Robin awoke, head splitting, not knowing where he was in the forest or how he had arrived. The memory of his family's death surged in his mind, casting his soul back into the depths of a blackened pit of despair. He closed his eyes and longed for death.
"Oh! You're awake!"
Much's voice. Much again. Robin couldn't handle his friend's ever present loyalty.
"Go home, Much," he said, his voice expressionless. "Go home to your family."
The words caught in his throat. He opened his eyes, to see Much's eyes welling up with tears. Shutting his again, he tried to block out the sight.
"Now you're awake, you bathe." Little John was here as well, issuing an order. Anger overtook Robin.
"Why so fastidious, John?" he asked, using words he knew John didn't understand. "I must be filthy, if you need me to bathe."
"You're covered in blood," Much explained. "The vultures were circling, thinking you might be dinner, until you wakened and moved."
"Robin," Little John ignored Much, "go throw yourself in the stream, before I throw you in there myself!"
Robin remained motionless, and Little John made good on his threat. While Much sputtered objections, John heaved Robin over his shoulders and carried him to the stream, then tossed him, fully clothed, into the frigid water.
Shocked out of his despair, Robin came up sputtering. The water stained red as Gisbourne's blood washed off Robin.
With startled, hurt eyes, Robin eyed his two friends on the bank, one so worried and fretful, the other commanding and stern. It was easier to deal with the sterness. He wanted to issue John a threat himself for throwing him into the stream, but he found he hadn't the energy. He closed his eyes again, letting himself sink under the water.
He let his body float face down in the still muddied darkness of the stream. He longed to stay under here forever, just drifting, letting everything go. Don't even think of pulling me to the surface, his mind begged Little John. Let me die. If you are my true friend, let me go.
And then, the underwater muffled stillness was broken by the oddest sound. Robin could swear he heard children laughing. He tried to block out the happy sound of their laughter, but he could not.
In recognition, he gasped, and nearly drowned as he took in water. He quickly rose to the surface of the stream, spitting out water. The sound of laughter stopped as suddenly as it had begun.
"Good! I was worried you weren't coming up," Much was saying.
Ignoring him, Robin dove back under the water again, listening for the sound.
It wasn't only children's laughter he had heard...it was Ellen's laughter. Grace's laughter. Even more surprising, he'd heard his son Edward's laughter. Edward had been gone nearly ten years, yet Robin unmistakably recognized the sound. And there was more. Two more voices he couldn't recognize. All laughing, ecstatically happily.
And then, even more incredible...Marian's laughter. The sound of Marian's laughter from when she had been a small girl. Robin heard her, and he no longer wished for death. He needed to live, so he could listen to the laughter! But he couldn't live without air. His lungs were close to bursting, and he forced his body to erupt to the surface of the stream, just as Little John was about to pull him up by the hair on his head.
"No, you're no going to let yourself die that way," John scolded him.
But Robin didn't care. Once he'd filled his lungs with air, he plunged back under the water again, and waited.
"Laugh," he begged. "Laugh for me again."
But the only sounds he heard were the muffled arguments of Much and Little John, coming from above the surface of the water.
...
King John stood in Windsor Castle, eagerly reading the news the courrier from Nottingham had brought to him. The king desperately needed such a piece of information, after his humiliation in the field at Runnymead.
"Thank God for Gisbourne!" he exclaimed.
"What is it?" Queen Isabella of Angloumene asked, scowling at her husband.
"Glorious news!" John proclaimed. "After years of hiding in France and Spain, Guy of Gisbourne returned to Locksley, did a bit of mischief, and, listen carefully, for this is the glorious part, was brutally murdered, beheaded, and mutilated by Robin of Locksley!"
"So?"
"So? Is that all you can say...'So?' My dear, you don't know what balm this brings to my soul! Locksley was the one behind that vicious document I had to seal, forcing me to forgo my Divine Right as King! And now, Locklsey proves what a madman he truly is! Oh, I knew it all along! I knew it simply ages ago! Do you know what this means?"
"No."
"You wouldn't, being stupid as a bowl of eggs. This means, my dull witted wife, I get to have a spot of fun with Locksley! Why should he get all the mutilating and murdering fun? Indeed! This proves the wretched document I was forced to seal isn't worth the parchment it's written on. In fact, someone bring me my copy! I'll use it to wipe my royal ass, once I've expelled the bile from me! And once I've done that, I'll journey to Nottingham, declare Locksley 'Robin Hood the Outlaw' once again, put a price on his head no peasant can refuse, catch him, and dispose of him the most vicious way I can think of! How delightful! And just see if any of the lords challenge me then! Without their leader, they are nothing!"
King John practically skipped, he was so eager to be off to Nottingham. "Magna Carta...Magna Farta!' he giggled, releasing a loud fart.
"To Locksley!"
...
(Note: In a very short time after fixing his seal in agreement to Magna Carta, the real King John went back on his word and disobeyed what he had sworn to in the document.)