I smile just a little bit. Everyone stares in silence for a moment. I take this opportunity to run. 

Everything inside me is screaming. Both spring-bright and banshee-terrifying. My feet feel as if they are flying. As if they are made of some magic substance lighter than the air. I rush back towards the tree cover of Sherwood Forest, my pulse thudding in my ears. Fear screams and burns through me as I put as much distance as I can between myself and the knights and nobles. This is my chance. The only chance I'll get. 

I can make my mother, my father, and my whole entire community proud if only I can just escape. Make them hopeful.

"Seize him!" I hear an enraged shout behind me. My feet carry me even faster as I hear clamouring behind me and horses galloping. Fear waves through me and carries me forwards like a strong wind. Like a magical force. My lungs burn and my legs ache but I don't let that slow me down as my terror carries me. They are all after me. And all I have are me feet. 

I can make it though. I know I can make it. That thought races through my mind as I race through the clearing. 

I gallop into the underbrush and I duck and weave through it. The green of Sherwood Forest envelops me like a promise. But my mind is still screaming. It's not over yet. The horses cannot follow me as there are no trails here. But that doesn't stop men from following behind me on foot. They crash through the herbs and grasses and bushes. Slow and clumsy compared to my limbering litheness. And they lumber after me as I keep weaving my way through. I don't have time to breathe even as I move to put more and more distance between myself and them. My lungs burn my legs burn my mind burns my soul burns. 

I finally come across a river. Cool, flowing dark water that is my salvation. I jump in without thinking. And the nobles cannot follow behind. Only commoners know how to swim. And they won't be able to follow my tracks either. 

The water envelops me in a cold, flowing embrace. Holding me like a mother. It calms me down just a bit. I have a moment to thank the water and the forest for protecting me. I hold my breathe within the cold river and let the currents pull me where they need me to go. My journey isn't over yet. The pull inside me telling me to go on isn't over yet. But the water will carry me for this next part of my journey. Once I get too cold for me to bear it anymore, I swim to the other edge. There I let myself dry under the sun. 

The greenwood is quiet now. But I don't doubt that they have sent hunters every which way looking for me. I will have to keep alert and watchful. I cannot let my mind rest. 

Is this my life now, to live in constant fear of being captured? Well, my life was already lived in constant fear. Fear of sickness and injury and toil and hunger. Though I still curse the nobles for putting me through this, this sort of fear is a defiant fear at least. 

Now my life is my own. 

I wander through Sherwood Forest, making sure to stay far away from trails. I look for some berries or nuts to eat. My stomach scrapes against my insides in its emptiness. But I know that sooner or later I'll find a feast of berries to fill myself with. I know the greenwood. Though we're not allowed to go into the forest we still look to it for berries and roots and herbs and life. 

I think of all the people that I lost. All the people that I miss. I don't think I'll ever see them again. And while that thought squeezes my gut tight, I know that they will be proud of me. I think of Marion. Will I ever see her again? I hope so. I think of the prince. And the thought sends a shudder through me. 

I think I'm an outlaw now. I like that though. For now I am free and able to live my life for the sake of the greenwood not of the nobles that ask for more and more until they have everything. 

I don't know what I'm going to do. But I know that I have to avenge my father and mother. I know that I have to avenge all my people. Hatred burns in my heart but so does love and the two intertwine together to make a fire that can burn through the strongest of chains. I have to make the world more fair somehow. I have to make the common people more safe. I have to make the nobles afraid. 

The forest stretches out green before me and pain stretches down deep within me and I keep my eyes and ears alert while my heart watches the horizon.

Something inside me tells me that this is just the start. 

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