Sherwood by S. E. Roberts

opposing teams'
eyesight. He turned to Harlow, pointing down to a man on the right
of the area.
    Harlow, having no bow, held
a bag of rocks and sticks. She looked to Enders and nodded, her
sign that she was ready to ambush.
    Enders nodded back,
training his eye on the man.
    Harlow held up a rock,
throwing it down at the man she'd been aiming for. She missed
terribly, but it served to startle and shock him
temporarily.
    The man jumped, causing a
commotion, running toward the other team members and telling them
to take out the captives.
    Rawley was shot in the
shoulder first, Elwin being shot in the chest, after much protest
from both men. They stood up, sadly, and made their way west toward
the Sherwood encampment.
    Harlow noticed that Enders
didn't miss a shot. He was a fast shooter, and he was accurate. She
compared him in her mind to the likes of Robin Hood
himself.
    Harlow, on the other hand,
wasn't offering much in the way of battle.
    That's when the men spotted
her in the tree. She looked around, trying to find an escape route.
Finding none, she tried to climb down.
    Her feet lost balance, her
body shook from being malnourished, and without warning, her body
toppled over the high branch.
    When she fell, it didn't
feel like anything. It was only when she hit the ground that she
realized that she wasn't that high at all.
    She stared up at Enders in
the tree above her, trying hard to aim accurately at the men coming
toward her. He sent an arrow flying but it was too late.
    Harlow felt the pain of the
headless arrow before she realized she'd been hit. She raised a
hand immediately to her chest where the arrow had made contact with
her body, just under her collarbone. That would be a bad bruise,
she knew.
    Less than twenty seconds
passed before Enders fell out of his tree, landing beside her with
a loud thud, and earning his own arrow to the shoulder.

Chapter
Eight
    The sun sat low on the
horizon as Harlow stared up at the trees in the distance. The sun
felt warm on her skin, and she didn't want to miss any of the
sunlight that she could get. She loved watching the sun as it went
down, signifying the end of a day and the transition to night. It
felt calming and quiet. She felt peaceful and at ease as she
watched the summer trees sway in the wind.
    She chewed on her bottom
lip as she watched the water wave gently around itself. Anxiety
closed in on her as she furrowed her eyebrows at the water. Did she
even really belong?
    She chuckled to herself, a
small, sad smile on her lips. No, of course she didn't belong, and
she knew it. Other than the totally obvious fact that she was a
woman, she had no desire for blood-lust like the other outlaws had.
She had no want to kill people or be the best outlaw there ever
was. Hell, she didn't even care for raiding other people's things.
In fact, if they weren't raiding rich and corrupt folk, Harlow
would have refused to participate.
    Many times she thought she
might be greedy, wanting her father's safety above the safety of an
entire village. But the truth of the matter was that Harlow had
never really been selfish. Not with material things, not with her
family, not with anything.
    For that reason, she felt
alienated from all those around her.
    Outlaws were supposed to be
greedy, angry, compulsive, and brutal.
    And, she was none of those
things.
    Her ears perked up slightly
as she heard the pier creak under her, footsteps echoing along the
length of the wooden planks.
    She didn't bother to look
up, assuming that whoever it was would walk past her and dive into
the lake. Instead the creaking came closer and got louder, and
stopped altogether next to her.
    Harlow looked up, surprised
by the sight of Robin Hood, standing, nonchalantly looking over the
lake, and into the horizon. “Oh!” She blurted out, shocked at his
presence. “Hood!” She reached one hand up and made sure her hair
was safely tucked into her hat. “I was, uh...”
    Robin smiled and looked
around. “May I?” He asked