nestar | I See Queen Mab Hath Been With You

O'er courtiers' knees, that dream on court'sies straight,
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees,

Robin sat on a low wall looking out at the sea. Much had gone to over see the transfer of their belongs to the ship heading for England. The fever had taken so much of his strength; it had also taken his dreams of Marian. But in the few weeks since Robin awoke from the fever to King Richard's command that he return home Robin had been forced to face the hard truth; he had left Marian behind and the life he had dreamed, the wedding, the nights in Marian's arms, the two sweet girls that had called him “Papa”, by now that would be some other man's life. The man that Marian would have found to take his place. He had no right to dream of her.

---*---*---

It was wrong, all wrong. First the man in the forest, then coming into Locksley and the fear that everyone had, Dan Scarlett's hand, and the way Gisborn had treated everyone. Robin knew that there would have been changes while he was gone, but this... This was all wrong.

And now Edward, the man who had been with Robin the night his father died, was yelling that Robin was some trickster come to deceive him.

Then there was Marian.

Hundreds of images flickered through Robin's mind, the other life he had dreamed of, and he found himself saying, "Marian, it is me." in the same tone his dream self spoke with when coming to Marian's bed at night.

She answered something, but Robin had been over taken by the memory of his last dream, the one of an empty bed, an empty hall, an empty life."How are you?" He asked, "I thought of you."

This was his chance! He could set to making things right with this, with Marian.

"Leave!" That single word hit him like a slap in the face and his purpose for coming here returned to him.

"Sir Edward, if you do not remember me, remember your people! Remember Nottingham!" The door closed, taking Marian from his sight.

"Interesting." Much started to talk about something, but only one thought filled Robin's head. "She is still unmarried."

On to Part 6.