Chapter 1.
Emely Greenland was out in her mother's garden. But she was hiding behind a pumpkin and hoping that she wouldn't be seen. About 10 minutes ago five soldiers had entered the little house that she and her mother lived inside in the middle of the woods. Many times soldiers or government officials went to their house upon the subject of Emely's father. Her father was the infamous Robin Hood. Robin Hood and Manna Greenland had spent one month together as a couple but then he left her. When Emely was born her mother named her Greenland because it would just be a painful reminder of when Robin Hood left her. Fortunately, Emely had her mother's dark auburn hair and emerald green eyes. They had raids though that reminded everyone of Rowena's father. This raid was different, this time they had been in there longer than usual and there was no sign of anybody inside the house.
After another 30 minutes Emely realized something; smoke was leaving through the windows. Emely rushed in and realized it was too late, the soldiers had lit the building on fire and taken her mother out the back door. After she escaped the house she had lived in for 14 years crashed to the ground. And that was it. Emely had no food, no shelter, no clothes except the ones on her back and no family left in the world that knew she was their and cared about her. Then Emely had a huge revelation. She could try to find her father. She had a stash of food and a bow and some arrows that she made in a hollow part of a tree nearby beside a beautiful brook. There were many advantages to be the only people to live in such a large forest. Her mother had been a healer and at first many people scoffed her, not only was she doing a job that many locals called unworthy but she was also living in the woods so the few that wanted to see her had to trek through the woods to visit her. But then she became a huge success and now nobody laughed at her.
Emely finally came back from her reverie about her life and decided a few more things about her life. If she was going to live in the woods and find her father she would not be found as a female. If she was found then they would take her away to be a maid somewhere or worse, somebody's wife. But if she was found as a male then they would leave her be. So she cut her hair with a knife she had also stored in the tree and made a conscious decision to introduce herself as Emery, which was the name of one of the boys she used to be friends with. She gathered her stuff and started out.
Later that day Emery was trooping through the woods and it was raining. She was staying under the large leafy branches of the tall maples, birches and other trees that Emery could not remember the names of. She was wet, cold and very hungry. Emery had not packed a lot of food into that tree and not a lot of it that was there was very filling. After debating her choices, Emery decided she would simply set a trap made put of the food she had left and some branches laying on the ground. Once some other branches Emery had collected had dried out she started a fire and cooked the rabbit she had caught with the bow and arrow and had a fairly good supper. She only ate half because while she was eating she started thinking about her mother and lost her appetite. So she just stared over the fire into the darkness when suddenly she realized that eyes were staring back at her. Emery grabbed her bow and her faithful arrows, even though she doubted that they would even hurt the animal, the arrows were so roughly made they could only kill small animals. She aimed and fired but to her surprise the arrow disappeared and the animal did not run away. But it came forwards. It turned out that it was a small doe who had not been with its mother long enough to realize that when being shot at it was a dangerous thing. It looked cold and hungry so Emery gave it some of the plants she had managed to take from her mother's garden before leaving on her adventure. Emery's thoughts were of two different minds: if she killed it she would have enough food to eat for a while, if she let it live than she would have a companion on the long journey. Emery decided on the humane option and by the looks of it the doe was relieved, as if it had known that Emery might kill it. She also decided that the doe should have a name. Emery decided to name it Spartan because it simply meant brave and she figured it was brave to go meet somebody that had just tried to shoot it.
With a new friend and full of courage Emery settled down beside the warm fire with Spartan curled up with her and no doubts were in her head. Only one thought roamed in her mind. She would find her father and he would accept her into his life and she would have a person that cared about her again.