"Freak!"
"Come back here weirdo!"
The shouts rang out in the air, and the young woman increased her pace.
Why oh why had she let it be known where her hobby was? It was her own fault for being such an oddball. Too much reading, that's what her aunt said.
"Come on then, show us how to fight!" sneered one of her pursuers.
She hadn't meant to be so 'odd'. She had always liked history, the battles fascinated her. She had read about the Welsh longbow men and joined an archery club with her allowance, and finally found somewhere where she could make friends.
The footsteps behind her started to fade; she was losing them.

She ran on until she came to the edge of the town, vaulted over a fence and into the countryside. She stopped, breathing hard. It was close; a storm was coming.
She wished for a minute she had her inhaler with her, but remembered what her Godfather had always said about it. "If you use it too much, you'll need it too often". She felt a small pang at the memory of him. He had been her father's closest friend, as far as she knew. Her father had been killed when she was a tiny child, her mother gone just a few days after Maon's own birth, and it was her Godfather who had taken her in and raised her.
Damn her aunt for moving to Wales! It was ironic that she was picked on most for her desire to be like the welshmen of old. She smiled mirthlessly to herself. Ironic also that since they had moved she hadn't been able to do anything vaguely like that.
She shook her head and walked onwards, pondering. Her aunt was not an unkind woman, but she was not friendly to Maon. She couldn't forgive Maon for the death of her mother, and had viewed her Godfather with complete suspicion. As far as her Aunt was concerned, Maon was tainted by him, a bloody nuisance.

Her cousins disliked her on principle, and so she had found herself more or less alone in the world when her Godfather had been killed 10 years previously.

So much about her was different to her contemporaries, she couldn't help but understand why they bullied her. People lash out when they're frightened she thought to herself.
She had a worked as the groom for her cousins 6 horses. Her cousins were budding show riders, but didn't like to look after their horses. Far too much manual work involved. That had started out as a way to humiliate her, but it had backfired. Maon had been able to spend all her free time in the stables, and then the weekend with the archery club, so keeping the time with her relatives to an absolute bare minimum.

Thunder growled overhead, and Maon glanced skywards. Too soon to go back to town, they'd still be hanging around for her.
21 and still bullied by the local thugs! She shook her head again and hurried into the trees; there was bound to be somewhere to doss out for a few hours. She'd lost the knack of dealing with people when she'd come under guardianship of her aunt.

This time though she knew what had angered them. She had been watching a girl whipping her pony at a jump, and had lost her rag. She had run into the ring, pulled the girl off the animal and led the sweating pony away to it's stall. Shortly afterwards the girls brothers had come to see her.

Maon and her relatives had only moved there a couple of months earlier, so she didn't know the lie of the land yet. Mentally or physically she thought dryly. A rocky hill was up ahead, she hurried towards it. There was bound to be somewhere to shelter among the stones.

On close inspection, there was an entrance into the hill. Must have been a mine once she thought to herself. Thunder growled again and, calculating her chances were better in the hill then on top of it, she stepped in cautiously. Taking her phone out of her pocket, she used it like a torch to see her surroundings. A long dark tunnel ahead.
Maon couldn't help it; she had never been able to resist exploring old things, which had once led to an unfortunate incident involving a school trip to a castle and an oubliette. She started to edge softly forwards into the dark, her phone held before her like a lantern. She had been exploring for some time and was quite some distance in when she came to a fork in the path, an offshoot to the left. She leaned in it, and saw it sloped away down into the dark.
A rumble echoed from outside and she startled back, banging her head.
She rubbed her head, and looked back down the main passage. A noise caught her attention, and she squinted into the dark towards it, frowning. It sounded like men, very far away.
She started to walk slowly towards it, wondering who on earth could be down there. She kept onwards, and the noises changed. There was a bang, a crash and rumble. Then the sound of screams and shouts. Maon froze.

Her conscience got the better of her, and she started to hurry towards the noises. Then the tunnel began to shake, there was a roar of stone crashing down ahead. Maon dropped her phone as her balance went, and she stumbled, pitching forwards to a low wall. She banged her head and fell forward onto the ground, darkness enveloping her.