It had been a slow night, rain looked imminent and there were too many of the Watch in the Tavern to risk cutting purse strings. It was time to venture further afield if she wanted to stay clear of a good hiding from Hog; he’d not been too impressed with the contents of her bag lately. It had been a good while since she’d relieved the good folk of Cladcot of their possessions; by now some of them would have likely grown careless again about checking whether their doors and windows were locked. She glanced up at the dark grey sky, slung her bag on her back and made the long trudge to Cladcot.
Pickings had been reasonable, but certainly not enough to put a smile on that bastard Hog’s face, and now Ewley was helping himself to her haul, she had to work harder.
In its design it was a window like any other on the homestead, no light from within; Dani grinned wolfishly when she realised it was open. She slid in through the window effortlessly like the evening breeze, landing with the grace of a cat on the hard wooden floor, the booty in her bag clinking together. Her keen ears soon established there was nobody at home. Used to working in the darkness, she soon moved about the sparsely furnished home helping herself to anything of value.
She froze at the sound of a key turning in the lock and darted towards the room she started in and crouched behind a chair in the corner. She felt his footsteps vibrate through the floor; her senses pricked to full alert as she tracked his movement. Her mind began sorting through her options with seasoned efficiency. It was then she heard a faint humming and muttering. She crouched lower, almost on her belly now, listening intently…it was only one voice, and then she saw it, lying beneath the bed a shiny silver coin. There was naught Hog liked better than coin, and it saved her having to deal with Slimy Shem, the weasel disgusted her.
As she lay there, looking at the coin, the wind sucked the window tight into the frame shutting it with a thud. “Damn”, she whispered a curse to herself for making a fledgling error in judgement, she should have been out of that window as soon as she heard the door…too late…she felt it, a presence, a shadow looming over her….the man was already in the room.
Again she updated her options in her mind; had there been an object to clobber him over the head with? No, everything not nailed down was in her bag now. Patience, she judged, was her only option currently. Annoyingly the man hovered as if he were aware of her, perhaps he could even hear her stomach churning?
Finally, he broke the silence “Interesting” he whispered to himself through a yawn, patting his lips and pointing towards the window “I haven’t opened you in a while”.
She heard the scrape of a blade being unsheathed and caught the glint of polished steel slipping to the floor that he’d so clumsily lain on the bed. Stooping to retrieve it, he spotted the same silver coin. Dani held her breath, a dry cough collecting at the back of her throat.
The man slowly pulled himself back up to his feet, coin in hand, blade in the other, gently letting it flop onto the somewhat dusty bed, sending a flutter of dust towards his own nostrils. He coughed whilst tossing the coin through the air a few times before launching it with little force towards the chair she was hidden behind, letting it spin and settle upon it.
"Y'know a room with more than one person within it has a sense of air about it." he openly calls out, noticeably looking at the window, giving no indication whether he even knew of any other presence in the room.
He breathed in slowly and almost in reserve, his body inching around to stare down onto the chair, the light sparkle of silver glistening against the darkened wood, the whites of his eyes showing, angled towards the chair.
The figure moved towards her exhaling, grinning and taking hold of the back of the chair swinging it behind him, glaring into the darkness in front of him a look of instant surprise and shock appearing noting the tiny frame of the hooded intruder now filling the space where the chair had stood.
Stumbling back, he let out some sort of a yell, surprisingly more awake than he had ever really looked, “Dyah!” “The, heck are you doing in here?” It was obvious now that his earlier rambling was, in fact to himself.
"Speak!” “You come into my house, you must pay some form of respect, answer me!"
Dani, again recalculated her diminishing options…window? Too risky, Door? Perhaps, but he was blocking the way! Her eyes flicked towards the blade on the bed, he wasn’t armed! Seizing the moment, she hopped up onto her feet in one easy, practiced, graceful move, from there she launched her feeble weight into the hard, sinewy muscled body of the startled occupant, the bag on her back adding almost a stone to her weight.
He blinked, a look of complete surprise as she hurtled towards him, unable to do little more at the time but bring his arms up to defend himself as he toppled backwards from the force of the collision, trying to clutch his arms around her waist to keep her from escaping. "Ghng!” “Nice chat, then!"
Dani wriggled wildly atop him like a fish caught in a net. “Le’ go o’ me!” she hissed, eyes wide and feral, attempting a bite to his shoulder. He was having none of it, he pressed his hand to her chest in an attempt to stop her gaining even a nip, discovering at that moment to his horror she was in fact a young woman. He withdrew his hand as quickly as he placed it there waving it in the air as if he had plunged it into something extremely unpleasant, his face flushed “Gh…now you talk” he grumbled.
In the struggle that ensued, he tore the hood from her head, time slowed to a standstill as the man and the thief blinked their eyes at each other, the hair that had escaped her braid framing her face. The moon moved from behind a cloud and shone a beam of light at them, bright enough that they finally got a look at one another. To add to her predicament she noted with some reluctance that he was probably the most handsome man that she had ever clapped eyes on, perhaps a trick of the light? It was no time to stare like a doe-eyed fool.
“Wha’ yer doin’ Mister? Let go of me ifn yer know wha’s good fer ye!”
He raised a lazy brow looking mildly amused, mildly irritated, though seemingly more relaxed at the discovery that she was but a slip of a lass. He took in her features for a brief moment and rolled her off him, along the floor and pinned her against the foot of the bed with his boot on her chest.
“I will gi’ yer belongin’s back to ye Mister, jus’ let me go an’ we will say no more about this eh?”
"What in the names are you even /doing/ in here? Can you see anything of value?!"
Dani’s eyes darted about the room updating her options for an escape route; he read her easily.
He found his way to his feet, rolled his eyes, lunged forward a little, his boot landing to the right of her, leering over and scanning her once again with a lazy gaze.
“Don’t even think about it, you’re going nowhere, at least not yet” he growled.
Dani recalculated her options again, scenes playing along in her head pausing on a one where she aims a deft punch between his legs “bags too heavy” she muttered making sense only to herself, the only remaining option was to talk her way out of it.
“So..ye callin’ the Watch?”
He observed in silence as she rose to her feet, standing where he could block her escape route to the door, finally folding his arms over his chest, he spoke again following her line of sight.
"Who are you?" he simply asked.
"Who are you?" she responded with no small manner of impudence and attitude
He rolled his eyes, a great show of eccentricity backing such a display, shaking his head. "Basaran of Bree, Captain to The Bloody Dawn, Shield Bearer and Song-singer. Who, are, you?"
Dani's eyes widened at his long introduction, a smirk crossing her impish expression "I am Emily, of Breeland, third daughter of Toby the Farmer, back pack bearer, and Mayor of Bree" she announced sarcastically, inwardly her heart began to pound within her ribcage, her cocky attitude draining from her.
…She now stood toe to toe, looking upon the face of a name well known and well feared in the alley…Basaran, Captain of The Bloody Dawn.
((Credit to Basaran for his contribution. Much of this was lifted from our actual RP. Thank you Basaran))
