Young Marian's Adventures in Sherwood Forest by Stephen Mooser

Author:Stephen Mooser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Meadowbrook

CHAPTER NINE

NIGHT

Marian and Robin couldn’t afford to spend much time congratulating themselves on their latest escape. They may have been momentarily free of the Sheriff, but already the sun was setting and the world about them was quickly dimming. With night would come the cold—and the wolves. Nothing around them looked familiar. Anything could be behind the next tree, around the bend, or over the next rise.

They ran on for another hour in the growing darkness, searching for the road home. But in the end they were no closer to escape. In the distance an owl’s hoot was answered by another. Then a wolf started up, and before long, a chorus of hoots and howls filled the woods, frightening the creatures of Sherwood Forest, Robin and Marian included.

Exhausted, they paused for a moment on the crest of a little hill. Before them lay a shallow valley, and beyond that, dimly lit by the rising moon, the rocky face of a cliff.

“We can’t keep running,” said Robin. Despite a chill in the air, he was drenched in sweat. “And we can’t stay put either.”

“That doesn’t leave us many choices,” said Marian.

“My father is going to be worried sick. We promised to be home by dark.”

“And we would have been, too, if it hadn’t been for the Sheriff,” said Marian. “We’ll explain everything when we get back. I’m sure he’ll understand.”

“I hope so,” said Robin. He looked up into the branches of a big oak. “Maybe we can spend the night in a tree.”

Marian squinted across the valley. “I’ve got another idea. There’s a cave cut into that cliff over there. See it?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“We’d be safer there than in a tree.”

“You’re probably right,” said Robin. “Unless it’s full of wolves.”

Marian cocked an ear and listened.

“The wolves are far away, hunting deer, or maybe even the Sheriff.” She motioned with her hand. “Follow me.”

With the full moon to guide their way, Robin and Marian scrambled down a slope and cut across the little valley to where a jagged cave entrance had been punched into the rock as if by a giant fist.

“I wish I’d brought my bow,” whispered Robin as they crept up to the entrance on their hands and knees. “I always feel better about walking into a strange place when there’s an arrow strung into my bow.”

Marian raised a hand to quiet her friend, then poked her head into the cave. “I don’t see anything,” she whispered. “I’m going in.”

Robin glanced back at the forest, then followed her inside, still on hands and knees.

Silently they shuffled forward across a floor of hard-packed dirt punctuated by rough stones. A heavy scent of old smoke hung in the air, telling them there had been a fire in the cave once. That meant there were probably no wolves lurking in the shadows, but there could be humans, a far more dangerous foe.

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this place,” said Robin.

Marian’s eyes could barely make out the rocky walls, a pile of twigs and branches, as well as the remains of a fire pit.

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