Woot Woot its Chapter 2! Please leave a review if you enjoyed!

Sherwood Forest- The Great Oak

Rowan wasn't sure what originally started their distancing. She tried to think back to why she had wanted to gain more space from her father and all it kept concluding is was a conversation she herself barely remembers.

It was several months ago in early spring when he had commented on her new abilities something she was quite proud of for improving her skills in. Something he had said made her stop listening to him and politely wait till he was done talking and left for the evening. But what was it... She didn't hate him, never, he was her father and she loved him. But at the moment she could barely tolerate the man. Yet there her and her comrades were now walking to his favored hideout.

They hadn't been to Robin Hood's dwelling in some time. She couldn't recall the last time she had been there with them at all really. Had it been that long? She thought smiling as two of her father's comrade Will and Allan waved at her. She liked the two of them, they were closer then friends, like brothers and very funny. They stood with Will's wife a Saracen woman named Djaq. Similar to Rowan she had taken on a boy's name upon coming to Sherwood and stuck with it. She admired Djaq for choosing to return to the forest once again. Rowan scanned around for Rafe and Much as well as Little John but the three of them were missing as well.

"Where's Robin?" Etty asked as they approached.

"He and John and a few others went out for a bit why?" Will answered them walking closer. "We weren't expecting the group of you today." He informed them looking to Rowan now.

Rowan frowned, were they serious, her father had only asked her a few hours ago and was heading the direction of this very camp.

"He should be back in a bit, you hungry?" Allan added motioning his hand towards the pot of food.

"Starved." Lionel responded, him and Beau were always hungry a joke they created amongst the small band.

"Oui." Beau chimed in her Frankish accent. The girl grinned widely her black eyes sparkling. She was odd to Ro, always had been but she was very sweet and cared so much for the people around her and just as much for her love of mixing weird plants and such to dye garments even stranger colors. Rowan never understood the Wanderers. Her mother had no ill will against them unlike other villagers. Celandine had even helped heal a Wanderer man who once.

They had eaten their fill with the food provided and now lazily reclined around a small fire. As summer had begun to give away to fall the evenings were becoming cooler. After a while of sitting and talking there was still no sign of Robin Hood anywhere as she scanned the clearing once more. Of course, they decide to come tonight, and he doesn't even show. It made Rowan all the more irritated.

Sherwood being so quiet lately was making her father do more of his normal activities without fear of being snuck up on by a wondering forester. In fact, they barely saw them anymore not since the old sheriff had been to the oak as a guest almost a year ago now. He hadn't been faring well and out of her father's good heart he had sent the man on his way back to Nottingham after a long discussion. Rowan still wondered now what it was they talked about so calmly for, but she never asked.

After waiting what seemed like hours and it being too dark to return home they decided to sleep there and return to the hollow the next morning. A hand shook her shoulder gently. She opened her eyes to peer at whoever roused her from her slumber. Robin Hood himself was kneeling over her bow and quiver on his back under it covering most his body was a dark cloak.

"Lass." He whispered to her she leaned up on her elbows and practically glared at him.

"We came for dinner." she grumbled sleepily. "You weren't here."

"I know." He hung his head a moment before looking at her once again. Rowan couldn't tell if he was leaving or had just arrived back. Regardless he looked as if he did not sleep last night. Dark circles were under his eyes. Eyes that had a cloudy and very weary look to them. "The lads and I are making a few rounds today. You're welcome to join us."

By rounds he was referring to giving money and other goods to the poor and villagers of the shire. They made rounds to the villages and towns in the shire sometimes beyond even. Rowan had gone with them once or twice but today she was not in the mood. Ro didn't disagree with what her father did and admired him for his efforts to make a difference, but she has always thought in the end it was useless. An endless cycle of stealing giving back, the very peasants just having to pay a higher tax and the cycle repeats again.

"I have my own tasks to do." She replied laying back down with a soft thud. Rowan did indeed have things to do today, for starters she needed several herbs and plants they were running low on. With fall coming meant more sickness with the colder and wetter weather.

Robin patted her leg gently, "You're all welcome to stay as long as you want but you know that of course."

"Of course." She repeated turning on her side facing away from her father and back towards Lionel's back she sighed planning on just ignoring him till he left but her plan changed. Turning her head to see him standing now she spoke," please be careful."

Robin pulled the hood over his face and smiled down at her, "always am."

Nottingham Castle

"Master Todd, greetings to you." Marcus spoke smiling at the young man. Todd felt uneasy by him. This man was already proving to be worse then his own father was. He did not grieve his father's death as much as he grieved the coming to office of this man.

"Sir Marcus," He greeted back, "What have you called me in here for?" Todd asked standing in front of the very chair his own father once sat in.

"Young Todd do sit down." Marcus motioned his hand to a chair across from him which Todd reluctantly took. "I have called you here today to discus a rather pressing matter at hand." Marcus looked at him waiting to continue on with his own thoughts, "I assume you like many others have heard of Robin Hood. Hmm?"

"Of course." Todd responded, "He's plagued my father and Nottingham for almost twenty years now." Todd would go along with this conversation giving as little of his actual feelings and thoughts as possible.

"Word is you spent time in his outlaw camp. Captured?" Marcus asked. Todd noticed he spoke with his hands a lot and had an unpleasant quirk to his voice.

"Aye." Todd answered frowning, "Cold and wet most the time the Forest is. Not a very pleasant place." He scoffed. "Why do you ask milord?"

"What was he like?"

"Pardon?" Todd began to wonder what this man was getting it.

"Hood. What was he like? Most the peasants love and adore him, villagers praise him, the poor speaks nothing but amazing words of affirmation. Yet Lord's and Ladies and other nobles and even your father's very own guards all say he is a murderer and a villain. Which is the truth?" Marcus asked, he sure did enjoy speaking. He was trying to make Todd talk. Trying to make him say anything that might give away Todd's own feelings towards the outlaws.

"I had fallen in a man trap and was fairly ill. My apologies if I don't remember much, but I wasn't paying attention to how my captors were behaving." Todd laughed, "But if its any answer he didn't kill me."

Marcus smiled nodding for several seconds before standing and walking around the hall. "Do you know who appoints Sherriff's and nobles?"

Of course Todd did, he grew up around noble men and his own father had been the Sherriff for well over twenty five years. "The King."

"No. The king is on another round of his Holly War. Prince John appoints and takes away positions as he deems fit. When your father had grown ill, Prince John appointed me here do you know why?" Lord Marcus' question was rhetorical, "I have held position in his court in London far longer then your father held a position as Sherriff. "He sat once more resting his elbows on the armrests folding his hands neatly together, "I have become one of his most trusted advisors and asked for possession of Nottinghamshire, I was not forced into it."

"Your point milord?" Todd wanted him to just get to it already, stop beating around so many bushes.

"There is an injustice that has been festering like an untreated wound in Nottingham's side and upwards from there. One the old Sherriff, rest his soul, could never quite cut out." Marcus smiled but his eyes were unkind, "I have more, how do you say it, desire to cut out the wound."

Todd looked to his sides as several guards flanked around the chair. "See the problem with wounds is sometimes the infection can spread through other parts of the body." Marcus stood once more walking over to him. "I'll give you a chance of course, to plead guilty perhaps give you a fair trial you are not disliked. If you gave us valuable information of course in return." He put his hands on the armrests of Todd's chair before leaning so close Todd felt the man's breath on his face as he bent to eye level.

"I have no clue what you are accusing me of sir." Todd said keeping a steady gaze with the man. Let him think it, he has no proof. No one but Robin's men and Rowan and the others was there in Sherwood with him. Besides them his father and a group of guards when Robin and the others planned to offer his release to the Sherriff in exchange for Rowan.

"The problem young master Todd is you didn't quite close all of your ties. Enough torture someone eventually talks." He stood back motioning to the guards. One on either side grabbed his wrists and yanked him upwards before cuffing his arms behind his back. "Last chance Todd, tell us everything you know, and you will be given a fighting chance."

Todd remained silent, he knew somehow and somewhere this Sheriff knew. He kept his face strait, head held high trying to imitate the very outlaws he'd probably die protecting.

"Very well. Lock him up." Lord Marcus instructed turning his back on Todd and walking back to his chair as the guards escorted him out of the room.