"Please put her down." I hadn't noticed Jack move, but now he was standing by the big guy's left shoulder. "There is no need to cause trouble."
Mr. Sunshine growled at him. "Buzz off. This ain't your business." With his left hand, he flicked off Jack's straw hat. It fell into the fireplace and caught almost instantly. Jack's eyes narrowed dangerously. I noticed that he was clenching his fists.
I really didn't want to see him get hurt. It's just a hat, I thought, hoping that he would somehow hear me. It's not worth losing your head for. I could handle this lug on my own, anyway.
"That was most impolite." Great. So he wasn't going to do the smart thing and back off while he still could. "If you leave us be, I will forget this ever happened. If not…" What could he do, though? He couldn't possibly draw his sword in time to defend himself.
The big guy laughed. "You'll do what? Hah!" It was a rhetorical question, but Jack answered it anyway.
His hand moved with astonishing speed, jabbing the big man just underneath the ribs. My assailant made a whoomph sound and released his grip on me. By the time I had landed on the ground, Jack had followed up with another blow to the man's chin. His head snapped back – he staggered backward a few steps, knocking over a table, before he regained his balance and rushed at Jack with a loud roar.
I wasn't going to let my rescuer face this threat by himself. I picked up a stool and, as the big guy ran by me, I bought it down on his head. The stool came apart at the impact.
He was stunned for a moment, but not put out of commission as I had hoped. I managed to dodge the punch he threw at me, and he ended up hitting a bystander instead. One of his friends retaliated in kind. That's when all heck broke loose.
Our little argument rapidly became a full-scale brawl. Some people banded together and took sides; others just hit anyone who got too close. I picked up a leg from the broken stool to use as a weapon – it would minimize my chance of causing someone a fatal injury, which could get me in even more trouble – and joined with Jack, who was the only one in the room that I could trust.
That was how we ended up back to back, fending off the rest of the world in general. I managed to knock someone out with the stool leg. "Maybe we should try and make it to the door?" I shouted.
"Too far," he replied, using a pewter mug to hit a four-armed creature with purple skin that had tried to attack him.
"It's our only option," I pointed out, using the stool leg to smack a chainmail-shirted goon upside the head.
"There's the window," he countered. "On three?"
"One moment!" I told him. I had to get my quiver first – it was on the floor now, but within arm's reach. I picked it up and slung it over my shoulder, then used my improvised club to smack a bearded barbarian who came a little too close for comfort. "Okay! On three!"
"One…two…three!" He ran for the window. I turned around and followed after him. He scooped up a pewter tray from the floor without breaking his stride and used it to hit a fighter who was in his path – with a clang, the unfortunate fellow went down like an axed tree. Then, using the tray like a shield, Jack leaped at the window.
The glass panes and wood frames shattered outward and the rain came in. One of the flying shards cut my cheek, but I hardly felt it. I dove out the window after Jack.
I rolled as I hit the ground outside, feeling more shards of glass dig into my flesh as I did so. There was a flash of lighting, during which I saw Jack reaching out a hand to me. I flailed in the darkness for a few moments before our hands met; then he grabbed my wrist, pulled me up and started running. And none too soon, either – I could hear shouting from behind us, and the splashing of feet running in pursuit.
I wondered if Jack knew where we were going – I kept tripping and stumbling, but he seemed remarkably sure-footed. A flash of lightning illuminated our surroundings, and I saw that we were near the trees that surrounded the town whose only inn we had just left in such disarray. Moments later, my free hand brushed bark – the rain did not seem to be coming down as heavily, and the space around me no longer felt open as it had before.
He slowed down a little, and we pushed through the trees for a few more minutes before he decided to stop. "This is far enough. We should be safe," he shouted over the noise of the storm. "I am sorry for causing you all this trouble."
I could only stare at him (or at where I thought he was standing) in disbelief for a few moments. Then I broke out laughing. "You have nothing to apologize for!" I was laughing so hard that I lost my balance and fell down, so I was sitting in the mud. I didn't care. "I owe you one!"
There was another flash of lighting, and in the bright light I could see him smile.