To protect the innocent.
~past~
*-*
Outside the gentle breeze had increased into a biting howl. The last couple of days had been surprisingly warm, the snow had actually started melting. Also forest seemed to think spring arrived early this year. That was unusual to say the least at these parts of the land in February. But then the whole winter had been a peculiar affair. The sky was darkening dangerously fast, there was little doubt in most people's minds that a storm was approaching. By nightfall the wind was howling, rain was poring from the pitch-black sky and no one dared set foot outside as lightning bolts cut through the air making the heavens burn above their heads. People were only praying their tents would endure the torment from the storm.
Ronja was clinging to Severus' side like a frightened animal. She was obviously afraid of lightning, she jumped every time they lit up the entire camp, followed by rolling thunder over their heads.
"Don't worry child. You're safe here with me," Severus absentmindedly tried to calm the shivering youngster. He was thinking about the tree that he'd been leaning too earlier that day. Someone had left behind a small knife in the bark, it was a rusty old thing, probably blunt and forgotten a long time ago. But it would do.
"Sleep now, Ronja, I'll watch over you tonight," he mumbled to the girl who was yawning spite her terrified eyes. An hour later she was sleeping steadily, small snores curling up her throat and a look of pure innocence on her face.
'Sleep well, child. I release you of the responsibilities you've laid on your self. You are free now.> He brushed a rosy cheek and tucked her in with awkward motions as he heard the wind call. The bad weather couldn't have been more welcome.' Severus hurried outside, careful not to wake Ronja in the process. She wouldn't understand.
Not a human was in sight, the terrible storm had chased them all inside. Therefore no one noticed the crouching shape heading for a group of trees twenty meters vest to the boundaries of the camp. He was drained within seconds. The old urge to howl against the sky awoke inside him, but he held his breath, denying himself to let go just jet. The knife still was driven far into the bark, and the wizard had a hard time extracting it. The old mantra fled through his mind as the blade was reflecting the light of a cracking lightning, 'protect the innocent'. That was what he was doing, finally. He had seen it all wrong. The innocent wasn't the latent maniac growing inside him, it was the many innocent people who would suffer if this thing grew up. He'd done it so many times before, erased evil from the earth so that good would prevail. This would be another good deed in the sake of mankind. He denied thinking about his body's impostor as anything more than a filthy creature that didn't deserve life.
'Protect the innocent.' He started fumbling towards the depths of the forest, needing solace to do what he'd planned. The lighting sky showed him the way until he found a little clearing a good ten minutes walk from the camp. Finally he let go. All the madness that had been gathered in his mind for the last six months erupted as he threw his face towards the sky and howled, the knife still held in a firm, shaking grip.
"WHERE ARE YOU WHEN I NEED YOU, ALBUS?!??!?! YOU SENT ME A GIRL TO DO YOUR BIDDING, JUST AS YOU SENT ME!!!!!" Five meters to his left a lightning struck a tree, illuminating it, sending sparks to the air like firework.
"YOU SENT ME BACK, WELL KNOWING I WOULD HAVE TO END MY LIFE HERE IN THIS STINKING HELLHOLE, YOU BASTARD! IT'S UNFAIR, I'M JUST A SIMPLE MAN!!!! HOW CAN YOU EXPECT ME TO SIMPLY ACCEPT BEING A PAND ON YOUR CHESSBOARD?!!??" the anger burned dry and he fell to his knees as his body shook in its loneliness.
"Why did you leave me here, father? Why must I go through this alone?" he whispered as his hands squeezed his own cursed stomach. He didn't sense the desperate cries around him, from the very wood surrounding him. He didn't feel the plea, the desperate power canalling through him to keep him from doing what he thought was the only way. But he was still too weak, still his ears hadn't grown accustomed to the drumming of his many allies. He only felt tired and alone, with one more task to do in his pathetic life.
*-*
Ronja awoke just as a deafening boom rolled over the camp, the aftermath of a gigantic lightning. Horrified she discovered she was completely alone in the tent.
"Severi!" she screamed as she stumbled out into the storm, blinded by the rain. She screamed his name over and over again, as her fear rose to panic, her panic to hysteria. The fairy was alone somewhere out there, in the forest! He might die if she didn't find him immediately. But Ronja was just a scared little girl, and there was a greater chance she would get lost inside the forest than of her finding him. She did the only thing she could do, she went to the tent of Robin Hood.
*-*
In the quiet dark cosiness of the tent the two lovers were gently entwined on the makeshift bed of furs and blankets. Outside the noise of the storm filtered in, but this was their time and nothing would intrude on their privacy. For a few hours this little tent was their haven where they could just be a man and a woman, deeply and utterly in love with each other. A small coal brazier both lit and heated the room, throwing shadows across the tent and adding to the intimacy and mystery of their union. The red embers highlighting his sleeping lover's hair and face in the semi-darkness, the long curves of white neck and shoulder suffused from pale white to a gentle amber from the fires glow. Warmth and intimacy no man could ask more of her, she was the fire that held his very being together and the embers to fuel him to greatness. Marion was everything to him, he'd loved her literally from the first moment they set eyes on each other.
And yet, this stranger had changed all that, all the anger and ugliness so long held in check begged to be let out. How he wanted to destroy this Severi, everything he hated and detested in another human being stood looking back at him, through those black eyes, and he wanted nothing more than to pluck them out with his bare hands and shove them down the creature's throat. Anger, a rage so long held back by calmness and his knight's training suddenly meant nothing to him. Let the crowd have him, let them rip his accursed body apart.. for I'll not bury him ...let the wolves and the maggots take what's left. The earth's too good for a creature like that...two of them are two too many. The sheriff is mine the blood right is mine but this thing the crowd can send straight to hell.
Then Marion rode in to rescue the accursed creature or both himself and the creature, and in doing so she changed everything again.
He didn't have to tell her, she of all people knew how much he wanted to take revenge on this man. It was his right… his god given right...an eye for an eye...a son for a father...a father for a son. A life for the destruction of everything he held dear…his parents...his home...his lands...his own name. Banished and disgraced by lies and treachery instigated by the sheriff, made a pariah and a vagabond by his own cousin...for what, a step closer to the throne.
But she stood her ground that night, challenged him and everyone else there...he was so angry and so damn proud of her at the same time.
They had enough, they were powerful and titled, his father was loyal to the new king, but for his cousin it was only the beginning, and the end of everything Robin had one time called dear to him. Except Marion, her father knowing full well the extent of corruption at court did nothing to defend his own kinsman such was the fear of drawing attention to himself. Loxley's family was made the scapegoat and accused of treason whilst he was in the Holy Land under the banner of the crusades. In a rare pang of remorse Marion's father secretly gathered what he could of the Loxley treasures and hid them. Loxley himself was arrested as soon as he set foot back on English soil and thrown into prison unaware of what had taken place. Marion's father did not realise that his act of belated kindness would condemn the remaining family to a hideous fate.
Only Marion seemed untouched, if anything she was more beautiful and bewitching than ever before. Her red hair so like a lion's mane at times highlighted her nature. Resilient and noble...more noble and honourable than he, he felt that. She was the rope that held everything together for him and she was far stronger in reasoning than any general he'd met. The crusades had taught him well, as he rode into battle against an opponent more wise and skilled in the art of warfare he'd ever encountered before. The continual slaughter of innocents left him sickened as he watched other knights and encampments loot and pillage their way remorselessly across the Holy Lands but still he held his tongue.
It was fate...'kismet' he'd turned a blind eye to the atrocities and horrors perpetrated by his fellow crusaders in their greed and lust for riches, only to return home to find ...what ...the madness and horror he'd left behind visited upon his own family. Strange ...ironic really...he was sure he'd gone mad...it was the only way to survive really, chained to a wall in a dungeon listening to the charges read out, hearing the trial and false witness of servants and paid cronies. Begging a deaf god for mercy on a family that had already been tortured to death.
Waiting day after day to be hung or worse still, having your eyes and tongue cut out and left to hang in an iron basket from the walls of the castle...like your mother and sister...not even allowed the sanctity of a burial ...the two rotting corpses hung from the battlements until he cut them down himself. Yes ...he'd gone mad in those dungeons as he felt the fear crowding in. Some nights he swore he could hear them, and he began to cry out their names. Strange that he should feel guilt over their deaths, he was not there and could not have stopped it, but he understood loss. He understood too well the pain and the horror, all the things that had never touched him before he felt with an unnerving insight.
But she alone had dared to find and rescue him from those dungeons. Bribery, blackmail and Marion's sheer will had got him out of there. Hidden and nursed back to health in secrecy by the friars in the Nottingham priory, Robin learnt what Marion refused even then to tell him. His young brother and sister had been bound, gagged and thrown into the pig pens when they refused to testify against their parents. The animals had been starved for days and repeatedly hit with barbed cudgels until they were in a near frenzy with pain. It was a punishment reserved for the worst crimes and cruel beyond belief, however punishment was a public sport and so the crowd watched and jeered and bet how long the children could survive in the pit. Some watched with cruel pitiless eyes, others drew in closer to watch; fascinated by the horror and the screams. But the few loyal precious few, cried and prayed for their deaths to be quick. The sheriff and his mother sat and watched the entertainment in quiet repose with members of the royal court in attendance at the festivities.
And now, three years later he lived as an outlaw in his own lands. A lord of the forest with servants and villages under his protection. Where once they were his to control he now protected them. He, feudal lord was loved by them, no suffering had been greater than that of his family and all knew of their fates. Yet they flocked to him, knowing full well that he was branded a traitor and banished, yet they called him Lord willingly. It seemed to give him a nobleness or greatness that he knew he did not possess...a symbol of something greater...of a longing for freedom, of the ruler ship of a just and honourable man.
But it was Marion who was the just and honourable lord, not he. Everything they saw in him and his actions came from Marion, his light in the darkness, his salvation and his equal in everything.
The keeper of their vows Friar Tuck married Loxley and Marion in secret shortly after she engineered his escape. Such was her loyalty and devotion to him. However to save her own lands from being confiscated and her own family from imprisonment they hid the marriage. Better a maid, and free woman than a wife in chains and hostage to the crown. So began the game, and the increasing visits to the Sheriff's castle from Marion. What better way to have access to the castle and grounds, maps, and instructions for gold shipments and prisoners across the borders. The sheriff was courting her as she spied on him.
If Marion had been born male, he would have been a formidable foe indeed.
Outside the roar of the wind was so loud he didn't hear the terrified girl before she ripped open his tent.
"He's gone, he's gone.. you must find him, you must!!! He's so weak, he might die out there!" The little thing was hysteric and she looked like a drowned rat. Robin hauled her inside and tried to shake some reason into her mind. Marion awoke and sat up, bewildered.
"One more time, girl!" he said staring at her firmly. But Ronja just grew more hysterical by the second.
"Severi, he left while I slept! I'm afraid he's to do something terrible!!"
"That rat! I knew he wasn't to be trusted!" Robin snarled and jumped to his feet. The man was obviously planning to murder someone or escape!
"Do you know where he went?!" Marion asked the girl kindly, trying to calm the scared little thing.
"No, but I think he's in the forest." the girl cried as Robin gathered his bow and arrow, the sword Marion had given him and dressed to go outside to the raging night. Marion stared at Robin for a minute, her eyes searching him, he knew it.
"You stay here with the girl, I'll find Severi!" he said as he braised himself for the weather. Marion simply nodded her approval, a small warning in her gaze.
"Use Shadow, he will lead you to him!" Ronja urged and tugged his sleeve before he went outside.
"No, a horse isn't a good companion during thunderstorms!" Robin answered: "Besides, I think I know where he's going!" With these words he ran outside, anger burning in his mind as he hoped he would have a good excuse to exterminate Severi when he found him. There was a path leading to a small clearing some fifty meters from Severi's tent. From there, there was three different paths leading in different directions. If Severi had any plans of escaping he would go that way. It was the path closest by his tent. If he would've murdered anyone Robin reckoned he would be on the top of the list. That made Severi a simple rat, trying to sneak away under the blessing of black night and the worst February-storm in centuries. He'd given this ungrateful bastard sanctuary, and this was how he repaid him! Robin wasn't aware of his own swearing as he fought his way deeper and deeper into the woods. He would pay for this, oh yes he would!
He reached the clearing just as a firebolt plummeted down from the sky and lit the whole forest in a heart stopping second. There, in the middle of the clearing, a kneeling figure was clenching a dagger, aiming it at his stomach. Despair painted the face of the man the second it lit up. His face a contorted mass of grieve and fear.
"Severi!" Robin yelled as the kneeling man slowly led the dagger an arm length away from his body with shaking arms to give it more force to run it through his flesh. He hesitated for just a second. The blade was shining like a star when it came to motion, rushing towards its goal. Time slowed down. Robin stopped thinking as he raised his bow, snatched an arrow and led it to the string. He aimed in one tenth of a second and the arrow left the bow with a choked whoosh as the dagger was centimetres from the man's abdomen. Robin hit his target. The knife shot out of Severi's hands just as the blade breached his clothes. One inch to either side and Robin would have missed completely and the man would have been dead. As time started rolling again it dawned to Robin he'd just saved the life of the very man he wanted dead.
Severi got to his feet, black eyes flaring. There was an intenseness about him Robin had never seen before and a desperation greater than any time he and his men had been inches away from killing him. The black clad man turned his back to him and staggered towards the spot where the dagger was glinting now and again during the lightning. Robin ran after him and grabbed his shoulder.
"You stupid son of a bitch! Why couldn't you just let me die??!" Severi screamed at him as he was forced down on the ground to stop him from hurting himself.
"That's what you've wanted all along, so why didn't you let me save you your trouble?!" The well-known stench of fear was reeking from the man as he struggled against Robin's firm hands.
"I decided to let you live!" Robin howled into the wind: "Were you trying to kill yourself just to prove me wrong?!?!!" A rattle went through Severi's body as his hands were grasping around his stomach.
"I had no choice, it was my duty..." Robin barely caught the words.
"What are you talking about.. duty?!" Finally the soggy man raised his tormented gaze upwards, meeting the younger man's bewildered eyes.
"If I don't die I might bring doom down on all of you. For I carry your death sentence within my very body!" Robin shook his shoulders harshly:
"I don't fear you, you're weaker than a new-born child! And IF you die the revenge of the Sheriff will be just as severe as if you'd to be brought back alive, in fact worse! So if you want to die a martyr death you can forget it this instant. The only way to keep us alive is if you stay alive, Severi! I don't care how ugly you look, if you're kind or evil, I promised to keep you alive, therefore you will stay alive!" He dragged the man to his feet and started to drag him towards the camp. Severi struggled free from his grip as a terrifying grimace contorted his face beyond recognition. With surprising strength he grabbed Robin's arm and planted his right palm on top of his stomach.
"THIS is what will bring doom over all of you!" he cried. And as a new bolt of lightning scarred the sky Robin felt it. Through the layers of clothes on Severi's body he could feel frantic movement. His eyes widened until they threatened to pop out of his head and he jerked back as if he'd burned his hand.
"What the.." he gaped as he stared at the man in front of him.
"If you value your own life, if you have any mercy in your soul, kill me now," Severi begged as Robin backed a few steps away, too shocked to even breathe at the moment.
"What the hell.. are you!" he whispered.
"A stupid man who went straight into a trap," Severi answered, voice barely audible in the storm. Robin had seen many horrifying things during the crusades, but this was the worse yet! The man standing in front of him was.. somehow pregnant.. What the hell was going on here?! Was this man a fairy from a far away land after all? No human male had the ability to reproduce by it self so this… creature standing in front of him couldn't be human. He continued to stare at Severi's stomach, as if he was afraid something would pop out of it and bite him. He'd felt it himself, and still he couldn't bring himself to believe. For god's sake, it wasn't possible!
"I don't believe you. It isn't possible!" he yelled on top of the wind, at the same time Severi's face contorted with pain. His feet caved in on him as he fell to his knees, and a deep rattle went through his body. Robin watched him helplessly for a few seconds before a decision shot down into his mind. There was too many questions unanswered and Severi didn't seem able to talk at all for the moment. Therefore Robin carried the man or what ever creature he was back to the camp, where he was met by Marion, and Ronja who looked like she couldn't have one single tear left in her body.
"Quickly, carry him to the tent!" Marion ordered, and Robin obeyed her as he always did. The now moaning man was laid down on the makeshift bed of blankets and immediately became the centre of attention of the frantic girl. Marion on the other hand was dragged out of the tent.
"Robin, what are you doing?!" Marion protested: "Severi needs our help!"
"No!" Robin yelled as he dragged her towards his own tent: "That man is reeking of dark magic! Something's terribly wrong with him and I'm not letting him anywhere near you!"
*-*
Marion knew she could wait no longer, that her plan had to be set to life, for the sake of Robin's sanity as well as her child's and Severi's life. She'd waited too long telling him, as she'd struggled with her own realisation of the big news. There was no doubt in her mind Robin would kill Severi if he found out he was carrying a child that most likely was both Marion's and the Sheriff. And by the looks of his face he'd learned something about Severi's peculiar condition out in the forest. Just as he shoved her inside the tent and was about to burst into what had to be Severi's death sentence Marion stared him to silence.
"Robin, I need you to listen to me now, you hear?" Robin plummeted down on his behind, a fire raging his steel blue eyes telling her every second was precious and that she would have to weigh her every word.
"What, Marion. What could you possibly tell me that won't make me kill that unnatural creature this instant," he said heavily. In other circumstances this soaking wet man would have made her laugh, but not now. He looked deadly. And so Marion started telling her lie, a lie that was the only way to keep her love sane, and her child and its carrier alive. Breaking the news to Robin was easier than Marion thought. He knew there was a bond between this stranger and Marion. Yet she insisted she loved only Robin and Robin alone. She could see her news was terrible and wonderful at the same time. She loved him and was faithful to him only and they would have a child. But the child was stolen and Severi was kidnapped and crippled by the witch, forced to carry the child and to bear the sick lechery of the Sheriff.
She didn't have to act this part ...revulsion and pity filled her heart and suppressed tears began to run down her face. All the sorrow she felt for Severus was put into those few intense moments with Robin. She had to make him believe it was so, he had to believe her and turn his anger and jealousy away from Severi and back to his real enemy.
"He carries our son Robin… our son."
It was a great deal to take in, but Loxley would not question it. He could not and would not, the stranger would be his saving or his undoing. Nothing made sense around this man that hated the sheriff as much as Robin himself. No man can carry child, it was a against all the laws in creation and yet Marion told him that it was so and he was carrying their son. He looked at her, not knowing what to say. His heart was beating so hard he felt dizzy.
"Are we really.. to become parents.. after all?" he finally whispered. Marion nodded, a heartfelt smile on her face. But she could not linger. Severi had been brought back in great pain and he needed aid. But just as she thought she'd saved everything a new kind of flame burst into Robin's eyes.
"He tried to kill our son, Marion!" he growled and rose to his feet.
"What are you talking about, Robin?" Marion said and dragged him down again.
"That's why he escaped, Marion. I found him just before he was to stab himself with a rusty dagger!" Robin yelled, infuriated once more.
*-*
Marion had no idea how she calmed her lover down and got his permission to go to the tent where Severi was. He had tried to kill the child, he had tried to kill her child! Why, oh why would he? Marion plummeted through the entrance of the tent and crawled right to Severi's side, pushing Ronja roughly away.
"Why, Severi, why would you?!?!?" tears of anger and disbelief trickled down her cheeks as she paid no respect for the man's obvious pain.
"Doom.. you better off... without me..." Severi croaked.
"What about my child? When were you about to tell me about that, huh? For I know you carry my son within you. Ronja told me!" Somewhere in a corner a whimper came from the girl.
"Your...son?" True surprise painted Severi's features. Now Ronja seemed to wake back to life.
"Severi doesn't know! The Sheriff never told him!" she screamed and lunged a good old Ronja attack.
"Severi believed it was the Sheriff's son, he didn't know it was yours! That's why I worried about him going out into the forest alone. Maybe he didn't know... And I believed he knew..." she made a pitiful howl and curled protectively around her fairy.
"Forgive me, I thought you knew.." she whispered to the silent man. The atmosphere in the little tent was so intense Marion found it hard to breathe.
"Is it true?" she asked: "Didn't you know?" Severi's eyes showed both pain and remorse.
"No.. I didn't.." he whispered: "Fair lady... I would never..." Some sort of cramp roared through the man's body and he let out a low growl.
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