y'var'la huffed a breath that might’ve been a laugh, shaking stray water from her fur before slipping after him into the reeds. i’ve learned it’s useful to be more than one thing, she called lightly. but yes. scribe suits me just fine, your grace.

she slowed as the marsh thickened, lowering her frame to let the stems swallow her outline. a pair of ducks murmured somewhere ahead, hidden but not well enough. she angled sideways instead of forward, circling to cut off the waterline where they’d try to bolt. she'd allow him the first lunge this time around.

a scribe who hunts! khaemwaset teased in a low voice, but his eyes and the exultant tone betrayed his pride. he would have to spar y'var'la at a future time. the way she moved among the reed put even the honed motions of pharaoh to test, and he admired this.
the two courts of satriya were coming together well. it was good to have those among them like herself, able to step into many roles.
a lioness, she circled, and khaemwaset tilted his head to find the core of sound before lunging forward, snapping the thin stems as just behind, the ducks beat their wings with a furious terror.

the reeds snapped under his rush and the marsh erupted in noise. y’var’la held the line she’d chosen, still as the mountains while the ducks burst exactly where she’d expected them to. one veered wide from khaemwaset’s lunge, skimming the water in a panicked arc straight toward the open gap she’d left.

with little time to kill, she sprang, cutting the bird off before it could gain height. her jaws closed around the beating body and she landed in the shallows with a splash, steadying the duck in her grasp as she glanced toward the pharaoh through the trembling reeds. teamwork, she said, i’d say that one was yours as much as mine.