Breakfast was a joyful affair the next morning, perhaps one of the livelier meals that Robin had experienced in a good long while. Those he hadn't spoken to the evening before were eager to stop for a chat and Lynn's exuberance at waking up to find that Robin's presence hadn't been a mere dream from the night before was contagious.
Robin noticed when Karim left his tent, the genie looking surprised to see the Merry Men awake and functioning after the significant amount of ale that had been consumed the night before. In the rising light of dawn, Karim's face was illuminated and soft. Handsome.
"Morning," Robin drawled, raising a mug of tea in welcome.
Karim gestured with a hand towards the spread of breakfast that had been laid out: fruit, eggs, and porridge accompanying bread and salted meat. "Is every morning like this?"
"Most of them. We've got a big group here. We go through a lot of food."
"You can say that again," Felipe said from where he was scooping a mound of porridge onto a flat piece of wood he was using as a plate. He flashed a grin that caused the long scar across the left side of his face to stretch.
A low chuckle passed through Karim's lips, throaty and deep. Quiet as it was, Robin hadn't heard Karim laugh yet and he was surprised by the pleasure it brought him. The relief he felt to see that Karim's shoulders had, at least for the moment, lost their stiff set. Overnight, it appeared that some of the tension had eased from the genie's frame.
Good. He'd been holding onto it with a death-grip.
Karim sat nearby, accepting the mug of tea that Robin offered with a nod of his chin. "Thanks."
"You're welcome."
Lynn jumped off of where she'd been half-sitting on Robin's lap to inch towards the genie. She stared at him, head cocked the side, blue eyes bright.
"Hello," Karim greeted, smiling, as he blew on the steam that rolled off the top of his tea.
She waved shyly. Her eyes fell upon the glittering jewellery on his fingers and she said, "I like your rings."
"Do you?" Karim set his tea on the ground and extended his fingers out for her to see better. Lynn took another few careful steps forwards to peer at the rings. Robin found himself leaning in. He'd never seen anyone wear as many rings as Karim had on his fingers. He wore at least one on each – some slim and pain, others thicker and jewelled. "Which one is your favourite?"
Lynn considered the question seriously, her brows furrowed in thought. After a moment, she pointed to one. It was placed on the littlest finger on his left hand, the band golden and the inlaid jewel a sparkling sapphire. There was a matching one on his right hand, as well, Robin noticed.
Karim plucked the ring off his finger and held it out to her. "Would you like to have it?"
"Can I?"
"If you'd like. I have plenty of others."
She took it from his palm and placed it onto her finger but it promptly fell off. Karim laughed and picked it up from the ground where it had fallen before sliding it onto her thumb where the ring seemed to just be small enough to fit.
"There," Karim murmured. "All yours." Lynn beamed and threw her arms around Karim. "Oh!" he gasped and it quickly turned into a laugh as he hugged her back, albeit a little more reserved. Over her head, he smiled at Robin.
Fondness and warmth filled Robin's chest at the sight.
"Thank you!" Lynn said sweetly to Karim as they broke apart. He nodded back and then she went bounding off, running over to Jon to show him her newest treasure.
"You're never getting that back," Robin commented dryly.
"It's alright," Karim replied as he retrieved his tea from where he'd set it. "I've got hundreds."
Robin sputtered. "Hundreds?"
He nodded, smiling into the mug. "I try to get a ring from every...place I've ever worked."
"Why rings?"
"My living space, as you can imagine, is quite small. They're compact. Easy to collect."
"Well," Robin said quietly, for Karim's ears only, "I guess we'll need to get you a ring."
Karim's eyes sparked and he sucked in a breath. His mouth was just opening to respond—
"We've got a carriage!" someone shouted, breaking the spell between the two men.
"How far out?" Jon asked and Robin turned in time to see Albert sprinting into camp, his brown cloak fanning out behind him.
"We can intercept near the bridge."
The camp descended into a flurry of madness. Men sprinted for their weapons, dove into tents to retrieve their boots and hoods, and darted into the woods.
"What's happening?" Karim asked, trailing behind as Robin angled for his tent.
Robin ducked through the tent flap, reaching for his bow and quiver, as he said, "A carriage with the king's riches is coming through the forest. We're going to rob it and return the wealth back to the townsfolk it was taken from. The monarchy has been overtaxing the citizens of Myrin for years now. We do what we can to stop it."
"What should I do?" Karim wondered as Robin exited the tent.
He cast a look across the camp, saw that Lynn was being cared for by the men who weren't to come on the raid lest things go wrong and there was a need for the Merry Men to quickly pack up and head out for a new location.
"You have two choices," Robin told the genie as he threw on his cloak and then slung the quiver of golden arrows onto his back. He grinned widely. "You can stay here at the camp or you can come to have some fun."
*~*
The echo of stomping hooves and a rumbling carriage were the first sounds that reached them in the trees. On the other side of the dirt road that cut through the forest, Robin could just barely make out the signs of his Merry Men as they prepared to take the carriage. Jon was leading the assault – normally Robin's job but given his recent tenure away, he'd opted to stay back so as not to disrupt the rhythm they'd created in his absence.
A tree had been felled and was lying across the road, blocking the path the carriage needed to take as it travelled through the woods. Nervous and excited energy pulsed through Robin's body as he waited. An arrow was clenched between his fingers, just waiting to be strung on the bow.
Beside him, Karim crouched in the foliage. He'd been offered a bow and arrow but claimed it wasn't his preferred weapon. No one asked too many questions when he emerged from his tent with a bandolier of knives across his chest and a cutlass strapped on his back. They were of a make that was not of this land and Robin knew without asking that the genie had pulled them from his lamp.
Around the bend in the road, the carriage appeared. Solidly built and being towed by two chestnut horses. Flanking it were armoured guards on horseback whose eyes flitted uneasily as they glanced about the trees as if they were just waiting for someone to charge at them.
"First a group will sneak in from behind," Robin whispered as the carriage rolled to a stop before the fallen tree. "And then we'll move in from all sides. Jon will go for one side of the carriage and steal the gold. I'll go for the other to cut off their escape."
Karim's head tilted slightly to show Robin that he was listening but those brown irises were focused on the scene before them. The carriage windows were thrown open, demanding an explanation as to the delay, and the blades that were drawn by the guards. A few of them dismounted their horses to walk towards the tree. One bellowed for rope.
Behind the carriage, unbeknownst to the guards, the Merry Men were moving into position. Their movement was hardly distinguishable, the leaves rustling like wind through the foliage.
"Now," he murmured and he and Karim, flanked by Felipe and George, began to slink their way through the underbrush until they were only a handful of steps from the carriage.
They paused, waiting, for Jon to give the signal. Robin's heart pounded hard enough that he could hear the blood beating in his ear. The thumping steady and loud.
And then it was time to move.
Robin rushed from the foliage the moment the group of Merry Men rushed in from the back. Some went for the horses, holding them steady as others pulled the guards who hadn't dismounted off of their steeds.
Swords flashed and rang as the two groups clashed. As always, the intent when they robbed the carriages was not to kill but incapacitate. The weapons they carried were for intimidation and self-defence. Only if necessary would their use be fatal.
But with the first ringing of those swords, Robin angled for the carriage. He saw Felipe and George sprinting for their respective targets, witnessed Karim hanging back to assess where an extra set of hands was needed – just as they'd discussed. And then Robin saw Jon on the other side of the carriage already moving to pull open the door.
He rushed to get into position, yanking open his own door a few seconds behind Jon, just as the king's man within the carriage was turning to run. On one of the benches inside were several sacks of gold.
Robin angled the tip of the arrow nocked in his bow towards the man who cowered against the velvet seat, hands thrown up and defenceless.
"We'll be taking those," Jon said, gesturing with a gloved hand towards the sacks. Only his mouth was visible from beneath the shadows of his hood. Robin knew that he was likewise disguised and his lips stretched into a menacing grin that had the man cringing. He sputtered but ultimately didn't complain as Jon shouldered the bags of gold and began to step out of the carriage.
Then, from behind Robin, a shout. "Look out!"
Out the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of silver. Heard the whistle of wind as a blade cut towards him on a downward arc. Robin spun, the bowstring creaking as he looked for a target to sink the arrowhead into, when the man charging him and wielding the sword collapsed in a spray of blood. A blade protruded from his back.
Robin glanced up, eyes searching. And there, ten feet away, his arm still extended from the throw that had saved Robin's life, was Karim.