This was my first fanfic up here, and it's now being re-written slightly. While I am editing the chapters, they may not be in the right order, but bear with me, it should all be done soon! Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this :)


'And yet I think these oaks at dawn and even
Will whisper ever more of Robin Hood...
You, good Friar,
You, Much, you Scarlet, you dear Little John,
Your names will cling like ivy to the wood.'

- Alfred Tennyson

I have always reckoned our lives to be like a path that we journey down over the years. Each decision we make, every challenge we face, every course of action that we undertake causes the path we follow to twist and turn, to fork and split in different places, so that the way is never straight or easy, and every individual's is as different and unique as their lives are.

The path of my life as Marian, consort of legendary outlaw, Robin Hood, is more complicated than most, it was no straight, flat road, like those ones laid out by the Romans centauries before. It was littered with sharp corners and dark tunnels, etched into it like carvings on stone, as every deed I undertook with the unruly band of outlaws known to history as the Merry Men took me somewhere new, the thrill of adventure and danger always dogging our footsteps. The way was hard, and sometimes I never felt like I would never overcome the steep and tiring hills that were strewn in my way and I longed for the comfort of the straight and uncomplicated life that I had turned from years before. However, there is no going back along this road, and I reminded myself that I chose to make it so, and that a free life is never easy. I knew that I would have it no other way.

I lived in a time when life was harsh and cruel for many people. The winds had blown from across the sea, long before I was born, bringing with it the Norman ships, and the returning tide brought war to our shores. The battle was lost, and our people thrown down to be ruled by these foreign aristocrats, the lands that had belonged to them were stripped away and distributed among those in favour of the new King, and, as always, the people suffered. Now, the sun and rain beat ferociously upon their backs as they fight day by day to survive. The gaping chasms that divided the classes that existed in society were greatly widened by many pointless rules of etiquette and discrimination, reinforced by those at the reins, the descendants of those who came over the sea, and the majority who suffer are too poor to challenge them.

The people's faith in their King dwindled as Richard the Lionheart chose to desert his country, and fight abroad for many years for a cause that many of the ordinary folk could not comprehend. He had gained popularity when he ascended to the throne by promising to do away with the Forest Laws that denied the people right to hunt on the best areas of land, where game were plenty. He seemed true to his word when he emptied the prisons and with drew areas from the title of Royal Forest, but the laws were never really changed, and he began to lose favour. In his absence, the powerful Norman Lords and nobles took chance to secure their own wealth and to gain more lands by plotting against his return. His own brother was included among the number.

It resulted in barons and bishops fighting against and amongst one another in petty squabbles over land and wealth and greed. They drained money from whatever sources they could to fund their feuds, resulting in a corrupt Norman nobility and starving Saxon peasants struggling to pay the taxes that their lords kept raising. It was left to us small band of fighters to try to restore the balance in the lands we loved, at the expense of our freedom.

My story starts when the path of my life split away from the simple line that was expected of me by the society that surrounded me. My father was descended from one of those favourable men who conquered our island, though his lands were small compared to some that William bestowed upon his men. He was a harsh man, though he had no interest in the wars between the barons, and they had little interest in him. The taxes raised on his land went towards securing his own comforts in life, especially after the death of my brother. His wife, my mother, had died young. Shortly after my birth she succumbed to the summer fever and passed leaving me to the care of a wet nurse. She had borne my father one other child, a son by the name of William. He had died some years before my tale begins, fighting for Prince John in Ireland, and the loss of his heir had a profound effect on my father. He grew more and more distant, his punishments harsher, and it was then he seemed to begin to value his own comforts above all else. I had always been left in the care of my nurse, far from his terrible eyes and so was raised to care and feel and scorn his cruelty, and I grew bold and brave under her eye, and it was largely due to her that I became the woman I was.