Presents (Filia Venatoris)

(Set after „The time of the wolf)

The man in the hood waited until the last sisters had vanished into their cells after compline and everything was silent again. Then he climbed the nunnery wall as silent as a shadow. He crossed the yard, ready to dive for cover if the tiniest sound were heard. Through a door which stood ajar the man crept into the cloister.

Now the hardest part of his task began as even the slightest noise would echo through the room, but he avoided any sound almost as if it weren't the first time he did this. There was an open door leading from the cloister to the abbey church. Quickly the man went to the side aisle from which the night stairs led directly to the nuns' dormitory. The wide hall was divided into small cells by wooden walls with little doors. The man walked along the wall until he found a special door. Carefully he pulled something from his jerkin, knelt down and placed it on the doorstep. Then he leant his forehead on the door. His lips moved, but whatever he said was too quiet to be heard. Finally, the man in the hood got up again, leaving the nunnery the same way he had got in before.

He had done what he had wanted to do.

X X X

When the bell tolled for prime the nuns rose to go to church. When Sister Marion opened her door to join her sisters she found something lying on her doorstep. She bent down to get it. It was a few branches of holly with some red berries still on them, tied together with a piece of red silk ribbon which surely came from a raid.

A Sherwood Christmas present.

Marion smiled sadly and turned around, heading back to her cell. This little present was worth being late for service today.

Every nun had a chest standing next to her bed, in which to keep necessary things. The nuns were forbidden from having private property but most of them owned some keepsakes hidden away in the chests.

Marion knelt down, opening the lid of her chest. She took out the habit lying on top, putting it aside carelessly. Underneath she already had a small collection of these little Sherwood presents.

It had started with the single feather of a robin. Some weeks later she had found three ears of wheat tied together with a piece of bowstring. Then the empty egg of a forest bird. A twig from an oak tree complete with leaves and acorns. A nicely-coloured pebble from the river. An arrowhead. A handful of hazelnuts. And now the holly.

In spite of the waves of pain and the haunting nightmares each of these little things caused her, every single one of them meant the world to her, more than all the riches in the world could ever mean.

Each of the little presents was a message from Robin. 'I keep thinking of you. I still love you. I still need you. Come home to me. Please!'

Marion blinked away the unshed tears, put the holly with the other things, laid the habit on top of them, closed the lid of her chest and stood up.

It really was high time for her to go to church!