PM to join Water in a bottle [Roselina, Garland]

[Elin]

19th Spring, 517AV
"Common" | "Kontinese" | "Tukant"

Elin had gone to the docks with Ilia and Rion, wanting to show Rion the boats going in and out of the dock, and she knew that that was something Ilia enjoyed watching.
It was busy, busier than usual, and there were large crowds of people around the ships, where usually it would just be the crew unloading the goods on the ships and taking them to the bazaar and to the other shops located around Syliras and maybe a few people searching for scraps that had been dropped, or begging for coin from the merchants and sailors from other regions and cities.
Something felt uneasy and Elin wasn’t sure what to do as taking Ilia too far into the crowd could result in losing the little girl amongst the masses of people, and that wasn’t something she wanted to risk.
Instead she simply crouched down and placed a hand on Ilia’s shoulder, the other hand moving to support Rion’s head in the sling.
”It’s busy today Ilia, shall we head home and come back when it’s less busy and you can see more?”” she asked the little girl and Ilia nodded, obviously not overly fond of the large crowds either.
Rion didn’t seem bothered at least, though he was too young to be worried about getting lost or crowds. To Rion, more people meant more attention, and more people he could try to make noise at.
As Elin stood up and took hold of Ilia’s hand, more people came towards the docks, almost knocking Ilia over and Elin pulled the little girl closer, wrapping and arm around the back of her neck and pulling her up against her legs so she was as close as Elin could keep her, until the rush of people passed.

Afterwards, Elin turned back to the ships to hear a series of shouts for the knights and she realised that the crowds were stealing the ships cargo and Elin briefly froze.
What if the knights came and thought she was a thief? Ilia and Rion would be traumatised and that wasn’t something she wanted to risk.
She had to get away from the docks or hide. Something that would avoid drawing attention to herself and the two children.
-

[Roselina]

19th of Spring, 517

Roselina was torn between a risky opportunity, and running far away from the rioting crowd. She was doing fine, financially anyway, she was unsure whether you could call her fine in other aspects. The amount she had earned in the previous season was more than enough to support herself, seeing as she had no one else to support anymore. It had been a while since she had. There wasn't much reason to risk stealing now other than for the thrill of it. Not that anything like a pretty necklace would be on a ship, she would have stole if there had been something like that though.

She could hear people calling for the knights, and as tempting as it was to steal something and attempt to blend in with the other looters, it was safer to not. After all these years, it wouldn't honour Florian's memory correctly to have herself end up caught. Perhaps associating with the knights and squires wasn't honouring his memory properly either, but it wasn't Rose's fault that she talked to so many in the winter. Florian would of understood.

The woman then realised that she could be mistaken for one of the looters if she stayed much longer, and that wouldn't be helpful at all to the con artist. She had been nearly caught quite a few times over the years, and she didn't want that to happen again. The blue eyed girl broke into a rapid sprint, wanting to get out of the crowd, eventually being shoved when she was nearly out of the group of looters, causing her to run into, or more fall onto, a stranger.

A woman, with long black hair who was human in appearance, and by the looks of it, taller than the short woman. A small and slightly conceited voice in the back of her head remarked that the woman looked rather average in her opinion. Looks don't really matter though if you've got a normal career, do they? She thought to herself before uttering a rushed apology after a small curse under her breath.

"Are you okay? I'm really sorry about that."

It was then she noticed the children that were by the woman, one in her arms. A flash of worry and shock flashed over her face when she noticed them. "Are your children okay? I didn't hurt them when I tripped into you did I?"

She sounded considerably more worried about the children than she had been the black haired woman.

[Garland]

It was going to be one of those days. Garland was wearing full armor as he patrolled around the docks and was the first one to respond when the rioting started to happen.

Ships were being raided, Garland noted that most of the people looked ragged, poorly, or at the very least not very well-kept. Seems like they were stealing food and supplies judging from the crates and markings.

Garland turned a blind eye to those people and looked for anyone being a bit too rowdy. Something was wrong with this though, something on the back of Garland's mind told him that something was wrong.

Garland let those with food alone, but those with amenities were quickly apprehended by Garland.

And by apprehended, I mean tossed into the water. He guessed he had to stop the rioting now, hopefully those that needed the food had gotten away.

"Oi! The petch is going on!? Stop that!" Garland yelled and pushed himself forward, his armor and uniform did little to make the crowd part. When he reached the gangplank the people behind him stopped while those on the ship looked at the blocked entrance and knew that they couldn't leave with Garland there.

Most of them just returned the crates to where they were and then jumped ships. Garland didn't give chase, that would be stupid. He was full plate armor and they knew it. He would most likely sink and drown.

A few others panicked, dropped the goods and jumped ship, but these runners didn't quite think like the others, they swam in panicked circles, tiring themselves out before the knights would come and get them.

The crowd started dispersing but a few others started going to another ship to form another crowd to loot another ship.

"Oh, you've got to be petching kidding me." Garland just sighed and went off to follow them. Looks like some of the looters were getting a bit more violent as time went on.

[Elin]

Elin felt the shorter woman crash into her and her first thoughts were to turn slightly so Ilia and Rion were out of the way and so the woman only crashed into her.
After the initial impact Elin looked at the person who had fell into her to see a young woman. She guessed that she was maybe in her late teens. She had brown hair and eyes that were wide and light in colour. She was pretty and that was a definite.

Then she heard the girl ask if she was okay and apologised and Elin nodded before opening her mouth to speak.
”Don’t worry, it’s fine?” she said, attempting to smile but finding her worry towards the crowd preventing her smile from being genuine.

She turned to see where all the crowds of looters were, then heard the girl ask if her children were okay, notably more worried than earlier.
”They’re fine, aren’t you sweets?” she said, loosening her grip on Ilia slightly as the little girl nodded and turned to look at the other woman. ”And he’s fine, he just wants attention.” she said, her voice shaking with nerves as she tried to calm herself and think through the situation.

Then she heard someone yell and almost jumped out of her skin, turning to see a squire patrolling and attempting to break up the looters.

”If we run they’ll think we were looting too…” she thought out loud before looking back to the girl. ”It’ll be better if we find another way, or if we just avoid the knights altogether. We look suspicious just being here!” she exclaimed, hoping that the girl realised she was inviting her to join them.

She looked back towards the squire as he headed to a new ship that the looters were crowding, seeing that some of them seemed to be getting slightly more violent.

”There’s only one squire for now, but there will be more soon, and then the higher ups will come and I don’t fancy getting caught her looking suspicious, and I’m sure you don’t either. she said as calmly as she could, turning around to try and spot a less crowded route out, or even somewhere that they could hide until the looters had gone along with the squire.
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[Roselina]

Roselina listened to the woman explain how the knights would think them suspicious, and that was certainly the truth. It was a slightly idiotic idea to have ran from the looting, but hopefully if anyone had noticed her they had assumed her to be a panicked and innocent girl caught in the crowd. Not someone who had briefly considered stealing.

The woman seemed to be inviting her to join them, and the con artist gave a friendly smile to the woman as she spoke. "You're right, it wouldn't be good for either of us if the knights assume that we're apart of the looting."

The brown haired girl's hand found her bag, clutching close to where she could grab her dagger from it in the case of being attacked. She was nervous, extremely nervous. The sheer amount of people and the likelihood of violence was too large for her not to be.

She looked over when the stranger told her that there was only one squire, slightly surprised to see a familiar face - Garland who she had met in the previous season. He had hinted that he wouldn't arrest her the last time they had met, so hopefully he would keep that word.

"The squire. He's-" She paused for a moment, trying to figure out what to call him, an acquaintance? A friend? "- someone I know, he won't arrest us."

She looked over the woman briefly, deciding that it was unlikely she could hold her own in a fight in case it got violent, and Rose wouldn't let such young children get harmed. "I don't mean offence, but you don't look like you can defend yourself if things get violent here. I'm unsure whether it would, but it seems likely. I have a dagger, but I'd rather not get it out and risking looking suspicious."

"Oh, by the way. My name is Roselina."

[Garland]

Garland noted a few people he known in the crowd, but none he would consider friends, then he happened to glanced back to see a pair of ladies trying to hide from the growing mob.

Garland turned away to focus on the steadily growing violent crowd. A few stones were being thrown, curses, yells, and sticks were also thrown into the mix, and it seemed everything was escalating a bit too quickly for one squire to handle.

One brave, or incredibly stupid man thought that a squire or knight here would ruin whatever chances he had for looting and he would be right, Garland kept looking back towards Rose and her friend to make sure they were leaving quietly and without trouble.

This foolishly brave man took a stone and snuck up behind Garland to try and knock him out so he could loot undisturbed, not once thinking of the other 7000+ knights in the city that was surely on their way to the docks by now.

Garland was constantly wired, ever vigilant and observant, his ear twitched, picking up a pair of feet moving towards him, and with razor sharp reflexes, he grabbed the man by the wrist stopping the stone he was holding was on its way to the back of Garland's head dead in its tracks.

Garland turned his head, his features just shows a look of annoyance.

And without a second thought, Garland twisted the man's wrist and dislocating it and then throwing the man over his shoulder and onto the ground where he'll spend a good portion of the next few chimes nursing his hand.

While that was going on, a pair of knights turned a corner and faced Rose and Elin.[

"Oi! Where do you think you two are going? Making off with stolen goods I reckon!" One of the knights reached for Rose, and the other reached for the wrapped baby in Elin's sling.

Garland turned back to Rose, he had expected them to get in trouble in some way or form, Murphy's Law states so, but he didn't expect two knights to be the ones causing the trouble.

Garland completely ignored the rioting crowd and made his way towards Rose and her friend. That's when he saw the terrified little girl clutching the woman Rose was with's hand.

Garland grabbed the man who grabbed's Rose by the wrist and did the same thing he did to the idiot that tried to attack him.

"What's this now? Two strong knights picking on two women and a child? Tut tut tut." Garland bent the knight's wrist back even further, not quite breaking it but it was very very painful.

The other knight had a hand on sword and said "This has nothing to do with you, squire."

"Oh but it has, what are the knights made to do?" Garland bent the first knight's hand even more, making the knight grunt and suppress a scream. "Protect the people of Syliras, correct? Especially the innocent, aye? Well, I wonder, while two full-fledged were harassing a mother and her children, a squire, mainly me, was trying to keep the peace where it was actually needed, what would the Warden-Knight say about that? Also when this squire saw these two dishonorable knights harass a poor mother, it is my obligation to set things straight."

"We are ranks higher th-"

"Petch the ranks!" Garland yelled and snapped the first knight's hand and grabbed the other one by the collar of his armor. "Now listen..." Garland said in a low whisper that sent chills down the knight's spine. "We are keepers of the peace, and I don't think you have your priorities straight. Now over there-" Garland pointed to a restless crowd of rioters. "-is where the peace is being broken, not here."

Garland threw the knight towards the crowd of rioters, making the knight stumble a bit before he righted himself.

Garland looked over to Rose and sighed. "That is gonna bite me in the balls later. You owe me Rose."

The other knight, mad with pain stood behind Garland, his hand snapped back into place. He reached for his sword and unsheathed it. He aimed the sword at Garland's back and Garland just smiled and winked at Rose.

He raised up his arms.

"You are under arrest for assaulting a knight!" Garland turned slowly and looked at the man's sword, the sword was a very short sword.

Garland sighed and said. "They don't train em' like Alex anymore." And with deft hands Garland struck hard at the man's hand and that made the man drop his sword and Garland followed up with a knee to the gut and a kick to the groin.

The knight fell to his knees and Garland clocked him hard, sending him sprawling down to the ground. Garland gave a small laugh. "Hey, Rose, I know this guy. I threatened to chop this guy's balls off and feed it to him when he was drunk and trying to get a feel for your cousin's wife."

The man in front of Elin was completely different from the man she would meet later in the season. The caring father she would eventually meet was gone and right now it was a look of a cocky but hopefully good-hearted fool.

[Elin]

Elin saw the woman smile and she couldn’t help but smile back, though weakly, before hearing the woman agree. She was glad that the woman wasn’t fond of being caught either.
She saw the woman glance over to the squire and she followed her sight to see the squire, before hearing the woman say that he was someone she knew, that he wouldn’t arrest them and Elin exhaled, glad for that fact. At least they didn’t have to worry about him, but more knights would be on their way and she doubted that the woman could speak for all the knights in Syliras.
She glanced around again, her eyes not really noticing any quiet routes out before she heard the woman speak, saying that she had a dagger in case things got violent, but that she’d rather not get it out.
Elin understood completely, nodding her head as she realised she felt a bit better knowing that the girl had a weapon. Elin knew that even without Ilia and Rion she’d stand little chance of being able to defend herself, so having somebody with a weapon around, she was just glad to be around somebody that seemed like they could fight back.
Then as she thought she heard the woman give her name and Elin smiled.
”I’m Elin, and I would have preferred to meet you under better circumstances, Roselina.” she said, not even trying to hide how worried she was.

The next thing Elin knew, they were both being approached by two knights, accusing them of trying to leave with stolen goods.
She saw one of them reach for Rion and instinctively she stepped back, one of her arms wrapping around the baby and holding him closer protectively.
She knew that would make her look suspicious, but she didn’t care at that point in time. All she cared about was keeping Rion and Ilia safe.
”Keep away from my baby.” she sharply stated, starting to panic as she tried to control her breathing despite feeling as though she was going to hyperventilate. It proved near impossible to keep her breathing under control and instead she began to involuntarily inhale and exhale at increasing speeds until she was gulping in shallow breaths of air. She tried to keep quiet, not wanting to show how much she was panicking, but she felt Ilia squeeze her hand and she couldn’t tell with Ilia was scared too, or whether Ilia could just tell that she was panicking

Before anything else happened, the squire that Roselina had said she knew was nearing them and had done something to the wrist of one of the knights, and Elin cringed slightly. Whatever it was that he’d done looked painful!

With the knights being distracted by the squire, Elin took the opportunity to regain control of her breathing, breathing deeper and managing to breathe more steadily and evenly, before she began step a bit further, holding Ilia close to her and used a hand to cover the little girl's eyes as she kept her eyes on everything that was going on. She didn’t want Ilia seeing anything if the situation became violent. She didn’t want Ilia to be too scared, despite already feeling the little girl shaking.
She imagined that nothing good would come of what the squire was doing, although in her eyes and according to what she knew of the knights, he was doing the right thing, and she was very much thankful to him.

But at that moment she had no idea of what to do.
She didn’t know whether to stay and try to help the squire out, or to grab Rose and run away from the docks not caring as to how suspicious they looked anymore.
-

[Roselina]

It was likely a good thing that the Squire had arrived, as if he hadn't a dagger would have surely, clumsily found its way into the Knight's hand. If that'd happened the con artist would have almost definitely ended up arrested or worse. Yet she wasn't the most logical when she was angry, and her dagger was grabbed out of her bag once the Knight wasn't holding her wrist anymore.

She took a step backwards a way from the Knight who had grabbed her, looking down at him with disgust. But stayed silent, watching everything happen. The man continued to bend the knight's hand, a pain that Roselina felt was deserved, since he hadn't only threatened her, but someone who had children with them. It wasn't right to hurt children.

When Garland had apparently finished, she grinned. "Well if you hadn't arrived I would probably have attacked them and gotten arrested. So thank you for that." She paused for a moment before her expression settled as a smirk. "That was some good fighting though, I guess you people are actually competent." Her tone was rather humorous, though anyone who knew her well enough would see that as a jab at the Knight.

The way he had been acting as he threatened the Knights reminded me of the personality she took on while she worked as a con artist, depending on what the con actually was. Confident and cocky. And also a little bit foolish.

"I suppose it won't look good for you to be attacking a Knight though either, would it?" No, she imagined that it would pan out terribly for the Squire. He seemed rather calm about it though.

The con artist herself turned to Elin with a gentle and hopefully reassuring smile. "Are you and your children okay after that? I'm sure more people like that may come, so I'd leave if you can."

[Garland]

Garland smiled as Rose talked. "Some of us actually know which end of the sword is the pointy bit." Garland laughed a stray rock flew overhead.

It seemed that the crowd is just getting worse and worse and was not intent on stopping any time soon. Garland looked at the crowd and he had to help try to calm them down at least, but not before he'd get Rose and her friend out of trouble.

"Yeah, you two should probably leave here before things get out of hand." Garland saw that the other knight that was trying his best to calm the crowed but it did not seem to work at all.

"We're gonna need more knights, hopefully mages with water reimancy to dose them... But I should escort you two out first before I go back into the fray. Seems like the right thing to do, but if you think you can handle leaving together I won't argue."

Garland looked over to Rose and her friend and the little girl. "Don't worry, you're safe now." A bit of the fatherly instinct had kicked in and he looked up to the little girl's mother. "Keep calm, and don't let them know you're afraid."

Garland sighed and picked up the unconscious knight and propped him up to a wall. "Don't want him getting trampled by the crowd."

Garland looked at Rose and then to her dagger. "Best put that away, carrying a weapon in Syliras isn't illegal but using it is, and if I do see you using it, I have to take you in. Of course I could have partial momentary blindness in such an event but I could only do so for so long."

[Elin]

Elin listened to the way Roselina and Garland interacted, and she assumed that they were friends, not just somebody that Roselina knew as the young woman had said earlier.
It put her more at ease slightly, the way that the two were behaving so relaxed and nowhere near as nervous as Elin felt.
Then she noticed the looters getting more and more aggressive and her worry came flooding back, but then she heard Roselina address her, asking Elin if her and her children were okay and Elin forced a smile on her face and nodded. She heard the girl say that she should leave and Elin was about to open her mouth before she heard Ilia speak.

“You come too!” she heard the little girl say and a smile spread across Elin’s face that she couldn’t help, her hand squeezing Ilia’s tightly.

She heard the squire speak and he mentioned mages using something called water reimancy. She knew that magic existed and that people used it, but she knew nothing of what magic entailed or what different words to do with magic meant. She noted that at some point she’d have to look into what each magic was!

”I think we’d get in less trouble if you helped us.” she said as calmly as she could, not wanting to turn down the offer of an escort. She knew that would mean Ilia and Rion would be much safer. She didn’t doubt Rose and her dagger, but she didn’t want to risk any harm coming to her children. Then she heard him tell her keep calm and not let them know she was scared and she nodded, keeping herself as calm as she could. ”It’s not fear, more worry, but that;s just as bad for the little ones.” she said quietly so Ilia wouldn’t hear her over the noise of the looters.

Then she heard Garland address Rose and a slight smile spread across her face slightly. It seemed that the squire put his own morals above those of the knights, and she knew that would help them get away from the looting.
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