Robin Hood
"Rise and rise again, till lambs become lions"
Captain Maverik sat up straight, his eyes alert and glued to the forest around him. His senses were aware or things happening around him, the woods are no place for a man to relax. He looked back at the rest of his troops, two dozen men strong each of them armed and protecting the king's cargo. Food, water and other necessities King John was having brought to his palace for his feast. They travelled the road now making sure the cargo got to where it was supposed to.
"Please food," an old women cried running up to the Captain's horse, three children surrounded her each of them looking half starved, their bones showing clearly since they had no tops to cover their bare chests and only torn breaches covering their bottoms.
"Get lost women," Maverik sneered, to become a beggar is to give up all dignity, death would be a greater choice then giving up pride. He kicked her arm away but still she went for his leg again, her children crowded his horse. "Bloody wretches need to learn their place!" he shouted as his hand went to his sword at his hip, pulling it free and slashing at the women. One of the children saw the impending danger and pushed the women out of the way, the blade that was intended to simply scare the women, instead sheered into the boy's back, leaving a bleeding trail across the child's back.
The women saw the child and screamed out before forgetting about Maverik and rushing to the downed child's aid. Maverik replaced his sword in its scabbard, he hadn't even stopped to deal with the women and so he still continued on, no proper English person, would ever stoop to such a low stature.
The men behind him sneered at each other, each of them trying to make use of the time given to them. Some of them joked about the old women, some about the women at the king's palace. The sun began to set as time went on and the trail carried on, the forest growing more and more unwelcome. They were almost at their stop at the city of Obrandian.
Travellers showed up on the road ahead simply sitting on a log blocking the road. Maverik in the lead halted his men to stop when the traveller's didn't move out of their way. "In the name of King John, get out of our way." Maverik called out.
The four travellers wore huge green cloaks and Maverik was slowly reaching for his sword if these men decided to give them trouble. Only one however looked up at him. "Of course sir," a female voice came from beneath the hood of the cloak. "However could you spare a moment to answer one of my questions?"
Maverik smiled one of his twisted smiles as he realized that he had been on the road for a long time, and things were getting lonely. "Of course." Maverik said, as he dismounted, his sword at his side within easy reach, his men waited mounted, obviously eager to watch something other than trees.
The women seemed to not notice what he was doing and still continued on like nothing was happening. "What would you do if a women came up to you and tried to rape you?" Maverik finally caught sign of the face hidden beneath the hood, a soft innocent looking face belonging to reasonably aged women, traces of her long blond hair were visible.
Maverik laughed out, a woman! Like a woman could do anything more than cook! The thought amused him so much that he decided to answer the women's question. "First, I would take my knife and ram it into her gut, and then I'd slam her into the tree over there." He said the last words with a quick gesture of his hand towards one of the nearby trees. Then he smiled, as he got close enough to her and reached out to touch her.
"Thank you." She said, then the women whipped her cloak away, one hand held a long dagger which she used to ram into his gut. Maverik let out his breath as he was stabbed before the women leaped into the air and kicked him in the side of his head towards the tree he had pointed to. He staggered towards it and he knew what was coming next, the women grabbed his head with both hands and slammed it into the tree and he fell to the ground, his helmet taking most of the damage but still shaken and bleeding from the wound his chainmail should have protected him from.
Maverik looked back towards his men, wondering what was going on but the first death cries came quickly as he slumped to the ground. The other three travellers had pulled away their cloaks to reveal bows, each of them knocked with an arrow and aimed. From the trees figures appeared, there were some in the trees and some hidden on the ground, each of them armed with a bow, some held arrows, and some had held them.
Arrows flew through the air, embedding themselves in his men's chests, each of them crying out. There were a few of them on the ground who had gone in to engage the soldiers on foot, only about seven of his men remained and about three of theirs had entered.
His men, although trained soldiers didn't stand much chance against arrows. Two more of his men fell quickly, each of them embedded by at least three arrows and then he saw one of his men sneaking up behind one of the bandit's backs.
"Longstride, behind you!" a voice called out, the unsuspecting bandit turned sharply, the figure held a bow in one hand while his other one held a knife which he threw at the soldier behind him. The soldier raised his shield, blocking the knife but the bandit had already drawn an arrow and as soon as the soldier lowered his shield the bandit released, the arrow going through the man's skull.
More men fell, only him and two more were left alive, his two men were still fighting, one carried a sword the other held a mace and his shield. One man approached them, he held a hammer with a long shaft, and he swung it with such strength that when it hit his first target, the man with the mace and shield, his shield broke under the blow, shattering. The man then moved up and brought his hammer around again smashing it into the side of the soldier.
The last soldier tried striking from behind but the same women from before that had stabbed Maverik was there, her dagger blocked the two strikes the soldier threw and then she simply slashed the man's arm causing him to drop his sword and then swiped his neck, killing the man.
Maverik tried to pull himself up, his weight was rested on the tree behind him and he was growing weaker. The women walked towards him and looked at him. "You're a women." He said in disbelief.
"I'm also the one who's responsible for your death." She replied.
Maverik looked at the convoy, he saw the bandits taking it away. He looked back up at the women and asked, "Who are you?" his words coming out slowly and weak.
The women took out a piece of paper from inside her cloak and then took hold of Maverik and lifted him up, holding him against the tree. She then held the paper over Maverik's chest and then the slight sound of the release of an arrow filled the air. An audible thunk resonated as the arrow pierced the paper and Maverik's body embedding him against the trunk of the tree.
Maverik looked down at the sheet of paper, coughing as he caught sight of the words. His breath was coming harder and his vision dulled, as he knew what the last thing that would be burned into his vision would be. A wanted poster with a face of a man and two words, a name on the sheet of paper right below the face.
"ROBIN HOOD"
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