Snippet #2421344

The scene playing out before her wasn’t one she expected. While fighting was commonplace, more so as of late, it usually was between merchants and customers or in a barroom brawl. Here was a man picking on a child. By picking, she of course meant beating. To further the surprise, the stranger was clearly a traveller and the child a face she recognized well. Ksenia grimaced as an exceptionally large fist collided with the youth’s back, dropping him to the street. Her eyes rolled as the outsider vocalized some lesson, instilled by physical pain, before walking away- in her direction.

Sen stilled a moment as she took the time to size up the man. Her eyes lingered on the bare flesh that proclaimed years of refining and training. She tried to place the skill of the leatherwork he wore, though came up blank. It was apparent he was from elsewhere, though it troubled her she couldn’t place it where. Although, it wasn’t just the clothing or lack thereof that placed him outside Xav, but the target of his aggression spoke volumes for ignorance.

Decidedly, her hands knocked the oversized hood from her head and revealed her own identity. Long, dark tresses tumbled in natural waves over the black cloak. Her features were fair and spoke of youth, though something older and hardened glinted behind stormy eyes. Her movements were sure, posture confident as she took a step to the left to block the path of the man who’d just attacked a boy in the streets. Ksneia was all to aware of their weight and size difference, standing at five-foot-four and easily less than half his weight. Still, she had her own advantages.

“What, run out of men your own size to fight?”

Ksneia willed herself not to look at the large axe at the man’s hip, nor think about how many others he had felled with it. She could feel the eyes of the merchants and customers around staring at them; she could hear their whispers. Yes, she was perhaps biting off more than she could chew. Yes, she was sticking her nose in places it perhaps didn’t belong. But for all the crime that Matvei couldn’t control she wouldn’t stand for a grown (or overgrown) man picking on a near-child.

“I’m not going to say that boy doesn’t need a good spanking, but who are you to play parent or police? Keep your hands to yourself, stranger.”

She was letting him know that she knew he was from elsewhere. Ksenia herself hadn’t originated in Xav, though attendance to Facultas has wordlessly adopted the port to her home. Her birthplace was elsewhere in Arakin, and a place she cared not to return to. Sen’s hand gripped a pendant at her neck. It was an absent movement, though one she’d made over and over again.

“That boy you lectured is nephew to the King and the repercussions will likely not just effect you, but resound here in this friendly marketplace. If you’d like I can give you a lesson on how to appropriately meet friends- your own age.”

Sen couldn’t help it, she could feel a smile tugging at the corners of her lips.