Lady Robin Hood

By Kuroi Koneko

A.N. - Well, I hope you readers enjoyed the first two chapters! Once again, if I didn't say it in the last chapter I'll say it now; I am so very very sorry to the 5 people who had read and reviewed the first postings of this. Please don't be mad! I'll make it up by keeping this story up this time, promise! I had to take down the previous version because it was uploading the way I wanted it too. To new readers just joining me, Welcome to my retelling of the story of Robin Hood!

Spooky Fyre - Thank you for your review, and even the threat of emailing me to death! Do so! I need email, lots and lots of email!! I'll try to get up chapters as quick as possible just for you! ; )

BonnieChan - Yes, you did leave a review, but I had taken down the story and reposted it so I lost your first review. *sheepish grimace* Sorry about that!

Thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far: Spooky Fyre, Seeking Serenity, Mei, serena chiba, The Firefaery, JLSCORPIO78, Rosalyn (thanx for that sweet review!), and last but never least - starfury3000! Thanx all!!

WARNING!!! THIS CHAPTER HAS SOME DEATH IN IT. Please be advised this is a more intensely emotional chapter.

Now with that said and over with, on to chapter three!

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Recap:

They walked in relative peace, not expecting in the slightest what was awaiting them in the shadows. Therefore, when the shadow-hidden visitor was revealed the girls were caught unawares and screamed-

"Aahh!!"

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A figure of tall stature and an obviously muscular build stepped out of the shadows. Its dark clothing had blended in, rendering it nearly invisible to anyone even within a foot of it. The top of its head gleamed in the pale half-moon light, revealing a bald top surrounded by hair on the sides. The color was indistinguishable in the evening light, as was the facial features since the person was in front of the moon.

"Cease! Calm yourselves, ladies, it is only me!" an elderly voice called out, attempting to soothe the girls. "I am most sorry, girls. It was not my intention to give you a scare, but I have been waiting for you two for a while."

"Oh! Friar! It is only you, thank the Heavens," Mina sighed in relief. She had been terrified that it might have been Diamond, or one of his men, come to kidnap them.

"Friar, if you had been waiting for so long, why did you not come looking for us? Surely you know us well enough that we would have gone to the carnival?" Serena asked in puzzlement. There was something not quite right here, and it bothered her not knowing what it was. A faint frown appeared on her lips as she noticed the Friar acting nervously. "Friar, what is wrong? Something is troubling you, I know it, especially since any other time you had been waiting for us after a while you would come looking. So what is different about this occasion? Come, come, now."

"Ah, Serena. Always so attuned to what others are feeling, aren't you. Yes, you are correct. Something is troubling me, and it concerns the both of you - and possibly your other friends as well." The Friar took a deep breath, looked heavenward as he obviously sent up a prayer for something, and then spoke of the doings that he had both seen and heard with his own eyes and ears just a few short hours ago.

(story sequence (or flashback, whichever you prefer to call it now)

"What on this earth could Lord Kevin want from me? It's been years since we last spoke, and nearly as long since his last confession at my church. And what could be so urgent as to call me out on a beautiful day as this, let alone speak to me after so long an absence," the Friar mumbled to himself as he slowly trotted his way to the Lunans' household (AN: that is Serena's family, Lord Kevin is her father).

The old friar was about to round the corner that would lead him directly to the front of the Lunan house when the sound of angry tones reached his ears. He stopped, and going against what he was taught all his live against doing, he eavesdropped on the hushed conversation. What he heard, and by whom!, shocked and frightened him.

"Diamond I told you already! If you just give me two more days I can have the taxes, the interests, and the debts all repaid. I just need two more days!" It was Lord Kevin's voice. He sounded strained, stressed, and desperate.

But what is he desperate not to do? The Friar wondered to himself. He learned the answer to that question shortly afterwards.

"My Lord Kevin," Diamond purred in a sinisterly sweet voice, "You know you really don't have to do that. All I ask if for Serena's hand in marriage, and I'll forget all about your debts and taxes until next collecting comes. It's a fair deal, wouldn't you say?" He smiled as he thought it truly was an offer Lord Kevin couldn't refuse. His smile widened, as he no doubt thought about his 'impending' marriage to the beautiful Lady Serena.

"NO!" Lord Kevin shouted. "I will not have my daughter and only child marry you. I had promised her she would marry the man she falls in love, and she has said nothing to me about being in love with you, Lord Diamond," Kevin stated with force. He stressed the 'Lord' part of Diamond's title, knowing he was not born into it nor had he earned. He made the title sound like the insult it was.

Diamond's features tightened in anger. His face slowly paled, and then turned red with barely repressed rage.

"What did you just say?"

"You heard me Diamond, I refused your request for my daughter's hand in marriage," Kevin repeated. He stood up taller, his hand inching towards the sword at his side as he anticipated Diamond's reaction. He was, unfortunately, correct in his assumptions as Diamond quickly drew his own sword.

"HOW DARE YOU REFUSE ME!" Diamond bellowed in rage. He lunged towards Kevin so quickly that his opponent barely had any time to draw his sword. However, since Kevin was expecting this move, he was better prepared, and met Diamond in what quickly turned into a fierce fight -- to the death.

The Friar could do nothing but watch as the two men locked swords, managed a lucky hit of a fist or arm, and gave a nick of the sword, again and again. He could see that Lord Kevin, being the older of the two men, was starting to tire. Diamond realized this too, and he began an assault even fiercer than his first. By an unlucky turn of events, Kevin had been backing up to lessen the force of Diamond's blows when he tripped over a large crack in the road. As he fell down he lost his grip on his sword, his only means of defense and offense against Diamond's attacks. Diamond saw his chance and took it, killing the older man.

The Friar had to bite his tongue hard to keep from crying out over the cruel end of his friend of old. However, it became apparent that someone else didn't have as much control over the sound made.

As Diamond heard the gasp behind him, he quickly spun around, and without any hesitation - even after seeing whom it was - stabbed and killed Lady Ilene, Lord Kevin's wife.

At the site of Lady Ilene's death, the Friar could not contain the cry of sorrow and rage that pushed its way out of his mouth. The kind, gentle, caring Lady Ilene had never said a cruel word or done anything harsh without having an absolutely good reason - and even then those cases were few and far between. She was a good woman who was liked and loved by everyone in the town.

How could Diamond be so heartless?! The Friar screamed in his mind. It was only when the man he spoke (or in this, thought) of spun around and locked eyes with the frightened friar did he realize that he spoke his thought aloud.

"Friar!" Diamond yelled. He tightened his facial features before visibly and obviously forcing himself to relax and appear less intimidating. He only succeeded in frightening the Friar even further.

"Friar, my friend! What brings you out here?" Diamond asked. His tone, although in some semblance of friendliness, had a sinister undertone to it.

The Friar began backing away, his eyes wide in fear. Fear of Diamond and his unpredictable wrath, fear for his own life.

"Nothing, milord. Lord Kevin called for me on a matter he claimed was most urgent, though he didn't specify," the Friar said fearfully. He was surprised that his voice was level, though his emotions were quite evident.

(end flashback or whatever)

"I am afraid I must admit that when I saw him advancing on me I stuttered a hasty good-bye, turned, and fled. There was murder in his eyes, and I very much doubt he'll stop for anything to get your hand, Lady Serena. And I am deeply sorrowful and shameful that I did nothing to stop the crime committed upon your parents." The Friar bowed his head, tears of shame and sadness running down his cheeks in glistening crystal paths as he remembered the recent past. The silent shaking and trembling of his shoulders also gave testimony to the grief that he held in his heart.

Serena could only stand in the middle of the walkway, her face frozen in a blank state of shock. As the honest friar's words finally began to sink in, a single crystalline tear slid from her sapphire blue eye and traveled down a cheek made pale from more than the cold and moon's light. Another tear followed in its wake as other comrades mimicked the scene on the opposite side of her face.

Like a crack in a dam that leaks and then breaks away, Serena was hit hard with the reality of her parents' deaths. She broke down sobbing, kneeling upon the cold ground. She beat it as though she was trying to inflict upon its indifferent hardness the injury and pain inside of her soul. Her hands were becoming raw and frozen from her incessant pounding, but she appeared not to notice. She probably didn't.

Mina, however, finally came out of her shock-induced trance and took notice of Serena's self-inflicting injury. She kneeled down next to the sobbing young woman and threw her arms around her. She hugged Serena close to her, not caring that her striking fists had turned on her now instead of the emotionless earth. She cared only that the force behind the fists was weakening even as Serena's sobbing intensified. As Mina looked upon the lost young woman in her arms her own heart started breaking even farther, and as the girl she had grown up with, her own look-alike, the girl she considered a sister, clung to her Mina's own tears dropped from her eyes and buried themselves in her friend's hair. Although she knew she was probably not as broken and devastated as Serena, Mina was just as heartbroken. She had considered the Lunans a second family - Lady Ilene was both a second mother and a surrogate aunt, and Lord Kevin was like a second father and a surrogate uncle. Her parents were very close friends with the Lunans; news of their deaths would hit them hard.

"Lady Mina," Friar whispered softly. He seemed both afraid and nervous, the sadness from the Lunans' deaths lingering in his eyes. "Lady Mina, I wish to cause no further grief this night, but," he took a steadying breath as he raised his head to look Mina in the eyes. "Lady Mina, did you know that your parents are Lady Serena's godparents?" When she nodded her affirmation he continued. "So did Diamond. When I had stopped running I suddenly realized this. I knew that they would not consent to Diamond's request, should he also ask them," his voice lowered to a barely audible whisper over the sounds of Serena's insistent but quieter sobbing. "I rushed over to their manor as quickly as I could. I'm so sorry, Lady Mina, I was too late. Again," he lowered his voice even further, his eyes now focused on some indistinguishable point on the beaten ground.

Mina knew then, she knew exactly how Serena must feel.

And then she, too, broke down and joined Serena in her inconsolant grieving.

The poor friar, the unfortunate bearer of world-shattering news, could only kneel before the two weeping girls. His silent prayers for the girls' future safety from harm and strength to overcome their pain going unnoticed by anyone he knew there were no words that could possibly comfort them. He eventually left them, after leaving them in the care of a trustworthy friend, and prepared himself to go into hiding.

He was the only witness to a crime that not even a king could escape unscathed from, and for that reason alone he was wanted dead by a person with an undoubtedly black heart.

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AN: I wanted to leave you hanging although I did have an idea for a more 'cheerful' ending. I thought that that would just ruin the mood I created though, thus the sad cliffhanger. I'll try to get my next chapter up sometime next week.

And BTW - GO READ MY OTHER STUFF!! IT'S ACTUALLY GOOD!! Please?? *puppy dog eyes*