The Robinhood

Lord Agnerton (7)

"What's a Robinhood?" Annabelle asked, images of the storybook thief who stole from the rich and gave to the poor popping up in her head.

Miranda smiled.

"That, my friend, is a long story," she said, smirking at Annabelle's confused face. Annabelle bit her lip, not quite sure how to respond.

It turned out that she didn't have to, because as soon as she opened her mouth to reply, she was walking towards the house again. Hot anger swelled inside of her; Couldn't Miranda have simply asked her to do whatever she was now doing?

Annabelle wished that Violet was the owner of the house. Violet was considerate, caring, and every thing an employer should be... but no. The rude, snobby Being was the one who controlled what she did.

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It turned out that Annabelle's job was nothing to hard- sweeping the kitchen floor. Once she was done with that, she was released from Miranda's will.

Unsure of what to do, Annabelle stood idle for a moment.

Then she heard Miranda call her name. Confused, she followed Miranda's voice up the gingerbread stairs and into what looked like a master bedroom. This seemed like the room Miranda spent most of her time in, due to the look of the worn down gingerbread flooring.

At a first glance, it looked like a rather messy bedroom. The marshmallow bed had a rumpled feather blanket, there were clothes strewn about on the floor, and there was a station set up in the middle of the floor for... something.  Annabelle didn't know what the steaming pots meant, or why there were a stack of feathers near them.

She also didn't understand where the fire under the pots were coming from; she also didn't understand why nothing else was catching fire.  

There were a lot of questions on the tip of her tongue as Miranda emerged from a closet carrying a peppermint laundry basket half filled with feathers.  

The questions died on her lips when Miranda put her fingers to her lips, smiling softly.  Miranda beckoned her closer, and Annabelle took a tentative step forward.  Miranda beckoned again, so Annabelle took a slightly bigger step forward.  Miranda patted the ground beside her, and after a moment's hesitation, she sat down next to the Being.   

"Why do I have to be quiet?" Annabelle whispered.  

"'Cause" Miranda replied softly.  "Now watch closely."  Annabelle leaned slightly forward.  "This is a feather from the hawk the day I kidnapped you," she said, holding up the striped brown and white feather.  

"How do you get the feathers?  Hawks are pretty vicious," Annabelle asked quietly, remembering the time she saw a hawk fly away with a dead rabbit speared on it's talons. 

Miranda gave her a withering look.  

"Beings can talk to birds, remember?" she said, exasperated.  

"Oh yeah... wait a minute, if I'm part Being, why couldn't I understand birds before now?" she asked, all of a sudden confused.  Annabelle remembered several days where she and Julia had tried to communicate with the birds and not succeeding.  

Julia.  The name shot a pang through Annabelle's heart.  Since she came to the world of the Beings, she hadn't given her family or friends a single thought.  Were they alright?  Were they worried about her?  Annabelle knew the human police would never find her, humans couldn't come into the land of the Beings.  What if her family had completely forgotten about her?  It was possible Miranda had made them all forget that she ever existed with some sort of magic.

To her surprise, Miranda frowned.  

"That's what I've been trying to figure out," Miranda said, "but I just don't know what could've caused your Being powers to come out after I kidnapped you," she stated, shaking her head.  

"Maybe coming in contact with a Being?" Annabelle suggested, but Miranda shook her head.  

"There are other human servants in the marketplace, and they have no Being powers at all," Miranda informed Annabelle of her ignorance.  

"So it wouldn't be being brought here either, then," Annabelle said, thinking hard.  What could have caused that change?  She tried to remember what she had done after first being brought here...

Annabelle bolted upright.  "That first night," she started, "it was really dark, and I'm really afraid of the dark.  In fact, my reaction to fear was so bad, I passed out.  Do you think feeling that strong of an emotion could have unlocked my powers?" she asked, spitting out her story with a hint of embarrassment.  

Miranda looked as if a light had been switched on in her brain.  

"There are Featherins you can make that can lock out someones senses!  A smart enough person could probably make one that can lock out powers too!" Miranda exclaimed, not even bothering to be quiet.  "But the effects wear off when the person has a substantial emotional reaction to something!" she said, positively jumping up and down from her seat on the floor.  "Someone must have been constantly giving you the Featherin, keeping you looking human and protecting you from Lord Agnerton and his-"  she stopped suddenly and clapped her hands over her mouth, but it was to late. 

"Who's Lord Agnerton?" Annabelle asked, a feeling of foreboding settling in her stomach.  Miranda played with the hawk feather and looked at the ground.  "Please tell me..." Annabelle pleaded.  She was tired of secrets and not knowing anything.  

Miranda took a deep breath.  

"Alright," she said, "but don't say I didn't try to protect you."  

Annabelle's stomach gave a nasty lurch.  

"Lord Agnerton is the unopposed winner of the Most Terribly Horrible Completely Twisted Being In All Of The Land Of The Being's award.  He is, ironically, the ruler of it.  

"Most of us Beings are fairly peaceful, unlike our human counterparts, who love to create war, confusion, and death.  Where humans want power and money, most Beings want to have friends and a simple life in houses similar to mine.  

"But Lord Agnerton is not a stereotypical Being.  In whispers, most of our kind call him a human who simply learned how to talk to birds.  But that's just it; we whisper.  Lord Agnerton has spies everywhere.  That's why most of us live alone nowadays, and only socialize about non political things. No one even dares to mention Lord Agnerton's name anymore, which is why it's such a risk telling this to you now.  Some people say all the feathers from the market are dipped in a Listening Featherin when he inspects the feathers...

"Agnerton is evil.  He gives unfair punishments, interferes with daily lives, and can never get enough power.  The only thing fears is the Robinhoods.

"I guess I never really told you what they were.  Robinhoods are the offspring of a human and a Being.  They look like humans, have the same "powers" that humans do, but also have Being powers too.  So really, a Robinhood is an extremely powerful Being.

"Well, since Agnerton doesn't like Robinhoods, he had a special dungeon made just for them.  It's filled with them.  There are probably 100 Robinhoods in total in that terrible place.  Whenever Agnerton gets word of a Robinhood walking free, he hunts the poor person down and locks them up with the rest.  

"That's why I never go to the market.  My only friend is Violet.  I kidnapped you not because I needed a servant, but because I was desperate for Being company.  I'm so secretive because if he knew I was a real Robinhood and not just in a disguise, I'd be thrown in that horrible prison where no one ever wants to go." Miranda finished the story with tears in her eyes.  Annabelle put an arm around Miranda's shoulders, but it just ended up being awkward, so she removed it. 

"I'm sorry," she said softly, feeling stupid.  "I wish I had been nicer now..."

"That's alright," Miranda reassured her.  "How could you have known?  For all you knew, you were just a human."  There was a small pause.  Miranda suddenly smiled.  

"How about I show you what I called you here for?"