Thomas and Will had to leave later in the day than usual to visit Matilda. They had been hunting together as a means of discussing the dreams. Thomas wanted Will's thoughts on what they meant. On this day, they had to hunt early and then leave so that the other's had fresh meat. Thomas thought that Will had the same gift of breaking down a moment like he had. The journey up to see Matilda was filled with them speculating on the meaning of the dreams.
Thomas knew that they held special meaning but it was Will that postulated, "maybe I'm the fox and you're the wolf?"
"Like, how?" Thomas asked. He noticed that Will had meticulously pulled the hood of his cowl so that it matched his father's.
"Mum says that her people believe that animals are guides in dreams," Will started. "What if it's us in the dreams? You are fearless, papa. Everyone knows that. They even call you the wolf."
Thomas thought about it. "You are very much like a fox, Will," he said. Thomas had witnessed his cunning ability when he deteriorated Sir Guy's questions about how he had gotten the book, into a make-believe scenario which credited a wily fox as the source of the book. Guy blew it off as a kid making up stories but Thomas saw the gears working. He knew that Will knew that Guy would blow it off. "Guy's a simpleton," Thomas let out, suddenly.
Will broke out into laughter. "Yeah," he giggled, "He isn't too smart."
They sung their song about the wolf and the fox. This time it took on a different meaning since they now believed the animals were merely representations of themselves.
They arrived at Castle Nottingham in the late afternoon. Matilda ran over to where they waited for her.
"Hello, Matty," Thomas said pleasantly.
Will ran up and hugged her, as usual. He liked that she smelled like flowers.
She had arranged for them to have a nice dinner and during the dinner she brought up the kings men occupying the family farm. "It came down from the king himself," she stated. "He gave his permission for them to use a farm in that area. It just happened to be yours."
Thomas wondered, "how did you find this out?"
She looked around, after Tuck had been removed from the abbey for distributing the property of the king, she had lost some sense of security. "They think that all maidens are just dumb, peasant girls," she said, "they let me into areas where reading and listening can get you all sorts of information. Even the lady has loose lips around her help."
Thomas realized that it didn't change the situation on the farm, just made it more apparent that they'd have to wait it all out.
Will, on the other hand, had noticed something, "If just one of those guys had said no or didn't follow orders, we would be working on the farm right now."
Thomas looked at Will. "What do you mean?"
Matilda explained it. Will and her had read about the chain of command and the use of messengers. All those gears working in tandem. If just one had delayed or didn't deliver their orders or just outright thought it was unfair or a bad idea and didn't come through, the machine would have fallen flat.
"How many people were involved in deciding that our farm was up for use?" Thomas asked.
Matilda took a moment then started at the top, "Well, first the king deems it okay and he sends his messenger to Sheriff de Lacy. Then the sheriff informed Sir Guy who in turn had his page deliver the order to Captain Teague. Six. Six people could have said no."
"But none of them after the king wouldn't," Thomas speculated, "they value might and think that that makes them right. They could have negotiated with the farmers but they would have felt like they were losing face."
Will added, "that would have meant certain death to any of them for treason."
Thomas looked over at Will, "you sure know an awful lot about this stuff."
Will smiled, "the book that they took back was about the royal history."
Matilda jumped. Will's mention of the book reminded her about something. "Tuck said that if you should want to read more," she started, "you should go here. He says it used to be a big old tree but a long time ago someone hollowed out the base and made it a home. It's not big but he has a handful of books he keeps there in secret."
She gave them a map. It lacked a proper drawing and instead listed markers to look for. Will looked at it once and then tore it up.
"What are you doing?" Matilda and Thomas both said in unison.
Will, with absolute precision, recited the contents of the map.
Matilda and Thomas looked at each other in shock. Neither of them knew he could do that.
Will smiled. "Is it really that surprising?" he asked.
Neither of them answered.
The sun was beginning to set and the ride home was long. They said goodbye to Matilda and climbed back into the wagon. Matilda noticed that it hadn't had any work done to it.
"I told you to get that old thing fixed," she groaned.
"If I came back to the farm suddenly, with a better wagon, the captain would want to know where I got the coin to do it," Thomas argued.
"So you left a bag of coins there for him to find?" she asked.
"No," Thomas said as he lifted the seat he was getting ready to sit on. Underneath was the bag of coins.
Matilda shook her head at the ingenious hiding place.
Will lifted his side and there was a knife and spare arrows.
Thomas and Will set off north. They immediately noticed a black column of smoke rising high into the dusky sky.
"Must be a big bonfire, papa," Will said.
"Yeah," Thomas agreed.
As the sun went down, they could see the horizon glowing just a bit, from the direction of the fire.
From the direction of their home.
Comics, "Alan Moore", "Captain America", "Robin Hood", "Ivanhoe", "Green Arrow", "Kevin Smith", "Tarzan",
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