A Twist of Tales (On Hold)

3. Rowan

ROWAN

"Henry, Henry!" I called out for Henry as I hurried into our little cottage. Even though, I had been living here for almost eight years now, the cottage hadn't changed a lot over the years. There was still the same old fireplace along with the table and two chairs on the right side of the table. The only thing different was that the table legs had tiny bite marks on them. Leila used to chew them out of boredom or when she was hungry and wanted something to eat.

We also had a small water bowl for Leila but after she had to move out of the cottage we also removed it. On the left side of the room there was Henry's bed alongside with a closet where Henry used to stow in all his belongings. There were two small windows on each side of the room providing us with light whenever the sun would shine.

The one thing that changed the most would be my small room upstairs. As the years past, I needed a bigger bed seeing as I didn't stay the little girl that once knocked on Henry's door begging for a shelter for the night. Instead of one closet, I had now two. As I learned to use the bow and other weapons, Maxon also taught me how to make a bow and arrows. He taught me that the arrow had to be a light yet sturdy stick and as straight as possible. He also taught me how to find the perfect rock for the arrow and how to sharpen it when needed.

"What?" Henry's voice echoed from behind me. I turned around and smiled at him with a wide grin. "What is it?" he asked me again.

"I'm going to become a bandit!" I exclaimed without thinking. Henry looked at me shocked, his mouth wide open while his dark eyes stared at me in disbelief.

"You are not becoming a bandit! Why on earth would you want to become such a thing? That's the most idiotic thing I have ever heard of. Who put you up to it? It can only be Maxon; I'm going to talk to him. What is he thinking, encouraging you to become a bandit. That nerves!"

"But Henry, you haven't heard the rest of my idea," I told him, trying to stop his tantrum.

"I don't need to hear the rest of it. You are not becoming a bandit, for heaven's sake!" He threw his hands in the air to emphasize his words.

"Please, let me explain before you make a tantrum over nothing."

"I'm not making a tantrum over nothing! You wanting to become a bandit is not nothing! It's the most ridicules absurd thing I have ever heard of."

"Just, listen, please!" I begged him, trying to calm him down.

"Fine, explain to me why on earth you would want to become a bandit," Henry said, trying to not raise his voice.

I stared at him with open mouth, all the words I had prepared had suddenly disappeared. I had never seen Henry getting this angry over something. He was usually the calm one while I would get easily angry if something didn't work out the way I wanted it to. He must really care about my safety, I thought to myself as I tried to come up with the right words.

"Well?" Henry asked me with an expectant voice.

"You know how well I've been doing with the archery, right?" I asked him. He nodded in response and waited for me to continue. "Well, Maxon always tells me stories about the people that live outside of the forest. He tells me how difficult life is for the farmers and the other citizens while the rich lords stodge themselves with more gold than they need," I started to explain to him.

"What does this have to do with you becoming a bandit?"

"I am sick and tired of just sitting around here and doing nothing while they suffer. I want to help them, I have to help them somehow." I looked at him with pleading eyes.