Secrets of the sherwood forest

1

Authors note: In case you are reading this story anywhere else other than Wattpad, you are reading a copied story.

It has been a year since I started living in the Sherwood Forest. Or 364 days to be exact, but who's counting? Exactly 364 days ago a maid of mine found my diary and read it. The stuff she found was something that in some other scenario would've gotten me killed, but "lucy" for me, my family "only" kicked me out of their mansion and told me to never come back. Since then, I've learned to live my life here in Sherwood, even though the town nearby, Nottingham, has a sheriff that doesn't like me too much, but that has nothing to do with my reason of living in Sherwood.

You see, poverty is a massive thing here in England. King Richard can't do much about it, especially since he's currently on the crusade and has left his brother, Price Jhon, to lead his people. Selfish man, rising taxes from barely affordable to "I have to sell three kidneys to survive this month" -level. So, I've decided to help out with the poverty by stealing from the rich and giving it to the poor.

"Rue, stop the daydreaming, Munk Alfred is coming from the church" Edith yells at me from the ground. Oh, I forgot to mention her? Yeah, she had a similar situation as I did, only two months later and we became best friends soon after.

"I'm coming, don't worry" I yell down to her from the oak tree I'm sitting in, enjoying the warmth and sunlight that has finally come after a hard winter. I keep up with: "Is the food ready yet?" as I get up and start going down.

"Yes, it is, but we have to wait for Alfred, alright." Edith informs me"

"Great, I'm starving!" I tell her and laugh.

"You guys waiting for me?" I hear from the forest. It's the voice of Munk Alfred, my Christian friend from the Monastery of Nottingham. I look at him walking in our little camp area in the middle of the forest. He looks exactly like a Munk that has just walked around in a muddy forest for half an hour. His brown hair, bald from the middle, is messy and his robe is broken from here and there. There is a bruise on his cheek and a small scar cutting his right eyebrow in half. His brown eyes have a mischievous look as he smiles at Edith.

I jump from the tree right in front of him and say: "Yes, we are."

This scares him, as he apparently didn't see a girl literally standing six feet up from the ground.

"Dear heavens Rue!" He half-screams, after jumping at least two feet up and a foot backwards.

"Well, hello to you too" I say, laughing with Edith. He looks at us for a few seconds and starts laughing too.

We get ourselves back to even close to serious after maybe thirty seconds and I help Alfred back up.

"Thank you"

"No problem. Anyway, what's for dinner?"

"Soup" Edith answers.

All three of us sit down to eat on the bench I made out of a fallen three. I taste the soup and as always, it's delicious. I don't know how Edith managed to make herself as good of a cook that she is. Every time had asked her, she has said she doesn't want to talk about it. So, we don't.

Honestly, I don't know much about the past of Edith, I don't think she's comfortable with talking about it just yet. And I don't really mind having a friend who is a bit more mysterious. She's taller than an average man and really muscular as well. Her curly hair is a bit over shoulder length and her skin is the same colour as the salesmen from the southern world that I used to see quite often back when I was still a high-level lady. Or can I say lady, I was literally 15 when I got kicked out.

"So, how's everything in Nottingham? Anything we should know about?" I ask Alfred.

"Well, the serif is collecting the taxes in two days, and many can't afford it. Oh, and Prince Jhon is coming in tomorrow" He answers casually, like royals visited us every week.

"Do you happen to know what's his reason to come to Nottingham?" Edith answers with her slight seller man - style accent.

"I heard a rumour that he's coming to see Lady Kendra in the castle, maybe to ask her hand to marry her" Alfred answers her, whispering the part of the proposal, as if anybody could hear us in the middle of a forest.

Oh, Lady Kendra, she's a nice girl. We used to be friends back when we were kids but after her mother died for the plague my family didn't let us see again. She had ginger hair and emerald green eyes. During the summer, her face was always full of freckles and her lips were a lovely pink shade that worked greatly with her pale skin. Her family was always richer than mine and they didn't mind showing it off, even in their 5-year-olds clothing. I remember her indigo blue dress and the details made with gold and black leather. Last time I heard of her she wasn't referred to as lady tough.

I get back from these thoughts after Edith waves her hand in front of my eyes. "Hey, Rue, you did the thing where you just stare absolutely nothing and stop reacting" she says, looking genuinely worried.

"Oh, sorry. I just remembered that I used to be friends with Lady Kendra back when I was a child, obviously but after what happened to her mother I haven't seen her." I quickly answer her. I look down just to see my leg started twitching again.

Both of my friends look at my leg and then each other. I can feel that they're curious and want to ask if something happened between us (in a fight kind of way).

I change the subject: "This is really good soup Edith." Alfred agrees with me, and Edith starts blushing. She mumbles a thank you and eats her plate empty.

I get up from our three/bench and grab my bow and arrows. "I'm going to the creek; I really need to wash myself – Also we're low on good meat so I'll see if I can find any."

"Alright, we'll figure out something to do, unless you have to leave yet?" Edith asks our monk.

He looks up to check the time before answering; "It looks like I have a plenty of time."

"Great, I'm off then." I say to them as I walk to the forest. I'd like to add a "Don't have too much fun" but Alfred is a monk so I don't want to make jokes that might make him uncomfortable. Okay, it'd make Edith uncomfortable as well, but you get what I mean.