Beginnings and Meetings

"Come on you monster of a child, time to go visit Roger." "But daddy I don't want to go to smelly England and hang around with those English tosspots." A small 5 year old girl replied to her father. "You've been listening to old Jim's stories too much; you're even beginning to swear like the old man." He laughed. "Well I like his stories, he's very interesting, and I love his dog Meg, I wish I could train dogs that well." "Well maybe you could one day; they need to be trained for hunting on our lands so when you're a bit older perhaps you could train them." "Really daddy!? Oh thank you!" "Ha-ha now come on, on your horse missy." Rhys ap Gruffydd was the ruler of Deheubarth, a Prince of Wales, and his eldest child, a little 5 year old girl named Emma, was destined to take over the reins when he could no longer care for his estates and people. She had heard many stories about Roger of Locksley, she knew he was an Earl, and that he had a son called Robin, which she thought was silly, why name your son after a bird? The journey to Locksley consisted of father and daughter showing off on their horses and trying to be better than the other at some random stunt. It took near a week to get there, as they were travelling from South Wales, and Locksley was close to Nottingham, in the Midlands. Old man Jim had told Emma about the English, how about a century and a half ago the Saxons took over the land and drove the Celts into the mountains and hills, and how they still continued to seek power over the Celts.

"Nearly there Em, I can see Locksley Manor from here, look." He pointed to the largest house in the village. They rode through the village and up to the yard of the manor where I young boy was arguing with a slightly older boy. "I hate you Guy, stop treating me like a little kid!" "You are a little kid, your 5 years old, and I am 10, making me the older and wiser of the two of us." "Oh shut up, go play dress up with Isabella!" The younger boy shouted at the older one. "God that lad has grown, he's the same age as you, you know Em. Equally as loud too by the looks of things." "Yeah, thanks for that dad." The girl laughed. "Ahhh Rhys, you made it. And this can't be Emma! A child can't grow that much in 5 years." Roger said in shock. "Hey from what I've seen your Robin's grown and turned out to be quite mouthy like mine too." The two men laughed. Whilst they caught up and laughed some more, Emma went for a wonder around the village and found Robin throwing stones into a lake. "Mind if I join you?" She asked in her thick Welsh accent. "Yeah sure." He grinned back at her. "My father was telling me that your good with a bow, is it true?" She asked the boy. "Of course I am, I'm already better than Guy." He stated rather proudly. "Want a contest?" "Against you? You're a girl! You can't be good at archery!" He laughed "Bet you I am." She said calmly. "Your on then" he laughed. Every shot he made, her arrow hit in the exact same place. "Told you I was good." She sang. "How? When did you start?" "Only last year, Old Jim made me a bow because I was jealous that father had one." "That's weird, the same happened with me, except Dan made me one." "Wow. Can I meet him? I wanna see if he's like Jim." She asked. "Yeah sure, let's go." They both stood up and began walking to Dan Scarlett's house. "Oh yeah, Dan's got a son, he's only just started walking and talking a little bit, but Dan's promised that when he's bigger he can play with me." They visited Dan and his wife Jane, and Emma met their baby son Will, who was already showing an interest in carpentry, playing with little wooden toys that his father had made. "OH! You have to meet Much! He's my manservant, he's so much fun, especially when you through things at him and then hide, he gets so confused." "That's not very nice." She laughed back "Mind I do that to my cousin and it's hilarious."

The two 5 year olds hid by the kitchen windows of Locksley Manor and could see a boy who looked a little older, sneaking bits of bread into his mouth. "Here, through this little grain at him." Whispered Robin. They both threw one at the exact same time and hit Much in the back of the head, resulting in a confused looking Much. Then hisfacial expression change. "Master I know that was you." "Awhhhh it wasn't just me." Robin said standing up and pulling Emma up with him. "Oh is that your girl friend?" Much taunted. "No she is not, she's my best friend." "I thought I was your best friend?" Much complained. "You are, you my boy best friend and she's my girl best friend." He explained. "Oh well that's ok then, she's my new girl best friend too." Much beamed. "Wow two new best friends in one day." Emma laughed. Robin spent a while explaining to Much how good a shot Emma is and Much was amazed that a girl could be that good with a bow. "Dan said it's because she's Welsh, he said that the Welsh are natural warriors, and she is exceptional if she can make the same shots as me." Robin said proudly to Much. "Wow…" was all Much could say.

Over the next few days Robin and Much showed Emma around Locksley whilst their fathers chatted and hunted. They played games by the lake and around the village, when 2 days into her visit another girl turned up in Locksley. "Who's that?" Emma asked Robin, Much was nowhere to be seen as he had duties to attend to at the time. "Oh that's Marian. She's the same age as us. But she's quite mean sometimes." "Maybe she's just mean to you, cause you are rather annoying." She grinned at Robin. "I am not." He laughed back. They walked over to Marian and Robin introduced the two girls. "Wow your Prince Rhys' daughter? My daddy said he's a very nice man so you must be very nice too." Marian stated "and Robin said you're… nice too, he said lot's of nice things about you." Emma made up, in a hope they'd be nice to each other. "Oh really?" Marian said looking up at Robin, who had just turned a nice shade of red. "Oh I can hear my father calling to me." Robin said quickly and ran off. "What's his problem?" Marian asked. "No idea. Hey wanna go play?" The two girls then ran off and played for a few hours, and then Marian had to go home, back to Nottingham.

It was now late evening and Emma and Robin had sneaked down from their room to get some bread. "You think Marian's pretty don't you?" Emma asked Robin, giggling slightly. "No I don't!" He said too quickly. "Don't worry I won't tell her." "Oh ok, thanks." He smiled.

Two days later and Emma was on her own for a few hours as Much was doing his duties for the day, her father and Robin's father were out in Nottingham along with Robin's mother, and Robin was being taught to read. So Emma climbed onto her horse and went for a ride. She took herself for a tour of Clun and Nettlestone, meeting some interesting people. She had thought about going to the Gisbourne estate, but decided against it because Isabella gave her the creeps. However, she thought Guy and his mother were interesting, especially because they had taught her a little bit of French. She wandered a bit more and found herself in another little village. She jumped off her small horse and had a look around. She then heard a little boy screaming, and running towards her. He spotted her and hid behind her and was gasping for air. "What's wrong? Why were you screaming?" She asked a small 3 year old. "I borrowed my brother's toy and now he's trying to kill me." The little boy said. "He borrowed without asking." A slightly older lad said, who looked no older than Emma. "Oh I just remembered, I'm being rude, my names Allan, Allan a Dale and that's Tom." "Nice to meet you Tom, I'm Emma." She said turning around and picking the smaller child up, ignoring the older one for fun. "Your pretty-ful." Tom said. "Tom shut up." His older brother said. "Actually, would you like to come and play with us by the woods." "Mummy said we can't play there." "Well what 'Mummy' doesn't know won't get us into trouble." Allan grinned. They ran into the woods laughing with little Tom shouting all the way "Hey you guys! Wait for me!" The two older children spent the day telling each other stories and having sword fights with sticks, whilst the younger one sat there sulking because he was too little to play fight. "You know for a girl you're pretty good at fighting." "You know for a boy you're pretty good at fighting too." "Now that's just mean."

A few hours later and the sun was beginning to set. "I better be heading back now otherwise people are gonna wander where I've gotten to." Emma said to Allan, they had taken Tom back home and where sat in the fields talking. "Will you come back tomorrow? It's been nice having someone my own age to play with." "Yeah ok then. Where will you be?" "I'll come back here and wait for you if you want?" "Yes please." They walked back to where Emma's horse was. "Well I'll see you tomorrow then." She grinned down at Allan. "Okey dokey, bye!" He smiled.

Back in Locksley the adults were panicking, they'd somehow lost the little Princess, and no-one knew what to do. "Master, Lord Rhys, we've found her." A servant told the two men. "Hiya daddy." The little girl said sheepishly. "Where the hell have you been?!" He shouted. "Well I've been to Clun, Nettlestone and Rochdale, and I met lots of nice people and I've made another new friend, and you see there was no-one here to play with because everyone was busy so I went to explore." She grinned, knowing she was in trouble but knew that grin could save her from anything. "HANG ON YOU WENT ALL THE WAY TO ROCHDALE?! That's so typical of you, getting bored and exploring to occupy yourself, and then befriending everyone. YOU COULD HAVE BEEN HURT!" The child just stared at her father. "Don't look at me like that… urgh, alright, your off the hook." "Thanks daddy!" She shouted and ran off to find Robin. "You know, that girl has everyone here wrapped around her little finger. She's a lot like Robin in that sense." "Yeah except she's more troublesome." The two fathers laughed.

5 YEARS LATER

"Allan let me go!" A 10 year old Emma shouted at her best, best friend. "You started it." "Girls don't start fights but we can finish them." "Damn straight you can, my poor nose, look at it. I think you've broken it." "Oh get over it you big girl's blouse." "I'm not being funny but I ain't a girl." "I'm not being funny but you act like a bigger girl than I do." She grinned at him. "When do you have to go back home?" Allan asked, sounding more serious. "Tomorrow, Dad said I have to start having lessons again and that it's time I started learning to look after the lands and my future people." The girl answered, mimicking her father. "When will you be back again?" "Shouldn't be too long, if it looks like we won't be coming back for a while I'll just come back on my own, I'm old enough now anyway." "I'm not being funny, but that's a bit of a trek to do on your own innit?" "Nahhh, if I'm on my own I'd get here quicker." She laughed. "Anyway I better get going. I'll see you soon." She said giving him a quick hug. "Okay, have fun having your lessons." Allan taunted and she just laughed back at him, then jumped on her horse and started heading back to Locksley. "Bye Allan!" "Bye Emma!" he shouted back and then whispered "please come back soon."

Back in Locksley that night, Guy and Isabella were over. Guy had been unmistakably a lot grumpier than usual and Isabella was just as creepy as ever. But Guy had an excuse, his father had recently been sent away for being a Leper and other kids around his families estates had been cruel to him about it. Emma had sat with Guy on the evenings that he was in Locksley, attempting to cheer him up and succeeding as no-one could resist her witty banter, and she knew it. Her, Robin and Much had also become inseparable over the years, and when Marian was around it was even more fun. But she found hanging around with Allan and Tom more enjoyable as they were normal and nobody expected anything of them unlike the others. The other difference as well was that Allan knew lots of tricks, and because no-one around the Nottingham area knew Emma very well she could sneak around with Allan and Tom pulling innocent tricks on people that they had taught each other.

5 YEARS LATER

Emma had been back to Locksley many times in the last few years, but now spent much of her time in Rochdale with Allan and Tom. A week after they had left Locksley 5 years ago, Guy's father had returned and both his father and mother had died, Robin's father too. Now Robin looked after the estates and had little time to run about causing chaos. Marian helped her father more too with his duties as Sheriff, and Guy and Isabella has gone back to France. She was walking through Rochdale and was approaching Allan and Tom's house and noticed their father wasn't outside making horse shoes, you couldn't smell their mother's cooking. "Hmmm that's odd." She said to herself. She walked up to the door and knocked and a snappy woman answered the door. "Oh ummm sorry, I was looking for the A Dales, do you know where they've gone?" She asked. "Yes, the parents died and the lads were kicked out, couldn't afford to pay the taxes." "Well do you know where they've gone?" "No I do not! Now go away!" The older woman snapped and slammed the door. "Yeah and if you knew who I was you wouldn't have done that." Emma said under her breath. "My lady, the lads are still about, I saw them robbin' some bread from ol' Mrs Peter's window, but I have no idea where." Said Allan's old neighbour. "Cheers Mr Richards." She smiled. If they were still about she knew where to find them, in the woods. But its winter, how the hell could they survive out there? She walked through the woods and came across what looked like an area that was being lived in, and found to lads huddled up under a poorly made shelter sleeping. "Allan? Tom?" she asked nudging them. "Em…" Allan said waking up. "Em!" he said jumping up and hugging her. "Wow now, easy on my ribs your crushing me." She laughed. "I've missed you. Ummm Tom's missed you too mind." "Bless. Poor bugger, look at him." "Yeah I've been giving him most of the blankets and food, he's too young to be out here." "Why are you sleeping in the woods?" She asked, already knowing the answer. "Me parents have both died since the last time you were here, both of them fell ill one after the other, me mum was the first to go and dad followed soon after. I couldn't make enough money on my own and couldn't pay the taxes so we got kicked out." "Well then you can come and live with me, both of you." "Emma, we're English, we'd get killed if we went to Wales with you." "Nonsense that wouldn't happen. Us Welsh aren't that bad." "Besides, me old aunt Pam said we could live with her soon so it's ok." "You sure?" she asked. "Yeah yeah." He used his trademark grin on her. She knew he was lying, but decided against arguing with him cause he didn't look like he could deal with an argument. They then spent the rest of the day talking, laughing and joking around, telling each other what they had been getting up to since the last time they saw each other.

3 YEARS LATER

Over the next three years Emma spent more and more time visiting Locksley, alternating the days she spent with Robin, Much and Marian and Allan and Tom. But the catch this time was that her, Robin and Much were going away, for a very long time. Her and Robin were now 18 and Much was 19. Robin and Marian by this time were both engaged to be married and Robin was well respected by the people he cared for, same for Emma back home. Emma and Marian had gotten very close too now, and she was the one who Robin had turned to about how to propose to Marian. Robin had to tell Marian today that he would be leaving for the Holy Land tomorrow to fight for King Richard, and Emma had to tell Allan.

"Hey Allan, Tom." I said to the two brothers. "Hey Em." They both said in union. Three years on and their still living in the woods, Allan is such a liar. "Umm Allan there's something I need to tell you." She looked at him, thinking 'oh no he's smiling and looks so happy, and now I'm gonna have to tell him where I'm going'. The thought that she was about to upset him just made this a whole lot harder. "Look ummm… this isn't going to be easy to tell you, but I've got to go away." "For how long?" he asked. "I'm not sure yet, could be a few years." "I'm not being funny, but why? Where are you going?" He asked, you could hear the sadness in his voice. "To the Holy Land…" "WHAT?!" "Allan calm down." "I'm not being funny but how can I be calm? You've just told me you're going to the Holy Land. Why are you going?" "Because King Richard asked for me and Robin to go, because we're renowned with a bow." "But you could die." He said quietly. "I know that, but my point is I won't. Me, Robin and Much will be fine." "But what if you're not ok, we need you." He said looking at Tom. "I need you." "Allan you guys will be fine without me, as soon as I come back I'll come and find you." I moved closer to Allan and hugged him, then jumped on her horse and rode back to Locksley, not wanting to say goodbye knowing that saying goodbye would mean I wouldn't see my best friend ever again.

Back in Locksley, Emma found Robin sat sulking on top of the hill overlooking the village. "Didn't go well with Marian then?" "Nope, she slapped me and stormed off. She wouldn't even let me explain. How did it go with your friend from Rochdale?" "Not so good either, I couldn't bare to stick around to tell his brother so he's going to tell him I think." "Shall we head back? Get some sleep." "Yeah come on."

The next day the trio headed to Hull to get a ship over to France, where they would ride for months on horseback to get to the Holy Land, and return five years later to find everything had changed.