Negatively. Very negatively.

You had never been angry before. Not truly. You'd felt frustrated when you couldn't get a spell to work right or when you failed an assignment. You felt vexed by your inability to do what others could do so easily. You'd felt down about things before, though never for very long. But angry? Well and truly angry? No. You never had truly felt angry....until right now.

You had already been feeling it starting from the way that Skulgi had been treating his familiar with such disrespect, the dragoness obviously not liking the way she was being treated but the magic of their bond making it impossible for her to do anything about it. That had already started to make you angry, but then the way that Skulgi spoke about Lime and looked at her so lecherously had truly sparked that emotion in you. Anger, real anger, awoke within you and, unfamiliar as it was, you couldn't help but be swept up with the emotion and react in anger without even thinking.

Your hand flew out before you even knew you'd meant to move it, slapping away Skulgi's lecherous paw before it could make contact with Lime. The fact that he had been unprepared for the move was the only reason his hand was swept aside as the dwarf was much stronger than you were. Surprise was what had made you able to move his hand at all, but you didn't care too much about that as your anger pushed you further as you put yourself between Lime and Skulgi.

"Don't you dare touch her! She is no object to be traded! And neither is your familiar! Familiars are our allies and partners, not slaves or playthings! They are friends when no other is and should be treated with respect and kindness! What you are doing is wrong, Skulgi, and I will have no part in it!", you exclaim, the anger in your voice surprising even you, "You should be ashamed of yourself for treating your familiar this way and for thinking I would treat Lime that way too!"

Your words aren't only a surprise for you as Skulgi and his friends look at you in shock after your outburst, frankly uncertain of what to do for a moment as you had never shown a moment of anger in the whole time you'd spent in Fauleki. No matter how much you were pushed or mocked, you would just smile and move forward without letting anything get you down. This was the first and only time you'd shown anger and it surprised the dwarves as much as it did you.

It seemed, however, that your words and emotion pleased at least one individual on Skulgi's side as you can see a flash of gratitude in the dragoness's eyes at your words, something like a warm look coming to her eyes as she looks at you. You think, for a moment, you can almost feel that gratitude the same way you feel Lime's through your magical bond, but it is only a wisp of that sort of sensation and it is gone as quickly as it came. Still, the look in her beautiful luminescent eyes is probably something you won't forget in a long while.

You don't have time to think about that, however, as Skulgi has recovered in short order and, with a snarl, he reaches out to grab the front of your shirt. "The hell you say! Little Toby is goin' to tell me what's right and wrong? Little Toby is goin' to yell at me?! Little Toby is gonna hit my hand away like I'm somethin' dirty!", he growls as he starts to pull back his other hand, curling it into a fist as he prepares to strike you with it, "I don't bloody think so!"

You can only close your eyes and brace for the strike as, before that outburst of anger, you'd never had a violent bone in your body and that had not changed in an instant. Fighting was not something you knew how to do and, even if you did, the dwarf was much stronger than you. He was shorter, but was about twice your breadth and you knew it was all hard-corded muscle built up from years of working a forge and hammer. He was strong and you had no doubt that the punch you were about to take would hurt like hell because of it. But you had no defense against it so all you could do was close your eyes and brace for the impact.

But that impact never came and, after a long moment where no attack came, you opened your eyes to find why the punch had never landed.