Goodbye

"Little flower, I don't think it is a good idea." Tuck wrapped his arms around Marion's shoulders as she sat, staring unblinking into the trees. "The sight would do you no good."

"I have to go back. I have to see him.” Marion stated, leaving very little room to argue.

"Remember him as he was, child. Alive, vital and very much in love with you." Tuck whispered into her hair, hugging her tightly to his chest.

She resisted his embrace, body trembling as she regretted heeding her husband’s final words.

"I wanted to stay with him, Tuck," Marion whispered, voice hoarse from the self- imposed silence of the last two days. "He wouldn't let me. Didn't want me to die with him."

"He was a wise man, Marion," Tuck smiled slightly, brushing crimson locks from her eyes. "You will live to carry on his work, for him, for the legacy he leaves behind."

"I would rather have died with him," Marion whispered, "part of me is already dead."

"Grieve little flower, as we all will, in our own way," Tuck turned her to face him, staring deep into the large, tear-filled eyes, "we will need each other for strength."

"I need Robin." Marion sobbed as she buried her face in her hands.

----------------------------

Marion walked slowly, none daring stop her, none having the heart to have her sorrow turned on them.

The soldiers would be long gone, and with them, the body of her dead husband. They were not sure what Marion hoped to accomplish, but no one was willing to stand in her way. It would be hard enough to face their own pain, much less hers.

She climbed the rocks, slowly, deliberately tracing each step she had taken mere days before. She stopped at the peak, staring down at the stained rocks at her feet. They were forever stained by the blood of her husband.

She bent, brushing a trembling hand across the jagged rocks. They would forever stand as evidence to the place that Robin Hood had met a violent and painful end.

Tear-filled eyes scanned the rocks below, centering on the broken longbow. A few feet away lay the quiver, empty of arrows. Empty of the one shaft Robin had used to cover her escape.

She fell to her knees, grasping the broken parts as if they were a piece of her lost love. For they were. His strong hands gripped the smooth wood day after day, instructing, defending, saving countless lives and ending many. Now it would never be used again. Broken and destroyed, like the life of her precious Robin.

The outlaws stood in silence, each dealing with their grief in the best way they knew how.

Much sat on the rocks, hands holding his head as he sobbed.

Tuck struggled to keep fat tears from slipping down plump cheeks.

Little John was unable to silence the tears and wiped angrily at his cheeks as they slipped down the roughened skin.

Will paced over the rocks, watching, waiting for soldiers to appear out of the trees. Expecting to see them raise their crossbows and fire their deadly arrows, ending the lives of all who stood atop the rocks. He held back the tears as best he could. But the brave front he'd erected before his friends fell as Marion crumbled before them.

“Goodbye, my love.” Marion sobbed.

Whispered along the wind, a small voice could be heard in the distance. A final farewell to all who loved Robin of Sherwood. “Goodbye.”

Their hearts had been crushed on this rocky hill-top, but the spirit of Robin Hood would live on in tales and song and in the lives of the oppressed people of Medieval England and the world.

END