Arrival

[The Empire]

Slightly startled, Hanna looked up, her eyes red but tears no longer running. Swallowing to clear her throat, she answered.
"It's just so much that has happened the most recent years and I couldn't keep up acting strong and sure any longer. And when I came out here, the garden reminded me of gardens I played in as a child, when my parents were still alive. Those gardens are dead now, cherry and apple trees burnt to cinders, dead and poisoned like the rest of that world I once knew." The tiger sat up, stroking Hanna's face with her own, purring softly.
Hanna continued.
"I am so sorry to have caused you trouble like this emperor, but could you keep me company here until I feel strong enough to follow you to the dining hall?"

[Mor'os]

"No no no!" Osmar said hastily. "Do not b'lame yoursel'f. I should have been more considerate." He paused, not sure how to continue from there. His senses locked onto the last words that Hanna had spoken, something which he could give an honest answer to without worry.

"Do not worry about leaving here. I inten'ded for us to eat here. Zough... Maybe zat is not bes't now if zis p'lace causes you such pain."

[The Empire]

"No, please, I would love to eat out here! It was just a lot of memories coming all at once making it too much, but I feel better now, somehow, tears does clean one's soul from pain."
Now, as she had calmed down a bit, he noticed how her apperance had changed when she had taken that armour off. She wore a long red dress with short sleeves of some kind of silk. Around her waist she had wrapped a long silvery belt hanging down at the front, forming a two-stemmed y from her hips. Around her neck, there hung a thin silver chain with a slightly large pendant, two scorpions, one old, one silver, toghether forming a heart and inside it, a small locket had been attatched. The tiara she had worn when they arrived had been replaced by a much simpler one though still extravagant enough for a princess or even a queen with many intricate patterns etched into it or sculpted on it. He also noticed something else, there was no trace of running make-up, apparently, she didn't use any. Letting his eyes follow the dress he noticed her features for the first time, she was thin, almost too thin and her black hair ran down her back to her hips where it ended. He also noticed something with her eyes he hadn't seen before, even though they were clear and brown, ther was also a hint of blue in them. On the back of her neck, almost hidden by her hair, he saw something that felt odd though, it seemed as if she had some sort of tiny golden badge that was sitting directly in the skin. (The socket of her neural interface implant.)

[Mor'os]

"Ah, if zat is what you wan't" Osmar attempted to determine whether Hanna truly meant what she said, or was simply attempting to suppress whatever it was that had disturbed her though and to be a polite guest. His thoughts were soon sidetracked by the outfit she was wearing. Certainly, it was outlandish by Mor'osi standards, even by what he had already seen imported from afar. Still, strange as it was, he found it to be... well, though he felt odd telling himself it, the dress was for lack of any other  word beautiful.

Red was also always a nice color.

"P'lease zen, to ze pagoda. We will have good shade zere."

[The Empire]

"Thank you emperor" Hanna replied as she rose to her feet. She was shorter now that when she had worn her armour, but she was still much taller than Mor'osi women and the slim dress made her length and figure all the more obvious while instilling a sense of gracefullness and nobility.

[Mor'os]

Osmar smiled, partly hoping that it would lift Hanna's mood up further from danger, partly just glad by stint of empathy to see that she was doing better. He gestured for her to follow him the short distance to the pagoda.

As the two made their short journey across the gravel path and onto the stone floor of the structure, Osmar finally noted the conspicuous silence on the part of Hanna's feet. He looked down to confirm his suspicions.

"Ah, you have no mar'ash? I was certain zat she would p'rovide zem."

[The Empire]

"Those wooden things that would be likely to break my ankles?" she asked with a slightly amused smile
"What are they for anyway?"

[Mor'os]

"Yes!. So you noticed?" He smiled again, glad to have found a point of idle conversation, so sorely needed to make up for what had so shortly transpired before. "Yes, zese. Zey are wor'n at all times almos't on ze palace g'roun'd's. I am unsure if it is law s'till, but it certainly is s'till a t'radition. It would not be difficul't o obtain you a pair if needed, an'd zey will not b'reak your ank'les I am sure."

[The Empire]

"Yes, it's hard not to notice them, but why use something so uncomfortable and unpractical?" Somehow, Osmar's company had helped her feel less lonely, for the first time in almost one and a half year, she almost felt content and secure enough to just be herself. She started to notice that she had changed in her personality too, something she hadn't thought about for an even longer time, but now when she did, she was satisfied with what she found.

[Mor'os]

Osmar laughed, and in earnest humor rather than just an attempt to play the good host. "We have alway's been in many way's an im'p'ractical peop'le. Zough wis p'ractice zey are comfortab'le an'd easy enough. But p'lease," again, he gestured, but this time to the low but expertly carved and laquered table and mats that lay ready in the shade of the pagoda. "If we will talk, we should be comfortab'le."

[The Empire]

"That sounds like a good suggestion emperor."
Hanna followed Osmar to the table and mats, sitting down with her legs to one side and her bare feet off the edge of the sitting mat, allowing her to brush off some strains of grass before continuing to study Osmar, wondering if his life had been as turbulent as hers, somehow it didn't seem that way.

[Mor'os]

"As a chil'd, I sink zat ze garden was my favorite p'lace," said Osmar as he sat downs as well, perhaps not thinking about whether this was the best way to continue the conversation. "I alway's foun'd it very peaceful. It was also away f'rom the pestering Minister's. Zough" he said with a note of caveat in his voice "Zis is not ze same. The fir's't was los't when the palace was bur'n'd with everysing else."

[The Empire]

"It is still a very peaceful and beautyful place, it reminded me of the happier parts of my own childhood."
Sasha and Nikolai was slowly walking up to them, lying down beside them as to just relax and maybe sleep a bit in the early evening light.

[Mor'os]

Osmar took a moment to consider this new arrival. The tigers seemed well behaved enough, and he was still alive. If they wanted to kill him as part of some elaborate assassination plot, they would have done so by now, or at least certainly not while they were so deep inside the palace grounds. It would be suicide; the place was practically a small city. With just the slightest miss giving, he reached out and pet the great feline. When his hand was not immediately and violently torn from its limb of residence, he relaxed a bit more.
'
"How did you come to have tiger' as pet's?" he asked, continuing his adventure into the unexplored realm of casual talk with a member of the opposite sex. "It is somesing indeed."

[The Empire]

"It was my father's idea from the beginning I think, He loved felines of all shapes and sizes and my mother didn't mind so they decided to take care of two cubs that had been ignored by their mothers, Sasha and Nikolai. I think I was about five when they came to us as two playful balls of fur and muscles. I think you have gotten a new friend there emperor."
Sasha purred and pressed slightly back on Osmar's hand.