[b]Tristan and Constance[/b]

"I do not" that is definitely a smile. On that cold face and those empty blue lips, it is a smile. "The people gathered here are liminal in their nature. Each of them not in their expected role. So they play the castellan, the warrior, and the maiden instead." 

She looks up then, a terrible motion slow as the crone, and gazes out the window. At the first flakes of snow. "When our pageant is done, it will no longer be safe here."

She doesn't look down, her gaze still to the sky, but you see again that slow smile on that ashen face. Almost sardonic in its guise. "That is not to say that it will be safe anywhere else. This place will simply cease to be more than a castle in the woods. Subject to all that entails. All who remain may decide then what to do with it."

And lastly she turns to Constance, her gaze fixed upon you, her eyes focused but cold, her arms resting upon her small throne as a statue to honor a past king. The contrast is high between her fading and your life. In truth, much of her next question is already answered by this moment, but she asks it anyway, as she must. "Lady Constance, I brought you here to benefit from your judgment. How stands your mind?"

[b]Robena[/b]
You are peripherally aware that servants are moving about. The horses and dogs are made ready, Hector checks her equipment again, the grooms check the harness and saddle with care and love. The hunt will not be ruined by the betrayal of an old strap or a rusted hilt. 

Your time with the beasts, however, is undisturbed. The servants are distant, as is Sir Hector who respects you enough to allow you this time. Apricot, briefly, is compliant and enjoys being brushed. Not tempted by nearby sugar nor apples, he takes a rare moment to accept your ministrations. The cat brushes you and you feel for a moment as though the whole weight of the world has passed you by, and then it slips away and hops upon a wall to fix you with its gaze and you judge that it, at least, thinks you might be worthwhile to it in the future. 

Presently, the time has passed and all is ready to set out. Sir Hector calls to you gently and you can see in her, despite her criticism before, an understanding that few others here have shared. Of power and of frustration both. 

You ride out then in the cold and the gray for the boar. It is the final test in this great hunt. A boar is strength itself and so it will test the strength of knights. And this boar will be great indeed, one of the strongest of its kin, a trial even for the greatest of knights.

Tell us, Robena, how it appears before you and how you and your companions hunt it.