In all the time that they had known each other, Jane had never thought to ask Darcy why she had been so excited Asgard actually existed. Maybe it was because she was too distracted by her own excitement, or that she figured it was just another one of Darcy's "weird" things. Jane had brushed off a lot of Darcy's habits as simply weird. It didn't bother her as some might expect. The truth was she was used to it, people didn't necessarily understand when someone dressed up as a pirate for several weekends in the fall.
Darcy had been introduced to the Renaissance Faire when she had been a little girl. An older cousin, Maddie, moved into their garage in lieu of a dorm. Darcy had had very little exposure to the 'outlandish,' as her mother would say, types of people. Her parents were both in business and almost stereotypically conservative. Her brother was a bit more outside the box, but only in the definition that he decided to forgo the business side of things and head off to medical school. So, when her cousin had shown up in a blur of silks, Darcy had been mesmerized.
Maddie, or Madeline May, had been eleven years older than her, and at the time she believed that the woman had known everything there was to know. Maddie wore mostly dresses, stitched from silks, velvets, and even a fluttery crape. Her long hair toppled down her back making Darcy think of elves. It hadn't helped that the tips of her ears would peek out from the hair every now and then, looking almost pointed. The garage where she lived had been decorated in jewel shades, and was almost always filled with the sweet smelling smoke of incense. Her favorite being large red stones of Dragon's Blood resin.
Darcy had taken to spending all her free time with the woman, listening to her go on and on about things like Shakespeare, art, and nature. She had learned a lot about literature and history those four years. Had her parents not pressed her into going into political science she knew she would have become an English major. She used to feel resentful for it, but after meeting Thor she was thankful life had sought to direct her down the right path.
The first year that Maddie had lived with them, she had come home from classes in a flurry of excitement. Darcy had watched her dig through her various trunks of clothing, chattering on and on about some fair. She had been confused at the time, as the county and state fairs had already ended for the year. Not to mention Maddie just didn't seem like the type of woman to enjoy hay rides and cattle.
Maddie had shot up from one of her trunks with her arms full of velvet, looked straight at Darcy and asked her if she would like to travel back in time that weekend. Now, had she been a little older she probably would have rolled her eyes. But between Darcy's youth and how taken she had been with the woman, she wholeheartedly thought she meant real time travel. It wouldn't have surprised her one bit had she taken her hand and whisked her off to some far-off land filled with magic. Her parents used to scold her for her imaginings; more than once she mentioned how she believed her cousin to be some elf or fairy. Looking back on it now, with everything that had and is still happening, she really wouldn't be surprised if Maddie actually was fae.
After saying yes to her cousin, Maddie had delved back into her trunks. Within days the older woman had stitched together her a costume. Darcy had twirled about in the mirror, admiring the yards of fabric. It hadn't been anything fancy, most definitely not the intricate velvet court dress her cousin wore. But Maddie had explained that her costume had taken her a year to sew, and she would have to start on one for Darcy for the next year.
Darcy could spend hours trying to explain what she had felt the first time she stepped into the shire, but it always fell short of what she had actually felt at the time. Maddie had woken her up early on Saturday morning, explaining the importance of making it to the faire early. She had been excited, but a little sore at her cousin for doing so. Though any ill thoughts left her the moment Maddie led her up to the gates.
The whole thing was massive, a structure of wood that mimicked the Tudor style. She had stood in the chilly air beside her cousin watching the actors play out a scene. Her young mind forgot all about the modern world, and she truly felt as though she had been transported in time. The whole day was filled with music, dancing, food, and shopping. She had met several Ladies of the court, been given a token by a handsome young Lord, and met the King and Queen. Maddie had taken her to the Queen's lunch where she had been made a dame, and danced with the visiting princesses. She had sat front row during the joust, bestowing a favor on her favorite knight. When the sun started to set, her and her cousin had walked outside the gate and stood in a circle watching the fire dancers and clapping along to the heavy drums. When the King bid them a fare-thee-well and the canon shot off, Darcy felt herself tear up.
All the way back to the car, surrounded by the other faire goers, she asked Maddie when they could return. To her delight her cousin had explained that the faire lasted several weeks and if she liked they could return the next day, and even the next weekend.
For the next week, the faire was all that Darcy could talk about. She told her parents about all the princes and princesses, but that by far her favorite had been the fairies and elves. They hadn't been pleased, but they had always been open-minded enough to allow their children to explore new things.
It was that year that Darcy became a Rennie. Of course, she had little idea just how far she would take it in the future. Through the years she had lost contact with Maddie. The woman had fallen in love, married and moved to England. Still, Darcy had continued to go to the faire. She began to amass her own collection of costumes and characters. Her favorite for years had been a young pirate by the name of Dead Margaret. A character she had played until her second year of college.
Even after all the strangeness with Asgard, and all the other crazy shit going down in the world, Darcy still spent the fall playing someone else at the Renaissance. It was a bit of magic that never diminished even though she found out that real magic existed. That was why finding out about Thor and all the realms made her happy. It was a bit of that lifelong fantasy come true. Perhaps the world of the faire was all pretend, but that feeling of magic she got was real.
This was why, at almost thirty, she was laced all up and sporting a very pointed pair of elf ears. Though school, and then her internship, had meant she had to put working the faire aside, Darcy had never any plans to retire. This was the first year in a long while that she had been able to audition for a role. She had played everything from a pirate to a princess. (Mary to be exact.) She had been given the role of an elf this year. She would admit that after meeting the killer elves from space, it was hard to return to the Tolkien look.
The air around her was filled with incense and music. The fairies were just off to the side, dancing and laughing and making merry. Darcy smiled and greeted the young children passing by, offering them small trinkets as elf blessings. Even if she didn't love the faire so much, the looks of wonder and awe on their faces would make it all worth it.
The fairy dance ended, and the Fairy Lord, a man whose real name was Mark, held out a hand to her. She smiled, took it and allowed him to escort her away from the Maypole dance about to begin.
"My feet are killing me." Mark was new to the scene, a young man hoping to one day make it out to Hollywood. He was sweet, and looked a great deal like a Malfoy. Which was probably why he landed the part.
"I told you not to wear those shoes. But would you listen to me? No, because the mighty Fairy Lord knows all." Darcy laughed when Mark just rolled his eyes.
A few people walked by and Darcy quickly slipped back into character. It was something that became easier and easier as the years went on. The most important job was to make sure that the patrons felt fully immersed in the fantasy.
The two walked for arm in arm for awhile. It was still an hour before either of them needed to be present for a show. They were stopped by children who wanted to know if their ears or Mark's wings were real. As well as others ranging from teens to people in their sixties that wished for a picture. Finally, Mark led them behind one of the privacy fences.
Once away from the eyes of the patrons, the two seemed to deflate. The faire was fun, but maintaining a character for so long could be tiring. Darcy watched as Mark flung himself down on a bale of hay. She wished she could follow, but her costume consisted of a silky fabric she was sure would snag on the rough hay.
"So, how many times have you been asked to have your ears stroked?" Mark laughed at Darcy's groan.
It had become a game between them, to tally up how many inappropriate comments they got. Darcy was far ahead after a group of college boys, just there for the ale, suggested she might enjoy being thrust through with their swords. It was one of the problems with the faire, not everyone who attended were Rennies. And even then, not all fans of the faire were all that appropriate. The bawdy humor and revealing costumes made people think they could get away with foul language.
"Six so far, and it isn't even noon yet!" Darcy flung her hands up in the air, sticking her tongue out when Mark laughed harder. "How about you? Any juicy tales?"
"Nay, but the day is young my fine Lady. I shall entice some innocent mortal yet." Mark wiggled his practically white eyebrows. The man was truly too sexy for his own good. At least that is what Darcy felt.
There was something about Mark that had attracted her to him from the beginning. Not romantically, but she would be lying if she said that she wouldn't fuck him in a heartbeat. Still, it was not her heart that pulled her to him. The magic, the awe of the faire always made everything seem just a little brighter. But being around Mark felt like being around true magic. It was silly, but he reminded her of the way Maddie made her feel. There was something fae like about him, beyond the Malfoy-esc features.
"That I believe. You could go out there and ask any one of those people to follow you into the woods and they would gladly follow. To their deaths or not." She had seen it too, not the follow to their deaths thing, but the follow yeah. She was pretty sure he had slept with half of the adult cast.
"Shall you follow me, my Lady?" Mark rose from the hay bale, and stalked towards her. When he was a breath away, he reached out and snatched the pendant at her throat.
She stared at him wide-eyed as he tossed the pendant from one hand to the other. He had slipped the thing from her throat so smoothly she hadn't even felt the snap of the chain.
"Very funny, Mark. Now give it back." She reached for it, but he held it back with a laugh.
"No, no, my Lady. You shall have to catch me first." He winked, turned and ran into the small wooded area that surrounded the shire.
"Mark!" Darcy hiked her skirt up her legs and followed after him. She knew him to be a trickster, but the man seriously needed better timing. "Mark, come on! We need to get back soon; the next fairy show is halfway across the shire and in twenty minutes!"
Laughter echoed through the wood, and had Darcy not been so hellbent on catching the frustrating man she would have realized just how unlike Mark the laugh sounded.
"Catch me, and we shall return!"
The woods around her began to grow thicker, something she knew shouldn't happen. The forested era around the shire wasn't very large, just thick enough to conceal the grounds from the outside world. It only went in about an acre. Or it should have.
The strange laughing finally registered and Darcy stopped in her tracks. She looked about her, at the impossibly tall trees covered in moss and the heavy canopy of leaves above her.
"Oh, we are so not in fucking Kansas anymore." Darcy startled when what felt like a soft hand ran down her cheek. She tried to turn, but fear kept her frozen. Warm breath tickled across her ear, and before she could scream quiet words echoed around her.
"Shall we travel in time?"
Her breath caught in her throat, and as her vision began to slowly darken she could just make out two figures in front of her. One was Mark, and yet not Mark. He wore little more than a glittering piece of cloth wrapped around his hips, and her pendant hanging from his fingers. The other figure stood beside him in white gossamer, her long brown hair blowing in nonexistent wind.
"Maddie…."
When Darcy woke it wasn't with a sudden jerk, or with the world coming alive around her very slowly. It was to the feel of someone fondling her ears.
"If you value your life you will remove your hand this instant. I know a hundred ways to kill a man." She didn't really, but saying that she could punch… moderately… hard, was a lot less frightening.
"I find it hard to believe a maiden as fair as you could ever do harm." The hand left her ear, but the owner didn't move back. "Unless my eyes have not deceived me, and you are a member of the fair folk. Then I do wholeheartedly apologize, and beg that no harm come to my person."
Well, that voice was not what she was expecting. Mark was good with accents, but his always sounded so smooth. This one was rough, slightly pirate like, but yet not. She opened her eyes, turned to look at the man beside her and about fell off of whatever she was on laughing.
The man was probably only an inch or two taller than her. Dusky blond hair sticking about all over the place, the bangs hiding a truly stunning set of green eyes. Though none of this is what made her laugh. It was the fact that the man was wearing tights, like honest to God tights. It wasn't the silly looking things that Hollywood sometimes put their leading men in, but it was enough to shock her.
"Dude, you are dressed a few centuries too early for the Renaissance. You look more like Robin Hood than anything else." Well, a better dressed Robin Hood, this man had toned it down on the green. He looked more like he would actually be able to blend in with the surrounding wood.
"Ah, so the Lady has heard of me. Am I so well-known beyond the veil that I am sent changelings to rescue?" The man took a step back, smiled, and made a low bow. "Robin Hood at your service, my Lady."
Darcy swallowed thickly. She probably should roll her eyes, turn around and find wherever Mark had gone. She should have probably called the man out on his bullshit. She probably shouldn't believe that she was actually standing before Robin Hood. But if the past few years had taught her anything it was that crazy, impossible shit happened. And it tended to happen to and around her.
"Well shit, I doubt anyone here makes tasers do they?"
Author's Note: Ok, so it turns out that I didn't write for tLoF or a western. This is something I thought up a couple of days ago. It is a bit a nod to a story written for me from a friend I had years ago. The story was never finished, and now no longer is online, but the idea of being sent back in time at the faire has stuck with me. Also I've just started to watch Outlander, and time travel is sort of stuck on my mind. I'm also a huge fan of time travel stories, in fic and originals.
Now, this is Darcy and Robin Hood. Not some member of the Avengers as Robin, but Robin Hood. Also, this isn't based on any version of Robin from movies or tv or books. I'm sort of making this up as I go, so this is just going to be my take on the famous character. So bear with me.
Another thing, I'm thinking this is going to be part of a series of stories where Darcy ends up sent back in time and joins the stories of legendary characters. I'm thinking Arthur is next.
I have no idea how long between updates this will be, cause I'm also writing other stories and I have work. But I had to get this down and share it. Unlike my other stories where I plot and plan everything out, making drafts and things, this is one where I'm flying by the seat of my pants. So it will probably feel a bit random. Oh well, let's see where this shall take us, huh?
Disclaimer:All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.