The path they followed was relatively wide and free of underbrush.  Leaves, twigs and a few rocks dotted the way, but these were not a hindrance.  Robin set a fast pace and estimated their arrival at Ribbon Falls would be no more than three hours, a good hour before dark, if they were able to keep their current pace and if the girl and the rabbit could keep up.  Those “ifs”  on her mind, Robin glanced at Rose, walking to the right.  She looked a mess, but certainly better than when Robin had found her.  Her long brown hair was a tangled rat’s nest.  Her dress, nothing more than a long strip of the cheapest material had been folded with a hole cut in the middle for the girl’s head to fit through.  The sides were crudely sewn with strips of what appeared to be cat gut, again leaving small openings - these for the girl’s arms.  The tunic was torn in a couple of places and still wet from her near death experience in the pond.  She was moving along quite well, though, with a slight smile on her lips.  She noticed Robin looking at her and returned the stare, her slight smile growing as their eyes connected.  The look lasted only an instant and both turned away to watch where they were going.  

Rose slipped her hand into Robin’s, who automatically took it and gave the girl’s hand a comforting squeeze.  Again they glanced at each other and smiled.  Rose said, “How much further, do you think?”

“To Ribbon Falls?  Oh, I think two to three hours, if we can keep up this pace.”  She glanced back to see if the rabbit was still with them.  He was about two yards behind.  He didn’t notice Robin’s look as he turned his head to the right and then to the left, constantly, as if searching for something. Robin couldn’t tell for sure, but the rabbit seemed agitated and worried about something in the woods around them.  She wanted to know what could be causing his concern.

Turning forward, she said, “I think we should take a short break, though.  We’ll stop at the next clearing.”  She threw another glance at the rabbit, but he seemed not to have heard, so intense was his concentration elsewhere.

A clearing appeared to the right of the path and Robin pulled Rose toward the inviting green circle of grass; but, when she turned her attention to the rabbit - he was nowhere to be seen.

***********************************************

The watcher moved through the heavily wooded forest.  His way was not as easy as the path that the Huntress and her entourage followed.  He was, however, skilled in the ways of the wood and effortlessly navigated through the heavy brush and fallen tree limbs that covered the forest floor. His movement was silent and parallel, but slightly behind that of the small group he tracked.

His job was to follow the Huntress from Dusk Forest to Ribbon Falls.  He was to insure she followed the regular paths and roads and, if she deviated, report to the others who waited at the ambush site.  He patted the small basket at his side, reassuring himself that the messenger pigeon was still in its cage.  He had started his mission with two pigeons.  One he'd sent as soon as he located the woman and was on her trail.  This final bird would serve only in an emergency.

He wondered about the girl.  She wasn’t part of the plan.  He remembered how the woman had tried to shoot the rabbit and how he'd almost given away his position when he'd laughed at her inability to hit it with two arrows.  They call her The Huntress, he'd smirked. But then, she’d gone after the rabbit and...he’d seen the plums.

He cursed his own lack of self control but, plums were his passion and his bane.  He was surprised to find plums in this part of the woods.  He’d lived here all his life and never encountered any within a hundred miles of this place.  

He knew when he started that he wouldn’t stop until the tree was bare of its fruit.  He knew, also, that he would have to answer an urgent call of nature shortly afterwards.  Somewhere between finding the plums and finishing his search for a toilet; he’d lost track of the Huntress.            

Sweating pure fear, he'd worried, for almost two hours, that he had lost her completely.  By the time he'd found her again, she'd been joined by the girl and the strange rabbit that she chased was with them, as well.

The consequences of failure were extreme.  His Master, Lord Phillip would have him publicly skinned alive, then tied down over a KingAnt mound where it would take days for him to be slowly stung and eaten to death by the ants.  

His relief at finding the Huntress back on the path was beyond description but now he worried about the girl and the rabbit.  How would he explain them?  He hadn’t seen where they'd come from.  He'd not seen the events at the pond. 

He couldn't use his last pigeon to alert the Lord's soldiers, either.  No...the soldiers would have to deal with girl without his warning.  He hoped he would not be punished.  He fervently hoped that, if punished, the results would not be fatal or disabling.  He shuddered as he recalled the punishment of others. His thoughts along these lines, however, were abruptly  interrupted by a man twenty yards ahead.

The appearance was so sudden and surprising that the watcher was frozen in place and then, shock spread throughout his body as he recognized the man before him.

Everyone knew John White.  John White, the rebel.  John White, the thief.  John White, the murderer of Lord Phillip’s soldier’s.  John White, the...

Only a second or two passed.  The legend appeared, the watcher recognized him and the arrow passed completely through the watcher’s heart.  The last thing he heard was the thud of the projectile into a tree behind him.  He looked at the hole in his chest. 

The last thought to pass through the watcher's mind was relief;  he would not have to endure any punishment at the hands of Lord Phillip. 

The watcher crumpled to the ground - dead before his body lay sprawled on the forest floor.

*************************************************

Robin eyed the rabbit as it jumped into the clearing.  The rabbit stared back.  Robin did not miss the smug satisfaction that had replaced the look of concern on the rabbit’s face before he’d disappeared.

“What have you been up to?”  She cocked her head and her narrowed eyes bored suspiciously into the rabbit’s own..

The rabbit stood on it’s hind legs and, ignoring her look,  motioned with it’s front paws.  He seemed to be indicating that they should get going.  Robin knew the rabbit had been up to something.  She had no idea what that something was, but - yes, he’d definitely been up to something - something he seemed quite pleased about.  Instinctively, she knew she would get nothing out of him right now.  He wanted them to move - now.  She nodded at the rabbit and reached a hand to Rose.  

The girl pulled her eyes from the rabbit and took Robin’s hand.             Rose could not get over the feeling that she knew this rabbit from somewhere; and, that he was not all that he appeared to be.  When the rabbit met her eyes, she recognized him...something about him that calmed her.  She smiled at him and looked up to the woman who had saved her life.  

She owed her, she knew; but, she also trusted her implicitly.  She was not like the other royals she had come across.  She wasn’t haughty - she didn't look down at her and she didn't disdainfully turn away.  Rose had not missed the fact that Robin had immediately identified her as one of the lower class; nor had she missed the quick dismissal of that fact in Robin’s face.

Robin turned from the rabbit and headed back toward the path, but he suddenly appeared in front of her.  She stopped in her tracks.  “What now?”  She asked.

The rabbit hopped off to his left.

Robin was getting quite good at interpreting the rabbits moves and reading his eyes.  “We’ll lose too much time going through these woods, silly rabbit.”

He stood on his hind legs and locked his gaze with her.  She felt his assurance that he would lead them through.  He had, after all, led her to the girl.  As strange as he was, as weird as the situation was; Robin was slowly but surely beginning to accept the rabbit as if he were human - as if he were a trusted friend.

She sighed and said to Rose, “Well, it looks like our furry friend has grown tired of the path.”

Rose smiled and nodded.  “I trust him, Huntress.”

Startled, Robin spun around to face the girl. “What did you call me?”

Robin’s gaze was so intense that Rose was suddenly frightened; not only at Robin’s glare but also the words that had tumbled from her mouth.  “I...I’m sorry...I don’t know where that came....came from,” she stammered.

The rabbit jumped on Robin’s boot, distracting her attention from Rose and, standing, patted her thighs repeatedly - like a drum roll.  The instant Robin shifted her eyes to him, he jumped off her foot and hopped a few feet away, again in the direction he wanted them to go.  

Robin’s temper abated.  Her brilliant green eyes shifted from the girl to the rabbit and back again several times.  Mentally shrugging her shoulders, she resigned herself to this strangeness.  At the same time, she promised herself that as soon as they got to Ribbon Falls she would shed these two and concentrate on the contest - the most important event of her life and one that she dared not lose.