14 years later…
"Come on, Ellie! Hurry up and get your things! The missus doesn't like for us to be late from running our errands!"
"Oh, pish posh! Don't ruin your skirts, Clarabelle! We'll get back before she realizes it."
The orphanage was a quite humble establishment nestled in Eagle's Landing, England. Surrounded by various shopkeepers and markets, the quaint building resided between groves of stocky paper birch trees. The outside of the abode looked welcoming, with a deep red shingled rooftop and flowering poppies on the windowsill. Inside, however, resided a completely different atmosphere, emerging from the shadows.
The walls and sunken ceiling were cracked and crumbling in multiple sections, while the floor yellowed and had sunk with age. The owl matron of this organization, Madame Gertrude Withers, seemed like the type of person you would make polite conversation with and then be on your merry way. Yet, she was as nasty as a viper and cold-hearted as a block of ice whenever the ice cart rambled into town. She prepared the most exquisite cuisine of the day for herself, whilst her patrons received table scraps and poor quality. Sometimes she would eat everything in sight, leaving nothing for the girls, who would sigh and clutch their hungry bellies in anger, sadness, and spite.
One of the oldest girls, Eleanor by name, a sky-blue hedgehog, tried her best to encourage her friends. She didn't always derive comfort from the life she was given in the orphanage, but she knew deep down that someday, change would arrive for the better, and her life would never be the same again. One cool, crisp evening, as the girls prepared for bed on their torn, sheet-less cots, the youngest of the girls, Mindy, a mongoose, started to toss and turn in bed. After doing so for a few minutes, she woke up with a frightened wail. The others turned to stare in abject annoyance as Mindy ran to Eleanor's cot and jumped onto her sleeping form.
"Ellie! Ellie!"
"Hmm?" Eleanor asked, rubbing her eyes gently with the back of her hand. "Oh, hello, Mindy. Did you have that dream of yours again?" she asked gently, sitting up.
"Yes. It was way worse than last time I had it," Mindy whimpered, burying her head into Eleanor's chest.
"Do you want me to sing you my lullaby again? It usually helps you calm down."
"Yes, please, but only the first verse," she sniffled, letting Eleanor cuddle closer.
"Close your eyes, my darling, darling
Hold me tight, my darling, darling
Say goodnight, my darling, darling
Sweet dreams tonight for you
Hold me close, my darling, darling
Till morning's light, my darling, darling
And you shall have, my darling, darling
Sweet dreams tonight for you."
"That was beautiful, Ellie," another one of the girls sighed.
"Thank you. I don't know where I came up with it, unfortunately." A feeling of peace and optimism crept on all fours into the room, and the moment was shattered by a loud declaration.
"Can't the rest of us get any sleep without the baby crying all the time?"
An older wren girl, JoAnne, remarked sourly, crossing her arms.
"I'm not a baby, JoAnne, and you know that as well as I do!" Mindy retorted.
"Oh, really? Says who?" JoAnne's face twisted into a smirk of disdain as she hopped across the other girls' beds towards Eleanor's side of the room. "Why is your opinion the only one that matters, huh? I have an opinion too!"
Her taunting was peppered with various yelps of pain. Ignoring JoAnne's taunts, Mindy turned expectantly to where Eleanor sat, still groggy from being woken up.
"Ellie knows for sure I'm not a baby, don't you Ellie?"
Eleanor nodded, stifling a yawn.
"What did you dream about, Mindy?" a porcupine girl called Purdy asked in a snooty tone.
"W-well, usually I dream about someone – or something – chasing me down a dark road. It gets closer, and closer, and then I wake up screaming. It really scares me!"
"That is not scary. You really are a baby, Mindy," JoAnne teased, leaning close to her face.
"Well, now, that's no way to talk. If I remember right, you used to have dreams about a monster teddy bear eating your head," Eleanor mentioned, making a few of the girls snicker. JoAnne's face reddened, but Mindy took her hand and squeezed it. "It's okay, JoAnne, I forgive you."
After a few minutes, Purdy turned to Eleanor. "So, what do you dream about?" she asked quietly.
"It might sound strange, but I dream about running through a forest, defeating bandits and rogues. Then I remember someone holding me as a baby, talking to me in a soft voice, and giving me my locket. I have no idea what's in it, but I wanted to wait until my birthday."
"You might as well open it up now, Ellie," Clarabelle, a cow, said as she made her way to Ellie's bed.
Other girls followed, scrambling to get closer, voicing their opinions. "Alright, alright," Eleanor laughed in defeat. "It is almost my birthday after all." A chorus of excited oohs and aahs broke out as Eleanor opened the locket, but they soon turned into groans of disappointment. "That's it? That's all? What a waste of time!" "Move over! I can't see! What is it?" "I don't know, Mindy. It's too blurry to tell." "Really? That's all?" "No, there's got to be something else in there."
The whole cot was soon crowded with girls, all trying to gain a better glimpse of the locket. It contained two illustrations: one of a heart with two arrows through it and one of what looked to be a male hedgehog.
"Whoa. He's really handsome," Mindy observed. "Who could that possibly be?"
JoAnne and Purdy shared a look, then chuckled. "Oh, we know exactly who that is." "Yes, we do!"
"Well, who is it?" Eleanor asked, a hint of impatience in her voice.
"It's Rob O' the Hedge! The greatest outlaw that ever lived!" JoAnne boasted.
"Rob O' the Hedge?"
"Yes, I saw him in Nottingham once." "Shut up, Purdy, you're lying."
"Why would he be in my locket?" Eleanor asked in disbelief. The girls shrugged, voicing different ideas. Mindy piped up with what seemed to be the most ridiculous ideas of them all: "What if he's your daddy?"
Every girl on the cot, including Eleanor, turned to Mindy in surprise.
"Where did you get an idea like that?"
"That's absurd!"
"You must be joking."
Eleanor cleared her throat so that everyone's attention returned to her. "I'm going to prove whether or not Mindy's right. I plan to find Rob O' the Hedge and question him myself."
"If Mrs. Withers finds out-" Clarabelle started.
JoAnne interrupted her. "She won't. I have my most brilliant escape plan yet!"
Some of the girls groaned, remembering past escape attempts that failed.
"Even if her escape plan works this time, how will I find him? He probably has no idea who I am."
"Well, I heard rumors in town that he's residing in Sherwood Forest, a long way away from here and close to Nottingham," Purdy offered.
"Then that's where I'm going first," Eleanor decided. The girls offered her the few coins they had managed to snatch from Mrs. Withers' purse and a tattered warm cloak.
"We'd better find a window," JoAnne said.
The closest window was a short drop to the road, and Eleanor climbed onto Purdy's back to get through.
"Remember to roll when you hit the ground; it won't hurt as much," Clarabelle remarked.
As Eleanor shook the dust from her dress, she turned to wave goodbye as the others whispered their goodbyes. Her adventure had begun.