"Giz, I think that we should stop," Allan said, worried, but he kept following Gisborne through the forest.
"I will take my mare back. I won't let that masked outlaw to rob me and mar the Nightwatchman reputation."
"Tell me, Giz, how exactly us getting killed will help you stopping that man?"
"We won't get killed."
"Do you think it's wise to hunt for him like this? We are just two and we don't know how many accomplices he might have."
Guy knew that Allan had a point, but he kept pursuing the masked outlaw, following the traces of the stolen horses.
"I'm not going back home without my mare. If you are afraid, you can go."
Allan huffed.
"As if this is the first time I follow you in some foolish enterprise. No Giz, if you're going to get yourself killed I'll be at your side. And I expect that you'll use your last breath to admit that I was right."
Guy grinned.
"Admit that you missed our adventures too."
"Maybe. But why aren't you using your costume? Aren't you afraid that the outlaw could target you if you force him to give you back your horse?"
"Well I couldn't claim that I own that mare if I'm wearing the Nightwatchman costume, don't you think? And I plan to arrest that man too."
"Like you captured Robin Hood many years ago?"
Guy glared at him.
"It's different! Hood is clever and now I'm not burdened by the incompetents guards of Nottingham."
"Sure. If we fail, we'll fail on our own."
"We will not fail."
"I hope you are right, Giz."
Guy halted the horse and dismounted to examine closely a set of hoofprints, slightly different from the other. He put a finger to his lips to tell Allan to be quiet, then he tied his horse to a bush and he resumed the pursuit on foot.
Gisborne ran through the trees, as silently as he could, while Allan waited with the horses, ready to intervene if Guy called for him.
The traces he was following lead Guy on a separate path and, after a while, he spotted a man who was riding a horse through the trees. He had his face hidden by a hooded cloak and Guy kept running to reach him.
Being on foot, he wasn't forced to follow a path and he could easily overtake him. Guy climbed on a tree and waited for the man to arrive, then he jumped onto him, knocking him from his horse.
The man reacted and they rolled on the ground, fighting, until Guy grabbed the hood of his adversary's cloak and pulled it away to look at his face.
"Hood?!" He stared at Robin. "What are you doing here?!"
Robin pushed him away and got to his feet, annoyed.
"I was just trying to find the horse thief. At least until you pounced on me! What are you doing in the middle of the forest?"
"Trying to get my horse back," Guy muttered, standing up too. "Now what?"
"Now we hope that he didn't hear us and we keep following the thief," Robin whispered, but he had barely finished his sentence when they heard the sound of a galloping horse.
Robin and Guy tried to unsheathe their swords, but the black mare burst out of a bush, with the masked man riding her bareback.
The thief was holding a rope, knotted in a noose and he threw it at Robin and Guy, trapping them together and dragging them behind the horse, through the thorny bushes of the undergrowth.

Allan heard all the commotion and he recognized Guy's voice screaming for help, so he hurried to search for him. It wasn't difficult for Allan to follow the traces of the mare through the undergrowth and he was able to reach her after a short time.
The horse had been slowed by the tangle of thorns and she was neighing and rearing, so Allan had to calm her before he could help Guy and Robin. The two men were lying to the ground, tied together and they were covered in scratches and bruises after being dragged through the thorns and the bushes.
Allan cut the rope to free them.
"Giz, are you alive?" He asked, worried, "Robin?"
Guy sat up with a moan and he gingerly touched is cheek, finding a bleeding cut.
"I think I am. Hood?"
"Me too," Robin said.
"Are you hurt?"
Gisborne stood up.
"I'll survive. I'm just sore. Luckily the horse couldn't run too fast through the thick vegetation."
"What happened?"
"I was going to catch the thief, when Gisborne attacked me."
"How could I know? I thought you were the thief!"
"So, while you were fighting, the real thief caught you and tied you to that horse?" Allan asked with a grin and they both nodded, annoyed and a little ashamed.
Allan burst up in a laugh.
"It's not funny!" Guy said.
"Not at all!" Robin agreed.
"Actually it is. Where did he go?"
"I think he dismounted shortly after he caught us and he ran away," Robin said "maybe I could have heard which direction he went if you weren't screaming so loud."
"Well, forgive me if those thorns were painful! And you were screaming too."
"Not so loud as you."
"I heard both of you," Allan said "and the important thing is that you are not badly hurt. You'll get the thief another day. And Giz..."
"What?"
"At least you got your mare back."

Guy squirmed on the saddle to find a less painful position. He had bruises in every part of his body and he felt sore. He glanced at Robin and noticed that he was suffering his same discomfort.
Robin's face was full of scratches and cuts and Guy knew that his own face was covered in similar wounds too.
"Come to Gisborne Manor with us," Guy said suddenly.
Robin looked at him.
"Why should I?"
"You can't go home looking like that or you'll frighten Marian and the kids. At my house we can have a bath and get all those scratches cleaned."
Robin glanced at Guy and thought that he was right: Gisborne looked miserable, covered with dirt and blood and he surely was in his same condition.
He nodded.
"You'll have to borrow me some clothes. It's the least you can do since you knocked me from my horse."
"If you don't mind wearing black leather," Allan said with a grin, "we traveled all around Europe during these years, but the local style of the places we visited couldn't influence his taste in clothes. Always leather and always black. I already told you, he's a little dull."
Guy gave him an annoyed look, but couldn't hide a little smile.
Later, at Gisborne Manor, Guy's servants filled two bathtubs with warm water and medicinal herbs to ease the pain and prevent infections. Guy closed his eyes and rested his head on the edge of the tub, while Robin helped himself to a bowl of cherries.
"I can't believe you really planted a cherry tree in the same spot were the old one was."
"I told you, I want my house to look like the old manor, in every detail. I just hope this tree doesn't get hit by a lightning too, carrying it here hasn't been easy at all."
Robin chuckled.
"I can believe that. So this was the surprise you promised to my children?"
Guy nodded and took a handful of cherries too.
"I was waiting for more cherries to ripen. These are the very first ones I eat from this tree. In a week or so your kids will have all the cherries they can wish for."
"We'll visit, then."
Guy smiled.
"Thank you."
Robin glanced at him, a little surprised. Gisborne seemed really eager to spend some time with his children and Robin wondered if Marian was right when she said that Guy longed for a family of his own.
"And sorry for pouncing on you," Guy added after a while.
"Well, now you can say that at last you captured Robin Hood," said Robin with a grin, grabbing another handful of cherries.
Guy relaxed, enjoying the warm water on his sore muscles and the sweet taste of the cherries and thought that if, when he worked for the sheriff, somebody had told him that nine years later he would have shared a bath with Robin Hood, eating cherries, he would have never believed it possible.
He burst out in a laughter and Robin looked at him, startled.
"Gisborne?"
Guy almost choked on the cherry he was eating and it took him a while to catch his breath enough to be able to speak. Robin thought that the last time he saw him laughing like that must have been when they were kids.
"I was just thinking that Vaisey would turn in his grave if he could see us now," finally Guy managed to say.
He looked at Robin and when their eyes met, they laughed together.