Chapter 2

"Haw haw haw," laughed a very tall man illuminated by the flames of a dying fire. "You called The Lady Marion, 'miss'! You are a silly ass." Little John received a withered look from the fetching man to his right.

"I swear I have spent too long in this forest, my manners aren't up to what they should be. I escaped fast enough that's for sure." Robin scraped the piece of wood in his hands and threw the splinters onto the embers of the inferno sending the flames into a battle for the feast.

"Well I say my boy, there would not be a better pairing this side of England," said a robust young monk pulling the hood of his cowl down to his shoulders. "Yes it is very fitting that the King of the Forest should marry into royalty. You are a very handsome man you know. I think she could forgive a slight slip of the tongue." He peeled a layer from an onion and popped it into his mouth causing Little John to grimace. Robin patted his Christian friend on the back in thanks for the compliment but in his mind he knew it was a chance meeting and completely unlikely that they should ever meet again.

He wandered past their camp and past the raucous laughter of his 'band of bandits', deeper into the forest. There, shimmering with glo-worms was his beloved oak. The unfortunate wilderness into which he had been born.


The most laborious screams emanated throughout the forest, the leaves upon the oak from which the sound came shook in fear.

"We're nearly done now my darling, just one more push for me now," called a steady and assured male voice. With the most backbreaking yell and the strident clap of thunder, a baby boy entered the world, sounding his existence with piercing screams of his own.

"Born under the rolling clouds and the luminosity of the Gods!" said the proud father, holding his son, "this boy shall be strong. We shall call him Robin."

"Famed, Bright and Shining," said the worn out voice of the mother, she stretched out her arms to hold their first born. At first the father held back, he was so protective of his son. He didn't want to give him up. But he had seen a sensation, the strength of this woman had never been truer and so with only a slight regret, he handed his son to his companion.

The mother, brown hair sticky with sweat and similar eyes becoming heavy with tears, looked down upon the scrunched up, red face of her son. She lovingly wrapped him in some swaddling and lay back against the inside of the great tree.

"I love him Pan," she said softly, "I love him so much, and nothing will ever tear us apart, because the bond is too strong already."

The Lord of all the forests stalked out into the sticky heat of the tempestuous night. And with one last look back at his family, he knew everything was as it should be. Robin's mother, Breogh, watched the white hart form of her lover gambol into the dense thickets.

The next few years of bringing a child up alone would be terribly hard for the new mother.