Disclaimer: Do not own Once a Upon a Time.

The breeze throughout the trees on the edge of the forest was icy. But I kept my eye on my prize, the wounded doe that was struggling to breath from my arrow stuck in its side. I stealthily entered the clearing, one foot at a time, making sure to be as quiet as possible. The grass underneath me fell silent, until I reached the doe. Lucky for me, the doe had fallen close to my side of the clearing, within 10 metres. I knelt down behind it, took out the dagger with my left hand and cut its throat. I felt one final breath.

I stood up. Looking slowly around, I began to slowly creep backwards towards the safety of the forest, pulling the doe with me. I felt exposed here, in the middle of the clearing and wanted to return to the safety of the forest before carving it up.

On the other side of the clearing, I heard heavy footsteps and big deep voices.

"Shiit." I whispered to myself. I had the choice to run to cover without the doe or get caught. I decided to just make a run for it, and left the doe. The grass was slippery against my trainers but I just made it out of the clearing.

From my vantage point on the other side of the clearing I could not see the faces of the voices but their bodies shone with the bright sun, I guessed that they were wearing armour so knights of the Dark Kingdom. But there were others there too. Those who looked tired and were slowly marching one behind the other. Prisoners. I decided I needed a closer look, so I quietly made my way around the edge of the clearing, until I was within 20 metres of the party.

"Move it along."

"We are trying, you try to walk with hand and ankle cuffs" I heard Leroy yell. Now I could see the prisoners' faces, but I didn't need to look to know it's Leroy. He was the town drunk and his voice was very recognizable.

I remembered Leroy and how antagonistic he could be, especially when drunk. So, his comment here wasn't going to help his cause.

"Halt." The knight at the front yelled. The knight put a hand out in front of Sleepy, the first dwarf in the line, which hit Sleepy dead in the chest. He stopped suddenly which caused all the seven other prisoners to crash into him.

'Seven?' I muttered to myself. 'There's seven dwarves but there are eight prisoners, all wearing wrist and ankle shackles. Who's the last prisoner?'

I focused on the last one in the line. She was different, much taller than the others. "She?" I whispered. "The last prisoner is a woman, and all dwarves are men, that's what my mother taught me. I tried to sneak closer and managed to get within 10 metres of the party and at this distance I could see faces.

"Robin?" I whispered again, careful not to be heard by the knights. As I kept watching I noticed the knights walking over to Leroy.

"Think you're funny, dwarf?"

Leroy kept silent.

"Ahhh… trying the silent treatment. Step forward dwarf."

Leroy stepped forward and immediately was forced onto his knees. It was hard due to the shackles, but once he was on his knees, one of the knights ripped his shirt, exposing his back.

"This will teach you, dwarf."

Another knight revealed a small hand whip from his belt. It had 5 leather straps coming from the handle.

"Ten lashes for your cheek. One."

As the whip came down, Leroy let out a grimace of pain.

"Two."

I knew I didn't have long to save Robin/Margot. I looked at her, and she had a pained smile on her face. I tried whispering to her.

"Robin… Robin… Robin looks right."

One the third call, she moved her head right, and upon seeing me, smiled.

"Hope. You're alive." She whispered back while looking straight at Leroy to avoid suspicion.

"Yes I am and you too, I am so happy. I am here to rescue you."

Robin smiled before frowning, "how are you going to do that? These knights are watching us all the time."

I noted the knights and noted that all three of them were focused on Leroy, none were looking this way, towards any of the other prisoners.

"How's your cuffs looking? Is it hard to run?"

Robin jiggled her hand cuffs and just like that one hand came off.

"Three..." The whip came down and lashed Leroy's back.

"I am good with locks, must have got it from my father." A chuckle came out of both of us. Robin's father was the famous thief and bandit Robin Hood, who had died when she was a baby.

I looked around and behind me there was a huge tree, with large branches ripe for the climbing. We could get at least 3 metres up easily with her ankle cuffs. I took another look at the knights, they were all facing Leroy smiling with delight at his pain.

"Four…." The whip came down again, and Leroy grimaced in pain.

"Walk slowly backwards, one foot at a time. I will tell you when the knights are lookin." I whispered to Robin. She heard me and lifted her right foot barely off the ground within her cuff range and placed it behind her other foot. She slowly made her way backwards towards me. I crept silently out of the clearing and hid behind her and grabbed her waist. The other dwarves had heard me and were trying very hard to hide Robin from view of the knights, they were helping us.

"I am going to pull you down into the bushes. Are you ready?"

Robin nodded and both of us tumbled out of the clearing into the surrounding bushes. We didn't waste time after that, I helped Robin silently crawl towards the nearest tree, and using our arms we lifted ourselves up on the lowest branch and then kept climbing, branch by branch. All the while hearing the knights in the background yelling.

"Five" *whip noise*

"Six" *whip noise*

Once we were halfway up the tree, we stopped and hid close to the trunk. Just listening to the knights. Robin sighed and silently whispered "thankyou" to me before turning back to the clearing as the knights were wrapping up.

"Nine…" whip noise.

"Ten" the last lash hit across Leroy's back, and he let out the biggest yelp. Through the branches I could see that his back was covered in blood and lash markings all over it. The knights pulled Leroy up by his arms and once his feet made contact with the ground they made him stand up.

"Get back in line, dwarf. And let's get going." Leroy moved slowly but he made it back in line and everyone turned right. The knights assumed their positions, one at the front of the line, one in the middle and one at the back and they began marching again. Seemingly not even realising that Robin was not part of the line up anymore. They made their way across the clearing and disappeared into the forest, heading towards Storybrooke.

I turned to Robin once we lost sight of the knights. "How are you?"

Robin nodded. "I'm good, thank you for rescuing me. They did not treat us well."

I held back a tear. I had so many questions to ask Robin about my parents, my brother and everyone from Storybrooke. But decided to let her rest first.

"Can I borrow your dagger to get these cuffs off?" Robin asked.

I had over the dagger hilt first and Robin made light work of the ankle cuffs and seconds later all cuffs were off and resting on a branch of the tree. We climbed down and once both of us had feet on the ground I spoke.

"Follow me. I will show you my home. It's a short walk from here."

"Let's go. I could do with one of Granny's burgers but I will settle for any food you have."

We both laughed and smiled, and quietly moved away from the clearing. I had completely forgotten about the doe I had shot with my arrow and left in the middle of the clearing. I was just happy to have Robin beside me again.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed.