The Tales of Robin Hood

Chapter Fourteen - William

"What?" I asked. "I thought you were kidnapped like Robin and me."

"No, we weren't."

"Then...what happened?"

He sighed, and then looked at me with tired brown eyes. "No, we were the first here, actually.  It was a long time ago, I'm not sure how long, I had known Crystal for a few months and we had grown close, then she told me how she had discovered that she had Magics.  I said it was great and held her hand when she tried to show me, but it didn't work." He paused, taking a breath before continuing, "I didn't believe her then, and she freaked.  She didn't know what happened.  Then lightning struck just meters away and it rained only around us, and when it was gone I realized that she did have Magics.

"It was fun at first, then a man caught us using it, making trees grow and shrink, making animals fly," he continued. "We figured out that I canceled it, and so while he was there I held her hand, that way her emotions wouldn't affect the things around her.  He said he'd tell no one and left, and we felt that we needed to be more careful.  That's when her Magics told her of something we needed.

"Two books," he went on, "buried just outside the tiny home we had made—her father hadn't understood her powers, so she was kicked out, and I went with her—and it was important.  We dug them up, a guy's and girl's edition, and we each kept ours safe.  We left one day to go hunting, and when we came back there was a note nailed to the door—that one right there.  We knew we had no choice but to obey, and we did.  We're the reason all the others are here, it's because we bowed down to him before he had any power to force us."

I was shocked, speechless.  Him and Crystal, they were the reason everyone was here?  Because they gave him the power to begin?  I don't blame him, I really don't.  How could they have known that his threats weren't true?  That it was a bluff.

"You were his first bought of Magics," I whispered, and he nodded solemnly.

"I am sorry, but then we thought it was from the Evil One, the true destroyer," he said. "We didn't realize we were tricked until it was too late.  We had read about him in the books...we figured there was no other way."

I stuck my head back inside and let out a sigh.  So this is how it all started, Him stealing Isaac and Crystal so he could have Magics.  The balance has been thrown; this story shouldn't be able to be told.  The evil man had taken advantage of their knowledge, had twisted the truth to benefit himself.

I have to stop him.

I tried to make a plan form in my mind, but nothing would come.  It was just a blank space filled with an outcome, but nowhere to start.  I sat there against the wall, my knee starting to throb, thinking about any possible way out.  But I don't have Magics; I can't use them, anyway.

That's when I heard the screaming.

It sounded like Robin; I think it's her, anyway.  I stood, ignoring the pain, and scrambled over to the bars, wishing I knew what was going on.  It stopped as suddenly as it started, and I heard Isaac stumble up to the bars like me.

"What was that?" he whispered to me, and I shook my head, trying to find any weak spot in the bars so I could escape and see what happened.  It wasn't long before I saw Him walk up to my cage; opening the door and making me stumble backwards.  He looked at me with disgust, then lined up his fist with my temple.  I ducked at the last second and ran around him, closing the door and locking it, then heading in the direction the scream came from.  I sprinted until I saw Crystal's head sticking out of her cell, and looked across from it to see Robin's was empty.

"Where is she?" I demanded, turning to face her.

"I—I don't know," she stuttered, looking at me with a scared expression. "He—took her.  He saw her using Magics."