Yona smashed through the door, turning the dorm room beyond into a vortex of splintered wood and yak hair, and bellowing a melody that espoused the many merits of being a happy yak.
“Yona happy! Yona sing happy song!”
She bounced and tumbled around the room, sending books and chairs and pictures falling to the floor. An errant hindleg broke a lamp, and a miscalculated toss of her head left a wall in need of serious replastering, but Yona didn't care in the slightest. Cosmetic redecorating and structural repairs were trivial considerations in the mind of a yak newly in love. Indeed, the first love smash was something of a yak rite of passage, so she was actually doubly pleased with herself.
She was dating Smolder. She was actually dating the dragon who brought a smile to her face in the day, and who she thought about every night. And it had been Smolder who had made the first move! Granted the kiss had been far less enjoyable than the subsequent wrestling, but it still meant that Smolder felt the same way. Yona's joy about that fact was matched only by her relief that she would not have to compose a ballad about her unrequited love, as yak tradition dictated. Even the shortest of those lasted three days, and the composer wasn't even allowed to revisit any of the attributes of the one they were singing about. Repetition was an imperfection, and imperfection was unacceptable, especially in matters of love.
"Yona now dating Smolder!"
Yona laughed as she sang, the wonderful fire in her belly beginning to smother the rest of her senses. Now she could hug Smolder as tightly as possible without questions being asked, or read best yak poetry to her, or participate in bhyaki, the braid-bonding ritual, with her or—
Her vision began to swim, her brain moving too fast for her heart and lungs to keep up with. Sheer euphoria poured into every part of her being, hopes and dreams and plans filling her until it felt like she was going to explode.
Then she burst into tears.
It was a momentary reaction, an opportunity to alleviate all that had been building and building, and Yona's mind had seized it by the horns. She bubbled and leaked like an overfizzed bottle of soda, laughing and spluttering all the while.
And then, as quickly as it had begun, it was over.
Yona looked around the room and grinned, before a further realisation dawned on her.
"Yona must tell Silverstream!" she bellowed, and left the room as violently as she had entered.
In the silence that followed, Sandbar turned wide-eyed to Gallus.
"That was a surprise."
Gallus looked up from the book he had been reading and surveyed the room.
"No it wasn't. And that's why you owe me ten bits, buddy."
Sandbar pulled a face and climbed down from his bed to get his saddlebag. Gallus watched him for a moment before chuckling.
"Cheer up, at least you were right when you tricked me into this revision session. I am grateful—my room could have been next."
Sandbar pulled a bigger face.