I know I've put a whole lot of stuff on fanfiction today, but I've had all those oneshots written for ages, and I already have the second chapter almost finished on this one.
Note: All of these events are happening at the same time. This chapter is pretty much just introducing you to the main characters: Collin of Clunn, Michael Dark, Artemis A'Dale, and Kace.
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Chapter One—Home At Last
Collin of Clunn sighed with happiness as he stepped onto English soil. He was home. At last. He was also alone, but the Sheriff of Nottingham was supposed to be sending an armed escort.
Not that Collin wanted an armed escort. He was happy with walking home. He could be alone. He could think.
Right now, Collin was at a little town on the ocean. He didn't know the name, but he did know it would take a while before he got back to Clunn.
Collin waited a few minutes longer, and then walked over to the nearest little shop. It was a blacksmith's. "Has anyone from Nottinghamshire been here today?" he asked the blacksmith, a large, burly man.
The man shook his head. "No. Who're you?" he asked gruffly.
"I am Lord Collin of Clunn. I have just returned to England, and the Sheriff of Nottingham was supposed to send an armed escort." Collin said, fully aware of now annoying and….nobleish he sounded.
Collin had always disliked being a noble. When he was younger, all he did was play with his best from the village of Clunn and a few other boys. He had hated it when his father forced him to come inside for lessons, and most of the time he just ignored his father's call.
Collin waited in the town until dusk, then sighed, got a room at the nearest inn, and went to sleep.
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Michael Dark hated his job. Not only was it extremely boring most of the time, but ever since 'ultimate hero to the peasants' Robin Hood had blown up the entire castle (and most of the town) of Nottingham, as a guard, he had to help rebuild the castle.
Luckily, Michael had been a guard since he was sixteen. He was twenty-one now. He was also quite….small. So, he was simply a supervisor. All of the surviving guards had been marked 'supervisor' by the new Sheriff. He was just as bad as Vaisey and Isabella, if not worse.
Even if he was a supervisor, standing around in the sun all day in a heavy, black guard's uniform was boring and stifling.
Still, it must be worse for those random peasants that were being forced to work because most of the guards had been killed or paralyzed in the great explosion. The latter were killed later, of course.
The explosion itself was pretty interesting, though. Michael had been standing guard at Locksley (or maybe Nettlestone, he couldn't remember which-Michael didn't care about details) when a fiery explosion had lit up the sky. Then he'd had to hunt down and execute the peasants that had clapped.
Just another day in the life of a castle guard.
They continued working until dusk, and then Michael went home. To Knighton.
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Artemis A'Dale. Younger sister to Allan A'Dale, famous outlaw.
Artemis loved her brother, but she was sick of being called 'Allan A'Dale's little sister'. Whenever she introduced herself, people looked shocked and asked if she knew Allan A'Dale.
Most of the time she said, "Yes, he's my brother." Unless, of course, she was being asked by a castle guard, Sheriff, etc. Her brother had a pretty bad with people of that sort.
Artemis lived in a cottage in Locksley. She had learned how to read and write at a fairly young age, and she taught some village children three times a week: Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. The other days she was one of the women that served food and treated minor injuries for the men that were working on rebuilding the town of Nottingham.
Artemis was twenty-three and not married. She hadn't ever been married, either. For some reason, she just wasn't attracted to any of the men she'd met. There was a castle guard that she thought was rather attractive, but nothing other than that.
It's not like Artemis was ugly, because she wasn't. She was a bit taller than most women, but only by an inch or two. She had jet black hair that, at the moment, was very long and very straight. Her eyes were the same sparkling blue of her brothers.
Artemis was also a skilled swordswoman. When she was still living in Rochdale with Tom, Allan, and their father, the three children would pretend they were knights, and used sticks as swords. When Tom and her were eleven and Allan was fourteen, they ran away. Allan and her were amazing liars, and all three of them could steal anything that wasn't nailed down tightly, so naturally, they stole some real swords to practice (and defend themselves) with.
Today was a Saturday. She had just gotten back from her shift at the 'castle'. It was her relaxing time. She sat on the ground in front of her cottage and watched the sun go down.
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Kace inwardly groaned as the cart he had snuck into was stopped for inspection. It wouldn't be near as bad if he didn't have the tanned skin all Saracens had, but….
As the cart rolled to a stop, Kace regretted sneaking into England in the first place. He had decided to because he was sick of all the heat and sand. He needed a change of scenery.
Bouncing over multiple rocks in these English roads, though, his stomach didn't feel the same.
Kace saw a small patch of light as the guard moved a sack near the top of the pile that covered him. He tensed, hand on his sword. It was a Saracen sword that he had brought from his home.
As the guard removed more sacks, Kace's heart pounded harder and harder. He readied himself to startle the guard by jumping up, sword in hand, and then running off.
There was a pause. Kace held his breath. "Well, you're good." The guard said. Kace heard the farmer grumble and pile the sacks back into the cart. He then listened to the man's grumbling to try and figure out where they were headed.
"…..At least I'm almost to Locksley…" the man mumbled, and Kace inwardly laughed. Locksley! In the letters, that was mentioned as one of the towns close to Nettlestone, where his contact lived.
The cart kept going, and Kace was slowly lulled to sleep…..
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There, so what do you think?
Is it good, bad, boring, exciting, whatever?
Next chapter, most of them will meet each other, and we'll see what kind of people they actually are.
With this, it's pretty much only established that Michael is sick of his life and that Artemis is like her brother.
Anyway, please review!
(I plan on finishing this story, I've almost got chapter two done already)
