1 | master of arms [gisborne]

Forty-four part one

Guy woke up with what seemed like a hangover. His face was on the forest floor, and his arms and legs were tied up. He blinked a few times, trying to regain his eyesight. When he could see, he searched his surroundings. It was night time, and a fire was made. A wolf howled, and Guy jumped. Robin groaned softly, also just waking up. The both of them internally panicked, but showed it by wriggling around.

"What is this?"

"Who's done this?" Guy demanded, looking as best he could behind him. "Hood?"

"No."

Guy kept wriggling around, the panic starting to show itself. "I have... to get out... of these god... damn... bonds!"

Robin was doing a better job at composing himself. "Where are you?" he shouted. "You're a coward to take us like this."

"Show yourself," Guy demanded.

Then he froze when he heard the soft crunch of leaved and looked up. A figure with a dark brown cloak was walking toward them, and Guy kept wriggling around. He did his best to flip over on the other side so he could see the figure when he walked past them and sat across the fire. He sat down on a boulder and examined the two men.

"Who sent you? Prince John?" Guy's voice was normal, but no less threatening and low.

"No," Robin countered. "This is one of your sister's tricks." Robin turned his head from the figure to Guy. "What would Isabella want with us?"

"I want you to listen... and understand." The man's voice sounded old, raggedy and raspy, like he had been through a lot. "Someone's life depends on it."

"I find it hard to understand when I am tied," Guy said through gritted teeth, wriggling around as if you prove his point. "Now free me!"

"I'll free you — free you from the bad blood that shackles you two together," countered the man, still not revealing his face.

Guy looked to the ground, his hair in his face. "Well, maybe there are good reason's for that bad blood." Guy and Robin exchanged a look before looking at the man again. "What do you know about our lives anyway?"

"More than you do," the man said, and Guy blinked repeatedly. "I know the truth."

Now Robin seemed annoyed. "Truth about what?"

"About how your parents really died."

Memories of the fire came back to Guy, and he shuddered. He remembered being outside, watching hopelessly as his home burned to the ground. Isabella was still only a young child, as was the woman he was trying to find. He also remembered how young and naïve Robin was.

"My father's in there! Yours, too, and your mother! Do something!"

Guy looked to the ground once more and made in effort to shrug, his voice low and quiet. "You know about the fire," he mused. "So?"

Robin let his head rest on the floor, staying quiet for a few moments. "It was never a secret," he finally said. "Everybody knew that we both became orphans that day."

"There are still things you don't know about your past," the man said, looking at Robin. He frowned tried his best to sit in an upright position.

Guy knew exactly what he was talking about. "Twenty years ago, I witnessed my mother in a stable with your father while my own father was in the Holy Land. That's when I finally figured out that they were having an affair," Guy said and also moved into an upright position, leaning on a tree.

"What?!" Robin exclaimed. "My father loved one woman only, and that was my mother."

Guy sighed and looked up at the sky. "That's just what you were told," he said lowly. "The truth was kept from you by your precious father."