21 || [Action]

[flicker_flash]

[T'was a fine evening in Good Spirits, where regular patrons and first time visitors alike could lurk in their corners, drink their ale, socialise and maybe thank whoever might be listening in that the chaos in the village had yet to touch their favourite drinking spot. Ohoho.Suddenly, a wild pooka appears!  Slamming the door open, sword in hand,

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[consultmybooks]

[...Giles is not in the bar.

When he sees the leprechauns run past chasing a very familiar small child? Giles suddenly wishes he was in the bar. And drunk. So very drunk. He is getting far too old for this.

Giles sighs in frustration, pinching the bridge of his nose and adjusting the grip of his broadsword.]

Katie...

[Rushing inside to help.]

[flicker_flash]

[Look, she swears she didn't touch anything this time! Or at least she would if she could be, y'know, bluntly honest about these things. Either way, said small child has vanished from view when Giles rushes in, but that may be because she is under a table and there are leprechauns in the way. A lot of them.

...she's still giggling, somewhere back there. And then she abruptly stops, because it is hard to giggle and swing a sword at the same time :|]

[consultmybooks]

Katie...

[All right. It's a smaller target than he's used to, but Giles is just giong to go ahead and attempt a decapitation on the nearest leprechaun before making for cover because he's still outnumbered and leprechauns back home were not something you wanted to get into a fight with.]

...didn't you say something about leprechauns not being terribly fond of scissors?

[flicker_flash]

[Well at least this particular brand of leprechaun isn't gory; one decapitation later and the creature just vanishes in a flash of light. That rather gets the attention of several others, though, turning on Giles with baleful looks and hefting everything from wine bottles to chair legs.]

Giles? Is that you? [Please hold, kicking one leprechaun to the other side of the room (where it bounces off the wall and tries gnawing on a different patron. Whoops.) Katie still sounds cheerful.] They hate them. Especially sewing scissors!

[This is an absolute lie, of course.]

[consultmybooks]

[...holy crap, Katie, how did you...

...never mind. Talk later.]

Sad to say, I'm afraid I'm not currently in possession of any sewing scissors.

[Wine bottles, even in the hands of three foot tall green men, are not good weapons. So Giles will mostly focus on stabbing. He'll also focus on trying to stop the leprechauns climbing on bar stools and tables and the like in order to get a shot at his head.]

[flicker_flash]

[As Giles' reach is longer than any of his opponents, after one or two such stabbings the rest retreat back with dark scowls as if Giles is breaking the rules. Who brings a sword to a bar brawl anyway?

...well, Katie does, but she's much shorter. Though despite the fact she's actually trained to use this thing, she slashes at them wildly and doesn't particularly take them seriously at all until one manages to grab hold of an ankle and tries to drag her out from under the table. There is swearing here. Not even in English. She smacks it repeatedly with the sword hilt while she responds.] They like children and money! Does that help?

[Meanwhile, Giles' opponents decide that picking up chairs and charging him is an acceptable compromise.]

[consultmybooks]

Let go of her! [Never mind the pertinent question of what are you doing with a sword, Katie. Giles grabs a bottle from behind the bar and pitches it with remarkably accuracy at the one trying to pull the pooka out of hiding.]

The only child in the immediate vicinity is you!

[Unfortunately, this moment of distraction allows the leprechauns to get a few decent swipes in with the chair - one to the head, one to the stomach. They quickly decide to press their advantage of numbers.]

[flicker_flash]

[Oh, good shot, Giles. Katie gives a gleeful smile as the leprechaun latched onto her ankle gets clubbed in the head with the bottle and stumbles away. She helps it along with a good kick and then launches herself at them in earnest, using her sword properly now.]

That explains everything! They probably want to take me away and replace me with a changeling. They love human--

[And then she breaks off as Giles gets a chair in his face. No. Not on.]

Right. Give me that.

[All such wielded chairs are suddenly hurtling to the other side of the bar. If the leprechauns aren't bright enough to let go, that's too bad for them.]

[consultmybooks]

[A few are, largely because they have a split second to see their brethren that aren't flying across the room. The ones that aren't knocked senseless against the far wall to flash into nothingness are...kind of confused. Do they go for the big guy with really good aim or the little girl who can throw them across the room on a will?

...no contest. At least Katie is approaching their height. Have the last few leprechauns charging at you en masse, Katie.]

[flicker_flash]

[Katie gives a high pitched, little girl shriek, clawing her way onto the bar top out of reach and slicing out at them with a sword. Leprechauns charging en masse is something she'd rather not deal with just yet, though dropping the whole lot into the ocean right now is a last resort. (Meanwhile, all the chairs that went flying hit the wall and then land the right way up without a single trace of damage. How fortunate!)]

Hey! Pick on someone your own size!

[>_>]

[consultmybooks]

Katie, you are their own size.

[Someone has to point out the obvious, since the leprechauns don't seem terribly chatty. Giles attacks the mass from the other side - there are several seconds of horrible confusion and flashes of light and far too much ugly green color before they finally manage to cut the herd down.]

[flicker_flash]

I'm at least two inches taller. [Or more like ten inches taller, but... a lot closer in height than Giles, certainly. By the time they've finished dealing with the rest, she's rather scuffed up and out of breath, but no real injuries apart from a nasty bruise on her cheek where one got a lucky shot in. But psh, it's a badge of war. She looks faintly disappointed they're all gone.]

Are you all right?

[consultmybooks]

[Giles leans on the bar to catch his breath. He'll have a few solid bruises from getting swarmed by the leprechauns, but he's hardly badly hurt.]

I'm fine.

What about you?

And...were those really leprechauns? Do they really look like that?

[flicker_flash]

Oh, yes. Exactly like that. They want to be famous like the ones on television, you know. Cartoons.

[Entirely a lie, that. Real leprechauns are so much creepier. These ones were comical. Katie tilts her head.]

Thank you for helping.

[consultmybooks]

You're welcome. [Giles takes off his glasses to check that they weren't damaged in the scuffling.] Happy to help.

...were you always able to fight like that?

[flicker_flash]

[If they are, Katie will fix them for him. So she squints at them to make sure, too.]

Oh, always. I was the toughest little girl in the maternity ward.