Your umbrella beats a series of squawks from her besmirching head, and one failed attempt to chomp the offending umbrella out of your grip. You stand and face her, an imposing figure with her umbrella-cane. Your feral stray stands tall, thrusting her shoulders back, presenting herself as big! Intimidating! Highly un-smackable! Instincts take over, when the mind is otherwise preoccupied.

“You…!!!” She sputters, once, and then comes the onslaught of your assessment. It pushes her gaze aside, carrying her eyes away from you. Back and forth her head goes, first one way, then the other, never resting at center long enough to do more than shoot your umbrella a cautious glare. She doesn’t interrupt your words. She doesn’t interrupt your lengthy pause. She barely interrupts the long silence that follows after you’re clearly done speaking and all you’re doing is watching her and the best she can sputter out is “You…you….you, Piri?!?!”

Until finally, she explodes.

[i]”Lead with that next time!!!”[/i] Her mighty roar cracks so little that it practically doesn’t count. Consider it a blessing, that you have your mask for protection. If she had to see the smug expression on your dumb face she would die forever. “And then maybe! I’ll go easy on you when I beat you! And!” Her fierce, thundering heart sends blood rushing through her body, and that is why she looks so flushed. “And I’ll only haul you around [i]half[/i] the Kingdoms to sing your pretty story about me! Gah!!”

She recedes into a fine pout. A fearsome, but ultimately harmless sulk, that will almost certainly abate under the influence of a good walk, and the soothing power of Water.

(Lotus brushes against Han’s balled-up fists, and coaxes them open like blooming flowers meeting the bright sun. She takes each cold, calloused finger in turn, and rubs new life into them. Tending to her brave champion. She wraps them up snug, strokes gently with her thumb, until Han gives a little wiggle to say it’s all better now, could you move on to the next one please? Or Han tugs at her hand, gently, to say no, wait, could you give that one little more attention? And, sometimes, her dragon will wrap her strong hands around hers, and give a light squeeze. To say that everything will be alright. And she shouldn’t worry about a thing.

A finer halter you could never have devised. Han will walk, obediently, until you reach your destination or she collapses from exhaustion. Good thing you don’t have far to go.)