What they want (Gwyn)

[Richard Locksley]

It would probably surprise some people (including his birth parents) to learn that, despite his father - no, the sheriff - raising him to be the antithesis of everything Robin Hood stood for, Richard had been taught archery from a very young age. Something to do with showing up his enemy with someone just as skilled etc etc, Richard had never really paid a lot of attention when the sheriff got into a particular rant. 
Technically, he preferred the sword, but there was something relaxing about archery, it was something you could do alone and it involved focus and concentration and was a nice way to keep your mind off things you didn't want to think about.
Like being here, in this school, with his brother and sister. They'd barely had a chance to get to know one another before Robin and Marian had packed them all off to Tintagel, expecting them to bond when they got here. His idiotic brother's resentment of him had been palpable from the moment they set eyes on each other, and Richard had yet to get a read on his sister, he did not expect their relationship to improve noticeably before they left again. Still, at least there was some benefit to being away from his parents, their relief on finding him again had become somewhat cloying in the short time they'd spent together, and it was easier to sort out his feelings about them when he was further away and had some room to breathe.

Room to breathe was the order of the day today, as he set himself up in a forest clearing in the park. There were archery ranges back at the school, but ranges weren't the same as actually being out in the wild, and he was more likely to be disturbed there. He hung a target off a tree branch and stepped back to the clearing edge, unslinging his bow from over his shoulder and nocking an arrow.

Letting his shoulders relax, he found his focus, moving automatically into position and lifting his arms, loosing the arrow in one smooth motion that sent it sailing directly into the bullseye.

[Gwyn Locksley]

It was a relief to be back in Tintagel where she could wear her trousers and forgo any niceties. Of course it would have been better to be here without the extra baggage, but at least the school was vast and the lands even more extensive, so what were the chances of running into the very person she wanted to avoid most here?

Apparently very good, much to her chagrin. She had been venturing into the woods to do some hunting, figuring she could set up a fire and cook her own meal tonight, or donate her kill to the cafeteria, when she heard the very distinct 'thunk' of an arrow hitting a target. Quietly following the sound, she was surprised and rather annoyed to find her newly discovered older brother daring to practice archery in her domain. Even more annoying he was really good.

Stopping a few yards behind him, she scowled at his perfect bullseye. Was this how Eddie felt whenever she bested him at, well, everything? But even worse, why did it have to be archery? Archery was her thing, because it was her dad's thing, and now this guy shows up out of nowhere, taking the first born title from Eddie, and all skilled at archery like her. Who did he think he was? She had a mind to send an arrow straight down the shaft of his, splitting it in twain, but as she drew her bow she felt a very foreign feeling: it was the slightest niggling of doubt.

Doubt was not something Gwyn was accustomed too, not when it came her her skills. She'd never had to worry about that with Eddie. Eddie was the first born, or had been, the son and heir, and the one with all the social skills, while she was the warrior. The problem was, she was still a girl, and in society would forever be seen as inferior. She knew she wasn't, but where did she fit in against someone who might possibly be just as good as her, but had also the advantages of being male?

She hesitated a moment, then let the arrow fly, followed rapidly by a second one. They sailed over Richards shoulder and into the target, one landing one either side of his arrow in a perfect row, barely a hair's breadth between them.

[Richard Locksley]

The whistling of the arrows as they passed him had him ready for attack, a second arrow was already in his hand and halfway to the bow before he registered that whoever the newcomer was, they had very good aim.

"Oh. Showing off." He drawled, unimpressed, and turned to face whoever had interrupted him, lowering his bow. Though he pose was casual, there was still a tension in his shoulders, and his grip on the weapon was sure and steady, ready to lift it again at a moment's notice should he need to. It was a tension that didn't relax an inch when he realised it was his sister.

Now, were she anything like their father he would expect her to laugh and tease or challenge him to beat her impressive trick shot, but Richard very much got the impression that she was... not that kind of person, however much she had inherited all of Robin's other skills.
It also hadn't been difficult to miss how much both Gwyn and Eddie had disliked him almost immediately, and he struggled to find a reason to win them over.

" Very impressive," he complimented all the same, unfortunately his tone sounded... perhaps a little bit mocking.

[Gwyn Locksley]

She should have kept walking, should have just ignored him and pretended she hadn't seen him at all. Why had she felt the need to show off? Now she was stuck having to converse with him when she could have just as easily avoided him. Damn her pride.

"Thank you," she said, choosing to take his words at face value instead of reading into his tone. She had always been one to pay more attention to what was actually said rather than inference behind the words. She also, notably, didn't compliment him back. "They have ranges at the school, you know. Anyone is welcome to use them." It could have been seen as some actual helpful advice. In truth she was more annoyed to run into him out here, somewhere she had assumed she could be alone.

[Richard Locksley]

"Yes, I'm aware of that, I was hoping to practice undisturbed," he said coolly, levelling her with a pointed look. He had no doubt she was just as unhappy to see him, but she was the one who had decided to draw his attention, so he wasn't inclined to be charitable.

"I prefer the solitude." He added, probably unnecessarily, but he wanted to be sure she took his point, his point being go away.
Still, he lowered his bow and shoved his arrow back into his quiver, shrugging it off his shoulder to drop on the ground. It tipped on its side, arrows shifting slightly and a small book sliding out a little. He nudged it back in with his foot.

"What are you doing out here?"

[Gwyn Locksley]

Even Gwyn couldn't mistake Richard's meaning, especially when he basically reiterated it with his following words. He didn't want to be disturbed, he wanted to be alone. Well, tough. "The woods around here do not always lend themselves to solitude," she said. It was funny, a moment ago she had been wishing she had avoided him, but now knowing he wanted just as little to do with her made her want to stay and irritate him. "I would watch your back around here." It wasn't a threat, though it may have sounded like one considering how she had approached him. "It's not just the students you might encounter if you stray too far."

Noting with curiosity how he seemed to try to conceal his book, she slung her bow over her shoulder. "I came to hunt."

[Richard Locksley]

"Apparently." He replied dryly. He was almost beginning to relax, something vaguely pleasant about trading barbs with her, however harsh their words or intentions were - and then she threw in her threat and he tensed immediately. His upbringing was hardly an easy one, and he was used to threats being followed through on,had scars from some of them, when he hadn't learned quick enough.

"I'm sure I can handle anything that comes my way," he replied, icy cold and eyes hard. If she was going to try and get rid of him to go back to her happy little family, she wouldn't find it so easy to do.

"Hunting? Don't they feed you enough at the school?"

[Gwyn Locksley]

For a brief moment he almost seemed to relax, but it was short lived. He very clearly liked Gwyn just about as much as she liked him, and she didn't see how she was ever supposed to see him as a brother. "You say that, but you haven't heard the stories mother and father told of their time here. Magic, dangerous beasts... other people are far from the greatest threat."

She had grown up on those stories, and it had made her want to come her herself all the more. Home, if war broke out, she could fight armies, but here she could battle great beasts and terrible gods. It was everything she dreamed of, even if the opportunities hadn't yet presented themselves. They would one day, she was sure of it.

Rolling her eyes at his question, she shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "Of course they do, but there's something about catching one's own food." She gave a shrug. "Besides, it's good practice on moving targets."

[Richard Locksley]

"No. No I haven't." his tone was blunt, but try as he might he couldn't conceal the bitterness flavouring it. Her and Eddie were all traumatised that he'd shown up and been superior to them, but he was the one who'd been raised by the f*cking sheriff of Nottingham. They'd had all their lives with Robin and Marian, and who knew, maybe they weren't half bad parents when they weren't being irritatingly clingy and overly affectionate to a child they hadn't seen in 18 years. Not that Richard was the type to play the woe-is-me card, pity wasn't something he needed or wanted, and just because he'd perfected a less charming version of his real father's arrogance, it that didn't mean he'd come out of his upbringing unscathed.

"I thought the point of getting somewhere in life was so that one wouldn't have to catch ones own food, isn't it better to be able to pay someone to do it for you?" of course plenty of nobility went hunting for sport, but he wasn't going to let that stop him throwing a jibe or two her way.

[Gwyn Locksley]

As much as she disliked Richard and everything he meant to her life, Gwyn couldn't quite ignore the slight stab of guilt as she realised what she had said. No, he hadn't heard the stories because he hadn't been there, and he hadn't been there because he had been stolen. It wasn't his choice; he had been deprived of wonderful, loving family by no fault of his own, and her words probably sounded like she was rubbing the fact in.

Even if she hated how he had disrupted her life and challenged what she knew about herself, she wasn't so cruel that she couldn't pity his lot in life. It could have just as easily been Eddie or her.

"Not everyone who hunts does it because they have to," she replied, tone still clearly annoyed but not so cold as before. "Although I do not plan to waste anything I do kill, there are many reasons besides necessity to hunt"

[Richard Locksley]

He noticed she had no response to that, and he couldn't help but feel smug at that slight shift in her expression. So she was feeling a little guilty? Good. Pity he didn't want, but if it was enough to make her squirm? Well, he'd take that any day.

"Sure, if you say so," he shrugged at her objection, brushing it off with a slightly patronising tone "What are you waiting for? Go have fun chasing your little rabbits or whatever, leave me to my actual training." He stared at her expectantly, waiting for her to leave.
Their parents had hoped they'd get a chance to bond while away at school, but all Richard really cared about was getting on with his own life and letting his siblings get on with theirs, so if he had to annoy and upset them in order to get his wish and make them leave him alone, well, he'd take whatever tactics he could, it was no skin off his nose. Maybe his tendency to drive people away was yet another facet of his personal damage, but if it was, that wasn't anybody's business but his own.

[Gwyn Locksley]

That shred of guilt she had felt vanished quickly when Richard acted like the complete ass he apparently was. “Your actual training?” she scoffed. “Sure, have fun shooting your little stationary target at twenty paces while I go strike an actual moving target.” Pulling the bow off her shoulder she turned to stomp off.

As far as Gwyn was concerned she had already bested him anyhow. She had struck his same target from much further away, and the only reason she hadn't hit it dead centre was because his arrow had already been there. Shot from a much closer distance. So she would leave him to his training since he obviously needed it.

[Richard Locksley]

"Don't talk about things you know nothing about," Richard shot over his shoulder, apparently not intending to quantify his statement or try to continue the conversation, but wanting to at least deny her accusation. He was quite content to let her leave him to it.

He didn't consider her to have bested him by showing off with her arrows, but mostly because he was arrogant enough to dismiss such things - after all, this only happened where the two of them could see, it was her word against his that it actually happened, so if it ever came up he'd happily deny it and watch her get increasingly frustrated.

"Have fun chasing rabbits."

[Gwyn Locksley]

Things she knew nothing about? Pffftt. She had had Robin Hood himself teach her how to shoot targets as soon as she could safely hold a bow. Maybe he was good, but he would never be as good as their father, and therefore never as good as her, she was certain. Feeling her blood boil, that one repeated condescending statement was enough. "You already said that."

Stopping in her tracks, Gwyn turned back. Taking an arrow from her quiver, she nocked it, aimed, breathed, and released. Sailing through the air and past where Richard stood, it struck the target dead centre, slicing his arrow clean in twain. Her heart leapt with triumph and returning confidence. “Who knows nothing?” she called out before turning on her heel and storming off through the undergrowth, not even bothering to stick around and see his reaction.

[Richard Locksley]

Richard did not want anybody to know he had anything but withering scorn for his younger siblings, that he was confident in the fact he was better than them in almost every way and their desperation to prove that wasn't the case was simply an amusement to him. Nothing they could do would change that.

But then Gwyn split the arrow as her final farewell and it was like a slap in the face, because he knew that trick, he'd heard all about that bloody trick, had spent hours and hours and hours trying to get good enough to recreate it because that was what Vaisey wanted. He bested every challenger with a sword he came up against, he could ride and hunt and run and fight and plan and climb and sneak and every single other thing that his adoptive father demanded of him to make him the perfect weapon against Robin Hood. But the icing on the cake, the nail in the coffin, would be if he could do that stupid, pointless, show off splitting-the-arrow nonsense that everybody knew was Robin Hood's thing. That would prove Robin wasn't anything special.
And he'd never been able to do it.

Whatever the trick to it was, it was clearly something that he'd taught Gwyn. Something she'd been handed down by a loving father who was probably only too happy to pass the secret on to his child, blissfully unaware that his first born would have literally killed to figure it out, because the longer it took him to learn, the angrier Vaisey got.

Maybe it was a good thing she disappeared into the trees before she got to see his reaction, maybe it wasn't, but he didn't really care what she was doing in the midst of the overwhelming wave of rage that swept over him on seeing what she'd done. As the words were leaving her mouth he was already moving, reaching for the sword at his hip, swinging it from its scabbard and bringing it down with all his strength onto the target, shattering board and arrows alike under the force of it, leaving just a dangling string with a stray splinter of wood hanging from it.

He shoved his sword into the ground and grabbed for the notebook tucked into his quiver. He needed to get his feelings out on paper before he broke anything else.

-fin-