Café de Nuit

Dominica lunges with her dagger, and slices the thugs sword arm, grinning at him. "Dear, you have got to do better than that.
I am not even breaking a sweat. Look at your friend, in the mud. Flopping around like a fish out of water. Give up. I promise I won't kill you
tonight. Be reasonable. You don't want to die, do you?"

The red haired woman is keeping an eye on the blinded thug and the one she has just sliced with her dagger. If she spies guards farther away she will call out.

"You slut!"

The man switches his blade to his left hand and launches a clumsy attack--which Dominica sidesteps as easily as she might avoid an unwanted dance partner at a ball.

The other man kneels over a pothole and splashes cold muddy water over his eyes.

They attack in tandem, the swordsman trying to disarm her while the muddy-faced man moves to get behind her and hit her with his blackjack. She evades all attacks without getting too much mud on her dress.

Dominica laughs out loud. "Boys, you need lessons in how to finish the job you were hired for."

Her dagger finds her original target, cutting across his chest. Blood gushes freely as the man falls unconscious
to the ground. She looks grimly at her not so blinded opponent. "Just give up now. I won't harm you as I did your friend.
Tell me who sent you, and you may take your friend with you. I promise to let you leave unharmed."

The muddy-faced man turns and flees!

The Huntsman on the Road

Far down the road the Huntsman rides at a steady pace, he rides towards home..

Dominica hurls a dagger at the thug's back. He screams in pain and frustration, ripping the blade loose and staggering away. She chases, mud spattering all over her dress as she runs through a big puddle. He stumbles, turns, hurls his sap and misses. As he jerks his sword free and prepares to fight, she darts under his guard and nicks his arm. Bellowing with rage he swings--and disarms both the woman and himself. He jumps on her, smashing her into the pavement. She kicks, bites, punches. He tries to pin her down but only manages to rip off most of her dress.

''Uhnnnn.....gonna get you...huhhhnnn' he grunts, his sweaty face contorted in a weird mask of pain , fatigue and lust.
Dominica fights backs like a madwoman, smashing her fists into the thug's groin and battering his face. The thug groans and rolls off her, too weak to keep on fighting.

Unfortunately for him, he is dead. Grabbing his hair and smashing his head against the cobblestone road.

Dominica gives the man's skull three hard smacks against the pavement and leaves him face down in a pool of blood and muddy water. The bubbles from his submerged mouth and nose stop before she finishes picking his pockets.

A window opens down the street and a silhouette briefly appears in the lighted square before the shutters snap shut. Most folks mind their own business in Riverside, especially at night.

She doubles back and hastily loots the other man before fleeing into the darkness. Behind her she hears muffled voices and footsteps of several men-- but if she's being chased the pursuers are not successful. She soon makes her way back to her room, bedraggled and clutching the things she took from the two dead men.

ewancummins wrote:The Auld Oak, after the fight, still nighttime-



Brennan and his servants have cleaned up the mess. The wounded are all doing better now, tended to by Cormac and a couple of the women. The storm has ended and the Huntsman seems to have vanished...

"Cormac, can I have word with ?"Gunnar asks of Cormac when he is done helping with the wounded .

Cormac grumbles and wipes his hands on the muddy brown towel tied to his waist and stands up from a patient, nodding with satisfaction at the splint he has tied around the man's shoulder. He reaches into his belt pouch and pulls out another plug of tobacco, stuffing it into his cheek.

Bloody town dwellers, he thinks, looking around at all the wounded and the dead lying on the groundThis is why I stay out in the woods.

"Yar, wha' ya' need?" Cormac says, walking towards Gunnar.