This... man walked into the Inn begging to slap someone. Kitty had watched him with amusement as he pleaded and begged. Of course, it wasn't long at all before he was getting annoying.

"Only if I can return the favor, buddy." She lifted her hand and wriggled her clawed fingers at him.

Surprisingly enough, the man didn't back away as she expected. In fact, he seemed to welcome the opportunity to exchange hits with the feline woman. Was he insane?

As fate would have it, just as she was exchanging smacks with the man, Tass would walk in. She gave as good as she got, and the man conceded the win to her, but the dragon still looked prepared to eat the stranger.

It was a blur after that to her. The rest of the Inn faded into background noise as she could only focus on calming him down.

She knew Tass disliked it when men hit women. But she never considered herself to be a typical woman. She was a brawler who made a regular habit of traveling the docks at night for the sole purpose of cleaning the clocks of drunken sailors. Especially the ones that thought women were to be man-handled.

In complete truth, she found the idea of being protected an alien concept. She was fiercely independent for centuries. She was fully expecting him to react much like the rest of the world did when she was confronted with a physical conflict. Apparently he was not the kind to sit back with a bag of popcorn and enjoy the show after all.

She was unable to soothe his ruffled scales, and so he decided to head out. She insisted on going with him. She felt like she was the reason for his foul mood, and she wouldn't run from it. She refused to run from his foul moods no matter the reason.

Suddenly she found herself no longer in the Inn. But... where was she? She could feel the tingle of magic on her and around her before anything.

As her eyes adjusted to the change of light, she took a step forward.

Crunch!

She looked down and realized she was standing on snow. She looked back up as wind she couldn't feel whipped her hair about.

"Where are we, sho dalath?

But before he responded she was pulling from memories not her own.

The Pearl.

Maybe this was worse than she thought?

"Perhaps, to be more precise, the foothills that leads to it.?

She watched him carefully, the coldness within his voice and eyes was unmistakable. Her own emotions suddenly became conflicted. She hated to upset him, but...

She was no fading flower that needed constant protecting. A part of her was irked that anyone felt she needed to be sheltered from something so simple as an idiot with a slapping fetish.

She turned her gaze from him to look around them again, tugging her coat around her out of habit. Memories of times long past flashed in her mind. The Midkemian foothills of the Great Northern Mountains were once her home. Too many memories of night after night hunkering around a small fire with her brothers as the tribe did their raids on other tribes. The blood of others on her pelts as she strove to show them just how not fragile she was. Would she have to go through this again?

As she heard his voice again, she pushed the memories aside with a furrow of her brow.

?When we have worked you up to the enchantments, you will be able to come here without me. But if you were to try now, even that which I have given you would not be enough to keep the cold.. the lack of air.. from taking you. It is not enough to do so on its own.?

Then she felt that coldness come through the enchantments. Her eyes closed as her body reacted without so much as a thought from her. Scales coated her skin under the coat and clothes. She felt them and didn't try to stop them.

"I understand... there are some things you simply must protect me from. But... you don't need to protect me from everything."

She frowned as shoved her hands into her pockets.

"God blast it, Tass! I'm not... I'm not made of glass. You can't do this every time I get in a fight with some idiot. It's part of who I am. I've been stitching up cuts, taping up my ribs, and sticking meat on my blackened eyes for almost my whole life. It's what I do. If some moron decides he wants to kick my tail, I'm not going to run and look for someone to rescue me. I haven't before and I won't now. Not ever."

That scowl deepened as she realized she was probably digging herself in deeper, but for Pete's sake!

"I don't know what to do to make you understand that I'm not like the rest of them. I don't want to be like the rest of them. I'm happy with how and who I am. "

She finally looked back at him, lifting her chin, and waiting for all hell to break loose.

She frowned and just flopped down to sit in the snow with a sigh.

"No, I don't suppose it was. However... he wasn't looking for women specifically. At least, he wasn't asking women. He was just looking for someone. And the way he was going on, I was pretty sure it was just a matter of time before he just randomly picked someone. Then what would've happened? There would've been a big fight and tensions ruining the night."

She pointedly looked at him now. "Something I was trying to avoid."

She waved a hand about over her head as her elbows rested on her knees. "Besides, when I told the guy only if I could return the favor, I didn't think he'd actually take me up on it."

Her gaze lowered as she scooped up some snow and looked at it, letting it fall between her fingers.