She stumbles to an unsteady stop in the water when Simon manages to seize Rooster by his trailing reins, and manages to blurt out another hasty, "Don't yank on him!" before she remembers just who, exactly she's speaking to. For his part, now that his game is apparently up, Rooster just dances this way and that on the other end of the reins, but doesn't try to escape again. He makes a distressed sort of baying noise and looks Fern's way, awaiting rescue.

"...I don't know exactly what you know of the Inquisition, but nobody means you any harm, I promise."

In the thick of things, it's hard for her to remember if this is how her aunt told her it would happen, if the Templars would try to convince her to surrender, or if they wouldn't. It's so hard to remember any of what she was taught--she's never had cause to fight a Templar before, or fight anything that wasn't just scaring a fox out of the hen house or spooking a few lone wolves away from the sheep. And he hasn't attacked her yet; he has Rooster's reins in his armoured hands, but hasn't tried to hurt him, to injure her only means of escape...

Fern swallows very hard and takes a few tentative steps closer to Simon through the water, still clutching at her staff like it's a bit of rope and she's dangling from it over a cliff's edge. "...let me have his reins then, if you mean what you say," she demands, voice wobbling, and forces one hand to let go of the staff and reach out for the reins.

There's an anchor mark in her palm, mostly covered by a beaten up old gardening glove, but still visible through the leather.