A mysterious pain causes problems in camp, without help one of the outlaws could die but the treatment could be more dangerous than the problem.
As always I do not own Robin, the merry men or any other characters – apart from the doctor, he and his butchered English are all mine!
I have tried to keep facts vaugly true for the period that Robin is set (1190's) but have used some poetic license when it comes down to medicine.
Hope you enjoy.
Bad Humours Can Really Ruin Your Day.
"You're not eating Robin? Tuck asked as he watched the leader of the outlaws look at the meal Much had just served and wrinkle his nose before putting it to one side.
"I'm not very hungry" the young man replied, he knew as well as anyone that as an outlaw he should eat whenever the chance arose, after all none of them knew when the next meal might be. An outbreak of disease among the rabbit population or a drought could see their natural food reserves dry up in less than a week and food that they stole from the sheriff was for the villagers, not for them. Robin had made that an unwritten rule when the gang had first formed, their mission was to protect and serve the innocent, the villagers were to be fed and clothed first before the outlaws could access any of the loot.
The holy man decided not to press the issue, however he was sure the Robin was not being quite honest about the reason for not eating. Something he had witnessed earlier had concerned him but in the short time he had lived with the disposed Lord of Locksley he like the others had learned not to question the 27 year old about anything personal. If Robin felt disposed to talk about himself he would, otherwise questions would answered by sarcasm and arrogance, emotions that Robin used to hide his true feelings.
Later that evening Robin leaned against a tree and looked towards the city of Nottingham thinking; his was a never-ending task, there were always people who needed food or water or clothing; items that the sheriff should provide but Vaysey was greedy. He collected taxes under the guise of sending funds to King Richard in the Holy lands, coming up with ever more ridiculous charges to get his hands on the people money; last week he had ordered a tax on anyone found eating during Mass meaning that as soon as the parishioners accepted communion they would be charged.
Even before he had returned to this once great city Robin had known something was amiss, the so called war funds had practically dried up, and his men had been forced to mend weapons that were beyond repair with whatever they could find in the unforgiving land surrounding camp. Bows and swords taken from the enemy in death had become more than just trophies, they were needed for defence once English weapons became too brittle or blunt and yet the new sheriff lived in the castle in great comfort with food and wine regularly going to waste while the people starved. Soldiers would throw a sword away if it had the slightest blemish without even trying to get it fixed because the sheriff would provide new ones without so much as a bat of the eyelid.
Robin himself knew of three rooms in the castles dedicated to the storage of treasure, now if only he and his men could find a way to get into those rooms and remove the gold and silver without being caught… the outlaw gasped suddenly and clutched at his side as a searing pain seemed to rip his very soul in two. He growled angrily and tried to ignore the discomfort, firmly massaging the area until the pain once again disappeared. He needed to find out what this was pronto.
He'd been having the pains for a couple of days now; always in the same place and although he had checked repeatedly for signs of injury – perhaps a scratch from a stray arrow or a graze from a fall – he could find no reason for his discomfort. He'd decided tonight that maybe it was something he had eaten, after all it wouldn't be the first time he had suffered a bout of food poisoning after eating Much's cooking; not that he would ever tell his loyal ex-manservant. But avoiding food had done little to relieve the problem, now his whole abdomen ached from hunger and he wasn't sure where that ended and the other thing began.