The twanging sound of the arrow hitting its target was quickly becoming like a sweet lullaby to Robin's ears and she smirked to herself at another near perfect shot. The bow and arrow given to her by her mother as an early birthday present was near identical to the one her father had used while he was still alive. They hadn't been able to give her his actual bow since it was in another realm with her older half brother, Roland, and the rest of the Merry Men, but they got a pretty close replica and while Robin would have loved a piece of her father to carry around with her, she also loved having something that was all her own, more.
It turned out that she really was just that good with them. Okay, she wasn't on her father's level, but she did have a natural talent that made it easy to pick up on the basics at least. And she was just going to be getting better and better the more she worked at it.
Since getting her bow, Robin had spent many days wandering away into the woods and practicing for hours at a time. At first she had simply aimed to get her arrows to stick firmly into the trees she picked out, but as of late she had taken to drawing targets into the trees with a pocket knife and aiming for certain areas to give herself a proper challenge and to help her improve. She couldn't quite hit all of them, but she got pretty close each time and she was learning how to judge the way the arrow would fly depending on the breeze – it had taken her ten minutes of checking that her arrows weren't bent before this lesson sunk in and she realised why she was having trouble. After that she over compensated and got similar results in the opposite direction but it was all part of the learning experience. And in a few years from now, she hoped to be as good with her bow as her mother was with her newly returned magic.
Apart from the sound of her arrow digging into the tree bark, the area she had chosen was silent of all natural and unnatural noises. She chose this area on purpose in order to focus on her training, as well as give her a heads up if anyone tried to surprise her. The area wasn't exactly dangerous but, by now, Robin knew how danger could come from the most unsuspecting places and so to always be on guard. After a few practice sessions, working in the silence with only a slight rustle of the wind to cover the sound of her own deep breath, Robin found she had gotten quite good at listening out for even the slightest crunch of boots on dry leaves and gravel.
But then, she didn't need to be good at listening to hear the loud female shriek that sounded without warning in the otherwise silent forest. In fact, it happened so suddenly that it surprised Robin enough that her body jolted slightly just as she was about to release an arrow and she missed her current target completely, the arrow lodging itself into the side of a neighbouring tree instead.
Slowly, Robin glanced around, listening closely to try and figure out where the noise had come from. The loud cry had gone quiet almost immediately, but after a moment it was then followed by the muffled sound of someone cursing a series and swears that – as Mrs Nolan would say – were worthy of a sailor. After a moment of hesitation, Robin quickly rounded up her arrows from the trees and ground and then slowly began to creep after the source of the sound, doing her best to make as little noise as possible by watching where she put her feet every step of the way. She didn't know who it was, or what they were doing here, so she wasn't going to take any chances, even if they did sound like they were in trouble.
In the end, it didn't take her long to find the source of the voice.
A little away from Robin's usual training ground, the area became quite rough and unsteady. Roots grew up out of the ground in loops and sharp branches hung low and stuck out in all the gaps that weren't full with broken tree barks, thorn bushes and mountains of rocks and dirt moulded together until it was impossible to distinguish what was what. There was no set pathway and the ground was littered with uneven bumps and sharp stones mixed in with the hard crunching gravel and an endless set of odd patches of tall grass and weeds that tangled on anything that happened to get in the way.
The girl was sitting in amongst that mess. She was around the same age as Robin, though maybe a little older, with long tangled blonde hair in a loose fitting dress and dark boots to match the dark leather gloves she wore on her hands. She was pretty enough except that her face was twisted in ugly pain and annoyance as she was clutching at one of her feet which had gotten caught between a nasty twisting tree root and a thick branch that had broken off from one of the trees above, getting caught – quite literally – between a rock and a hard place. Her foot was well and truly wedged into place and her constant tugging was likely to do little more than break her ankle if she kept it up.
"If you keep that up, you're just going to do more damage." Robin said, swinging her bow onto her shoulder as she climbed over a series of boulders half buried in the ground towards the girl, ducking a low hanging branch at the same time.
Alice, who had been so caught up in freeing herself that she hadn't even heard the sound of the other girl approach, let out another shriek and turned, accidentally twisting her foot further into the gap and sending another sharp spasm of pain up her leg. Before she even had a decent look at the approaching girl, she dropped back onto the hard seat of the log she had crouched down over and let out another series of curses, temporarily forgetting the stranger in favour of her throbbing ankle.
When the pain had settled, she looked up and frowned suspiciously. The girl who approached her was a little younger than Alice, but not by much, with long blonde hair that was mostly tied back, in a green and brown set of clothing that made her almost blend in with the trees she was currently manoeuvring around, at least, all apart from the white shirt she wore underneath it. She also had a set of arrows stretched across her back and a bow balanced against her shoulder, cute, but that didn't stop Alice from reaching behind her for the closest thing she could use as a weapon in order to defend herself if this girl came any closer to where she was still stuck.
Robin climbed down the rocks and came to a stop a short distance away from the girl. "You're going to break your ankle if you just keep pulling at it like that."
"Stay away from me!" Alice snapped, swinging a branch out in front of her like a sword. "Just sod off and leave me alone!"
"Easy! I'm just trying to help." Robin said, holding her hands up in front of her to show she meant to harm. "You look like you could use it."
"I don't need your help, so go away." Alice snarled, turning back and trying once again to free her foot, keeping the stick in her hand the whole time just in case.
For anyone else, Robin might have done just that. She normally would have left anyone not wanting her help alone, but something was making her pause. The girl seemed to be on her own, and quite clearly had no idea what to do with herself now that she was so firmly stuck. Robin hadn't been exaggerating. At the rate she was pulling and twisting at her leg, she was going to snap the bone any minute now, and then she'd be left with a broken leg in one of the roughest parts of the land. And to top it off, they were almost in the very centre of the forest, so she likely wouldn't even be able to drag or hop her way for help if she did manage to break her way free.
"You do need help." Robin said, moving a little close but then stopping, still a safe distance away. "So if you don't want me coming near you, at least let me talk you through it. Trust me, I've gotten my fair share of feet stuck around these parts and it takes more than just a hard pulling to get out again."
Alice turned and glared at her. She had a pretty face, soft and friendly, but she wasn't the first soft and friendly face that Alice had encountered, and the other had tricked her into consuming a drink that would forever separate her with her beloved father, the other person she had even known in her life – literally. Since escaping the tower, Alice had done her best to avoid all other people, instead searching the lands and exploring the different realms by herself, all the while she dreamed of somehow finding a cure for the curse so she might rejoin with her father one day.
When she did come across people during her travels, she ran the other way, not trusting any of them after what happened back in her tower, and she didn't trust this girl either. She was acting like she wanted to help, but she probably just wanted to rob her or something. Not that Alice had anything worth stealing, but this girl didn't know that.
"I said I don't need help," Alice snapped, pulling her foot and scratching along the top of her leg in the process. "AH!" She gasped, wincing as tears began to fill her eyes.
"Careful!" Robin said, jumping over and grabbing her leg to keep her from trying to pull at it any more.
"Ow, damn!" Alice hissed, cringing as Robin held her leg still. "Get off me," Alice said, grabbing her wrists and trying to push her off.
"Enough! Calm down!" Robin snapped, grabbing Alice's hands and pinning them in front of her, forcefully looking the girl in the eyes. "I promise, I'm not here to hurt. I just want to help."
Alice looked at her and paused. Now that she was this close, she could see all the little features on her face, like the thickness of her eyelashes, and her pale lips and the slight freckles and blemishes that graces the sides of her face. But mostly, Alice found herself looking into a pair of deep green eyes and it was her eyes that made Alice pause. Maybe it was because this was the closest she had been to another person apart from her father in her entire life, but there was something hypnotising about being this close and being able to see them in such great detail.
"You okay now?" Robin asked gently.
"Mmm," Alice mumbled, not trusting herself to speak.
Was it possible to tell what a person was like just by looking into their eyes? Because Alice had the strangest sensation like she suddenly knew this girl wasn't trying to hurt her. Her eyes were light, and soft, gentle even like her voice and with the look of someone who generally cared and who honestly just wanted to help. There wasn't any hidden agenda in the flash of emerald surrounding the dark pupils and when she looked back up at her...
Alice realised she had been leaning towards her. She pulled back, her face growing hot and she forced herself to look away, looking down at her foot even while, in her mind, she was still stuck staring into those startling green eyes. The girls hand worked softly, gently pulling at the root and branch to try and widen the gap but they were both stubbornly refusing to be moved and after a moment she changed her mind and began to undo the laces of Alice's boot instead.
"What are you doing?" Alice mumbled, frowning at her hands, still determined not to look back at her face, at least until she had managed to compose herself beforehand.
"I'm getting you out of here," Robin said. "Just hold on." She paused. "So, what's your name?"
Alice scowled down at her foot, still feeling hot in the face and trying not to think about how close this pretty green eyed girl was to her, even as one of her hands continued stroking her leg accidentally while the other untied the last few laces of her boot. She refused to answer her, pressing her lips tightly together as if to resist the temptation and trying to keep back the other urge she had to glance up at her and get another peek to see if this girl was looking at her.
"If you don't give me your name I'm just going to call you Sailor." Robin said lightly. "You know, cause of all the swearing." She added, attempting a joke to lighten the girl's mood.
Alice growled and finally looked up again, scowling. "Well then I'll just call you Green Eyes!"
The two girls paused to stare at each other in temporary shock. Even Alice was surprised by what she said, and she felt herself growing even more red in the face as she thought about how stupid she had sounded by saying it aloud. She'd only meant to come up with a quick and clever reply so as not to look foolish, but in the end she came up with one so quick that she didn't have a chance to think it through and so she did the very thing she was trying to avoid. She'd made herself sound like a complete moron! Alice wanted to take it back but she couldn't, so instead she held Robin's gaze. She stubbornly refused to be the first to back down even as it became increasingly hard while Robin just blinked at her with those very same distracting green eyes.
"Okay…" Robin said slowly, frowning with a slight smile. "Whatever you want, Sailor."
"Are you going to get me out of here or what, Green Eyes." Might as well just go along with it at this point.
Robin's smile spread. "Whatever you say, Sailor." She said, turning back to the other girls leg, and she slowly began to ease Alice's foot from the gap. Unfortunately, even with her boot off, it still wasn't quite able to squeeze out. "So what are you doing here?" Robin asked as she reached into her pocket, searching for something. "This area isn't exactly your usual Sunday jogging spot."
"Not that it's any of your business," Alice said coldly. "But I was chasing a rabbit."
Robin snorted loudly. "What?" She laughed.
"I was chasing a rabbit," Alice explained, shrugging like it was a casual thing she did all the time – which she did. "They're realm jumpers and I like jumping realms. White rabbits are known to be able to find secret portals to other worlds; Rabbit Holes, if you want to call them that, and I followed one here so I was trying to follow it back again."
Robin snorted again, "Sorry. I mean. I believe you, but it's still funny you were just out chasing rabbits around."
"It's not funny! It's completely reasonable!" Alice snapped.
"Whatever, I'm still changing your nickname to Rabbit." Robin said, smirking as she reached back to search her other pocket.
"You can't just change my nickname!" Alice said, outraged though she wasn't sure why. Neither of the nicknames were great, for goodness sake.
"Watch me," Robin smirked.
Alice frowned at her, squinting slightly. "Well then I'll just change your nickname then."
"Go right ahead, what is it now?" Robin asked, glancing up at her and pausing in her search.
Alice hesitated, then fumbled with an idea before finally shrugging and stubbornly crossing her arms over her chest. "Well I haven't thought of it yet, but I will!"
"You let me know when you do." Robin grinned, then finally found what she was looking for and pulled out a short silver knife.
Instantly Alice felt the heat from her momentary blush drain from her face. She pressed back as far as she could, straining against the entrapment around her foot, and began to struggle to pull free again, shaking and knocking it so hard in its hole that she managed to knock Robin's hand off her leg and startle the other girl into pulling back slightly.
"Stay back!" Alice snapped. "You touch me with that knife and I'll-" Alice began.
"I'm not going to touch you." Robin said quickly, leaning down and beginning to cut through the root. "I don't know how you managed to get so stuck, but I can't slip you free so I'm just going to have to cut you out instead."
Alice stopped trying to pull herself out and felt her face grow pink again. She may have overreacted. Big time. It seemed that Green Eyes really wasn't trying to hurt her, but it was still hard for Alice to just trust a complete stranger like this. She wasn't used to being around people, and her first experience with a stranger had ended in one of the worst ways possible. Yet this girl, even as Alice shouted at her, just smiled and continued to help…
Robin broke through the root, pulling the last of it out of the ground with her bare hands and throwing it to the side. Immediately Alice stretched her leg out, wincing and rubbing the sore parts around her ankle where bruises were already beginning to form. It felt so good to gently massage and scratch the sore skin and Alice breathed a sigh of relief as she lifted her leg right up into the air, stretching it but mostly only doing it because she could again.
Alice realised that Robin was still watching her the whole time and she felt herself blush again. "Thanks." She said finally, easing her foot back into her boot and retying up the laces.
"No problem, Rabbit." Robin grinned, taking a seat on the ground opposite her. "I don't think I've seen you around here before."
"You haven't," Alice said. "This is my first time in this realm."
"You really travel between realms?" Robin asked.
"Yup," Alice said, finishing the last of her laces and moving to stand up, but she paused when she caught sight of the girls green eyes again, watching her closely. "Um. I've kind of been in the exact same place for all my life so I like to explore now that I'm free."
"That must be nice," Robin nodded.
"Yeah," Alice shrugged, not wanting to explain how awful it was to experience the world for the first time when she was in her late teens after a life time of being a prisoner. "So what are you doing here? In this forest I mean, if it's so rough and dangerous."
By now Alice had sat back slightly, watching Robin with both suspicion and intrigue. The other girl was slouching against the rock, in the most relaxed, laid back position, one of her legs stretched out in front of her and leaning on her elbows slightly. If Alice made a break for it, she doubt this girl would be able to follow her quickly enough to catch her. However, that wasn't taking into the fact that Green Eyes clearly knew the layout of this land much better than Alice did, but it was a risk that Alice was willing to take… It's just that, for whatever reason, she didn't feel like taking it.
"I come here a lot to practice," Robin explained, taking the bow off her shoulder and leaning it against the rock by her side. "It's a peaceful place when you want to be alone."
"Sorry I interrupted your alone time." Alice said quietly, half shrugging because she didn't know what else to do with herself.
"You didn't." Robin said immediately, then quickly added. "I mean, I was due for a break."
"Well. Thanks for the help." Alice said finally, jumping to her feet and brushing down her skirt. "But I've got me a rabbit to find."
"Let me go with," Robin said, climbing back up and moving to follow her. "The ground's still pretty rough so you might need a hand getting through it."
Alice snorted, glancing over her shoulder back at her. "Thanks, Green Eyes, but I'll be fine." She said, flipping her hair a little – okay, that was weird. Alice had never done that before. Why did she do it now?! "I had a little accident but I'm pretty good on my feet and I'll be careful now that I know what I'm in for." She turned away, giving a backwards wave and trying to calm the fast beating of her heart. What was wrong with her? "Later, Green Eyes."
She was just about to step between two closely growing trees when Robin called after her. "It's Robin."
Alice hesitated, biting her lip and fighting a ridiculous urge to smile. When she looked back, she raised a cool and bored eyebrow. "Okay. Later, Robin."
When she turned away Robin took a quick step after her. "I don't get your name?" She called.
Say something cool. Say something really suave, as her papa used to say. "Not yet." Alice said, then winced. What did that even mean? Did she just promise to see this girl again? That wasn't a promise she could keep. Alice was travelling and no one was going to keep her from seeing the world, so why did she say that like she would be back here?
"Next time then!" Robin called cheerfully.
Alice hesitated, still blushing hot in the face and she had to resist the urge to glance once more over her shoulder. Instead she jumped a log and landed hard in a mucky puddle, stepping forward onto a rock and climbing over a thick log, jogging through the gaps it had along its dark damp bark. Only she had taken just three steps when the bark broke under her and her heel sunk into the tree, catching her off guard and causing her to let out a slight squeal of surprise when she nearly lost her balance. Somehow she managed to swing her arms around and keep from toppling over, but her foot was once again wedged in place.
"Are you okay?!" Robin's voice came from somewhere behind the trees, closing in fast.
"Yeah!" Alice said quickly. "I'm fine!"
She tried to physically rip her foot out and nearly lost her balance again, waving her arms like she was trying to take flight. Before she could do anything else to handle this herself, Robin appeared through the trees, climbing after her in the exact same space she had stepped through and walking slowly towards her, arms crossed with a little smile still on her face.
"We meet again." Robin grinned. "Need another hand?"
"No! I'm fine!" Alice insisted and finally succeeded in ripping her foot free on her own.
Unfortunately, the force she used to break free then caused her to lose her balance on the log and no amount of waving her arms could keep her from falling off. She pitched to the side and dropped down, landing hard on top of Robin who attempted to catch her in her arms. As it turned out, they both ended up collapsing to the ground in a heap, luckily managing to land on one of the few open spaces so they didn't cause themselves too much damage at least.
"Ow," Robin winced, sitting up and glancing at where Alice was lying on top of her, her body trapping Robin's left arm under her. "Uh, so… Can I get your name now?"
Alice, who had been momentarily stunned and pushing herself up with one hand while the other rubbed a sore spot on her head, paused to blink and blush. They were close again, their faces inches from each other and she got another good look into Robin's fascinating green eyes. The same gentle kindness was there, but there was something else now, a slight cheekiness and light that Alice hadn't noticed the last time. Even in the darkness of the forest, she felt like she was looking into the promise of a warm summer day and wanted to melt into them…
Okay, that was way too corny! Especially for Alice.
Alice threw herself back onto her feet for the second time, leaping over Robin's body still lying on the ground and running into the closets set of trees. But even as she ran away from her, she couldn't resist calling back one last time. "Not yet!"
This time Alice managed to keep from making a klutz of herself. She wobbled a few steps but otherwise kept going until they left the forest and the ground cleared out for her, making it easier for her to run at her proper speed. But all thoughts of finding the rabbit were gone. Instead they were replaced with memories of the uneven forest behind her and the pretty girl who found her inside. She didn't know what Robin did after she had left. So she didn't know Robin watched her go with a little smile on her face the whole time, or that Robin returned home to tell her mother about the interesting encounter she had in the woods that she would late have a single dream of after staying up late thinking about her. She didn't know anything about the girl except for her name, and the fact that she had hypnotically beautiful green eyes.
Despite her initial fear and worry over meeting another person out in the open world like this, Alice secretly hoped there really was a 'Next Time' with the archer with dazzling Green Eyes.
This was a prompt from an Anon on my Tumblr. Was meant to be uploaded earlier but I got distracted. Either way! I still like how it turned out! I wonder if their real meeting with be anything like this? What do you guys think?