Modern Moonacre

Chapter 9

As promised, more chapters! Hope you guys have liked all of the new chapters so far, and that me altering the plot a little hasn't caused to much grief. If you guys are still on winter break when I post this yay for you because I probably won't be :( They cut our winter break shorter this year and everyone is super angry and upset about it, including me. Anyway, CHAPTER 9! (is hopefully, not late this time) see that little rhythm I did there, hm.

(Still Robin's POV)

The woods when they're wet are a disaster and a blessing. Not that I believe in a god or anything, but you know. The smell of the rain and the trees is wonderful but cleaning the mud off of my leather is absolutely annoying. 

"Hey Robin, there you are!" The loud voice of my second in command, Jace, spoke behind me. It startled me a little and I stumbled, tripping over a tree root. I quickly got back up and leaned my hand on a small tree to act like it was all cool until the tree snapped and I fell back onto the ground. 

"Uh, I ah" I fumbled over my words, hoisting myself back up into a standing position. "You see I was just, uh looking for" I quickly looked around for something, to see my knife laying on the forest floor. 

"My KINFE. I was looking for my knife but I found it now so." 

Jace nodded uncertainly, "Well, so far we've searched the left one and left two quadrants of the forest but no luck. We seem to be getting closer, she can't have gone tha..." 

"I have eyes on the girl. On the roof." I responded calmly and collectively, the embarrassment and amusement of the last few moments gone. I had to be the leader of this group and they wouldn't respect someone they didn't fear. 

"That cheeky shit." he muttered, "How long?"

"All night. I saw her when I was checking around the house. Told her I'd wait her out, she has to come down sometime." 

"Smart, what'd she say?"

"Called me an oaf." I smirked and Jace chuckled. 

"What an insult" he respond sarcastically. He looked in the direction of the roof. "Wait, you said she was on the roof?" he demanded. 

"Yeah?" I responded looking up from the knife I was polishing. 

"She's gone." He seethed, flaring his nostrils. I looked towards the roof and to my dismay, he was right. 

"Stay back I'll go find her." I hissed running off through the forest.

(Maria's POV)

Waiting out that storm had been agony. I had no idea where Robin was but I guessed that he had eyes on me so I waited for just the right moment to leap off the roof and run for it. Now I was running through the woods, faster than I'd ever had before and was keeping an eye out for anyplace that I could hide. The running was exhausting and considering the amount of water I had taken in last night I shouldn't be thirsty but I was. I kept running though until I could feel my muscles burning and my lungs aching. I stopped and took a break. I was breathing so heavily I thought I was going to die from asphyxiation. 

All of a sudden I heard a stick snap a ways behind me. I spun around still breathing heavily and stood completely still, surveying the area looking for anything that was out of place. My heart skipped a beat as I saw a single black and brown feather sticking out from behind a tree. I held my breath and as quietly as I could I took small steps backward. For any other person that would have seemed normal, but not for me. I knew those feathers, they were Robin's feathers. He had found me. I took one last tiny step before I took off sprinting through the foliage. I could hear his footsteps behind me and I wanted to look back but I didn't, because everyone who looks back dies. And I was determined to get out of here alive. 

But nobody can sprint that fast forever. So I eventually started to slow, and Robin started to get closer and closer. I wanted to stop so bad and my legs were begging for mercy but I went on until I was so exhausted I literally could not run a second more and collapsed on the forest floor. Robin made it to were I was sitting and stopped running. I looked up at him and he stared right back down at me. 

"Well princess, you sure can run fast. Almost got me there." I glared up at him breathing too heavily to speak. I slowly inched my hand towards my boot where I had stored the glass shard for safekeeping. 

"I don't think that that will be necessary." He spoke eyeing my hand that was slowly moving towards my boot.  "I'm going to sit down now, don't try anything okay?" 

I watched his facial expressions and he didn't seem like he was lying so I nodded, still huffing and puffing like the big bad wolf from the Three Little Pigs. He slowly lowered himself to the ground and leaned against a tree. He just sat there watching me, fiddling with the feathers around his neck. I averted my eyes away from him and stared at the ground. This seemed to go on forever. His subtle looks and my jittery hands. 

"Well are you going to say something or are you just going to stare at me?" I burst out, flinging my hands in frustration. He raised his eyebrows at me. "You got me okay? I can't run anymore." I muttered.

"You know you're quite fiery. I like fire." He mused. Then he looked towards the sky and sighed. 

"I didn't mean to hurt you you know." The sympathy in his eyes was real but I wasn't one to trust easily and after the events of earlier, I didn't quite believe him. I just keep staring at my hands, acting as if this whole encounter meant nothing to me. They were bruised a little, and there was blood caked under my fingernails. The cut I had gotten from the glass shard had opened up again and the blood slowly trickled down my palm and dripped onto the ground creating a crimson pool. 

"You're bleeding." He grimaced whipping out a handkerchief from his back pocket and moving towards me. I flinched and scooted backwards away from him. He looked hurt, as if I had rejected him. 

"I just want to he.."

"No." I cut him off. " I don't need you to take care of me." I spat. 

"But I want to."