Shots came rounding back in response from the crowd coming in. She reloaded her gun and dragged her captive to the other end of the alley, and at the end pushed him onto the ground. He hit the ground with a splash, so she pulled him up and sat him upright, then leaned against the wall to block him from the police.

The crowd rounded the corner first and saw the two of them at the end. Many had guns in their hands, one of them a rifle. Shots fired, one damn close to her face. 

"Changed my mind, time to go." Quickly, she grabbed her captive by the hood and began tugging him back outside the alley, and nearly collided straight on with a horse. 

The horse reared back, hooves waving and about ready to land on her face. Ramona couldn't help but scream. Legs like pudding, she shoved her captive in front of her and began stumbling back down the alley they had found this one on. The cop began shouting expletives, making moves towards the two of them, and then more shots rang out. The cop really began swearing then. Their showdown had worked, so it seemed. Still, they weren't in the clear.

"Go, go, go!" she screamed at him. This cobblestone walk they found themselves on one that had a lot of barrels and trash cans out it. Ramona took the time to tip them behind her, and her captive grabbed one and threw it down the left of an adjacent alley before they both went right. 

Every now and then he would stop and stagger, and Ramona threw him back on the right track. He got so slow that Ramona just ran out in front of him, and was about to run out into the street when she was strangled back.

He had another damn coil. 

Choking her back into the alley, she could feel the wire around her neck. This wasn't like the fishing wire she had stolen from him, this was a cable, maybe even an improvised weapon. She took his knife out, but didn't want to give him the opening. She might be able to stab him, but she didn't want to get into a situation where he was dead to rights. It was stubborn, but she'd gotten this far, she might as well find the damn prince. 

Still, she had gotten careless. He had been so easily manipulated thus far, she had let her guard down. Now she could feel her pulse in her head, her temples felt like they were going to explode.  The coil's pressure around her neck kept wavering, allowing Ramona to gasp for a moment before it would resume its crushing of her windpipe. Her throat was raw, and if she broke free she would breathe fire on him she was so mad.

Another twist, the quiet one had let the coil slip for a moment again. He wasn't capable of keeping the grip for long. He'd also been tripping...

Thrusting her arm up against the coil, she heard a snap and knew he'd let go. Grabbing his knife, she spun around and held it over his chest, before letting out a clawing cough. He smacked her hand and she slashed back, catching his forearm. 

"I'll kill you with your own weapon, don't you doubt it," she yelled. "Sucks when you're wounded right? Should have made your move to kill me before you got hurt, you son of a bitch." 

That was why his grip was so weak. A bullet had ricocheted into his shoulder. Not fatal, but probably didn't feel very good. Ramona was lucky. 

He snarled at her, stained teeth bared and rabid. She kicked her boot into his face and pressed him against the wall.

"Knock it off." She took the crown out from the inside of her jacket. "I don't need this. You keep trying to kill me, this won't be worth it. I'll throw both you and the crown into the sea. That's a promise, mute." 

He grabbed her leg and threw her off of him. Ramona smoothly straightened herself out, then crouched in front of him. "I am faster than you, and I'm unwounded. I have all your weapons. You will lose this fight." 

Gruff breathing and red eyes, he looked unconvinced -- or at least he didn't care. She needed to up the antics. She couldn't have her hostage bucking every time she turned around. Ramona raised the crown and shook it in front of him. 

"If you help me, on the other hand, I'll help you. Take the bullet out of your shoulder, bandage you up. I'll even give you some of the money. I don't need a billion dollars. Hell, I don't even need a half a billion dollars. You take it and get yourself out of this hell-hole. God knows that's what I'm going to do." She put the crown back inside her coat, and replaced it with her gun. "If you don't help me, and keep trying to hurt me, I'll shoot you. I'll shoot you in the stomach. I'll watch you writhe. And I'm a woman of my word. If we have a deal, and we'll hammer out the details later, but if we have a deal, I'll honor it. I swear it on anything and everything that means something to me. Got it?"

Brick-red cheeks and blood colored chest, he looked like he was going to kill something. But he wouldn't kill her. Basic benefit-cost analysis, he knew the right choice here, she hoped.
"What other options do ya got, there, mute?" 

His face was blank, eyebrows raised, mouth slightly slack, eyes even dulled. She sighed.

"C'mon then." She stood above him, glaring down. "It's time we get moving. We've got work to do. First we gotta get ourselves out of this town." She glanced both ways before deciding that the opposite direction from her little shed was going to be the best idea. Then she reached her hand back towards the quiet man. "Oh, and I'll be taking that coil you tried to choke me with."
He furrowed his eyebrows and gripped the coil firmly, white knuckles and all. She rolled her eyes. 

"I'm not gonna let you die, so you don't need to worry about that. Too valuable. Won't even hit you, even though you tried to kill me. Consider it forgiven, as long as you give me the coil. And who knows? Maybe good behavior will grant you a weapon back. Maybe." 

Popping his lips, he threw the coil at her. Ramona caught it and stuck it in her pocket. She felt more weighed down the longer she stuck with him, needing to take away his toys like he were a child. 

Ramona made a move to get going, then thought twice. Looking back at him, she asked, "Hey, are you literate?" 

He blinked at her. She slumped her shoulders and hummed for a moment. "Um, can you read? Like words and books? Can you write things like what you see?" 

In response, he made a move, a sort of threat, a charge at her. She clenched her teeth with a grin, which only seemed to make him angrier. Spinning around his charge, she took a pebble from the ground and scratched the wall. Once Ramona saw it left a pleasantly white mark, she put it in his hand. "Scratch your name into the wall, otherwise I've no idea what to call you."

Puff of hot air, and the color was gone. Defeated. There was a weight to his loss that Ramona felt in her shoulders, but she would need to shake it off if she were to get this job done. She gestured to the wall. 

"We don't have all day. I'll start making up names if you don't give me one." 

With a groan, he began to write. First was the letter 'B'. Looking back at Ramona, he began scratching it out. 

"Are you literate?"

He spun around and threw the rock as hard he could at her, and she flinched. Nothing hit. Then she heard the sound of grinding, a chalky kind of scratch. A fake-out. Asshole. 

Written shakily, fine and with a slant:

LEIF.

"Like leef or like layff?" she asked. He furrowed his eyebrows but raised up two fingers. "Leif it is. I'm Ramona. Not that it really matters for you, but there it is." She stuck out her hand. "We got a deal, Leif?"

Leif stared at her hand for a moment, glancing up at her, before looking back down at her outstretched fingers. Taking a hand out of his pocket, it wobbled, before he tapped her fingers and then gripped her hand. He gave it a harsh shake, and a nod. 

"Then let's go get ourselves a royal."