Yughi fell through the air, he felt giddy, uncertain, out of control. These were sensations he did not feel comfortable with and he did his best to overcome them in every situation. Still, when he jumped from one tree to another he still hadn't got past it.

When he ran across rooftops he could keep his hips low and his feet flat. The discipline of roof running was actually rather grounded. Up here, in the canopy of the forest, the centre of balance was the same but it required a more nimble foot that Yughi still had not mastered.

"Keep up!" shouted Scarlet. "You'll not be a proper tree dweller till you can run branches!"

The lithe outlaw skipped ahead of him. His feet danced along the lengths of branches no wider than Yughi's hand, easily vaulting through splits in the branches, or navigating by smoothly hugging the trunks and confidently shifting his weight.

Yughi was not a victim of false humility, he knew he was not dreadful at this new discipline, tree running. He also knew that being proficient was not enough by itself. The young boys of Masyaf imitated the assassin training that they saw the initiates undergo, their play was a source of recruits for Alamut. Even so, the best among them was no match for a trained assassin, they were relatively clumsy, noisy and imprudent in their judgement.

As Yughi pushed himself to keep up with the thief he was aware that neither of them was as good at this as they could be. Will was fast, sure-footed and brimming with confidence, unfortunately, he was also unfocused and overconfident. He was proficient at the movement part of the exercise but he would be easy to detect from ground level by someone who knew what they were looking for. Either of the two of them could have fooled a non-combatant or even a foot soldier but neither of them could have hidden from a well trained Templar in Yughi's estimation.

The assassin, on the other hand, was consciously reigning in his speed trying to achieve a greater fluidity of movement. In a way, he was trying to work with the trees, not against them as Will was. For three days now he had run the trees until every muscle in his body ached, he believed he was making progress in his exercise but this was a discipline he sensed it would take a long while to master.

It had been six weeks since the outlaws had rescued Will Scarlet from Newark. The state of affairs between the outlaws and the sheriff's men had stagnated. The outlaws kept themselves ready whilst Robin, John and Tuck ran operations that built up the band's strength and improved their living situation.

The growing band of outlaws were splitting their time between fortifying their underground hiding spots, creating dwelling places in the networks of caves that ran under Nottinghamshire and training in the skills of hunters and, now assassins.

In Masyaf it was the master assassins that ran chapters of the assassin's guild, Yughi was nowhere near that level of competence. He felt a little fraudulent training these young men in the arts of combat, sharing a little of the assassin's knowledge with them. It was not his place to do so.

He justified his actions with the thought that the outlaws would be fighting no matter what. Many of them were no more than boys themselves. Yughi had already found himself in a position of helping out the woefully under-prepared Much and Dun from getting themselves killed. He reasoned that preparing more of these boys for the reality of their situation was the responsible thing to do.

A piercing bird's note rang out through the branches, catching Yughi's attention. Yughi swung across a wide gap using a branch too thin and high to provide a foothold and caught up to Will who was grinning in the shade of the canopy resting in the 'Y' junction where the trunk of a large tree split.

"Look ye, assassin," Scarlet said, indicating a path below. "An opportunity for sport."

Yughi looked down to see a lone man making his way along the thin path that wound through the trees. He carried a lute on his back and wore dark clothes fringed in brightly coloured fabrics, marking him out as a minstrel.

"What do you have in mind?" Yughi asked. "He doesn't look to have a lot of money."

"One of us should be able to get the lute from his back without him even knowing it's gone, surely," the thief said. "Whichever one of us does gets the other's evening ration, you game? I'll even take the other side of the path, leave you the easier time."

Competition would provide a greater opportunity for focus, Yughi agreed. So Scarlet skipped away over to the opposite tree line. Yughi concentrated his mind and started to shadow the minstrel from his own side.

Before long Yughi saw a thin swooping branch across the road from which he could comfortably hang. By shifting his weight in a controlled fashion he could lower himself down, grab the lute and be back up, as long as he hadn't misjudged.

He made his way to the edge of the branch and swung his legs up to hook over the top of it. He held onto a thicker branch further up to keep his weight from making his target branch sag.

As he sat he saw something on the opposite side of the path drop into the stalking grass lining the edge of the lightly cobbled area in the middle. That was bound to be the thief making his move.

Yughi was looking, so he saw the outlaw shift too quickly through the stalking zone beside the path and break cover three paces behind the minstrel's back. Yughi cursed, generally speaking, the outlaw was running the risk of discovery, but this minstrel appeared to be completely unaware he was being hunted for sport.

It appeared as if Will Scarlet would win this contest not because he was actually better but because he knew he didn't have to be that good. Yughi understood, at that moment, that in battle you only needed to be good enough, you didn't need to be the best all the time.

What a shock for both of them when the minstrel turned at the last second, swinging a light wooden club from nowhere and struck Scarlet on the side of the head. The minstrel, it appeared, was not only able to handle himself in a fight, but he was also wily enough not to alert an enemy until that enemy was nearly on top of him.

"Stop! Wait!" the thief cried out as the minstrel followed up his first blow with two more. Scarlet was blocking but the minstrel had the upper hand. He showed no signs of either stopping or waiting as the onslaught continued.

Yughi's instant thought was to step in. Before he could drop from his position, though, a question stopped him: Why should he?

If it looked as if the thief was in serious danger Yughi could put a stop to that in a second or two. At the moment the cocky outlaw was just receiving a lesson in his own limitations. There was no assassin that hadn't undergone the same experience. Will Scarlet, Yughi considered, had a particular problem with overconfidence. After all, that is what had led to his capture by Miles Godfrey, and his being tricked by Guy of Gisbourne.

Scarlet had the problem that a lot of above average fighters and athletes had when they became soldiers. Almost everyone they met was beneath them. They lost sight of the fact that one day they could meet someone truly formidable.

The training Yughi had given to the outlaws meant that maybe one in ten guards could kill them in a straight fight. All of the outlaws were learning the most important things, how to run and how to hide, along with the general principles of not fighting in the first place.

Still, most of these lads would have to fight someone at some time, Yughi hoped he had done enough to prepare them. For his own part, Yughi flattered himself to think that maybe one man in a thousand could challenge him in a fight. The thief sat somewhere in between one in ten and one in a thousand. More than one in a hundred, certainly, but more than one in five hundred? Yughi did not like to guess.

It would do Scarlet no harm to learn that even with the odds massively stacked in his favour there would still come a time when his natural gifts and lax training would fail him. Will Scarlet was definitely one of the outlaws who stood a chance if he ever came to Alamut seeking the skills of an assassin. But before he would ever receive a hidden blade he would have to learn that he couldn't just coast. This was a lesson the minstrel was enthusiastically teaching him right now.

After trying to reason with the minstrel for a minute or so the thief had evidently taken as much as he was going to. He palmed up a small blade and decided it was time to stop defending and strike back. This would not have gained favour in the circle of assassins, the minstrel was an innocent with a reason to believe his attacker meant him harm. It would be forbidden to actually kill the man in this situation. Of course, outlaws had a laxer policy in this regard.

To save anyone from injury Yughi finally let go of his stabilising branch. As he sunk on the swinging tree limb he swung his body and released himself into the air, unhooking his legs as he went. He spun and tumbled, landing beside the amazed minstrel.

A grip, twist, lock and throw later and the minstrel was on the floor fully subdued under Yughi's control.

"I guess we call that a draw, then," he said to Scarlet.

"Let me go!" the minstrel demanded. "What do you want with me?"

"I apologise, friend," Yughi said. "My associate and I made you the unknowing subject of a childish bet. The matter is now moot. We did not truly wish to alarm you or harm you. If my apology on our behalf is sufficient to your honour I am happy to release you and we can go our separate ways."

"Very well, stranger," the minstrel said. "Although the pain in my arm would wish to quibble the notion that you wish me no harm."

"My apologies for that also," Yughi said. "It is the only lock I could apply in the time to prevent you from coming to harm at the edge of my colleague's too hastily drawn blade."

Scarlet sheepishly stowed the little dagger once more in a sleeve. The lock released the minstrel stood up and dusted himself down.

"If you would wish to do me service in exchange for this minor harm," the minstrel said. "You would do well in helping me to find the band of outlaws led by Robin Hood, for I would speak with the prince of thieves."

"What business have you with the Hood?" Scarlet asked, instantly suspicious.

"I heard the tale of how he met his friend John Little," the minstrel said. "The business with the knight from Derby and Thomas de Say. I heard that Robin had defeated de Say in the past. Now de Say wants to marry my sweetheart Bess off to some stranger to aid in some secretive politicking. I thought that Robin Hood might help me if I told him what I know."

"Doesn't sound like you know much," Scarlet said.

"I know more than I'll tell a thief who attacked me on a forest path," the minstrel said. "Either you believe you owe me the information or you don't. So tell me or keep your own counsel and I'll keep mine."

"What's your name, minstrel?" Yughi asked.

"I go by Alan a Dale," the minstrel replied. "Why? Does that matter?"

"I cannot trust a man who hides his name and cannot help but trust a little a man who gives it out freely," Yughi said. "I am Yughi Gal, this is Will Scarlet. We will take you to Robin."

"We will?" Scarlet asked. He didn't sound comfortable with the arrangement.

"Aye," Yughi said. "But we'll have to help him on his way as he will be blind for the journey." With that, the assassin pulled a scarf from under his belt and tied it firmly about the minstrel's head.