A/N: Thanks to everyone for reading this! I didn't think this would be popular at all. Please follow, favorite, and review. I will be posting tomorrow but not at all next week and weekend because I will be out of town, unless I get 3 reviews. Unfortunately I do not own BBC Robin Hood, its plots, and characters, except Alex and the original story line following her. Thank you!
Chapter 3
The outlaws stared at the scene before them. The witch was surrounded by guards, despite her best efforts to get away, and was being arrested. They could clearly hear her try to offer information on their fearless and noble leader, Robin.
"Master" Much whispered to Robin, "We cannot help her. She is giving information about you to the Sheriff. She is no friend to us."
"Much, she is terrified. Can't you see her eyes? Those are the eyes of someone whose world has been destroyed. She is simply trying to survive. I think she understands the world we live in now. Besides, if she was witch, she would have easily escaped and fled by now. We are helping her because that is what we do. Help the helpless, defend the defenseless, provide for the poor." Robin stated, internally proud at his impromptu mission statement.
The rest of the outlaws grumbled and sighed in frustration. Will, Allan, Much, and especially Little John were sure that she was a witch, a follower of the devil. Djaq didn't know what to make of the girl, but she was sure she wasn't from here despite her claims, and she was sure that the girl would return to reason once talked to. Robin knew that this girl was innocent and it was his duty to help her be free of her delusions. He had seen that look of fear in men's eyes in the Holy Land before. It was a look of fear of the unknown and confusion. The men he fought with always had that looked when they first arrived, as did he and Much, though Much didn't pay much attention to it. The crusaders always though what it would be like, but all the stories were just lies and hearsay, making the new recruits insecure and anxious.
They watched the girl be hauled away by Guy and into the dungeons where she would no doubt be personally interrogated by the Sheriff about her strangeness, outsiderness, and her knowledge of Robin Hood. Everyone arrested these days would be asked if they knew about Robin Hood and his gang. It was the Sheriff's lame attempt to see if he could come across any extra information, but Robin was very careful. She would be burned at the stake after questioning for a crime she did not commit. Robin just hoped that the girl would be smart enough to take her time till they rescued her.
Robin thought about what to do. He smiled once he came up with the perfect plan. "Listen, I have a plan…"
Alex waited in her cell thinking of what to do. She was disgusted by the conditions. Was it not yesterday she was living in a nice dorm with electricity and wifi and heating and overall cleanliness? "No," she thought sadly, "It is in 800 years." The dungeons smelled of every human bodily fluid possible, and that did include the metallic smell of blood. They were dark and dank; the floors were covered with filth and the fore mentioned bodily fluids, despite the lame attempt to cover it in stray hay. The other prisoners screamed and yelled at no one in particular, unless the leering jailer or a masked and armed guard walked by. There also was the occasional painful cry from some poor person being tortured to the point of death. When the leather clad man dragged her in the dungeon, all of the criminals jeered and yelled and whistled at her and her exposed legs, while reaching out trying to achieve some touching of the scared, young girl. "This must be the equivalent of walking in here with a loin cloth" she thought to herself trying not to be groped by the outstretched hands from the cells.
The dark man tossed her into her own private cell, a small sign of mercy, after removing the iron cuffs on her wrists, muttering that he would be back soon with the Sheriff. Alex stood up rubbing her wrists from the irritation the clunky chains gave her. She figured that her hands remained free because she posed no real threat to anyone here. They most likely though she needed a staff or potion do real damage. "What insular, ridiculous people." she grumbled to herself. Soon, the majority of the lusty yells directed at her ceased, and she was left by herself, with some the neighboring cell mates looking at her. One directed a crude comment at her, but she snipped back a harsh insult with very colorful language about how he would most likely hang no matter the crime because he was not a real man in the eyes of the law and God, causing everyone in the dungeon to shut up.
Alex paced around her cell in the more silent atmosphere of desperation and death. She needed to get a story. She had ruined her chance of ever getting help from the famous, heroic outlaw and had to fend for herself. She couldn't say she was from the future. She had a small recollection of this time from her history class from sixth form. King Richard was fighting in the crusades in the East and Prince John wanted the throne (or really just money and power, as her father lectured her about history as he often did). She knew at some point Richard the Lionheart got kidnapped and ransomed, and the price was extremely high and ridiculous. There was a lot of taxation to support the war and the legend of Robin Hood was invented to give hope, or at least historians thought it was invented. Clearly whenever Alex was, Robin Hood was a real person and him and his band of Merry Men helped people and fought against the tyrant known as Sheriff Vaisey.
Alex pondered about what to say as she sat in the dark, damp cell. She decided it would be best to say she was from another European country and she was visiting relatives in Nottingham. If the Sheriff asked about her relatives, she would said that she had just received word that they died of a fever or something like that. And as for her knowledge about Robin Hood, she would say that she had heard of the outlaw and she would just give a brief explanation of the story and its importance of giving hope and all that. Robin and his gang robbed the rich gave to the poor, they hung out in the forest, and Robin was in love with a lady in the castle, if she had to give more information. She figured that if there was a Maid Marian, she wouldn't appreciate some strange, dark magic girl to say she was hanging out ad flirting with Robin Hood, so she would just say Ronin had eyes for someone if necessary and that was all she knew. As she though of a basic story, the leather clad man and a shorter bald man, she presumed was the Sheriff, with ornate clothes approached her cell.
"I see that you have caught a witch Gisbourne. Good job. I have been thinking about burning one for some time now." the Sheriff said to the leather clad man.
Alex stood up and giving her best face said, "With all due respect, sir or milord or whatever, why I am being treated as a common criminal? Actually less than that. Do I get no trial? Defense? You don't even know my name. This is a violation of my human rights. I demand to be released and have my charges read out and go to a proper trial with a fair judge."
"Oh la di da da. She is a tough one, isn't she Gisbourne? Well regarding your trail, missy, its a no. There is a war and people want to watch a witch burn." the Sheriff smiled.
"This is positively barbaric. Have you never been to my country? This is the typical attire. My country is a very civilized place and I demand that I speak with the ambassador. I am no such thing as a witch." Alex retorted trying to pass off as shocked and appalled.
"And what country is that?" the Sheriff asked.
"... Denmark" Alex replied cursing herself for not thinking of a better country that would be so far away it was plausible.
"Is that true? Do I care? A clue: no."
"Milord, she claims to know things about Robin Hood and she had some strange objects on her person at the time of her arrest." Gisbourne said handing the Sheriff her bag with her jacket and phone.
"My, my. What a curious object?" the Sheriff said holding her mobile upside down, staring at it with confusion and awe. He dangled it in front of her, taunting her, and then clutched it in his cold, firm grasp and said, "But first, your name, and then Hood. What do you know of him?"
Alex paced around her cell, "The name is Alex; I am surprised you care about that at all. And ya know, does it matter? You'll never catch him. That's what I know about him. He may be a person to you, but he's a name to me. A name that will last centuries, a millennia," she smirked staring at the men and approaching them from behind her cell bars, "It gives hope to people in the most dire circumstances. He's a story, legend, song, archetype. You could catch Robin Hood and kill him, but his name will live on. And that name will cause another like him to rise and help fight your injustice. And then another, and another, until justice is a staple in every society and civilization in the world, which probably won't actually happen for a very very long time. So in a way you win a little bit with corruption being a constant thing." She crossed her arms and tried, and emphasis on tried, to seem strong and intimidating, but then squealed and jumped upat the sight of a rat by her cell as it scampered by. The authoritative and sinister men laughed at her distress and disgust. She was not going to be able to demand her release at all.
The Sheriff frowned, "Not very helpful then. She is philosophical, if very wimpy, though. Maybe we will get some inspiring last words. Now what is this?" he said holding her phone and dangling it in front of her once again.
Alex then thought of the perfect plan. She would get her mobile and play some loud, heavy metal music and say it was the devil and make them free her. She replied this time with a real confidence, but fake insecurity, "Its just a good luck charm. Nothing important or magical. Just like me, ha." she chuckled nervously, "I would really appreciate you letting me go. Or at least give it to me as a comforting thing before I am wrongly condemned to a horrible, heinous death." The Sheriff looked at her with her scared, but strong blue eyes staring back, and then looked at her phone; he shook his head grinning.
"Do I look like an idiot? A clue: no. You'll probably use your magic with this and escape." She groaned at glared at him for guessing her plan as he gave the phone to Gasbourne and told him to put with her effects, and order to burn it along with her. He left yelling to his man that her execution would be in one short hour.
Alex yelled at the retreating man, " I can't believe you actually buy into that magic crap! Ya know, if I had magic I would have turned ya into the freakin' toad you are!" Alex shook the cell bars and kicked them angrily. She walked back to the far wall, then leaned against the wall, sighing and shaking frightened. Gisbourne studied the girl, knowing she was not as harmful and not a real witch after her interrogation, only a strange girl, probably really from a far away place despite her obvious lies; but he had to follow orders, so he left her in the dark cell awaiting her death, as he did with most of the criminals he caught.
Alex slid down the wall and sat against it, trying to find her breathe. She knew she was having a small anxiety attack. She was hundreds of miles from home, but reminded herself that she was actually hundreds of years from home. She tried to breath and not cry. She would not be so weak in her last moments. She silently sang one of favorite sad songs, and another, and another, and another. Eventually her jailer walked by, and ashamed, she begged him to give her the journal she kept. After yelling and begging, he finally did if she promised to shut up. She then spent what she though was the last hour of her life humming sad songs and writing about how she discovered her short lived adventure and a goodbye note to everyone, though they would not get it for a few hundred years.
As she finished writing her last goodbye, the jailer unlocked her cell with Gisbourne by his side and she was being escorted to what would be her painful death.
The outlaws could see the girl being escorted by Gisbourne holding her bag to the center of Nottingham town where they had prepared a stake with a huge amount of fire wood beneath it for the witch burning. The girl momentarily stopped when they were in the open in front of the stake and looked around for anything to tell her it was all just a horrible nightmare, but she closed her eyes holding back her tears and continued on bravely. Gisbourne threw up bag into the kindling stating that the tools of the witch needed to be burned as well. He shoved her to a guard who then took her to the stake and tied her against to the wooden stake tightly and muttering an insult about black magic. The girl opened her eyes and looked ahead bravely at the Sheriff as he unrolled the scroll with her "crimes" against the king and country.
As the Sheriff was reading and talking about how witches were a plague while adding that she helped Hood and the peasants should not accept him and such, the outlaws were getting in place for the reluctant rescue. The Sheriff finished his speech, and the executioner received the torch as the people yelled for her demon blood. The Sheriff offered her last words and the girl replied, humming a tune familiar only to her, "Well, you can fight it but you know that you won't get your way in the end, too many people, the king and all of his men." She felt it was fitting and all, and she thought it would be a great, witty last words for her, even though no one had heard the catchy song before. But its meaning was still true and relevant, and the Sheriff frowned in anger as she smirked at her cleverness and the fact she struck a nerve, and he signaled for the stake to be lit as he sat down in his grand throne, pretending to be bored. Sitting next to him was Gisbourne, and behind the dark man, was a lady with dark hair and bright eyes with an elderly man beside. She figured that the pretty woman must be Marian and her father was next to her.
She had a glimmer of a smile in her eyes remembering the famed, vigilante love story of Robin Hood, then a tear thinking she would die without ever being in loved or loved, even if she thought love was a ridiculous notion. Of course she had a boyfriend in sixth form, and it was a boyfriend in a band that wrote her songs and took her to formal dances (much to her reluctance) and she had her first everything with, but it was just two kids having fun, not love. Alex shook these thoughts away from her mind and remembered all the good in life. Her childhood Christmases, graduating sixth form, going to university, her favorite concerts, visiting Paris when she was 12 and going to New York City when she was 17, and the year she spent living in Oregon when she was 15. She just had to remember the good right now before the flames would torture and kill her.
As the executioner was about to light the kindling of the stake to burn the accused witch, a whistling was heard and an arrow hit its target, the torch, causing the torch to fall to the ground, feet away from the kindling of the witch's stake. Everyone paused and the Sheriff stood up in anger. Robin emerged from the crowd, strutting with his cocky smirk on his face. The girl looked at him with a expression of shock, confusion, relief, and happiness.
"Sheriff, are you really accusing innocent girls to get to me now?" he said as his men emerged along with him ready to fight. Gisbourne called for his guards as the peasants fleed the square. Soon fighting began between the guards and the outlaws. Robin ran up and helped the girl free. She grabbed her bag and thanked him fighting back the tears in her eyes.
"Thanks for saving me. I don't know what to say. Maybe start with I am not a witch or psycho. I really can explain everything." she rambled gasping for air as the tightness from her chest from the fear of dying was fading away.
"We aren't out of here yet." Robin said jumping down into the fight. Alex jumped down as well and joined the outlaws as they finished off the guards. She grabbed the sword of a fallen guard in attempt to defend herself and her rescuers. She was surprised how heavy it was, but she remembered her childhood days of playing Star Wars with her little brother and managed to fight off one guard. The outlaw she had insulted by guessing his Disney character, knocked the man she was fighting out and smirked at her. "You were right, the name's Allan." Alex rolled her eyes at the his flirting smirk and its completely inappropriate timing, and focused on what seemed the impossible task at hand. But the outlaws were extraordinarily good fighters, probably because it was what they did for a living and it was their way of survival.
With only a few guards left, but with the inevitable fact of more arriving, they ran to their prepared get away horses with Alex sitting behind Robin and they were gone, leaving the stake unburned and the Sheriff yelling at his right hand, the dark leather man for being incompetent.