Marian stood on the threshold, holding in her hands the lantern carved in the turnip, and she stared at the three men lying in a heap on the floor.

When she had opened the door, Guy, Allan, and a guard who looked suspiciously like Robin had screamed with terror, tried to get up the bench where they were sitting, stumbled over it, and they all crashed on the floor.

"Sir Guy?" She called.

Marian entered the room, perfectly aware of Robin's glare because she pronounced the name of Gisborne and not his. She responded with an equally exasperated look: she certainly couldn't tell Guy that she was still in touch with the outlaws.

Allan was the first to recover from the scare. He disentangled from the other two and stood up.

"You shouldn't play tricks like that! Did you want to make us die of fear?!" He yelled.

"I just opened the door!"

"With that horrible thing in your hands?" Allan pointed at the lantern.

"It's not a horrible thing!" Said the girl, outraged, and she stopped just moment before adding that Guy had made it for her, realizing that Robin was not going to like that. "It keeps the spirits away," she said, instead, and Robin laughed, amused.

"I didn't think that the former sheriff's daughter, always so proud, could be scared of such things."

Guy turned to him with a kind of snarl.

"Hood, respect Lady Marian!" Guy walked away from Robin and he stood up, leaning against the table, then he looked at the girl, worried. "You shouldn't go around the castle alone, where are the guards?"

Marian glanced angrily at Gisborne, too: she didn't like being treated like a helpless little girl.

"Maybe I am just a woman, but you are the ones who cried out of terror when I came in," she said, purposely ignoring the question about the guards.

"I didn't cry out of terror!" Robin protested.

"You just caught me by surprise," Guy said, irritated. "And that's Allan's fault."

"My fault?!"

"You shouldn't have told us all those stories!"

Marian looked at the young man.

"What stories?"

Robin answered for him.

"Scary stories about ghostly carriages and murderous creatures who drink people's blood."

Marian shivered, thinking of the disgusting way Lady Millacra had sucked Guy's wound. In the dream that had awakened her, and pushed her out of her chamber, that same wound continued to bleed, condemning Gisborne to a certain death.

Worried, she stared at him, trying to figure out if he had the shadows of death on his face. Guy was pale and he had dark circles under his eyes, as if he was sick or had not slept for days, but he didn't have the spectral complexion he had had in her dream.

Even Robin stood up from the ground, and Marian glanced at him, noting that the outlaw was in no better shape than Guy.

Only Allan, though pale and nervous, seemed to be perfectly healthy.

"What's happened to you? You both look horrible."

"Marian is right, Giz. It seems that Death touched you!"

Guy slammed his fist on the table, looking at Allan.

"Stop with this nonsense or I'll be the one who touches you. Death will look like a better option to you, then."

Marian looked at the table, horrified, and Guy looked at her.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted in front of you. Did I frighten you?"

"Sir Guy, your hand!"

Gisborne lowered his gaze, and he saw that the cut had begun to bleed again.

When he had hit the table, he had left a bloody print on it.

"Oh. Nothing... it's nothing. I just have to change the bandage..."

"They say that the wounds of the corpses start to bleed again when their assassin is near." Allan said, almost to himself, and Guy boxed his ears with his good hand.

"Do I look like a corpse, by chance?! And then I cut myself, what has this to do with your nonsense, now?!"

"I was talking about Robin's neck. Look, he's bleeding again."

"Hey! I'm alive too!"

"But you were attacked by a murderer! Maybe it also works on the living ones!"

Robin and Guy turned to Allan, glaring at him.

"Allan, enough!" They said at the same time, then they exchanged an identical fierce look.

"Maybe it would be better to treat those wounds." Marian suggested, fearing that the situation might degenerate. She had no idea why Robin and Guy were in the same place without fighting, but she wanted to avoid that their sort of truce could break. "Allan, please go and take the necessary."

The young man went pale.

"Me?"

"By chance, are there any other Allans in this room?" Guy said abruptly.

"But the killer might be lurking right out here!"

"Go!" All three shouted in unison, and Allan got to his feet, uncertain whether to be more afraid of them or of murderers and ghosts.

"Hey, at least can I take that thing?" He asked, pointing to Marian's lantern. "Not that I believe in certain superstitions, of course, but just to have some light."

"Get a torch!" Guy growled, worried that Allan could take possession of the lantern he had carved for Marian.

The young man decided that staying in the room was much more dangerous than venturing outside, and he hastened to obey.

Once Allan went out of the room, Marian looked from Robin to Guy, worried.

"Maybe you should sit down. You don't look healthy at all."

The two men stared at each other, hostile. Both knew that Marian was right, and that they would do better to rest before falling to the ground, but none of them wanted to be the first to sit down, showing to be weaker than the other one.

Marian looked at them for a moment, in disbelief, then she rolled her eyes.

"Oh, please! Sit down! Both of you!"

They both were startled by that abrupt command, but none of them decided to move. Robin stared at her, annoyed.

"Lady Marian, I'm not a dog and you shouldn't give me orders as if I were one."

Even Guy had not liked Marian's harsh tone, but he preferred to vent his irritation on Robin.

"Show respect to her, outlaw!"

Marian snorted.

"Dogs would be more reasonable! Do as you want, but then don't expect me to pick you up from the floor when you faint."

Robin and Guy decided to give in, but they continued to study each other as they approached the bench, to sit at exactly the same time.

Marian sighed, slightly shaking her head, then she sat down on the opposite side of the table, paying attention to keep the same distance from each one of them to avoid further discussion.

Once all three were seated, an embarrassed silence fell into the room.

Marian was perfectly aware that anything could to re-ignite the rivalry between the two men, and she didn't want to be the one to trigger a new argument, while Robin and Guy seemed too weak and ill to want to talk.

The outlaw was as white in the face as a dead man, while Guy seemed to be exhausted, as if he had spent a whole week without sleeping. Marian glanced at them, worried about them both.

After a time that seemed eternal to everyone, the silence of the night was broken by the sound of steps running along the corridor. A moment later the door opened suddenly, and Allan rushed into the room, terrified.

"The Bargest! The Bargest! He pursues me!"

Robin shook his head.

"It's just a superstition, the Bargest does not exist!" He said, but his tone was not too sure.

"But I've seen it! It's the end, right? I am condemned now!"

Allan took his head in his hands, desperate.

Marian tried to say something to reassure him, but she herself couldn't suppress a thrill of terror.

Only Guy seemed to be perfectly calm, indeed his expression betrayed some fun in seeing Robin Hood so tense.

There was a weak sound from the corridor, a sort of dull ticking approaching.

Allan gave a groan, and ran to hide behind Robin and Guy.

"Do you hear that?! It's the sound of his claws!"

Marian was pale: she had thought that Allan had been influenced by the spectral atmosphere of that night, but now she could hear the sound of paws, approaching the room, too.

She stood up, upset.

A moment later, a large black shadow broke into the room, and the girl let out a cry of terror. Allan also howled in panic, and Robin jumped to his feet, even paler than before.

Marian covered her face with her hands when she saw that the Bargest was jumping on Guy. She didn't dare look the end of the black knight, and she thought that then her dream was really a premonition.

Then she heard Guy's voice, and she opened her eyes wide, in disbelief.

Gisborne was laughing.

Even Allan stared at him, incredulous: the infernal beast who had been pursuing him to drag him to hell, had leaned his paws on Guy's chest, and, instead of crying out of terror, the black knight seemed to be happy of it.

"But it's a dog!" Robin snarled, after a few moments, and Guy grinned, holding a hand on the animal's head.

"Of course it's a dog, didn't you really believe the story of the infernal hound?"

Allan ventured to get closer to look at him better, and the puppy wagged his tail and licked his hand.

"Hey, but he's not ferocious!"

"Since when did you have a dog, Sir Guy?" Marian asked, astonished.

Guy looked at the dog, and let out a small sigh.

"Since today, I suppose," he said, answering the girl's question, then he took some of the meat that was on the table, and he handed it to the dog.

"How did you call him, Giz?"

"I didn't give him a name."

"But he must have one!"

Gisborne reflected us for a moment and he grinned again.

"Bargest."