Hi folks! I'm back. Sorry for the wait on the update. Okay now reviewer responses. To Dancin in the Moonlite. I reread that chapter and you're right. I made the girls seem WAY to mary sue-ish. I'll try to work on that. As to the whole jump through time thing there is actually an explanation to that, but it comes later. It'll tie into the story. Thanks for your opinion though, let me know what you think of what I do to the story in the future. I'll look for your reviews.

Disclaimer: I do not own Robin Hood or any characters of said movie. But I do have Will Scarlet tied up in the closet. Hehe.

Chapter 2: Fireside Tales

Will stared at the two girls seated across the fire. They had changed out of the dresses they had been wearing earlier. The guys had been shocked to find that they had been wearing leather pants under their skirts. At the surprised stares the girls had merely shrugged and said that they hated wearing skirts. Their horses were tethered with the two that Robin had brought, off in the woods a bit.
The girls had shared their rations, and coupled with the food that the woodsmen had (which in all honesty wasn't much) the group had rather a decent meal for a change. Everyone was lounged around the campfire, full (for once), talking and joking with each other. The girls were cracking jokes right along with everyone else. Will was surprised at how easily they made themselves fit in. When there was a lull in the conversation John finally voiced the question that was on Will's mind.
"So what brings you two ladies out here?"
Renee and Trienee exchanged a look, and Renee answered the question. "We're not ladies. We've been living in Nottingham for over a couple of months now." Her face soured. "Long enough to see what kind of men are in charge now, and what kind of man the sheriff is." Trienee shuddered.
"Where were you from before you came to Nottingham?" someone else asked.
The girls exchanged another look. Renee again answered. "No where you'd have heard of. It's a long story and we'll tell you another time. For now suffice to say we were on the road on our horses, we had no money and no place to stay. What we saw was a cart, laden down with bags of gold. There were just three men with it, the driver and two guards. They never noticed when a few of those bags went missing." Renee smirked. A few men gave hearty cheers, a few others raised their eyebrows. Trienee took up the tale.
"We wound up in Nottingham. We wove some tale about thieves and the rest of our party being killed on the road. They took me for a rich lady, and Renee for my servant, God knows why, and we played along and sort of, fit ourselves in." Trienee paused, bit her lip, then continued the tale. "Like Renee said, we were there long enough to see some of the evils that the sheriff and his men were committing. We were planning to leave, the Lady Marian had offered us a place to stay if we wanted to leave the court." Robin picked his head up at those words, watching Trienee curiously. The girl had become uneasy. "Well, we had our minds made up, but about two days ago the Sheriff came to see us. Came to see me. I was a lower ranking woman in the court's eyes, and he usually gets what he wants from women." Her face hardened. "Well not from me. But he doesn't like the word no, so Renee knocked him over the head. Needless to say Renee and I had to run for it. So here we are." Triene finished her tale with a shrug. It was Robin who broke the silence.
"The Sheriff is really as sure of his position to try something with a noble woman?"
Trienee smiled humorlessly. "I'm not a noble woman. Yes I know that he didn't know that, but as far as the court was concerned I was a nobody. I hadn't been there that long and no one would notice or care if anything happened to me. Besides, if I got in his way he could have had me done away with. He'd done it to others." She turned to face Robin. "You said your name is Loxley?" he nodded. Trienee shook her head. "I'm sorry. Your father opposed the Sheriff. I heard the story that was passed around the court. It isn't true. The Sheriff has been taking out anyone who opposes him. Quietly, so as not to attract much notice. Personally, I think he's of a mind to snatch the throne while the king is away."
This statement didn't come as a big surprise to the woodsmen. They were all of similar minds. The beer flask, which was being passed around, came to Trienee then. She took a huge swig before passing it along to Renee, who didn't take any but just passed it along to the next man. This man took a drink then passed the flask on to Robin, completely ignoring the man sitting next to him, Robin's companion Azeem. Robin noticed, and commented.
"Is hospitality in this country so changed that you do not offer my friend something to drink?"
"But sir," said the man nervously. "He's a barbarian."
Robin gave a half smile. "That he is. But no more than any of us." Rebuked, the man offered the flask to Azeem, who declined.
"Regrettably, I am not allowed." The flask was passed to Robin, who did take a sip. The talk continued. Someone turned the talk to Robin and commented on him being a nobleman.
"I was a nobleman," Robin said. "But when I killed the Sheriff's men I became an outlaw like you." Up until this point Will had kept silent, but now his temper flared up.
"You are nothing like us!" he spat, before stalking off into the woods. Startled at his sudden anger, Trienee stared after him.
"That there is Will Scarlet. Pay no mind to him, he's full of piss and wind," John commented. The talk continued, but Trienee paid it no more mind. Renee elbowed her in the ribs a few minutes later. Trienee turned to look at her friend in confusion.
"Go after him," Renee whispered. "You want to, and nothing is happening here." She jerked her head at the woodsmen, her shoulder length pale brown hair swaying, amusement dancing in her light brown eyes. Trienee bit her lip, then stood up and carefully extracted herself from the circle, walking around the men and following in the general direction that Will had gone. The last thing she heard was John say, "Here, we are kings." Trienee couldn't help but smile. Those men could be the riot act.
She pushed through the trees, trying to travel in a straight line figuring that was the most likely thing that Will had done, but it was hard. Her hair kept getting caught in branches, she walked into more than one tree, and her feet kept getting tangled in roots which would trip her up. She felt like she'd been walking for at least half an hour when she finally came to a break in the trees. She sighed in relief as she stepped into a pool of moonlight. Hearing running water Trienee headed in that direction. She came to a cliff. Peering down she saw that the cliff encircled a small gorge with a lake, a waterfall poured over one side of the cliff. Trienee caught her breath, there was certainly nothing as beautiful as this at home. Then she saw Will pacing down on the shore. She sighed in relief again. If anything he could show her how to get back to camp, because she was now quite lost.
After a few minutes of searching Trienee found a way to climb down into the gorge. Near the bottom though, she slipped and with a startled yelp, landed unceremoniously on her butt. Will was standing a few feet away, having spotted her when she was halfway down.
"They send you after me?" he asked bitterly, knowing full well that that wasn't the case.
"No, I came on my own," Trienee responded, picking herself up and dusting off her backside. "Wanna talk?" she asked quietly. Will's expression was answer enough. No, he didn't. Trienee shrugged. "If you ever do want someone to talk to, or talk at, I'm a rather good listener. Will stared over at Trienee, who moved to sit near the edge of the lake and dangle her hands in the water. The moonlight played on her auburn hair, making it shine. Will moved to sit next to her. Her hands moving through the water created small ripples, which grew bigger and faded as they moved across the lake.
"Where did you learn to pole fight so well?"
Trienee grinned. "Renee and the rest of our friends have been learning different forms of fighting for years. That was just what I'm best at. I'm the best in the group in fact, no boast intended."
"What else can you do?" Will asked.
"I'm a fair archer," Trienee answered. "I'm hopeless with a sword, but I'm alright with a dagger. If someone who knew what they were doing faced off with me though I'd be in trouble." She chuckled. They sat in silence for a while.
"Where are you and Renee from?" Will asked, thinking of nothing else to say.
"It's a long story," Trienee replied.
"We have time," Will pointed out.
Trienee nodded. "Yes. We do." She stayed silent a while longer. Will thought she wasn't going to speak and was about to suggest that they head back when she finally did.
"Renne and I are from California." Trienee said quietly.
"I never heard of it," Will responded.
Trienee chuckled. "You wouldn't have. It's not going to exist for several hundred years." Will stared at the girl in confusion. What the hell did she mean? "We weren't going to tell you for a while. From Renee's experience people don't generally accept it as true. But I guess you have a right to know. Just promise not to tell anyone until Renee or I do. Alright?" Will consented, curious.
Trienee pulled her hands from the water and wrapped them around her knees, which she had brought up to her chest. Her gaze went to the moon and she stared at it as though entranced.
"When I was little my family lived in New York." Again, Will had no idea where that was but he stayed silent. "Then when I was about seven they decided to move. Generally this would have been fine, I mean people move all the time. But they decided to move to Califoria. Three thousand miles away," Trienee clarified for Will's benefit. "At the time all I could think was that I was moving an impossible distance from everything that was familiar, it felt like I was going to have to start a whole new life, have to become a whole new person. And in a sense, I was." Trienee sighed, lost in memories. We moved to a quiet little neighborhood, and I discovered that next door to me there lived a little girl that was my age. Her name was Renee. We became good friends. And I became the third in a group that has since gained quite a few members." Trienee smiled.
"The third?" Will couldn't help but ask.
"Yes. There was a girl across the street named Jackie. She and Renee had been friends since the time they were born." Here Trienee paused, as if uncertain how to continue. "Have you ever heard of the parallel universe theory?" she asked Will finally.
"No," said Will.
"Well, it's a theory that says that there is another universe running parallel to our own. Same people, same places, pretty much the same events. So, according to this theory, another me and you are having this same conversation at a lake identical to this one in a completely different dimension somewhere." The concept was mind boggling, but it didn't get any less so. If anything it became more so. "When Renee was very young she made a rather strange discovery. The parallel universe theory is only partly true. There are many alternate universes. Some of them are parallel to others and some have the same people but events go completely different ways. There is an infinite number of universes to just about every past event, and to story that was ever created, anywhere." Trienee stopped to let the information sink in. Will asked the obvious question that Trienee was probably waiting for.
"And, how did she discover this?"
"Renee found out very young that she was different from everyone else. Very different." She paused for a moment again. "There are places where these universes cross and overlap. Where that happens the continuum of time and space is weaker than normal. About one person in a few billion are aware of this. About one in a hundred of those people actually have the ability to cross through these weakened spaces into other dimensions. These people are known as Walkers. Renee found out, very young, that she is a Walker. She also found, over time, that certain people group around Walkers, and that they tend to also be sent across dimensions. But they can only go one place, a Walker can willingly return anywhere they have been sent." Trienee finished. She waited in silence for Will to respond. He was sitting there slack-jawed, staring at her like she was crazy.
"You're crazy," he clarified. "Everyone else is going to think so too."
"You promised you wouldn't tell anyone," Trienee reminded him quietly.
"And I won't," Will said. "But I wouldn't repeat that tale to anyone, true or not."
Trienee gave a tired half smile. "At least you're not trying to attempt to burn me at the stake for witch craft, or perform an exorcism. Renee has experienced attempts for both."
Will shook his head. The girl was mad. The tale was too crazy to be true. Wasn't it?
"Next you're going to tell me that you can turn into a bird at will," he muttered.
Trienee chuckled again. "I can't. But you'll find that there are some strange people that group around Walkers." She didn't elaborate. Slowly she dipped one hand back into the water and began to swirl it around again. After a few minutes she yawned and Will realized that he was tired too. He also realized how truly late it was.
"We should go back to camp," he said to Trienee. Tiredly she nodded. They stumbled back up the cliff, both surprised that they didn't fall and break any bones. Will led the way back through the forest, but Trienee was too tired to notice the path that they took. By the time that they returned to camp the soft gray light that precedes dawn was lightening the sky, and mist was thick on the air. Trienee stumbled over to Renee, grateful to find that her friend had made up a makeshift bed for her. She flopped down and was asleep in moments.
Will watched her for a time, thinking over their conversation. He wanted to dismiss it from his mind as fantasy, but something kept nagging at him. It was too well thought out to have been made up on the spot, but to wild to be true. But what if it was? And what of Trienee's last cryptic comment? 'There are some strange people who group around Walkers?' What was she implying by that? Irritated, Will shook his head. The story wasn't true. It couldn't possibly be. But the rest of his mind didn't seem to want to agree with that hasty conclusion. After a while he finally fell into an uneasy sleep.

Whew. This took forever to type. I wasn't going to have Trienee explain about her and Renee so soon in the story, but it just seemed to fit there. Anywhere, I hope you like it and I would like to hear your comments, so please review.

Will: Can I come out yet?

Me: No. Be quiet.