Today’s snippet, titled “Lily’s Folly”, is a piece I wrote about my PC in Mark’s new (Good) Pathfinder Campaign.
      Be forewarned, there are mature themes and naughty language below.
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      “…alone here?”
      Rhiallis could hear Mira at the top of the stairs, talking in her gentlest voice to someone. A child? She wondered. A child here? Alone? Iomedae forfend!
      There was a murmured response, just beyond the reach of her keen ears. With a glance outside, where Mickey and Lucien waited with the three Kenabres survivors they had escorted from below, looting the bodies of a half-dozen cultists, Rhiallis started up the steps.
      Upstairs, Mira crouched by a door which had been opened only a few inches. A girl stood within, thin and pale, with long yellow hair and suspicious brown eyes. Her chin jutted out defiantly and she shook her head.
      “I won’t leave.”
      Mira nodded sympathetically. “I get it. You want to wait for your sister, right?”
      “I won’t leave,” the girl repeated, scrowling.
      “Okay. Well, my name is Mira. What is yours?”
      She hesitated in the face of Mira’s adorable charm. “Um. I’m Lily.”
      “Well, Lily, that’s a beautiful name.”
      “Thank you.”
      Rhiallis crept closer, even as her comrades shuffled up the steps as well, each with an opinion on the situation. She held out a hand toward the girl. “Hello Lily. My name is Rhiallis. You’re waiting for your sister, is that right? When did she leave? When did she say she would return?”
      “She is coming back tonight, by nightfall. I am waiting for her.”
      “Lily, I know this is hard to hear – but it is not safe for you here. You need to come with us.”
      “No! I won’t leave,” the girl insisted, stepping back from the crack in the door.
      Rhiallis exhaled softly, trying to contain her frustration and gently cajole the girl. “All right, sweetling, but we could leave a note for her so that she knows where you’ve gone if she comes back.”
      “She will come back! She will!”
      The door slammed shut, nearly clipping off Rhiallis’ fingers at the top joint.
      She clutched her fingers to her chest. “Lily!”
      “SHE IS COMING BACK!”
      “That’s not going to work.”
      Rhiallis rolled her eyes, trying to contain her frustration. “I can see that. But she must come with us. It is not safe to leave her alone-”
      “I’m not alone,” came Lily’s strident cry. “And we’re staying here! Go away!”
      “Let’s just go, if she wants to die-”
      Lucien shook his head, “Absolutely not. She’s a girl, no more than twelve or thirteen. We cannot in good conscious just leave her here alone.”
      “But-”
      “No,” Lucien’s face was set in stone. “No. We cannot leave her here.”
      Somehow, Rhiallis knew, they had to get the stubborn little minx out of her room and out of this house. They could take her to Defender’s Heart, where rumors said refugees had set-up defenses, or even to the Library where Aravashnial’s people were. She could be safe there. And here, where they had killed an unreasonable number of Baphomet cultists, she would only be… dinner.
      “Come now,” Rhiallis said, putting a velvety warmth in her voice, “We can leave her a note. She’ll know where to come and find you. But truly, little one, this is no place for a girl alone.”
      The door cracked again and Rhiallis, kneeling to be at eye-level, held out her fingers once more.
      “I’m not alone. You- you just go away, okay? Go away and leave us be.”
      “Lily,” she began, “Who-”
      Before she could complete the question, the door slammed again and despite her even-tempered nature, Rhiallis saw red. Though she felt the strike as her gauntlet was crushed between door and jam, the steel protected her as it was designed and she rose, uninjured, pushing her way into the room.
      Small for her age, lithe as a willow tree and shrieking, Lily was not happy to be hefted into the Paladin’s arms as if she were naught but a sack of potatoes.
      “NOOOOOOOOOO!” she screamed.
      “Hush, Lily,” Rhiallis growled, much more menacingly than she intended. Her heavily armored hand clamped down on the girl’s mouth to stifle the sound – destined only to draw demons and other unsavories to their position – and received astonished looks from her compatriots.
      Opening her mouth to defend her choice, Rhiallis lost her concentration on the girl for the merest of instants. That was all the opportunity Lily required. She twisted her little body and writhed out of Rhiallis’ grasp, sliding to the floor, darting into her room, and slamming the door before anyone could react.
      That little bitch! Rhiallis surprised herself, thinking so vehemently about a child. She struck the door with her fist once and shouted, “Lily! Come back out here!”
      “I won’t! I won’t come out and you can’t come in! GO AWAY! I’m waiting for my sissy!”
      Mira placed one tiny hand on Rhiallis’ forearm, drawing her back. “It’s okay, Rhiallis. You tried your best.”
      Not placated, Rhiallis stalked down the stairs. “Fine, let her stay here and when the demons suck the marrow from her bones and eat the brains from her skull, I shall not shed a tear!”
      “Rhiallis!” Emma gasped.
      “She doesn’t mean that,” Navara said, shaking her head.
      I do so, came the petulant thought. That stubborn little thing will end up a messy pile of bones and gore. Was I ever so stupid and young? Was anyone ever so bloody stupid and so utterly stubborn? Willful, spiteful thing… Rhiallis rubbed her wrist, wondering if she would bear a bruise for her troubles. If her sister really did leave, she’s likely dead, isn’t she? How long could one young woman survive on these streets? They’re chaos…. brutal, brutal chaos.
      Pacing across the ground floor, Rhiallis was so caught up in her thoughts that she did not hear her friends filing down the steps. Mira called her name softly and motioned her to follow them outside.
      “Where’s the girl?”
      Idril shrugged. “Lucien is staying with her until nightfall. If her sister hasn’t returned, they’ll leave a note and go together to Defender’s Heart to wait.”
      “I see. I don’t like leaving him behind, either.”
      “He wouldn’t budge.”
      Rhiallis nodded. “I suppose he wouldn’t. Damned child, splitting the group this way is never a very good idea.”
      “At least he’ll be able to protect her.”
      “Right.”
      “Yeah. Let’s go,” Mira smiled, shifting her pack upon her shoulders. “We’re not so far from the library and from there we’ll go to Horgus’ manor, or Anevia’s house, or maybe…”
      Rhiallis closed her ears to her little friend’s amiable chatter and moved into position, lifting Anevia’s stretcher with Idril at the other end. She forced herself not to dwell on Lily and Lucien’s fate, instead choosing to focus on the ripple of the elf’s incredible biceps or the fine, firm curve of his ass.
      With just such an image in her mind, Rhiallis felt her rage ebb and, as they made their way through the rubble-strewn streets of Kenabres, a smile crossed her lips.
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Note: Image is “King Jagiello Statue Central” by (Mulligand) from SXC.hu; edited by me