[b]Robena and Constance[/b]

As you crest a slight rise in the road, you see a youngish man, perhaps in his early twenties, walking along the road. He's got thick tawny hair worn loose so that it peaks out every which way from his straw traveling hat, and he's otherwise wearing an unremarkable off-white tunic turned tan with the dust of the road and plain brownish pants and boots. He is leading a gray pack mule, which has bells on its saddle. Leading is perhaps too strong of a word. The actual mule leader is clearly the apple strung out on a rod just far enough ahead of the mule's mouth that it can catch a stray nibble but not quite seize the whole thing. The man is merely along for the walk wherever the apple may direct the pair. 

When he sees you, he tips his hat up and gives a friendly wave with one hand, while trying to yank the mule backwards with the other. He quite nearly overbalances in the process, but manages to reach the rod and pull it up faster than the mule can get the apple, bringing the pair to a sudden stop. "My master here" [i]gestures at the mule[/i] "could use a break. What news from...hmm, Lostwithiel, if I've got your bearing right?"

[b]Nin[/b]

You're up and off like a shot, faster than Tristan or the Questing Beast or the earth itself can react  and all of a sudden you're grasping that snake's neck and digging your feet for purchase into the fur at the shoulders and the thing can't manage to get you off. It rears and shakes, but does not run off, instead thrashing in its anger. It may or may not have heard you, but whatever happened to send it into a frenzy has not worn off yet and so it has not been inspired to follow your directions. 

After a moment of wild throwing in which all you can do is close your eyes and hold on for dear life, you hear the swift "thfft" of an arrow shaft lodge itself into the Questing Beast. Did Tristan shoot despite your command? The fool will only drive the beast to anger!

Still, it is beginning to stop thrashing, at least enough for you to do something while holding onto it. What do you do?

[b]Tristan[/b]

You did [i]not[/i] shoot despite Nin's command. At least not yet, though she can easily be forgiven for not grasping the full situation given her current precarious purchase. Her nobility and kind soul are in full evidence here, though stupidity might also be on the list of ways to describe what just happened. Regardless, you manage to scramble your way up the tree despite nearly being crushed by more flying boulders and the tree itself being halfway uprooted, so you're holding on with one hand to avoid sliding off due to the tree now being at close to a 45 degree angle to the ground. 

What you can see from your (oddly diagonal) vantage that Nin cannot is the train of hunters and baying hounds approaching through the forest paths. Their heraldry is a field of azure crosses on a background of or. You'd recognize it as the sign of King Pellinore. And indeed, there she rides at the head of her train atop a swift black stallion. She wears her mail coat polished so it shines and in front is her tabard of that same heraldry apparently untouched by the dirt and damp of the woods. On her head, an open helmet that covers her dark hair down to her neck but leaves her tall, lean face exposed. Her expression is intent, and her hunting bow is strung already for a second shot from horseback as she rides fearlessly through the forest at the head of her party. She is not close enough to see past the chaos and is instead firing arcing shots by the sound of the beast's cries, her first having landed near its rear haunch but barely sunk past the skin, a mosquito bite for the thing at best. She has no way of knowing that Nin is on the creature as she prepares her second shot. 

What do you do?