The Tales of Robin Hood

Chapter Eight - William

Robin's eyes closed and all her muscles relaxed, showing all the signs that she was either unconscious or dead.  I checked to make sure it wasn't the latter.  She was breathing, and would hopefully be fine, but now I have her magic.  Can I use it?  How could I?  I'm not sure about any of this.

"He'll be here soon."

I looked over to the girl in the cell across from me. "What?"

"He'll be here soon, to take you away," she said, and my eyes widened in surprise.

"Why would he take me?"

She shrugged. "For your magic, I guess."

"And he couldn't have it when it was in Robin?"

"Then, she could use it.  You, however, cannot."

I looked at her, confused. "What do you mean?"

She sighed. "When it's in her, she can do almost anything with it.  It was given to her naturally, so she's able to use it.  When you have it, you can't use it to save yourself." She stood and stretched, then looked over to the cell beside the one Robin and I were in. "Another victim, finally awake."

I strained my eyes to see who it was, but it just wasn't possible.  All I could see were a few of the bars on the other end, and I heard a moan through the wall.

"So," the girl said, directing my attention back to her, "you never said your name."

"William," I said, and she offered me a small smile.

"Crystal."

I heard a sharp intake of breath in the cell on the other side of me, and I wondered how many people are in here.  I looked around at the dirt and stones, and the rusted bars imprisoning us in these caves, starting to think that there's no possible way to get out.

"Wh—where am I?"

That sure sounded like...

"Ross?"

"Will?"

I stuck my head out through the bars as far as I could and saw his face, shadowed from the darkness of his prison.  His eyes were pink with a light shade of purple mixed in, as I'm sure mine are as well, and his brown hair was tussled this way and that, coated in dirt.  He had a smudge of mud on his right cheek, and sweat was beading on his forehead.  He didn't look so happy to be imprisoned either.

"Where are we?" he asked again.

"We're in some kind of reformatory," I answered, and all the light seemed to fade from his usually careless blue eyes.

"H—how did this happen?" he asked.

"A guy came for Robin," I said. "It's the same one that gave her all those scars."

Saying that made a lump in my throat appear, and I poked my head back in my cell, looking down at her peaceful expression.  The evil man had taken her cloak, so she was just wearing a white shirt smudged with dirt and gray trousers just as muddy.  I wonder why she decided to wear boys' clothing, what drove her to do that.  Normally girls love to wear dresses and skirts, anything frilly and pretty.  But not her, the closest she got to it was her cloak, and even that wasn't very girly either.

"Why'd he take us, too?" Ross asked, bringing my attention away from Robin.

"I don't know," I admitted. "Witnesses, I guess."

"You were for magic extraction," Crystal said, nodding to me.  She turned to look at Ross. "You were taken for...other purposes."

I could tell she knew what would happen to him, but the sad and deadened look made me not want to know. "Is Nick here?"