EXPEDITION: An Unmatched Fanfiction

Chapter Ten: Not-So-Merry Men

Sinbad stared at the man in front of him, the man who had so effortlessly caught him and Little Red and disarmed them like it was taking candy from a baby. He was almost humiliated having been outplayed this easily, but he had encountered many worse trials in the past, so he could not let this slip-up stop him from thinking clearly in the moment. He knew he needed a way out of these ropes, yet looking at the green-coated individual in front of him, he appeared to want something different.

"Do I know you?" Sinbad questioned, studying his captor's facial expressions. He was a chiseled man, one whom with the right grooming practices could be considered a handsome man in any kingdom. However, Sinbad could tell that he was a man of the woods, one whose livelihood existed away from society. Faint splotches of dirt were caked on his face for who knows how many years, and his skin was darkened from years of unfettered sun exposure. His teeth were surprisingly straight, and the smile he gave at that moment imparted an uncanny sense of false comradery.

"Oh, I am not sure if you do," the captor said, pacing in front of Sinbad while gazing at him like a prized possession, "but I certainly know you."

Little Red wriggled aggressively under her ropes. "Let us go!"

"Silence, girl!" the captor shouted. "I have no intention to harm you! You just got caught with some bad company."

Sinbad furrowed his brow. "What is the meaning of all this?"

"Ah, it wouldn't be fair if I didn't explain myself, would it be?" The captor found a nearby rock and placed his foot upon on, taking the stance of a royal hero. "I am Robin Hood, and these are my Merry Men!"

The four other hooded men who helped in the capture let out a loud "huzzah!" Two of them whipped their heads back in excitement, lowering their hoods and revealing that they, too, held the same characteristics of a rugged outdoorsmen just like their leader.

"And it is my impression," Robin Hood continued, "that you are none other than the legendary Sinbad."

"The retellings of my voyages tend to travel far. What of it?"

"Well, one of my loyal comrades here saw your unfortunate crash several kilometers west of here. Tragic scene, really. He was going to go up and help, see if there were any dead bodies, but he happened to also catch an interesting conversation between you and your friend here. When he reported back to me, he told me 'ho, the legendary Sinbad is in these woods!' I did not know how this could be possible, but strange things have been happening in these lands. One of my own men was transported away by some smoky cloud, so I figure the same be true to bring you to me. I had to come see you in person!"

 Sinbad contorted his face in confusion. "If you desired to meet me so, why treat me with such cruelty as to tie me to this tree?"

Robin Hood laughed heartily, and all his Merry Men belted out a similar howl. "I'm giving you the wrong idea on what is going on here, I apologize," Robin Hood responded with a patronizing tone. "I know of your tales, Sinbad, mostly from all the wealth you stole in them."

"Stole? Utter nonsense! I have acquired my wealth through honest means. I made much of my fortune from trading as a merchant on my voyages, and I was granted many affluent gifts from different islands I happened upon."

"And where does that money sit now, Sinbad? Away in a castle somewhere, thousands upon thousands of pounds collecting dust while men starve in the street!"

"You come to this conversation with ignorance. I was once an impoverished man myself, so I am very generous with my prosperity. May he rest with Allah, my dearest friend Hindbad was but a poor porter before I met him, and I paid him seven hundred sequins just for listening to the tales of my voyages."

"How generous, you paid him to listen to your tales! What, so you could rub it in his face how much harder your life was compared to his? How you somehow deserved the wealth more than him?"

"I have suffered greatly in my life! I have nearly been eaten alive by a sundry number of creatures. I have been enslaved by my neck for a man who abused my sensibilities. I have been buried alive, left to die!"

"So a man must nearly die in order to make a fair day's wage? I have known serfs who died from horrid, grotesque diseases with nothing more than a shilling in their pocket! Do they not deserve enough to buy a loaf of bread? They did not suffer as greatly as you?"

Sinbad was silent. After a few seconds of quiet, Robin Hood laughed again, this time in a more calculated manner, and continued. "You rich lords are all the same. There is always some reason that your life is more admirable than others, some intangible factor that makes your life worth so much more wealth than those you see as below you. But, when you come close to the face of death, these reasons seem to fall short. They are mere excuses, no?"

"Then what do you plan to do with me now?" Sinbad spoke up. "Pierce that arrow through my heart? Seems to be your favored method, since you have none in yourself to pierce."

"A witty man, you are!" Robin Hood laughed. His Merry Men roared. "No, no. I see myself as a purveyor of justice, and I guess you could say I am feeling generous today. My Merry Men and I will go back and plunder your shipwreck. I am well acquainted with your type, I know you would not embark on such travels without the evidence of your wealth on hand. Come, men! We've much to explore!"

The Merry Men surrounding Sinbad and Little Red scrambled back to their leader, and they all began to walk away with excitement in their strides.

"Wait!" Sinbad called. "What about us?"

"I hear the wolves are pretty hungry this time of year!" Robin Hood tormented, then all the men put their hoods back over their heads and promptly disappeared into the dark greenery of the forest.

Sinbad sighed and looked down at the ropes restricting him. The Merry Men had done a superb job of tightening the rope around him. Now that he was not focused on his conversation with Robin Hood, he realized how constricting the binds were against his lungs. He took some heavy breaths to focus. He had escaped much riskier situations than this, he just had to think.

He stretched his neck to peer at Little Red as best as he could and saw her irate glare.

"You didn't tell me you had that much money on your ship!" she chastised him. "Hell, I would have kept robbing you if I knew what was under all that wood."

"What good would it have done us?" Sinbad retorted. "We have no way of carrying enough to make digging through the rubble a worthy use of time." He paused. "What use is the wealth now if we have no way of ensuring its safety?"

Little Red scoffed. "All that coming from Mr. Moneybags. If you lived the life I lived, you would never say something like that." Sinbad turned away, looking down at his bonds once more. "Hang on."

"What is it?"

"Do you hear that?"

Sinbad listened to the sounds of the woods. He heard a rustling of footsteps, the kind of sound that could not be replicated by any animal. He heard footsteps approaching, stopped when they reached Little Red's tree. He turned back to her again, but his neck would not bend so far as to see what was behind her tree creating all this noise. He could only listen to a blade unsheathing and rope being sawed in half.

He saw Little Red fall away from her ropes. She almost tumbled as her feet hit the ground. Once she regained her balance, she turned around to see a burly man donning dirty clothing crafted from animal fur, brandishing a large axe.

"Hey!" Little Red exclaimed, a smile starting to form at the corners of her lips. She noticed that her happiness was beginning to show and quickly grunted away her grin. "Sinbad, this is the Huntsman I was talking with you about."