Yue's words of protest are squished out of her by the waves of Y--eeep! [i]P-Princess[/i] Yin's curse-magic cracking down across her collarbone. It turns all her breath into squeaks and whimpers and forces her down, and down, and down, and down, until she sinks to her knees and curls in on top of herself and pulls the monstrous weight of Hyra across her back. 

And it's not like she's a stranger to pain! She's been pricked by thorns and sewing needles, burned her hands in the fire while baking bread, bitten, clawed, scratched, and even trampled by frightened animals that needed her help but didn't know how to accept it. She even knows the hollow pit that opens up in your insides when the big sister you adored and thought would be around forever disappears over the horizon one day with barely a goodbye. But not even that measures up to the feeling of your body betraying you, to having your muscles twist and spasm on their own and your bones shift in big wet crunches that you feel more than hear as your body betrays you and turns you into something that you're not.

Yue doesn't scream. To scream, you need to breathe. You need to want to be heard, and all Yue wants is to curl into a ball and cry. Her hair falls across her face in a big, heavy clump as the powerful waves of magic pick their way across her body and pluck things off of her that they don't like. Her dress takes the brunt of it, rotting and fraying just like her washcloth did that scant hour or so ago until it's barely more than threads hanging off of her body. Hyra's fur covered body quickly becomes the only thing protecting her modesty, and the way that she scrabbles and shifts on top of Yue, she isn't much good for that either. Yue shivers in the night's chill and the wetness of wolf spittle spreading across the pale skin on her back. How much longer would it stay that way?

Shrink, the curse tells her! You are low, go lower! You long to be beneath notice! You yearn to be taught your lessons! You realize now how little you deserve to be special, so give up, give in, and shrink! 

A-and she would, see? It's not like she doesn't want to! She's never been so miserable in her whole life, and those piercing black eyes won't stop [i]staring[/i] at her, and you're telling her she could make it all go away just by giving up and losing? Yes please and thank you very much, just tell her where to sign! Except... except there's a weight on her back. Except Hyra's screams have turned into howls, and even horrible canine whines. Except the hands that held her so gently, and then so harshly are slipping away from her and dragging rough footpads across her skin in their place. Except the last thing those perfect hands ever got to do was squeeze her grip tighter and command her to hold on to her sword.

"Stop it!" she screams, and her voice is shrill and trembling, but it's undeniably her voice and it's so loud they might have heard it all the way back in her village, "Stop it, stop it! Can't you see you're hurting her, what is [i]wrong[/i] with you?!"

Yue's eyes force themselves open. Her muscles burn as she pushes up against the weights pressing down on her until she's in a sitting position. And even with Princess Yin's fingers swirling their spell so elegantly and all the power of the magic compelling her to change, she stays who she is. Her eyes aren't fierce, except maybe in the way that a kitten's might be, but they're bright and shining and looking up, up, up at the Princess on her magnificent stag without flinching, even as they run over with tears. Her legs are shaking so much that even trying with all her might she still can't get any further than sitting there on her butt with her knees turned in and both legs splayed at awkward angles. And in spite of everything she finds the time to blush with her entire body, and it's much too obvious that she's doing that and, and, and, wh-when she lifts her sword it's really more to cover herself in at least some small way than getting ready to actually fight.

But so what? She's Yue! Even when the wielder of a sunshard would rather she not be, she is simply Yue. She twists her body so she can shift Hyra's bulk more toward her lap, and she doesn't give one shred of thought or care to how dangerous a thing that might be to do. Her heart hammers inside her chest, and for once that feels more like an act of passion than fear.

"Y-you know what you are? You're just a... a big jerk! You bully! What gives you the right, huh? She fought to keep me safe from a whole army of demons, and you just... y-you swoop in here like, I... how dare you?! You might be a Princess, but... you, I, you! J-j-just because you're pretty doesn't mean you get to be so mean! S-so what if you're rich and powerful? Hyra's worth [i]ten[/i] of you!"

Yue's voice is shaking and cracking too much to keep the string of words alive. But she sets her jaw as hard as she dares, barely even quivering her lips, and she tenses for whatever comes next.

[Yue is Defying Disaster with Spirit at an [b]11[/b]. I want to say she's not at a point where she can help Hyra with a roll like this, but she's here to prove she belongs in this game]