Chapter I
Johang Ferret lived in the middle of Nottingham. He was a slave of his Majesty Prince John, being the Royal wall builder and brick layer. He had been poorly paid for his work, ever since the former monarch, King Richard, left the throne.
His home was a small hut made of twigs, mud and leaves, and he occupied it along with his wife Haramin (who was a serving maid in the royal household) and their small daugher Armina. Armina was a rougish little jill ferret with a mind of her own, and she enjoyed setting traps and snares made from bits of string, wire and vine, to catch food when needed.
One bitter cold night in winter Johang was called out to mend a wall that showed signs of collapse. Haramin his wife had just finished tucking Armina into bed when there was a violent knocking at the front door of the house. Haramin looked up briefly and then turned back to her daughter.
" Stay here,' she ordered gently. She exit the one tiny bedroom the family shared, just as the front door was flung open, and in sauntered a overweight wolf, the well-known Sheriff of Nottingham. Haramin growled and bared her teeth at the unexpected visitor.
"What is it that you want?" she snapped.
The Sheriff drew back hastily, not answering. Instead he called over his shoulder, through the door, and five skinny wolf guards who were outside entered the house. They walked up to stand beside him and smiled horridly. The Sheriff grinned.
" You can't fight us all, ferret! " he cackled, spitting out the word ferret in scathing distaste.
" What's wrong mother?" asked Armina, who had heard her mother shouting at the large wolf and appeared in the bedroom door-frame.
"Armina, stay out of this,'' her mother replied, not even turning to look at her. Haramin questioned the Sheriff again, angrily stepping forward,
" What do you want?"
The Sheriff gave her a warning glance to stay back.
"We're looking for Johang. Your husband hasn't paid the taxes, so..."
Haramin's eyes were wide with anger.
" Out!" she cried." Out of my home!"
The Sheriff ran hurriedly out, his men close behind, yelping madly. But then he suddenly stopped and turned to shout at the mother ferret, " We'll be back! You have until tomorrow evening to be out of that hut and Nottingham, else you will be put in chains! "
Chapter II
Armina watched as her mother, running to and fro, wrapped bundles of clothes and food and placed them in a pile.
" Mother?" asked Armina.
Haramin turned to look at her daughter strangely for a second before she started packing again. Armina walked up to a small chest and opened it. Inside, bound up in a woolly fleece, was her father's prize possession. It was a old cudgel. Armina picked it up gently with both paws and gave it to her mother. Haramin sighed, and looked up at the beams that ran across the ceiling.
" This old thing has been here since your grandfather, and has been your father's for years," she smiled. " But now it must be put into good use."
The door of their house creaked open and Armina's father staggered in. Haramin rushed to him, suddenly sobbing. Armina, following behind her. Johang smiled as he hugged his wife and daughter. "Have you heard from the Sheriff? Is he asking for taxes?"
His wife sniffed and faced her husband, sadly wiping tears from her eyes. " No, and then, yes...Oh Johang, they want us to leave! Or we will be taken to jail!"
Johang looked away from Haramin and growled." It's those taxes! Tonight, we will leave for Sherwood Forest."
"Sherwood is a dangerous place to live," sighed Haramin." There have been stories of an outlaw who lives there, by the name of Robin Hood."
Robin Hood? thought Armina, Sounds like he steals, especially as his name has 'rob' in it.
"But there's no other place" said Johang to Haramin." Is everything packed?" Haramin nodded while Johang picked up their belongings. She gave him his cudgel and picked up Armina.
"Well,its time to go then,' she said.' Should we tell Fiske?" Fiske was Johang's close friend, who worked in Prince John's kitchens. Johang nodded." Yes."
Haramin picked up a satchel which contained two small loaves of bread. "We already did the packing before you came in." she said. Then she held Armina by the paw and opened the door just as a gust of wind swept towards their house. The two ferrets with their small kit, left the tumble-down house they had lived in for such a long time...
Chapter III
It took years until Armina wa grown up, and in Sherwood Forest things had changed. Now that Armina was grown she had left her parents to live in the wild by herself. Her parents hadn't wanted her to go, but she knew that if she stayed, her parents would share and feed her most of their food so that she would grow stronger, and not have much themselves.
Armina had told them not to worry and that she would visit them when she could. Her father and mother had given her the cudgel for protection which Armina refused until they had pushed her to take it.
Armina was now a loner and now a outlaw, because once when the peasants had run out of water in Nottingham, she had secretly gathered up some from the far stream which belonged to Prince John, and had given it to the poor.
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Armina strolled through the thick woodland. She stood on a large log which lay across river and kicked a large stone off it.
Suddenly she saw smoke in the distance. She hurried towards it, hoping that it was some band of animals cooking up something for she was really hungry. Armina approached the camp and then she realized a troop of wolf guards were in it.
Then she heard a squawking noise, and saw in a brass cage that hung from an old, a kestrel.
A sleek wolf guard poked the bird in the stomach and snorted." This 'ere bird is not getting any bigger," he growled.
The kestrel stuck her head through the bars and pinched his long snout. The wolf howled, holding his sore,red nose.
Armina giggled as she watched the smug bird. Then Armina stepped out of the bushes she had been hiding behind. She had wrapped her cloak around her tightly, and it had a hood to cover her face. As she stepped out she heard a gasp from the wolves.
" It's the Sheriff," Armina heard one of the wolves whisper. Armina (pretending to be the Sheriff of Nottingham), sat next to the fire and called one of the wolf guards to fetch her the kestrel.
"Where did you yeh get it?" she asked in a gruff voice. The wolf gaurds pointed to a trap lying in the grass."We caught it in our traps, sir."
Armina smiled under the hood."I see. May I take it?"
The wolf gaurds nodded proudly, as Armina walked behind a large bush with the bird cage and then broke into a run.
When Armina disappeared the real Sheriff of Nottingham arrived, and in his hand, a bag of money, which he had just taken from the poor. The wolf gaurds watched the Sheriff as he sat down on a chair made of branches. He looked at his guards gleeful faces and sprang up in his chair.
"Did you catch Robin Hood?"
"No, sir," said one of the gaurds." But did you enjoy the kestrel?"
The Sheriff looked as if he had never seen such a bird." What kestrel?" he asked.
"The one we gave you, sir," chorused the gaurds, then they saw the angry look on the Sheriff's face."Um...Is anything wrong, Sheriff?"
The Sheriff looked as if he was about to blow."You were tricked!!" he screamed."Tricked again!!"
The wolf gaurds looked at each other and drew back into their tents.
Chapter IV
Armina carried the bird cage to her home, which was just four sticks stuck into the ground in a square shape, and a rag covering for shelter. She sat on a chair carved out of a tree stump and started to undo the knots that held the cage door shut.
At last she had untied all the knots and she slowly opened the door to the cage. The kestrel pressed herself against the back of the cage squawking loudly. Armina talked softly to her until the bird calmed down.
"That's better, eh?" said Armina.Then she placed a bit of bread on her hand and offered it to the bird.
The kestrel took it gently with her talons, and then Armina gave the bird a second bit. The kestrel took that too, until even though the bird didn't know it - Armina did - the kestrel was soon sitting, perched upon Armina's arm pecking happily at the bread crumbs.
Armina laughed quietly and asked the bird what her name was. The kestral looked strangely at Armina, but told her that her name was Lona.
Armina smiled."Well Lona, how would you like to join me?"
Armina trained Lona to spy on Prince John and see how much higher the taxes were getting. Lona even went to check on Armina's parents.
One spring day Armina was toasting some left-over bread on a small fire, sitting on the broader end of her cudgel, when Lona flew right past her screeching with excitement. Lona turned back and landed beside Armina with a thump. "Oh, Armina!" she cried. " There's going to be a archery contest. The prize is a golden arrow!"
Armina gave a frown. "Sorry, Lona we're not good at any of those bow-and-arrow things."
Lona picked up a stick in her claws and started toasting another bit of bread.
"So? We could try," she said.
Armina nodded
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