She followed close behind Bela with haste, half from concern for him, half from concern for her own safety in that court. The animosity in the room was tense; it felt like needles pricking the skin from all over. The moment the doors slammed shut behind them, she let go of a breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

For a moment her attention turns away from Bela, tongue poking out from under her faceplate as she wrestles the sword back into its scabbard. With her focus fully on the simple yet somehow strenuous task, she is caught by surprise at a sudden aching in her heart.

A feeling that she couldn't quite identify. Perhaps rancour, emptiness, maybe even yearning? The shape of the feeling was so jagged and so vast, like pulling apart a rose thicket with one's bare hands.

As the sword finds its resting place, 'Fresh Meat' returns her gaze to Bela. She decides the feeling in her heart must be for him, and so she asks, "Grand Duke Bela, are you okay?"

"I'm alright, but you should avoid jumping into combat like that. You nearly got yourself killed. The Drakkens have some of the strongest warriors in all the lands. Don't worry about what they said. They're animals in vampwelf form."

"They make any night a hideous event. I was going to speak with Boris in his quarters afterwards, but this insult was too much, even from what I expected from the Drakkens!"

"They think that they can deny me..... I always get what I want, one way or the other. They'll regret this."

"Ah, but ignore such squabbles. Here I am telling you not to care for what they say, while complaining about them in your ear. We have much better things to do. Wine, dine, the works. I'll be here for a few days and well-" He pauses, thinking his next words over.

"-I want to know how long you'll last, or if this will be your only night with me." He says, running fingers through her hair.

As if it were only natural, as if it were something they'd always done, she pushes her head into his hand like it belonged there. "Do you ever scare yourself?" She asks.

She hums meaningless sing-song sounds as she tries to find the words. "Your feelings are so intense, I would find myself startled if I carried that weight all the time."

"Scare myself? What a silly thing. Such heightened emotions are common in these lands, my dear. Men are killing men daily. I suppose because of your looks when you were transported here you were squirreled away from the common masses so you would not need to see the horrors."

"Fresh eyes you have. I bet you've never seen death before....."

"Well....of course, except for the obvious one......."

She bows her head a little deeper. It could've been as simple as guiding his hand for somewhere else to fuss over, but the question had made her feel avoidant, not wanting to meet his eyes. "Forgiveness, but I have no memories of death. Such sights have been kept from me, for it is a vile thing to upset a rabbit."

"Oh, truly? What an oddity." He ponders at the comment of death and rabbits.

She reaches a hand up to the top of her head, taking Bela's into her own before nodding in the direction of his temporary home. "But I take no burden in hearing your troubles. Just perhaps we could do so somewhere more comfortable?"

"Ah, yes, I could use a bit of relief, maybe a fresh drink after a night like this. Got to make use of the time I have left with you. Maybe find out if I'll send you back to the stables with a little money in your pocket, or something else." Bela laughs.

"Ah. My fey. You're back, and at such a.....perfect time."

Flower Trove stares at Bela silently.

"You've been missing for quite a few days, and then you brave the crowds of the town to get here? Where have you been?"

He suddenly realizes that to most people a fey is a terrifying thing to meet. He interrupts any comment Flower Trove is about to make by introducing them. "Ah, Fresh Meat, this is my fey, the fey of Growth. Do not worry, they are a kind one."

"Rotting....." Flower Trove mumbles.

She bows to the small fey, not one bit afraid herself. "Lovely to meet you, fey of Growth."

She breaks from Bela's side for a moment as he converses with the unexpected company, taking the chance to relieve herself of the buckles and harnesses strapped to her figure that support the Dawn Knight's sword, setting the blade and harness down on a free countertop.

"Oh how cute to see my fey and my lady of the night get along!"

Flower Trove speaks up, this time so Bela could hear. "You should rename her Rotten Meat."

"What is wrong with you? To say such impoliteness to her, especially after disappearing for so long!"

"You already have your wife to deal with."

"Don't bring more troublesome women into your life. I don't want to have to care for another." Flower Trove leaves, shutting the door on their way out.

"Please, excuse them. They usually aren't so rude. Maybe they're dealing with their own struggles at the moment."

She'd faced the wall right up until the fey of Growth left, unwilling to face another barrage of cutting words. As the door clicked shut she turned to Bela, hugging her tail. "It..."

Her voice breaks a little, and she takes a nervous step towards him. "I'm getting so tired of hearing things like that..."

Bela gingerly holds Leaping Star's hand, leading her to his bed. "So do I grow tired of it. They have said such things about my wife. Such hate in their voice, as if she, or anyone, should be judged on choices they could not make in a clear mind."

He pulls her into bed. "To call you troublesome, for what? Living as you want?"

Something in her twists as he answers her with... Empathy. She follows his lead and sinks quickly into the bed, unsure whether it was his words or the relief of somewhere comfortable to rest her head for once that soothed her.

"You have been with tailed before, but have you ever had a rabbit in your company, Bela?"

"No, I've never had a rabbit tailed, but I don't mind. You might be some reincarnation, but you are still a person who should be respected and loved. People look at you horribly, don't they?" He says, sighing.

"Even when people think no one is watching their looks, I notice. It's preposterous! The idea that you could be wrong for your life. Punished for wishing for another night watching the moon."

"Especially those who wished so dearly for you to not see death, and yet, when you return they turn away from you. Hate you. It feels as if their emotions were all but a lie. A person should be loved in whatever form they have taken, for they are still there." Bela mourns, holding Leaping Star just a bit tighter.

There was a pain in being understood. Every word felt as though he were turning her inside out, showing her the inner workings of her living, breathing body. Put into words she'd never have found on her.

"To have returned, I must have been so very loved. So loved that whoever kept me could not bare to see me dead."

"But it can be so lonely..." Her arms, once kept to herself, find their way around the Duke. "Whether put on a pedestal or scorned, they treat you differently. My..."

She lets out a shameful sigh, catching herself. "I'm sorry, a rabbit shouldn't be like this. They shouldn't be sad or, have all these... feelings, about what they are."

"And that is exactly another thing that they always wish from you! They see the fey of the woods, happy, dancing, singing, all joys within their souls."

"They look at you when you're sad, they look at my wife when she cries, and they go "She has gotten everything she could have ever wanted, how can she still be sad. Not only does she have life, but she has servants at her hands and feet. A fey of the woods could have just a single stick and be the happiest creature in the world at that moment." It is terrible."

"When I went to find a cure for my wife's illness, I found the fey of Growth. She's a special one. Can turn even the most sinful man with a 1000 ties to his country into a perfect fey. But she told me that such perfection would come with the loss of all memories of my wife. For months, I was allowed to ask her one question a day. To find out a way around this curse."

"If I wrote down her memories, would it stay? "No."
If I told a man across the stars, would it stay? "No."
If placed in an electronic machine, would it stay? "No."
Over and over, my questions were met with no. I was told I was greedy by the fey to want the memories to stay, but what else could I do? I would have been losing the love of my life in a new way. All emotions, all memories, gone. Even losing her name feels like a death in a way."

She runs a hand through his hair, short claws dancing lightly across his scalp. Since she had arrived on Transylvaar no one had spared her their true thoughts and feelings, even little Timothy snapped and barked at her over the slightest misstep. Perhaps foolishly, she felt that this moment was different.

"Do you truly remember nothing of her? All of who she was to you before, it's all gone?"

"No, I couldn't choose to make her a perfect fey.....I didn't have time to choose so. Her illness grew worse and worse. I would often come to her to find blood, her blood, covering her chest. I knew of the horrors of imperfect feys; I wanted to find a way around it, to make her perfect, and still mine, but one question a day was too slow. She started to beg Boris for an artifact, and he gave it to her, knowing that just the action of using it, instead of trusting me to find an answer, would hurt me. I have only forgotten her name. Nothing else....though the image of her has slowly been replaced in my mind with what she is today."

"I'm still loyal to her, and love her, but the people of my castle grow more and more distrustful and angry. We keep her locked away.....but that doesn't feel right to me. She is still my wife. She just needs new accommodations, things that befit her better. She's not a vampwelf anymore. Such a lifestyle is not healthy for her. She deserves to be treated as what she is."

As his emotions rise she holds him a little closer, as if she might draw some of the pain from him and in to herself in doing so. What he described was a sin among tailed. Necromancy was an ugly thing. Yet she felt her birthright made her kindred to these things. To poor Gretel, to Bela's wife.

"I think... I would like to meet her. Sometime..." She begins, a little unsure of herself.

"To be confined to one spot, it must get so lonely, no matter the luxuries at hand."

"Perhaps a friend would be welcome to her, do you not think?" She swallows, her mouth feels dry, as if she had misspoken. "Was that foolish to say?"

Bela laughs suddenly, pulling his face away from Leaping Star. "Oh, I've had many escorts listen to me speak about my wife before, but never have I ever had one wish to see her!"

"You know, most men would be offended. They'd call you an idiot for saying such a thing! An escort? To meet a man's wife?"

"And yet I think honestly about your absurd request, I think shall allow you to meet her. Sure, it might be a little awkward at first, but I believe you will understand her, and you shall not be scared. A woman shouldn't be cooped up in her room alone with nothing but me and a fey that shoots her dirty looks."

"How about this?" Bela starts before kissing Leaping Star. "Should you survive tonight, and until I have to leave, then I'll take you with me. The Drakkens aren't going to miss a little stable woman."

"When my brother came home, he told me all the rumors about Bela Elzenstein. I want you to know that I wouldn't have sent you to him if I knew that everyone says he is the eater of women! My brother said he smelled fresh blood comin' from his room after handin' you off to Bela's right hand man. I thought you were never goin' to come back. Not in one piece at least!"

"You haven't been talkin' much since you came back. Did you have to use the sword to fend back that awful man?"

She fusses with the collar of her robe, tweezing it, keeping it stretched out past her neck. It takes a moment for Timothy's words to reach her ears, even with him sitting right behind her. "Hm?"

"Oh! No, no, nothing like that."

"I just-" she cuts herself off with a yawn, buck teeth peeking out over her collar for the briefest moment. The brushing was soothing, save for when he pulled at the tangles. "...Didn't get much sleep, that's all."

"Of course you didn't get enough sleep. You basically spent a night, possibly sword to your chest, worried about a man killin' you!"

"I can't even believe how guilty I would feel if you didn't come back. You're like a sister to me. A weird pink sister who smells awful."

Timothy snaps at her again. "And you stayed out for so long! Imagine if the perfume wore off? You wouldn't have been able to get home without every vampwelf patrollin' the village swoopin' down at you!"

The words struck her quite harshly. 'You're like a sister to me.' The snapping hardly registered as such anymore, not aggressive like other vampwelves. It was something else. As he runs the brush through her hair again, she stops it with her hand, giving her a chance to twist around to face him. "It's... Sweet, you'd say that."

"You remind me of someone I grew up with, too. A sibling, kind of."

"Sometimes she seemed pushy and a little rude, but I felt it was because she cared."

"Well, you're back here. You ain't have no need to go back out there anymore."

Leaping Star tenses, shifting right around to face him. She gingerly takes one of his hands into her own as she thinks of how to deliver the news... "Well..."

"He's planning to keep me, I think. He said if I survived the night he'd take me with him, that the Drakken's wouldn't miss a stable girl."

"But I..." She closes her hand around his, an unconscious fear he might pull away. "...I think I'd miss you."

"I could visit!" She quickly adds, almost as if afraid the silence might come between them. "And I'm sure he would give me coins to spend, but I won't need them! You can have them!"

"He thinks he can just take any woman he wants!? It's not that I don't believe he'll pay. I'm sure he's goin' to make my brother a rich man if he is so interested in you......"

"It's just that, he may have not eaten you today, but what of tomorrow? The day after? My brother says they're rumors, but that he believes them to be true. When you met him, did he seem like an honest man to you?"

Leaping Star squeezes Timothy's hand, he was more frightened than she was. "I... I don't know Tim, all I can say is he wasn't cruel to me."

"At most he called me dumb a couple times, but that isn't anything new."

She thinks to say more, but for once considers herself and her position. The Dawn Knights dealt in whispers and rumors, if she spoke of the softness he had shown her it would do neither Bela nor herself any good.

"Just... Just think! With a connection to such an important man we could get you so many nice things. Maybe even one of those roller chair thingies!"

She looks away guiltily, drawing circles on the back of Tim's hand with her thumb. "I thought to ask the other day but the whole thing was... Intense."

"Fine. You can go with him. I may not be a full Dawn Knight no more, but I cannot speak too much about what I know. Don't tell anyone else, but I think if you go to that kingdom with him, we'll meet a little sooner than you'd expect."

"And you are right, I and my brother would be rich men!"

"Though you are goin' take some of the money for yourself! It would be dishonorable to take it all, even if you'd just spend it all on candy and knickknacks."

"I only have one requirement. A single one."

She lets go of his hand, settling in place as she rests her head in his lap. She points behind her head, urging him to continue brushing. "Yes?"