Sherwood Adventures -- Part I (of II or III)

[queenofmay]

Marian leaned against one of the paddock fences, watching him finish up afternoon work she still hasn't sure he actually had to do, studying the horizon. "It is rather impossible to miss how beautiful this place is, when the sky isn't red."

It seemed so long ago, trying to remember when it was all foreign. Back before looking at all of it filled part of her heart with fondness and deep recognition. Back when, she was all too aware, they had first met and parted.

Comments

[queenofmay]

Marian needs no path's here, and there are no obvious paths to where they are headed now. There is something that relaxes in her, down her entire spine being here. The smell of the trees and the grass and the earth. The way the sunlight filters through the trees.

"Not even your Uncle?" It is careful, but light. Rebels still had some respect, and she had not forgotten the stories he'd told her from so long ago. Nor had she not at certain points memorized his book nearly.

[the_seafarer]

"I don't believe he thought I was capable of it," he says, lightly. "But he must have thought it an option, if a slim one."

Otherwise Caspian would never have been forced to flee the castle, would never have led the revolution against Miraz. His life would not have been threatened if Miraz had not thought him a threat.

But those are old, hard thoughts, and not suitable for a day such as this and a new world to explore. "Pray, tell me: where are we going? Or shall I simply be surprised?"

[queenofmay]

They are, also, in someways, thoughts of another life. The beginning of one very much longer than the length a life normally was.

Except the question distracted her thoughts, and she looked over, smiled a smile that brightened up her entire countenance like a candle blew behind it. "To the middle of a dark and spooky wood, over run by dangerous outlaws, who are well known for waylaying nobles for all but ten percent of their possessions."

[the_seafarer]

"Dastardly!" he laughs. "Mayhaps it is as well I am armed, my lady. And yet, we neither of us carry anything particularly of value and ten percent of nothing is still nothing. With luck these villains are not in the mood to attack simply for the fun of it."

What use are such things in a place like Milliways?

Marian's mood seems to have improved tenfold since the first surprise of finding herself home had worn off, and his own lightens to see it: even Kiseki pulls a bit at the reins and steps up his pace.

[queenofmay]

Marian it was well known, did not travel with money, but she laughed regardless. Regal and imperious, and said, with the fearlessness of truth, "I would love to see him dare to steal even a hair pin from me."

He had only stolen from her once. A small thing. A ring.

As though it were not obvious he had something far greater of hers.

"Come," she called though, as they reached the raise, again. The one, she'd torn off from originally, to the road. This time she rode down through it, across the tuck of tiny hills beneath it. Headed with the wind, through the trees, at ease with the ride and the place, and the trackless wild around her.

Down one of the known paths to Robin's Camp.

[the_seafarer]

"He would be a braver man than I, truly," he laughs. "I would not dare."

And risk the likelihood of Marian visiting his theft on him in revenge? He has far too much respect for her abilities.

In such a game, she would always win.

This little rise is the only familiar thing about this place, but Marian leads them up and over, down along a path it would take an Eagle's eyes to see, if he were not being led along it.

Around them the woods whisper, gentle voices hushed in the warm wind that follows them, and as they ride, Caspian closes his eyes to listen.

There are no true words here as there are at home, and the woods of Narnia are no more, reclaimed by sea and fire as is Aslan's will, but these trees, though they do not speak with the voices of dryads and elders, still possess a language he knows well.

"This wood is old," he says, as they wend their way along the trail. "My uncle used to 'ware trees such as these. He never could quite convince himself they wouldn't come to life and move one day, as they once did."

He looks over to Marian, a half-smile on his lips. "I think these are less likely to rise up, but they have the same feel, methinks."

[queenofmay]

Marian looked up at the canopy of tall, brilliant-leaved, trees. The whisper of the wind. She was always a child here, no matter how old she got. The same with the oldest person she might put in it.

So many people feared it. The reckless expanse. All the shadows. And outlaws. But even in the fiercest dark, the purest new moon, she would ride, full out through these places as at home here as any part of Nottingham.

"It has been here as long as anyone can remember."

And she had loved it from the second she saw it.

[the_seafarer]

"Fickle the magic of Milliways might be," he muses, "but were this offered to me rather than given with no warning, I would not have denied myself this sight for all the gold in Cair Paravel."

It isn't the woods, truly: the trees are, many of them, such as might be seen at Milliways or in the deepest parts of Lantern Waste. No, what's he sees here -- what he's longed for since a child, curled in bed with Nurse telling him stories of the great Kings and Queens of the past, the Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve -- is a new world, one neither he nor any of his kin have stepped foot in for many long years.

He wonders if the ancient Telmarines, his descendants, came from a place such as this.

[queenofmay]

Marian really can't help but love him, and Sherwood, more, for his great joy in it. Some people never took to it, like her father who only learned to tolerate her love. But the wonder on Caspian's face warmed her heart.

"I am very glad for the chance to share it with thee."

Even more glad for the clearing that came ahead. It couldn't really be called a clearing. It was not clear, trees were all throughout it and the leafy treetop kept it shadey over the large jagged rocks jutting from the ground and high hills and cliffs, the leaf fallen ground.

But she slowed as she rode into it. More and more, until with the reigns still in her hand, she was throwing a leg over and sliding out of her saddle for the ground in a fluid movement. She gave a very precisely noted whistle, watching the tops of the cliffs.

[the_seafarer]

The clearing they ride into seems to be their stopping point for now, and Caspian looks up as he dismounts, searching the ridge above for signs of the outlaws Marian has told him about -- Robin and his men.

The one man is someone he's very interested to meet, indeed, but they all stir a sort of curiosity in him familiar from his younger days.

As Marian says, what boy does not want to be a rebel and hero? No Prince, certainly.

[queenofmay]

She watched the cliffs, but no movement came.
Nor from the trees. Not from the hills.







Marian gave the whistle again.

Precise. The exact same.

Her announcement.

[the_seafarer]

They wait a long moment and then Marian whistles again, her eyes combing the top of the cliffs they're standing under, but nothing happens, and a faint crease pulls itself between his brows.

"No-one home today, I wonder?"

She seems expectant, and the whistle must be some sort of signal, but if the men are not about --

"Perhaps they've found some other nobles to waylay."

[queenofmay]

It was an uneasy thing to consider. What that might mean. Why the camp would be unprotected, whether someone simply wasn't watching far enough out and had missed it both times.



It could be nothing.



Yet her heart clenched in her chest.



"We should tie up the horses." Marian said leading the stallion to a tree with low branches not very far off from where they were standing.

[the_seafarer]

He nods, and follows, leading Kiseki to the little tree and tying the reins as low as possible so the gelding can still dip his head and nibble at the tender grass beneath.

Something wrong then, possibly ... or mayhap simply the men are elsewhere. Surely it isn't wise of them to always be near their camp, no matter how well hidden.

He looks to Marian when Kiseki is tied. "Shall we seek them out on foot, then?"

[queenofmay]

"I need to ask a favor of you, again," Marian was making a gesture for him to follow her as she was headed through the trees, headed in a very specific direction. Speaking, without answering the question asked of her.

"That you won't draw your sword here, unless I say."

She'd really rather not have a problem she couldn't solve with the word Milliways. But only some of them had come, and some had interesting temperaments even without.

[the_seafarer]

His frown deepens slightly, but all he does is nod.

"Not unless you say, then."

Though it won't stop him from keeping a sharp eye out, or his hand ready near the hilt if needed.

[queenofmay]

"Only here," she amended, the quiet of the murmur making it as close as she came to an apology for her request. Anywhere else, in the forest, at the castle. Anywhere. But not here.

They trusted her, but she knew -- she was not one of them. At each turn and invitation from Robin she choose her own path, her own life, the same battle she'd always been fighting, not his. They all worked together, they risked their lives with and for each other constantly, but there were still lines.

Ones even she did not cross here.

Before, more calmly, "Thank you."

Trees, and trees, and then they took a side path past the tall rocks, until -- the first thing to assail them was not an outlaw camp, but a high rambling sound, altogether something like singing if it were being done by someone babbling nonsense sounds.

Then it was a camp, as she placed a hand on Caspian's upper arm and turned them around a cluster of trees. Even as she walked past the second later, calling out, "Much?" as they appeared at the very entrance way of a rag-tag camp built into one of the cliffs.

[merry_men]

It was not babbling, Much'd have her known.

It was a beautiful chanty. About a knight and maiden who lived by the sea and was stolen by a monster who controlled the waves. It was simply the instrumental part.

At least he would have if she asked.


If he wasn't spinning around, one hand pointing out a chipped wooden spoon, which dripped gravy, like a dagger, while his other hand went to his sword. "Marian?! Oh. Marian, I almost -- I," He had narrowed his gaze on the tall man who appeared after her.

[queenofmay]

"Much," Marian said his name again, to pull his attention back. To start with the most important thing, before he got off on to something. "Where is Robin?"

[merry_men]

"Robin is," he start eagerly, well aware. He knew this. But his gaze slid to the man again. Unknown. Not one of The Gang. Dressed far too nice. "Robin is -- "

Looking back to Marian, with superlative triumph, as Much decreed, "He is not here." As though this were the greatest of answers.

"Who is he?" Much was still brandishing the spoon toward the man behind her. "Is he another of the Sheriff's Count's duped here from the Brat-ziver-ia?"

[the_seafarer]

If Marian thought he might perhaps draw steel for this fellow, she's mistaken; he doesn't look like a soldier. He looks like an outlaw, all patched clothes and stubbly beard and nervous gestures. His eyes keep flickering to Caspian, distracting him from answering the question.

He supposes that's a fair reaction to have. His clothes do not quite fit this world and neither does he, though this man Much may not know it. Still, there's no need to be antagonistic, so he rests his hand easily on the hilt of his sword and smiles, friendly.

"An honest question. My name is Caspian. I'm a friend, I promise. I've never heard of this land you speak of."

[queenofmay]

That is, because it is not Brat-ziver-ia. It is Bavaria.

Not that Caspian would know Bavaria either. Or that there was any point to correcting him in front of Caspian. Much was softer, and easier to prick with sharp words, in that respect than most people, having made him such an unexpected parallel to Robin for half of her life.

"He is from Milliways, as well. We got caught here, while in the forest there." Quickly after she added. "We can trust him." Very specifically we, and not you. She folded her hands, even as impatience strove, tightening her center.

"Caspian, this is Much. A friend of mine, as well. And Robin's," She chose the word with comparative care, based on the past and present. "Companion during The Holy Wars."

[the_seafarer]

"Oh, jolly good. It's really rather difficult to explain, if you haven't been there, of course."

It's a relief to find someone else who's been to Milliways, here -- it's another connection to the only place left he can call home. He's still watching Much, taking in the way he stands, the way he looks to Marian as if for guidance. He doesn't seem like someone who would do well in the wars, but then, Caspian has seen Eustace Scrubb attack a sea monster with his own second-best blade.

Appearances do not always count for much.

"I see," is all he says, acknowledging. "Well, there you have it, Much. It's been something of a surprise for us, too, you may be sure."

[merry_men]

"Well, that is," He was looking between the two of them. Marian's plaintive expression and this Caspian's rather open one. "That is horrible."

Milliways with its endless, magically appearing food, and warm rooms, with warm beds, covered in warm blankets. Milliways which only worked if you had doors. The kind of doors Sherwood Forest was missing.

"And you are stuck here, now, then?" He said, putting all their puzzle pieces together. "Or are you taking him back to the castle for your own Door?"

[queenofmay]

Marian's expression wrinkled for a few seconds, as Much stumbled gracelessly into the topic she not so much avoided as left unspoken. The fact he assumed she had a door like in Knighton. The true that fact she still came by them rarely and randomly.

Rather than answer, and it was becoming an hour for unanswered questions, wasn't it? She returned to her originally entreaty.


"Much, where are the others? Has something happened?"

And where, where if it had, and why.