A TALE OF SHERWOOD
Chapter 11
In Which There is Rain
Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. -Mark Twain
Alternate quote:
Remember, people will judge you by your actions, not your intentions. You may have a heart of gold - but so does a hard-boiled egg.- Unknown
AN: Please remember that Duo still thinks that Hilde is a boy- The only one who knows she is a girl is Much.
It was a fine English day full of fine English weather. Which meant that, even though the morning was pleasant enough, by noon it was pouring. Hilde hardly noticed the change of weather, at first. The clouds merely seemed to echo her mood. The rain pounded the top of her head as determinedly as she trudged through the river of mud that had, not an hour ago, been the road through Sherwood. The gray sky was the gray stone of Nottingham Castle- where they though Much was.
It made sense, when Hilde, Duo and Little John had spoken of it under the giant oak tree. The Sheriff, having caught a known criminal and outlaw AND friend of the notorious Robin Hood, would take Much back to his castle. There he would install Much in the darkest, dankest, most vile place that could be found. After Much had been left in the dark for a sufficient amount of time the Sheriff would remove him from his prison, parade him around Nottingham, and then hang him in the square in front of the entire population of Nottingham and every Englishman within a days walk. That would be if the Sheriff was feeling generous, though. There were many other ways to kill a felon besides hanging.
At least, it had made sense when they had talked about it in the sunlight. Now, in the rain and the semi-darkness of evening, Hilde was plagued with doubts. What if the Sheriff decided to hang Much upon arrival at Nottingham? What if he had decided not to go to Nottingham at all? What if Much died of infection before they even arrived? Hilde had seen the things that man-traps did to men. They broke through bone and reason. Once she had heard a tale about a man who had found himself caught in a trap. He had waited two days for someone to find him. On third he had bitten off his own leg and crawled back to his home. Twice, Hilde had seen men who had actually been caught in the traps. Both had been dead.
"Five hours," said Duo suddenly. "Five hours we've been walking!"
"Is that it?" Hilde asked. "It feels as if we've been at it for days." A stream of cold rainwater was inching down her face. She wiped it away.
"Well, we should be there soon, I think." Duo was looking at her, his face mostly covered by the hood of his cloak.
Hilde nodded. "I wish we had a horse, or something. I want to get there. I want to get it all over with. I want to find Much and go home."
"Me too," said Duo. "Only, while we are there, I'd like to kill the Sheriff."
He stopped walking. Hilde stopped too, and looked at him.
"What?" she asked.
Duo was looking beyond her, down the road. "There it is, Harry. Nottingham," he said. Hilde turned. Through the sheet of rain she could see the end of the road, the feeble gray shine of lights in windows, and the large black thing that loomed up out of the town like a massive black devil and could only be Nottingham Castle. The instant Hilde realized what she was looking at, the rain stopped.
Duo stepped past her and stated walking again. Hilde followed.
"There are three things," said Duo "that I hate. The first is lying, the second is waking up in the morning, and the third is the weather. I mean, don't we have enough to deal with without the weather mucking things up? We just get used to one type of weather, and then it changes and we have to get used to something else. Either that, or it picks the most awful way to be that it can think of, and stays that way for months. If it's not raining, it is blowing, and if it's not blowing it is foggy, and if it's not foggy it is raining."
Hilde had almost stopped listening to him. She kept walking, dragging one foot through the mud and placing it in front of the other. Then dragging the last foot through the mud and placing it in front of the first. Her clothes were cold, heavy with water. They clung to her and tried to drag Hilde down into the mud and drown her.
Duo and Hilde were in the town proper now- surrounded by tall black buildings and walking down a muddy street that seemed to pick it's own senseless path through the homes. Here and there Hilde saw a murky crack of light from underneath a door jam, or through a window; but for the most part Nottingham was dark.
"Now what?" Hilde asked.
"Huh? Now what what?" Duo was confused.
"Now what do we do? We are in Nottingham, but how do we get Much out? How do we even find out where he is? Are we going to batter down the castle gates and overrun the place, just the two of us?" Hilde could feel herself becoming a bit hysterical. They should have thought this through more. They should have waited for Robin or someone. They should have-
"Shhhhh. I've got it covered," said Duo. "Look, I know this place- I know people who owe me favors." Hilde looked at him dubiously. "I didn't live in Sherwood all my life, you know. I lived here for a while." Duo's face was closed- Hilde couldn't read a thing in his expression. She was positive that he was hiding something. "What you need to do, Harry, is wait here while I go and-"
"I'm not waiting anywhere! I'm coming along to wherever you're going!"
"No, you're not. If you want to find Much before he is dead, You'll stay here." And before she knew it, Duo had turned and walked away into the gloom.
Hilde thought of following him- but she had no idea where she was in the town, even. And besides, it had started to rain again. Hilde cursed quietly and ran to the nearest doorway. She sat on the doorstep, under the eaves and out of the rain with her knees up against her chest. Slowly, her head dipped forward until it was resting on her drawn up legs, and she fell asleep.
AN: okay, okay, okay- I know. I practically fell off the face of the earth for a few months. Apologies all around, and thank-yous to everyone who reads this chapter.
Here is my excuse: I wrote the last chapter in a very strange mood- and then I couldn't figure out what the hell to do. Much getting caught was not in my overall plan for this story. I'm the kind of author that knows what everyone is up to, I know who is going to die, I know who is going to hook up, I know most of it before I even start writing- but they I did something dumb, like add something I had no clue how to fix. So then I actually, wow!, did research about Robin Hood and Nottingham and whatnot, and came up with a real life, kick ass way out of what I did. I am very proud, You shall all see it next chapter, I think. I'll really try to get it out soon, but no promises. Last time I promised to do it in 2 weeks, it took me about 4 months........
PS.... To anyone who has been reading "the Wall"- I haven't a clue what to do next- so if anyone has a suggestion.... That would be fantastic, please tell me what you think should happen!