As she made her way steadily through the far fields of Roma, Maria found herself wondering just what Cesare was about, sending a mere six men to attack the farmers in this area. Yes, it would prove more than slightly inconvenient if she were to allow them to carry out any further attacks, or even to keep hoarding the provisions that Niccolò had informed her that they had seized, but an inconvenience was all that such an action would prove to be, in the end.
Still, there was a better than average chance that this was some kind of a ruse, meant to draw out anyone who heard of the goings-on in this place, which she would keep in mind as she drew closer.
As she closed in on the fields that Niccolò's message had described to her, Maria caught sight of the man who would be her first target. He was harassing a nearby man who seemed to be in the midst of attempting to plow a nearby field; he was also on horseback, so Maria knew that she would have more than a bit of difficulty coming to grips with this one. Taking a moment to steady herself for what she was going to need to do, Maria dashed forward, unseating the Borgia thug from his horse and pulling him to the ground with the last of her momentum.
Mounting his horse as quickly as she could, Maria ended the thug's life with a bolt from her crossbow.
"Grazie, signorina," the man said, standing back up and brushing himself off. "We've been having more and more trouble from those Borgia bastardi every day."
"I'm glad that I was able to help you so quickly, Messer," she said, nodding down at the man as the horse she'd appropriated shifted restlessly underneath her. "I'd heard that there were six of them here. Is that still true, or have more been showing up lately?"
"I've only heard of the six that came here originally, signorina, but I wouldn't put it past any of those bastardi to send more into our fields," the sturdy, middle-aged farmer said, a look of disgust upon his face as he made his way over to the plow that he'd been previously barred from using.
"Grazie, I'll keep an eye out for them, then," Maria said, turning her borrowed horse in the direction that the old farmer had indicated while she'd been speaking with him.
It didn't take her that long to find the next of them, and then the next after that. With three of their own dead at her hands, those remaining turned their attention to her at last. Priming her crossbow as swiftly as she ever had, Maria shot the foremost of the three remaining Borgia thugs in the head, then drew her sword to cut down the last two. Turning her horse back toward a nearby stable, Maria caught her breath after all of the frenetic action she'd just participated in.
Climbing down from the mount she'd appropriated at the beginning of her scuffle with this particular group of Borgia thugs, Maria led the creature into the cool darkness of the stall at last. Leaving the creature in the care of the kindly stable-master – who seemed quite a bit happier once she'd informed him that the Borgia had been ousted from this quarter of Roma, and all the more pleased when she informed him that she and hers were going to do everything in their power to see that they stayed that way – Maria made her way back out into the fading sunlight of oncoming dusk.
She also found that a small group of what seemed to be the families of the farmers whose defense she'd been acting in.
"Mille grazie, Madonna," the woman who seemed to be either the leader of this group or at least the one who had taken it upon herself to speak for them, said as she came up to Maria, carrying a small basket with what seemed to be a single loaf of bread in it. "I'm afraid that this is all we could spare, in repayment for your kindness,"
"I was only doing my duty, mi amici," she said, stepping forward and softly pushing the basket back into the hands of the sturdy farm wife who was attempting to give it to her.
The pair of them went back and forth a bit, but in the end Maria found that the woman – a kindly but extremely determined mother of five – would not be swayed from doing at least something in repayment for the debt she'd convinced herself that she owed Maria for ridding the farmers of the Borgia that had been plaguing them for so long. In the end, Maria took the loaf of bread that had been offered to her, wrapping it up carefully in the provided cloth and then handing back the basket. Small as it was, she couldn't exactly carry it with her on whatever new missions she was inevitably going to be called upon to carry out once she'd made her way back to one of the nearby pigeon coops in this area.