Kazex approached the mysterious woman with his hand on the hilt of his blade. He kept his stance low and his icy blue eyes narrowed. The tip of his lucky hat caught the light wind, causing it to sway slightly. “I like pancakes?” He said in the least threatening manner possible. “But not after midnight.”
Hiname stood opposite the highlander, her feet wide in a cautious stance, though her hands were folded across her chest. At the mention of the first sentence, she was confused slightly, struggling to keep her brow from raising inquisitively. When she heard the second phrase however, she relaxed. The pass phrase. "I'd rather dance til dawn," she said the reply dryly, unimpressed by their employer's choice of phrases. She folded her hands into her lap as she looked over her companion to be, "I thought I was in the wrong place for a moment, but seems it was just my fault for being early."
Kazex kept his hand on the hilt of this blade. He stared at the woman dumbfounded. He raised an eyebrow a moment later in confusion. “No, no.” He insistanted. “I actually like pancakes but it gives me heartburn after midnight.” He moved his hand slowly from his weapon to stand up straight. A smile appeared on his face a moment later. “Who the fuck are you? I mean that in the nicest way possible.”
She could scarce believe someone could utter the passphrase in an actual context, let alone a stranger. "Who says that," the woman in yellow exclaimed as she drew her sword, wary of the stranger now, "Do all Eorzeans go on about their food preferences?" She sighed audibly as she took the wide stance again, sword raised. "Well, if your here and not a contact, you must be the contract!" With a shout she lunged, running forward to close the distance between them.
He stared wide at the woman in yellow. Her attack was telegraphed to his seasoned eyes but she was no less quick about it. “Oh fuck!” He shouted just before he dove to the side and out of the way. He lifted his right hand up, palm facing toward her. “Wait wait wait.” He insisted. “Listen, I get the point. You’re on edge. You thought this be a slice but I need you to not be stupid right now.” He nodded his head to the ridge next to them as several lalafell bandits in various colored harnesses crested. “Because we have company.”
She spun on her heels as she passed her mark, then before she could lunge again, he called out to her. Hiname stared intently at the man as he asked her to wait. Though she didn't lower the sword from it's raised ready position, she did pause long enough to hear him out. Then she looked where he nodded with a quick glance and sure enough, they weren't alone. Her stance faltered a brief moment then, "Oh come on." These men must have been her mark. "Pancake man, I owe you an apology. It seems I mistook you for them, and rushed at you unprovoked. If you can use that sword, I would not turn down aid."
He grinned at her as she realized the situation. He offered her a shrug as his hand went to his blade “No apology needed but you can by me dinner and drinks.” In a fluid movement,he unsheathed his katana and inched closer to the woman in yellow as his eyes began to take count of the bandits. “My name’s Kazex” He called out to her without looking. “And for the record, I would have kicked your ass.”
She listened intently as he introduced himself, the imminent battle sharpening her focus. As he finished however, she spared him a levelled glare, "I'm sure you would, Kazex. My name is Hiname, and I'll be sure to buy you pancakes and drinks before midnight." She readied her sword to lunge, springing forth like she had at Kazex.
Having caught them arguing, the small lalafellin gladiator wasted no time as he charged shield first down the hill at Hiname, “Easy pickings today, boys, treasure’s come to us!”
The gladiator came down the hill first, charging fruitlessly between the two as Hiname stabbed at him with her han jian and Kazex his katana, but the gladiator batted away Hiname’s attack and used the momentum to carry him out of the way of Kazex’s slash. “Fuck me!”
The other lalafell in the red harness was all too happy to oblige, having snuck up on Kazex while they were all occupied with the gladiator and moved in to stab him in the back. Hearing the blade coming up, Kazex turned about with just enough time to get his arm between him and the daggers as they sliced across his forearm, leaving a trail of blood and cutting his coat, “Fuck, why are they so small!?” No sooner had he got out his curse as the archer in the back fired, and with a grunt he deflected the arrow with the flat of his katana and motioned at the archer. “Fuck you, I’ma kill you first!”
The other thief, with the blue harness, came charging down the hill at the same time, stopping just short of Hiname to flip in a whirl of daggers into her forearm and skirt. The blade bit into her skin drawing blood and cut at her skirt, “Vicious little bastards!” At the same time, the purple gladiator relished the opportunity and covered himself with his shield as he jabbed his sword around it slicing Hiname’s left calf and lower thigh. Relishing in his small victory however. Hiname slashed her sword across the vulnerable gladiator’s chest, at the same time Kazex bellowed, “Block this!” as he did the same across the gladiator’s back, his blade biting deep as it severed the spine and caused the gladiator’s legs to give out beneath him as he bled into the sands. “How does it feel now, huh?”
Turning back to the archer, the red thief was already taking the opportunity of his fallen companion to again at Kazex, this time slicing up the other arm as Kazex was caught off guard again. “Fuck!” Kazex shouted as he swung his blade, “Why the arms!” Hiname spared him a glance as she turned her main attention to the blue thief, “Don’t die on me!” She had looked at him just long enough to watch as he batted another arrow from the air, leaving her wondering if he meant to take the blades if he could bat arrows so easily. The moment lasted too long however, as the blue thief stabbed at Hiname’s feet, jabbing his daggers into the sands as she shuffled her feet back until he finally connected. The blade went straight through her foot, and would have served to pin her if he didn’t pull his blade out to use it more. The damage was done however, and things were not looking good for Kazex and her.
After a quick assessment, she took him by the arm, “Run!” Turning, they fled and leaped threw themselves to roll down the short cliff, landing at the bottom. Lucky for them, the lalafells stood at the ledge and laughed, “Yeah, you better run! No one messes with the Quiveron!” And they turned back to their camp.
Hiname sat up and was already working off the destroyed slipper and began cutting a bandage from the hem of her skirt, “I shouldn’t have taken the job blind,” she sighed.
Kazex laughed then, “That fucking sucked. You ok?” he asked as he looked her up and down, “Can I add insult to injury?”
She let out a sigh as she tied the strip about her foot tightly to stem the blood, “Not really, seems you fared little better than I did.” She winced as she tied the makeshift bandage over her foot, “If your inquiring about your dinner, it will have to wait until after we find someone to heal our wounds.”
The highlander grinned. “Wait for it,” he said as he shuffled closer. “Wait for it,” he looked at her as his grin widened, “Looks like we got off on the wrong foot!”
Hiname gave him a deadpan glare as she threw the bloody slipper at him though it missed, “I hate you!” She gave a short laugh before she relaxed, “Mind helping me to the town over there? I’ll give you my linkpearl info so I can buy you the dinner I promised when I don’t have a bleeding hole in my foot.”
