Sunday soon rolled around; Chanel rode with us until we reached our usual take off point near our favourite spot in the woods. Chanel’s face was not a pretty sight, she was getting frustrated that she was not getting involved in our travels. This saddened me but my hands were tied, Biscuit was nowhere near ready to go on our adventures so she has got to be patient.
I smiled at her and said, “See you soon, I will bring you a present, it could even be Robin Hood, that would shock you wouldn’t it!” A large grin told me everything was all right, so I waved and blew her a kiss just to let her know we cared and then we were on our way.
We arrived next to the biggest oak tree you could imagine, it was situated right in the middle of six tracks leading into different areas of the very dense Sherwood Forest and it looked like a perfect meeting place for anybody hiding out in this forest.
Red changed into Jack, I burst out laughing at his appearance and said, “Who do you think you are, Robin himself?!” He was dressed in a dark green outfit, a perfect camouflage for the forest, with a sword and dagger in his belt and a long bow over his shoulder, a quiver of arrows made up his arsenal of weapons. I shouldn’t have laughed so much, after all I looked similar, except I had no bow and arrows; we certainly looked ready for any trouble, except we both needed lessons on how to use our weapons.
I looked at Jack and shrugged my shoulders and said, “Which trail shall we take?” Jack took a good look at all six trails and in the end picked the one that was probably used the most. There were both deer and horse tracks beside footprints; most of the footprints were very pointed and in fact looked just like the boots we were wearing. We were certainly not alone, I wondered what sort of reception we would get when we met our first person and the thought of it brought me out in a sweat.
I was beginning to think we would never meet anybody after tramping along the trail for at least an hour and I began to get thirsty. As if by magic, we came upon a beautiful waterfall leading into a deep pool of inviting water. We sat down and Jack made us a cup out of large leaves from a nearby tree and we proceeded to take our fill of the wonderful cool refreshing water.
We laid on our backs and looked up into the beautiful deep blue sky through an opening in the trees, I shut my eyes and said, “This is so peaceful, they say the best things in life are free, I am beginning to think the saying is right, what do you think Jack?” Before Jack could answer, a pheasant took off from the undergrowth just to the right of us, we both sat up with a start, I could not see properly as I had masses of stars passing in front of my eyes, this always happens when I move too quickly, but it soon passes. This time when they cleared I half hoped they would come back again, as standing in front of us was a giant of a man, before we could say anything he stuck the end of his staff under Jack’s chin and asked him if he would be paying for the water we had just drunk. Jack was not amused and told him to mind his own business and that he did not own the water, as Sherwood Forest belonged to the King and he certainly did not look like the King to us.
I thought oh no here we go again, another one needs a lesson, but before Jack could change into Red another man came from the undergrowth and said, “What have we here John?” John replied, “We’ve got a cheeky one here Will, he says we don’t own the forest and he’s not paying for water.”
Will laughed and said, “I like people who show a bit of courage. Where do you two come from and how did you find us here?” I felt rather brave and took a chance and said, “We are looking for the band of outlaws led by a man called Robin, we would like to join him, as we are on the run and got lost, our family could not pay our taxes and I’m afraid we got separated.” Well Dad does have a job to pay his taxes sometimes so it is only a little white lie. “Come with us and we shall see what Robin would like to do with you,” said John. I looked at Jack and pulled a funny face at him, could we really have found Robin Hood so easily?
We were both blindfolded and then walked for at least another mile, which proved to be very awkward when you can’t see where you are going and are having to rely on the person in front. In the end we reached the camp of hopefully the great man himself, Robin Hood and his band of merry men. That was a laugh, what a scruffy load of individuals the merry band proved to be and merry they certainly were not.
We were led to the far end of the commune, which was spread out at least a hundred metres square, there sitting by what looked like the largest oak tree in the forest was the man himself, Robin. Whether it was Robin Hood might be another matter, but he looked and acted like their leader. He rose to his feet and looked us up and down, turning to John grinning he said, “Give them some food, the venison is ready, I shall talk to them later. I like the look of them, they are no danger to us just another pair being persecuted like the rest of us.” We were looked after by a lovely young girl around about the same age as us, she led us to where most of the commune had started to tuck into the venison and warm bread. You know me this is something I am an expert at and it did not take me long before I was doing a bit of tucking in myself. Oh I was in heaven, talk about delicious, this was a feast to end all feasts, the meat was cooked to perfection, mother would have been proud, it looks like we shall not starve while we are here.
An hour passed and we had taken our fill, I was still wolfing it down until Jack gave me a dirty look, as if to say slow down young lady you are making a pig of yourself. Jack was right and I went a bright shade of pink showing my embarrassment as a couple of people were watching and chuckling at my exhibition of eating. I mouthed sorry and proceeded to finish off the meal with a goblet of Mead, this is an alcoholic drink of fermented honey and water, absolutely beautiful, I certainly shall not have a sore throat drinking all that honey.
Robin joined us at the table for our chat he had put off earlier, he seemed an amiable chap and I could see we were all going to get along famously. A thought came to me as he talked, Robin was dressed in a tunic with a large hood, I presume it sheltered him from the bad weather, but I just wonder if this is how he got his name, you know Robin of the hood, I know it seems silly but let’s say you never know.
Naturally, during our chat we could not tell him the truth about ourselves just yet, so we kept to our story about being separated from our parents and that we were down on our luck like the rest of them. He seemed perfectly alright about our slightly exaggerated story and said we were welcome to stay as long as we did our share of the chores, starting with the washing up in the stream, which led to the waterfall.
It did not take us to long to dispose of the washing up, at times we could have done with some washing up liquid, but it was not too tedious although the wooden platters were harder to clean than our chinaware at home.
The forest was so eerie as the night dropped quickly in, at the best of times it was murky, even in the daytime. The trees were so dense they formed a roof over us shielding us from the bad weather; the only trouble was the continual drip of the water the leaves had collected during the rainfall, so gradually we received a nice little shower.
I woke reasonably early the next morning, the cooks were beginning to start breakfast and of course this was a monumental effort with so many mouths to feed. The smell of fresh bread was one of the most wonderful smells imaginable and it made me tingle with anticipation when the thick rashers of bacon were being sliced from the spit over the fire, what’s better than bacon sandwiches with fresh bread? It doesn’t take very much to make me happy especially if there is food in the equation.
I was so preoccupied with the food; I had not noticed Jack had done his usual disappearing trick. I took a look around the vicinity of the camp where we slept, but to no avail, I shrugged my shoulders and thought, whatever, this has happened so many times before, I get quite fed up with it, so I will just say nothing and let him get on with it.
About half an hour passed, with me getting to know my fellow merry men, then Jack’s dulcet voice rang in my ear, “Hello Vicky how’s life treating you?” I looked round and our eyes met, “Very well Jack” I replied, trying to play it cool, but I could feel myself blushing which I always do when I am agitated. Naturally he just gave that silly grin he gives when he is winding me up, I just nodded my head in disbelief and that was the end of the matter, well, for the time being that is.
I could not hold out for very long, my nosiness was far too great, “OK Jack where did you go?” He smiled knowing he had got my utmost attention, “Well I changed into Red and did some investigating, this forest is enormous.” I butted in, “Yes I know that, it is about twenty miles long and ten miles wide, I read it on the internet.” “Be quiet clever clogs I was coming to that,” I had to grin; Jack hates me butting in especially if I know something he doesn’t. “Can I carry on please?” Jack said in a sarcastic tone of voice, “Please do sir I am very sorry to butt in, I won’t do it again”. “Good, well here goes. I travelled to the very edge of the forest and came upon the medieval town of Nottingham and it certainly was not the city as we know it now.” Jack continued, “Most of the houses were built of a wood framework and finished with the trusted wattle and daub method, a mixture of mud and straw, this went in-between on thinner lathes of wood strapped to the larger framework. The castle was mostly made of stone, although I could not get close to it as the guards were all around, but it looked a formidable place to get entry.” Just as I was getting interested in Jack’s talk, in walked Little John into the kitchen area, did I say little? He really was a huge man; around his shoulders was a large stag he had killed for our meal later in the day. He placed it on the floor as though it weighed nothing, I think this is where the saying comes from, as strong as an ox, as it would take an ox all it’s time to pull a cart with the large stag on it. I felt terrible for the stag and had to go for a walk as they started to skin the poor animal, but we have to eat, there were hardly any vegetables in the forest only mushrooms and of course plenty of berries, so this was our main source of food along with wild pigs and rabbits.
It proved to be rather a boring day; we had been allocated our work by Robin and were to help build a look out tree house high in the branches of the tallest tree in the compound. Luckily we were on the ground collecting and preparing the wood and then hoisting it to the carpenters, who were operating high in the tree tops, pretty scary it was and we were on the ground. It made me laugh that the carpenters names were Thomas and Jeremy, you know me fantasizing about anything, I could just see the cartoon cat and mouse running about the branches, at times they acted like them losing their temper with each other, but in the end they did a super job. It was breathtaking as we were made to go to the top to check it out, going up the rope ladder was very scary, but once we were there we could see for miles and in the near future it would prove to be a perfect look out post.
Jack had made friends with many of the merry men, but again it was an animal that thought the world of him. It was an Irish wolfhound called Pat, a jolly good Irish name short for Patrick, he was a real scruffy individual who looked like he needed a good haircut, but never mind, Jack loved him. I have to smile as they curl up together at night time, it really is cute and of course Pat keeps Jack nice and warm with his abundance of long hair.
An arrow came hurtling through the air and bedded itself high into a large oak tree, never have I seen so many people scurrying about, of course it was the sign of danger, either that or travellers were in the neighbourhood of the encampment.
Robin shouted to us, “You two come with me you can start earning your living.” I looked at Jack but all he did was shrug his shoulders and do his silly grin, he was frightened of nobody and of course with a snap of my fingers, I had a magic horse at my disposal, which helped me calm my nerves. Just what did the immediate future hold for us? The weapons we had were certainly no good to me; all I had ever used my dagger for was to cut up the meat at meal times.