Disclaimer: I do not own BBC's Robin Hood.
All was quiet, an oddity alone. Normally the night was abuzz with sound, from the chirping crickets, the hooting owls, and the ominous howling of the wolves, but tonight all was silent but for the rustle of leaves and a threadbare sheet, to thin to keep away the cold, but enough to hold on to in the dead of night. A man lay on his bed roll, stiff and slightly curled, arm carelessly flung over his eyes as he slept fitfully lost in dreams of the past.
None of the outlaws said a word, but Much began talking, babbling inane, often nonsensical talk about the events of the day and well into his plans for the next, pausing every so often to glance covertly at his master before launching into another sentence.
The outlaws joined in, as though unwitting of his actual intentions, as they let him believe.
"Lamb? Were are you going to get lamb?" Allan insisted refusing to let the subject drop, Much had started it, after all. "I met a girl who knows a farmer who is selling 'em at market day, we can buy food you know. We don't have to poach all the time."
"You met a girl?" Allan prodded, Much threw up his hands, "I met a girl who'd met Robin who knows a farmer who is selling the sheep!" Much confessed with a shake of his head. Allan nodded in acceptance to that.
"Speaking of, shouldn't we wake him?" Allan muttered stalking over to where their leader slept restlessly, "Not a good, idea!" Much hissed the last part and Allan realized why when he ended up on his arse in the dirt, Robins dirk pressed to his throat, "Whoa! Easy Robin!" Allan exclaimed putting his hands up. Robin grunted and pushed him away, "Much" he muttered.
"Wasn't my fault, I told him not to!" Much defended before Robin said anything at all.
"Sorry Allan" Robin muttered not quite meeting eye-to-eye. Allan shrugged indifferently, "'Is fine, jus' wasn't expectin' that." Without another word Robin went off, to find the creek that was near there newest camp. Much watched him go before turning back to the task at hand: food.
"What's up with 'im?" Allan grumbled, Much snorted in disgust at the outlaws' blindness, but neither did he tell him. "We should be celebratin,' we rescued the people from a false King, and another of the sheriffs scheme's, and Marion's still a free woman, I say we done pretty good so far."
"We have" Djac agreed, "I think it's not the intrigues of Sheriff Vaisy that trouble Robin," she commented with a knowing look to Much whom remained oddly quiet, refraining from saying anything at all so as not to betray his masters trust, even by accident.
"Well? You've known 'em longest of us all" Allan prodded, snatching the pot from Much who frowned, "Give that here!" Allan smirked playfully, "Well? Its not jus' you and Robin now, its you Robin and us."
"Well then, if you put it like that" Much sighed unenthusiastically, Allan sat down on an outcropping trunk root fully expecting an answer, Much said something rather unexpected however:
"I guess we won't be eating."
He should be celebrating. Allan was right.
They had dissolved the matter of the false King, and diverted the Sheriffs latest scheme, and more notably, to Robin, had left Marion free in the process.
His friends steadfast devotions still surprised him sometimes, he knew how much, Much liked his food. But they were right on another account. It wasn't just Much and Robin any longer; it was now Much, Robin, and the gang.
But he wasn't about to tell them, they didn't understand what it was like in Acre, Cyprus, and all those other places, all that death, the stench of it to thick it would churn the most hardened warriors stomach, he could still smell it, and see it.
Blood, drenched in blood, blood from Saracen and Crusader alike.
"Enough, that time is done," he harshly reminded himself, he was home, or what had become of his home while he was away fighting a war in another land his own home had become something other than what it was upon leaving.
"I'd best join the others before they think the sheriff's men have caught me" Robin mused though the thought held little amusement for him, it was to close to the truth. When he returned he had returned to himself again, patting Much on the back, asking, "So were's the food?"
"Its not my fault he wouldn't give me the pan, what am I supposed to cook with, I can't very well put a egg on a stick and roast it now can I?" Much grumbled, Allan laughed tossing the pan at Much but Robin seized the object and handed it to his mumbling friend.
Robin clapped Much on the back and took a seat, Djac to his left, Will to his right, Allan decided to pester Much loving how the man would fluster about for words, so of course he had to seat himself on Muchs' left, hence with a great deal of good-natured arguing breakfast was cooked, divided, and eaten among the lot.
"I am going to fetch the meat from the market, today is Market Day is it not?" Much asked, "It is" Robin slowly agreed, "I am for the village to take coins to the Terrance family, they had a baby last month and will be needin' whatever extra's we can scare up" Will stated, "I'll go with you" Allan stated, "For the ride o'course" he added with a shrug.
Will nodded, it wasn't unusual for Allan to go where Will went and visa versa, in fact it had become a silent understanding of sorts among them. An odd pair of friends those two made, the carpentered and the poacher, and some time pickpocket.
"I go hunting, in case this one looses the money and the meat," John avowed deprecatingly, with only the barest hint of a grin on his bushy face, but the sparkle in his eye gave way his intent.
Much so easily riled sputtered indignantly, "I am not a child! I won't loose the money, well unless of course I meet the sheriffs men, or get caught, or put in the stocks, then I might, but it'd hardly be my fault!"
"Much, calm yourself, we wont get caught"
"Of course we wont!" Much exclaimed, "Wait, we? Why must there be a 'we'? You don't trust me either?" Much demanded, "I trust you Much, the sheriff and his men I do not, I'll go with you, if that's all right? I can want to travel to Nottingham with my friend of six years can I not?"
"Well yes, if you put it like that…"
"Good then its decided."
The men packed there sparse few belonging into satchels and disbanded each heading their own way, "What about me!" Djac exclaimed tartly, everyone halted mid step almost having forgotten her in her quietness. She needs to speak up more.
"Hmm," before Robin could say something more intelligible Will did.
"Come with us."
Djac shrugged, "Why not, I haven't anywhere else to be." Will nodded, a tiny smile tugging at his face, Djac threw her arms over Will and Allan's shoulders comrade style as they set off on foot for the nearby village, right next to Knighton Manor.
Hitching a ride atop an unsuspecting coach, Robin and Much entered Nottingham with aplomb. "This has been easy" Much said cheerily; "To easy" Robin countered warily.
"Come on" Robin urged, "Lets not linger to long."
"If I may say, I think you're becoming paranoid master" Much groused tagging after Robins dusty cloak, but began looking over his shoulder all the same. Robin had the annoying habit of being to right, to often.
Much hoped this time he'd be wrong.
He lost track of Robin for a few minutes wrecking havoc with Muchs thoughts as he tried to act casual, like any other peasant, while worrying over what ifs. A hand clapped his shoulder and he had his sword out and ready, "Easy Much, just me" Robin said with a grin, "Do you have the meat? Yes, good, lets us leave this place in the dust" Robin remarked leading the way out, "Well at least we're not going through the sewers again,"
"We aren't right?" Much asked snapping to like a soldier called to attention, "Master? Master!" he demanded when getting no reply from Robin he drooped, muttering and grumbling about masters and outlaws, and snide sheriffs.
Robin chuckled, "No Much, not this time."
"Oh, good."
Robin smiled, his back to Much as they snuck past the guards when a particularly large cart, accompanied by braying sheep entered.
"We should have brought out horses" Much moaned half way down the road leading to Sherwood, "Shush!" Robin said cocking his head this way and that.
"What? Guards? Horses? What is it!"
"No. Its children, a family" Robin said squinting against the sun; he saw that sure enough he was right. A family had become marooned when their wagon overturned, the axel having come off, but luckily in one piece.
"Keep your head down, and walk past master, they could be with the sheriff" Much protested, "Now who's being paranoid, eh Much?" Robin returned with a rueful smile.
"You're a bad influence," Much defended obstinately. "And yet" Robin remarked glanced back spreading his arms, "Your still here."
Much clenched his teeth, he wouldn't smile, he wouldn't smile!
Robin nudged him; he nudged back his smile breaking through.
"Hello there" Robin said to the family who peered at him worriedly, he knew what they were thinking and it was probably right, but not in the way they thought.
"What happened here?"
"Sheriffs men ran us off the road, said they was in a hurry, gave no account that I had me wife and boys with me they didn't, just ran me clear off, immoral men the lot of 'em" the man said stepping forward.
"I'd be careful whom I said such things to stranger, the sheriff is not a forgiving man, his ears are everywhere…if you catch my meaning" Much warned them, the man snorted, "So I'd heard."
"My friend is right," Robin finally said. "Who are you, that you would know?" the man asked suspiciously, "How do I know you isn't with the sheriff?" the man asked bluntly.
Much laughed, "My Master allied with that…that sheriff, you'd sooner see pigs fly than that!"
"Much" Robin said in warning, "Really, its preposterous is what that is" Much continued. The man stared at the pair for a long moment. "I am Dagan from Rockdale, and this here be me lovely wife Ida, an' me two sons Ean, and Gavin."
"I know someone from Dale, Allan A' Dale is his name" Robin said, "Allan? He's still skulking around, I thought he'd been strung up a long time ago!" Dagan paused thinking, "Say, he wasn't saved from the noose by that Robin Hood character, was he?" Dagan asked scratching his ruddy beard.
"He was" Robin mentioned lightly, "Yeah? He always had good luck he did, course he wouldn't think of it like that" Dagan chuckled, Robin laughed, "Lucky? As an outlaw skulking in Sherwood?"
"Well it beats bein' dead, don't it?"
"Yes, I guess it does."
"Think you can give me a hand young fella?" Dagan of Rockdale asked offhandedly, "Well" Much broke in, "No, we'd like to help but we cant, we have to be going now, right master?"
"Master?"
"I don't see why not Much, after all it wouldn't be sporting to leave 'em here stranded, the sheriffs men might come back" Robin surmised, "Which is why we aught to be going!"
"We'll help" Robin said giving Much a stern look, "Of course."
"Why thankee lad's, me and me wife are indebted to you!" Robin waved off his thanks, "Think nothing of it." And that is how Much found himself working under the hot sun lifting half a wagon aided by both Dagan, Robin, and peculiarly enough his strapping young wife, Ida, too.
Meanwhile Ean, and Gavin had found the pairs discarded weapons and were running in circles playing outlaw and guard.
"I am Robin Hood, you'll never catch me!" the young blond boy with pale blue eyes declared proudly waving the curved blade in the air, "That sounds oddly familiar" Much mocked, earning a knock across the head from Robin.
"I do not say that" he hissed, "No? Are you sure master?" Much muttered, "Yes I'm sure, I am cleverer than that, some even call me the fox Much," Robin quietly boasted, "Aye, and some call you murder and thief, that does not make it so" Much snapped back.
Robin gave in quietly, too Much's disturbance. "No reply to that, I thought not," he grumbled, only just loud enough for Robin to hear. "Boys, best not be playing with those" Ida shouted, snatching the weapons away from the children, "Someone could get hurt."
"Ean's gon' to poke his eye out!" Gavin taunted rolling on he floor laughing. "I am not!" Ean exclaimed furiously, "Of course you wont dear, because you will return this weapon to that there young man" Ida said giving him a gentle shove. Ean and Gavin both tiptoed towards Robin and Much, "Are you brothers?"
"What?" two surprised voices exclaimed at once.
The brother giggled, "You seem like it, Ean and I are brothers" Gavin said smartly. "No, we're not" Robin said slowly, "Here" they said shoving the weapons back to there rightful owners.
Ean tugged on Robins pant leg, making him kneel down, "Yes?" Ean eyes his for a moment, "Do you know Robin 'ood?" Robin looked around anxiously, relieved to see both Ida and Dagan some distance away, "I might" he intoned, "Can you tell 'em somethin' for me?"
"What is it lad?"
"Tell 'em I want to be jus' like 'em when I grow up, tell 'em that for me wont you?" Ean asked with the hopefulness of a child, "Why would you want to become an outlaw? Or run from the sheriffs' men? Be a good lad like your father, an honest farmer," Robin cautioned.
"Robin 'ood is honest, 'e is and everyone knows is! He stands for 'ope and justice" Ean explained as thought Robin were a particularly slow child, and these things he should already know. "Didn't you know that mister?" Gavin asked with a deep, if childish, scowl, "No, I guess not."
"So you'll tell 'em, wont you?"
"I will."
"There you are young fella, I hope me boys weren't pesterin' you none" Dagan said with the proud fondness of a father, "No, not at all, they're good lad's" Robin said with a wry shake of his head, "Looks like we're all done here Dagan."
"Looks like, guess we'll be headin' out separate ways now" Dagan said, "Thankee lad's, if ever you need a roof over your head and you be passin' through ol' Rockdale, stop by and we'll serve you the finest pea soup in the shire!" Ida promised shaking there hands firmly, "We will ma'am" Much said brightly.
"I wanna be Robin 'ood this time Ean! You're always Robin! I don't wanna be Prince John, or Sheriff Vaisey, they're villains! Why am I always the villain" Gavin bemoaned, Ean pouted, "Its no fun being bad!"
"Ean" Ida warned.
"Fine! Fine, I'll be Sir Guy of Gisborne, trying to win the lady Marion from you!" Ean proclaimed, "He just might be a Robin Hood after all, with an attitude like that master" Much jibed.
"But there's no girl!" Gavin argued, "You're your imagination!"
Ida clucked her tongue and shook her head, "They're hopeless they are!" she warned her husband. Dagan smiled cheerily, "Robin Hood?" Robin asked in bewilderment, "They're both set on becoming outlaws of Sherwood and fighting the villainous Sheriff with that bandit, but there are worse things to be than Robin Hood" Dagan said with a shrug.
Much rolled his eyes thinking, "All this talk and his ego will be bigger than his head!" Robin shrugged to, pulling a tight smile he refrained from speaking his name, they hadn't asked after all.
"Much, you go on to Sherwood alone, I'm going to stop at Knighton Manor this eve" Robin informed his faithful friend, "I will go with you" Robin shook his head, "No, not this time. You go on back to camp, and I'll see you before its gets to late."
Much shook his head in refusal.
"Much, I will be fine, I can manage myself, now go on friend stop hovering about like a mother hen" Robin chided not unkindly. "Fine, but if you don't return before dark" Much threatened, "You'll never let me forget it, I know." Robin watched Much trudge off in the opposite direction as he trotted towards Knighton Manor, taking great care not to be seen by any.
Seeing a candle burning at the window Robin forwent the door, instead scaling the wall to her window. He watched with a crooked half-smile as she combed out her hair in front of a mirror, an act one rarely caught Marion in.
"Hello Marion"
She jumped a full inch, swinging around to face him, throwing open her draw as she turned revealing a small, but wicked looking dagger. "Robin" she said with an annoyed shake of her head, "Do not scare me like that!"
"Where you expecting some other rouge to come calling?"
Marion snorted, "You're only one brave enough, the rest of Nottingham's male population are afraid I'll give them the same treatment I gave Gisborne at the alter!" she joked amusedly, though some bitterness tainted her words.
"You did mark up his face rather nicely" Robin said with a hint of pride touching his voice. "Well" Marion prodded, "Well what?" Robin mimicked, knowing it annoyed her so.
"Well what do you want? You always have a favor to ask of me when you stop by like so" she gestured at the window, Robin chuckled, "I suppose I do, I'll have to amend that. Starting with tonight" Robin promised.
"Oh do grow up Robin, I do not mind, I like knowing that I am helping, both as the Night-watchman and though i detest confessing it: as your ally. You do know that I wont be able to pass much along now that I have lost Guy's favor?"
"As if that matters, I am glad to see you freed of him" Robin warily stated, watching her reaction carefully, "Honestly…so am I. The man didn't know how to take the word no for an answer."
"Much like an outlaw I know" Marion added bluntly, "You don't say, who might this rouge be?" Robin asked leaning against the window, Marion tilted her head, "He stands so high, blond hair, a scruffy beard, and has the pretties blue eyes in Sherwood!" she remarked with a dramatized sigh, "You don't mean Robin Hood, do you?" Robin urged with a buried grin.
"Why heavens no! I'm talking about his faithful servant Much"
Robin laughed unable to hold it; Marion clapped a hand over his mouth, "Shush! My father might hear you!" she exclaimed indignantly, "So what if he does, what will he do turn me in to the sheriff?"
"He might, they are offering a large sum for you Robin, I've been rather tempted myself you know!" she said tartly, "Ah Marion! You cut me to the quick with your words!" Robin mocked laughingly.
"Marion? Are you all right?" called Edwards voice from downstairs, "Yes, father, I'm reading a letter from a friend, its rather funny really" she called down to him, not wishing to disturb him with that truth. That she was entertaining a man in her room, even if that man was just Robin.
"Very well Marion. Good night" he said dismissively, "Good night father" she murmured pulled her head back into the room glaring at the smirking outlaw sitting at her window sill, "Your still here" she remarked archly.
"I have something for you" Robin said, all joking aside as he delved into his satchel, pulling out a small folded cloth of dark blue material, she was already shaking her head in refusal, "Remember the last time trinkets were exchanged between us? I ended up engaged!"
"This is different" Robin insisted, holding it out. "Robin, no, thank you, but no" she said in adamant refusal. "Marion, I cannot give much, nor often but when I do its all that I have, take it."
Marion pursed her lips before gingerly accepting the offered bundle, handling it with careful hands. "Thank you," she said, "You have not opened it yet," Robin playfully chided with a familiar twinkle in his eye that she remembered all to well from days long passed.
She unfolded the bundle and smiled, "It is beautiful Robin, how could you, well, afford such a thing!" she reprimanded, while secretly her heart leapt, he'd gotten this for her, just her.
"You didn't appropriate it? Did you?" she asked her hope waning, he stiffened, "I do no steal gifts Marion, I bought it, but it did not hurt that I had helped the merchant last winter when sales were not so good" Robin admitted grudgingly.
Marion smiled at him, her whole face lighting up, "Thank you, I will wear it to church tomorrow and all those simpering girls will be green with envy, and I must admit, though I know I should not knowing your ego is big enough as it is, that they'd be even greener if they knew I received such a token from the notorious bandit Robin Hood" Marion laughed thinking of all those silly girls in there frilly dresses tittering and laughing behind her back.
Robin smiled, "I'm glad it pleases you" this said sincerely, and honestly, in the way only Robin could. "It does" she said fingering the silver brooch, "Its so different" she thought.
"Its called a Celtic knot, the merchant had a cousin whom has returned from some off shore land brining this with him, when I saw it I knew it would suite you, its intricate, and beautiful, like its new owner" Robin stated a grin twitched at his lip, "Good night Robin" Marion said giving him a chaste kiss on the cheek.
"Good night Marion" he said returning the gesture, his blue eyes taking in her profile before he left the way he'd come, like a thief in the night, back to his Sherwood forest.
Marion watched his silhouette vanish into the trees at the edge of the Knighton Manor, her breath leaving in a soft sigh, he would be safe tonight, there was little that could harm Robin when he was on his own ground, he knew Sherwood well, she remembered…
When they were both young and in love he had taken her riding there often to escape the watchful eyes of their parents, there is was quiet and lovely, with only him and her.
When Edward quietly cracked the door open half an hour later, this is how he found her, the candle burning softly lighting her face in a gentle glow, lashes resting against her pale rosy cheeks, hair loose and unbound, only just touching her shoulders, and smiled knowingly as he wrapped a blanket around her shoulders.
Spying the soft glint of silver laying on her closed palm Edward looked at the brooch curled in her hand with its silver sheen he picked it up considering what to do before the matter was taken from him when Mario shifted in sleep, the trinket clutched tightly to her bosom, unconsciously shielding the gift –even in sleep.
The sun had only just touched below the horizon, giving Robin ample time to reach camp before Much sounded the alarm, rousing the outlaws into an uproar over there missing leader, which he surely would if he didn't hasten his step. Much worried even more than he!
His thoughts occupied by one fair lady, Robin didn't her the small telltale sounds of feet, as he normally would have. In fact he didn't notice anything out of the norm until there was a rush of air at his back, he react swiftly, instinctively.
Ducking one swing, blocking the next, and the sound of metal on metal reverberated through the darkening forest of Sherwood.
Parrying, blocking, attacking, the moves fluent and familiar in a method he could not straight away name as he was transported back in time to another distance place and time, there he'd been a soldier, a crusader, not an outlaw and a thief.
The strange man made a low growl in the back of his through, an errant elbow smashing into Robins nose toppling him over a tree root and into the ground, he rolled to the side, narrowly avoiding a killing blow.
Robin swung his blade slicing away part of his assailants black garb, there was a strangled hiss as the other man pulled back in retreat but not before leaving Robin with a mark of his own, an oval slash across his right cheek.
Robin touched it, his hand coming away a dull red with blood, he wiped it off and continued on, but with far more caution his thoughts now laden with a far less pleasurable subject than Marion.
"Who was this mystery man?"
Robin pocketed the material he's cut, he would examine it in the morning for now he had to find his men, Sherwood was no longer as safe as it used to be for its outlaw residents.
C.R. Cheetah: This is my 1st Robin Hood fanfiction, I am trying to see if I can write it or not, because if I can I have decided to not only write Robin Hood fanficion (based off of Joans Armstrong's Robin Hood) but rewrite the tale myself. So please, review, tell me what you think in this and the soon to be later chapters. Thanks.