Secrets of the sherwood forest

9

A few days go by and everyone at the camp starts to do our own chores. I get the food; Edith cooks it, and Aminat cleans it up. It works and everyone is happy.

Until Alfred pays us a visit for lunch one day.

"Oh, and by the way Rue, Prince Jhon is hosting an archery competition tomorrow" He brings the topic up.

"Chool, I'll be there" I tell him.

"Oh, uhm, sorry Rue, it's men exclusive"

"It's the 1300's, obviously it's men exclusive." I point out to him that I am extremely aware that I, a woman, can't do majority of stuff the other half of the population can.

"Rue, I don't like where you're going with this..." He states, looking at me and then Edith for support.

I turn to Edith and ask her: "Do you still have the pants from last autumn?"

She does and hands them to me from her tent.

"I'll be there" I tell Alfred, shaking the soft, light brown pants in front of his grumpy face.

"Okay, see you there then" He mumbles as he gets up from the bench and starts walking towards the town.

"Bye, see you tomorrow!" I yell at him, almost in the woods already.

"Bye!" He yells back, waving at us.

♡

The competition is held only slightly more towards the town than the place Edith and I did our thing.

Almost half of the entire population of Nottingham is there, on the field. The music, the talking of people and the birds singing make it feel like the carnivals I used to go to as a kid. Except that the king's brother is there, and there are people with weapons all around.

I walk to the registration booth in the pants and a green, dirty shirt I got from some stranger on my first day homeless.

Theshirt has a hood on it, and it's up, with my hair underneath it. Edith and Aminat said I pass as a young man that just happens to be a bit of a late bloomer, but I'm not convinced. It's not that I don't trust them, but they did seem a bit off when telling me that.

I registrate myself in with a fake name, no suspicion yet. But I'm not safe yet.

I walk to the practising area, past the people selling me apples covered in melted sugar and new, fancy, and crazy expensive archery stuff, as if they don't see the bow I'm carrying in my hand.

Arrows fly all around in front of my eyes when I finally get to my destination. All the men are way older and bigger than I am, but it doesn't mean they're better than me in this, right?

Some of the men turn to look at me as I walk past them and start whispering something about who let that kid participate.

I just ignore them and go do my own thing in the furthest away corner I can find in a crowded place like this. In there I pretend to fix something on my bow, when in reality I'm just enjoying the vibes, I've already practised enough.

SoonAlfred, Edith and Aminat walk by, and I hit him with a small rock in the head.

The moment they realise I was the rock thrower makes them instantly smile and come talk with me.

"Well, hello there.." Alfred begins, looking at me in the eyes, silently asking for my fake name.

"Nixon Fenne" I tell him.

"So, have any of the big boys been mean to you, Nixon?" Edith joins in and proves me that she didn't forget her sarcasm at home, obviously mocking my amazing fake identity.

"Not yet, but the guy in the red pants is giving me a feeling that he's planning on bullying a kid" I tell them while glaring at this almost two meters tall, buff man looking at me and my friends like we're mad.

All of my friends look at him at the same time, and we're lucky he had turned his head to talk with another competitor. Very subtle of them.

"Stop staring at him" I tell them in panic, almost forgetting my extremely masculine fake voice when he starts turning back to look at us.

"Anyway, shouldn't you be practising?" Aminat changes the subject.

"I don't think I'll do it; I want them to think that I'm a weak child that barely knows which way to shoot." I inform her of my strategy.

"And then when you actually do well they're all confused and scared?" She continues my thought. "Sounds good."

"But uhm, Alfred, what was the prize for winning this thing again?" Edith asks the monk.

That's when I realise something: I was never told the prize eighter, I just went with it. Oh well, can't back up now.

"Oh, yeah, that. It's a few thousand and a single minute, private conversation with Lady Kendra." He informs us.

"That's a nice price, I have to admit a few thousand in cash would be really cool, but did she consent to that last part?" Edith answers, but starts glaring around towards the end, looking for Kendra with her eyes.

"I'd say no, she absolutely did not. But at least now I'll be available to talk with her before she moves to London." I mumble, thoughts already in Kendra's eyes, as green as my mother's emerald earrings, and her hair, as soft as a kitten's fur.

"Oh yeah, I alreadyforgot about the whole proposal thing." Edith keeps the conversation up,knowing otherwise I'll start daydreaming again. 

Aminat opens her mouth to add something, but the trumpets start playing. Everyone turns their heads to the source of the sound when that skinny man from Prince Jhon's carrier gets up on a stage in front of the actual competing area.

"Welcome, the people of Nottingham!" He announces, but from this far away it's quite hard to hear him, even when he's yelling the words.

The pale man talks a bit about why we're there, the rules of the competition and what the punishment will be in case the said rules are broken.

Once he gets to the prizes and mentions Kendra, I look around the crowd of full-grown men, most of them far over 20 years old. To be completely honest with you, this is quite disgusting in my opinion. Even more reasons to win this thing.

"The competition will begin in ten minutes," is the last thing he tells us before disappearing behind the stage.

"We're going now, I want to make sure we get front row view to see you win this thing"Edith tells me as Alfred and Aminat start walking towards the crowd that'sgetting bigger and bigger in front of the competing arena.