She was silent. She was still. Her eyes were open unblinking as the incense wagon rumbled ahead, pulled by a poor and tormented horse forced to bear the slumbering bodies of half a dozen cats in addition to its normal load. She had this edge, at least. No self respecting cat would be diligent enough to bend her head to check underneath a wagon. Why would they, when reptilian scales gave no scent to trigger perilously sensitive noses, no motion caused majestic whiskers to so much as twitch, no light reflected from scales robbed of their shine by powdery coal dust. Nothing betrayed her but her rushing heart.

She was the only one who could do this. Fifty Watchers stood ready, all of them waiting to move on her signal. She was the tip of a shadowed spear. Not only were they betting their time today upon her, the untested little dragon, they were betting weeks of scouting, preparation - and not to mention all the bribes. Some of the elders had loudly complained about betting the farm on a little dragon that, really, was just a mascot - and whatever the jokes from the rank and file, was definitely not a real princess and [i]certainly [/i]not an Adila.

That's what was at stake for her. If she couldn't defeat Princess Rita then she'd never be a Princess herself. The Captain had waved them off in the end but that just meant that it was her trust at stake as well. She resolved to fight with all her hopes, all her dreams, for everyone who believed in her and who'd given her a chance. She would prove herself!

But in the end, what are hopes and dreams and love compared to the spiteful fury of a cat who does not want to take a bath?

The battle had been epic. Pounce and scamper. Charge and skitter. Paw and jump. Climb and roar. Frozen moments where dragon and kitten stared with unblinking eyes waiting for the other to make a move and explode everything into motion once more. Every twist and turn of the conflict was watched by staring cats atop every rooftop.

And during the lightning flashes of scale and fur a few more of those cats disappeared - wrapped in thread and dragged away before they could let out so much as a meow.

In the end, Adila had wound up upside-down over that vat of incense. Princess Rita had dunked her in time after time and then reeled her back up until her head was spinning and all of the royal kitten's questions got answers. But each time she went under and came back a few more cats were missing. And when she finally broke and admitted that the plan had been for her to defeat Princess Rita in single combat the cat laughed. A foolish plan! To rely upon proving better than a cat in a battle of grace, of speed, of prowess? Only a fool would have imagined such a thing would work! How had the Watch been so simple to imagine that this untested little dragoness could defeat her alone?

To which the Captain had answered, "We weren't," and picked up Princess Rita by the scruff of her neck.

She had given in to the incense then. Her dreams had been thick and tangled and happy, fat with victory. She had known then that she had lived up to both her names. She had served with skill and secrecy in the finest traditions of Adila, and her victory had come while bound and upside down just like a true princess.