A collaboration between @ERode, @Haru Nyan, @Rose305, and @Fox of Spades
Blocking her escape route was a rock of a man, and Anais found herself frozen in place. What was she gonna do, push him? She was a frigging ant in comparison. Hoh boy, she could always go back the way she came. Yup, she was going to do that right about—
"Evildoer! Unhand the child..."
Fudging fish sticks
, was the child some secret prince from a far-away land or something? It felt like the entire market population was closing in on them and encroaching on her escape route. And wait, wait,
wait, they thought she was some kidnapper? The implications made her squeak. Kidnapping was a serious felony! She was many awesome things wrapped up into one, but cold-blooded child stealer wasn't one of them.
"This isn't what you think it is!" She practically screamed.
Then some oblivious man walked in on the whole mess and smiled. If the rest of the city joined in on whatever this was, there'd be no way she'd be able to escape - wait... maybe she could use him.
"You!" Anais yelled in a desperate frenzy.
"Help! These bandits are trying to rob me!"
Lawrence jolted, golden eyes whipping to the young woman. Hmmm, a lot of people were yelling and it seemed there were more people involved in this tight little circle than he realized. The red haired girl looked frazzled... but why were these people shouting things like evil doer... what in Solis was going on?
"Uh, hey, it's not cool to harass a cute mama and her kid, sir," Lawrence piped up, getting to his feet.
"And, huh, ma'am." The Solistian almost missed the lass on the other side of the red head.
"So instead of repentance, you choose deception," Jagred said, his gaze remaining level and calm in spite of the accusations levied before him. The rust-haired man that bumped into him had hardly made an impact, and, cornered by the appearance of a young knight, it was clear that the kidnapper had nowhere to go now.
He crossed his arms, tilted his chin up a little higher, and turned his gaze into a glare.
"Your boldness, young man, is laudable, but that woman is a cradle-snatcher and arsonist, the perpetrator of the plume of smoke that guided you here. As a m-"
By now the kid was practically wailing in her arms. The guilt was beginning to creep up on Anais, but there was no way she could get caught in some weird arson-kidnapping crime - or whatever illegal activities these people thought she was up to.
"Hey, kid," she whispered.
"Just play along, okay? We're going to be fine. I'm going to give you to the nice lady." As soon as the words left her mouth, she lifted the child so she was holding him up by his arms.
The man was thankfully posing as a decent distraction. One step away from Jagred, then two. She spun around so she was facing the loud girl.
"Think fast!" She yelled, and before anyone could say anything, she tossed the child at the young knight-in-training and bolted down the street, racing past booths and vendors as fast as her legs would allow.
"What the..." Victoria only had a second to process what just happened, before she could have a chance to properly reflect on the events that had transpired, the child she was attempting to save was now being flung at her. Oh crap, in a reckless move, Victoria began to hastily sheathe her blade back and held out her hands to safely catch the child. Bracing herself, the young knight hesitantly stood her ground as she closed her eyes and collided with the toddler, the impact knocking her down to the ground but with the child safely in her arms.
She looked at the kid and gave a soft smile, while she didn't exactly had the chance to apprehend the foul criminal, she did manage to save a life, and that single good deed alone was enough to make her day.
If he had time to squeal every time a beast unexpectedly popped out of the sandy rocks, Jagred would have been long dead. Cut off from his speech by the sheer audacity of the banshee using the kidnapped child as a projectile weapon, Jagred narrowed his eyes.
One hand grasped the almost 80kg boar that rested on his shoulders.
Two long strides brought him shoulder to shoulder with the pink-haired lass that had caught and protected the child.
One smile of gratitude was shot towards the flower knight before Jagred's muscles bulged, veins popping underneath the hardened leather armor that he wore, his arm swinging like a pendulum.
There was a certain pasttime for young Lizard Tongue boys, where tall stones would be placed at a certain distance, before they would take turns rolling round rocks or beast heads over the sand, trying to knock down the stones.
A boar was much heavier than just a head. Dirt was much firmer than sand. Those tall stones were much shorter than the red-haired childnapper.
But still, as if it were still alive, the boar cartwheeled off after Anais, rushing to collide with the fugitive's ankles.
This was the home stretch, freedom was right before her, so close she could taste it. All she had to do was lose them in the crowd and with so many vendors and so many stalls, Anais doubted it would be too difficult, she already had a head start.
And then something hit her - 80 kilograms worth of dead boar. Pain errupted across her lower back and she pitched forward, crashing face-first into the dirt.
Death by Bacon. This truly was the end of days for her.
Stunned and reeling from the pain, Anais remained on the ground, motionless and limp. A sharp sting was flaring up her back and blood was trickling down her nose and onto the ground. The heightened fear she was feeling caused incandescent sparks to fizzle weakly around her, but they died out as quickly as they appeared.
"FUCKERS!" She screeched from beneath the boar. Considering her current predicament, she was as threatening as a cat trying to swipe at a grizzly bear. Everything hurt.
"I was saving that kid from the fire! Fucking ask him! This is assault! I'll scream for the guards!"
Wise words from the arsonist-kidnapper.
Heaving up from the ground and dusting off her armor, Victoria glanced at the kid and folded her arms, and told the youngster that the next time something like this ever happened again, he shouldn't leave his mother's side. And speaking of which, among the still-busy streets of the bazaar, the young flower knight could hear the poor woman still screaming out for her child. Wait...Did she ACTUALLY run all the way from the now-burnt stall all the way to here?! The girl was in awe of the strong maternal instincts of the lady, and she applauded that. Before she could give another proverb to the toddler, she could hear the would-be escapee deeper in the crowd of the bazaar.
Looking at the tall man who did technically help with attempting to apprehend the criminal, a thought crossed Victoria's mind, he seemed like a very capable-looking guy...built like a horse from what it seems and has probably seen his fair share of fights, she needed all the help she could get and some muscle to back up her speed would definitely help at the moment.
Approaching the heavily-built young man, she spoke out,
"Excuse me? I, Victoria Claire-Lacan require your aid in seeking out justice! Would it bother you if you could assist me in apprehending the wayward arsonist?"
Lawrence looked from the knight to the big man looking terribly confused.
Clearly he missed something about this entire situation unless it was normal for a mother to toss her kid and run in this culture. Buuuuuut, Lawrence highly doubted the theory. The only way to figure this out was to ask and unfortunatly the redhead had a hea—
"HOLY SOLIS!"
The poor solistian's eyes just couldn't get any larger as the boar was launch mid stride, flying across the ground like a wheel before hitting its moving mark perfectly. If only that mark wasn't the redhead. He winced,
"Oh, that had to hurt." He clicked his tongue, skipping past bewildered people to catch up to the the redheaded pancake, passing the big man and the lady knight.
"Hey! Sir! Was that really necessary! Someone could of gotten hurt!" Lawrence called over his shoulder, peering around the boar to see if the redhead was okay.
"Scratch that, someone did get hurt." He pouted, stepping closer to check and see if she was still breathing.
"You okay little mama?" Lawrence asked, frowning at the dribble of blood dripping from her nose. The Solsitian grabbed hold of the boar and began to tug on it to help remove its weight from the poor lass. When she screeched, however, the young man flinched back, surprised by the volume of her voice.
"Just calm down lass, I'm sure it was just a misunderstanding." Lawrence offered, going back to pulling on the bulk of the boar.
"I'll have you out in a jiffy!"
Reflexively, Jagred clenched his fist in triumph as the piggy projectile struck dead center, sending the child-tossing fiend face-first into the dirt, before she erupted into a vitriolic tirade, spewing out delusive statements about saving the poor boy from a fire that didn't even reach that far.
Justice. Has. Been. Brought.
Now, he just had to ensure that the perpetrator wasn't greviously injured. About to walk over, Jagred spared just one mildly incredulous look at the rust-haired youth (strange, how there were so many redheads gathered around), before he was further accosted by the pink-haired child-catcher. The bemusement spread further, a grin breaking out.
"The kidnapper is screaming for the guards herself, but I'll be happy to assist you in the apprehension of this criminal, Lady Claire-Lacan," Jagred said, before sticking out a beefy hand.
"Jagred, hunter and muscle-for-hire."
Runing a tad further to the criminal, Victoria was both amused and glad that the arsonist-kidnapper had gotten her just deserts, by a boar no less. She won't be bringing any bacon home today it seems! Pumping a fist into the air while expressing her delight at the plight of the vandal. Her smile growing wider as the musclebound young man agreed to her little request.
"You would? Oh, thank you! Come then, good sir, let us send this fiend to where she rightfully belongs; behind bars!" She said while gripping his hand and shaking it vigorously.
Unfortunately for the young knight, the young man's good intentions weren't exactly what she had in mind, he hoisted the criminal up and carried her with ease...then promptly handed her over to the rookie. Victoria nearly fell down again from the sudden weight placed upon her hands, the girl groaned as she connected the dots slowly in her head...He must have thought that she was a guard herself...Internally, she was already facepalming. Nonetheless, the criminal was hers now and all that was left now was to find an actual guard. Dragging the wayward lawbreaker with both hands as she flailed about in resistance, cursing all the way, she muttered words of gratitude to the man who had "helped" her before walking away in search of a nearby officer.
Alarmed and still hurting, Anais could only curse profusely when the stone of a man practically lifted her off the ground and handed her to the flower knight. She was glad to be rid of the boar's excess weight but being handed off to the guards and labelled a criminal was not on her to-do list. Realizing that her screaming had absolutely no effect, she decided it was time to calm down and play it smart. She was smart. She crafted bombs and poisons, accidental ones, but bombs and poisons nonetheless. Her uncle always did say that her temper and her knack for acting before thinking were two of her greatest weaknesses.
"Hey! Let's not do something we'll regret." She called out to the flower knight as she dug her heels into the ground to slow down her impending arrest.
"This was all a big misunderstanding, an accident. I'm an alchemist! I can make potions for you if you release me, I can make anything!" Mostly indigestible things, but they were definitely
something.
Victoria was glad when the juvenile's incessant and vulgar screams came to a halt, continuing in their search for a guard, but the silence did make the knight cautious. Whenever the rowdy ones begin to stay silent, they're usually plotting something...The thought made the flower knight sweat a few bullets as the sudden quiet made her feel uneasy, even as they continued to walk in their hunt for a guard.
In the horizon, she could see a heavily-armored figure out on patrol it seemed like it. The steel-clad man looked intimidating just from his stance alone and the way he carried himself.
"Perfect!" The pink-haired knight said to herself, the wrongdoer still in her custody, she began to wave to the man and called out to him, but stopped short of actually walking towards him when the redhead began to speak out, her voice panicky.
Wait...was, was she BRIBING her?! Victoria groaned at the uncouth measures the girl had to resort to just to escape the firm arm of the law, it just made her even angrier at the young woman actually. Annoyed at the antics of the little arsonist she said in an irritated tone.
"No thanks, I'd rather work hard for my rewards than taking the coward's way out. Guard! Guard!"
She called out to the armored man and hastily approached him with the girl in tow. Firstly introducing herself to the tall man and explaining how the girl she is with was the one responsible for the fire that had caused such a ruckus earlier adding how she also abducted a child from his mother in the ensuing chaos. With a firm grip, she handed the young woman over to the knight, playfully sticking her tongue out to the criminal before giving a wide smile to the helmeted sir. Hopefully the next time she sees that girl, she'll be behind bars.
This was the end and her last sliver of hope was the oblivious man who tried to save her from death by pig. She doubted she'd be able to exploit him again after throwing a child in front of him, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
Considering the situation she was in, acting was far from difficult. Turning to Lawrence, Anais began to cry. He seemed like a nice young man and she hoped that her crocodile tears would somehow appeal to the kindess in his heart.
"I really," her voice quavered.
"I really messed up, mister. I didn't mean to do anything bad. Please don't let them send me away. I won't survive a week in prison. I'm just a young girl." Running out of time, she forced the waterworks to happen. The tears coupled with her bloodied nose and her quiet sobbing made her look like the pathetic, scared child she was hoping she'd be able to portray.
There were very few times when Lawrence got upset, very few. And yet the way the big guy and the lady knight completely disregarded the redhead's cries unnerved him. True, he didn't understand the situation, but wasn't it natural, as upholders of justice, to get all sides of a story before convicting someone of a crime?
Did they not pause to consider that their action might put an innocent person behind bars? The Solistian recalled the broken pieces of the story he had gathered just from their words. The big guy and the knight had mentioned something about kidnapping and being an arsonist. There had definitely been a fire, the smoke was evidence but the redhead had mentioned an accident.
From some experience, Lawrence was aware of how dangerous fire could be, if condition were favorable, it could spread quickly. The only way she could of started a fire was if she had a source handy or if she could use magic.
Lawrence remembered seeing strange sparks flickering over the redhead's body after she went down, leading him to believe that perhaps her fire source had been just that. And if there had been an accident... hmmm, perhaps her story wasn't far off. And in a market place like this there should of been plenty of witnesses. If they could back track to the location of the fire and ask around perhaps they could ensure they weren't putting the redhead behind bars without reason.
With his mind made up, Lawrence approached the guard, glancing to the two individuals who captured the redhead.
"Sir, before you take this lass away I think it might be fair that you consider the possibility that she may be innocent." Lawrence declared, standing tall and in the way of the guard. He jerked his chin towards the other two.
"Forgive me for my doubt, but what makes you think this lass is guilty of child thief? Do you have evidence? Could you show us where this crime took place?" Lawrence asked, politely yet firmly.
"It would not be fair to consider this lass's story?" He added, raising a brow.