Mischief - part 2

Mal merely looks at the captive and shrugs, "Well, well, for a prince, you don't seem to have very good manners. Not even a please?"

He tilts his head and looks at her, clearly confused.

"If you know, who I am, why won't you let me down?"

She shifts her eyes up and looks at him straight in the eye, "As mentioned before, your manners leave a lot to be desired, dear prince. Perhaps you wanna try that request again?"

"Oh beautiful lady, would you please let me down?" he responds earnestly.

She laughs, amused by his words. "Flattery doesn't work with me." But she proceeds to cut the rope holding the net up, causing him to fall to the ground abruptly with a 'oomph'.

She crouches down to his level and their faces are close now. So close that they could hear the other breathing.

"C'mon, how about you earn your freedom?"

He stands up straight and raises a questioning eyebrow, "You aren't going to let me go?"

"I didn't say I would, now did I? Also if you do try and run, there's another trap here just a bit away that would probably kill you. So your best bet is to stay here and earn your freedom in a fight with me."

The prince smirks at her last words, "You really think you can beat me don't you?"

With a flick of her bangs, she looks straight into his eyes with determination, "Perhaps. You won't know unless you fight me. Also, I'm talking just plain street fighting. No weapons. That is... If you're not too scared..."

"You're on. When I win, I earn my freedom..."

"Ah! If you win... If I win, you'll do me a favour, no questions asked, and you remain with me till I say you can go."

He flashes her a smile and tosses his sword to the side, "I give you my word."

Mal raises her fists up in a fighting stance and he does the same. This is it. This is her chance to finally set things right... She wasn't going to let this slip away so easily.

She attacks first. Her right hand aims for his jaw but he avoids it in time and aims for her gut. Her reflexes are quick and she dodges it and instead kicks him to the ground swiftly. He doesn't see it coming and falls on his back. He tries to bounce back but Mal is quicker.

Before he can even do anything, she has her right foot right on his throat and is applying just enough pressure to keep him pinned.

"Looks like I win."

She takes her foot off slowly and he begins gasping for air. He stands up once again and quickly aims for her left side, which actually hits her. It usually takes a while for people to recover but he must have had sufficient training.

She feels the impact against her side but ignores it and instead calculates her next move. Mal feigns falling to the ground and it works. He is thrown off by this and doesn't expect her to zip in behind him and hold her dagger to his throat. Which she does.

"You really have left your manners back at the castle haven't you, Rivie?", she whispers into his ear, as she clutches the dagger.