Beautiful Lily

A cacrifice

...Fairy Tale Land...

"Mommy, I'm hungry," said the two year old boy rubbing his aching belly. Marian's face twisted in anguish, feeling helpless as she picked up her starving son. She kissed her son as tears fell down her face. Love was the only thing that she could provide her son now. She knew that times were getting tough in The Forbidden Forest, but she was desperate. Marian stood there holding her son, agonizing over her maternal pain, "I know, my love. I'm so sorry..."

She could hear the men strategizing their next heist outside her camp. Enough is enough, she said to herself, wiping the tears from her face. She refused to stand by and do nothing. This was the last straw. She had to do something. Sitting around camp feeling helpless made her feel restless, and it was affecting their family's well being. Marian looked around the room and sat Roland down on the ground. She took her last good pillow from where she and Robin slept and ripped it open. Goose feathers escaped from the torn opening and she showed them to Roland, "Roland, stay here and find all the long feathers for daddy's arrows. Mommy's going to find you something."

Marian exited the flaps to her family's tent and approached the ring of men that encompassed the campfire. She could see drawings made in the dirt; the blueprints of the next castle to steal from. She searched the sea of faces, looking for the one she wanted. While she looked she couldn't help but overhear the tossing of words they were exchanging to one another.

"No! We need someone slender."

"I'm thin!"

"We can't wait another year for you to be the right weight to pull this off."

"Well food is running low, so it might be shorter than you think."

"Marian!"

Marian heard the voice of the father to her child. Robin got up from where he sat and came over to Marian. "Is everything alright? What's wrong?" he asked, his brows furrowed with concern. He could tell that she had been crying recently.

"No. Our son is starving and I'm the worst mother in the world for not having anything to give him."

"You are not the worst mother in the world-"

"-But I am. I want to be involved on this next one," she said with determination, looking over at the rest of the men.

"You want to join our next mission?" he asked looking at her face for clarification. But when he saw that she was serious, he changed his tone to adamancy. "No! Absolutely not. I will not allow it."

"Robin, if this means helping our family and helping others, I will not stand by and do nothing."

"Marian, the last time we did this, people got hurt. If something happened to you, I could never forgive myself."

"Well then go tell your son why he has to go hungry tonight. While you and your men go off gallivanting, do you even know what it's like to tell your son night after night that there's nothing even to nibble on?"

Robin always hated the topic of food. He could push himself to the limits and survive on very little, but he couldn't possibly ask for his own family to do the same. They deserved more and they deserved better. Now that he had to think of his family's immediate needs, the threshold for tolerating the pain of starvation became more pressing and the pressure to produce more outstanding. It became a recent topic that inevitably led to their arguing.

"Alright," he consented. He needed her and she needed him. They all needed to work together if this next larceny were to be successful.

"Thank y-"

"But just so you know," he said stopping her before she entered the group, "I don't feel right about this."

"I understand. I am capable, Robin. I'm not worthless."