None of that made the slightest sense to Aza, who dealt with it as she did most things she did not understand: move on and try to forget it. "Fox? I thought I was<em>dog-thing</em>," she said with an exaggerated sigh, giving his hair a tug that was perhaps a little firmer than necessary to secure it before sliding around the edge of the tub to start at his other temple. "But why must I be one or other? I am both, fox and female. But not bird, or cat, or rat. Fox."<br/><br/>She gave the cracked-open collar a narrowed glance. "Though I can be kept in one shape. The sorceress had a spell, I could not entangle." She paused. "<em>Un</em>tangle. Other than that, a good mistress. With much larger chambers for bathing." With the same efficiency, the girl began to plait both sides of his hair together at the nape of his neck, her thoughts briefly turning back to grapes. The huge purplish ones, without the seeds, already peeled.<br/><br/>Something sounded like crashing downstairs, and she tipped her head in a noticeably canine-like listening pose. "Your brother? Friend? Should be more careful. Drow only take, and leave little." With a bit of a flourish, she wove the length of leather cord into the last few inches of Dean's wrist-thick braid and knotted it, leaving him neat and maintenance-free, at least until he decided to fall off a tower again. "And," she mused about Sae'Ka, settling her small hands on his wide shoulders and stroking lightly up the sides of his neck, "I always thought that one liked other girls only." She leaned in and nipped the shell of his ear, in a gesture another dog-thing would probably interpret as friendly.