Prologue

She found him sitting by the water, cooling his aching hand in which the arrow was still stuck. He was hurting, she could tell from the way his eyes were staring grimly into the water as if it was the water's fault that his hand was hurting.

Allie smiled softly to herself. It didn't matter how old they got, he was always looking to put the blame for his pain on someone else.

"Only you could be stupid enough to attack Robin of Locksley." She walked up and sat down next to him, taking his wounded hand in hers to figure out the most painless way to remove the arrow. "You still carry the hate for him after all these years, William?"

"I am not going to follow him!" His sudden outburst made Allie flinch a little but she didn't move from his side. "I am here because I wanted to protect someone important to me, not to start a war!" Will lowered his voice but Allie had heard him.

"Yeah... You're here because of me, Will."

Eight Years ago

The arrowhead buried itself deep in it's target, and it was with a big smile on her face that Allie lowered her bow to find that her arrow was closer to the target than her friend's.

"I told you I was a better shot than you, William." She skipped over to the target and pulled her arrow out with a grin before throwing a victorious glance at her sulking friend.

"It's not fair." He mumbled when she walked up to him. "I'm older than you, it should have been my arrow that was the closest."

Allie shook her blond head with a sigh, how many times had they been through this already?

"Will, let me remind you of the fact that you are only a year older than me. Besides, you're better at fighting that I am. You would easily beat me in a fight so it's only fair."

Will looked up at the girl in front of him. For ten years had they known each other. For ten years had they played the same games as they did now. For ten years had he known her and yet he didn't think he would ever get used to her being as mature as she was.

A ten-year old shouldn't be able to comfort someone like she did and yet she made him feel like there was nothing wrong with losing this fight.

"Will..." Will looked up and his face reddened when he felt a pair of soft lips on his cheek. "You look really cute when you're blushing. Maybe I ought to call you Will Scarlet in the future?" Allie giggled and picked up her bow and her arrow before running back home to her mother and father, leaving the older boy standing there, the blood rushing to his face as he tried to hold back the happy grin threatening to spread across his lips.

Six Years ago

It was a hot day in the middle of summer.

Allie was sitting by the small river that ran not far from her village, braiding her long bangs out of her face when she heard a group of people walking up behind her. She didn't recognize the footsteps, they were heavier than anyone she knew and it alarmed her. She slowly reached into the folded apron next to her, her hand grabbing the dagger hidden in it, silently waiting for what was going to happen.

"Well, well well. What have we here?" A gruff voice, unfamiliar to her, asked earning laughs from his friends.

Allie stood up and turned around to face the unknown people, who she instantly identified as three of the Sheriff's men. They were walking towards her, their eyes grim as they looked her up and down, like hungry wolfs look at the innocent lamb before ripping it to pieces.

Allie felt her chest tighten at the sight of the sturdy men in front of her, she must have weighed about half of what they did and she was going to have to fight them?

Sure, she had learned how to fight Will pretty well over the last few years but he was considerably smaller and he was only one person. In front of her were three men, whom she could only assume did not have her best interest at heart.

"What do you want?" Allie still kept the knife out of sight, if she really had to fight them she could at least catch one of them by surprise.

"Oh, nothing, my pretty lass." One of them took a step forward and grabbed herchin with a smirk. "Just wondering what's underneath that dress of yours."

A quick motion of her hand and a shriek of pain was heard as the dagger cut shallowly into the man's face. He fell to his knees, grabbing his bleeding face with grunts of pain and like Allie had thought the two others came after her, not even looking twice at their companion to see if he was alright.

It didn't take long for the two remaining men to bring Allie down, no matter how much she kicked, screamed or bit she was no match for her opponents.

The one that she had cut was up on his feet again, straddling her as he tried to get her dress out of the way, while the two others were holding her down. She screamed as the tears started falling down her face, she was so frightened and so helpless she didn't know what else to do.

"This is it." She thought. "This is it for me."

Then it all went black.