Quantum Leap - Vol. 9 Robyn Hode Takes On The World

I was standing right in the middle of a marketplace of some sort and the people around were gaping at me in muted silence. Was it my clothes I'm donning, or the tear-stained face and snot that was trickling from my nose earlier that made me stand out among the rest?

I looked around and saw that these town folks were fair-skinned, meaning that I had been transmigrated into a Western part of the world and universe. I looked down at my hands and there was a short wooden bow in my left and a few arrows that had been embedded into the ground, assumably for me to reach out and fire them at my intended targets with ease and rapid deployment.

And my targets were lads... And all of them had arrows jutting out from their chests and backs like a sore thumb and all those lads were sprawled on the ground, presumably met their demise while trying to run away in fear.

Only one explanation could sum it all up. I had transmigrated into the body of a cold-blooded murderer...!

"Oh, fuck...! Oh, boy...! What transpired a few seconds ago? Why can't I transmigrate a minute or two before all these happenings? Dammit...fucking amazing...Now someone is moving toward me..." I thought inwardly as I stood there frigid and rooted to the ground.

"LOOK...!!! That's him, right there...!! He's the ONE that KILLED those lads over here...!! That's him...the one with the RED NAME over his head...GO GET HIM...DONT LET HIM ESCAPE...!!" a tough-looking man in a semi cloth and leather outfit was roaring and some burly men were pursuing and beckoning to capture me alive...!!

I looked up above me and true enough, there was a red name above my head and right now it is so red, that it nearly looked like black to me. Other people around me had names too but were white in colour. Is this some kind of fantasy medieval game or what...?!? No time to make the acquaintance, cause I can see crisis brewing...!

"For Fuck's sake...! What am I standing around here for...?!" I cried out at myself and stoop down to get my arrows that were implanted in the ground and quickly scanned to make a getaway. The minute I placed my hands on the arrows, the men who were lumbering towards me, flung themselves on the ground, reckoning that I would be releasing those arrows at them.

"Good...! This would have me a few seconds to give a headstart..." as I turned around on my feet and deftly picked up my pace as I darted through the marketplace...and managed to snatch a small blanket to coat myself and thus hiding my red name over my head temporarily. "Fuck...! Is this the Utopia MMORPG game that I kept getting killed every time I had surpassed level 20?"

I thought to myself and snatched a small basket of fruits and vegetables on the way out and sprinted through the clearing of the marketplace towards the forested area. "Fuck...fuck...fuck...fuck...fuck..." Now I'm becoming a thief too...and I ran in a zig-zag manner, in case I could throw off the people who were hounding me through the woods.

I made sure that I had cleared a safe distance away and covered several miles and thankfully I was able to use my Chi Channelling that made me run the extra few miles without wheezing like an old dog.

I uncovered a brook, and after making sure I was not being followed, I threw off the blanket that I had used as a shawl and leaned against a rotting old tree. I placed the basket of fruits and vegetables I had swiped from the marketplace on the ground beside me along with the wooden short bow and the leather quiver off my back.

The red name above me was still there and I studied at the brook's surface and saw the name 'niboR' in its reflection. "What a fucking weird name for a cold-blooded murderer...!" and unexpectedly I realised that it was spelt backwards and it dawned on me that my name is 'Robyn'.

"Oh, Max... You really had placed me in deep shit this time. I didn't even start the Leap as a fucking cold-blooded murderer, you know...! Huaaarrgghhhhh...!" I screamed into the eerie lull of the forest, hoping Max could hear me and come out to clarify what I am to do right now.

I glanced again in the reflection and established that I am still in a boy's body... Maybe not more than 14 or 15 years of age. I was wearing a two-toned Lincoln green outfit with a brown belt and a short sword on my side. A small brown coin pouch was dangling on the underside of my outfit and I jiggled it and find it to carry some weight.

I drew the coin pouch and peeked inside while poured the contents on my palm. There were two gold coins, five silver ones and several copper ones. I wonder how much these sorts would be and I kept it back under my outfit. Wonder if it is the same as the one back in Japan. Speaking of Japan... I was wondering how those guys were up to.

I squatted down on one of the protruding roots above the ground and grabbed an apple from the basket and after gingerly wiping it against my outfit, I took a nibble into it. It was a local red apple and it was not crunchy and parts of it had some dwellers... But I knew that in the marketplace of this era, it is one of the reasonable ones that they could offer.

I ate the apple right to the core and spat the arsenic seeds off into the brook. I scooped up some water in my cupped hands and rubbed my face and removed my hat that looked like a scout's with a feather on it and spattered the cold and refreshing water on my hair.

The red name was still there and I was wondering how long would it turn back to white after I had eliminated 15 lads back there in the marketplace. What actually happened the turned me to become that kind of cold-blooded murderer in the middle of the day?

Only the old me had the answers and when I studied it, I discovered that the 15 lads had cheated me of 20 shillings (silver coins) on a bet that I could shoot an adult deer some 400 meters away and I was too young to hold a bow and an arrow.

Their mockery made me lost my temper and I acknowledged the bet and in the end, when I had shot the deer, no one wanted to pay up and even ridiculed at me and saying that I had killed one of the King's game.

They wished to report to the officials that I had slain the King's game and to earn that 20 shillings for themselves instead, as a reward. With blind wrath, I turned loose a few arrows at their direction and one by one fell to their sides. No one bullies me and makes use of me and gets away with it.

That was someone else a few seconds before I transmigrated to this body. Damn...! I never knew this boy had such a fiery tantrum and was so damn good with his archery. But taking out defenceless lads was as good as murder, and right now, I need a place to hide and turn that goddamn name above my head back to white or whatsoever.

Damn... At least in this series, I don't have to introduce myself and everyone had their name on top of their heads. Hahahaha. Time to move, old boy. "This brook seems to flow upstream... It would be better to keep close but not too close before I could find its source. It would be better being upstream and not drinking someone's body fluids. Who knows you might end up seeing a submarine (a floating piece of shit) after you had scooped a cupful of water to drink." Yuuuuuccckkkkksssss.....!!!

I reckoned to myself as I shouldered my bow and my leather quiver. I clasped the blanket over myself like a shawl and held the basket in the crook of my arm. When the shawl was wrapped, it was like a disguise and the name above my head temporarily disappeared. I gazed at my reflection on the surface of the Brook and I laughed to myself.

This is not Robyn Hode... This is the Little Brown Riding Hode... Off to massacre some wolves that had devoured his granny. Hahahahahaha. And I proceeded to skip along the side of the stream, moving upstream, as I got further away from the crime scene of the marketplace.

I jogged my memories and found that this is Medieval England back in the 12th Century and the Lordship was King Richard the 1st and I have to tell myself not to kill anyone else in the fits of fury due to bullying. How about if I bully others instead and thinking on how to make a name for myself, without making myself publically exposed.

After some hours, I had reached a fork of two rivers and deciding on which to follow. I dropped a leaf on the surface and found that one river was flowing faster than the other and I made up my mind to head upstream towards the faster flowing one.

It was soon turning into dusk and I saw a brown long-eared rabbit in the distance, and deploy an arrow on my bow and quickly disengaged it towards the poor rabbit, and it quickly met its demise. I gingerly went over and picked the animal up and retrieved the arrow.

"Sigh... Let this be my meal for tonight and thanked the heavens for it." I had a dagger on my right side of the belt near my dangling coin pouch and I quickly dressed the rabbit. A small magnesium flint and strike was attached to the knife (it was a Bushcraft Survival Series knife. A small piece of modern tech) and I quickly made a small fire made from the dry kindling near the trees.

I cut the fleshy parts of the rabbit and skewered the meat through some green twigs while I made a horizontal kind of pit to strung up the rest of the rabbit. I stoked up some firewood and let the heat radiating to roast the skewered meat.

I took a few long branches and placed 2 vertically on the ground. Then I position a few across it and secured it with some twines. The blanket that I had with me would serve as a groundsheet. I went over a short distance away and cut some tall grasses and brought it back several trips. I then interlaced the grass between the branches and made sort of partition against the cool breeze. Seeing stars above the sky means it would a good night with no chance of a downpour.

It is not as elaborate as the A-frame shelter that was made in the first series, but this is better than nothing. The ground was brushed clear of rocks and pebbles to make way for a hearth for me to lie down.

I fashioned a sort of mattress with the grasses and one end of the blanket was folded it in and stuffed it with grass to make a pillow.

"Hahahahaha... Not bad". I thought to myself. A shelter and a bed are ready. Now left is to wait for the roasted meat to be ready and time to chow down. I wondered if the stream had fishes so I would be able to make some hooks and line to fish and make grilled fish instead. It is much faster to deal with rabbits and other wildlife.

The sizzling of meat on the sticks indicated that the meat is being cooked and ready to eat. I clawed at the embers and pulled it away from the skewers and gathered it nicely right below the overhanging rabbit's bone and shreds of meat.