Disclaimer: I don't own Robin Hood, Ivanhoe, the Black Arrow, the Prince, the demons, or anybody else you recognise. The plot is mine, and that's it.
Feedback: Is Skinner slightly annoying? Of COURSE I want some!
Sean Molloy-1: I hope I will
Funky in Fishnet: Don't forget, there's still one more member to come... Oh, for future reference, the Prince is from the game 'Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time', and I thank Duncan Gregory for suggesting him
The Fellowship of Extraordinary Men
After they had left the castle, the four members of the Fellowship had climbed back onto their horses, which had been tied up alongside Robin's horse, and started to ride down a road where King John had said the cart was to be found.
After a few minutes riding, the Black Arrow looked over at Robin Hood.
"I have to admit, I was surprised to learn that you would be leading this Fellowship, Robin," he said to his new leader.
"Really?" Robin asked, looking at the man. "Why?"
"From what I have read of you, I understood that you had retired from the outlaw life," the Black Arrow replied. "Therefore, I do not understand why you wish to return to it now."
Robin smiled. "An excellent question," he said, wishing he knew the Black Arrow's real name. However, if the man didn't want to tell Robin his name, he wouldn't pressure him into it against his will. "I suppose that, at the heart of the matter, I'm here because I wanted to have another adventure."
"Yes... It's hard to just stop," the Prince commented, from his position beside Robin. "Even if you want to end the adventuring life for good, you just can't give up the thrill of it, the rush that comes of putting your life on the line..." He trailed off.
Ivanhoe looked up ahead, and saw a long cart standing on the road in front of them, its contents hidden by a large covering. "We're there," he said to the others.
The Prince looked at the cart curiously. "There are no horses," he said, turning to look at the others. "How is this cart to go anywhere?"
"Presumably our horses are expected to pull the cart?" Ivanhoe said, looking at the straps in front of the cart. It was certainly enough material to allow all four animals to be strapped onto the cart.
"Right," Robin said, as he got off his horse and led it towards the cart. He looked back at the others. "Tie up the horses, then into the cart. If King Richard was accurate, our instructions are in here already."
A couple of minutes later, the Fellowship had gotten into the cart, which was far more than it had appeared from the outside. Not only were there the instructions for their mission in the middle of the cart, there were also several piles of weaponry that couldn't fail to come in useful.
Bows, arrows, swords, shields, armour, spears...
They had enough equipment here to fight a small war.
However, Robin bypassed all the weaponry and picked up the sheets of paper in the middle of the cart. There would be time to gather weaponry together later; right now, they had a crisis to deal with.
He sat down on one of the seats in the cart, the other three members of the Fellowship sitting around him on the rest of the seats.
Ivanhoe leaned forward, looking at the piece of paper. "What are our orders?" he asked.
Robin looked up as though he'd briefly forgotten the other members were there. Then he got back to the matter at hand.
"We are to go directly to a castle only a few miles away, where our final member awaits us," he said, as he put the paper down. "Then, we are to go directly to a house, where we shall find someone who may be able to give us more information on this threat we face."
"And from there, we take any action we see fit in order to reach and destroy the fortress, correct?" the Prince asked.
Robin nodded. "However, the king expressly states that we are to avoid making contact with our final member during the day; apparently, our fifth member's extraordinary abilities come with the awkward side effects of being unable to go out into the sunlight."
The Black Arrow looked over at Robin. "He can't go out in sunlight?" he asked. "Why not?"
Robin sighed. "Once we have recruited him, I shall answer that question for you," he said simply. He looked around at the others. "So, who's driving?"
"I will," Ivanhoe said. "In the meantime, you three can take the opportunity to get to know each other; Robin and I have already met, but you two," he said, looking over at the Black Arrow and the Prince, "are relative strangers to us. We should be filled in on your histories before we meet the final member."
"A fair point," the Prince said. "We shall do so."
"So, what are these 'sins' you mentioned earlier?" Robin asked the Prince, as the three of them settled down in the cart while Ivanhoe drove them to their next destination. According to the map, the location in question was a large castle a few miles away, which had been abandoned some twenty-odd years ago after its last inhabitant- an elderly former knight- had died in his sleep without leaving any relatives. Robin was using the time as Ivanhoe had suggested; finding out more about his teammates.
The Prince sighed. "It is a long story, but I shall make it as brief as I can," he said. "To begin with, I was only interested in seeking glory and triumph for myself in order to please my father, the Shah of Persia, but that all changed when I aided a traitorous Vizier in conquering a Maharajah who possessed the Hourglass of Time, a mystical artefact that, together with a certain dagger, could give their bearer the power of a God. I accidentally unleashed the Sands in the hourglass, which tainted all life around them by turning them into zombies that could only be killed by the Dagger."
"So you battled the creatures?" the Black Arrow asked. "But surely you could not do that alone?"
"I could not have, if I were only human," the Prince replied. "However, the Dagger also gave me the power to manipulate time in my immediate vicinity up to a certain degree; it could rewind up to 60 seconds of time, stop enemies while time continued around them, speed me up so that I could strike many foes and dodge fatal blows instantly, and slow down time and stop all enemies in an area. I worked my way through the castle with the aid of the Maharajah's daughter, Farrah, but she died when trying to battle the sand creatures herself."
Robin sighed. "I am sorry," he said, placing a hand on the Prince's shoulder. The Prince's body language clearly indicated that Farrah had meant a great deal to him.
"It's all right," the Prince replied. "Anyway, I managed to use the hourglass to reverse Time so none of those events had ever happened, but, realising I could never have Farrah, I returned the dagger to her and left the kingdom. Since then, I have travelled the seven seas with my crew, but have been plagued by accidents due to my being hounded by the Fates for my casual attitude towards Time." He sighed. "That is the reason why I am here; to, hopefully, break my curse, and allow my crew and I to wander the seas freely, without any danger from the Gods. They await my return at the port, with my ship, and I pray I shall be able to bring them good news."
The Black Arrow nodded. "A commendable goal," he said. "My motives for being here are far simpler; I'm bored. Life as leader of the Fellowship of the Black Arrow can get very boring at times..." He noticed Robin and the Prince looking at him curiously, and smiled. "Forgive me; I forgot that I have not explained my history to you two. I am the founder of the Fellowship of the Black Arrow, a group of some of my closest friends, dedicated to the protection of our lands and men in secret. However, things have been fairly quite lately, so I have joined the Fellowship as a means of keeping my skills in practice."
(AN: This may not be the description of the Fellowship of the Black Arrow in 'The Black Arrow' by Robert Louis Stephenson, but if it's wrong, just assume that, over the three centuries or so between this story and the War of the Roses, when 'The Black Arrow' is set, that the purpose of the Fellowship got distorted over time, so that its members came to have totally different goals from what they did originally.)
After some other lines of conversation had been exchanged- Robin's life following his pardon, the methods and membership of the Fellowship of the Black Arrow, the ways of life back in Persia- the cart stopped moving outside a large castle.
Ivanhoe looked back at the others. "We're here," he said.
Nodding, the other three members of the Fellowship leapt off the cart and looked up at the castle. It was hard to make out most of the details about the castle, rather like the castle they'd just come from, in that a couple of the rooms appeared to be in good condition, but the majority of the castle was too damaged for anyone to live in it comfortably.
"It doesn't look like much," the Black Arrow said, looking over at Ivanhoe.
"Well, according to the map, this is the place," Ivanhoe replied, as he walked towards the door, followed by the rest of the Fellowship.
Stopping in front of the main door to the castle, Ivanhoe looked back at Robin. "You knock," he said. "As the leader of this fellowship, it is your duty to initiate first contact with our fifth member."
Robin nodded, walked up to the door, and knocked.
A couple of minutes later, the door was opened by a tall man with a lined face and dark hair. He was dressed in a dark black tunic and leggings, and had a sword on his side and a bow and a quiver full of arrows on his back.
(AN: Picture him as looking like William Dafoe, but his hair's longer than normal, and black.)
"Yes?" he asked, looking curiously at Robin.
"Marcus, I presume?" Robin asked.
The man nodded. "I am. What do you want from me?"
"My name is Robin Hood," Robin said, extending his hand towards the man. "These are my associates, Ivanhoe, the Prince, and the Black Arrow. We come from King Richard the Lion-Heart."
"Ah," Marcus said, as he shook Robin's hand. "I see. This would be about the so-called 'Fellowship of Extraordinary Men', correct?" His face, not exactly welcoming to start with, became even less so. "I'm not interested. I have more important matters to attend to than help out a few mere mortals. Good day to you."
He turned around to go back into the castle, but Robin grabbed his arm, pulling out a piece of parchment as he spoke.
"Perhaps this will help you decide," he said, passing the parchment to Marcus. "It's a pardon from the King, stating that he and his knights shall do their best to ensure that you and your kind are never bothered by the common people, so long as you never kill humans. Cattle, he can forgive; people, he cannot."
Marcus took the parchment and looked at it for a short while, before looking up at Robin.
"I'm in," he said simply. "Let me just give my followers instructions to carry out in my absence, and I'll be right with you."
Robin smiled. "Thank you." He looked up at the sky. "We'd better get moving; we want to cover as much distance as possible before the sun rises."
The Black Arrow looked over at Robin curiously. "Would you mind telling me why Marcus has a problem with the sun?" he asked.
Robin shook his head. "I'll explain later," he said. "Right now, we don't have the time to talk."