Playing for the Highest Stakes (Me and Quinn)

[Yare]

Name: Leez
Age: 18
Sex: Female
Appearance: Long brown hair; green eyes; wears a crystal on a gold chain around her neck
Background: Leez's grandmother gave her her necklace when she was three years old. The family had long known it had certain powers - it could heal Leez, and helped protect her. There were some, though, that wanted it for their own nefarious purposes. Eventually, Leez's parents couldn't protect her any more, and fearing for their daughter's life, petitioned the king for help. King Demetrius loved little Leez instantly, and adopted her when she was six years old. Leez spent months crying and wished to go back immediately, and still rebels quite a bit at being a princess. She sees her parents once a year, and wishes it was more.

[Quinn]

Name: Rafael Quinn
Age: ???
Sex: Male
Appearance: Snow-white hair, usually covered under a brown wide-brimmed traveling hat; angular features, clean-shaven; usually wears a black greatcoat, heavy walking boots; a flute, a rapier, and a brace of pistols hanging off his belt, a truly prodigious amount of throwing knives hidden all over his person, and a rucksack hanging from his back.
Background: A wanderer, an entertainer, a mountebank, a highwayman, a second-story man, Rafael Quinn is all this and more. Nobody except him knows his own age, nobody knows where he's gone or where he's going, driven by wit or whimsy to wherever his feet take him. Some say he's a blackguard and a ne'er-do-well. Others say he's a hero, an adventurer. He merely smiles, plays a little tune on his flute, then walks off with your wallet.

[Yare]

She was running. She hadn't had time to take a horse.

Unfortunately, her pursuers weren't in the same boat.

It had all happened too quickly. Threats had been building for months - and then the palace had fallen...

Nobody knew where the king was now. All they knew was that he wasn't dead, not yet, because he had information for them. He wasn't important enough for them to do away with yet. They were really after his daughter.

Said princess was now running pell mell through the forest, the only thing on her a coarse bag which she'd packed days before in case she had to leave in a hurry. It had her peasant's clothes, some money, and a knife, but little else. She'd barely had time to grab it before she had to go. Her escape had been detected, and now she just hoped she could get away.

She had a bit of a lead on them. Her pursuers had taken time to get their horses before coming after her, giving her time to get through quite some ground, but she could already hear horses behind her. She turned a sharp corner.

That's when she nearly ran into someone.

[Quinn]

"But when I came to man's estate, with a hey-ho, the wind and the rain..."

He hopped lightly over a tree root, blowing on his flute as he moved down the forest path. Taking a breath, the wanderer sang the next verse.

"'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut the gate, for the rain it raineth every day..."

His heart was light tonight. Couldn't quite say why. It just felt...auspicious. Sure, his money pouch was light, and he hadn't eaten for a few days, but fate always had a funny way of dropping things into his lap. Like frantic young ladies who would come running into your arms...

Wait, what?

She collided with him, and the two spilled to the ground, Quinn dropping his flute and rolling along. The two tumbled briefly along the ground before landing in a rather awkward position, the young lady atop him as he blinked.

Fate had funny ways of working sometimes.

[Yare]

Leez rolled off almost immediately, and held her bag close to her in an attempt to hide her necklace - her hair did the rest. She took deep, heaving breaths, her face pink from the effort of running so far in shoes designed to look pretty and never to be worn, and looked at the man in front of her, wondering where he'd come from.

[Quinn]

Quinn lay there, looking up somewhat admiringly at the tree canopy, and counted leaves for a moment. Then he sat up abruptly, and dusted off his longcoat before reaching over and picking up his flute, slotting it neatly into it's belt holder. He sang again, as if this kind of thing happened every day and ladies just threw themselves at him (which, despite his best wishes, didn't really happen that often).

"But when I came unto my beds, with hey, ho, the wind and the rain...with toss-pots still had drunken heads, for the rain it raineth every day. Good evening."

[Yare]

Leez was taken quite aback by the way he spoke, and as such stuttered when she answered. 'Um...H-hello,' she said. The hoof beats were definitely louder now - the ground was beginning to shake. Brought back quite rudely to the present, Leez stood up and began running as fast as she could again along the path, though she didn't get very far before the men were upon them.

'Stop there!' said their leader, and Leez did so. She turned around slowly to face several crossbows aimed at her, and, because some had noticed there was one extra person around who might cause trouble, at the man she'd bumped into. They didn't say anything for a moment.

[Quinn]

The figure sitting on the ground seemed to take no notice of the crossbows aimed at him, standing slowly and continuing to dust off his coat. Ostentatiously, he removed a leaf from his shoulder and held it idly in one hand, looking at it as if fascinated. His voice was laconic this time when he spoke, deliberately ignoring the guardsmen.

"You really should be more careful, running around the woods at night. Someone might get hurt. You could trip over a root, or run into a branch. Not safe at all."

He looked about at the darkened forest paths, even leaning to one side to look between two of the horsemen.

"Or get lost. You could get lost too."

[Yare]

Part of Leez felt this wasn't quite the time for such talk. She reacted accordingly. 'Don't you think I'd much rather not be here with crossbows aimed at me?!' she snapped.

[Quinn]

"Crossbows? What crossbows?"

He looked about, as if seeing the guardsmen for the first time, then back at her.

"Oh! Those crossbows. Well, I'm not quite sure. Never met you before, so for all I know you might enjoy being chased through the woods at night and having crossbows aimed at you. Although I think you might owe me an apology for running into me like that, quite rude indeed."

He looked up at one of the riders, speaking in an almost conversational tone.

"Honestly, it's almost impossible to find anyone with good manners these days, isn't it?"

[Yare]

The guards were almost as taken aback as Leez. They were looking between the two of them as they argued.

'I was running for my life!' Leez yelled. One of the guards, apparently remembering she was supposed to be a prisoner, waved his crossbow half-heartedly.

[Quinn]

"Oh pish tosh. If I kept running into people when I was running for my life, then I'd probably not be alive now, correct? See, this is where you make your mistake, running into people when you should be running away. Quite amateurish. Shame on you."

He leaned on a handy tree, looking about at the situation, and examined his leaf again.

"Quite a lovely forest. Good for running for your life in, especially on such a beautiful evening."

[Yare]

The leader of the men growled. He turned in his saddle and pointed is crossbow right at the man, while a few kept their's on Leez. 'All right, man. Yer clearly workin' with 'er, so give it up.'

[Quinn]

The dark man's posture or eyes didn't even shift, and he kept looking at his leaf while speaking in the same laconic tone.

"Like I said, quite a lovely forest. Shame it's about to get so bloody."

He dropped the leaf. Then sprang to one side, his right arm fanning out as three silver streaks flew through the air to impact in the throats of three guards.

The leaf kept falling.

Some crossbows managed to fire bolts, but in a swirl of fabric he shifted from side to side, the bolts impacting in the dirt as more and more silver flashes flew through the air. And men died.

The leaf hit the ground, and he stopped moving as six bodies lay around him.

"Crap, one short."

[Yare]

Leez looked shocked. Four of the remaining men fired their bolts rapidly at the man, while two went for Leez. She dodged the bolts, and plunged in her bag for a knife, though knew it wouldn't do much good. The men got down to draw their own swords - they were better adapted to the cramped space of the trail - and Leez fought as hard as she could against the two of them.