From the sacred spot inside a worn-out bag by the fireside comes the plaintive whining of one Katherine Isabella Fluffybiscuits, esquire. Indeed! Indubitably, good madams and mistresses! Wherever and whenever foxes are unjustly accused of Fox Crimes, look no further for a defense than that goodest of girls, that fluffiest of floofs, that cutiest of beans and sweetiest of sweeties! After all, who would know best about the innocence of foxes than a tiny, innocent forest vixen who's never so much as understood the [i]word[/i] wishes? After all, she gets her treats no matter how the trial goes, yes she does, yes she does! And please! Call her Kat, friend!!

Consider! Consider this darling young entrepreneur, setting up her very first shop in her very first shrine! It hadn't even been cleaned yet, but look at her! Look at her darling face and her pretty tails, swishing sooooo hard while she works her adorable butt off to find people to clean it for her! How is it her fault, the little cutiebippens, that she [i]just so happened[/i] to find the single bestfulest, prettiestest, hardest workingest person to help her out right as she was starting? Look at this place! It's almost sparkling now! And if you go inside? Wowers! Yue did amazingful! So don't blame this adorbable vixen for reaching for the forbidden cookies! She's [i]drunk[/i] ok? Drunk on success! 

And furthermore! If I could just, ah, dear, where are my notes? I just need to, nnf, hold on a second, give give me one... oh no! Nobody's listening! Well, yip! Yip yip yip yip! Whine, wiggle arf! Let me out of this bag! Then I'll show all of you! I just need to... oh! Oh no! But if I leave I'll be a Bad Girl! Mistress put me in charge of guarding this sacred sword! But how do I? Nnng! Nnnnf! Hrrrrngh! Whine and beg and plead! Mistress, help meeeeee~

Yue smiles at the pair of fluffy ears making so much noise as they poke their way out of the top of her pack. Her smile fades a little when the rest of Kat's head pops out looking obviously miserable and distressed. It fades entirely when the little fuzzball dips back into the pack and pops out trying to drag a heavy glittering sword up and out of her confines in her drooly little mouth. She scrambles away from tea and conversation with speed only found in parents and pet owners, crossing the distance in a graceful eyeblink to save the universe from certain destruction with the power of snoot pats and chin rubs.

"Ok, ok, ok cutie. You're alright. It's alright, see? Here, here. Uppies, little flooferdoodle! You sit here, and let me handle this again."

Normally being taken off of Sacred Guard Duty would be an insult answerable with raised snoots and floppy, impossible to pick up because they've suddenly gone liquid bodies, but everyone who's everyone knows that being worn as a scarf is the highest honor afforded foxes (the jury is out on fox maidens, but evidence suggests!), so the young forest fox graciously allows herself to be lifted and commences snuggling and settling herself on Yue's neck for maximum elegance. 

And this is the way that Yue approaches Rose from the River again. Her heart flutters in her chest to see the Thorn Pilgrim's strength in action. The heat rises on her cheeks looking at the way Cyanis is wriggling, and... oh gosh! Oh gosh gosh, she really should! Eeep! There's nowhere safe to look! Her sandal traces a line in the ground and she watches herself at work with great interest while she digs around in her pack and finally manages to find the jar she's looking for. 

"S-so, I, um. I know you... probably know a lot more about, gosh, everything than I do, but I just..."

She swallows loudly. More a gulp than anything, if a person would be honest with themselves. There's just so... much Rose. A-and she just, well, it's more that, oh. Her strength, and her muchness for that matter, don't remind her of Hyra's. Or Y-- PRINCESS Yin's. She's quieter, for one. Firmer, but less... what's the word? Steely? No, but... like that, maybe. Less like a sword and more like a... huh. More like [i]her[/i] sword. Well that's spooky!

And spooky is the right word for it, because for all that she's less a creature of tooth and blade and growling, she's somehow also darker and more dangerous for it. When a wild pig comes storming into the village with its tusks all covered with spit and its hooves stomping into the stones, you know where you stand with it. But the flower lures you in with its beauty and only after you stop to sniff it do you realize its pollen puts you to sleep. And from there...

She swallow gulps again and holds up her jar, filled with her very best and prettiest glass beads. Each one sparkles in the twilight with a soft glow that would make it as good as a lantern of stained glass: pastels in pink and purple and blue and yellow and green. She watches the lights color Cyanis' wagging tail, and nods to herself. No, this is right. This is right. 

"You have to, you have to give them a chance to bite you," she mumbles, "To... I mean! Um! N-nothing! That's not what I! Erm, I was just... b-because you didn't know what I did so I, s-so I thought I'd show you and... h-here."

On her neck, a fluffy fox stretches warmly across her muscles and kneads her shoulder with tiny paws to sooth her nerves. Before she can knot up and fall over on top of herself, she shoves the jar of sun-beads into Rose's hand, and reaches almost presumptively to take Cyanis in exchange. Immediately, they go tumbling over and break their landing on Yue's bony butt, but in twin acts of goodwill she does hold the wily and adorable fox maiden in her lap (don't think about what she's wearing don't think about what she's wearing don't don't don't don't do it, don't) and lifts a few fingers up to give Cyanis tentative scritches on the sensitive inner floof of her ear. See? She's held. See? She's not going anywhere. See? She's not being punished.

"It took me 3 months to gather that sunshine," she does her best not to say it through gritted teeth. If she had a second wish, she might waste it on more, um, padding for moments like these, "Because you can only get it to shine quite like this on calm days after a big storm. And it has to be warm, so the storm can't be [i]too[/i] big, and... um. A-anyway. I was, was, erm, hoping I could trade this for a new tea set actually, but like I was telling Cyanis before the... everything else, sometimes you need to give something up to show what you're about. And you look... tired? Or sad, maybe? So you should just open that, and... t-tell me how it feels."

[Yue is using Nature's Touch on Rose, with a [b]13[/b]. Rose may give Yue a string to clear a Condition, and she must answer "What are your feelings toward yourself?" or take a new Condition]