[Outlaws; Roe] Guess Who's Back?

[Carter]

Carter grinned as he took of his blindfold, and his eyes fell upon the outlaws camp. Will had already departed, and Carter shrugged, eager to get inside. The leaves beneath his feet crunched as he walked inside, not bothering to be discrete. As soon as Carter was inside, he put his hands on his hips, beaming at the Outlaws within. Much to his annoyance, none of them had noticed him coming in, and they all had their backs to him. Carter frowned. He had walked into camp so loudly, but still no-one noticed him.

He cleared his throat, and watched every outlaw spin around, some already getting their weapons out, some just looking very supprised. There was a moment of silence, and then Carter spoke. "Miss me?"

[Much]

Much was dumbfounded. He had turned around and expected to see Robin. He had been gone for quite a while, attending business of his own. It had been difficult without him, and as Much turned around to find it was not Robin, he was dissappointed. But that disappointment was quickly flushed away into total shock. Carter?! What on earth was he doing here? Much dropped the wooden spoon into the pot, and simply stood staring at him, his mouth wide open and his eyes bulging with supprise.

After this outburst of shock was over, Much sprinted up to Carter and leapt on top of him in a friendly embrace. "Carter!" he said beaming, whilst still hugging him. He withdrew after a few seconds, he had to kept some of his manlyness intact, and then shook Carter's hand. Of course he remembered Carter, and was happy to see him back in England.

[Roe]

Roe noted that although Will had agreed to take them to the camp, although blindfolded, that he could see many questions in his eyes, as the blindfolds were put on. The trip to the camp, although awkward, was a relatively short one, and the blindfolds came off. Roe noticed that when he took the blindfolds off, and his eyes re-adjusted to the light, since their eyes were at such close range that those questions, unspoken, remained. Roe found the entrance, from a craftsman's point of view to be absolutely ingenious, which he was about to remark to Will, wonderiong who had made it.

However, before he could Will was off in another direction, apparently searching for someone or something. Carter, on the other hand, rather boldly walked into the main area of the cam, and waiting several moments to be noticed, announced his presence. Roe, on the other hand, decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and hung well to the rear of Carter, undoubtedly wondering exactly what he had gotten himself into with this rash and rather brash Crusader.

It was obvious that Carter's arrival was a sudden surprise the way they were pulling out weapons as they turned around. Almost instinctively Roe reached back to begin pulling out his swords. Roe hoped that this would rapidly become a good surprise and not degenerate further, wishing that Will had stayed to make the introduction a bit smoother than this.

[Carter]

Carter grinned as he recieved and friendly hug from Much, and then recieved the vigorous handshake in the same jolly manner. Carter laughed to himself, looked at each of the outlaws in turn. But there was no Robin. He frowned slightly. He was happy to see the rest of the gang, but Robin was who he had really been looking for, as he was the one that needed to be told about Richard. Carter walked slightly further into the camp, and then impolitely sat down on one of the log chairs. "So how's everyone been?" he said grinning. He did not however wait for a reply from anyone, and simply said, "So where's Robin? Robbing from the rich and giving to the poor without you? he said, eyebrows raised.

Carter had completely forgotten about Roe, and had just noticed him standing awkwardly near the front of the camp. He gestured for Roe to enter further, and then said "Don't worry everyone, this is a friend." Carter smiled and patted the log stool next to him, gesturing for Roe to sit down.

[Roe]

Roe watched from a safe distance as Carter received a greeting from one of the outlaws. Fortunately, it appeared that carter was well-recognized, and welcomed, at least by one member of the group. However, he did not notice a mad rush of others. Was Robin of Locksley among them. Roe couldn't be sure, The one thing that he was sure of was that he shouldn't venture too far forward. As soon as Carter's first set of greetings were completed, he found himself a place to sit, without being , or asked for permission. Roe wondered how that was going to be received and interpreted. By Carter's next question he determined that Robin wasn't there right now.

Then Carter did something that Roe wasn't sure was the right time for. Roe never had liked the process of going through introductions.
Carter motioned to him to move farther into the camp, and Carter said, "Don't worry everyone, this is a friend." as he smiled and patted the log stool next to him, gesturing for Roe to sit down. Roe wasn't sure at all about this, but they had decided that Carter was the leader of this little expedition, and although he did it hesitantly, he moved to sit down a few feet from Carter, feeling a large set of different eyes giving him the once-over to determine if he was minimally trustworthy, to which Roe responded with a tired-sounding sigh.

[Allan A'Dale]

Allan's initial instinct upon seeing the two strangers was to reach for his sword, although he relaxed when he realised that Will was escorting them. The blonde one looked familiar, but he couldn't place the face until Much reacted. Carter, that was it, the crusader that had saved them in the desert. He knew that the Sheriff had sent Carter after Robin whilst he'd been working for Gisborne, but he still wasn't certain exactly what had transpired to persuade the man in front of him to switch sides.

He shuffled his feet awkwardly at Much's emotional outburst, and had a good look at the other one. He wasn't familiar at all. He waved his hand vaugely in the dark-haired strangers' direction. "Who's this then? We're making new friends left and right here. And how exactly do we know we can trust him?"

[Much]

Much eyed to stranger. He had not actually fully noticed him until Allan, and then Carter had brought him up. Much forced himself to calm down, and took a seat next to Allan.

"Yeah...who is this Carter? How can you possibly bring a stranger into the camp?" Much had a very sudden change of attitude, and had very rapidly gone from extremely happy, to extremely confused. He frowned in thought, his eyes still on the strange man. He seemed uncomfortable and tense. He better not try anything.

[Kate]

Kate stayed in the back ground her eyes fluttering between Carter Much Allan and Roe. Kate had heard Carters name dropped in conversation a couple of times since meeting the outlaws but had never paid very much attention. Now she felt very much out of place and not wanting to look like a fool fell back and sat on the edge of Muchs bunk. The awkward feeling of being the new member was not a feeling Kate enjoyed. The rest of them had been together for around two years and had been through deadly things together making them bond deeper than she could see.

Feeling like a stick in the mud Kate go to her feet and went to fill her wooden mug. A few yards away was a large bucket that sat directly under a patch in the tree over allowing rain to drip in to the bucket. Kate dove the mug in to the cold water and raised the water to her mouth not taking here eyes off the others.

[Carter]

Carter raised his hands in a gesture of surrender as a torrent of questions followed. "Woah woah woah!" he said with a grin. "Ok, first of all, it's alright, this guy's one of us! At least I hope he is. Carter thought, as he scratched his blond hair. "He has some confusing connection with...some people. So just leave him. Besides, he was blindfolded when Will took us to camp! In fact, we both were." said Carter under his breath. It was more than slightly embarrassing, being pulled along by a large vine through Sherwood Forest, not being able to see a thing.

Despite all of this, Carter was back in England for a reason. He had a message to deliver to Robin. And a message to Robin had a right to be told to his gang of outlaws. "Right, back to the actual reason I'm here." Carter mused with a raised eyebrow. He reached down and searched through the bag. He pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper. He smoothed it out best he could and then cleared his throat. "Ehem. I have here a message from King Richard." He paused for a moment, and looked around to see the other Outlaw's reactions.

[Allan A'Dale]

Allan snorted. "What are you waiting for, a fanfare? Let's hear it!" He couldn't stand being kept in suspense. What was the point?

[Roe]

It had been some time since Roe had felt this uncomfortable, this awkward, and this outnumbered. Even after Carter had identified him as a 'friend', it had not seemed to have much of an effect on any of hem that were grouped around him an Carter now. He did not see anyone that even bore the slightest trace of a resemblance to a Huntingdon, so he thought that Robin Hood, if he was the same person he thought he might be, wasn't even there. and the fellow that seemed to be the spokesman of the group didn't seem to have a lot of familiarity with Carter either. Roe thought that it would have been better if Will had stuck around, even though Roe didn't know how supportive he would have been.

The fellow who was doing all the talking didn't seem to think much of Roe's presence at all. "Who's this then? We're making new friends left and right here. And how exactly do we know we can trust him?" Momentarily their attention was diverted by Carter. He had once again vouched for him, but had not identified him by name. It did not seemed to have worked any better the second attempt than it had the first, so Carter had used his real reason for being there, the message from the King, to get their attention. It had apparently gotten the attention of the guy who was doing all of the talking; he sure seemed to be an impatient type.

"I may be speaking out of turn, but was your message for the whole group, Carter, or one person in particular. If it is for the whole group shouldn't you make sure that everyone is here that's supposed to hear it? Besides, I think, first, they are looking for a bit more explanation from me than just you saying that I'm a 'friend'. As Carter will tell you, sometimes I talk a bit too much, so feel free to cut me off when and if you desire. I suppose I should answer your question first, he said to Allan. My name is Robert, my friends such as they are," he said smiling in Carter's direction, "call me Roe. You can tell me yours only if you wish to, but it may make things easier than 'hey you'."

"I can't think of one thing thing to tell you why you should trust me. From what I've heard you believe in many of the things that I do. When Will crossed paths in the forest with Carter and I and agreed to take Carter to your camp, there was a lot of hesitation to bring me along. I even offered to urn around and go back to Locksley, but he decided if I was trustworthy enough for Carter, for the time being at least, I could come. We will see if that is good enough for you now."

"I won't go all through my family history, which Carter is probably saying thank you for," he said grinning once more in Carter's direction. "I was born into a noble family on an estate not far from Locksley. However, when I was quite young, my family lost everything, and both of my parents died. I had no brothers or sisters and I was taken in as a woard of another noble. I grew up on that estate and within the village of Locksley, and apprenticed to a local tradesman. When I was 17 I left for France and fought in Iberia and the Holy Land for 15 years as a crusader, eventually as a Frankish knight. I have only just returned, and Carter and I met when we ran into each other in Nottingham. After we got out of a scrape there I took him to my house in Locksley, and he indicating that he had a message from King Richard to deliver to Robin Hood, and I with my 12 years of 15 years out of date knowledge of Sherwood agreed to come with him and help him on his quest, if I could, to find Robin Hood's camp."

"Now, I've talked way too much, as usual. If you have some specific things that you want to know, feel free to ask. If you don't believe me I guess you can throw me out, although I might insist on trial by combat. Of course, though, the decision is yours to decide what's to be done with me. I think that you might want to decide on that before Carter reads the contents of his important message, though, don't you think?," and Roe took out a hunk of wood from his cloak, and one of his many hunting knives, and began to absent-mindedly whittle, while he waited on what would come next.

[Much]

Much listened to Roe's speech with, to be honest, little interest. And he thought he talked alot. Much was far to pre-occupied thinking about what Carter had previously said. There was news from King Richard. As soon as Roe had finished, Much pressed the matter further. "Carter....King Richard?" But then he remembered what Roe had previously said. "Hang on, Roe's right. We shoudl wait until Robin gets back." said Much seriously. That was Much. Forever loyal to Robin.

[Allan A'Dale]

"Oh, what?" Allan wheedled. "You're jokin' ain't you? We got to wait for his nibs to turn up before we get the juicy details? What's he doing? When's he due back?"

The idea of having to wait god knows how long for Robin to get back was less than appealing. He looked around for support and saw Kate sat in the corner looking dejected. He belatedly realised that she had no idea who either of these people were.

She was uncharacteristically quiet, sipping water and watching everyone carefully. Allan walked over to her and pointed at Carter.

"The blonde one's been fighting for the King in the Holy Land. He saved our bacon out there when we got strung out in the desert and left for dead. We can trust him, I think. Robin trusts him with his life. There's a bit more to it than that, but I won't bore you unless you're interested, and I don't know the whole of it myself. The other bloke...well, I s'pose you've guessed that we never met him before either. Seems to have been rehearsing his life story for a while though, eh?"

[Carter]

Carter rolled up the piece of paper in his hands and nodded."Perhaps you're right. he said, addressing both Roe and Much. "This news is meant for Robin. Besides I don't think I can be bothered to read it out again." he placed the letter scruffily back into his bag. "Can any of you guys even read?" he asked with a smirk. In those days, being able to read was a rarity, but Carter had been well educated and brought up well.

Roe had gone off on a tangent again. Carter sat, waiting impatiently for him to finish. He had heard Roe's life story way too often by now, and he seemed to be telling it to whoever he became acquainted with. He smiled at Carter several times in his story, and each time Carter nodded back.

Once Roe had finished, Carter noticed Allan walk over to a woman. Carter raised an eyebrow and eyed the woman disrespectfully. Who was she? "Ah? So you're a newbie hey?" he asked with a smirk. "You Djaq's replacement?" As Allan called him 'the blond one' Carter frowned. He did not find it particularly flattering that people often referred to him as 'blond'. He knew he was, but there was more to him than that. "You need to practice you're whispering Allan!" Carter said loudly. "The blond one can hear everything you're saying!"

[Roe]

Roe leaned back on his seat just taking in the various comments he had heard, some of them referring to him and some not. He understood that even wit a somewhat abbreviated account he had droned on way too much, and now committed himself to only giving limited answers to very specific questions. That would especially be the case since no one her trusted him, an would be unlikely to for some time. Outlaws were n't the most trusting lot, otherwise it was likely that they would all be dead by now.

Roe understood that things would be easier when he knew everyone's name The person who had greeted Carter seemed quite familiar for some reason, but Roe couldn't quite pit his finger on it. This other one, who did almost as much talking as Roe, seemed to be quite full of himself, he thought to himself. He made a mental note to himself that this was the one he trusted least, even though he was a quite likeable sort. "Carter, I don't think he much cares who hears him and who does not .... and whoever you are .... I guess practice makes perfect .... whether its whispering or life stories," he said with the slightest of smiles as he continued cutting into the wood with small strokes of his knife.