Night at the tavernnn! O_O

As Lady Tia sat down across from the Frozen Sparrow, she winked. She saw Sir Ryan approaching the table from the corner of her eye. With a distant dreamy cast in her eyes she smiled at the young man. "Ah, it's the kind young man who bought me a drink earlier." But she looked puzzled as Sir Ryan burst out his words. Lady Tia frowned. "You two know each other? Wow, I'm just meeting the most interesting people tonight. I guess it really is a small world."

"Is something wrong?"

Sir Ryan replied " I heard a yell and came to investigate. I recognize your voice to from our last meet. Shall we finish our duel? " He then drew two small swords under his cloak, but were well hidden, "I'm quite interested in your skills"

Frozen Sparrow chuckled and casually took another sip from her drink. "Our duel?" She asked playfully as she stared him in the eye. She didn't particularly care for the duel, but perhaps she could persuade him otherwise. "Maybe later. Although I'm pretty interested in *you* too." She laughed and looked over to Lady Tia. "What was your name again? I'm sorry, but I didn't quite catch it." Playing around with Tia's disguise, she wanted to see who this certain character was.

With the dreamy cast with no humor still in her eyes, Lady Tia turned back to the Frozen Sparrow, her back to Sir Ryan. She winked. "Ah yes, I haven't introduced myself. How rude of me. My name is Irinamile Pollycrocker. I am the daughter of a traveling merchant. Pleased to make your acquaintance." She smiled at the Frozen Sparrow and Sir Ryan, still with the dreamy cast.

"Heh seems you aren't interested in our duel. Fine by me. Anyway what are you doing here? I suppose looking for Lady Tia. I'm looking for her too. But then again...oh never mind" He set the swords on the table along with a bag of powder. "Here take these, these swords have poison built on the blade, the powder is knockout powder, it dissolves in any liquid. Well, I have some business to attend to, have a good night ladies. Oh and I might stop by the forest tomorrow." He stabbed the wood with both swords, stared at both the ladies, and dropped a rose in front of Sparrow. He then left without a word.

"Irinamile Pollycrocker, is it? Well pleased to meet you." She said, chugging down the rest of her drink. Glancing over to Sir Ryan, her eyes looked over at the powder that he lay before her. "Hmmp." She said, not really caring about it. She looked as he dropped a rose in front of her. Delicately picking it up, she examined it and decided she couldn't take any chances. "So what now?" She asked Irinamile, the rose in her hand slowly freezing to ice.

Lady Tia watched Sir Ryan leave. "Hmmm... Should we try to take those two swords out? I can run a magic scan on them, to make sure it would be okay to pull out. It would be such a waste to leave them here..." I'm putting mine straight in a box that nobody can open except for me when I get home. I'm not taking any chances.

She watched as the Frozen Sparrow turned the rose into ice. "So what's the story? Admirer?" The humor was back in Lady Tia's eyes again.

She looked down at the two swords with boredom. Turning back to Lady Tia, she muttered, "I don't really care. I say we leave them there if they do, just to scare that barkeep." She saw him lurking in the corner of her eye and raised a fist to him. He ran off while other people were wondering what the hell was going on. She looked to the rose she was holding. It wasn't really much of a plant anymore, the whole flower was ice itself. Throwing it violently onto the floor, it shattered into an uncountable number of pieces. Scoffing, she answered Tia's question. "I hope not. Both he and I don't need any distractions for our work."

^_^ Luisa's poor father... Poor flower... She stared at the Frozen Sparrow, with wonder and curiosity. "Do you want another drink? My treat." She waved Luisa over. "Can I have a mug of mead please?... And you'll have...?" Lady Tia turned back to Frozen Sparrow and grinned.

Shrugging, she thought about the list of choices of drinks she could have. Not much, because they mostly sold alcohol and Frozen Sparrow was too young. "Mead too, I guess." She said, yawning.

Lady Tia made the order, and gave Luisa two gold nobles. Luisa gasped at the amount of money, thanked Lady Tia, and scurried off happily to get the drinks. Lady Tia chuckled. "I take it you know who I am?"

She laughed and told her hastily, "Tia, I knew it was you all along. Either it was the wink or the idiotic and outrageous 'name', I do not know." She laughed playfully and received her drink from the barkeep. This time, he hastily gave it to her and scurried away like prey. "And they say sparrows can't be predators." She said, taking a sip from her drink.

"To someone I wasn't dropping hints to, for all they would know, that could have been real information. You never know." Lady Tia took a sip from her mead. Young men around them were staring. She sighed. "Hmmm... You'd like my quarters in the palace. Sparrows are always in my rooms."

Sir Ryan was hiding in a tree outside. He had his crossbow out and was aiming at a figure. It was the lady across from Frozen Sparrow. He patiently waited for three more seconds. He then shot his bolt at her, replaced it and shot one at Sparrow. He then disappeared in the shadow back home. He regretted having to shoot them, but with those poison daggers, whom will kill anyone in the bar as he commands, and the bag of powder full of, surprisingly, sugar, he couldn't take any chances. If he were to find and kill his target, he'd have to make sure those two stay silenced.

The arrow had pierced Lady Tia in her right shoulder. It was a deep wound. She felt the poison instantly. But it wasn't an instant poison. She had just enough time to put a magical barrier in front the Frozen Sparrow before the second arrow came. The arrow clattered to the floor. Lady Tia felt strange, because her right shoulder was beginning to go numb, with the numbness spreading down her arm. "Tch!" She fumbled with her left hand in her pouch trying to get the poison remover that Duchess Miracle had given her. Even though she was losing a great amount of blood and feeling faint, she was able to apply the medicine into her wound. With a magical push that put a mental strain on her mind, she made the medicine spread, killing the poison. Lady Tia fainted from bloodloss.

The barrier quickly enclosed Sparrow in it's safety and she could not help but watch as the arrow pierced through her comrade's right shoulder. Taking out her longsword and slicing through the magical barrier, she took a quick glance at the bolt that was shot at her. Picking it up ever so slightly, she examined it for a bit. She knew no other assassins or bandits that were trained in the crossbow. Or at least, crossbows with poisoned bolts. She scoffed and silently muttered to herself, "He'll pay." She threw the poisoned bolt back to the ground and looked out the window. It was pitch black outside and there was no point looking. Staring back at Lady Tia, she saw that the girl was able to apply at least some medicine to kill the poison. Bending down, it looked like she had collapsed out of blood loss. As she swung her sword back onto her back and started out, the same barkeep grabbed her on the shoulder and furiously yelled, "Aren't you going to help her?!" Sparrow turned around and gave him a death glare. "Oh come on. Its not she was even my ally to begin with. Loyal to the Crown my ass. She can stay here. If she's as strong as she boasted she was then she'll wake up in no time. Forget about it." After explaining her reason to the barkeep, he backed off and quickly ran to Lady Tia's safety. But Sparrow shrugged it off, exited the tavern and went on a manhunt. But the only man she was hunting tonight was a certain Sir Ryan. And he has some definite explaining to do.

Lady Tia opened her eyes. A crowd of people were staring down at her.
She opened her eyes. She was in a room at the tavern.
She opened her eyes. A healer was treating her wound.

Lady Tia got up. She felt lethargic. Then it all came rushing back to her. She wondered whether the Frozen Sparrow had left the tavern. Oh well, I know very well she can take care of herself. But who had shot the bolt.... Ah yes, Sir Ryan... With that last thought, she slumped back onto the bed that she was on, and sleep claimed her again.

Meanwhile...Sir Ryan was running through the Forest of Amskir. He decided to take a long way back to his house, he thought someone saw him. He passed by Frozen Sparrow's camp, glad that it was empty. He was racing to get back. He shot two innocents. He ran away from the problem before him. But the guilt crushed him. He decided to stop in a tree a few feet from Sparrow's camp to rest, and sleep for a bit to clear his troubled mind. He kept his sword drawn just in case though. The forest is full of wicked things..

Aroused by what seemed like a mental push, Lady Tia sat up in the bed she was sleeping in. The mental push continued, and she realized what it was. Someone was seeking entrance into her mind by probe. She cautiously lowered her mental shield. But she needn't have worried.

The person seeking entrance into her mind was only Sir Daniel. He had only wanted to see what was up with Lady Tia. She hadn't been seen anywhere in the palace for the past few days. Sir Daniel needed her help sword practice.

Hey Tia, are you okay? You haven't been in the palace lately. Oh, ugh. Jeez, your mind is like... All lethargic. It's making me drowsy.

Lady Tia took a few seconds to respond to Sir Daniel. Yeah, I'm... Fine. Just a bit tired, thats all. No need to worry... I... Have to find Sir Ryan. I expect he'll be somewhere near here. The Forest of Amskir perheps.. I'll be back at the palace later. With that, she put back up her mental shield, cleaned herself up, and set out for the forest.

As Lady Tia walk out the Tavern door she sees a man on horseback wearing a white tunic which bore a strange crest not ever seen before. However the horse was Mithros Temple. The man was asking people for information on someone. As she walks up to the strange man he turns towards Lady Tia and rides up to her.

"Greetings Milady. I apologize for disturbing your business but can you help me find someone?"

"Mm. Sure, who are you looking for? And no need to be sorry, I'm not in any hurry to get anywhere." Lady Tia absentmindedly rubbed her hand to her right shoulder.

As he jumped off his horse he replied:

"I am looking for a man who wears a cloak but is always hooded. His weapons include two daggers, a longsword, and a crossbow. He also travels in the shadows. Have you seen him?"

Lady Tia looked at the young man with a look of disappointment. She let out a long resigned sigh. "Yeah, I think I know who you mean. Turns out, I'm looking for him too. He's probably in the Forest of Amskir right now. I'll show you the way, c'mon..." She removed her disguise and went back to her normal long blue hair, and hazel eyes. Her right eye twitched, and she absentmindedly clutched at her right shoulder again.

Getting onto the back of Rubycrusher, her horse, she started off for the Forest.