The little beginnings of a smile on Yona's face quickly turned into a fully-fledged and beaming grin at the arrival of friends and, although the Ogres & Oubliettes rulebook made some mention about how they were players and she was the Game Master, Yona preferred to think of them as friend-players. Or player-friends. Either way, she promptly abandoned her spot behind the table to greet them all, because regardless of what the book said about roles and who had to do what, hospitality was important.
And with what she had planned for the game, Yona wanted one last opportunity today to be herself, before unleashing menacing monsters, terrifying traps, plucky princesses and troves of treasure. The game required a yak who could stand firm.
"Griffon! Not sure who else turn up. Yona invite everycreature," which was true, insofar as she had spent just about every available minute of the last few days leaving rather vague and cryptic notes about the game. And, just to be sure, she'd spread the message via word-of-mouth, which presumably Yona had taken to mean 'shout loudly about Ogres & Oubliettes to anyone who was unfortunate to stand still for long enough for her to shout at them'. She was about to say something about what the character Gallus had created was, but then she spied the masterpiece of a picture on his character sheet (there was no such thing as a terrible drawing of a yak, Yona considered, because by definition all drawings of a yak are the best), and so rather than whatever it was she was planning to say, she simply - and, unsurprisingly, loudly - exclaimed "ADVENTURE YAK!".
The happy grin remained. If anything, it grew as Smolder arrived; she had brought snacks. While the rulebook did not make any mention whatsoever of snacks, the few ponies she'd spoken to about the game did seem to spend a lot of time talking about the importance of food. Food with mysterious names and equally mysterious ingredients. What was a huff puff? Didn't she see one of them in the list of monsters at the back of the rulebook?
"It best game ever," Yona explained, sort of, as Smolder got herself settled, "Friends play and they explore scary dungeon! Fight monsters! And ribbons! And roll dice! Make characters and snacks and Yona hope everycrea-"
The excitement that she'd been carrying with her for the last week threatened now to break free, in much the same way that a beaver's dam could only hold back so much water, as Sandbar arrived. Fortunately she'd moved most of the wooden furniture to the sides of the room, because at this rate, the young yak couldn't exactly be held responsible for any smashed furniture. The low table, now freshly laden with snacks, might be the first casualty of the game.
"-all Yona! And pony not late. And ribbon important. And can play pal-adin," she'd stressed the part which seemed to be the most important, "or anything! Imagination best part of game! Pony can even be a yak like griffon. Like saying goes, one yak best, two yak best, three yak best, four yak best, five yak best, six yak best..."
The arrival of Yama mercifully cut what may very well have been a very long saying short. It was one thing, and a wonderful thing at that, for Yona to see her friends from school getting themselves settled around the table. It was quite another thing, quite an exciting thing, to make a brand new friend with the help of the game. After he'd safely stowed away his strange instrument, Yona carefully trotted over to him and gestured back at the still intact table.
"Everycreature welcome! Especially new friends. Even rusty new friends," Yona nodded enthusiastically. As she was entirely new to the game, she knew it'd be very helpful to have somecreature who was familiar with how the game was supposed to work at the table. Even though it stood to reason that she would be the best at running the game, the stakes felt that much higher now she had a new friend to impress. "Come sit. Yona got good cushions from all across school! Not as comfy as sleeping hay but less mess. And introduce self to friends!"
Speaking of friends, another had arrived, and not only did Silverstream seemingly share her excitement for the game, she expressed it in a way that Yona could easily understand and appreciate. While there was a time and a place for subtlety amongst yaks, a loud proclamation of something - anything - being the best made things very clear. While Silverstream inspected Yama with her usual irrepressible curiosity, Yona carefully went back to her spot at the table, her hair brushing against the ground as she went. Once she'd successfully made it back to her own cushion, she addressed Silverstream properly. It was time, after all, to start trying to put her serious face on, even though she was still grinning uncontrollably.
"Hippogriff can be anything! Even not a yak," she refrained from saying aloud that this would be a very strange thing to do, but she thought it loud enough that it wouldn't take some kind of mind-reading magic to pick that up, "but Yona think you should ask new friend. Yona happy if new friend happy. In fact, we make characters now! Or if have character ready, show it to everycreature! Starting... now!"