Chapter Five
My heart pounded as I stood exactly twelve feet away from the target in front of me. “Am I right on target?” I asked Robin, “or should I go to the left some more?”
“Go to the right,” he whispered in my ear. I stepped to the right once more, he had already told me that twice. “Now shoot,” he said. I held the arrow steady and let go of the string with my hand, hearing the sound of the arrow falling into a pile of leaves instead of a target.
“I should have gone more left!” I cried.
“How…how can you tell that?”
I shrugged. “I’ve always been able to do it. I say something really loud, and I can sort of sense how far away or how big an object is. Its kinda fun actually, and its easy. I used to have to concentrate really hard, but I don’t have to know. It’s easy.”
“You really are a wonder Ailwin,” he laughed. “Now try again, and this time, don’t listen to me.”
The string made a twanging sound in my ear as I let a new arrow fly through the air. I smiled with pleasure as I heard the thunk of it hitting the target on the tree. I turned to where Robin was standing and raised my eyebrows. “See? Easy.”
“Let me try.” He took the bow he had found for me from my hand and an arrow from a pack. I heard him set it and quickly let go, it hitting a tree.
“You cheater,” I said, grinning. “You didn’t close your eyes.”
“How would you know?” he asked teasingly.
“Because you didn’t say something so you would be able to sense it. Now, try again,” I said, coming behind him and placing my hands over his eyes. I sealed my fingers together tightly, so he wouldn’t take a sneak peek. “Now, say something really loud and concentrate really hard.”
“What should I say?”
“Anything.”
“Hello!” He called loudly and before I knew it I heard the twanging sound of the bow once more. I laughed as I heard it hit a branch far off in the distance. “Its harder than it looks,” he said, laughing with me.
We stood there for a moment, listening to the sounds of the forest around us. We were far away from the camp, all alone, in a secluded place where we could be alone. My heart drummed so loud I was sure he could hear it, and I wondered what he was feeling.
“Do you want to talk?” he asked me suddenly. I opened my lips to speak, but all I could manage was a nod. He led me away from the targets and we sat on the ground, our backs leaning against a giant oak tree.
“Did you want to become an outlaw?” he asked me.
I bit my lip and slowly nodded. “I wanted it so bad.”
“Why?”
“Because…” here it went. I would tell him that I was really Ivy and that I had runaway from home because of a stupid dream and how I was really a girl, I would tell him everything, and lose his trust. But instead I said: “I wanted an adventure.”
“Oh,” he replied, and we sat there, enrobed in silence.
“How did you become an outlaw exactly?” I asked him, breaking the quiet.
He let out a long sigh, and I could tell that he was trying to decide whether or not he should tell me. I guess he decided the first option. “I was fifteen,” he whispered. “I left home to go to an archery competition. I was just walking along and I saw some of the king’s deer.” He let out a breath of air. “I knew better than to shoot them, so I continued on my way. But then, farther down the road there were some men, telling me that I wouldn’t win any old competition. So we bet, and they told me to shoot one of the deer, and so I did.”
“And for that small thing you became an outlaw?” I asked quietly.
“Yes,” he replied. “I would have gotten my eyes taken out if I hadn’t run away. I told my father what I had done and…we didn’t part well. A few years later I found out he had died.”
I felt tears prick my eyes and suddenly, I leaned over to Robin and threw my arms around him. “I’m sorry,” I whispered into his ear. I felt his shaking hands grip onto my shoulders. “I’m so sorry Robin.” I felt his shoulders slowly shrug me off and stood up, leaving me sitting alone.
“My name was Robert,” he chuckled softly through what I believed were tears. “I lived in Loxsley, my father was a nobleman, I lost everything that day.”
“Why did you tell me all this?” I whispered, my heart throbbing.
“Because, you remind me so much of myself when I was your age. A new young out law. I wanted adventure, wanted to be free from my father’s constant nagging. And I got so much more, but I lost everything. I just don’t want the same to happen to you.”
I felt my breathing quicken as I choked on a few stray tears. I thought back to my mother, sitting alone, worrying about her lost daughter. I thought about the price on my head and the horrible crime I had committed, not that the sheriff didn’t deserve it, but…my mother had already lost my father, and suddenly, she had lost her daughter too. I felt tears slide down my cheek quick and warm before saying: “I think it already has.”
* * * *
“Hey, are you guys okay? You look as if you’ve seen a whole village get slaughtered,” Will joked as Robin and I walked back into camp. I couldn’t help but glare towards him as I wiped away a stray tear, though it didn’t help cease the stinging and redness in my eyes. “What’s wrong?” he asked, his footsteps sounding behind me. I turned quickly, glaring. “Are you okay?”
I took in a deep breath and let it out. “Yes Will, I’m fine. Now, I’m supposed to work on sword fighting, Robin said you were the one to help.”
“Uh yeah,” Will said, gripping my arm and leading me away from the camp and into the woods once more. I hadn’t really planned on sword fighting, but maybe it would take my mind off of things. We walked in silence for a few minutes before Will broke it. “You and Robin were gone for a long time, what happened?”
“Nothing happened,” I snapped quickly. “We just practiced a lot. He wants me to help him with a robbery tomorrow.” It was a lie that I wished were true, and I was sure Will could see right through it. Why would Robin take me, a new outlaw, a fifteen-year-old out on a robbery a day after I had arrived? But apparently Will believed it just as much as I wanted it to be the truth.
Will sighed. “Did he say where?”
I shook my head. “No, not exactly.”
“Not exactly?”
I gulped, closing my eyes for a moment. Why am I telling lies? I thought for a moment, reopening my eyes, not that I could see anything, though I wished I could. “Well, all I know is that its far away, it’s not close like Nottingham.”
“Oh.” Will and I walked on in silence till I felt soft dirt beneath my feet. The ground was not littered with leaves and as I walked around I realized that trees were surrounding the area, almost like a ring. “So, how do you expect to sword fight when you’re blind?”
I bit my lip hard, the taste of blood flooding my tongue. I hated it when people assumed I couldn’t do anything, just because I was blind. Robin knew that I could still fight, he had seen me, he knew what I could do, why couldn’t Will see the same? “I can see in my own way,” I finally said.
Will laughed. “How?”
“Watch me,” I said. “Now where is a sword?”
Will laughed again. “I thought you said you could see in your own way.” I could hear Will circling me like a hawk as he let out small chuckles. I felt anger rising in my chest, I just wanted to spit on him, to fight him.
“You aren’t fighting fair,” I said. “You have the sword with you, both of our swords.”
“How would you know that?” he asked, his voice ringing slightly with surprise. “How do you know I didn’t leave it camp?”
“Because, I…I can just tell,” I stuttered slightly. I heard his footsteps approaching me and the sound of a sword being pulled from a scabbard. My heart beat rapidly, what was Will going to do? Why wasn’t he fighting fair?
“You’re sword,” he said, placing the handle in my hand before walking away from me, pulling his own sword from a scabbard. I felt my hand shake and the weight of the sword holding my arm close to the ground. “Do you need help?” he asked me.
“No,” I replied, pulling the heavy sword up to my waist. “Teach me how to fight.”
* * * *
I walked back into the camp, panting, with Will following closely behind. We had spent most of the remainder of the day fighting in the clearing, practicing was more like it. Will agreed that he had underestimated me, but still, he didn’t think I was worthy enough or strong enough to go on a robbery the following day.
The soup I placed to my lips was warm and comforting. We hadn’t had soup yet, mainly it’d been bread that we had eaten for meals. I sipped a small cup of mead before my heart rate increased with the question Will asked Robin.
“Robin? So are you going on a robbery tomorrow?”
Robin laughed. “Don’t I do that every day?”
“Where are you going?” Will asked. I could feel his gaze travel over to me as I sipped the mead, it suddenly burning my throat more than it had that first night. I put it down and replaced it with a spoonful of soup, but it seemed to burn my tounge when it came in contact with it.
“Why do you ask?” Robin shot a question back at Will.
Will sat there in silence for a moment, he was so silent in fact that I could hear the crackling of the fire against my own drumming heart beat. “Because Ailwin thinks he’s going with you.”
I closed my eyes tightly, biting my lip. “I’m…” I paused. “I can fight. Blindness doesn’t stop me from being like you,” I whispered, tears forming.
“I didn’t say it did-” Will began but I quickly cut him off, getting to my feet.
“You think I am less than you! But I’m not!” I cried. “I stole for you, you were the one who wanted to keep me here Will, I thought it was because you needed me. I’m sorry I’m such a burden and I’ll,” I stopped, breathing in and out slowly. “I’ll leave if I trouble you that much.”
“He can’t leave!” Little John said. “He’s an outlaw! He has a price on his head, Will, he’s only a boy! He can’t just die.”
“Little John is right,” another of the men, Geoffery, said. “Ailwin is only fifteen, we can’t let him die.”
“Men! Settle down!” Robin roared, standing up quickly with me. “This fight is unnecessary, Will, Ailwin is right. You need to start acting like he’s one of us, you brought him in, so we’re keeping him.”
“But I was! I was teaching him how-”
“But you weren’t fighting fair!” I argued.
“Fighting isn’t going to be fair!” Will yelled. “You’re going to be fighting one day and your opponent will take your sword, and you’ll be left to die.”
“Stop!” Robin shouted once again, his voice scattering a few night birds from the trees overhead. “There will be a caravan that will be transporting gold to King John tomorrow. It will be traveling at the edge of the forest.”
“Near Nottingham?” I asked my eyes suddenly wide.
“No,” Robin assured me. “There are no villages on the other side of this forest, just a road that leads to the castle. We will attack the caravan there. Ailwin, you will have an important job.”
“Me?” I asked, my heart pounding. Robin was going to trust me with an important job…how important?
“I need you to distract the men driving all the wagons and such. You will dress as a poor orphan boy and lie in the road, pretending to be wounded. This will distract them just long enough for us to steal the taxes.”
I let out a dissapointed sigh. “But Robin I can-”
“Ailwin, no one else can do this job. You are quick, you can get away easily if they discover who you are. This is very important Ailwin, you must do this for us.”
I sighed once again, feeling Robin’s hand on my shoulder. I nodded slowly. “But what if they discover who I am and I can’t get away?”
“That’s why I’m giving you this,” he said, and I could almost picture the smile creeping upon his lips as he placed something sharp and long in my hand. I traced the object, feeling the perfectly carved handle and the sharp blade. I could feel the beautifully carved flowers in the handle and the curves of vines the outlined the wood. It was the most beautiful dagger I had ever felt in my whole life, the only dagger I had ever felt. The only dagger I had ever had, and I knew, it was special to Robin.
“We leave at dawn,” he said before standing up and leaving us sitting around the campfire, eyes resting upon me and the dagger I held.
My only problem lay with Robin: he cried. Sobbed more like it from what I could tell. Don't you think it's a little out of character for Robin Hood to cry to some young thief he hadn't known for very long? And to let that same thief hug him? I don't know about you, but I don't let someone hug me unless I've known them at least a week. And then it depends solely on the occasion. Anyway, just thought I should throw that out there. Otherwise, great story! 
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