Watch Me Play The Game I Made Up [Asher]

[Lily Waters]

Now Lily was certain she'd seen this bit of wall before. She had to be going round in circles. And this time she had no bread to bail her out. If she ran into a guard she would certainly never see tomorrow. Oh woe is Lily, she would never see James again. She liked him, a lot. Which was fair surprising, seen as how she'd only spent a little bit of time with him. But he'd left her feeling all dizzy and smiley - which was why she was lost.

Everytime she thought she was on her way out, her mind would lose concentration and slip back to him. Then she would lose her place in the world and end up back in the middle of the castle. She'd considered seeing James again, getting directions and whatnot, maybe even for him to guide her, but he wasn't in the kitchen when she'd stumbled upon it again. Such is life. So she'd been wandering round for what felt like at least an hour.

Lily stopped to try and get her bearings. She was in a corridor with no windows, outside light and only more corridors coming off it. She sighed, feeling a headache tug at her good mood. She was never going to get home. But if she did, she would have to suggest getting a delivery boy to her Pa. She couldn't be doing with this getting lost. She had as much of a sense of direction as a chicken did; she could make it across her small village and that was it!

Footsteps coming from one of the many corridors panicked the young girl. She was going to die, this was it. Goodbye cruel world, she thought as she watched the shadow with terror in her eyes. What if it was the Sheriff? How would he react to a random girl, covered in flour, in the heart of his castle? It stank in these corridors, Lily had to pressume she'd somehow stumbled upon the dungeons, or somewhere near them. Yep. She was dead.

[Asher Hardy]

Asher wasn’t in the best of moods, if he was honest. His lord and master, Sir Guy, had been called to some kind of meeting with the Sheriff, and that left the members of Gisborne’s personal guard wandering around with nothing to do. Some of them had gone to search out food and drink, but Asher, a little disgusted by this desire to get drunk (although he was fond of ale himself), had decided to wander the castle corridors for a bit, see what was happening in the castle. He hadn’t been here in a while, having had trouble back home with the Red Hawk. Gisborne was starting to get annoyed that his men hadn’t caught the wretch yet, and Asher couldn’t blame him. He’d be annoyed, too, if some randomer kept stealing all his money. It wasn’t fair on the lord, he got it all fair and square, didn’t he?

Besides, wandering around meant he’d make sure he knew the castle off by heart, and that was a good thing to know. If he could find the passages that the outlaws kept coming in through, make sure they were blockaded or guarded… Then surely Sir Guy would take more notice? He’d like that, he wanted Sir Guy to be proud of his men. This was their job, they ought to do it right!

He turned down to head into the depths of the castle, wanting to see how many prisoners were about (he had a bet going that the crime rate was going down, and he really wanted to win it this time), when the sound of footsteps caused him to stop his progress and look down one of the darker corridors. Who the hell was down there? He laid a hand on his sword hilt, at the ready in case it was an intruder, and started slowly down the corridor.

As he came upon the person, hand still resting on his sword, he breathed a sigh of relief to find a pretty young girl before him instead, absolutely filthy but definitely unarmed and of no harm. He let his hand leave his sword and his face, previously deadly serious, turned into a charming smile. Yes, she was definitely a pretty one. He didn’t think he’d seen her round the castle before, though – a new servant or something else?

”Excuse me, but what are you doing down here?” he asked politely.

[Lily Waters]

Lily backed herself against the wall as a guard came round the corner, hand on hilt. She'd never been so dead in her life. He looked ticked off too. She took a deep breath - if this was her last one, may as well make it count - and scrunched her eyes shut as she made her silent goodbyes to her Pa. However was he going to cope without her as well? He'd been a wreck since her Ma'd left, he'd just stop if there was no Lily too. And she'd never see James again. Somehow haunting these people just didn't satisfy Lily's need to see them again.

However, this guard was taking a long time to cut her down. And was he being polite? She opened one eye, just to be sure. He was a handsome guard, it was kind of making her brain be more messed up than before. He didn't quite have the same attraction as James, but there was something there. Maybe it was the smile. She opened the other eye and tried to relax. Well to the extent that she wasn't backed up against the wall. She gave him a shakey smile, she was trembling from nerves.

"I am down here being very lost." Her voice shook too. And she was about to spout a million words because of this. Oh poor boy, he was about to be hit by something not so nice. Lily had a habit of saying a lot when she was nervous. "I was delivering bread to the kitchens. But I got lost. But then I found them and there was no one there, except James. He was nice, helped me. And I helped him too, he didn't know how to light the oven. But I had to get back to Pa, and so I left. But I didn't know the way back out. And I believe I walked around in circles. I tried to find James to help me, but he wasn't there. Then I ended up here, afraid that you were about to kill me. And I just said a lot of words and I'm not too sure if they were coherantly stringed together, I'm sorry." She took in a few deep breaths to try and calm her racing heart and make up for the lacking of oxygen, all the while looking up to this guard sheepishly.

[Asher Hardy]

Asher couldn’t help himself – the smile slipped from his face and he frowned in confusion. Had she just said something, or was she just making random noises? He shook his head and took a moment to decipher what the young girl had said, before laughing a little bit and spreading his hands out in a non-aggressive gesture. ”Hey, look, calm down a bit first, alright, then you can tell me all that again. I missed a lot of the middle bit.”

He left his body language as open and unthreatening as possible and walked a little bit closer, offering out his hand to introduce himself. ”I’m Asher, and you are, m’lady?” That would get her to relax, hopefully – most women liked being called a lady, and he did need her to calm down. He had managed to get that she was lost (not an uncommon occurrence in the castle) and that she’d been talking to someone called James (there were a fair few in the castle, and it was difficult to keep them all straight. Asher cursed popular names). He smiled gently again and gestured behind him. ”I think we need to get out of this bit and find some fresh air, don’t you? It’s a bit damp down here, and I get the feeling you’re probably not supposed to be down there.”

Lily was fairly lucky, actually – a few of the castle guards would have taken this opportunity to try out their torture skills, claiming she was there trying to sneak someone out of the castle. He knew some of the men were real monsters, and didn’t understand why they had been employed, but that was none of his business at the end of the day and he had to keep it to himself if he wanted to keep his own job.

[Lily Waters]

That was it. Her incesant talking had ticked him off and now she was dead again. Lily was one irrational thought away from running for her life. She blinked in surprise when Asher laughed. He was an odd guard! Lily heard horror stories about what guards did to people, one name - Richard Oaks - gave her nightmares. But this young man was nougth but friendly. She gave him a sheepish grin. "Long and short of it is I'm lost." She said after a few calming breaths.

The way Asher held himself relaxed Lily no end. It confirmed that he wasn't about to run through her with the sword at his side. Being called 'm'lady' unsettled her a little though, she hadn't been called 'm'lady' since she was five and played 'Princess Lily' with her Ma and Pa. She blushed, "I'm Lily. Lily Waters." She had no idea why she added her surname and she felt a little stupid for doing so - Asher hadn't given his surname. One could do a lot with a name; Lily was fair common - there was that Locksley lady called lily - but Waters narrowed it down. In her sudden tangent, she'd missed that Asher had extended a hand to her. Lily blushed again before shaking it timidly.

Lily returned the smile and nodded in agreement. Words were failing her now. "Fresh air, yes. Good idea." This always happened after spouting lots of words at high speed. Her Pa had a theory. He believed that she exhausted her 'mind dictionary' in those spouts and it needed a rest before she was coherant again. "I don't want to be down here, believe me." It was far creepy to say the least - every slight breeze was a tortured soul's ghost and Lily was beginning to scare herself silly, which was probably eveident from the expression on her face. Lily could be very animated at times - especially when she was afraid.

In all fairness, Lily was thinking her lucky stars that Asher had found her - rather than another guard, or Guy or even that new noble Sebastian. Though if rumours were true it'd be her innocence stolen rather than her life. Had it have been Lord Merton, she may have got away with just a scolding - Maggie and her Pa used to bake for Merton Manor for special occaisions; leaving Lily with the Merton children and Maggie's son - but there was knowing what Merton would do to get into the Sheriff's good books. Lily wouldn't put it past him to sell a poor baker's girl as an outlaw collaborator to the Sheriff. Lily just wished James had found her.

[Asher Hardy]

Asher suppressed another laugh as Lily gave him a summary of her long, rambling speech and chose to keep smiling instead. She seemed fairly pleasant, if a little bit over-talkative, so they might just get on well. And despite his initial suspicions, he didn't think she was snooping round the castle on purpose, but that she really was genuinely lost. Unless Robin Hood had stooped so low that he would get teenage girls to scout out the castle dungeons, either for future plans or in case someone important was down there, but Asher was fairly sure that no one from Robin's gang had been captured of late (else Vaysey would have been dancing in the halls), and that the outlaw probably knew his way around the dungeons by now anyway.

”It's easy to get lost down here; I think they built it like a maze on purpose,” he reassured her, helping lead her forwards and out of the corridors underneath the castle. They had likely built it to be confusing, to stop enemies getting in or out with ease. Asher had been around for a fair amount of time, though, and knew his way around pretty well by now. ”It's nice to meet you Lily, Lily Waters,” he added in a teasing tone, ushering her before him as that part of the stairwell was a little narrow.

Asher felt no reason to not be sociable as they escaped the bowels of the castle, and indeed felt like he ought to say something, if only to ease the mind of the girl. She clearly panicked easily, at least when faced with the potential law, and he didn't really want to deal with a paranoid girl right now. It was the last thing he needed. Instead, he decided to ask her a few questions – not to interrogate her, oh no, but just... to get to know her. She was fairly cute, after all, and if she lived near Locksley, well... He knew she didn't live in the castle, as he'd never seen her round before, but it was entirely possible she lived in Nottingham Town. That wouldn't be so good – he didn't get to come into town all that often.

”So what brings you to the castle today, anyhow?” he eventually settled on, seeing as it was a fair enough question. He had a sneaking suspicion that she'd already told him exactly what she'd been doing during her garbled speech, but he'd missed so many bits of it due to her rapid talking that it wasn't really fair to claim he hadn't been listening. The girl had a hell of a mouth on her.

[Lily Waters]

The smile on Asher's face was a nice one - not as nice as James' - but Lily liked it nevertheless. And she was beginning to relax enough for her to be able to smile without grimacing. Asher was right to believe that she was genuinely lost, because she was. Lily couldn't lie - she wouldn't either, lying was bad and only caused more trouble than it solved - the girl couldn't even lie to her Pa. Apparently she got all shifty and fiddled with her ribbons even more when she lied. Which was fair enough, she was on edge when she lied and always very aware that she was lying.

It didn't surprise her that everyone got lost in the castle. "Does that make it easier for you and the guards to catch the criminals, assuming you lot know your way round?" Lily asked, curiosity getting the better of her. Nottingham and its ways always fascinated her, everything was so much bigger and more confusing than Merton. Merton was like five houses and the manor, that was it. Nottingham had this huge, maze-like castle which was amazing - despite the man who lived in it. Lily guessed that she just liked things she'd never understand, or things that were bigger than her, or that she pretty much just liked everything.

The girl blushed as Asher teased her, but she'd brought it upon herself. She felt a little nervous about leading the way, but she guessed she'd rather be in front of Asher than be behind and closer to the creepy corridors. "It's nice to meet you too Asher." Very nice, she added mentally, silently thanking her hero. He was a hero to her, he'd saved her from the pits of the castle - if that didn't make him a hero, then what did? He wasn't half bad either, and by 'not half bad' Lily meant 'handsome, very much so'. But, he just wasn't James. Had she have not met James that morning, Lily would probably convinced herself that she was in love with Asher by now, but it just wasn't there. Which was very odd, because he was very handsome.

To be perfectly honest, Lily was about as clueless as Asher when it came to her garbled speech. They always slipped out of her mind shortly after saying them, she just didn't have the mental capacity to remember what she'd said. "I was delievering bread from Merton, my Pa's the baker there." She felt the need to ask him a question back, but couldn't really think of one - except, "So you're a guard, huh?" Real good question.

[Asher Hardy]

Asher laughed at Lily's question, although not in a mean way. He supposed it just seemed like a bit of an odd question to him, since he was used to it. He nodded, gesturing around to indicate the castle as he spoke. ”It does,” he affirmed, looking at the walls with something akin to admiration. He had to admit, the skill it took to make a castle that well took a lot of planning and effort. ”Yes, one of the first things you learn is how to get round in the castle, in case you're needed somewhere.” He probably shouldn't be telling her that, actually, but any decent outlaw would know that anyway. And he didn't think that she was a dangerous person; if she'd been an outlaw then any friends she'd had would have been upon him by now and he'd either be dead or defeated.

Asher would be utterly embarrassed if he knew what Lily was thinking, but thankfully he didn't. Instead, he was pleased to hear her seem to be so happy. Was he being wishful or was there more than a polite reply in her speech then? He hoped it was, she was fairly pretty.

He nodded as she replied, although she probably couldn't see as he was still behind her. Fair enough, it was good to know exactly why she'd been there so he didn't get a bollocking later on. He smiled a bit more. ”I don't get out that way much; a Locksley boy, me. What's it like, baking?” A bit of a lame topic, but at least he was trying.