Wednesday June 26th, 2013

The exercise:

Write something that has to do with: Robin Hood.

The inspiration for that is not particularly straightforward, nor is it very interesting, so I'll spare you all and just keep it to myself.

Just before I left this morning to go out to the garden we got an email from the restaurant we supply, putting in a pretty decent order. Six pounds of cherries (eh), six pounds of arugula (happy to get that out of the garden before it all bolted), and twenty heads of kohlrabi (very glad to harvest that before they get too big).

Hopefully, with tourist season about to kick into high gear around here, this will mark the start of bigger, more consistent orders from them.

Mine:

The moment the covered wagon drew into the courtyard I knew what had happened. The multiple arrows protruding from the stretched canvas, the downtrodden driver and guard, the way the horses stepped nervously.

I took a deep breath and moved to meet them.

"Welcome to -"

"There must have been twenty of them!" the driver cried out, the fear still gripping his throat making his words difficult to understand.

"Twenty?" the guard gave his companion a disgusted look before turning to face me. "Fifty, at least. Maybe even a hundred."

"Ambushed in the forest?" I asked the question only as a formality. The man never launched an attack elsewhere.

"With all those trees and bushes there might have been two hundred of 'em! We didn't stand a chance!"

It was possible, I suppose, that there had actually been that many. Unlikely, but possible. In the end, though, it wouldn't matter how many men Robin Hood had brought with him. Prince... King John would take out his anger and frustration on the poor sods who had allowed his gold to be stolen away from him.