Disclaimer to all things RH
Here's Chapter 10! Continues right after where Chapter 9 left off. Enjoy!
"Now what?" Marian asked.
"I thought you were supposed to be the intelligent one." Robin said, smirking to hide his nervousness.
"I thought you were supposed to be the one that was in control." Marian countered wiping any sign of amusement off of Robins face. "Please tell me you have at least a twelfth of a plan." she fought hard to fight that tiny tremor of fear in her voice. Robin didn't show any sign of noticing.
"Not yet." he paused for a moment deep in thought. Then he saw Marian looking expectantly at him. "Well I don't see you contributing." Robin nearly yelled, so frustrated that he couldn't think.
Marian rolled her eyes, "Forgive me for seeing the urgency in the situation, but I think we need to do something." She was right, the animals, which they could now see were two tigers and a full grown male lion were coming towards them, stalking their prey. "Really Robin-"
Robin had had enough. He turned to face her and grabbed her shoulders roughly and yelled, "Marian, I can't think with you constantly nagging in my ear." seeing the shock in her face, he lowered his voice and loosened his grip. "Just give me one minute."
Marian nodded, "I can give you one minute. They might not, though." she gestured to the felines coming close even still.
Robin didn't answer. He stared into oblivion thinking while Marian shifted uncomfortably. Frustrated at being unable to do anything, she set down her torch, drew her bow and arrow. She then dipped the end of the arrow in the torch setting it on fire. Then she loosed the arrow into one of the chests that sat some distance away from the others. Slowly, the fire began to lick the wooden chest. Robin looked at her quizzically. Marian shrugged,
"At least we have some light." she tried to smile and Robin tried to return the favour.
"Right." he said looking from one animal to the next. "The goal here is not to get cornered into a wall. That's what they want to do." he grabbed her arm and led her to the centre of the area, "Now, cover my back and I cover yours." he spoke with no emotion. He talked like...like a crusader. But, in a flash he changed back to the boyish Robin, "No heroics." he winked at her.
"That goes for you too." she smiled sadly, hoping they would get out alive. They both just stared, facing each other for a few seconds, trying to memorize each others faces in case they never got another chance.
However, just as they broke eachothers gaze, one of the tigers leaped for Robin's back. Marian screamed Robin's name as she watched him fly to the ground on his stomach. The beast bit at his back, but instead of tearing flesh, his quiver of arrows was snapped into pieces, while his bow was flown to the other side of the room. In retaliation to this, Marian loosed two arrows into the tigers back. Immediately, the animal backed off with a moan. But, it hadn't given up yet. Marian rushed over to Robin,
"Are you alright?" she asked, genuinely concerned.
"Not a scratch." he flashed her a grin before getting up. Then, he saw the wounded tiger attack, this time at Marian. Before it could even touch her, Robin threw a dagger right into its throat. Their was a small spurt of blood and then the creature fell. Marian, who had only seen the attacker at the last instant, closed her eyes tightly, waiting for the end to come, opened them, surprised to have felt no pain.
Robin smiled grimly, "Can't have you get hurt before you marry Gisborne, can I?" Marian glared at him.
They both stood up. He and Marian stood back to back, with the two remaining felines surrounding them. They spun in a circle, waiting for their furry opponents to strike. Robin frowned as he saw his broken arrows and his missing bow and frowned. All he had left were a few daggers, two to be exact, since one was now in the throat of a dead tiger.
"Why can't you just accept it?" Marian asked desperately.
"Accept what?" Robin asked, as they both charged the animals, he the lion and she the tiger.
"That I am going to marry Gisborne." she murmered, as if she were ashamed of it.
"Oh, let me think," Robin said sarcastically. "Maybe because he tried to kill the king and he tried to kill me. Oh and maybe because he is the side-kick to the most malicious man in all of England." he looked at her with mocking seriousness, "But, that's just me being picky."
They both continued fighting, both managing to slightly wound their opponents. However, they did not achieve them unscated. Both were covered in minor cuts and scratches. When both animals backed off for a second to nurse their wounds, Marian turned to face Robin.
"Robin, what is this about?" there was sadness and defeat in her eyes, defeat against her future. But now she spoke in anger to cover it. "Everytime we have a conversation, my engagement overshadows it. It's not like you are marrying him. I am. It is me that will have to walk down the aisle to meet him. I am the one who has to wake up next to him every morning-"
"YOU!" he cried, "Marian, it's about you. It was always about you. I was insanely jealous. Can I speak plainer?" there were tears in his eyes now.
"Oh," she scoffed, "Was it about me when you left? Was it about me when you made a promise to- to love me forever and marry me, then at the first test, you break it and follow your king to the Holy Land?"
Robin was about to respond when the lion leaped for him once more. Robin tried to jump back, but before he could get entirely out of harms way, the lions teeth sunk into the flesh of this leg. Adrenaline pumping through him he took his dagger and thrust it into the head of the king of beasts. Robin fell back against the ground
Marian, who saw all of this transpire, was so overcome with grief that she fired arrow after arrow into the remaining tiger, even long after it was dead. She rushed over to Robin and shoved the great lions weight off of him. He was breathing quickly.
"It's a little more than a scratch I'm afraid." Robin said trying to smile, but it looked like a painful grimace.
Marian looked at him with painful determination, "Robin you will be alright." she was reassuring herself more than him. She went down to his leg to observe the damage on his leg. It was bleeding like mad. Marian tore her cloak and wrapped it around tightly to try and slow the bleeding. As she was doing this Robin spoke feverishly,
"You were wrong you know." he struggled to say. Marian looked at him confused. After breathing a little to catch his breath, Robin continued, "You said that I only broke both my promises to you, I only broke one."
Marian now had tears falling slowly down her cheeks, "Robin, don't even talk about that, I- I didn't mean it, just rest." She grabbed his hand and held it tightly.
Now Robin laughed, "No, I know you did. You meant every word. I like that about you." he smiled more easily now. "Anyways, I meant to say that I did break my promise to marry you, but I never said I wouldn't love you forever."
Before Marian could respond, Djaq, Will, John and Allan burst into the room. Seeing Robin hurt, Djaq immediately went to his side.
"How did you get here?" Marian asked, trying to wipe her face of the tears.
"Will and I knew that we weren't getting closer to the money so we went back and came this way." Djaq said glancing at Will, who blushed a little.
"We kinda had the same idea." Allan added
"But the iron gate..." Marian trailed off.
"Opened the same way the entrance was opened, eh John?" Allan gave the giant a friendly slap on the back. John gave him a look that said, don't do that again.
Djaq then gained called for Marian's attention, "What happened?"
Marian's face fell as she recalled the event to Djaq, excluding her conversations with Robin. When she had finished, Djaq nodded slowly.
"We need to get him away from here." she said gesturing to Robin, who had passed out. "The sheriff's men might come at any time, and I'd rather move him while we had time."
"But where will we go?" Allan asked, "The camp's on the other side of the forest. There is no way we can get him there quickly. The gang thought for a moment.
"We could take him to Nettlestone." Will piped up, "It's the closest village. Surely someone will take him in."
"That's to dangerous." Marian told him, "We can't indanger any of the villagers. What if the Sheriff finds out? Then they will be punished."
"What about under the barn in Nettlestone?" Will persisted. " There is a root celler of a sorts there and its quite well hidden. No one will look there."
Marian nodded, satistfied with the idea. Everyone looked to John.
"We go to Nettlestone." was all he said.
TBC
What will happen next?? Wait to find out! Please review!