Chapter 3
While Much might have been infuriating,
over the next couple of years he turned
into Piper's best friend. Piper suspected that,
he being the only person her age that she
knew, might have had something to do with that. She knew it certainly couldn't have
been his personality.
"How are you going to be a guard
if you can't even beat up a simple miller?" He
asked, taunting her one day.
"Well it doesn't help that you're bigger than me."
"And the bands of desperate outlaws
will all be smaller than you?"
"Shut up."
It was true, Piper had rarely
beaten Much in a fight, but to her credit, she rarely ever lost
either. Typically, they ended up abandoning the
fight for something more interesting such
as visiting the Farmer's Dog, or setting up elaborate
pranks for the town's less friendly
citizens.
Piper felt that she couldn't
allow that simple miller to antagonize her without being punished.
She punched him hard in the arm, and then walked away.
Much fell behind her a few paces
rubbing his arm. "Ow! You're such a girl!" He
muttered under his breath.
**********
"No!" Piper was once again
pinned to the ground. She looked up at Jeff. He was
one of the youngest guards and one of the least experienced. He had often been Piper's
sparring partner during hand-to-hand fighting and he
almost always won. Jeff helped
her to her feet as Richard walked over to them.
"No!" He said again. "Piper, how many times do I have teh tell yeh? You'll never
overpower an opponent, so stop tryin'. Yer small,
even fer a lass. If yer ever goin' teh
be a guard, yeh'll have to accept yer size and use it
teh yer advantage,"
"Well, how am I supposed to do
that?" She threw up her arms in frustration as she
screamed. "How should I win a fight without strength? Use my size? Maybe I should
just let the outlaws laugh themselves to death. At least that has some chance of happening."
Piper fumed. Just for good measure, she threw in
several vile oaths that would make an
outlaw blush.
"Finished?" Richard asked
calmly. Piper merely scowled in response. "Fine." He
continued, ignoring her impudence. "I think that
we'll try something new fer yer training.
Bear!" He called over his shoulder.
Piper took an involuntary step
backward. From across the field, the short stocky guard
named Bear walked towards them. Piper was convinced
that Bear hated her. Every
time they crossed paths, he would glare at her with malice. Whenever he witnessed one
of her failures on the training field, he seemed to take
quiet, personal pleasure in it.
There eyes met for an instant as Bear stopped before his superior. ""Yes Richard?"
"Piper here is still having trouble fighting. I want yeh teh work with her."
The order received protest from
both people.
"No, it's alright! I don't
need the help. I can do it on my own!"
"Sir, I don't have the time to
play games with the Sheriff's ward. Perhaps William
or Steven could..."
Richard glared at Bear. "I did not ask you." Richard spoke clearly, with firm
authority. Then he turned to Piper. "Either
of you." He concluded. "Piper, lass,
yeh want teh be a guard. Yeh best get accustomed
teh following orders without question."
Piper and Bear both looked at
the ground in quiet defeat. Richard smiled at them both.
"Bear, yer one of my best fighters. Yeh can use
yer opponent's strength against them,
which is something that Piper needs teh learn. I want yeh teh teach her. An hour a
day; that shouldn't take too much time out of yer other
duties." He smiled broadly at
both of them, and walked away.
Piper and Bear sneered at each other in silence for about a minute.
"Fine, let's get this over with." Bear growled out and walked a few yards away
from the rest of the training guards.
Piper followed, a few paces behind. "You have no idea how happy I am." She
mumbled sulkily behind him.
**********
"Do you honestly think you can
overpower me?" Bear sneered at Piper. She was
sore and bruised all over. After one hour of training
with Bear, she was much more
severely beaten than two hours with any other guard. The guard had mercilessly
thrown her to the ground time after time. Each
time she had gotten back up and tried
again to beat him.
Now she stood several feet away
from him, breathing raggedly and staring venomously
at Bear. "I can do anything that you can do." She spat.
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"I've seen you. You can
beat Richard in a fight and he's a lot bigger than you. If you
can beat Richard, than I can beat you."
Bear regarded her silently for
a moment. "You're only half right. I don't beat Richard.
I let him do that. If I relied on my strength against
Richard, I'd be as bloodied as you
are now. It's his own strength that I use. I'll show yo how tomorrow. Now leave."
Piper stared at him. He
was sending her away after beating her for an hour, he was just
sending her away. She vowed then and there that
she would learn whatever he had to
teach her and beat him the way that he beat her.
Just as she turned to go, Bear
stopped her. "There's one other thing." He said. She
turned without a word.
"Your hair."
"What of it?"
He took two strides towards her
so that he was standing right in front of her. Before
she had the chance to protest, he grabbed a handful of
hair and jerked her head back
sharply. She suddenly found herself looking up
into his cold, unpleasant face, unable
to move. She didn't flinch. She wouldn't
give him that satisfaction.
"It's a weakness." He whispered. He threw her to the ground and walked away.
Piper pushed herself back to
her feet and walked slowly made her way back to the
Manor. She was furious. He thinks he
can chase me away.> She thought. That's
what he's trying to do. He doesn't know me very
well.>
She snuck through the halls with grim determination. She didn't want anyone to see her.
When she got to her room, the
first thing she did was start a fire. Then she pulled a small
knife from it's hiding place under the waist of her skirt. She had made a habit of carrying
it with her always. There were more outlaws in
the forest now than ever. On her excursions
into town, she thought she should protect herself.
Now she held it in her hand and
thought how beautifully it glowed in the orange firelight.
She took a deep breath and grabbed a handful of hair. "It's a weakness." She whispered,
and began to cut.
**********
It was very late by the time
she had been discovered. After cutting off all her hair, she
hid in a seldom used room, behind a broken table. Sarah was the one who discovered her.
"Saints and angels, what happened to you girl?" Sarah screeched loudly enough to be
heard by nearly the entire town.
Piper looked up at her, bleary
eyed. "I was going into town." Her voice was small and
weak. She had practiced that for hours. She
wasn't used to lying, or pretending to cry,
but she couldn't let anyone know what really happened
to her. "Outlaws found me, and
they wanted money, but I didn't have any." At this
point she started sniffling and shaking.
"They took my hair!" She wailed. "I tried
to fight them but...but..." She curled into a
ball, whimpering quietly. Sarah rushed to her,
and gently cradled her.
"Shhh." She soothed as
she stroked what was left of Piper's firey, wild hair. "Don't cry.
It will be alright. Everything will be alright."
Piper continued crying as she
wondered at how easy it was to fool Sarah. The woman
completely believed her story. It took a lot of
effort for Piper to keep herself from smiling
at her little victory.