Aaaaaaaaaaahhh

Choooooo!

It's raining again. 

I'm freezing cold. 

I feel utterly.... Aaaaaaahhhhchhooo!

Ouch. 

I've started sneezing off and on for the last hour. I keep hitting my head on the stockade every time I sneeze. I keep pulling my wrists against it too I'm sneezing so violently. 

Stupid English weather!!

I'm feeling really dizzy and tired. 

If I ever get my estate back I'm building a shelter over these stockades! Bad enough to be stuck in them, but to be...

Aaaaccchhhhhoooo! 

Hrumph. Maybe it'll be best if I try and sleep. 

Penance.

The sun is just starting to go down.  A few people have slipped by on the way to neighbours dwellings. They didn't look at me. 

The rain from late morning drifted back again after mid day. It soothed the Brand on on my wrist a little though. Apparently sun rise to sunset is not the length of time I am to spend here. My neck and back are really starting to ache. I can't keep my head lifted too long. Which is a shame as the sun set is really very striking. 

One of the younger boys has started to light a few torches outside the main square. But there really is no sence is lighting them as no one has crossed it all day.  The boy is coming closer.  He's stood at stairing at me for a very long time. But now he's crept through the mud to just in front of me. 

I can only see his shoes. Falling apart on the toes  they look far to big for the legs attached. 

'My Ma said I shouldn't ask.'

He starts. I'm not sure what to reply. But he spares me the trouble. 

'Are you really Master Robin of Glenhoe from the castle?' 

I nod. And he shifts from foot to foot. 

'tell me what it's like, fighting for the king?'

'Its a lot warmer than this,' I stop as he sits down carefully on the more grassy area of the stocks. I can now see his face. He is seven or eight. 'At night time the heat stops. And it gets colder than the worst winter here.' 

I tell him a little about camels before one or two other small children creep close. They are youger than the boy and quiet. 

'Did you ever kill anyone? Ma says if you do you need to pay a pennant to God.'

I smile at his mix up. 

And I nearly reply before they scatter into the darkness. 

I'm not sure what they heard. Only that I'm back on my own again.   

Weather.

It started to drizzle, luckily it was a welcome cloud burst. 

The caterpillar has stuck resouloutly to my eyebrow even when I lifted my head to try to get it to wash off. 

Probably for the best really what if it had rolled into my eye. I wouldn't be able to get it out. 

The rain stopped quite quickly and the sun started to beat down again. My hair was soaked through but it's dry again now 

I wonder how many people are blinded in the stocks by caterpillars venturing into there eyes. I suppose if anyone did throw anything at me it would be caterpillar food.... Does that mean there is more of them a caterpillar family that lives on the stocks. 

I wonder if Red and Little John realised I've snuck out yet. Or if Big John has found merchant...

I hope Marion doesn't choose this day to visit my estate....

Small inconvenience's

There is a caterpillar.  

At least it feels like a caterpillar.... 

On my eyebrow.  

I have tried reaching up for it, I have tried blowing to make it fall but no.

 It is on my eyebrow, and there it is planning to stay. 

It is hot now. It must be midday at least... 

I don't want a fried caterpillar on my eyebrow!!

The man in MY castle

 So, the gentleman wasn't my father. In fact he was a strange man all together. He laughed quite manically when I asked about why he was in my castle.  
And I got a little angry. 

And a drew my sword. 

No one can normally beat me, not since I was a child. But the man transformed into something so surprisingly familiar... I can not remember who moves so fast, or so skilfully. The king was one of the very few people who beat me in the holy land, but with him thousands of miles away...

From my place on the floor, I asked where my father was. The man, after taking not only my bag; but my sword and bow as well, led me outside to a small church.

He gave me a few minutes alone.
There are two graves, one bearing my fathers name. The other bearing my own.

He is apparently now The Lord of Glenhoe. This was MY title. By attacking him apparently I have committed a criminal act. 

I had not realised I was wearing my best tights, and not wishing for them to be dirtied I...

So now I am in the village stocks. My wrist aches from the mark they have placed on my arm, brandishing ME as an outlaw. 
I didn't listen to my charges, Impersonating myself I suppose?

I remember my Father taking me to see a man who had killed one of the kings deer in the stocks. He was only in there from sunrise to its setting. He claimed his family were hungry. He was a wanderer. And if he had a family they did not live in our estate.  I was handed a tomato by one of the village children and threw it as I saw other children doing the same. 

I aimed for the stock it's self not wishing like the others to hit the man. The tomatoes insides  burst over his face. And the pulp ran down his cheeks to the side of his mouth.  When the children had finished I remember seeing his tongue lick at the tomato juice. It was a hot day and when the crowds had moved back to there lives I asked why we threw things at him.

'To humiliate him, and make him remember that what he has done is wrong. In a stock, a man is not free to live as he pleases, Robin. In a stock a man relies on those around him.'
As he answered I saw my father step forward and take the flask he used when he went hunting.  He lifted it to the mans mouth and I watched as water dribbled down his chin from his mouth, washing away the juice from the tomato I had threw.

My father was a good man, one that was fair but just. I shall never get a chance to run my estate like he did. 

No one has come to throw tomatoes at me. I am not sure how long I am to be left here.

Gah!!!!

For goodness sake! 



Women! 


Really!!!
For a second imagine waking up with no tent around you and a angry hot faced sister screaming incomprehenable things. Welcome to the start of my day.
The damm cow has wandered off (Merchant not... Oh never mind!) and Big John has gone looking for it. Well he wasn't here when anyone woke up.  As red had packed the horses and as I struggled to get dressed all my things, we started off without breakfast.
 We got into Glenhoe within an hour. It was the strangest experience. People ran inside shutting doors and stared out of their windows like they were scared of us. It didnt feel right. I dropped little red round at her old nurse maids and she fussed over Red and little John while I slipped out. I knew she'd be safe there.
 And I thought a lone rider on a horse might be better received. As I headed up to our castle I felt like the prodigal son returning home. But everything was open and unguarded and the few guards that looked round the corners didnt look familiar. My father usually could be found in the far banquet hall.  So I headed straight there Hoping to meet someone who could at least announce me. When i got there again there was no one about. I drew my sword as a precaution. The man in the banquet hall was sitting down, at first I thought my father had changed so much I thought maybe it wasn't even him...

Silent night

It is completely silent in camp tonight. Only the slightest tussle of the leaves breaks the silence.

I can't sleep. 

My sleeplessness has two reasons, one being that tomorrow I shall see my father for the first time in many years. Part of me is worried he will not recognise the boy who went to war from the man who has returned. Tomorrow I will step into the middle of my home and I hope it will not have changed so much that I will not recognise it.

I remember my father as a gentle man for the most part, except when he would fly into rage and temper often becoming moody and silent for days at a time. 

I remember him as lawful and compassionate. His council was sort after for many things by the people on his land, a regular Solomon to the people.

I remember him handing me my first bow, telling me to practice, scowling when the sight of blood made my personal servant turn green. 

I remember him teaching me to use a sword. His startled scared eyes flickering when I got under his guard for the first time and the cut of his blade on my shoulder when I let the triumph make me arrogant. I remember the one handed hugs he would give when I had done something that pleased him. The way I wouldn't flatten my hair for it was making him happy that had messed it up.

I hope he won't blame me for Little Red accompanying us. And I hope he will approve of the two Johns.

Most of all I am nervous that I still feel like a boy in comparison to his years. But I hope that he will not treat me as such. 

The second reason for my sleeplessness is the silence.  

I have found that now, despite my moaning and complaining, I cannot sleep without the sound of Big Johns bear like snores.

The absence of sound means that he is awake. I hardly think he would have learnt finally to sleep on his side after so many years off not doing so. It has been so quiet that you could assume he is not in his bed at all. After the last few days we have had it would not surprise me if he had gone for a walk in the dark. I am tempted to get up and check but with night now at odds with morning it would be silly to waste the hours of rest I could have on a man that can take care of himself... 

Still, John is a good friend. One I could not do without. I should see what has caused him to be so wakeful. It can't be because I pinched a cake earlier in the day, he did retaliate and called me fat which stung for a while. We had come to the clearing we are camped in then and I had looked at all of us. None of us are so over fed that we are fat, but all of us are content with the food we have. That is due to a team effort I hunt the little John usually prepares whatever I have caught and big John usually cooks with  advice from Little Red. Little red normally gathers nuts or berries of some description, so between us all we are content. The pheasant that we had today went down nicely even if it was a little charred on the outside.

I shall leave him be. And hope that in the morning the promise of land good food an a hot bath will put him in a less tempestuous mood.

Into the forest

I met John while scouting the road, I was looking for a place both Merchant and Little red could get down onto the forest path, but mainly Merchant, I don't mind helping my sister down a sharp slope but to have a large Cow skidding towards you down a slope is another matter entirely. He looked... I'm not sure how to describe it, troubled wasn't really the right word nor angry would really define it.

We're all traveling together now, red's on merchant (John and I eventually found a pathway that took us down by the stream.) johns barely speaking. Which you'd think I'd  appreciate but somehow I don't. He's marching along at a 'lets just get there' pace, I recognise it from when I was heading to war. I'm not sure what's going to happen when we get back but I find  myself worrying for my friend. In an effort to cheer him up I've just asked him if he'll teach me how to do the washing properly, it didn't even raise a smile. I suppose he thinks I'll not bother when I get back to Glenhoe.

Strange and difficult times are ahead me thinks, but for now I'm enjoying being in the shade and having the leafy greenness around me. The shafts of sunlight keep flickering onto the path so were not deep deep into the forest yet but by tonight we will be. By then I'm sure I will be uneasy, I've already got my bow strung and ready should we encounter bandits... Or maybe just dinner.  Pheasant might be nice for a change.  We shall see. Maybe a good meal would improve Big Johns  mood.