use that, if not we'll work on it."
"We come back to it later," Gabriel says, and tugs on Tasha's tail to remind her that she's still in balloon mode.
"Eh he'll accept things a lot faster if I defy physics, I'm sure the Tadpole just said at least a few unbelievable things. My floating will cement the truth. I'll float in a more respectable pose, of course." Tasha pushes out of Gabriel's lap and hovers beside him, sitting up, legs folded, hands in her lap.
The Eeee shows up at the door to the galley and takes in everything. Then he says, "I'm in."
"Just like that?" Katie asks.
"It was an all or nothing proposal that Tasha gave me," Darksight points out.
Tasha spreads her hands joyously. "Fabulous! You know Gabriel and Katie, you may be getting orders from them from time to time-- especially Gabriel -- and here are your Dark Horse commemorative membership donuts. Commemorative membership coffee can be made in a few minutes." She floats over and then leans forward to push the box over. "You get the first choice."
The bat predictably chooses the peanut=encrusted one. "I have a few personal items to retrieve from Bakumaru, including my maps. Then I can be ready to leave."
"Do you have any questions now that you're 'in'? I can be a lot more forthcoming than I could be before. I assume the Tadpole explained quite a bit of what I could cover, but maybe not the finer details nor the internal workings. Maybe you think she's exaggerating?" Tasha, through great willpower, does not take a donut just yet.
"I have many questions," Darksight says, between bites of his donut. "But they can wait until after the initiation orgy."
Katie blurts out in laughter. "Confederates are same no matter where they come from!" she laughs.
"What has the Tadpole been sharing," Tasha wonders aloud. "Well, I'm spoken for when it comes to men, Katie's a lesbian, Gabriel's.. what's the Terran word for a male lesbian.. Well not a male lesbian. There's three more of me -- Sharron, Vasha, and Sasha, they're all free. Sasha needs a boyfriend."
"A unique reaction to the one I was expecting, although your Katie is already in on the joke," Darksight says. "We just says that to see how people will react."
"Oh. Well, I mean, there are orgies. They're just not an official item and usually in-family. That said, we certainly don't mind them. Flirt with the dragons if you want; flirt with anyone! We're a very open group." Tasha then blinks, realizing something. "People don't usually respond with 'we do that and here's how', do they?"
"No, and it is generally frowned upon when conducting actual business," Darksight says. "But the Seeders puffed up and seemed at a genuine loss."
"Khatta need time to organize such things," Katie says, cheeks puffed out a bit.
"Belters are much more likely to laugh, then invite us to one anyway," the Eeee notes.
"Well this is why I do recruiting and not actual business. I'm specialized." Tasha's tail wags. Then she seems to realize something, lifts a hand, and snaps her fingers. A small, sun-like sphere appears above her, flaming and red-hot. "And magic's real. This is magic. I find it's better to just say it, although maybe not since I may have broken the Khatta girl. I'll workshop it."
"Yes, we know about magic," Darksight admits. "Thought not this 'fey' magic. I hope to learn more about it, however. I have many questions for your Galatea, whom I hope can explain my own experiences. Does she like Eeee, though? Has she ever even met one?"
"Galatea's been around. She's a little shy and uncomfortable around others, so I recommend letting her know you'd like to speak with her and letting her come to you in her own time. Maybe somewhere quiet, without pressure. You could say Galatea is my partner -- in the working sense -- on a number of things, so if you have questions or concerns beyond what we've discussed I can maybe address them or speak to her on your behalf." Tasha considers a moment, then says, "As for Eeee, I don't know. If you describe your experience with the Waymakers and how you ended up as you have, then I believe you two can come to an understanding."
"I think that's all I need for now," Darksight says. "Thank you for the donut. I will go and pack my things."
"Alright. Just return to the ship when you're ready, we'll be here a while longer. We have another guest coming by." Tasha lowers herself to the ground, then sits in an actual chair and stretches. "And, once again, welcome to the team."
"So this is all inside an asteroid?" Mressa asks, as she cranes her neck to look around at the valley, or what can be seen of it from the dock. The castle side is blocked by the bulk of the Dark Horse still. Sasha has driven up in the utility cart to meet them, but there aren't any dragons or kobolds or other obvious 'alien' creatures in view at the moment.
"More or less," Tasha answers, which is technically true in the loosest sense of things. If one were to ask more or less, less being the correct answer and on the deep end of less besides. It may also all be a lie; she's not entirely certain.
"It's like a private estate," the Khatta says, taking a deep breath. "Real trees and water and smells! I think, anyway. Never actually seen real trees myself."
Sasha hurries up the dock to help with all of the luggage and gear, since Gabriel looks weighed down and Katie.. isn't really carrying anything, just making sure the Khattan and the Eeee don't accidentally step off the side and drown.
"Also, since I'm to play your sister, immediate quiz time: Which of us is cuter, me, or this guy." Tasha swings an arm around Sasha's shoulders as he goes for luggage, somewhat forcibly rotating him until they both face Mressa. She puts their heads together. She smiles.
"The Karnor of course," Mressa say. "Just look at him! He's super cuddly!"
"What?" Sasha asks, nearly dropping one of Darksight's cases.
"Aww, looks like I lose this time. BUT WAIT." Tasha fishes out her datapad, then brings up images of Vasha and Sharron. She puts the datapad beside her head so that the two featured heads are in line with Sasha's and her own. "Okay, now who is the cutest?"
"Still this Karnor," Mressa claims. "Humans don't have tails to wag. Vartans are scary looking."
"You should ask who is prettier," Katie advises.
"I asked what I meant to ask," Tasha responds definitely. Then there's a pause, and she adds, "But since you mentioned it, who is prettier? And don't say Katie. Katie is cheating. And not on the list."
"You're the prettiest," Mressa claims. "I've seen pretty Vartan, and with enough make-up Humans can be pretty, but you're the prettiest of the choices."
"Welllll that's good." Tasha says it with an air of uncertainty, unable to understand how much to value being pretty. She has not, for most of her life, been such. Too tough and ragged-edged for it. She distrusts pretty, because it feels somehow like weakness, somehow like foreignness, and somehow insidious, in ways she can't articulate to herself in the beat of a moment.
"Katie and Gabriel are terrifying to me," Mressa then nervously admits. "Like actual predators. Heh. Heh heh.."
"We're the least terrifying on the predator scale here," Gabriel says. "You'll think we're cute soon enough."
"Where should I bring your equipment, Mr. Darksight?" Sasha asks the Eeee, who takes a moment to recall that Sasha knows what Tasha knows about him. "Oh.. can you bring it to.. hmm. I would like to say to the Astraea but I need to ask permission for that still. It's hard to remember things in the correct order sometimes."
"I can bring it to one of the labs on the base until then," Sasha offers.
"Oh.. where will I be staying?" Mressa asks Tasha.
"Maybe they'll gobble you up!" Tasha finally releases Sasha so he can get back to work, even helping him collect the bags since she delayed him so long. She does pause to listen to the exchange with Darksight -- clearly she still listens in, even if her other selves may all share her knowledge and possibly experience. Her focus breaks at Mressa's question and she replies, "Where would you like to? We have a number of unused tower-spaces, and I have a private floor on what we call Tasha Tower, where Sasha, Vasha, and Sharron live. I don't use it very often, and haven't had time to convert it for my intended use. Otherwise there's plenty of space in other towers. How private do you want to be?"
"Nobody's ever given me a choice before," the girl says, and thinks it over. "Well.. I should meet everyone and see how they react to me before deciding."
The cart is soon loaded up. "Who wants to ride and who wants to walk?" Sasha asks. "Or fly for those with the option!"
Mressa opts to ride, as does Katie.
"I guess I should walk or Drill Instructor Katie will give me Alpha-beams." Tasha moves beside the cart, taking a moment to stretch and strain, perhaps at ods with her declared prettiness. "Alright, off we go. Try not to scream too loudly when weird things happen, we do have an Eeee with us."
"Jogging it is," Gabriel says, while Darksight sits in the back of the cart with his equipment. Then it's off up the road, between the arches of the inactive portal and past the gates of the base onto the airfield. Sasha doesn't even try to drive at a pace Tasha can keep up with!
"I sense resentment," Tasha asides to Gabriel as they jog, indicating the vehicle with a nod. She manages to keep up with Gabriel at least. "Well it's their problem to deal with Mressa if something happens now!"
"I don't smell the dragons," Gabriel says. "I wonder if they're all over at the castle for something? Do you want to just drop our new kitty into the middle of the chaos to see how she reacts? This really may be like a Khattan estate to her so far. And for all I know, those are built inside of asteroids."
"I suppose we should go see what they're doing. Anything involving the castle and that many local powers is something I should be aware of -- and involved in." And so Tasha angles off towards the castle instead. "We'll let Mressa settle in first, if something happens Sasha can notify me. Assuming he isn't too mad at me."
"She's probably cuddling him already," Gabriel says. "Fly away, my pretty one!"
"Pfffft," goes Tasha, who then sticks her tongue out and crosses her eyes. "See you later!" And that's followed by a blown kiss before she steps off and hurries to the sky.
Once high enough to see past the Dark Horse, Tasha can see flashes of light coming from the ruined castle, although there aren't any explosion noises or signs of flame or smoke.
Tasha puts 'flashes of light' on a moderate point on the 'signs of possible danger' scale, perhaps like a 4 or 5 out of 10. She reaffirms this was the correct course of action and sets to a dive, readying to involve herself if need be, wondering what new weirdness may await her. And she just got back, too.
Closer, and Tasha can see figures moving among the crenelations, and an exchange of light between the castle walls and the forest, just before Thermoriax erupts from the trees and blasts a fireball.. well, a glowing ball of light.. which splashes into the walls and causes some chaos.
"Well that's probably not good," Tasha says aloud to the wind, but then it occurs to her: maybe this is just a game. A game of castle's and dragons. Tasha didn't play a lot of formal or organized games as a kid, she had to make them up, and make of a game everything around her. Maybe this, then, is of the same thing. She descends and decides to find out either way, as is part of her actual job around here.
She soon spots Whisper, standing astride a rampart in a commanding pose, her hair blowing in the breeze. The stained nightgown slightly detracts from her authority though. She's clearly commanding the Kobolds who are defending the castle, some of which lie about playing dead. There's a dragon sprawled over a tree doing the same: Gwyndrael. The Kobolds have enchanted weapons that fire bolts of light. There's no sign of Wormwood though, at least not in dragon form.
Tasha considers this. She could leave it all alone; nothing bad happening here, no need to intervene. But at the same time that doesn't feel like participation, like being a part of Whisper's world so much as renting a space in it through the unspoken currency of force. The question, then, is this: which side to chose? She could side with Whisper, play the hero, but that might seem like stealing the show, taking Whisper's role as leader and hero. And, didn't she just eat a dragon heart?
Wasn't being a dragon, just a lot of fun? The murder put aside, but the violence she doesn't question. Violence she can enjoy.
And so Tasha wings her way to land on Gwyndrael and poke her. "Psst. Gwyn. Super Secret Dragon Number 4 needs some magic to invade the castle -- I can't exactly participate with the magic I do have."
"Super Secret Dragon Number 4?" the dragon whispers back with a draconic smirk. "The game is nearly over though. Thermy has taken a lot of hits already. Where did you run off to in your space boat?"
"But I can fiiight, what's a climax without a dramatic finish! half of my battles end up with the real power or some grand figure stepping up at the end. Usually the big guns deal with it, but what can you do? Cooomeee onnn." There's a lot more prodding, and at some point she adds, "We went to the real world to get new people and make real-world plans."
"New people?" Gwyn prods back, using her tail. "Any warriors or princesses?"
"A man lost to space and time and a heir to a Khattan House, which I guess is like a princess. She makes deadly flowers and she has no idea that most of this is real, from other universes, and so on." Tasha sits right down on Gwyndrael, trying to fend off her tail like a cat a belly rub. And much like a Human hand, the tail is considerably larger than she is.
"So, a Mystic and a Princess," Gwyndrael concludes. "Do we get to play with the Princess? Whisper doesn't want to play Dragon and Princess. At least not until she has a Knight that she'd want to come and save her."
"What does that entail? We do need to acclimate her a bit, getting her to accept us and recognize both our might and our importance could have a lot of real-world side benefits. And better to acclimate her through harmless terror than the harmful, freeze-up-under-pressure kind." Tasha grabs the tail, shifts, and then leans against it. "She should be near the base right now. Feline girl, about my size. The bat-man with black fur is the Mystic. His kind are sensitive to noise so if you want to grab her try to to keep it to a low roar."
"And who will be the designated Knight to rescue her?" Gwyndrael asks, trying to tip Tasha over with her tail now. "I've never seen a cat person before. Do they make a lot of noise?"
Tasha, being Tasha and not an actual dragon no matter how many crunchy hearts she may have ingested, is easily knocked over. "They can be very meowy, and sound a bit like my cats. You'll see. She has tufted ears and will be the one most surprised to see you." Tasha then scratches her nose from where she fell over and still hasn't gotten up from. "It's not me right? I do enough Knighting that doing it for fun seems a bit , what's the word, irreverent. To me. And my struggles and that Knight whose neck I broke while I was a dragon. Why don't we see who else wants to do it?"
"I wanted to do it!" the dragon pouts. "Oh, did you mean who wants to rescue her? We can do that. And set the level of terror, like saying if she isn't rescued by dusk, she'll get eaten."
"Well I don't mind. Usually I'm on the rescue and monster destruction side of things, so that's what people will expect of me, but I don't want-to, and we need more heroes. So lets see who steps up -- it can be a double-duty education." Tasha sits back up finally, arms folded, head bowed in thought. "So what will I do? Me being present or not present will color things."
"Who do you need to be a hero then?" Gwyndrael asks.
"Whoever feels strong enough. Let the brave step forth. It won't be any of the current heroic types like Gabriel, either. Though, Katie might, but more because you're involved. Also, those types are smart enough to know what I'm plotting, and wise enough to step back so others can prove themselves. Besides, you can't just make a hero. A hero chooses to be heroic. They decide to risk and save. Telling someone to go save someone is making a soldier." Tasha yawns, cavernously. "So let's see who has the spirit."
A horn sounds, and Wormwood appears and declares, "The Castle has Held the Day!" The Kobolds all cheer, and Whisper crosses her arms as if she was certain of victory all along.
"Looks like she won. I won't ask if you let her or not, because I really have no idea how you all square up in might and maybe I shouldn't get in the habit of measuring my people against each other." Then Tasha taps Gwyndrael's belly. "I can't stay here forever, so make a decision."
"Ask around to see who might be interested in the game, then get back to me," Gwyndrael whispers. "It's no fun playing Dragon and Princess without there being a Knight."
"Yeees maaa'aaam." Tasha stands up, wings out for balance. "Oh, and Katie has the hots for you, I think. You should say hi some time! You two might get along. She's in to silver and prosthetics."
"Isn't she your girlfriend?" Gwyn asks, starting to roll over.
Tasha decides to hover, since it's really hard to have a conversation while flapping around someone's head in a tight -- tree limb wrought -- circular obstacle course. "Yeah? Gabriel's my mate and he's been with Hakeber and others. I like to make connections, it helps create ties, and puts my mind at ease when I fight. I don't want to believe that should I die, all this will fall to pieces like it never was. There needs to be more than that."
"But if it makes you uncomfortable, you can meet Katie with me," Tasha says, leaning over in the air to wink like some oversized mischievous pixie.
"Meeting her with you might be best," Gwyndrael says, and stretches her wings and back.
"You got it." Tasha clears the space, not wanting to get accidentally swatted out of the sky. "I think I'll inform Gabriel and a few others of the need for a Knight and see who he thinks will do it. I know Vasha will want to, but there may be others. You might get a small army of Knights."
"More is better than none," Gwyndrael claims. "We had planned to stay the night here, so you can keep us as a surprise for one more day."
Tasha stops whispering because hiding herself is no longer necessary. "Yep. She can live the reality dream for a little longer. But, I'm sure she can handle it. Her grandmother isn't the kind of woman to send us someone who can't hack it. She has some sort of plan with her, maybe to help her grow, or because she wants her to achieve some role or growth, aside from helping us. And in this way, I help her, too." And then she claps her hands together. "Speaking of 'the night', I'm tired, so I'm going to go get a nap."
"Sleep well then, Tasha," Gwyndrael says. "I think I will sleep atop one of the towers here."
"Dragons can sleep just anywhere, can't they? I envy that." Tasha considers for a moment, then asks, "Want me to join you? I've never slept on a tower before."
"Certainly, I'm probably fun to sleep on," Gwyndrael says playfully.
"Excellent, I've never slept on a dragon, either. I'll be liked a stuffed animal, except, you know, be careful since I'm fragile now." Tasha moves aside to let Gwyndrael take off, shoots off a message to Sasha she'll be napping on one of the castle towers, and follows the dragon on up.