Sorry, havent updated in ages. Have been occupied by other Robin Hood stories! Sorry for excluding Little little John aka Johnny cos I forgot him! Oops! He's back now! Please keep supporting me!

For the second time in as many hours Tristan woke to find himself attached to a tree except this time he was stripped from all his clothes excluding his undergarments. Groggily, he blinked and took in his surroundings. He found he was in a gloomy clearing, thick trees with spreading branches densely packed around him blocking out light from above. In front of him was a group of men, five in total, chuckling and talking quietly between themselves, huddled by a flickering fire.

"Tristan?" A voice whispered to his left causing him to jump in his bindings severely agitating his tender chest and causing him to let out a pained hiss. He immediately looked over at their captors to see if they'd noticed he'd woken but they were oblivious.

"Grace," he called softly back, craning his neck to see the tree his twin was tied to about a metre away.

"Are you ok?" his sister queried, keeping her voice low so not to attract attention.

"Yeah, you?"

"Yes, where's Ranulf? Can you see him?" Grace asked anxiously.

"Um…" the boy looked around and suddenly spotted the man who had saved them from the Sheriff and Gisborne strung by his wrists to a tree branch, blindfolded, his head drooping, "Over there. He's alive I think."

"Good, what's going on? Who are these men?"

"Outlaws. But not the good type. They rob anyone and everyone. They are dead men and broke the law for bad reasons, not noble ones," Tristan spat, glaring at the men who he was speaking of.

"How are we going to escape?" the young girl asked.

"I don't know," Tristan said, "They have already taken our possessions, I can't think of what more they want other than to kill us." The boy spoke so bluntly and Grace felt slightly frightened.

"Someone will save us. Robin will, won't he? And Will, he knows you're missing," Grace questioned, hoping.

"I don't know, Grace, I really don't know."

Will and Djaq were at the front of the group who were moving swiftly through the forest, following the marks left by whoever had taken the children. They were mostly subtle clues but the biggest giveaway to the twins whereabouts was the abandoned camp and hastily stamped out fire from Ranulf's first camp.

Will hurried forward and placed his hand on the remnants of the fire and found it was still warm, some embers hidden beneath the ash. They continued, knowing they were hot on the trail of Grace and Tristan.

After about half an hour of striding in silence Allan found he couldn't take it any more, someone had to speak, break this tense atmosphere and shed some light and optimism on the situation.

"Hey, guys, it'll be alright. The kids will be fine. There is no way that the Sheriff's men will find them before we do. They're a loada stupid buffoons that couldn't find a horse if you put it in front of them. We know the forest much better."

"Yes, but that's not the point, is it, Allan?" Johnny asked, "Who knows who could have the children if it's not the Sheriff. It was so much simpler when we believed it was him. This way we could be playing into the hands of some unknown enemy."

"I s'pose, but still, look on the bright side. We'll find them either dead or alive. I mean the kidnappers won't want to lug the bodies around."

"Allan!" Will growled and hit his friend over the back of the head, "That was not helpful in anyway was it? Think before you speak."

After he had reprimanded Allan, the carpenter glanced at Marian who was clutching Robin's hand even after all these years apart and all the lies they still immediately melted into a couple. Her face was a mixture of worry and determination. Her blue eyes hard but slightly watery as if she was ready to cry at any moment which Will was sure she wouldn't, not in front of the lads anyway. Now Robin, that was another matter entirely.

At Allan's comment, the strong charade had slipped slightly and panic had replaced her other emotions. Though this feeling was also reined in quickly and soon her face was passive again. Will admired her strength; he knew plenty of normal mothers who would've broken down at this point, his own included.

He remembered when he was younger and his mother was still alive, he had disappeared for the day to search for excellent wood he had heard of deep in Sherwood that he'd heard a carpenter from another village talk about. He had told Luke where he was going but his brother was only five at the time and the fact had completely slipped his mind.

Will's mother went out of her mind all day with worry. Scouring the whole of Locksley for him and asking everyone around if they'd seen a tall, thin, dark haired boy which was unfortunately how many children looked. She was distraught when none of them had.

Eventually the nine year old Will returned from his hunt with his bounties slung over his bony shoulder to a thorough ear bashing and tongue lashing from his furious but relieved mother.

Robin suddenly grabbed the young carpenter's arm and stopped his flow of thought in its tracks. His sharp, well trained ears had heard something up ahead and he hissed to the gang to go into stealth mode. No talking and light running. They nodded in understanding having also heard the low murmur of voices a little way through the dense trees.

Although the group had never ventured this far into the very heart of Sherwood they could still move with ease and vigilance through the trunks as if they had lived their all their life and knew each tree as if it was a close friend.

As they drew closer to the source of the noise, each outlaw blended into the green foliage around them and became one of the shadows creeping effortlessly up on the unsuspecting people.

Djaq and John were crouched beside each other as they peered around a thick, rough oak tree trunk and spotted what they were looking for. A gathering of men. Outlaws, that now Robin had made the forest his home had delved deeper into Sherwood to avoid capture and discovery.

They were chatting amicably and seemed to be inspecting something in the dim firelight. It was some kind of necklace with something on the end. A tag. Djaq realised, Tristan's tag. These were the men that had taken the twins.

It was then she spotted a young girl tied to a tree and she guessed this was the Grace the others were speaking of. A little further away was a rather battered Tristan, his head lolling, eyes closed. Djaq could see he needed further medical attention than what Sally had been able to provide him.

"Tristan," John breathed, "We have to save them." The giant began to stand to make a charge into the makeshift camp but was beaten to it by an arrow that cut silently through the air and landed with a satisfying thunk in one of the logs the men were sitting on. Immediately they all jumped to their feet and John drew in a sharp breath of recognition.

"Hello," came Robin's bold voice from somewhere to their right and suddenly he stepped out of the cover of the trees and into full view, "Haven't seen you in awhile. I see you haven't changed your ways much. Stealing poor helpless children. Wounded children in fact. How low can you sink, really? If stealing a haypenny from a defenceless peasant isn't enough?"

"Yeah, and I want that back by the way."

"What's this got to do with you, Lavender boy?!"

Can you guess who? Please review!