Here, deep in the land of Ys, a cold wind blows. It pulls at the billowing skirts and sleeves of a young maiden until it teases a shiver out of her spine. It whips her braided hair one way and another and another again. It stings her eyes with bits of grit and dust until tears well up in them whether she's trying to be brave or no. In front of her, a savage tigress prowls. Jaws slavering, teeth glinting in the moonlight. 

Of course there is moonlight, whatever the time of day. Of course there is a cold wind, no matter the true heart of the land. Of course there are sharp teeth to glisten, as surely as there are beautiful knights to form ranks and circle beast and maiden both. A princess commanded these things to be true. The moon, the wind, the beasts and the knights, they all know better than to disappoint a woman who brought a sun to heel. If she asked the land and the sky to change places, they would. At least for as long as she was paying attention. 

The tigress snarls. The maiden draws back a step on trembling feet attached to slender, dainty ankles unfit to run away. The dance repeats, a step and retreat. The maiden shivers, even sniffles. The tiger pulls her sword with a grand swipe that summons sparks and clouds of fresh dust even as it leaves fresh scars to mark her passing. The maiden retreats until she feels the ungiving metal of a shield press into her back. A Radiant Knight thrusts her strong arm forward, and flings the maiden toward the tigress. 

She catches herself with the hilt of her sword just in the nick of time. Above her, two knights in glittering mail cross through the sky and land with a flurry of blows worthy of a documentary on choreography. The knights and the beast are a whirlwind of blades and fangs and claw, always seeming to swing with power enough to crack the earth in half but never quite committing. Where they part the tigress pounces on the trembling maiden again, and all that she can do to keep her head is drop to the ground and scramble wildly away. 

Each moment precise. Each beat matched perfectly to the music carried in the wind. Of course there would be music. A princess commanded this to be true. If she asked a story to be written in whole cloth then the words and steps and moves would pull themselves from a thousand hearts just to roll for her pleasure. At least for as long as she was paying attention.

The maiden wipes the sweat from her brow with a trembling hand. Her fingers come away grimy with slick dirt and blood. She closes her eyes and pulls in a long slow breath as she might water from a deep well. She holds it with the patience of a monk as she pulls her sword free. It flashes in the moonlight in her flourish, drifting like a fan in a slow half circle from knee up to her forehead. She opens her eyes, flips the blade to show the sharpness to the tigress and her own face both at once. She lets the air go with one sharp puff. 

And she smiles. She can do this. She [i]has[/i] to do this. She has things she must accomplish, but these beautiful people deserve nothing less from her than her best. So they'll get it. She lifts her sword and twirls it as easily as if it were a prop. Her feet lift her in steps that turn into hops, hops that turn into leaps, and leaps that turn into beautiful circles that call to mind the moon's reflection resting on a mirror lake. Four knights and a tigress... no, sorry. [i]Five[/i] knights, one of whom happens to [i]be[/i] a tigress at the moment, stop as one and hide their mouths before they fall agape. The maiden parts her lips, and confronts her deepest held fear.

...She sings. In front of a crowd!

[i]"The pitch black night The lone cry of the moon
Will I blossom and wither following that light
Moving backwards in time 
Like those birds, flying as high as I can
The beautiful moment when my heart trembled"[/i]

Yue's voice is high and thin, and it warbles when she reaches for high notes. It's not something even I could really call pretty, though I'd like you to know that the secret bits of crooning she does alone in her room when she thinks there's no one around to hear her are sweeter and more lovely than a fresh spring rain. 

But here, her little heart is fluttering about inside of her and her stomach is twisting itself in knots at the thought of baring herself like this in front of so many (beautiful) strangers. Of reaching into the corners of her memory to pull out one of Sis' songs and give it as a gift. It's a pretty vulnberable thing to do, y'know? 

[i]"Flow with the rhythm of time
Flow with the wind, an emptiness remains where you left
You are like a lonely blossoming flower
Wishing the black clouds to cover the moonlight"[/i]

She botches so many of the notes because she's sucking down air while she sings, too. Because of course she's not [i]just[/i] singing. I said she owed them her best, didn't I? So she sings, for these knights, and she duels them at the same time. Her fighting style becomes a thing of wheels and ribbon twirls, with her shimmering sleeves taking the place of the dancer's gear she doesn't have, not even tucked inside that magic bag of hers. I mean, I've heard her say it's not [i]really[/i] magic, but if that's true then explain to me how it's always filled with treats? Checkmate. Anyway, Yue.

Her sword flashes as she moves, blade cuts quicker than lightning that clash with a tigress like a knight and with a bunch of knights like they're tigresses. She ducks and dives and steps inside of openings just so she can smile and wave before she dodges back out of the closing noose just in the nick of time. She stabs her blade with the sureness of a sparrow just to get a shield scrambling in front of her so she can plant her foot on the smooth metal. She kickflips off of it and nudges her tigress foe into the now-stumbling knight and grins at the chaos as she flies overhead. Her hands flit from form to form with smoothness she's never managed without the pressure of performance on her and she takes to the sky to kiss the moon before she dives down with a hammer blow. Can [i]you[/i] fight a waterfall, dear knights?

[i]"Just like the blinding light that blossomed at the darkest of the night
Like the flower that blossomed to show its love to the moonlight
Like a one night’s dream that disappeared all of a sudden
I won’t go far following the stars."[/i]

You didn't really think it was the vicious animal form part that was scaring her, did you? Surely not, after all of that stuff we said to Rosie. There's not a single thing this brave lady could have turned out to be that she would have found more perfect than a wild tiger. If claw marks and a trip to the hospital and a month with her arm in a fresh sling were the price of getting such a pretty new dance partner, then by goshies that's a sacrifice she'd make twelve times outta ten. 

[i]"Just like the blinding light that blossomed at the darkest of the night
Like the flower that blossomed to show its love to the moonlight
Like a one night’s dream that disappeared all of a sudden."[/i]

She doesn't twist the story to suit herself. If she did, she'd be the only one who came out feelin' happy, and that'd mean she didn't wind up happy either. A river flows in one direction, and it carries everyone and everything with it for as long as they want to ride. So she doesn't tell the story of a maiden wreathed in victory and sunset who batters about knights and banishes monsters to show the foolishness of both. Who wants to hear about [i]that?[/i]

Yue dances and she sings for people she's only just met, and whose only action has been standin' in her way keepin' her from the things and the person she's really after right now. Which is why she can't give them what they told her they want, not in the way they want it. But this is who she is: you become a sun farmer in the first place because deep down some part of you wants to share the light with everyone. So she goes the extra mile. She dances and smiles, and she nudges by her positioning and her swordplay to tell the world why animals are beautiful and why knights are beautiful to want to test themselves against them. 

The six of them duel in a tangle of thread, bodies, and ideas. The are a wheel, pushing down and pulling up and reflecting all of their most beautiful pieces up to the moon, who's here anyway so she might as well enjoy the show. Six swords cross at once, and the clash lifts Yue up into the air, where she flips once, then twice. Yue can't move like this for herself. Skills like this only unlock in service to somebody else's dream.

She lands with a sweeping crescent slash. Five bodies tumble to the earth. Yue totters on her tiptoes for a second when she doesn't quiiiiiite stick the landing, and she hops backward one, two, three steps before stopping. She beams brightly enough to recall a sky full of too many suns, before she dips into a bow. She closes her eyes gently, and pretends she's in her room with no one around to hear her. Her voice is sweeter and more lovely than a fresh spring rain.

[i]"You are so beautiful under the moonlight."[/i]

[Defy Disaster with Heart is a 9. Yue will spend her fresh String to bump it to a [b]10[/b]. At the GM's discretion, stuff happens idk. maybe new strings? who knows!]