There is one person in the room that Rose from the River dances for. One person who she is trying to distract, one person who finds Rose flickering around her, impossibly light on her feet for someone so large. Of course it is Chen, her little sweet Princess, the only one who accepts her for who she is, over and over again.

She did not fear Rose from the River, monster of the Burrows. She did not judge Rose, helpless damsel in distress. She chose Rose from the River, teasing and playful and voracious, and it’s for her that Rose from the River fights. Once again, the old story plays out: a monk has been seduced away from her duties for the love of a Princess. And now Rose from the River dances for Chen, who deserves to see Rose from the River’s skill at arms (in more than one sense), but not devoted towards victory, simply towards the dance, the display, the beauty.

Her sword moves and seems to tug her along after; when she tosses it across the room, one of her mossy braids sings along with it, wrapped tight about the hilt, and she follows on the balls of her feet, as if the sword is merely an afterthought, each sweep of her legs an excuse to draw all eyes to them, until she effortlessly slides the sword out of some pillar or tile where it has sunken so deep that Jessic herself could hardly pull it out. Where she goes, Keron’s minions scatter and dive for cover; lying face-down on the ground, they cannot be knocked from their feet by an explosion of stone or a scything leg.

One plucky young woman almost manages to grab Rose from the River’s bound wrists. [i]Almost.[/i] When Rose from the River leans back into those outstretched arms, her momentum turning her into a collapsing mountain, she realizes too late the gravity of her error. Rose from the River falls hard enough to knock the wind out of the poor girl, crushed beneath a falling heavenly pillar, and uses her as a handrest to cartwheel back up to her feet, landing neatly where her sword lies so that she may kick it up into her hand and disarm a dozen guards with one massive sweep that she follows like wind after the storm.

For a moment, it seems as if she will repeat the fall of the cloud-bearing pillar on her little Chen, rocking on her heels, threatening to stumble and flatten the littlest sword saint, but one branch-hand reaches out as she reaches perfect equilibrium and runs a thumb along Chen’s jaw as if it were the edge of a sword. Then she passes through the space where Chen fights, her body flowing through wherever Chen is not, a great shadow of mountains briefly blotting out the light over her head, and then she is through and spinning, leaping, twisting in midair, landing low with one leg sweeping around to carry her momentum through.

Then she leaps, and hooks one leg around Jessic’s mighty throat, continues the momentum upwards, hooks both mighty limbs around the scaled neck, and squeezes— not cruelly, just enough to convey the message. She leans forward, emphasizing the way the fingers of her bound hands flutter and curl helplessly, and presses her gagged lips to the top of Jessic’s head— and her eyes are only for Chen as she does so, wide and playful and delightedly impish, counting coup on a Princess who thinks herself invincible, and [i]someone[/i] should make her kneel later and teach her a lesson about her place~

Braids curl around one horn, thighs clench tighter, and the celestial pillar of the peach garden topples to earth once more, bringing with it a confused and very decisively stopped dragon. Claws scrape across the tiles as she goes, a tail lashing furiously, but all the same Jessic ends up on her side, with Rose from the River smoothly ending up straddling her throat.

And that’s when she, wicked she, handmaiden she, [i]squirms.[/i] Dragon Jessic may be, but she has a maiden’s heart all the same, and Rose’s performance is the sort to bring trains of thought screeching to a halt in a fiery multi-locomotive pileup, a damsel craving salvation from a fire-breathing beast and helplessly putting her shoulders into the thrashing from side to side, putting as much volume as she can into emphasizing how completely unable she is to say anything intelligible, and if you’re watching the rise and fall of empires, you’re not watching the sword she’s juggling to keep away anyone looking to “save” either damsel or dragon.

What an actress! She wanted to be in those trashy pulp novels, and the freedom to be director and lead actress and stunt coordinator all in one is what Cyanis and Chen granted her in [i]Rose from the River and the Tyrant of the Sky Castle!![/i] (A working title, likely to be available from any reputable fox publisher any day now, possibly with a cover where she’s got Jessic’s tail wrapped around her torso and fearsome claws pushing her scarf-swaddled face away from a certain dashing raven-haired princess.)

[Rose from the River Fights! Her condition cancels out her Daring, leaving her with a sweet [b]10.[/b] She’s earning a third string on Chen, creating an opportunity for Chen to duel Keron without interference, and seizing a superior position on top of Jessic~]