Training Teresa

[Trillian]

Ridley was still consumed with the latest lock.  Usually perceptive, usually stealthy and observant, Ridley had excellent hearing.  The problem was his focus, he had everything on the box in his hands, and using his tiny lockpicking set to jimmy it open.

He puffed a sigh, frowning at the interruption of Teresa\'s noise (which was very quiet) and continuing with his work.  It would seem he wouldn\'t realise they were interrupted until the interruption was upon them.

[Existentially Odd]

Mac was smirking in quite a superior fashion as he finally came up to the door of what he\'d managed to ascertain was a storeroom.  He\'d heard a female voice following the sound of something dropping, but couldn\'t quite tell if she was in there on her own or not, with all his concealment theatrics.

Finally, he had no choice but to play his hand and see what came of it - he stepped firmly into the doorway and glanced hastily about the inside, feeling confident with his shortswords in hand - though they were lowered in case it was a relative of the furrier\'s in the shop, rather than thieves, as he suspected.  They could be raised in a flash, though; his reflexes were renowned with the weapons.

"Well, what do we have here?" he enquired abruptly, hoping to inspire some panic with his sudden, loud address and aggressive tone.

Guard Skellern stood behind him, also poised for action but so nervous that it felt like he might have a heart attack and prove himself useless at any given moment.  He hoped that his presence, blocking any tiny gap Mac had left in the doorway, was a comforting one to his superior, for it was all that he could think to do.

[Morwen]

If Guard Macintosh had been looking for an audience for his theatrics, he had found the perfect one in Teresa. When he sauntered into the little room, short swords in hand, she made a small sound of surprise in the back of her throat, and took a few steps behind her before bumping into a large box.

\'R... Ri... R... Rid-\' she stuttered, before clamping her mouth shut. No good telling the guards the thief\'s name! Stupid, stupid girl!

Her small hand clasped tightly on the coin it held in it as she tried to keep herself from shaking. It wasn\'t working too well, and she was shivering something awful, her large eyes made larger from surprise and fright. Caught, on her first day out? It wasn\'t fair!

The hand not holding the coin, her left (and dominant) hand, twitched slightly. Part of her wanted to grab the dagger she had hidden in her pocket that morning, while the other half of her did not want to attract any attention from the guards. Besides, what good would a dagger in untrained hands be against swords in the grasp of skilled guards?

[Trillian]

Different plans raced through his head.

Could he use Teresa and play the nobleman card who came into this shop after thieves had rifled through it?  No, it would likely not be believed, not with his lockpick set out.  They might\'ve watched him at work for the past few seconds.

Stupid bitch!  She should\'ve kept a lookout, she should\'ve warned him, she should\'ve got herself arrested protecting him.  He was important, not her.

Was there another door or window out?  No, he\'d already spotted that.  There was nothing except the door into the storeroom from the shop proper.  Then there was the front door.  It was a cheap shop with only alley access.  Cheap shop with a cheap lock that relied on patrolling guards.

Had he closed the door on the way in?  He couldn\'t remember.  Stupid bitch, it was her fault, she\'d come in second.  She\'d led to their capture.  Screw that, he wasn\'t going to be captured.

So.  Run.  But if not out, then.... up?

Dropping the box in his hands, Ridley demonstrated his acrobatic rooftop running/climbing skills by scampering up the storage shelving (and causing it to wobbly dramatically as he reached the top, bent over at the waist because the ceiling was high but not that high) and then hoped that the guards would rush in at him.  If they did that (and there was a good chance they might), he would jump from top shelf to top shelf and then off when on the unit closest the door (three units away).  He had to be lucky and to time it right.  They would have to come all the way in.  They would have to charge him and swat at him with their swords maybe.  Would their shortswords reach?  Damn Talon, what if the second guard was a crossbowman?  He only thought that once he was standing up on the top and looking down.

Teresa could be sacrificed, as far as he was concerned.

[Existentially Odd]

Guard Macintosh blinked in disbelief as he watched the man apparently float his way up the shelves.  He moved like a wisp of smoke, curling upward and then suddenly... was perched on the top.  Blink of an eye.  Mac\'s mouth hung open briefly, for he\'d never seen anything quite like it; a shiver ran down his spine and he closed his gaping mouth, an inkling of how dangerous the agile man likely was instantly occurring to him.

His gaze fell to take in the box the man had been fiddling with, having registered the high-pitched tinkle of small metal prongs as it had crashed down - a sound not connected to the box, as far as he knew.  Sighting a fine bit of metal poking out of the lock, he made up his mind that the gentleman was, indeed, a thief.  The girl probably was, too.  His gaze took her in, flicking between she and the male (as Ridley was planning his escape route), expecting one of them to move at any moment.

Mac shuffled back a bit, so that he was slightly distanced from the doorway.  He recognised instantly his tactical advantage and didn\'t wish to provoke Talon\'s ire by standing in a vulnerable position within the room.  If he stayed beyond the sill, he might earn a thief pouncing on his head, or a door kicked towards him in an effort to stun or confuse him.  Belatedly, he realised he could\'ve closed the door and completely hemmed the pair in, but he didn\'t want to be reaching forward with a hand more useful for holding a sword than grabbing a knob and tugging.

He leaned back towards his partner, keeping alert eyes on those within the little room, feeling smug.  It was like scooping tadpoles into a cup, they wouldn\'t be able to escape without co-ordinating movements and rushing him simultaneously (he was watching for any signals they might be making toward one another but they hadn\'t made eye contact yet), and he would know by looking when that was going to happen.  As far as he could tell, all he had to do was stand there and wait.

"Run and get the inner patrol," Mac whispered to Guard Skellern.  "I\'ll hold them here \'til we have a few more bodies to drag them out with."  The younger guard nodded after a moment\'s consideration, re-sheathed his sword and hastened out of the shop.  He didn\'t go quietly - which Macintosh was rather disappointed by - but the elder merely tightened his grip on his twin hilts, imagining how sweet it would be to toss this lovely pair down into the same dungeon together.  A leering grin had already surfaced on his face, a triumphant twinkle in his eye.

[Morwen]

Teresa watched Ridley\'s antics first with shivers of hope, and then with a growing feeling of hurt abandonment. It it quickly dawned on her that whatever he was planning as an escape, she was clearly not involved in it.

Ridley was an expert, Ara had said. That much was clear in the way he climbed over the shelves; his acrobatics were as good as any gleeman\'s or jester\'s she had ever seen. However, Ara had also said that he would be a good teacher. Teresa could not see how leaving one\'s pupil behind with the guards was considered good teaching practice, though she could be wrong.

Keeping her hands in plain view in front of her -- she certainly did not want to be shot with a bolt for being suspicious -- the girl backed up slowly, into the maze of crates. Not looking where she was going, Teresa quickly tripped on one of the small boxes Ridley had left in his wake and fell over loudly, crying out slightly in surprise at her sudden change in altitude. She sprawled on the floor messily.

Pushing herself up quickly, Teresa remembered to keep her hands far away from her skirts as much as she could. When she was seated, the novice thief stared up, wide-eyed with fear, at the guard across the room. His grin was scaring her, and she half-wished that she had never left her current job, until she was remembered of why she had left. Even this would be better than that, she could hope.

[Trillian]

Ridley eyed the distance from the shelf he\'d clamboured up to the one on its left (from his vantage point looking towards the door).  Teresa on his left, guard slightly diagonal to his left... more information could be found there.  There was stepping distance between them, if a very long step was made.  He would have to be flexible, and he could do it, but it would leave him prone with his legs apart and perhaps unable to cross the rest of the way, his legs bridging two shelving units.  No, not the way to go.  A leap then.

"Leap of faith," he said with a sparkle in his eye, the kind he got when the adrenalin began to flow.  He half-stepped, half-jumped and landed on the other shelving unit closer to the middle of the small room.  It was an interesting maneouvre, considering he couldn\'t stand up properly, and the storage unit tipped so badly that boxes slid out from the shelves below.  He pinwheeled his arms, hitting the ceiling with them, then braced himself on the ceiling itself while his feet balanced the unit below, putting it back on all its legs, instead of just one side.  Stability.

He turned his attention to the guards, realising that it was just one guard and two swords.  Two dull, sharp, pointy and evil looking swords.  The guard didn\'t have much room to wield them in an arc, but he could certainly make stabbing motions forward.  The doorway in front constricted him as well as them, and the counter at his back would halt any retreat he wished to make.  He would only be able to move to his left, along the counter and then out into the room.  Unless he climbed the counter... hmn.  When last Ridley checked, guards didn\'t think that way.

"My lovely lass," Ridley said, not minding that the guard would hear him as well.  "There is but one man standing between us and freedom, when before there were two.  We must leave now, or we face the shackles, and possibly a noose."

He was trying to inspire her into action.  There was only one reason why one guard would leave, and that would be to get more help.

"Wrap a coat around yourself for armor.  There\'s going to be a swordfight."

[Existentially Odd]

Guard Macintosh grinned - until the thief jumped.  He wasn\'t entirely certain (from his position outside the storeroom\'s threshold) what the lawbreaker could be up to, nor what advantage lay in jumping from one shelf to another.  Surely he was only delaying the inevitable?

Well, apparently not.  It seemed that the lad had realised there was only one of him and two of them... but he had no qualms about stabbing both of them, should they charge him.  It was the positioning on the shelves that really bothered him... was the leap imminent?  Surely the thief wouldn\'t be able to make it from there?  And what of the girl?  She was in the way... though if she went back to get some \'armour\' on (Mac couldn\'t see from where she might retrieve it) she might present a secondary attack.  Hmm.

He forced himself to take a breath, eyeing off the distances around him and very pleased he was a shortsword expert.  His deadly thrusts weren\'t likely to be hampered by the lack of space, he would be able to parry fairly well (though it did depend on what sort of weapon the thief presented) and he felt he was stronger than either of the thieves.  The only problem was deciding whether to attack or defend... his every instinct screamed for attack, but he felt, in this case specifically, that it would be best to defend.

Conversely, he loosend his grip on his swords, holding them readily, keen to change directions at a breath\'s notice, if need be.  He watched the two thieves with something close to pleasure, waiting for their move to be made.

[Morwen]

Teresa stared wide-eyed as Ridley jumped to the centre shelving unit. She was sure that it would come crashing down from the unbalanced weight, but the thief braced himself and kept it from falling over. The spectacle would have been terribly impressive -- in any time and place excepting this one. When the thief spoke to Teresa again, she lit up with a simple smile. He had not forgotten her after all! How could she have even thought such a thing? she chided herself. She was so ungrateful...

The thought of a sword fight, with a guard no less, sent shivers down the girl\'s spine. Trying badly to ignore them, she did what she did best: she followed instructions. Since the only guard who was still left clearly did not have a projectile weapon, Teresa gave up trying to be subtle and moved as quickly as she could. Clambering to her feet, she pulled the top open on the first unlocked crate behind her. It was filled with small fur and leather items: gloves, boots, purses. Useless.

Not bothering to replace the lid on the first box, Teresa went to another. This one was little better, so she passed it on as well. The third box held materials for the furrier to use: beads, rhinestones, thread, and other small objects. This she considered briefly, but couldn\'t find an immediate use for any of it. Moving on to a large, stationary cabinet by the wall, the girl at last found what she was looking for.

She pulled out a fur coat, and wrapped it around her, not so much as armour but as a way to hide where her actual flesh was. The extravagant and large accessory looked ridiculous on the thief\'s anorexic body, but it wasn\'t meant as a fashion statement in any case. Pulling out another coat, a big fluffy one this time, she through it as hard as she could towards the guard. It fell only a few strides away, but she hoped it would make some kind of landing for Ridley. If nothing else, it would provide a source of misdirection for her teacher.

[Trillian]

Ridley did not know why Teresa would throw the coat onto the floor like that, considering it now stopped him from landing on a firm floor to having him land on a surface that might slip.  He was about to throw her a dirty look when a thought came to him.

Breaking out of here would be much easier than breaking out of a dungeon cell.  Yes, there was only one door out, but the walls here were thinner, and the ceiling might lead to an attic or the floor to a basement.

The guard was still slightly behind the doorway proper, defending his space so that he could block their exit.  He signalled for Teresa to move away from the doorway line of sight, close to the door itself from the side that it opened.  He looked at the wall near the doorway to see a metal L shaped prong jutting for it, perfect for holding a block of wood in place.  So, this door was blockable, and could form a decent blockade while he and Teresa bought more time.

When Teresa was in place, and not a moment sooner, Ridley leapt from the shelf, hoping to distract the guard\'s attention to him and not the swinging door.  He landed close to the coat but not on it, reaching down to pick it up and throw it through the doorway and onto the guard like a blanket, just as he bawled:  "Shut it!  Shut the door now!"

[Morwen]

Teresa nervously watched to see what Ridley would do next. Every few seconds, she would dart her eyes back to the guard at the doorway, but most of her attention was on her teacher. She hoped that the guard wouldn\'t try and attack her so long as a far more dangerous threat had such an advantageous position. Realising that she had been holding her breath, the girl let it out in a hasty sigh.

When Ridley first threw her a signal, Teresa had no idea what he meant. The shooing hand motion looked as if he wanted her to run away, but there was no where to run. After a moment, understanding fell on her like a loose shingle and she rushed to take up position behind the only door. She chose a route that led her to the far wall (out of the range of site of the guard) and from there she followed the blind spot to the doorway itself, in the hopes of disguising her location.

Holding her breath subconsciously again, the girl waited for another sign to do something. When Ridley jumped, she stumbled back into the wall with a muffled thump, courtesy of the coat. Recovering quickly from the slight surprise, she obeyed and threw herself at the door with all her force, hoping to shove it closed on the guard.

[Existentially Odd]

From behind the coat, Mac could see nothing.  This caused something of a panic reaction in him - as did having his weapons tangled in the heavy mess of fur - and he flailed instantly.  His head whipped back in order to dislodge the barrier - only to have it snag on his helmet - and his arms thrashed (no doubt working at cross purposes to what his head was trying to achieve).  His shortswords began making headway through the thick material almost instantly but it didn\'t slow his adrenalin-fuelled movements in the slightest.

Although he didn\'t hear the order to shut the door in a sense he could understand or predict what was happening, instinct had him bringing up a heavily booted foot (the one that wasn\'t supporting his weight) and striking out viciously with it - they\'d effectively covered his sharp weapons, but not so his feet.  He expected that the coat was a decoy that meant the thieves were making a run towards him, so he expected to be kicking at soft bodies.  He was happily surprised when it landed smartly against the door, causing it to shudder on its hinges.

He continued to work at dislodging the coat while he drew his foot back and kicked again, anger empowering the contact so that he struck with such force, he was as likely to go through the wood as send it flying back at the girl.

[Morwen]

The door shuddered from the force of the kick, and swung sharply around on its hinges. It slammed heavily into the girl, picking her up off her feet and smashing her between itself and the wall. With a crash, the door broke off its hinges and fell over away from the girl and the wall. Luckily, the large coat took a good deal of the impact of the collision, but Teresa was still dazed, and when the door reversed direction, she fell to the floor light-headed. She slumped against the wall before slowly picking herself back up to her feet.

Teresa\'s head felt like it weighed a hundred stone, and beat something ferocious. Even once she was upright, she still had to use the wall as support. Leaning back against it, she felt a lump in her pocket, and was remembered of the knife she had slipped in that morning... was it just that morning? Slipping her hand into her pocket, her fingers curled around the hilt of the dagger. She pulled it out, and stared at it for a second before dropping the sheath back into her skirt.

Cradling the large blade in her small hands, the girl grasped the handle inexpertly. She was more afraid of hurting herself with the dagger, than hopeful that it would help at all, but she couldn\'t just put it back now that she held it in her hands.

She desperately hoped that Ridley had another plan.

[Trillian]

Ridley did have another plan, but this was thought up on the fly and only because the opportunity had presented itself - and had nothing to do with Teresa\'s involvement.

When he\'d landed and headed for the door, the kick dislodged Teresa a mere fraction of a second before he reached for the door himself, and therefore he had time to reel back from it, saving the skin of his fingers from being torn away by the force of holding onto a wooden door.  When Teresa slumped onto the floor, he heard it, but it wasn\'t his priority.  There was a vibrating noise returning to the guard as it had bounced off Ridley\'s partner in crime and he was very close to the door (on the other side) when the booted foot appeared again while the door was forced to open.

He didn\'t have the kind of meaty strenth available to his body to break a bone if he stamped downward, plus the angle wasn\'t so great.  His gymnastic ability made him limber enough to kick upward though, his ankle hooking beneath the calf of the raised foot and lifting high, hopefully unsettling the guard who was likely still half tangled in the coat Ridley had thrown a few seconds ago.

If that guard toppled, Ridley was going to rush out through the doorway and speed out the exit, never mind attacking his assailant, all the burglar wished to do now was get away.

[Existentially Odd]

Mac was, indeed, caught off balance when the boot hooked around his calf.  He cried out in surprise as he overbalanced, flailing as he went down.  The counter was contacted glancingly - certainly not sturdily enough to keep him on his feet, but enough to propel him sideways as he dropped - and then he met the floor.  He landed rather painfully on his left arm and side, his breath leaving in a soft \'Oof!\' that, thankfully, didn\'t make him winded, but nor did it help his predicament.

The only good thing about the whole motion was that he managed to get the coat off his face in the process, but then it tangled half under him and was still across his left sword.  In trying to steady (and not stab) himself when he fell against the counter, he\'d dropped his right shortsword and could only hope it wasn\'t in a dangerous position (ie. speared into the wooden floor and upstanding so that he landed on the hilt) as he fell, but it landed with a clatter about the same time he did.  Everything seemed to be happening simultaneously, though his thoughts were processing at a far different rate to the physical reality he was bound by.

Although his vision was clear, the sudden shift from blind to seeing had him blinking in consternation and the change of perspective was startling.  Last time he\'d been able to sight the storeroom, he\'d been on his feet; now he\'d rolled onto his back, his vision was blurry and there was a sharp pain being communicated to his brain from his left wrist that simply didn\'t bear thinking too greatly on.  His instincts said to act but his mind... was slightly and temporarily overloaded so that all he managed to do was blink at the ceiling a few times and then, after a few moments, raise his head and look towards his toes.

The door was opening... oh yes, the thieves...  Suddenly, there was another blur as the man leapt over him and Guard Macintosh panicked anew.  He couldn\'t think what to do, visions of being trampled entering his mind but, thankfully, his training won out over his lack of cogitative sense at that moment.  He reached up with his right hand and snatched at the ankle of the man attempting to get over him.  He also stabbed upward with his shortsword, uncaring if he damaged fur stock and not really thinking about having the weapon too tangled to be useful; he saw action and both his hands moved at the same time, as they\'d been trained to do - though in vastly different ways.

Either way, his intent was the same; stop the thief in any way he could.