AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Did you get it?” I asked in a whisper.
She ran off.
“Fucking hell,” I groaned, and chased.
She was too damned fast. Too sprightly and quick through these woods—through terrain I expected her to be unfamiliar with and unaccustomed to.
I rounded a bend, wrapped my arm across a tree when I heard a snap to the right, and spun in that direction.
I’d lost sight of her.
Foliage seemed to rustle all around me, and I came to a clearing.
She wasn’t there.
My heart sank. Fuck. My anxiety bloomed, making me feel a fool. This squirrelly little bitch! I’ve lost her. The others will hang me by my entrails if they find out! She lulled me with her naivety and vanished the first moment she got.
I wanted to call out her name, but I also didn’t want to disrupt nature and give away my position. I reached to my waist for the dagger I had hanging there.
A dark blot filled the corner of my eye to the east as something popped up out of the undergrowth.
I held my dagger by the blade, ready to toss it—
And was met by Robin’s cheery, smiling face, a heap of leaves caught in her shoulder-length brown hair. She raised her hand and wagged the dead hare next to her face. “Got it!”
An arrow was impaled through its neck.
I let out a ragged breath, my tense body loosening as I lowered the blade. “Christ Almighty, girl, I almost threw this dagger at your head!”
Her head tilted. “What, thought I’d run away?”
“It crossed my mind.”
She chuckled and rose to her feet, then draped the hare over her shoulder. The girl was a surprise and a revelation.
“So you’re a noblewoman . . . and a woodswoman?”
She shrugged as we backtracked to the trail. “When I saw you miss, I figured I’d take my chance.”
I bowed my head in shame for being outclassed by this pretty little thing. “I’m not a natural-born archer. Still trying to learn the mechanics. The others give me shit for it. ‘What kind of Merry Man can you be if you can’t shoot a damn bow?’ they say.”
Robin snorted. “You don’t say.”
I looked down at her, glowering, not half as chipper as she looked. “Fuck you, little songbird.”
The girl let out another high snicker, and it was enough to wash away any anger I had toward her. “Don’t keep a frown on that pretty face of yours, Alan-a-Dale. It’ll stick and ruin your beauty.”
I said nothing, letting my “fuck you” hang in the air, since it seemed like she wanted to hear it twice.
Robin bounced happily on her heels as we waded through a thicker part of the woods. “I’m guessing most Merry Men aren’t adept archers, if you haven’t been trained.”
“That’s what you get with farmers and cobblers. I take it you have?”
Her head bobbed. “By my brother, Robert. He was a knight. Taught me as a young lass when I showed interest in swordplay and archery. He said I’d be better suited to the bow, because of my stature. He said it would help keep my enemies far away from me, where I’d prefer them. This big thing, though?” She lifted the bow and scrunched her nose. It was as tall as she was. “Too unwieldy for my taste. I prefer a shortbow, like the one my brother made me. Easier to pull.”
“Yes, I imagine so . . .”
I was fascinated hearing about her experience with archery. Not many girls had such training. It also made me curious about her brother, Sir Robert, though I didn’t want to pry. If she cared to speak of him, she would. I didn’t need to rush things or seem so desperate to know more about her.
