Open Zann's Alley/Backyard Damsel in Distress

[Marit Songfox]

ONE WEEK AGO​

Marit was sitting across from Chokra, who was sitting at his desk.
"So, my darling, have ye finally changed yer mind?" Chokra asked, a small smirk forming on his face.
"If I am to be your... wife." Marit said quietly. "I want to be treated like it. I want to go shopping."
"Well, of course! Just name what ye want, and ye'll have it! The world is yer oyster!" Chokra was grinning fully.
"No, I want to go shopping. Myself. I have been wearing the same dress for ages, and I want to choose something new for myself." Marit said firmly.

"No, no! Ye can't go to der mainland!" Chokra slammed his fist on the desk.

"Then, I guess we are done here..." Marit stood up.
"Okay, wait!" Chokra stood as well. "No need to be hasty, my love. Of course you can go to the mainland. If you're lucky, you might even run into our dear Silvertongue!" Chokra held but a chuckle. His intel told him that Silvertongue had signed up for some ship. Odds were he wasnt even in the city. "I'll just have Hugo go with you."
Marit sighed. She wanted to be alone. "Can he follow from a distance? You wouldn't want creature to assume he and I are together, would you?"

"Of course I wouldn't. Hugo will keep an eye on ye from a ways away. Ye won't run away now, will ye? It would be unfortunate if ye disappeared, only for Silvertongue to return and ask fer ye- only for ye ter be gone."

"Of course, I'll behave." Marit nodded.

PRESENT DAY​

"I have to get away from this brute." Marit thought to herself, pacing down the wide streets. There were plenty of storefronts, but Marit had yet to actually enter one. Mainly because she was looking for a tailor, and looking for an opportunity to ditch the tall, heavy-set gray fox who was trailing behind her. She kept walking, not needing to look behind her to know Hugo was following her. He was dim-witted, but obedient. He wasn't a cruel creature, just thrust into a cruel position. Marit almost felt bad for him.

"Oh, Silvertongue... if only you were here... where are you, my son?" She sighed and looked up at the clouds overhead. Her blue silk gown billowed in the wind. She clasped her paws together, closing her eyes in silent prayer. She needed a hero, now more than ever. "Firetail, my husband... if you are up there, someone... send somebeast to help me, please...."

 

[Eskila]

Patrol, patrol, patrol. She could have been a Fogey, for all the patrolling she did lately. Hah, fat chance. Fogeys had to club beasts. When they asked her to show her clubbing skills on the test-rat made of straw, she'd cried and apologized to it instead. Apparently that was a new record in flunking out of evaluation, beating out the ferret who had thrown up after accidentally whacking the dummy's head off.

Clank, clank, clank. The large shield slung over her back bouncing off the half-asleep sable's plate armor with every step, the butt of her halberd plonking the ground in syncopated rhythm, the shuffle of her boots just barely lifting off the ground scraping and banging into random street debris heralded her progress through Bully Harbor.

Eskila raised her head and sniffed the air, trying once again to detect smoke. The air smelled funny here, she realized. Where was she? Quite a ways out of her jurisdiction... Oh, she'd wandered past the market, hadn't she... This was definitely Zann's. The funny smell was called... what was it... oh, yeah. Soap.

Well, the 16th had this area covered, time to head back...

She followed the crowd, sliding out to the side of the road before turning about and slipping in behind some vixen in what, to Eskila, was a very fancy gown. She raised her head again, sniffing, now that she was facing another way - somehow, she thought that might mean the wind would bring her smells from the other direction as well. Her mind didn't often work too well before her sixth coffee.

Head tilted up and orange helmet blocking a portion of her view, Eskila failed to notice the vixen in front of her had stopped to pose dramatically, and the armored sable's shuffling paws kept going.

There was a pomf, and a swhushk, and a kr-krshnk, and Eskila realized she was horizontally on top of somebeast. Not the way she'd often dreamed of it, sadly.

"Oops... sorry!"

She swiftly pushed herself off of Marit, and for the moment disregarded the halberd that had clattered to the street, as well as the gray fox in her peripheral vision. Instead she leapt across the vixen, pivoted and knelt down on one knee, holding out her orange-gauntlet-covered paws to help pull the traffic accident victim back upright.

"Are you okay? Are you hurt? Did I step on your tail? I stepped on someone's tail. Oh yeah, it was mine. That's why mine hurts. I'm okay. Hi."

 

[Marit Songfox]

Marit was stunned and dizzy, swaying and holding her head. "Goodness, what on earth-?" She asked, before a strikingly beautiful sable pulled her upright. A soft gasp escaped her lips, her eyes dazzling. If this wasn't an angel of some sort sent to help her, she didn't know what was. She was adorned in armor, painted bright orange- just like her Firetail, her Silvertongue.

"Hello- oh, you needn't worry. I'm alright, just a little shaken is all. Thank you for helping me up. I apologize for stopping in the middle of the road-"

The vixen yelped as she was grabbed by Hugo, who had lumbered over at this point.

"Miss Songfox." Hugo grumbled, a head taller than the first of them. "Are you shopping, or are you frolicking about and gossiping like a schoolyard kit?"

"Hugo, let go of me!" Marit protested. She did not dignify that question with a response, instead turning to the sable before her, her eyes pleading. This was her chance, if this creature could just intervene.

"Cap'n says to bring you back if you lollygag." Hugo replied, starting to drag her backwards.

Marit wasn't going to take this lying down. She started to pound on Hugo's chest, fruitlessly. "Unpaw me this instant, you brute!"