Angelica’s jaw found itself performing its best impression of a flytrap as she took in the majesty of her fellow hound and accompanying hat. Every elderly hair along the nape of her neck tingled with electric thrill and rose appropriately. Here was a hound adorned with something that no other hound had worn before, at least not in front of others. There was no shirking shame and everything about Anje’s poise spoke that it had been earned, given or awarded.<br/><br/>The retired Wölfentreuen couldn’t quite believe what she was seeing. Her eyes, old and fading as they were, did not lie. This hound was elevated to heights that none of their kind even dreamed of reaching for. It was unheard of. It was, to the hound community, monumental. Angelica snapped her best salute and forced her body into an attentive and almost parade-ground rigid position. As a ‘civilian’ it was true that she didn’t need to, but old habits died hard and all hounds found comfort in servility.<br/><br/>Her eyes watered at the sight of Anje as pride in her people trilled like a bird in her chest. One of her people had<i>THE HAT</i>. It meant that someone had found the Wölfentreuen distinctly worthy. The new comer looked as though she might have earned the prize on the battlefield, but she didn’t smell like it. Plus the excitement was too fresh, it had yet to be tempered with time.<br/><br/>Angelica clutched her hands close to her breasts and wrung them nervously. The surprise was wearing off and was becoming replaced by nervousness. She was clearly older than Anje and had earned her place, but she was also unsure as to how to react to such a lofty creature. Angelica gnawed upon her lower lip nervously, although her tail still swished from side to side at a rapid pace.<br/><br/><b>[Teutari] </b><i><span style="color: #ff8000">‘Sir! Hat! Special hat. Stabswachtmeister hat! New, clean, special! How? Why? What?'</span></i><br/><br/>Usually the old hound had no trouble making herself understood. She wasn’t counted among the more intellectually challenged of her brethren and could easily hold her own in conversations with her Reik masters in the armoury. Indeed, they had as comfortable a rapport as could be expected between her betters and herself. She secretly knew that they treated her more kindly than they should have, but it only made her work harder to prove that she needed no coddling.<br/><br/>Faced with the prospect of a hound on the highest rung of non-commissioned officerdom however, her ability to convey sense was sadly lacking. She was far too excited, nervy and otherwise confused to make her words shape properly. A hand strayed to the simple peasant’s cap slumped between Angelica’s own ears it was most pathetic in comparison, but it was hers at least. Bought with her own money and treasured rightly.<br/><br/><b>[Teutari]</b><span style="color: #ff8000"> <i>‘Oh such a beautiful hat. How, how can I help you sir? Oh please let me help you!’</i></span><div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>