There was something going on. She could sense it, like an itching lump somewhere along the spine. Then there was the noise too, disagreeing voices punctuating the rumble of hooves and the trumpeting of wounded beasts. Sounds of battle. Altogether it was foreign sounds that did not belong in the forest, noises she had never had to associate with her home before.

Frowning, Erthë approached the battle warily, watching with apprehension the dragon and the elephant as they exchanged blows. She took her time in reaching the group of onlookers, and merely listened as they passed their judgement on the matter. Something about bags, theft and a challenge (obviously this fight, that seemed to be the most logical explanation) but more than anything, it was the increasingly vehement tone of the conversation that troubled her. Blue-tinged ears dipped backwards at Tilney's harsh words and Erthë looked after him as he moved closer to the combatants, frowning at the way he just left after saying all that.

"Why didn't you return the bags?" she asked, turning towards the Queen with her question; honestly curious about the reasoning, there was no trace of judgement in either face or voice of the young acolyte. Perhaps it was because the matter seemed so pathetically simple, hardly worth causing such a fuss over. The outcome of the fight honestly didn't matter to her in the slightest, because in the end the stakes were just that small.

A pair of bags? Please.

"I can't believe that Cowboy person caused such a mess over something so small... Rather than fighting here that Czarina should have a talk with him about keeping track of his own possessions."

She shook her head in disbelief. If the man was so keen on having his stuff back he should come and ask for them himself. Better yet - if he cared so little about them that he wouldn't do it on his own, then he didn't deserve to have things in the first place. 'Might makes right' was a philosophy Erthë definitely could get behind - never in her life would she bother others to keep track of her own baubles.

Another matter entirely was the whole thing with stealing stuff and giving them to others. Even though she couldn't bring herself to feel badly about it, it didn't exactly seem like the most thoughtful way of handing out gifts. Looking thoughtfully from one face to another, she wrapped her tail around a hock, not knowing that the pretty metal bracelet that adorned her dock was just as hot an item as the disputed bags, or that the culprit was the very Spected she stood next to.

If she had known, the whole situation might have grown vastly more interesting to her.

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Waiting for the rain I'm bracing for the thunder
A twig that wouldn't sway in the wind