"I can't believe they let mercenaries challenge here," she muttered as she edged around the crowd gathered. The clang of metal and metal made her flinch a little but she kept going. People grudgingly moved out of her way, but Mallie kept going. They thought she was a man, she knew. Dressed in trousers, what breasts she had bound down and her braided hair tucked up in the wanderer's hat she wore to block the sun.
Another day it might have bothered her that no one was observant enough to see how petite she was, the slight length of her feet, the feminine grace with which she moved. Today it just bothered her that the good townsfolk of Evesdin
Cooties
She was running down the alley, boots hitting the pavement loudly as she ducked to avoid some cardboard jutting out from a dumpster. Another quick lunge let her avoid a puddle of goo as she pounded pavement further into the recesses. The ghost was coming, she couldn't possibly have outrun it. Not in these shoes, not in this heat, and certainly not when the ghost was after her specifically.
She was rewarded moments later by the freezing mass of ectoplasm that flew out of the wall and bowled her over. Sam cried out as she hit the asphalt, but she scrambled to her feet, already trying to escape.
"Oh no, dearie," the hag cooed at her.