"Pass me that apple."
Tooke threw the fruit hard, which Robin caught skilfully at the end of his sword - it burst open, showering them in a golden spangling light.
"Why could you have not used those tricks when we needed them?"
"I could not."
"But why?"
Robin appeared to be genuinely mournful and his youthful composure seemed to ague. He looked grimly at the ground and then back at Tooke who was waiting for an answer.
"If the Fey had license over the affairs of Men, they would run this world outright. I can solve a problem here and there individually, but I cannot affect history, for my own world would crumble with such an effort.
"Unlike men we know exactly our borders of what we can and cannot do. Our instincts are sharp to this; our faculties know the cosmic limits of our racial interactions...
"I have a history with you, but there is only so much that I can ever manifest - even to save a brother for whom I am most cherished of."
"I now know this well." Tooke said - understanding that in the world of Men there was only so much that the Holy could do on behalf of the rest - and if it were otherwise the world's salvation would be guaranteed, were it not so compromised then by the few.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
"If you cut me do I not bleed?"
Robin took the end of the sword to make a point and sliced himself over the arm. Tooke was horrified.
"Ha!" exclaimed Puck flamboyantly ... "Oh no! Fancy that! I do not!"
"Sometimes I forget that I am not nearly the same as you" Friar Tooke conceded. He was a man of moderate composure whose thinking was so sedate it rarely inflamed with emotion of any kind. But his friend could vex him so.
Robin was just trying to make merry - disposing of the fact that Tooke's chapter had just left him and that the brethren had reentered the world for good.
Puck was continually showing him the incomprehensible - and was so uncanny that Tooke could not help but be disturbed on so many levels.
Robin, on the other hand, was beginning to feel the outcast that he was - and had only ever sought to impress his close friend - not to frighten.
Coming out of the woods and into the realm of men was never easy for him - he was sensitive to those things that they could never really understand.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
The skies were overcast and threatening again. The chill in the air had a bite that nipped the ears, and his fellow monks were all losing weight - despite of the thick clots of crème they had been eating.
Ever since their torment, nigh after the Sheriff had bemused himself with his bilious comments whilst restraining them, the men had been downcast and believing themselves to have failed for becoming a'feared. Added to that was their survivors guilt from the battle; for all of them had brothers and fathers that had died that very day and it had only been the robes that had kept them from being cut down also.
They did not feel like men, and nor did they feel holy. This was a low period for them all.
"You must know that you are nit-picking about the crème" remarked Robin in his most tedious voice - what he meant to be saying was that this was the least of their troubles.
"I do know" the Monk replied wearily ... "but it fills in a day. There is nothing for us to do out here in hiding and the brothers are getting tired of it just praying all the time. I fear that their hearts are not attached to their contemplations anymore."
"You should let them go", Robin said unexpectedly. "The villages are in need of men - their own families are calling for ploughmen and fathers to be. Perhaps you should release them of their vows."
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
"Do you call that cream?"
"Yes. The lumps are all the more fancy."
"That is foreigner's crème not Anglaise cream."
"'Tis a marvel, I know."
Friar Tooke grunted, he liked his cream to be straight off the top and not diddled with - the panjacks were better rustic than fancy. This was not a good omen to begin the day.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
Brother Tooke read his expression as consent and said:
"It is with love that I say this to you Brother." And then he backed up a few paces, rolled his baggy sleeves up to the elbows and ran powerfully towards Robin ending with a head butt to the chest - which was just enough to make him buckle. He then lifted him high, heaved him over his shoulder, running fast the fifteen paces towards the river, which lay, not far beside them.
"In the Name of the Son, The Father, and the all-pervading most Holy Ghost" he threw Robin in, jumped on him, dragging him down beneath the muddy water.
"Welcome! To the Order of Man and the Benevolence of the Christhood and its sanctity within our blessed Church!"
"Well, glad I am that that dialogue is now over" Robin said, caught by the humor of it, and that he had in fact, not dissolved in body or soul. He knew also that the monk never really did anything for mirth alone - Tooke was a practical man spiritually and as far as he was concerned, everything had its purpose, and that purpose was always good.
Drying off on the grassy banks Robin took a flying leap at Brother Tooke, hurling him back into the river again.
"It is only just my friend, that I should baptise thee!" he shouted as he had thrown him into the water's arms - narrowly missing the bulging boulders besides.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
"So what is it that concerns you boy?"
Robin could not find the words - which was very unusual for him.
"This is personal and private to me alone ... I am not of your ways, nor need to be."
"But what harm can come of it I say? That is of course,” he added with a smile, "if there is a soul in there to be saved."
"Well thank God you be smiling. Had it not occurred to his holy-ness that you might just dissolve me altogether with your Christ-shone magicks?"
The monk would not have this. Tooke's smiling eyes did their best to pierce Robin's own, with meaning.
"Under God, you and I are the same with spirit, and with His Love. I do not doubt it and neither should you."
"If that be true then", returned Robin, "Why the need for baptism then? I still can't grasp your enchantments!"
"There are many paths and although not a shortcut, it is at the very least, a straightforward one. I sit with your Elvin Council, why then can you not indulge me with this one ask?"
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
As the figures dropped away, the crowd was clearing; it became apparent that there was someone standing central to them after all.
This figure was one of light also, indicating that his ghost must have already dissolved ... it stood very tall and seemed different to the other knights and soldiers surrounding him.
He held a pole that bore a shining silk cloth draped from it - and his face was covered with a golden helmet. People all around him knelt and bowed their heads - as though they thought somehow that it was he who had delivered them. It seemed that the battle was over, and peace had ever so gladly resumed.
Cheering began and grew louder very quickly. He had taken his helmet from his head and knelt also alongside the many who had remained.
"Strueth!" said Bart so loudly everyone jumped a little - "is that Brogan down there?"
Marley looked hard - but it was difficult to see in any great detail - but yes, the one central to the mob, now wearing a crown, did bear a remarkable resemblance to Brogan oddly enough.
-Gabriel Brunsdon, Puck in Hell, Azlander Series
