8.
It was a rainy day and Blue had already been scolded twice for being out in the rain and getting all wet. She couldn't see the problem, she loved the rain, sure it made her cold but other than that she couldn't see any downsides to it.
Now she sat in her tent, flaps open, and watched as it poured down. Every now and then someone would run past with various objects over their heads to protect them from the water. At one point Micha ran past her tent and slipped in the mud causing her to giggle out loud, to her horror he heard her and gave her an evil glare. Fortunately, he seemed to be too worried about getting out of the rain to stay and yell at her.
Micha had taken to growling at her recently, whenever they were somewhat alone he'd a growl out just to scare her. It was either that or he'd call her freak. He'd done it for the first time when he found her up in the tree and after that he just kept on doing it, but always when no one could hear. Other times he would bump into her when walking past her, she'd even fall over sometimes. She was scared of him and he knew it. There was a part of her that wanted to tell Arthur but the fear of making it worse kept her from doing so. And besides what was the difference between all those kids in the orphanage calling her that and Micha doing it? None, they were the same and Arthur says she shouldn't have listened to them, so that means she shouldn't listen to Micha either.
Even if she always told herself that she didn't care what he said or what they said, she did... she did care.
With all these thoughts spinning around in her head she hadn't noticed when the rain stopped. With slight disappointment she stood up and as best as she could avoiding any wet ground made her way over to the flaps and closed them, there was no use in keeping them open when there was nothing to see on the outside but mud...
She sat back down on her bed and picked up one of the books Hosea wanted her to read, he said she needed to learn how to read English properly. Fittingly he'd gotten her a copy of Robin Hood and his Merry men and she loved it. Her mama had read some Robin Hood stories to her form a big yellow book and it was one of the few things she was able to bring to the orphanage when her papa, or the 'man who made you' as Arthur referred to him, dropped her off.
That book had, however, sadly been confiscated by Miss Green since no one was allowed to have something the other kids couldn't have too. Which was weird since the other kids had things she didn't...
This book was smaller and green but Blue loved it, Hosea said it was hers now, that it was hers to keep forever and she intended to do so.
Laying down on her stomach she cuddled up in her blankets and read until it was too dark and she had to light the little lamp next to her bed. Eventually Arthur came and tucked her in for the night like he always did, with the added 'no more reading' and though she tried to sleep she just couldn't do it. It was as if the book was looking at her, wondering why she wasn't reading it. She really did try to ignore it but soon enough she gave up and lit the lamp again, continuing her adventures in the Sherwood forest.
***
It was well after dawn when Arthur started wondering where Blue was. Usually she was one of the first to wake but no one had seen her yet so he assumed her to be sleeping.
Making his way over to her tent he opened the flaps and sure enough there she was. She wasn't on her bed however. She was on the ground in a nest of blankets with her head resting on an open book, sleeping. He could see the slight rise and fall of her back as she breathed, she'd obviously kept on reading once he'd left and by the looks of it fallen forward form her sitting position and ended up falling asleep on the book itself.
He should probably scold her for not listening to him but the peaceful expression on her so often worried face forbid him to do so. Instead he decided to let it go for the time being, there were worse things she could of done, and she would most probably get tired earlier that night and realize it wasn't worth it.
He left her where she was and went about his day, waiting for her to wake.
After about an hour or so the little girl appeared at his side as he was saddling his horse. Her blond hair looked similar to a bird's nest, if Miss Grimshaw saw her now... and her eyes were puffy with sleep.
"Good morning, sleep well?" Arthur couldn't help the smile tugging at the corner of his lips as she gave a nod, rubbing the palms of her hands over her eyes.
"I thought I'd take you with me to run some errands today, what'd you say about that?" there was an instant spark of excitement in Blue's eyes, seemingly pushing away some of the tiredness.
"Are we going now?!?" She asked, obviously eager to go.
"Go get something to eat and let someone help you with that" he motioned to her hair, causing her to go cross-eyed as she tried to look at the curls hanging down her forehead "and then we'll get out of here, sounds good?" he continued.
"Uhu!" was her only, and presumably affirmative, answer as she turned and ran toward the fire to eat and get ready for the day ahead.
***
"Look Arthur! Look at that bunny!" Blue bounced slightly in the saddle in front of Arthur, pointing towards a patch of trees, while he steered them towards Valentine. There, in the tall grass, sat a snow-white bunny, seemingly not bothered by their presence at all.
"Would you look at that..." he mumbled, more to himself than to Blue. Never once in all his life had he seen one like that. They weren't more than maybe a few meters away and yet it didn't move as Arthur halted his horse next to it.
"Let me down" whispered Blue looking back at him with a smile. Doing as she asked, he dismounted and helped her to the ground. She crouched slightly, carefully placing her feet in the soft grass as she slowly made her way towards it. When she got close enough so that she could have touched it she kneeled to the ground. Arthur was astonished, why didn't it run away?
Blue pulled some dandelion leaves from the dirt and gently offered it to the bunny and to both of their surprise it moved towards her and started eating it out of her hand. Seeing how Blue started reaching her other hand towards the animal Arthur got worried it might turn on her.
"Don't touch it, it might be sick" he warned but it was too late, Blue was already stroking its back with gentle movements, flattening its ears in the process.
"It's so nice Arthur!" the delight in her voice warmed Arthur but he still felt somewhat uneasy about its unusual behavior.
"Yeh yeh, now back away from it, try not to scare it" who knew what kind of disease it could be carrying and what effects it would have on a young child.
"I'm gonna try and pick it up!" she said as if he hadn't just told her to get away from it...
"What no! Blue-" ever so slowly she reached under it and lifted it off the ground "what did I just say-" she turned towards him, bunny cradled to her chest "are you even listening to me?" she most obviously didn't...
"It won't bite me, look how sweet it is, look at its eyes!" Arthur didn't want to look at its eyes, he wanted her to put the thing down so they could get moving.
"Its so soft, feel it" she was now standing right in front of him and he could see its bright red eyes, what kind of bunny was this?!
"No thank you, now put it back"
"Aw come on, just touch it, please." Once those peculiar blue and brown eyes locked with his own he couldn't help but give in, running a finger down its back. It wasn't softer than any other bunny he'd caught but he didn't tell her that, especially considering those bunnies had mostly been fried oven an open fire and eaten...
"Yeh that might ý soft, now be a good girl and put it down so we can get moving."
"Can't I keep it?"
"No..."
"But-"
"Nope"
"I'll take ca-"
"Blue! I said no!" in the end he had to be stern with her, even if it turned out to just be a nice animal, there was no way she could keep it in camp... most likely it would end up in Pearson's stew within a week and that would brake her little heart and he couldn't have that.
"Why?"
Sighing he pinched the bridge of his nose "Because I say so Blue, and why would you want it anyways? It's creepy!" he said motioning to its piercing red eyes, but regretting it immediately as Blue directed her own unusual eyes to the ground.
"Okay..." her voice was not much more than a whisper. Walking back to where she found the bunny, she slowly put it back down, giving it a quiet 'good bye' and made her way back to him.
"I didn't mean that there is anything wrong with unusual eyes princess, you know that..." he said, lifting her into the saddle but staying on the ground so that he could look up at her. As always when she was upset or insecure, she avoided eye contact and he had to lightly grab her chin to get her to even look in his direction.
"I didn't mean it Blue" he found himself sounding kind of stern, like he needed to forcefully get it into her head that he hadn't meant it.
"I know..." She mumbled. Feeling the urge to put a smile back on her face he took ahold of the reins and placed them in her hand. She looked ta him with curious eyes, seemingly asking what he was doing.
"How about you get us to Valentine today?" that did it, her entire face lit up like the sun and she nodded eagerly. Chuckling, Arthur climbed up behind her and nudged the horse to move.
Wrapping his large hands around her small ones he showed her what to do, eventually letting go so that she could do it herself.
There were times where he had to help her when she wasn't pulling hard enough on the reins or started to go off road, but other than that she did great. Every now and then she'd complement the horse, whispering sweet little 'good boy':s and 'you're so nice'. It amused him since he realized she'd probably picked it up from him often doing so.
It might have taken them some extra time to get to the little town but it was worth it in Arthurs eyes when he could basically feel the happiness radiating off of her as she walked beside him.
"I'll have my own horse one day, won't I?"
"Course you will, we'll find you a nice old mare to start off with" he said causing a brilliant smile to spread across her face.
"When?" she was now walking backwards in front of him with a bounce in her step, making sure his attention was on her.
"Ah you'll have to grow a little bit more until I let you on one by yourself, a year or so."
"A year?! Noooo... that's too long..." a pout replaced her previous smile causing Arthur to chuckle. Placing his hands on her shoulder he turned her around so that she was, once again, walking beside him.
"We'll see, maybe if you behave well, I'll think about looking into it earlier."
"I always behave..." she defended herself, though the mischievous smile she was trying to hide spoke of the fact that she knew it wasn't entirely true.
"Is that so? Well then I guess it wasn't you Miss Grimshaw was yelling at to get out of the rain yesterday, funny I could have bet my last penny that she mentioned the name 'Blue'... though I guess it could have been one of all the other Blue's around camp..."
"It was only a little bit of rain..." Blue mumbled.
"Hm... and you didn't stay up late reading even after I told you not to?" the look of shock merged with embarrassment as the girl realized she must have been caught.
"I... didn't mean to?.." her answer was formed more as a question than a defense.
"You didn't mean to?" Arthur raised an eyebrow at her, shaking his head. "Incredible" he mumbled to himself as he held open the door to the general store, gently pushing her inside.
There were two other customers inside but none payed too much attention to the newly arrived. Walking up to the counter he let Blue wander around the store while he got wat he needed.
***
Blue stared at the colorful boxes, bottles and tins stacked on the shelves wondering what they could be. Though she was getting better at reading the language, she found it hard to understand the fancy lettering and such. She spent some time trying to figure out some of the names but soon gave up and moved on to a shelf with a small collection of books and a box of thick paper rectangles with different motives on them. There some with flowers on and then there were one with a girl and another with a boy. It was, however, the one with the little black puppy that caught her attention. It looked very fluffy and had a nice red bow around its neck.
She was brought out of her thoughts when Arthur placed his hand on her shoulder, looking down at what she was looking at.
"What'd you find?" he asked and Blue held up the paper for him to see.
"I don't know what it is... do you?" Arthur seemed to have to think for a second but once he saw the books that stood next to the box he said "Bookmarks I'd say, you know to put in books to remember where you stopped."
"Oh... I just remembered the number on the page." Blue explained, carefully placing the paper back in the box.
"You like that one? With the dog?" Arthur asked, motioning towards it.
"I like puppies" he laughed at her answer and picked up the bookmark, bringing it to the counter and payed the asked price. Blue was ridiculously happy for the piece of paper he now placed in her hand. But she felt a little bit ashamed as Dutch was always talking about them needing money and she felt Arthur really shouldn't be spending money on her like that.
"You didn't have to buy it... Dutch says we have to save money..." she said once the man had helped her onto his horse.
"These are my money and I can do whatever I want with them, besides, what kind of princess would you be if you weren't spoiled every now and then?" he winked at her, making her feel much better about the entire thing.
"I'm not a princess I'm and outlaw" she claimed, puffing out her chest, trying to hold in the giggle that threatened to bubble out of her. When Arthur sat down behind her and poked her side, however, she couldn't hold it in anymore and the laughed together as they left the town.
"Ay Princess of Thieves"
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Not the best but it's something I guess... thank you for reading and feel free to leave a comment if there is anything you want to see or not to see in the future.