Almost out of the 20,000s

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29,408 / 50,000 (58.8%)

Backstory: Robin has been captured and tortured by the Sheriff. The merry men have freed him, but will Scarlet and Little John have kept him isolated while he heals. Some of the men have thought him dead, so Robin puts in an appearance to quell the rumors.


When Little John brought him to the clearing, Robin released his hold. He had only needed to steady himself a few times. The walk had exhausted him, but his heart was glad within him to see so many of his men gathered and awaiting.

As he walked to his seat beneath the Great Oak, a cheer rose, resounding through the forest and echoing over the water. Little John smiled at him and Will stood by to help him sit.

Robin, although on the dregs of his strength and aching, smiled. The reception gratified him. When the cheering died down, he held up a hand for silence.

"Men of Sherwood!” he began and coughed. More loudly, his voice growing stronger on each word, he tried again, “Men of Sherwood! Word has reached me that you lose faith, but I didn't believe it. And rightly, I see now.”
The men stirred and he went on. “Once we gathered here and vowed to join together and fight for what is right. To oppose tyranny. To protect our lands and families from being bled dry. We swore an oath with our very lives that we'd never give up. Never lose hope. Not while we live. We still live!”

The men cheered, raggedly at first and then more strongly. Someone in the back—Robin always suspect Will of planting him—yelled “We still live!”

The crowd took it up. “We still live! We still live!”

Robin surreptitiously used Little John to help him stand. The big man put him on his feet as if it were nothing. He held up his hand for silence again.

"Let us renew that oath, my Merry Men. For we are needed now, more than ever before, with King John in our very land.”

"And I say we take him! Him and his poxy sheriff! Drag 'em out of that rat-hole castle and hang them as high as they would hang us,” yelled a voice from the back.

Murmurs of agreement ran through the men, growing to a groundswell of nods and a chorus of “ayes.”

Robin held up a hand for silence but the men ignored it. The noise grew until some of the hotter heads among them were ready to storm the gates that instant.

"Silence!” Little John bellowed and leaves and broken limbs rained out of nearby trees.

In the wake of the roar, Robin held up his hand again. “First our oath, then we decide how best to carry it out together. Kneel, men of Sherwood.”

Little John helped ease Robin to his own knees and knelt beside him. Will, hovering like a hen with one chick, knelt at his other side.

Robin raised both hands, almost like a priest giving a blessing. “Do you, free men of England swear to take from the rich only to give to the poor? To feed the hungry, and to clothe the poor? To shelter the homeless, to protect all women, noble or common? To fight loyally to the death for our people and country? If so, answer aye!”

The “aye” was a roar louder than Little John's, coming as it did from seventy-score throats of stout Englishmen and true.