Well, this officially the longest story I've reversed written. I feel accomplished.

OoOFortisCorOoo

Will waited till he was sure Robin was gone before getting up.

He'd learned to fake being asleep a long time ago, when he had to live alone in the woods, and he never thought it would come in handy after that. But it sure did tonight.

Will stood up from his bed and felt the rich, warm material of his brother's cloak. It was made of soft supple dark red leather with black trimmings. It was obviously a rich man's cloak. Will wondered if it was stolen or if it came with Robin from Locksley Castle and through the Crusades.

He slipped the cloak into his bag, promising he'd get it back to Robin in the morning, then headed for the field.

When he got there, he carefully went in the hut and retrieved a staff, then went further into the woods. Eventually, he neared a fallen tree. Will wrapped a rope he had in his bag around the base of it, and tied the other end to himself. Slowly, he pulled the log through the woods and back to the field.

At least I got some endurance exercise in, he thought bitterly as he finally arrived. Will went to the farthest edge of the field, one he was confident no one would venture to, and found a tall tree. Once he found one, he untied himself from the log and pulled out a longer rope, which he attached to the log and his waist.

Though he only had one arm, Will was still very nimble. He climbed the tree like a squirrel and found a strong branch that was almost bigger than the log. Will was glad he measured right on the rope, which was long enough that there was several yards left on the ground still. He took the rope off his waist and tied a large loop on the end. He slid his feet into the loop, sent up a prayer to whatever god should hear him, then jumped.

For a few seconds, Will thought was going to die. He made sure the branch wasn't too high up, so he couldn't die, but that didn't stop him from scaring himself. After the initial fear, Will realized that he was not only alive, but successful.

Will Scarlet was in the air, with his feet in the loop of the rope and his remaining hand clutching the rope, a few inches from the ground. When he looked up, he saw that his guess was right, and the log had been about his weight, so it flew up when he went down, and stopped his fall.

Will couldn't help but smirk at his own genius as he crouched down and got his staff from the ground below, and pulled a large rock over from a little ways away and pulled it up. Will placed it carefully in place of his feet, and he went down as the log went up.

Several rocks, branches, and dirt clots later, Will had the rope firmly on the ground and managed to get a second rope to hold it to the tree itself as well, so if a storm washed away the rocks, the second rope would support the first one in holding up the log. He also used the remaining rope to secure a strong oak rod to first rope about 5 and a half feet up.

Will then climbed back up the tree and tied a bell to the branch directly five feet above where the log hung.

When he got back down, and his invention was complete, Will smiled up at the sky and laughed. Now he could do something useful!

Will took the oak staff from the hut and held it awkwardly, but still like Robin instructed him to, and took a fighting stance facing the rope.

He began to hit the rope and the rod like if he were fighting a man, and the log above him moved up with each hit, but didn't clear an inch up let alone the five feet to the bell.

Every one-handed blow made Will ache, but he kept telling himself it was for the village and his friends.

Several hours later, Will was exhausted beyond belief, and day was nearing, so he packed up his back, made sure the rope was taught, returned his staff, and slipped quietly back to his tent, making more plans for the good of the village.

ooOFortisCorOoo

Robin woke up early that morning, hoping to actually accomplish something this morning instead of sleeping till 9.

When he exited his cabin, Robin was very surprised to find most of the town wide wake, the women serving breakfast and the men enjoying a little time with their families.

He was broken from his daze by Fanny tapping him on the shoulder.

"Well don't just stand there gawking, like the world doesn't existing before noon, Robin!" she said, laughing at his shock, "Most of us wake up early to spent a little time with family before the work starts and to get a little food into themselves."

Robin escaped his daze as Fanny left. He decided he wasn't needed at the moment, so the best thing to do was-

"ROBIN OF LOCKSLEY DON'T YOU DARE GO BACK TO BED!"

Said Locksley sighed and walked away before Fanny could strap him. Robin let Duncan sleep in, as always. He saw Azeem and John deep in conversation, so he didn't bother them. Since he really didn't want to go into a deep conversation with either Bull or Much, Robin decided to go to Will's tent.

The Prince of Thieves was shocked find Will still asleep when he arrived at his home in the cliff.

Will was on his bed, some of the furs thrown off, curled in on himself, and clutching what was left of his right arm and frowning in his sleep. The clear signs of a nightmare.

Robin sat beside him and shook him by the shoulder gently and whispered to him, trying to wake him up.

Will's eyes slowly opened as Robin whispered to him.

"Robin?" he said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes, "What's going on?"

Robin smiled lightly at him, "Nothing's wrong, brother, you were having a nightmare that's all."

"Why are you here?" He looked like it was the oddest thing in the world for Robin to care about his brother.

"You act like you don't want me to be here," Robin defended.

Will quickly set him straight, "No, Rob! It's just, well, your never wake up this early." Robin glared at him darkly, but Will just laughed, "Come on take a joke, brother!"

"I have," Robin said, sulking as he sat next to Will on the dirt bed, "From Fanny and every other person in this damn camp!"

Will patted his back comfortingly, "Hey at least you actually get to eat breakfast this morning!"

"What is this breakfast you speak of?" Robin asked in a confused voice.

Will snorted, "You really are a moron you know that right?"

"Hey! I was just kidding, Will," Robin laughed as he and Will rose and strode through the camp, "And you say I can't take a joke."

The two walked to the large kettle in the middle of the camp and both where handed plates with egg, a thin slice of ham, and a scrap of bread. They then took their breakfasts under a shady tree and ate.

While Robin ate, he watched Will, expecting him to do so as well.

What first bothered Robin was the expression Will had on his face. He didn't seem to know that his brother was watching him, and a default expression of tired and brokenness took over his face. The second thing that worried him was the fact the Will only ate a quarter of modest his amount of food before he started to pick at it.
"Will, is there something wrong?" he asked, needing to know what was wrong with his brother.

The young thief looked up at the elder, quickly pulling on a painted smile, "No why?"

"Your not eating, that's why," he responded, motioning to Will's plate.

Will looked at him for second with a kind of carefulness, obviously planing his next words carefully.

"I'm just not very hungry that's all," Will said, pulling the red leather coat out of his bag, looking for a way to change the subject, "Here, I forgot to give this back to you." He held out the cloak for Robin to take, but the elder ignored it.

"Will, just tell me what going on," he said, voice growing stern, "Your hiding something from me."

Will moved to force the cloak into his brother's hands, "I'm not hiding anything, Robin. Now if you excuse me-"

Will had stood up and was going to take his plate and leave, but Robin grabbed his shoulder and stopped him, "Will, whatever it is your doing, I will find out, and as for this," Robin unfolded the cloak and quickly swung it over Will's shoulders before he could protest, and fastened the clasp, which was made to look like two dragons interlocking, "It's yours."

Will went to argue that he didn't need it and that it would be better to sell it for food to feed the hungry, but Robin shook his head, "No arguments. This is a gift from me to you. It is my cloak and I choose what to do with it, and I choose to give it to you." Robin walked away, leaving Will flabbergasted.

After a long mental debate, Will's heart over came his better judgement, and he kept the cloak.

ooOFortisCorOoo

Robin was completely right, Will was not eating. Instead, he would take his plate, eat a bite or two, then give the rest to the children of the camp. Will never wanted the children to know hunger. That was his fifth promise, along with others.

Since that day, a few months had passed, and Will had taken to staying up at night either training or writing.

Gwyn Scathelocke insisted her son learn to read and write. She wanted the best for him after all.

Will would only write at night, and only one certain thing.
His memory had been fading with his need for sleep, so he found he often needed to jot down his genius ideas when they came. Will 'found' an old leather notebook and had filled it with ideas, schemes, crazy ideas and questions. Why can a bird fly? Why can a fish breathe underwater? Crazy questions that had no answer.

But on the front page, Will wrote an oath. The oath was a list of ten and it was written in his best script. This was the law that Will felt should be followed no matter who you are. Of course, five was that any family that has children under the age of 14 should receive food and medicine if they were unable to pay for it themselves. A simple rule, but one that made sense. The other nine were a little more complex, such as that if one is taxed, later they should receive half of what they gave in goods.

Will knew that he himself could never follow through on most of these, as he wasn't a noble, but it felt better to have a code on which to live by. One that existed only for the better of the people, unlike that of others that helped only the wealthy. In Will's eyes, any man with a wife, kids, and a home was a noble in his own right, so, he should be treated as such.

As the young thief sat in his tent that night, he didn't feel like going out to train, nor did he want to write anymore. So, Will just sat on the ground with the red cloak draping around him.

Will had been meaning to sell the cloak and give the money out amongst the tax-ridden populace, but for some reason, he just couldn't. Like how Robin's medallion was sacred to him, the familiar red leather had become like a second skin to him. He didn't know why, but it did. Maybe it was because someone had given it to him, or because his brother was the one who had presented it to him. Either way, as winter began to draw near, he couldn't help but be grateful for it and it's warmth.

He also was glad that it hid how thin he'd gotten. Giving most of his food away had caused him to become thinner than a twig. With out the cloak constantly covering his body, anyone could see his ribs and how pale his skin was. Will knew his brother was already suspicious of him, but that couldn't be helped. Robin was over-protective, but nothing he did would stop Will. What he did was for the sake of everyone else, even if they didn't realize it.