Out of the cauldron and into the fire?

Pallid lashes flung open as Valkyrie was startled back into consciousness by the sudden snap of a blue-tipped tail against the retired cup of her ear. The glassy blue gaze lurking between them narrowed swiftly into an unmistakable scowl as they settled upon the filthy, damp and unkempt rump of the culprit stranger. “HEY…” she shouted loudly and indignantly after him, entirely incautious of the way his towering, muscular physique dwarfed her own, slender, feminine size. Rose-brushed lips hastened to retrieve the metal spear where it lay, caught between mangled roots and the glow of the orb which lingered on and visibly bristling, she afterwards moved to prevent his departure. The Shieldmaiden would not be ignored by an insolent, insignificant male… Dancing lightly (luckily clear of the part-sunken timber), forward upon her sound, perfect toes and with a shock of adrenaline-fuelled blood seething hotly through her veins, Valkyrie goaded him boldly (foolishly), “It’s all too cliche. Man preying upon women as they sleep…” A delightedly snide smile slithered about the arrogant purge of her thoughts - or presumptions, for she could not have been certain that he was in fact, such a blight - and she tempted to glance about his flanks to validate the accusation. Swinging her skull brazenly to the right beneath a sweep of clean white hair, she dared the blade of her weapon to slice the space dividing them, deliberately ignoring the importance of personal boundaries, just as he had done before. What the dauntless young Daughter lacked in good-sense, she made up for tenfold, in attitude and overconfidence… If by some reasonable, respectable chance, the other swung his tattered bulk around to confront her, Valkyrie was poised and prepared upon bent knees, ready to react.