Arthur Hood: the Heir of Robin and King

Chapter Six

School the following day was the same for Arthur. Every school day was the same. He was laughed at relentlessly again, yelled at by Mrs Fairweather, chased by Billy and was made, as punishment for sneaking out of detention the previous day, to write one thousand lines about why children should always wear muzzles.

If that wasn't bad enough, Arthur saw that strange man standing outside again. This time, however, he was not alone. He was with another, a figure covered in a hooded cloak, their face hidden. And more oddly, making Arthur squint, it appeared that the individual was floating.

'I think I need to have my sight checked,' Arthur had said, rubbing his eyes and shaking his head.

Once school was over and Arthur was back home without any incident, he gave out a huge sigh of relief, plonked down on his bed and waited for his next sitter to arrive.

Though not related, Arthur had always called the man Great Uncle. He was once a colleague of his parents, now retired, and had been in his life like Mr Scarlett since he could remember.

Arthur didn't have to wait long, for he soon heard the loudest and most obnoxious noise he had ever come across, it sounding like someone had lit a firework up an elephant's trunk and then placing the entire animal inside a room full of giant honking geese.

Arthur bolted from his bed, ran down the stairs and peered out of the front window, finding, as always, his great uncle trying desperately to get out of his car. And it wasn't because his vehicle was tiny or that he was so old that he was having such trouble, which both were true. It was the suit-of-armor that the man always wore. Seriously, he wore it everywhere. He wore it to go shopping, to go for walks and to even go on holiday.

For an hour Arthur just watched and winced. He would have gone out to help but his great uncle was a proud man and had scolded him once for trying to assist.

Finally, the old man raised his armored hands in success but after placing a foot wrong, he tumbled to the ground with a huge clunk. After another hour, he was back on his feet and acting as if nothing had happened.

Now waiting outside his front door, Arthur was greeted with a smile.

'Sorry for keeping you,' his great uncle stammered through his huge and wild mustache, wobbling as if he was going to fall over again. 'I was just testing out the driver's seat in my car before I thought I saw a very rare coin lying on the ground. But after getting a closer look, it was just a bit of flattened rabbit droppings.'

'No worries,' Arthur replied, smirking at the fib. 'And it's always good to see you.'

'Likewise, my dear boy. How was school?'

'It was good,' Arthur lied this time and his great uncle could tell.

'You have greater things in store for you that school will not help you with. To be honest, school isn't that important. It's for losers. Looooosers. And you're a winner, Arthur.'

Arthur frowned. 'That's arguable.'

'Arguable? Poppy-tosh. It's in your destiny.'

'My destiny? What do you mean by that?'

His great uncle waved his question away. 'Let me repeat what I said. School is for losers.'

'I don't think you should be saying that to me, Great Uncle. School is very important. My parents wouldn't be too happy with you if they heard you say that. Anyway, how can you, of all people, think school is for losers? Surely you went to university to become an archaeologist, like my parents?'

'My dear boy, archaeology is essentially just digging in soil. It's not really rocket science, is it? You dig, you find something, you dig again and you find something else? Simple. Simmmmple. Now, be a good lad and get my helmet from my trunk. I need to go sit down for a bit. Testing out my car's suspension really made my legs tired.'