The swordsman before Nadia did not actually strike her as such. The small brunette had the wrong form for the cutlass she was using and it obviously weighed far too much for the girl to hold properly. She knew this herself from trying to use her captain’s sword, one much heavier than the steel blade now held tight in her right palm. She had never faced anyone outside her crew with a blade, and the idea kind of made Nadia warm with adrenaline. It would be her first fight, if the duo did clash. And from how the woman was staring back at Nadia, she felt that just might happen. At least her first fight wouldn’t be against out of the hulking men she had seen tearing into the shops surrounding her, the woman, and her army of misfits. If anything, Nadia could maybe scare her off, get her to lead the people out of the city all together and to safety. While it wasn’t the sort of pirate’s tale she had heard growing up, Nadia quite liked the idea of playing hero more so than villain. She wasn’t quite suited to being mean. Cocky? That could explain how she felt being paired up against this girl. But, she knew personally never to count out the small ones. They strike the quickest.
Nadia could see the girl taking her in, her dark eyes narrowing when they reached Nadia’s face once again. They only softened a little, as if she was rejecting whatever impression she first had of the blonde before her. She seemed surprised to find someone who looked like Nadia before her, and she could say the same. The woman was only a few inches smaller than her, but something about how she held herself made Nadia feel as if they were the same height. Confidence, perhaps. However, that seemed to slip up just a little as the brunette shifted her hold around the cutlass clumsily, gripping it tight once more. Even if she wasn’t skilled, Nadia could appreciate the fight in her sword partner.
“Well, go on. I don’t have all day to become a kabob. There are innocent lives being bombarded all around us.“
Nadia tilted her head a little with her words, a little smile on her lips as she spoke the first half of them. Oh, so she wanted to play? She could play. Nadia mirrored the stance of her partner, shifting her footing only a little to find better balance. Her eyes met the dark brown ones once more before she spoke.
“I don’t think I’d make the best kabob, if I’m being honest. And I’m from here. I am allowed to be in the kingdom if I choose, Miss. My name is not really important for now. You can call me Temp, if you want. That’s what they call me. And what,” Nadia threw the heat back in the girl’s face with her tone, arching a brow, “are you doing in the kingdom? How do these innocent people know you’re not some pirate leading them to death? You could be one of the rouges.”
She knew this was not the case, otherwise she would not be pressing as many buttons as she was at the moment. If anything, she was mer at worst. And even then, Nadia knew she could hold her own against a mermaid with a big sword and an even bigger hero complex.
“You prove to me you’re not a rouge, I’ll prove to you I’m not a pirate. Is that fair, sweetie?”
Serena didn't know who the girl standing before her was, but she had every intent of figuring it out. Either way, it was clear to her that she wasn't a member of the village--at the very least, she wasn't one that Serena had seen around before. There was also something about the way that wielded her cutlass that spoke of refined grace and skill, and perhaps that was what unnerved the brunette the most. If she was a pirate, then she already held the upper hand due to the fact that she had actually been taught how to handle a sword, something that Serena was...lacking in, unfortunately. The girl didn't seem to care about the fact that she was hardly bigger than she was, and her confidence had to have been from something other than the fact that Serena was attempting to carry herself and her weapon like a man five times her size. Oh Neptune, if she was a pirate, then there were even bigger problems at hand...first and foremost, the fact that the blonde had managed to remain unnoticed for so long. That didn't bode well at all.
"Innocent lives that I'm trying to protect," Serena hissed, taking another step forward and crossing one foot across the other in an attempt to prepare to parry the other girl's blow. She didn't like the mocking little smile that had encroached upon the blonde's classically-beautiful features--it was almost as if she thought that she knew something that Serena didn't, and the young mermaid did not like feeling as if she were some sort of naive and oblivious child; as far as she was concerned, she was anything but. "If you're from Ronsanella, then why have I never seen you before? And why won't you give me your actual name?" she shot back, not at all convinced by her attempts to be known as little more than 'Temp'--honestly, what sort of name, nickname or otherwise, was that?
Serena flinched, but just barely, when the woman known as Temp mirrored her posture to match her own--but better. She moved like a lioness, and while the young mermaid considered herself to be rather graceful both on stage and off of it, she couldn't help but feel as if the blonde moved in an entirely different way, one that was reminiscent of the female knights that Serena occasionally saw whenever she visited the castle grounds. "I'm here to defend my kingdom, thank you very much--because unlike you, I actually belong here. These are my people, not yours--and if you so much as even think about putting them in any sort of danger, I'll have your head." That was only half-true, of course...Serena was a mermaid, after all, and her primary home was beneath the sea, but she loved Ronsanella's shores just as much. "If I was a rogue, then why on earth would I even be having this conversation with you right now?" Serena continued incredulously, though her small hand did tremble as she struggled to keep her hold on her cutlass--Temp moved with such precise skill that it was impossible to know when and where she was about to strike. "I'd be looting the village with the rest of them--not trying to keep people safe!"
"You, though..." Her eyes narrowed, and she took another step forward, panting softly and feeling her chest quiver and rise with each shaky breath that fled her lips. The tip of her blade slid across Temp's, dragging tauntingly down the length of it, and it was all she could do not to cry out in fear then and there. She was Serena Belrose, and she was brave. "You, sweetie, are the one with something to prove."
