Three Hazelnuts for Y/N

Adventure in the forest

Meanwhile Y/N really snuck out with Sunny through the back door and went to her secret hideout.
Her father used the old cabin to teach her a lot of things. Mainly how to ride and shoot with a crossbow. The other stuff, like setting traps and climbing on trees were more practiced directly in the forest.

Now the cabin was no longer in a good condition and Y/N mainly used it to hide some of the things Linlin didn't get to take away from her.
Like old jewelry from her mother or the crossbow and arrows her father made for her.

She climbed up the shaky ladder and was greeted by an old friend.
„Robin?"

She went up to her pet owl and stroke her head. „Are you still watching over my treasures?" Y/N smiled when Robins beautiful blue eyes immediately turned to the small black box with golden ornaments.
„Of course you do." She said as she took the box and sat down on the floor.

Opening it, Y/N took out a small rose quartz brooch and let her fingers slide over the engraved rose.

„I made this brooch for your mother after I first met her. It's something she loved a lot. The only thing she loved more than that was you and me Y/N."

Y/N had no memories of her biological mother. She was a toddler, when Lady Newgate died and her father married Linlin two years later.
All the memories of her childhood were with Pudding, her father and her stepmother.
If she didn't count all the servants, who were like a family to her.

She placed the brooch back in the box and took out a small hand mirror. Tucking some strands of her (h/l) (h/c) hair back and rubbing the ash of her forehead and cheeks, Y/N suddenly heard Sunny's snorting.
Quickly putting the box next to Robin again, the young woman explained to her owl, "Sunny's waiting for me. We don't have much time you know? Stepmother is busy making an impression on the king."

Y/N took the saddle and bridle to prepare her horse for a ride into the forest and went back down the ladder.

A few minutes later she was already sitting on Sunny and riding through the woods. Smiling as she admired the snowy forest and the trees bending down because of the weight.

It was so quiet. Only here and there she could hear some birds chirping and Sunny's hooves on the frozen snow.

For Y/N, sneaking out into the forest were the only moments where she could just be herself and not do anything.

Humming a tune, the young woman often rode deep into the forest to relax from work and her stepmother.

Suddenly she noticed something and made Sunny slow down. Turning around Y/N saw three young man, not older than maybe 22.
All of them wore very expensive and richly decorated clothes with bright colors.
Two of them had a bright red scarf and hat with golden embroidery on their shoulders.
While the other one, with blond locks, had them in a midnight blue color.
They were equipped with crossbows and arrows, as Y/N noticed when they turned around to tie their horses to a branch.

Getting of, she tied Sunny's bridle around a tree trunk and hid behind some branches to watch the three young man in the forest clearing.

They were practically dragging one leg after another through the high snowdrifts, when suddenly the one at the front, probably the leader, raised a hand and they stopped in their tracks. They then put an arrow in their crossbows and aimed at something the young woman couldn't see.