[ It's Kel's turn to yelp in surprise, a sound that comes out more feline than it should, but she barely notices. There is, after all, a very pretty winged cat with all of its claws buried in her silvery tunic and punching through the simple white shirt underneath it.
There's a split second where she thinks the animal is her griffin, the one she was raising while Daine hunted for its parents, the one who's left scars on every finger--and then reality blasts through that possibility as she remembers that griffin, its parents, and every other immortal in Tortall is dead.
--and then the winged cat is swatting at the mask on Kel's face, and it hurts, to her surprise and confusion. She tries too push the cat gently off her shoulder, not too keen on either getting chunks ripped out of herself or hurting the animal, either. ]
Stop that! I'm not going to hurt you!
[ She reaches up with her other hand to check the muzzle of the mask, feeling for how deep the scratch went through the material, and her hand comes away from the muzzle freckled with blood. ]
omg i love
There's a split second where she thinks the animal is her griffin, the one she was raising while Daine hunted for its parents, the one who's left scars on every finger--and then reality blasts through that possibility as she remembers that griffin, its parents, and every other immortal in Tortall is dead.
--and then the winged cat is swatting at the mask on Kel's face, and it hurts, to her surprise and confusion. She tries too push the cat gently off her shoulder, not too keen on either getting chunks ripped out of herself or hurting the animal, either. ]
Stop that! I'm not going to hurt you!
[ She reaches up with her other hand to check the muzzle of the mask, feeling for how deep the scratch went through the material, and her hand comes away from the muzzle freckled with blood. ]