Like the early rains promising spring that yield once again to winter, so the warmth between Robin and Will came and went after that first conversation. There had been no confrontation; Will had simply ignored the older man each and every time he attempted civility. In fact, Azeem considered those moments of stony silence a victory; several times the youth had simply walked away before the noble could utter a sound. Robin was definitely puzzled by the abrupt change in the other's behavior. He had thought they had reached a truce, especially after he had saved the boy's life, but now…Scarlett was definitely back to hating him. For no reason he could detect. "What happened?" he despaired.

But while he said nothing to Locksley, Scarlett was sure to make his sarcastic voice heard by every other man in the camp, especially after the plan Locksley came up with to take down coaches. "It's not going to work, and why should we even bother when we're just going to give everything back to them?" referring to his first, and now that he was untrustworthy, his only, raid that he had been on.

Despite all his coaxing, Azeem could only watch helplessly as his two friends returned to their embittered positions, after only a few hours of shaky peace. There was nothing he could do about it. And we're back, he thought to himself, to square one.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" the melodic voice, inflected with the scorn that had grown annoyingly familiar to the rest of the camp, drifted over to where Azeem and John's family were gathered around a new member to Sherwood forest.

"We got ourselves a friar." Fanny grinned as she dumped some vittles onto the plate the sweaty old friar was holding.

"A hungry friar," Will observed as he grabbed his own plate and took a seat. The friar had already devoured half of the generous helping of stew and was quickly gobbling the rest away.

"Go easy on him, Will. The friar's had a busy day; he just finished beating up on Robin."

"You beat up Robin of Locksley. I think I just might like you Friar. Azeem smiled; he knew that was what Scarlett would say.

"Tuck's the name," the portly man said between mouthfuls. Fanny quickly refilled his plate.

"Will Scarlett."

"Well, what is it Will?" everyone turned at the whisper. Scarlett shook his head at the intruder.

"It's a friar."

"A friar?" Noah repeated, scurrying over and hopping up on the log, beside his friend. "What's a friar?"

"It's a religious man, sort of like a priest," Will looked to Tuck for confirmation, who nodded.

"Oh." Noah sat in silence, gazing at this new phenomenon as he cleaned another plateful. "Why are you dressed so strange?" he asked at last.

"Strange? Why I'm dressed just like everybody else," Tuck retorted.

"Priests don't wear that. They wear the long white dresses with all that…you know, ladies'jewelry and those tall hats."

"But he's not a priest," Will reminded the lad.

"But he's a friar," Noah defended his statements.

"So a friar is not a priest, is it?"

"You said they were!"

"No, I said a friar was like a priest. That doesn't mean they are the exact same." Only Azeem noticed Will's voice lost its sarcastic edges whenever he was around Noah: right now his tone was more that of an annoyed older brother, which was fitting, Azeem thought.

"Then what's the difference?"

Will sighed, long and exaggerated, and shook his head as if to say, you poor little thing. "Priests wear the dresses and the jewelry, friars wear the everyday clothing." Put it all together little man.

"Oh," was all Noah could think to say. But he quickly regathered his wits. "So how was I supposed to know that? All you said was that they were alike. How was I to know that they weren't alike in their clothing? I've never seen them before."

Will just rolled his eyes, but those same eyes were also smiling when he looked at Azeem across the way. Noah is coming back, the happy eyes told the painted Moor; he was getting the old fire and spunk that had been his personality since as long as Will had known him.

At that moment, Locksley joined the group gathered around Fanny's fire. "So, Tuck, what do you think of our little village?"

"It is a mighty impressive sight. The Lord has surely given this place his blessing."

Robin murmured his agreement to that statement. "And the Lord lent us a helping hand today when we intercepted that bribe from Nottingham."

"That is right. That is right," the religious man affirmed. Before he could continue, a bark of laughter from Will Scarlett momentarily halted the conversation.

"No-ah," Will intoned, laughing at the boy, "Oh Noah."

"Ask him Will," the boy earnestly pleaded.

"You ask him that." Will whispered as he struggled to contain himself.

"Come on, Will."

"No, Noah, it's your question."

"Please. Pleeeease," he wheedled.

Will sighed defeat. Another part of the boy's reemerging personality was his ability to easily manipulate people. "Oh, all right." He shifted to face Tuck. For a moment, all he could do was smile, but finally he haltingly began, "Noah would like to know…" here he paused to smile again, "do all friars harness themselves to their carts, and if they all do, then why are you still so fat?"

The rest of the camp looked at each other in bewilderment when the whole group surrounding Fanny's fire suddenly collapsed to the ground.