If anything I'm restless

Her shift was finally over. One good thing about her job was that her boss didn’t trust her to be out here alone. Although he let her fend for herself at her job dealing with customers who couldn’t keep their hands to themselves, he would never let her close up the inn alone. They worked the same shifts so he could keep an eye on her, but Hazel felt that it would more have to do with the fact that she would behave towards the customers than the he was concerned with her safety. If that would be the case, he would have walked her home as well, wouldn’t he? Anyway, Hazel was on her way home. She heard the shouts of the drunk men she had to deal with on her shift fade away and she was glad that she could leave them behind. There was this constant adrenaline and fear that was coursing through her body ever since she arrived in the Lower Ring and her job hadn’t made it any easier to temper that fear.

Hazel’s pace quickened as she saw the desolated back alley that would lead to her house. She despised walking through that alley so much, but if she would have to take the long way around, it would take her at least twenty more minutes to arrive back home and she felt tired. She knew what she was doing was dangerous, especially around this hour, but taking the main street could be dangerous as well. She felt like life in the Lower Ring was dangerous in general with the high ratio criminality around here.

Finally she arrived at her house. She fidgeted nervously with her keys, trying to dig them up out of her pockets. She heard footsteps approaching and started fidgeting harder, but the only result she would get from that was that her keys would fall on the ground, right in front of the stranger that had approached her. As quickly as possible Hazel dug up a dagger in her other pocket, stretching it out threateningly towards the stranger.

If only her hand wouldn’t shake so much that it would look like the dagger would fall out of her hands with one little slap, it could’ve actually looked pretty threateningly.

@Erebus Grimwald

I'll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife.

Offer me that deathless death.

He understood that what he was doing would be considered wrong by others, but he just couldn't shake the feeling that something went terribly wrong if he didn't. So, after downing his drink and grabbing his bow and his coat, he left the inn. His dark brown eyes were focust on a group of people just in front of him. He had seen them in the inn, and something seemed off. As if they were only there with ill intend. And it looked like his instinct was right. As a group of predators, they went after the girl who had closed the inn and was waling alone to, what he thought was her home. This was the Lower Ring and with the criminality at an all time high, he wasn't surprised by their actions. It did, however, disgust him and he wanted to be sure that the girl would be alright. So Erebus followed the men, from the shadows, hidden in plain view. He noticed how the girl was trying to open her front door and the group of men came closer and closer. This was the moment he had to do something, the girl had taken out a dagger in an attempt to defend herself. Erebus drew his bow, notched in an arrow and pointed the tip at the hand of one of the men. He was holding a dagger as well and was slowly creeping forward. A scream filled the night when the arrow hit its mark and the dagger fell on the group. The group looked around, scared of not knowing where it came from. They grabbed the bleeding men and turned tail. The older man came out of the shadows and walked towards the girl, stopping at a respected distance. "I hope they didn't bother you too much." He spoke in a soft but warm tone. "I had a feeling they had ill intend, as they were looking and pointing at you in the inn all night." He placed his bow back on his back and looked over his shoulder, making sure the men had disappeared.

★ VERA

Hazel’s hand couldn’t stop shaking, especially when she saw the dagger that one of the men was holding. She counted at least three of them, although her eyes were focused back on the danger to fully count all of them. It didn’t matter. They had all intent, they were with a lot of people and she could barely defend herself. She had never felt the need to do that in the Upper Ring, so she hadn’t thought of taking practice lessons to actually do some damage with her dagger. It felt stupid now, but maybe a part of her had wished to never be in this situation in the first place. As the men approached her, she could feel a restlessness inside of her. She tried to hold her breath steady, remembering what happened last time when she lost control. She couldn’t change into a fox. Not in the middle of the streets. But her inner fox was crying out and Hazel almost wanted to give in. If an arrow wouldn’t have flew into the hand of the man then and there, she probably might have done it.

Hazel felt both scared and relieved when she saw the man, who’s blue piercing eyes painfully remembered her of her father, standing here with his bow. Even the way his voice sounded remembered her of her father and Hazel felt herself relax instantly. This man had no ill intent, or so she wanted to believe. Maybe it was naïve and stupid, but right now she needed to calm herself to not let the druid side of her come out and show itself. That would be disastrous. She didn’t like life in the Lower Ring, but she wouldn’t know what to do if she had to flee to one of the kingdoms outside of Ashmoor. Even though she lost everything that was dear to her, she still had some loyalty to Ashmoor and its people.

”T-Thank you for saving me,” she spoke in a shaky voice. ”I knew they would follow me, but I was hoping I would get home safely before they could catch up to me.” That sounded naïve and stupid as well, but what else could she do? She had to work to earn her money and no job in the Lower Ring was safe enough for her. There was a lot of criminality around here and even a job where she would have to work normal hours throughout the day could be dangerous.

”Can I offer you something to drink? I don’t have much, but I can at least give you that,” she offered, her voice still shaking. She had finally found the right key and opened her door. Maybe it was stupid to invite a stranger in her house, but he reminded her of her father so much that she wanted to revel in that memory a little bit longer.