Robin Hood: Everything is a Choice
By Ebbtide
DISCLAIMER: I do not own this franchise or anything related to the BBC version of Robin Hood.
Please, don't sue.
Darkness enshrouded the small vale where Robin Hood's men lay in peaceful slumber. Their leader stood watch, motionless on the edge of a large boulder, keeping his men safe from harm. Thoughts of the Sheriff and Sir Guy filled his mind with a muddle of confusion. He knew that they were bad men - some would even call them evil, and fit to die. To Robin they were the embodiment of all the terrible things that waited in this life for those who could not defend themselves. That is why he had begun his quest to find freedom and riches, of a kind, for all men and women.
At the same time, Robin found himself pitying those two men for the compassion and the love that they would never feel. Only distrust and hatred were directed at them from the people that they had so willingly wronged. Robin knew from bitter experience how it felt to have the kind villagers turn violent towards any perceived threat.
A cloud passed over the bright October moon and Robin hung his head in his hands; so many responsibilities rested on his shoulders. Ones that he did not feel prepared to deal with. His shoulders sagged after a heavy sigh and the King of the Wood felt sleep pull at him for the first time in days. He had been unusually distracted by the dilemma of how exactly he was suppose to deal with the Sheriff's cutthroat methods.
He yawned widely.
"Guess it's to bed with me, then." Robin muttered to the forest around him.
He climbed silently down from his lookout position and made his way to the empty sleeping place Much had prepared for him. Robin Hood looked over at the man who, once his servant, had become his best friend. A tuft of bright red hair was just visible poking out from under a warm blanket that the man had wrapped securely around himself to ward off the cold. With a smile, and memories of their past mis-adventures, Robin lay his head down on a soft pillow of leaves.
The moral question posed by the Sheriff's actions did not fade easily into the background of his thoughts as Robin let sleep drag him deeper into unconsciousness. Just as his eyes slid shut - despite his mental agony over what was the right thing to do - Robin heard Marian's voice whisper in his mind.
"Everything is a choice."
Then darkness claimed him and he fell into a sweet dream of happiness and bright years for all of his men. The next morning when he would wake up, he would do so with a sense of hope. In his innermost soul, the man known as Robin Hood had made a choice. To protect against evil, at any cost. There would be bright years ahead for them, he would make sure that Loxley and Sherwood and Nottingham were freed from tyranny. Robin Hood had made his choice.