Will Scarlett stood over the huddled blond man, prodding him awake with the butt of his axe. The blond man ceased snoring, and poking an eye open studied the tall kid. "What is it with you and axes?" he yawned.
Will said nothing and with a roll of his eyes, Allan A Dale stood up, brushed the dirt of his clothes, gingerly draped the thin blanket over the woodpile and gave a large grin. "Breakfast?"
Will glared and Allan shrugged. "So you're not a morning person. Fine. But to not feed a guest? That's just rude. Well, if that's all, then let's be off." A jaunty tune whistled its way out of the thief's mouth as he walked away with a flourish of his cape. Expecting the young man to follow, Allan walked in a random direction with no certain destination in mind. For nearly an hour the two walked in silence, finally coming to a stop deep within the forest.
"I'm not entirely familiar with the area, so you are going to have to talk, oh silent one. Where is a good place for our plan?" Allan asked.
"Nowhere," was the droll response. "But, we're near Nettlestone Village."
"Well, any village will do. Which way?"
Will pointed in a southeastern direction and the two started walking again. "And we will not take everything they own, got it?"
"Yeah, man, I've got it. You would make a horrible thief you know, all these silly rules of honor you seem to have."
"I take that as a compliment."
"You say that now, boy. But wait until your family can no longer support you. Wait until you are penniless, starving, and it's you versus the world. It's no longer about living with honor; hell, it's no longer lying or stealing. It's called surviving."
Will didn't respond and Allan strode off, wanting to put some distance between him and his new partner; cursing himself for even taking the boy along. He should have clubbed him over the head an hour ago and scampered off, rather than deal with Scarlett's stony silences, mighty righteousness, and the wave of memories the boy was invoking.
"What's your name, your real name," the boy finally asked.
"Allan. Allan A Dale," the blond called over his shoulder. Thirty-four paces later, Allan was the one to initiate a question. "Is your mum's stew always so good?"
"Yes," and Allan could hear the smile in the kid's voice. "My father says that's why he married her." Thirty paces later. "Do you have any family, Allan?"
"Yeah. But that's all I can tell you. Don't know if any of them are alive still or not." Twenty-three paces later. "That blanket really helped last night."
"I couldn't sleep. Didn't need you dying by natural causes, you've cheated me out of enough already."
"Fair enough," Allan said with a smile. Ten paces later and the two were walking side by side, a small but tidy village in sight.
"So is this Nettlestone?" Allan asked.
"I think so," Will replied. "It's been a few years. My father had a commission and I helped him build and deliver some furniture for the Earl's manor."
"Would you be recognized?" Allan asked tersely.
"I don't think so. I've grown a bit since then."
"Good. Still, to be safe I think we'll keep you hidden in the background."
"Dare I ask if you have a plan?"
"Is it my first time?"
When Will glared, Allan hurriedly kept talking. "We're novice monks in town to collect some money for the poor. We are in such desperate need for money that our order can't even afford robes for us monks. Pretty good, huh?"
Will crossed his arms, shaking his head. "No. No way am I pretending to be a holy man."
"There's nothing wrong with it."
"Yes, there is. To normal, decent people, there is most definitely something wrong with impersonating a monk. There has to be another plan."
"The monk plan works best, I'm telling you! It is genius in its simplicity, and our haul is guaranteed!"
"Find something different!" Will demanded.
"Why don't you come up with a plan, holy sir?" Allan challenged.
"Just say we're far from home, and we need money to get back to our village."
"Talk about simple," Allan snorted. "But it's not a bad start. We're brothers…"
"Who'd believe we're brothers?" Will interrupted.
"They'll believe anything I tell them to believe," Allan reassured. "We're the sons of some highborn lord, on our way to meet Prince John. Your dad said something about bandits in the forest last night; we'll just say that we were robbed by those bandits. All we need from the kind villagers are some money, new clothes and maybe a horse or two to make it to the Prince. And we'll make sure the Prince knows of the kindness of these villagers, and they will be repaid and rewarded."
"I don't know," Will said dubiously. "I don't know if they will believe it; I'm starting to think we're going to hang from the gallows for this. And I really don't want to die next to you."
"Don't get scared on me now, Will. This might work better than the monk plan after all! Just trust the village idiot, mate; you're in capable hands."
"We're going to die."
A/N I hope you guys enjoyed the latest installment. Thanks to Vida Loca for the prodding and encouragement as well as HighPriestessoftheDreamWorld and Wenrom31 for reviewing. If anyone has any ideas or something they want to see in the story, let me know! Thanks for reading and reviews are appreciated and craved!
