A/N: Hello! I really wanted to do a Merlin/Robin Hood crossover, and I've finally done it! It's not finished, of course. I think this will be a multi-chapter story, but I'm not good at updating, so please bear with me.

This is basically about two legends - Merlin and Robin Hood - meeting each other. Unfortunately no Arthur in this, but we'll see if I get him into the story later on. I don't think so, though.

I hope you don't mind my awful writing. I just write and then I post it and then I see all the things I could've done better. But I hope you like it anyway.

Locksley is a beautiful village, thought Merlin as he walked into the village. He had heard very little about it before he got here, but he didn't think it would matter. It looked like a nice and peaceful place to live in for a while. The young sorcerer had asked King Arthur for a couple of weeks off, so that he could travel a little. Arthur had been slightly annoyed by the idea at first, but Gaius had persuaded him, saying that the young man should get some free time, and eventually he had let Merlin go on his trip. After all, he was going to come back.

Merlin heard horses behind him and turned around. Some men, probably guards, started riding around the village with one bag each. «Taxes!» one of them said loudly. In front of the guards rode a tough-looking man with dark hair and a tight black outfit. The villagers didn't look too happy about having to pay taxes, but no one would be happy about that, though.

One of the villagers refused to pay the taxes. «I will not give my money to you traitors!» said a man. Needless to say, this didn't make the guards very happy, nor the man who was apparently leading them. He slid down from his horse, looking the man in the eye and then looking at the man's hands. «These hands... They look like a good worker's hands. Do you want to keep your hands?» muttered the leader darkly. «Because if you don't pay your taxes, I don't think you should be allowed to keep them.»

Merlin sighed. Always with the bad first impression. First Camelot and now this. Well, it might have been worse for Camelot as he was going to live there and Uther had hunted down everyone who had magic.

"Are you going to cut someone's hand off because they won't pay taxes? I don't think that's a very nice thing to do," he said out loud before thinking. When the leader noticed him, he had an annoyed look on his face, and Merlin realized that it might not be the best idea to anger someone like that. Last time he tried to stop a bully from bullying, he had ended up in a cell and then the stocks. And he had only ended up in the stocks thanks to Gaius helping him. Gaius wasn't here.

"You had to open your big mouth, didn't you, Merlin..." he muttered to himself as the men surrounded him. These men wouldn't hesitate to kill him, it seemed.

"Now, who are you? I haven't seen you here before," said the leader with the tight outfit.

"I'm Merlin," replied the young sorcerer slowly.

"And you're new in town?" Merlin nodded in response. "So why in the world would you try to interfere with something that is not your business?"

"I'm awfully good at that," Merlin said. Had Arthur been here, he would probably have hit him for being so rude to a powerful man. And this powerful man was obviously not a good one.

The man rolled his eyes. "Kill him," he said like he was really bored with the whole thing.

Merlin was getting a little scared. After all, he was surrounded, and if it wasn't for his magic, he would never get out of it. But he didn't want to use his magic so freely just because he wasn't in Camelot.

But he was certainly not going to let these men kill him when he could do something about it.

Apparently, someone else was thinking the same thing, because an arrow shot into one of the guards and killed him. Soon, several more arrows were piercing other armors. "Hood," muttered the leader in a frustrated voice and tried to keep away from the arrows. Merlin didn't know who or what this "Hood" was, but he was definitely going to use the advantage to get out of this situation. He didn't even have to use magic as most of the guards were suddenly gone – either dead or running away.

Merlin ran out of the village, hearing the villagers yell and laugh. Some of them even applauded him, or maybe they were applauding "Hood".

As he was running away, more guards were coming after him. "Get the boy!" shouted the dark-haired leader.

"I'm not a boy, thank you very much," said Merlin to himself while trying to find a way out. Despite his comments, he found himself desperate for somewhere to go where he wouldn't be slaughtered. Suddenly a hand clasped his wrist and pulled him into the forest. Merlin didn't have any choice; he followed the man who had his wrist in a very tight grip.

Finally, they stopped, and the man let his wrist go. Now he had time to look at the man; he had brown hair, a forest green outfit – probably for being best camouflaged – and held a bow in his hand with arrows in a quiver over his shoulder. "You're lucky to be alive!" he said after taking a breath. He was grinning a little, though. "Angering Gisborne like that, you must be mad. I like you." Merlin laughed at this. So the dark-haired man was named Gisborne. Good to know.

"Who are you?" asked Merlin.

"I'm Robin Hood."