Robbed- Once Upon a Time

Chapter 3

Robin's POV

I walked through the cave entrance to our hideaway with the heavy bags of gold coins. Marin stirred and grabbed his sword while hopping to his feet by the fire.

"Someone's jumpy." I snorted and let the bags fall to the ground. 

"Can you blame me? Those guards were everywhere. We almost didn't get the bags out of the river might I remind you." He stated and stuck his sword into the ground and casually leaning against the hilt. How could he make even that look good? I shook the thought out of my mind trying my best to make myself focus.

"But we did so now we have to find a way to alert Tuck about it." I glanced around and my gaze stuck on the unhinged carriage. I glared back over at Marin. "I thought I told you to ditch the carriage."

He grinned wildly. "You did, but I figured we could make use of it!" He pulled me over to the carriage to show me his handiwork of adding more cushions to create a sleeping space big enough for the two of us. 

I gulped at the thought. "Roomy." I muttered before looking back over at him. "So this is what you've been doing the whole time while I risked my neck to get the gold?" I challenged him.

I could see him slightly still. "You're always risking your neck Robbie, don't think now was any more special than the other times." He joked. "Besides if you got arrested, someone would have to bail you out." 

He plopped back into his seat on the ground with a thud. "You're such a gentleman." I snorted.

Suddenly I felt myself being pulled down and landing on the ground with him hovering slightly above me. Gently he pushed my hair out of my face. I could feel my cheeks heat up and my heart thud faster. He smirked and started to lean in. "I would always bail you out Rob."

I laughed. "You're such a romantic." I told him sarcastically making him reveal his perfect straight teeth. 

"I mean it. You're the one I'd risk everything for. Without you I-" He hesitated. "You're just the one." 

I sobered up on his words as he closed the distance between us. After a moment I swiftly flipped us over and grabbed the knife out of his boot holding it up to him. "Rule one: Never let your guard down." 

The look on his face was that of surprise before falling. "Give me that." He grabbed it and tossed it to the side before kissing me so hard it made my head spin. Out of nowhere he flipped my back on to the ground and pinned me down. "Rule number two: Never let your opponent have the upper hand." 

I gulped. I could feel the pulse in his wrist as it pressed down against mine. They were both pumping at the same heightened rate. We stared at each other and all my nerves were yelling at me to look away but I couldn't. He was the one for me too. We had known each other for so long and initially couldn't stand each other but when we had started working together something changed and we turned into friends. And now? Now we were so much more. 

Slowly I let my hand slid from under his grasp and picked out a leaf from his hair before running my hand through he dark locks. "You're the one for me too." His mouth tugged into a grin before crashing into my own. 

.....

Later on I sat by the fire with a metal cup in my hand that steamed against the cool night air. Marin cooked the mealthat he caught on the fire  and I couldn't help but let out a sigh of contentment. This felt good. Normal. Was this what we were destined to be? A couple who gets hitched in the woods by good ole friar tuck and continues to steal until we either get caught or grow old together? 

That thought didn't sit well with me. There had to be more than this. This was all I knew. Ever since I was six I had been apart of this life. My parents had been publicly executed by the Sheriff of Nottingham after they failed to meet their tax requirements. At least that was what the Crier read out on his fancy scroll before they were hung. In reality though, the day before taxes were due, the Sheriff came and took more than his usual share to line his already fat pockets. When tax day came they couldn't pay because of what the Sheriff had done and ended up paying the most high price of all with their lives. 

When the Sheriff was going to send me and my brother John to a labor camp, he hopped into action and we escaped. From then it was just the two of us. He was five years older than me and had to come up with the best way to keep the both of us alive. So we started stealing. I would be the distraction at first and he'd grab what we needed. As time went on our schemes grew and grew and we started doing so well that we would share our wealth with others in need like us. 

Then one day, He had an idea to hit a nobles carriage as it came by. It was just the two of us John and I before we met Marin. When he came into the picture, I had just turned eleven. He was already thieving by himself and when my brother walked through that clearing with the scraggly, arrogant child, I couldn't have been more infuriated that he would let a stranger into our makeshift home. 

But, my brother being as kindhearted as he was said that we would never turn someone down who needed help and welcomed Marin to the family. And I had to admit the kid was good. When my brother turned eighteen though, he met a girl and decided to give up the hood in exchange for righting his wrongs. He chose to work in the her fathers tavern until he earned enough coin to marry her. 

When he left, I felt betrayed. In my mind, he chose another life and potential family over me. Over our cause. We were supposed to help the poor together. We were supposed to run Nottingham's greedy royals into the ground together. We were supposed to give the Sheriff hell together. But instead he chose another path.

He even invited me to join him saying there was room at the tavern for both of us to work, but I was too stubborn and strong headed at the time to see it would have been the best possible choice for me. I would have been able to have a life. I just couldn't seem to let go of my ever growing grudge against those who were responsible for my parents death, namely the Sheriff and all the other rich nobles who took what they wanted without caring about the affect it had on others.

So I stayed with Marin. We continued increasing the danger of our jobs and there was more times than not that we were almost caught. We became famous in our neck of the woods. That's where I earned my name Robin of the Hood. To the people I was the man, (because in their minds it was impossible for a woman to do more than home make) who was fearless. I could hide among the trees and never be found and will an arrow anywhere I wanted it to land.

What they didn't know though was that I was just a sixteen old girl who was lost in the woods. I had been from the day I set foot into the enclave. How could one's home also be one's very prison? There was no escaping, because if I did somehow manage to find a way out, then that meant leaving all the townspeople to suffer the wrath of the Sheriff  and his soldiers all alone.