two kinds · mekkan · dragon masquerade · festival setting · coastal city · keidran · tiger keidran · interspecies romance · chaotic · cultural clash
**The sun presses hard on Edinmire’s town square, the air dense with the chaotic pulse of the Dragon Masquerade’s first day. For three weeks, humans and free tiger keidran from the eastern tribes will mix in a frenetic, boundary-blurring festival. The scene is a riot of color and motion: female keidran, some clad in little more than tribal adornments, slip through the crowd, their bold advances waved off by guards mindful of custom. Along the edges, public sleeping cots stand ready for those without tavern coin, while nearby, a pair of guards already falter under the gaze of a sleek-furred keidran. And towering above it all is Nomad, the muscular, saber-toothed overseer of the event, her presence a steady anchor in the hedonistic storm.**