Author's Note: Still don't own anything but my plot and my OC Sarah. Disclaimer in past chapters.
Alright, I lied. Well not technically. It is Sunday here. It's 12:12 am as I type this. But I hit a random burst of creativeness and thus Chapter 10 was born. I'm going to continue working and hopefully by later Sunday afternoon chapter 11 will be here as well. I've literally written this in the last half hour, but I've proofread it twice so hopefully there are no errors. Please continue reading and reviewing, the story is at a pivotal point as far as some of the relationships and story arcs go so please let me know if you don't like something I'm doing. If the majority doesn't like it then I can try to change my ideas a bit. Otherwise I'm going to assume everyone likes it and keep going. Once I have relationships established, or if you guys think of any from what I've already written, I would love to write some one-shots to maybe fill in a few of the small time gaps I've left. Wouldn't be opposed to trying to write some M rated stuff, but normally my range is K+ to T so don't expect perfection. Just basically, please continue to review or if you don't want to review but want to raise either an issue or discuss the story, feel free to send me a personal message! Love having feedback, it makes me want to keep writing, makes me feel like I have to be accountable with this story! Much love to everyone reading, hope you have a pleasant Sunday!
Chapter 10
The Forest
Sarah started walking in the direction she saw Robin had headed. She could see his footprints as they littered the path he had taken. She followed his path for a few minutes, each step she took away from the camp made her feel a bit more at home. Guy had returned her sword and its weight hung heavy off her belt, bow and quiver upon her back, and dagger in her pocket, she felt at home. Despite growing up in a farm town, she had learned to love the forest, it made her feel alive as a person. As a child she had spent most of her free time out in the forest, it was how she had learned to live off of the land.
As the uneasy feeling of being watched from the camp left her, Sarah finally relaxed fully into her surroundings. She could depend less on the dwindling tracks Robin had left her to follow, and focus more on tracking him. It became like a hunt, adrenaline and longing for the heat of capture and victory swimming in her veins. She eventually tracked Robin to a little bit of a clearing in the forest, a small brook ran by where he had stopped to sit down. Robin looked sad and a bit distraught, but mostly confused. Sarah wanted to make up for the awkward meeting earlier in the morning, so she decided to cheer him up.
Sarah climbed the tree that he was sitting under, so light footed was she that she didn't disturb a single leaf. Even if Robin had been paying perfect attention, he would not have heard her ascension into the tree. She gracefully glided across the branch above Robin's head. She took her pouch of water from her belt and opened the end just slightly. She allowed a few drops of water to fall out, each landing on Robin's head. By about the fifth drop, Robin glanced upward, confused as there was no rain falling around him. Sarah lay flat against the branch, making herself invisible from below. She continued this pattern of dropping water and hiding until Robin got up and moved from underneath her branch. In order to really mess with him, she climbed up a little higher and restarted the process from the new branch. Eventually after his confused looks continued to get stronger, Sarah couldn't help herself and started to laugh. As Robin looked up at the noise, she peaked her head out from behind the branch.
Robin gave her a look of condescension for her actions and looked back down at the ground. "Well that certainly won't do," Sarah thought. She climbed back down the tree, once again without a sound and sat down on the ground next to Robin. "I thought that might make you laugh." She said to break the silence. "But apparently I'm not as funny as I think." She said with a small smile.
That got a slight chuckle out of Robin. "A few days ago, I would have found it funny. Just not lately." He said with a sigh. "I know you don't know me all that well, but sometimes talking to someone on the outside can help. What's bothering you? And don't say nothing, you and I both know that's a cop out phrase. And besides, Much already stole the one time I'll let that go as an answer for today." She smiled up at him again.
Something about Sarah made him feel a bit more at ease. But he also wanted to make a good impression, he couldn't just pour out all that was bothering him on someone he just met a few hours ago. "You're right, it's not nothing. But I don't feel that it would be right just to dump all of this on you."
"Then don't dump the whole thing, but maybe just a bit. Like instead of eating a whole pie, just take a small slice. Generally, that little slice is better than nothing."
"I'm confused Sarah." Robin said.
"So are a lot of people. What makes your confusion so special?" He laughed at her comment. "Nothing in particular makes mine special, I'm just not used to feeling confused. In war I knew what I had to do, cut and dry there was only one or two options at most and you went with what would cause the greater good to come out. Back here, that's the way I've always lived my life. I've always gone with my gut, done what I thought was best for the greater good. But now…I don't even know what to think anymore. Suddenly the Sheriff is sort of an ally, but not really,"
Sarah interrupted, "A frienemy?" "Yeah sort of, Guy, well I'm technically related to him, Will and Djaq are back from the Holy Land, Marian isn't dead, you're here, I almost died, it's been a bit messy lately. And I guess I don't know where to go from here. Everything I knew has been flipped around."
"Is it safe to say that your gut isn't saying anything for you to do."
"No, more like the opposite. It keeps screaming for me to do something, anything. To make some sense of this situation. To make decisions, but I don't like any of the options it is giving me."
"Options?" Sarah inquired. "Well the first was kill the sheriff, and I thought that's what I would have wanted to do, but I couldn't. He was so helpless and I couldn't just do that to him. Which makes no sense, I should hate him and I do, but not enough to murder him. Second, well I just really don't know what to do about Marian. We were engaged, over a year ago. But I don't know where we stand. And with Guy also in the picture, things are back to the shade of grey they always were. I don't even know if I feel like fighting for her anymore. I don't even know if my men trust me anymore. I've been so scatterbrained lately. And things have just gotten a bit weird with some of the gang lately."
"First off Robin, I think it was fate you didn't kill the sheriff because the only reason I'm even here was because I intended to speak to the sheriff. Second, your men trust you to within an inch of their lives. Saw that today in camp when Much realized you had spared the Sheriff. Thirdly, I don't know what you mean by weird, because I've just met you all. But, I'm sure things will sort themselves out. You've got a family there Robin, even if it doesn't feel like it sometimes." With that Sarah stood up. "I'd better head back to camp. Don't want to make myself seem too much of a loner on my first day here." She smiled and left. Robin continued to sit in the clearing. He moved to where his hand would dangle in the cool water. He smiled at the reflection in the water. He sighed and leaned his head back against the tree he was propped up against. His mind wandered to his troubles, what to do with the sheriff, what to do about Gisborne and Marian, what to do with Nottingham, what to do with Prince John, what to do about…Allan. Robin hadn't meant to react the way he did this morning. He hoped that Allan had not awoken to see his reaction. Robin didn't exactly mind the fact that Allan had slept next to him to help him through his pain. Somehow though, he felt that waking up under his arm was flirting with a line. And it was a line he had never hoped to ever see in all of his days. He realized he couldn't handle that train of thought anymore and headed back to safer territory, thinking of Nottingham, Prince John, and battle strategies were safe, methodical. Nothing unexpected could come of those thoughts. And they would help him make his next move. As he thought of Nottingham, his mind drifted to Locksley. Of his land and his servants, his people. And with a happy smile he drifted off into sleep.