She could hear them now, so close were they. With bated breath she listened to soft footfalls and the rustle of grass and leaf, the sound of even breathing as they stopped just beneath her, a deep breath releasing into a quiet sigh - the person must be resting, preparing for the next move. The girl thought she'd crawl out of her own skin as she after a nerve wracking pause heard the scrape of boots against rock and curses muttered under breath.
Teeth clenched to prevent them from clattering she waited, waited, listening in exalted terror as the shadowed intruder scaled further and further up the wall.
Finally, the fleshy smack of a palm against the smooth top of the wall alerted her and like a tightly coiled spring the girl flew up on her feet and shot her hands out to shove at the monstrous creature her mind had painted the person out to be. Faintly registering the surprised look on a very human face she heard a distinctly male voice swear as he toppled backwards, the foul language followed by a distressed 'Whoa!' and a crash as he landed on the ground below, only somewhat cushioned by a thorny bush below.
Heart racing and head spinning the girl heaved herself halfway up on the waist-high wall and peered down, eyes wide as she stared at the figure below, hardly able to believe that her plan had actually worked. For a moment she hung there dumbstruck, mind blank with shock at the thought that she had killed someone - then a groan and the sound of breaking twigs snapped her back to her senses and alerted her to the gravity of the situation.
He wasn't dead. While the thought instilled the young lady with immense relief, it also made her situation all the more precarious. Not only did he know that she was there now, he likely would also be angry.
Trembling slightly she slipped down from the wall and began to run towards the stone steps that lead down to the lower level, barely feeling the pain in her soles as the gravel of the path cut into her feet. Her mind was racing, struggling frantically to come up with something, anything that would give her an advantage.
Bordering on panic she only stopped to hastily pick up a roughly arm-long stick from one of the flowerbeds, without the faintest idea what purpose it had served or what she would do it now. With thin fingers clutched tightly around the wood she ran over to the smashed bush just as the stranger rolled down onto the grass with a wince. His voice was quiet and hushed, yet still managed to sear the air with low, intense swears as he gingerly pushed himself up on hands and knees.
"Don't move!" the princess exclaimed and held out the stick with both hands, poised like a sword before her. She held her head high and stared down her nose at him with an imperious expression on the face, hoping against hope that he wouldn't notice the hitch in her voice or how her knees trembled under the flowing skirt. The girl had to force herself not to take a step back as he looked up, face indistinct and blurry in the gloom. There was no mistaking the fresh cuts and scrapes that littered his skin however, nor could she possibly miss the trickle of blood that searched its way from the hairline... or the sharp annoyance of the brows that furrowed upon noticing her.
"Huh? Who the hell are you?" The man hardly seemed interested despite the impatient snap of the voice, barely even glancing at the - admittedly rather pathetic - stick in her hands before he disregarded the order and got to his feet. Raising a hand to the forehead he rubbed calloused fingers against the cut, held it out before him so he could see and swore again when noticing the dark, wet liquid that smeared across them.
"That's none of your concern!" she declared, struggling to maintain some semblance of composure even as she was blatantly ignored - ignored! No one had ever done that before, at least not anyone that was clearly beneath her, like this ruffian definitely was. "You're trespassing, I have every right to.."
"You're dangerous, man! Who the hell goes around shoving people down walls, what if I'd died, huh? Look at this!" He interrupted her with a fierce glare and held up the blood-stained hand towards her face, voice sounding indignant. The princess opened her mouth and closed it again, at a loss for words.
"I, er... sorry. But you really shouldn't.."
"Sorry!?" This time he sounded surprised, peering at her through the gloom with an incredulous look on the face. "You're actually apologizing? That's got to be a first..." He moved towards her with long strides, head tilted curiously and appearing completely oblivious to the fact that he had been both discovered and interrupted in his mission, whatever it was. Pale-faced and wary the girl quickly backed away, almost tripping over the dragging hem of her nightgown in her hurry to create distance between them, and held up the stick in warning.
"Don't come any closer! I don't know who you are or what you want, but if you so much as raise a finger, I'll...!"
"You'll do what? Hit me with that?" The man stopped but what little she could make out of his face looked decidedly amused as he glanced from her to the stick, then back again. "I'm terrified."
"I'll scream!" she threatened with a glare, raising the stick a little higher. Before she had even begun to swing it at him however the intruder launched forth and grabbed hold of her with one hand while pulling the stick from her grasp with the other, spun her around and clamped down the bloodstained hand over her mouth - not hard, she realized even as she began to struggle against the hold, but so firmly that she couldn't make a sound and certainly not get away.
Not that she didn't try her damnedest. Fear and fury rose like bile in her throat as she wriggled and squirmed, struggling to free herself from the arm that kept her hands pinned along the sides and her back firmly against his chest. Oh, if she'd only been wearing the usual high heels right now, it would have been far more satisfying to dig those into his shins than her very bare, quite harmless feet...
"That wouldn't be very fun" the man said calmly, maintaining his hold on her with insulting ease that was almost as infuriating as the thoughtful way he looked down on her. He wasn't that much taller than her, she realized with some surprise, nor did he seem very old. This close to his face she was able to perceive youthfully smooth skin and angular features and a peculiar slant to the eyes that looked as foreign to her eyes as the slightly darker skin-tone. She frowned back as he kept looking at her, eyes flashing angrily; he grinned, seemingly amused, flashing her an impressive set of white teeth that looked disturbingly sharp and pointed.
It only made the girl struggle harder, to the point where the man clicked his tongue impatiently and rolled his eyes.
"Calm down, I won't eat you. I'd even let go if I thought you wouldn't do anything stupid" he said, "but somehow I don't think you're the type to quietly obey. You've made this far more complicated than I thought it'd be..."
He quieted and scowled a bit, blinking and squinting as the trickle of blood from his scalp began to drip into an eye. A sudden, rather surprising tang of guilt at the sight made the girl go still. Didn't that hurt? It had to hurt, and yet the man was standing there as effortlessly as if he'd just gotten out of bed in the morning, utterly unperturbed by the bizarre situation or his injuries.
Swallowing down a lump in the throat and almost gagging on the smell of blood that oozed from the hand over her mouth, the girl slowly pried a hand free and reached for her shawl. The man raised an eyebrow as she pulled it from the shoulders and held it up towards him, making a small gesture towards the wound. He hesitated, eying her warily through narrowed lids as though trying to read her thoughts. Then the hands that held her disappeared, relinquishing their hold to accept the scarf.
"Thanks."
She shook her head quietly and stepped away, watching with growing guilt as he wiped the blood from his eyes, quickly folded the cloth and wound it tightly around the head, securing it with a knot that left enough cloth left over to fall like ribbons down his back. She couldn't decide whether she thought it looked silly or not and had to look away and bite her cheek to keep from laughing - a panicked, borderline insane sound that was not going to help.