"Or maybe..." she trailed off, studying Cole's plain black outfit thoughtfully. "I don't know if we can make you look like a noble or anything in that costume... so..." She trailed off, thinking hard about the possibilities. "So maybe I'm a noblewoman and you're my bodyguard? Hm. Which I guess means that you should be the one to carry this." Picking up her sword from the ground where the Mentalist had dropped it in their fall from the horse, she retrieved its sheath and belt, and helped him buckle it around his waist. “Hey! I can do this on my own, you know. I’m not a three-year old.” Cole said, feeling a little embarrassed that Kryschenn was helping him put the belt over his waist. “Great, now I’m the only person in the Realm who wears two belts!” he joked making sure the blue of his own belt was hidden completely underneath the one Kryschenn supplied him. Sliding the sword into the belt’s sheath, Cole felt the weight of the blade on his side. Looking at the overlapping belt the Mentalist noticed it was restricting his breathing by a touch. He doubted it would hamper their charade though. All in all, he felt satisfied with this new look.
"There," she said, circling Cole with a critical eye. "No... something's still missing. You don't look quite official enough. You need something like a badge or a sash or a cross-belt or something." Considering for a moment, she snapped her fingers and exclaimed, "I've got it!" Taking Cole's cape from her shoulders, she then unfastened her own shorter, tartan cape, folded it diagonally, and then rolled it up into a long, thin roll. "Ta-da! One sash! Here, let's put this on you. Arms out to the side," she told him, draping the "sash" over one shoulder and running it diagonally across his chest to fasten at his waist. "I just need a pin or something, I don't want to tie this in a knot... oh, wait, here's one!" Unpinning the magical rose from her tunic, she held the stem in her teeth (being very careful where she put the thorns) so her hands were both free while pinning the sash together. "Hold still, I won't stab you. Trust me, I'm a theatrical costume designer, I know what I'm doing."
“Stab me? Why would I think you might stab me?” he said with a nervous grin. As he stood motionless with arms stretched out, Kryschenn proceeded to secure the sash she improvised out of her tartan cape onto Cole, using the rose he gave to her.
"And there we are!" she exclaimed triumphantly a moment later, stepping back to admire her handiwork (and also speaking much more clearly now that she'd taken the rose out of her mouth). "One bodyguard!" Picking up Cole's cape again, she wrapped it around her shoulders and said in her most 'noble' voice, "And I am the Lady whose body you must guard!" Chuckling, she pushed her red hair out of her eyes, and then sighed, "Although I should probably do something about this," referring to the fact that her hair, although it had started out fairly neatly, was getting progressively wilder and wilder as her time in the Realm went on. "I wonder what hairstyles are popular among the nobility?"
“Sorry, I can’t help you there, m’lady." he said ith a slight bow to Kryschenn, getting some practice on his part as her bodyguard. I’m a Mentalist, not a stylist!” Cole answered with a smile. “However, I think there’s something else we’ve to consider for part of our cover.” he said to the Highlander. “If you are supposed to be a lady of affluence, wouldn’t it help if you had a little, well uh, money, valuables or some other form of wealth? I’ve only got a little bit of silver on me,” he mentioned as he searched into the satchel he slung over the horse’s saddle retrieving a small coin purse. Pouring the remaining contents into his hand, he admitted regretfully, “I doubt it would be enough be enough to pass you off as ‘wealthy’ though.” Another idea crept into his mind as he did this. He realized that he carried a gemstone that could be considered quite valuable to most people. But because the stone was already reason for enough trouble already, he chose not to mention it.
Cole returned the silver to its pouch and the pouch to the satchel. The horse was much calmer now as Cole petted the animal’s forehead. However, the Mentalist stopped abruptly when he noticed another matter they would need to work on. “Kryschenn,” Cole asked looking back to her, “if I’m supposed to play the role of your bodyguard, how were they going to explain why they were travelling on one horse? Don’t you think a rich lady would be able to afford a second horse for her guardian in case he needed to rush over to her aid in a hurry?”
Almost instantaneously Cole’s mind raced, thinking of an immediate answer to most of their problems. “I suppose we could always tell them we narrowly escaped some huge random forest creatures and lost most of your belongings in the woods,” he suggested. Although it seemed a simple enough explanation for their appearance, a few moments later Cole managed to find problems that scenario may bring about. “Then again, if that story got let out, a few guards may insist on escorting us back to the scene and finding the missing valuables, if not for your sake then for their own gain. Once they discover that there are no missing valuables to be found, things could get ugly. On the other hand, if they bought the story and thought we were hurt in such an incident they, may insist on taking us to a healer for an examination. If they then discover your costume underneath the cape we’d be as good as dead.”
He sighed after having found another way to blast a hole into her idea. He wasn’t doing this to get back at Kryschenn for motioning against his idea for entering the town as a Ninja, as the reasoning behind her decision seemed sound. “I just think we should probably consider more options for a plausible explanation for our appearance and their implications." he stated. "I’m not trying to berate your idea, Krys. Honest. Once we get into the town we’re going to have to stick with the plan we come up with,” he told her. “I just want to be sure that we don’t get ourselves into a big mess over it, that’s all.”
