Fan Fiction - Coming of Age

 This is a bit of non-canon fanfiction I wrote and posted, via Goggle docs, on the Discord server for a podcast my two younger kids are doing with friends/ spouses.  It's a Disney-Inspired campaign-style game that's been going since 2020, and you can find it on Spotify under 'The Keys to the Kingdom'.  I need to delete the Google docs file...storage issues, LOL  So, as this is the very reason I started this blog, I'm posting it here and will replace the link on the Discord.  For those interested, you should listen all the way through what has become a rather infamous Episode 7 to avoid spoilers..  And, yes, my Discord nickname is 'The Momliest'....

COMING OF AGE

By The Momliest

It was a warm, dusty fall afternoon.  A few lazy bees buzzed about in the woods on the northern edge of the Forgotten Swamp, as a small pack of woozles ambled along the road, heading west.  In the shadows under a holly bush, a pair of  brown eyes warily watched until the woozles had disappeared.  Once the troop was well out of sight, there was a nearly imperceptible rustle as a small she-mouse stepped out onto the verge.  She was dressed in green and gray and blended into the vegetation so well that only one who knew where she stood would note her against the background.  Dusty and travel stained, she had a stout pack on her back and a large needle in a sheath like a dagger.  She stood for a moment, frowning at the western road. “Woozles!”  she muttered to herself.  “What are they doing this far east?  They should be hovering around the Hundred Acre Wood…”  She shook her head.  Whatever brought them so far from their home territory, it couldn’t be good for anyone.  She looked up the road to the east, which she had planned to travel.  However, if there were hostile bands roving the roads so openly, perhaps it would be better to stay off of them.  She squinted at the sun and looked around to get her bearings.  She could probably shorten her journey by a good bit if she headed northeast cross country instead of going around the road anyway.  She sighed, hitched up her backpack, and struck out under the trees.

It was a good day for hiking, and she reminded herself she might as well enjoy the walk.  Not like it wasn’t the umpteenth day of walking.   She was adjusted to it, but it had been a struggle the first few days.  She didn’t have to mind herself quite so much now; unlikely that anyone would recognize her this far from Cinderellasburg.  In the beginning she had to make sure no one questioned why one of the royal family retainers would be seemingly abandoning her post with the princess.  But the she-mouse was on a quest, and the fewer who knew, the better.  The day wore on as she trudged through the underbrush that would have seriously slowed down a larger traveler, but she simply slid under and between brambles and tangles with scarcely a break in her stride, climbing a bit of a hill that she believed should be due east of her destination.

The woods were alive with the sounds of birds chirping and other small creatures snagging the nuts and seeds that would hold them over the coming winter.  She heard a pair of squirrels arguing over a nut stash; apparently, they’d both been stashing walnuts in the same knothole.  She chuckled to herself, then stopped at the sound of children’s voices.  This was too deep in the woods for kids; especially kids who sounded as stressed as those kids.  She turned and made her way towards the voices.

“….and I’m telling you, Skippy, we have already waited longer than we were supposed to!  Something’s happened and we need to go home!  That’s orders!”

“Yes!  Of COURSE something happened or they’d be here by now!  Or have had someone fetch us!  They need our help!”

The she-mouse approached a small clearing near the top of the hill.  Three young rabbits and a young tortoise were hunched near the remains of a very small fire, under a sketchy shelter made of twigs and leaves but well-hidden on the near side of the clearing.  She stopped just short of stepping into the open, quietly set her pack on the ground and listened, trying to piece together what was going on.

“I think….” The tortoise began, but was cut off by the young male rabbit, who had a green peaked cap and looked to just a bit younger than the oldest rabbit, a female.

“We need to DO something!”  he insisted.  At this point, the mouse noted that all the kids were armed…bows, arrows, short swords.  And not toys…they were real weapons.  The mouse raised her eyebrows and looked at the kids again, taking measure.

The oldest rabbit crossed her arms.  “Skippy, you KNOW what we’re supposed to do!  Wait two days at the rendezvous point and, if we hear nothing, go home!  It’s been three days, so we are already in trouble!”

“I think….” The tortoise started again, but this time the youngest rabbit interrupted. 

“I’m scared!  Robin has never been this late before, not without some kind of word!  Sis, what if something happened to him?”

The girl rabbit turned and picked up the little one. “Robin always finds a way out of trouble!  You know that!”  She looked at the other two.  “Clearly, something happened that he had to take care of and there hasn’t been a way to let us know.  So we need to go home so he will know where to find us once he takes care of whatever it is that has him so busy.”

The one she called Skippy sighed and looked at the ground. “I don’t want to leave without knowing what happened.”

‘I think….’ The tortoise began again, and this time the others looked at him. 

‘What do you think, Toby?” Sis asked.

“I think maybe we should find out if she has a message for us.” Toby said, pointing at the she-mouse.   The others looked at the place the tortoise indicated.

By this time, the she-mouse had concluded that the kids were not a danger to her, so she took a deep breath and stepped into view.  “You are an observant one, aren’t you, Toby?”  She commented, looking at the tortoise with a smile.  Toby grinned and pulled his head slightly into his shell.  The rabbits looked at her agape, not sure what to make of her.  Skippy pulled his short sword and jumped in front of the other two.

“Who are you and what do you want?  Do you have a message from Robin?”  He demanded.

The she-mouse laughed gently and raised her paw hands.  “Oh, I’m no enemy to you,” she said in a soothing tone.  “I ‘m just a traveler, wondering why children would be left so far in the woods, and if I could help.  But I’m afraid I don’t know any Robin, and I don’t have any messages for you.  But,” and here she grew concerned, “there are woozles in the area, so you need to be extra cautious.  They’re sly ones…and who knows what would happen if they found you.”

The kids reacted as she expected, “Woozles!  What are woozles doing here?”  “I’m not afraid of woozles!”  “Really?  Where?”

She waved her paw hands for quiet.  “I saw them earlier today, just north of the Forgotten Swamp.  They were headed west, away from us, but there were quite a few and if those were here there could be others…up to no good, all of them, I’ll warrant.”

The kids looked at each other.  “That’s the way we need to go to go home.”  Toby observed.  Sis nodded solemnly.

“Where’s home?”  The she-mouse queried.  Then, their green garb and weapons suddenly clicked and she followed her own question with “Sherwood Forest, I’ll guess?”

The kids nodded, so she asked one more question.  “And Robin is…Robin Hood?”  The pieces were falling into place.  Robin Hood was known to mentor kids; these were no doubt some of his current trainees.  And something had gone amiss somehow.

Once more, the kids nodded.  “We were supposed to rendezvous here.  But he and Little John have not come… and we’ve waited a whole extra day.”  Sis explained.

"Ah, that’s a tough spot.” The she-mouse commiserated. “Do you know where he was coming from?”

“Oh, yeah.”  Skippy piped up.  “We were all together just outside of King George Town…well, sort of together.  Robin and Little John were ahead of us.  Robin whistled the danger signal, which means go to the rendezvous point so we hightailed it out of there and came here, which is where he’d said to meet up.  But we haven’t heard anything since then.”

 The she-mouse pondered a bit.  “Well, you really only have one choice.  Sis is right.  You need to back to Sherwood Forest.  Robin told you to wait two days…after that, he’s not going to come here at all.  Or even send someone here because…you are not supposed to be here.  Staying here will only cause problems.  He might even be on his way back to Sherwood Forest from another route.”

Skippy sighed and looked at his feet.  Then his brow furrowed and he pursed his lips.   “You’re right.  Staying an extra day has messed us up.”  He looked at Sis.  “I’m sorry;   I should have listened to you when you said we should leave yesterday.”

But the she-mouse was thinking about the woozles again.  “How far have you kids hiked on your own?  It’s a long way to Sherwood Forest.  At least a week, even if you push hard.”

The kids looked at each other, and Toby spoke up. “Um, we’ve gone a couple of days on our own, that’s all”. 

“But we could do it!”  Skippy piped up.  ‘It’s not different…just longer.”

The she mouse smiled.  “I don’t doubt you could do it.  But I am worried about the woozles.  There’s more of them than there are of you.  You might not meet up with them…but you might.”

Sis sighed.  ‘We know they’re out there.  We can keep to the woods; we’ve lots of hidden camps set up.  So long as we keep a keen watch, we’ll be fine.  It’ll just take longer.”

The she-mouse smiled at Sis’s confidence.  She honestly did not doubt that the kids could handle it on their own; they had a scrappy determination about them that she could identify with.  She had considered accompanying them back to Sherwood herself, even though it would severely impact her own mission to King George Town…which was so close.  But they didn’t need her.  She looked at Toby.  “Put Toby on watch.  He won’t miss anything.”

Toby smiled at her shyly. “I won’t.”  He stated.  It was a promise.

“Good.”  She looked at them all.  “I’m actually going to King George Town.  I will keep an eye out for Robin and if I get a chance, I’ll tell him I saw you and you were bound for Sherwood.”

The kids were already gathering their gear in preparation to move out, but Sis stopped.  “Oh, thanks so much.  Can I ask your name?”

“I’m Cleo,”  the she-mouse replied, picking up her own gear.  “I do hope we meet again sometime.”

“Us, too!”  The kids all spoke for each other.  Cleo laughed as they filed out of the clearing into the woods.

Remarkable kids.  She hoped she would get to hear the story of their journey someday.