Elizabeth Faustina

“I'll have you know that Dumpling, Rice Cake, and Sticky Bun are the noble offspring of the great Bright Mane," Sairu said, "descended in a long line of royal canines bred from the deified lineage of the Lordly Sun's own watchdogs."
The cat gave her a look. "Really?"
"Well, the come from the same kennels as the emperor's dogs, so that's close enough."
"Useless yapping things, hardly what you'd call proper dogs. What's the point of them?"
"They ward off devils."
"Yet I'm still here. What else?"
"They're fluffy."
"I'm fluffy," said the cat.
"You're a monster," said Sairu.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Golden Daughter

“A black cloud hurried over the sky. Winter thunder on a wild wind rolled roaring up and rumbled in the Mountain, and lightning lit its peak.”
― J. R. R. Tolkien, J.R.R. Tolkien Reads Excerpts from the Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring

“Sairu slid off her donkey and gave pursuit, shouting, "Sticky Bun!" Which is not a good name for shouting if one hopes to maintain any sense of dignity.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Golden Daughter

“Do you know who I am, Sairu?" the voice asked.
"I do," she said, though until she spoke she had not known.
"What is my name?"
"Lumil Eliasul," she responded without question. "The Giver of Songs."
Then a sob caught in her throat, and she could not speak, not in words, though her heard cried out, "Where have you been? Where? Where? Where have you been?"
"I have been here," said the voice. The blood falling from the gong seemed to spill through the air in a sort of shape, a sort of image that Sairu could almost, but not quite, see. "I have been here all along. And now I will hold his pain.”
― Anne Elisabeth Stengl, Golden Daughter