Rhys began to grope around the counter, looking for something to grip to hit the man. She wasn’t going to just let him hurt her. Men like him always took what they wanted like they had earned it, and it greatly bothered her. She began to hit him with her arm and fist, trying to dissuade the man. Right now the short term greatly outweighed the long-term desire to be on the good side of the guards. The last thing she expected was for the injured man to come out of the back room and distract the guard. She pulled herself away from the guard quickly, and straightened her gown for a moment, wiping the tears away from her face, and then turned to face the situation. The stranger looked even more terrifying than he had looked when he got into the workshop in the first place. 

A brief scuffle resulted in the guard being knocked unconscious. In truth, she was relieved. He posed a much bigger problem for Rhys than the stranger had, and while she knew the stranger was dangerous, he hadn’t tried to attack her. The man came to the conclusion faster than Rhys had, saying that she couldn’t stay here. She took a few more moments to process the words, but she knew that they were true. She looked towards the door and took a big breath. “You are right.” She said. She thought that she could talk out of helping the stranger, but she couldn’t get out of the guard being attacked and outright refusing to submit to him. 

The man had offered for her to come with him, and she looked up at him in surprise. He didn’t have to offer that. He could have simply told her good luck and left her on her own. Rhys bit her lip and looked around the shop. “Okay…” She said, mostly to herself to cope with the situation. She didn’t have time to go home, to get her things. But she didn’t have a pack here, with some of her belongings. Rhys went back over to the counter, and opened up a cabinet, taking out a leather satchel. She opened it for a moment, confirming that it carried the objects she had brought with her. She then took a small leather water skin off of the wall—though it was empty now, she knew that she would be away from the town soon, and she would need to have some tools for survival. 

Stepping into the back room, she took a blade that was usually used for cleaning leather, and another for simple cutting, and then stuck them in her back. “I don’t have much…But I can’t go home.” She said. She lived on the other side of town, and by the time she got there, they might have closed the borders, or be looking for her. She walked over to the door to the shop, and turned the lock. “Are you ready?” She asked. It was the only exit, and he was very much a wanted man.