Does He Understand Flight, the Pale One?

Chapter Ten

"We're here," Warin finally said coolly after he and his captives remained quiet for the last forty minutes since their earlier conversation, with the exception of a few murmurings between Djaq and Luke as Will continued to grow heavier the more they were forced to walk on, Luke having to take on most of his brother's weight when he had lost consciousness as Will was at least a head taller than the younger man and Djaq was several feet shorter. "I'm guessing you've seen this place before, maybe have even been here?"

"Yes, I have been here," Djaq replied worryingly as she observed their surroundings and stared at the large waterfall ahead of them. "We outlaws know nearly every inch of this forest. There is a cave hidden behind this waterfall. If you expect my husband to be able to survive long enough for Robin Hood and the others to find us, then a cool, damp cave is not a good place for us to hide."

The stranger pushed them forward, using the tip of his sword for motivation, as they stopped and tried to protest, then stated, "His life depends on you. I came across this cave in my travels. This is where we are going to wait for your friends, as well as my own. Now move inside and don't make me ask you twice for anything else."

As soon as they waded through the water and passed through the cascade to enter the cavern concealed behind it, the Saracen and the younger Scarlett became startled as a dog stood before them as it growled until it was ordered to stand down by its master, then Warin spoke again saying, "I assure you, he won't harm you unless you give him a reason to. This mutt only does as I tell him to. He helped me to find anyone who might be living here in this God forsaken forest as I searched for Robin Hood or any of his men and I sent him back here when I no longer needed him. He was how I was lucky enough to come across you, boy."

"And then I led you straight back to their camp," Luke answered ashamedly as it suddenly donned on him that it was because of his anger that they were all in danger, that Will was in danger of dying again because he had stormed off when he didn't want to listen to reason when his friends tried to help him. "This man came up to me in the woods after I left the camp to try to calm down. We spoke, though not for very long. But I did mention that I knew of Robin Hood and that I was angry because my brother was dying. I said too much and to a man I should have seen as an enemy. Oh God…!"

"This isn't your fault, Luke," Djaq swiftly responded after listening to her brother in law's admittance, hearing the fear in his voice. "You had no reason to be on your guard, as you have not had to learn to see everyone you do not know or trust as a danger to you. You were never trained as we have been."

They carefully laid Will down upon the cold, damp ground of the cave floor, then Luke shook his head and objected, "It doesn't matter. I should have seen it."

After the crusader whistled for his hunting dog to come to him and tied a small parchment around his neck, then quietly ordered him to go off to find the man with the same smell as the piece of fabric concealed in his hand, Sir Warin turned back to his captives as he smiled and said mockingly, "Go ahead and make yourselves as comfortable as you can. You're going to be here for awhile. And I suggest you lay something underneath his head, if you don't want…"

"Do not try to tell me how to take care of my husband!" Djaq interrupted angrily as she glared at the evil man standing over them. "I am a trained physician. And I know what I must do to help him. However, it will be far more difficult to do now that you have taken us away from our friends who had left our camp to get me the herbs and medicines I needed to tend to him. And I have no more bandages. Some of his wounds may have reopened. He is most likely bleeding out again."

"Luckily for you, I have some of my own bandages as well as a blanket," Warin replied as he quickly shuffled through his own satchel he carried with him, then tossed Djaq a small bundle of cloth already torn into strips and the blanket to Luke. "One can never be too prepared. I will leave you alone for now, but know that I won't be far. If you try to escape or do anything stupid to try to take me down, you will regret it. It is as I said before. Will will be the first one to suffer for your insolence."

Once the man left the cave, Djaq immediately got to work to help her husband as she pulled off the cloak she was wearing on their journey to their prison and folded it into a makeshift pillow, then placed it under Will's head, while Luke wrapped the blanket over his brother's body in hope that it would help to keep him warm enough, even though the cavern was cold and damp from being a part of the river that ran throughout Sherwood Forest.

Djaq winced upon pulling back the blanket over Will's left shoulder as she began to remove the clothing covering the knife wound in his shoulder, which caused the ill man to moan in pain despite remaining unconscious as she did so, then she leaned in close as she kissed her husband, and looked over at Luke as she asked, "This won't be easy for you, but are you willing to help me?"

The younger man looked back at her fearfully as he answered firmly, "Of course. What is it you need me to do?"

"I will need you to help me to keep him as still as possible while I work to treat and rewrap his wounds the best that I can without the proper supplies," she responded worryingly. "I still have my needle and thread I used to stitch closed his wounds before hidden in the sheath where I kept that dagger I tossed before leaving our camp, but I have nothing to sanitize it, other than this water from the river. It's possible that without cleaning the needle properly, it could cause his wounds to become infected. I believe that the water to be clean enough to drink, but this isn't all that concerns me. All that I do will be very painful for him, especially when he becomes more awake and he has already suffered far too much. I will not lie to you, I fear for his life."

"I appreciate your honesty," Luke replied sadly as tears fell down his eyes, then wept softly as he leaned down over his brother's body to hold him momentarily as if for reassurance that he was still alive and in hope that what little strength the younger man held still would be enough to pass along to the older Scarlett. "Please don't leave me, Will. I still need you."

Meanwhile…

Back in Nottingham, the Sheriff and Gisborne were in the middle of eating super when they suddenly heard several of their men begin to shout, then Vaisey stood, with a chicken leg in hand, as he asked in frustration, "What could they possibly be hollering about now?"

Gisborne had also stood as he made his way to the window and saw as the guards were busy trying to catch a large dog as it wondered into the courtyard, then make its way up the stairs in search for the man the beast was trying to sniff out. Without answering the man he served under, Guy quickly made his way down the castle's corridors to reach the animal and when it finally reached him, the dog stopped and stood still, waiting for Gisborne to take off the torn cloth binding the parchment around its neck.

The Sheriff came up behind his second in command as he asked again, "What is that you're reading and what is this mongrel doing here inside my castle?"

"This mongrel belongs to my friend out searching for Robin Hood's camp," Gisborne answered as he read the words written upon the small paper. "His own dog died on his journey here from Gloucestshire. I bought him a new one, a particularly vicious one, from Hood's father's old friend because he uses these beasts to hunt down his bounties. It appears that Warin has found Hood's camp and has taken three of Hood's men captive, while Robin and the rest of his men were out. We are to meet him at that cavern inside the waterfall a half mile inside of Sherwood Forest where we had battled against the outlaws and you nearly got killed by your own traitor."

"I remember," Vaisey responded coldly as he quickly finished eating and armed himself as he prepared to leave. "It's a real pity that Robin doesn't trust his old friend enough to tell him where it is he is hiding or we would have had them hanging a long time ago; would have saved us a hell of a lot of trouble and we wouldn't have to trust a bounty hunter or his dog. Let's get going."

Back in Sherwood Forest…

It was some time before Will reawakened during his wife's ministrations and until he did, neither Djaq nor Luke said another word to each other while they worked. It was while the Saracen physician was busy trying to re-stitch one of the larger lacerations on his chest from the whipping he had received from her own people that the man she loved began to struggle and cried out in pain. His eyes opened and despite being barely able to see, he could tell he was being taken care of.

She smiled down at him as she stopped for a moment and gripped his hand, then whispered, "Just take it easy. We're both still here. We are taking care of you. I have had to stitch up the knife wound in your shoulder again, as well as several of your lashes. They reopened on our way here and you lost a lot of blood. It's why you lost consciousness before we arrived."

Will looked at her the best he could as he asked, "Are you… and Luke al… alright?"

"You need to stop worrying so much about us," Luke replied in frustration as he leaned forward into Will's line of sight. "You're the only one who's hurt. We're both fine."

"You're m… mad," Will stated again as he looked into his brother's eyes and saw nothing, but anger.

Luke's eyes softened as he answered worryingly, "I'm only mad at the monsters responsible for hurting you, all of them."

Will tensed up as Djaq stuck the needle back into his flesh to continue to sew, then apologized and spoke again saying, "We're afraid. Your fever has risen again and some of these lashes are starting to become infected, but you will hold on for as long as it takes. Do you hear me?"

"Will?" she asked again when his eyes closed and didn't answer right away.

"I hear you," he finally responded while his eyes remained closed, being too weak to keep them open any longer as his consciousness was fading, but didn't succumb to it completely. "I'm still with… with you. I'm not ready… to let them win."

She briefly looked over at Luke as she smiled and replied, "You see, that is why I love your brother. He is strong and true, and he fights for all that he believes in, no matter how difficult it may be."

Warin walked back inside the cave and said smugly, "I wanted to come in to see how he was doing."

"Like you really care," Djaq answered coldly without turning her head to look at their captor. "He is holding on, but exactly how long will he have to?"

"As you already know, that all depends on Robin Hood," the stranger responded smugly as he dog entered behind him. "It's a real shame that your friends are not as punctual as mine. Gisborne and the Sheriff have just arrived."

Both Vaisey and Guy walked in as well, as the Sheriff chuckled when he saw their ally's hostages and stated, "So it's true then. Sir Warin, you have done very well."

Gisborne walked forward as both Djaq and Luke leaned over in front of Will in order to protect him, then he looked over at Djaq as he spoke up asking, "So, the outlaw you love is still alive?"

"Perhaps for not much longer it seems," The Sheriff replied cruelly as he came to stand over them too, then swiftly reached down, roughly grabbing Djaq by her arm to pull her up as Will weakly tried to help her while Luke struggled to keep him down. "You and your lover down there have caused me a lot of trouble, but then you remained behind in Jerusalem after our failure to defeat King Richard. You were free so why would you return now?"

"Our business is our own," she answered defiantly. "You don't really care why we have returned, only that we have. And you have yourself leverage against Robin Hood, so now you must be feeling particularly smug, believing that you have finally found a way to defeat your greatest enemy. However, you've had leverage before and you always failed, just as you will again."

Gisborne grabbed hold of Luke as well, as both he and Djaq were dragged away from the ill man while they struggled against them, then Warin spoke again as he asked, "What about the husband?"

Vaisey shook his head in disbelief and responded, "I never believed I would live to see an Englishman in love with a Saracen, let alone marry one. It's a real pity. This one is a traitor to England. Kill him."

"No!" both Djaq and Luke cried out fearfully in unison, fighting hard to break free of their captors' hold on them, when the hunter pulled his sword from his scabbard as he stood over Will, who struggled to back away while Warin advanced on him, then thrust the blade down through the carpenter's left hand as he tried to dodge the blow, causing him to scream.

"Not this time, Sheriff!" Robin shouted as he and then others all appeared through the falls and immediately shot an arrow into the bounty hunter's back to kill him before he could kill Will, while both Vaisey and Gisborne swiftly put daggers to their own prisoners' throats and held them out in front of them. "Let them go. You know that if you harm them anymore, we will be forced to kill you both and don't think for a moment that we won't hesitate."

The Sheriff just laughed and then he replied, "You know that if you kill me, then you sign the deaths of all of your people, remember? War will come right here to Nottingham and you will no longer be the hero whom everyone worships, but the man who destroyed England once and for all."

Much stood at his friend's side ready to fight as he quickly glanced at him, then kept his eyes on their other friends and their enemies ahead of them and spoke up saying nervously, "He's right, Master. What are we going to do?"

"We can't start a war, Robin," John added angrily. "This, we cannot do."

All of a sudden, Will kicked out at the back of Gisborne's legs, as everyone's attentions were no longer focused on him, succeeding to knock Guy off balance which allowed Luke to break free and punch the Sheriff in the side of his head so that he would release Djaq as well. They both rushed to Will's side while the rest of the outlaws fought swords against the two evil men ruling England in King Richard's absence. Unfortunately, the two criminals were not alone, as the dog pounced on John who fought to pry him off with his staff.

"You are outnumbered, Gisborne!" Robin shouted as he pulled his own sword and began to fight against the second in command, while Much and Allan fought Vaisey and Brother Tuck went to help Djaq and Luke with Will, who had fallen unconscious after his efforts to help his friends. "What should we do with them, boys?"

"How about we finish the fight first, then we can decide what to do with them," Allan answered in frustration.

Once Robin and the others had their enemies disarmed on their knees before them, and John had finally been able to take down the dog that attacked him, the big man rushed over to Will and handed Djaq the parcel containing the herbs and extra bandages he knew that she would need for him. Djaq looked at him kindly as tears slipped from her eyes, then nodded her head to express her gratitude and refocused her attention on her husband after taking the supplies.

Robin glared down between Gisborne and the Sheriff as he knelt down before them, then said coldly, "I wish I could kill you both, but even if it wasn't for Prince John's decree of war should you end up dead, Vaisey, you both know my men and I do not kill unless we are given no choice, like with your friend over here. And the men you left outside are of no help to you. You better pray Will lives because if he doesn't, I will be back to visit you in Nottingham and you will regret seeing my face. Do you understand me?"

The Sheriff smiled and responded smugly, "Your words are nothing, but petty threats, Hood. One day, you will end up dead and if I am lucky, then so will all of your men here, as well as that Saracen women you have fighting for you. Her English lover will die first and then I will come for her."

"Not today you won't!" John Little replied in anger as he swiftly knocked both villains out cold with a single punch to the sides of their heads. "I'm sorry, I could not listen to that any longer. Let's just leave them here and get back to our camp so that Will can be treated properly. This cold and wet is not doing him any favors."

"Yes, but first we will need to make a travois to carry him back," Robin answered nervously as he looked down at Will, seeing for the first time just how bad off he really was.

Allan saw his friend too, then looked to Djaq as he added, "We have more blankets outside on our horses, but we didn't bring them, for obvious reasons. We didn't want to get them wet."

She nodded and then turned to Robin as she asked, "How did you find us?"

"When we couldn't track you, we figured that Gisborne and Vaisey had something to do with your abductions so we made our way into Nottingham as fast as possible to find them and followed them as they left to come here," he responded. "Explain what happened to us later once Will is taken care of. How are you doing? And Luke?"

"He never laid a hand on us," Luke replied angrily. "He only hurt Will. And now, you're just going to allow the Sheriff and his right hand to go free, just like that? They deserve to die! They will never stop!"

Brother Tuck helped John pull Will up into his arms, then as they passed under the waterfall, the priest turned back to the younger Scarlett and answered calmly, "It's over now, your brother is still alive, and the man who hurt him has paid for his cruelty with his life. Release your anger or it will destroy you."

Luke looked at him as he responded, "I don't know if I can."

"You can, because Will was able to forgive the Sheriff after he had your father killed," Djaq replied remorsefully. "And his strength is inside of you. I have seen it."

"And Luke, if you can learn to let go of your anger and hate, would you like to…?" Robin added. "I mean, you have always been a part of us even though you haven't been fighting alongside us, but if you wish to remain among us and fight against their evil plots, so long as Will agrees of course, then we would be honored to have you join with us."

Luke smiled as he looked around at the remaining members of Robin Hood's band of thieves and then answered, "Thank you. Maybe someday soon, but I need some time to sort all of this out. I need time to figure out if I can be the man my brother is."

Robin nodded and responded, "You are welcome to join us any time. Now come on, let's get out of here so we can get back to our camp and get Will better."

Nearly a month later…

"Why are you out here all alone?" Djaq asked her husband after she had been searching for him for a few hours out among the forest when he left the camp, finally finding him lying upon a branch inside a tree. "We've all been looking for you because we were worried about you."

"I'm alright," the carpenter replied quietly as he struggled to move his injured hand to show her that it was healing, as were the rest of his wounds and lacerations. "I was following your birds. They've been staying close to our camp, close to you I suspect, because they know how much you love them."

She answered sincerely, "It isn't only me whom they stay close to any longer, Will. They love you because you have loved and cared for them as I have."

He smiled as he looked down at her and responded, "I suppose I've been keeping my eyes on them because they're all we have left of what we almost had together in the Holy Land. I am so sorry that I failed to protect our home, my love."

"Jerusalem was only once my home," his wife replied as she raise her arm above her head in motion for him to come down and watched nervously as he struggled to climb back down using his only good hand.

"We may have lived there together briefly, but in truth it wasn't really where we belonged," she continued once he was clear of the tree and standing before her again, then checked him over to make sure he was alright as he claimed. "But though you loved our pigeons and took upon my friends as your own family, it doesn't mean it was where you were really happy. Here, with Robin Hood, John, Allan, even Much, and now Brother Tuck too, this is where you are truly happy, Will. When I first found you after you were taken prisoner, you were riddled with fever, barely alive and incoherent. But some of what you spoke was of our adventures here and I realized how much you missed our real home. How much you missed our lives here. Why did you not tell me?"

Will looked at her in confusion as he answered, "Because I knew that you wanted to remain where you were the most happy. I loved the Holy Land, but my brother is here and fighting with Robin Hood…"

The woman he loved interrupted him as she leaned closer and stood on her toes to kiss him, then she responded, "It is when we are both the happiest. Here is where we are home, so long as we are together. I almost lost you. You risked your life not only for me and for our pigeons, but you saved as many of my family and friends as you could. You should be proud of that. Why feel guilty for the sins which are not yours, especially in regards to Hazar?"

"It was Hazar who went to Salah ad Din seeking help to rid her home of the English, of me," he replied sadly. "As I was fighting after we separated inside Bassam's house, I overheard her pleading with one of the soldiers to spare her life and the lives of everyone else except for mine before the man killed her with her sword. I killed him in return and tried to keep her alive, but she died in my arms, just after she asked me why she and her people should have been made to suffer because of me."

"You are not to blame for her death, nor the deaths of all the others who died on the night of our wedding," Djaq answered softly as her husband pulled her into his arms and held her close. "You a good man. And I will remind you of that every morning and every evening of every day if I must. Now, we should return to the camp. Luke and the others are throwing us a little celebration tonight in honor of our return and our marriage. We will finally be able to celebrate and this time we are among our closest friends, our family, the way that it always should have been. I love you, Will Scarlett."

Will kissed her once more, then ran his good hand gently along her face as he looked into her eyes and responded, "And I love you, Saffiya, for all that you are."

The End