[b]Customers of the Blue Snapper Inn![/b]

Jumpscare!

That’s what it’s like to glance over at the door, with its cool, soft lanternlight, and see the shadow of Uusha filling it completely. She is bigger than the door, and her horns would catch if she did anything other than turning her head to enter. Her long limbs are wreathed in thorns, her silence is so vast it seeps into the common room, and the water pooling at her boots makes her seem like an animal that does not care if it gets wet.

Then she lifts her claws, unlatches her skull-helm, and lifts it from her head. It is tucked under one arm as she ducks inside, and for the first time, Han, you have the opportunity to see the face of the notorious Stag Knight.

Her silver-and-brown hair, cut boyishly jagged, is plastered to her forehead. Her cheeks are gaunt and her chin is strong, and her appraising gaze makes the whole room seem smaller. She’s handsome in the way that a mountain wolf is handsome, and just as dangerous.

“The spirit got away,” she rasps, without taking a seat. “What have you found here, witch?” No judgment there; she just needs to know if you have something worth her time, in more ways than one.

Piripiri, you recognize the arrival (peeking out from the back along with Azazuka). This is Uusha, one of the most dangerous potential threats to the Red Wolf. If you can find some way to sabotage her standing or goals, you [i]should—[/i] not just because you’ll get praise from the Red Wolf, but because it will make the Dominion’s conquest of the Flower Kingdoms safer for [i]everyone[/i].

If Uusha decides to fight a long and losing war against the Dominion, as she is psychologically likely to do, then everyone loses: there will be wasteful expenditure of supplies, time and lives putting her down.

Also, she’s Big and Strong and Has A Voice Like A Grindstone and Is Old Enough To Be A Cool Aunt, for the record. Just in case anyone’s paying attention to that.