Little Red Robynn Hood Part 14

Robynn woke at the base of the tree she'd been sitting under the night before.  John was gently shaking her shoulder, and Voss was standing just behind the shoulder of the crouching man.  "Wake up, girl," John said softly to her.  "We can offer you a bit of breakfast."

"You ought to call her 'my lady'" Vincent sneered as he passed behind them, stopping to leer at Robynn.  "Locksley is a noble name after all, isn't it?"

Robynn sighed, and pushed herself into a sitting position.  "I won't deny that my family was noble," she told them.  "But I do not wish to be called 'lady.'  We all know that even a woman of noble blood is valued less than the poorest man, and I do not want to be seen as your superior because I am noble, nor your inferior because I am a woman.  I would like to be your equal.  And I would like you to call me Robynn."

Vincent laughed scornfully.  "Sounds like just the thing a true noble would say," he jeered.  

Robynn got to her feet, and stepped closer to Vincent.  "I suppose you would like me to prove that I should be counted as an equal?" she inquired softly.

A look of disgust appeared on Vincent's face.  "I don't care one way or the other," he told her.  "Women are never equal.  They're all weak, and stupid, and nothing good will ever come of them."

"You came of a woman," she told him smoothly.  "Without your mother, you wouldn't even be here."

"Doesn't mean what I said ain't true," he told her roughly.

"So women are weak, are they?" she asked, trying to hold back a sigh.  She had met many a man with similar thoughts, but that didn't mean that the concept wasn't old and worn to her.

"Yeah," he answered, looking like he would rather be doing just about anything other than conversing with Robynn.

"Fine," she answered.  "I can give you some of my wounds, and watch you go through what I have, or you can punch me in the stomach, and I can stab you in the leg.  Which would you prefer?"  Robynn wasn't usually quite so confrontational, but she couldn't help it.  She hadn't slept very well, and her wounds felt like they hurt more, rather than less.  Of course, this was probably because of the sheer amount of endorphins and adrenaline she'd been running off of since the fight.  But her pain wouldn't stop her from attempting to change this man's mind.  She wanted to work with these people, and in peace and cooperation, and with him in this state, that might never happen.

"Hey now!" John suddenly interjected, coming over to put a hand each on Vincent's and Robynn's shoulders.  "Let's have none of that.  There's no need."

"I'm sorry John, but I disagree," Robynn said coolly, her eyes still fixed on Vincent.

"For once, I agree with you," Vincent said, narrowing his eyes at Robynn.  A second later, he'd pulled back the fist of the arm that was furthest from John, and had swung mightily, connecting hard with Robynn's stomach.

She was rather thankful that she hadn't eaten yet, and doubled over his fist, clutching at her stomach.  "My turn," she growled quietly, not being able to summon any breath to say it any louder.  A moment later, she had pulled her dagger from its sheath, and lunged at Vincent, digging the blade into his thigh, close to the hip, and dragging it down so that the gash opened a vertical strip through more than half of his thigh.

Vincent gasped, and ground his teeth, trying not to betray how much pain he was really in.  John was taken aback, having been too slow to actually notice what was happening until right before Robynn stabbed Vincent, and having been unable to react until it was too late.  Voss still stood in the background, his mouth rather agape as he looked at the three adults before him.  Robynn looked almost murderous, Vincent very angry, and his father seemed to be in a state of shock.  

It was several moments before anything else happened, aside from everyone staring at Robynn and Vincent, and the two looking daggers at each other.  Finally, Vincent limped away, one hand clutching his leg as he quietly cursed Robynn under his breath.

Robynn let out a breath she seemed to have been holding, and started a slow collapse to the ground.  This time, John caught her, and lowered her gently until she was sitting as comfortably as possible.  Tears had come to her eyes, and she wiped them away angrily.  She lifted her shirt enough to see the bandages underneath, and sighed as she noticed that she was now bleeding through them, as the wounds had opened again.

"I don't suppose you might have some bandages I could borrow?" she asked, laughter in her eyes and in her voice.  

"You must be crazy my girl," John told her as Voss ran off to find bandages.

"Oh yes, quite crazy really," she told him.  "But I want him to be on the same side.  I want to be able to trust him.  And I do have a reasonable idea of how men work.  If I could show that I could take any pain he could, then I figured perhaps eventually we could be friends.  Whatever happened to him to make him so bitter toward women, anyway?" she inquired of John, who seemed rather astonished.

"I wouldn't know," he admitted honestly.  "I've never had occasion to find out."

"Ah well," Robynn sighed.  "I suppose I shall have to find out from him, eventually."

At that moment, Voss came running back with a roll of bandages and a gleam in his eyes.  "Vincent's cursing you up a storm!" he informed Robynn eagerly as he handed her the bandages.  "He's saying that you're no good, and you're just going to get us all into trouble, and he's going to get you back one of these days, when you're least expecting it!"  

Voss was grinning, and Robynn couldn't help but to catch the contagious attitude of the young boy.  "Well, it seems I hit a nerve," she said coolly, unravelling the old bandages to replace them with the new ones.  The wounds were indeed bleeding afresh, and Robynn mopped up some of the blood with the old bandages before she replaced them.

"Are you sure you're right in the head?" John asked her warily, unsure if everything that was going on now would be the same tomorrow.

"Quite sure," she informed him.  "I still want you and your people to help me, I still want to try to win Vincent to my side, and I still want to try to teach you all to fight, so that you might help me to rescue my sister from the Sheriff and his girlfriend."

"If you insist," John told her.  This was all a bit too much for him, and it made him nervous.  However, he figured that it would just be best to wait it out, and see what happened.  After all, what was the worst that could come to pass?