It was still, tranquil, and quiet. There was no wind, no sound, no movement of any kind.
There was nothing except the bang of a pistol.
“Now you’re getting’ it.” Robin exclaimed, slapping his younger companion on the back with a huge smile. A cutout cardboard of a human’s body stood on the other side of the open field, a single hole directly through where the heart would be. The barrel of little Skipper’s handgun was smoking a little, slightly unsteady because his hands were quivering from the throwback.
“Sweet!” Skipper whooped, punching a fist into the air. Robin laughed, and the underboss of Nottingham turned to his don. “Better watch out, Rob. I’m gonna smoke you in target practice one day.” Robin let out one big guffaw, throwing his head back and placing a hand over his face. Skipper, instead of being offended, simply laughed along with him because he knew it would take a million years before he could be as good as his boss.
“We’ll see, Skip.” Robin finally was able to choke out, grabbing Skipper’s practice pistol from him. “Now go get cleaned up. I wanna do another raid tonight.” The young man’s eyes lit up, and he quickly jogged off to head back to the house but turned back when he noticed his boss wasn’t following him. Robin waved him off. “I’m gonna practice for a few more minutes.” Skipper shrugged, but was off without another word.
Finally alone, Robin twirled the pistol in his hand a couple times before gracefully pointing his gun at Skipper’s target and shooting. The bullet grazed the side of Skipper’s hole, but otherwise flew perfectly past that one tiny shot. Robin grinned in triumph, until he heard a shriek from behind the bushes where his bullet landed. Someone shot out into the clearing, hopping on one foot because of the small cut on the side of her leg.
“Damn, that hurts! Hey buddy, watch where you’re—“
Robin’s mouth fell open as he caught sight of the beautiful young woman also staring dazedly at him.
“R-Robin?”
His throat felt dry, and for a second he couldn’t find any words.
“Robin Hood, of Nottingham, right?” The young woman asked again, edging forward with a limp in her step. The don of Nottingham jolted back into reality when he saw her limping forward, and immediately cleared his throat.
“Oh, uh, yeah. That’s me.” He replied, opening his jacket to hide his gun. “Marian, right? Of England.” She blushed, maybe with embarrassment, maybe with pride, he didn’t know. But it was obvious to Robin that Marian was awfully cute when her face tinted red.
“That’s right.” Marian confirmed, before looking down at her injured leg. She was leaning all her weight onto her other foot to avoid causing more damage to herself. “Um, do you mind if I—“ Robin flushed this time with embarrassment and shame.
“Oh! I’m really sorry, Ms. Marian.” Robin began, rushing forward and quickly apologizing. “I swear I was in the middle of target practice. I didn’t mean to—“ Marian smiled, accepting his offered hand before leaning into him, her head cushioned into his chest. Robin stopped mid-sentence, flustered but unwilling to let go of the beautiful woman in his arms. The woman who he seemed to remember from many years ago, and who haunted his every thought and every dream since departing from her in his past years.
“I don’t blame you, Robin.” Marian consoled him. “If I was in your position, I’d try to keep my body intact too if an enemy ever wandered into my territory instead of helping them when they’re down.” Robin’s face fell a little, and he paused in his walk back to his mansion. Marian was nestled close to him, but he pulled back to stare at her.
“I don’t think of you as my enemy.” Robin admitted, dead serious as he stared unflinching into her big green eyes. Marian flushed, this time because her heart was starting to hammer in her chest. She wasn’t sure whether it was a good thing or a bad thing, but as of this moment it felt oddly right.
And so Marian smiled.
“I don’t either.”
No comments:
Post a Comment