Hi guys! Yes I updated and no I am not dead

Hope you guys enjoy!

Chapter 18

When Mari awoke she noticed two things, the first was that she was in a lot of pain, the second was that she shackled to a wall by her arms in a cell. After noticing the latter Mari swore in her head since her throat felt dry. Opening her eyes, (well at least one of them could fully open) the other one was just swollen.

Involuntarily she groaned. This caused a figure close to her which she had failed to notice before to shift.

"A-Are you alright?" asked a small voice. Mari slowly turned her head to her left and saw that it was the boy from the village which she had tried to save.

"Good a lot that did him" Mari thought and opened her mouth to answer but only managed to make a wheezing sound. The boy obviously understood that her throat was dry because in the next moment he was bringing a cup of water of her lips allowing her to drink.

Mari sighed contently when she felt the water go down her throat and she mumbled

"Thanks"

The boy nodded and sat down next to her with his legs crossed. Mari blinked a couple of times and could feel her head pounding lessen a bit. With her one eye; now used to the lighting of the cell. She looked at the boy.

"What's your name?"

"L-Lucas, sir "

"Right, Lucas don't be afraid I will get us both of out this alright?"

The boy scoffed and looked slightly offended at her

"I'm not afraid!.. sir"

Mari scoffed back

"Well that makes one of us, stop calling me sir my name is James" she looked around "How long was I out? I feel like I've been unconscious for days "

"Only a few hours, although it's hard to tell since it's so dark sir I mean James" Lucas looked at her swollen face and frowned

"Does it hurt a lot?"

"Well Lucas my friend, I am unable to tell. I suppose because the pain has somehow numbed me"

Lucas cringed remembering the beating he had seen James take

"Thank you" he said honestly "you saved my life"

James looked at him with a widened eye

"I don't know about you but I would not call this saving, we are in a cell" he stated sarcastically

Lucas chuckled bleakly "but thanks to you my mother is safe" he looked at James with gratitude "if you hadn't shown up the guards would have probably taken a lot more of us as payment"

"I guess…" James observed him "How old are you?"

"Thirteen"

"What were you being arrested for?"

Lucas sighed

"My sister is five, she is starving, a lot of the children are, I saw some apples that belonged to the guards I took some" he shrugged "I wasn't being careful enough and one of the guards saw me"

"What about your sister? Did the guards do anything to her?" James asked grimly

"No luckily she managed to hide" Lucas burrowed his face in his hand "I will die won't I? I am never going to see them again" his shoulders started shaking although he was trying to control his sobs Mari could tell he were crying.

"Aw, come on stop crying" she nudged him with her amazingly unhurt foot "you know what they say; if you're in a pickle don't eat the cucumber"

He looked up "What?"

"Err. it made more sense in my head, but don't worry my friends are probably already looking for me and they will help us escape"

"How?"

"I'll answer that when I have a plan the important thing is that we stay focused if you're sitting here crying it won't help us get out"

Lucas nodded "Right what should I do?"

James smiled smugly

"Well first you reach into my boot and pull out the lock pick hidden there" Lucas did so and Mari sighed in relief thankful the guards had not found it.

Sophie was having a gut feeling, she did not particularly like these feelings because it usually meant something bad was about to happen or had happened, usually that bad had something to do with Mari.

So it was with worry in her stomach and a quick step she hurried to the outlaw's camp fearing the worst. Mari had not been at Knighton Hall like she said she would be which was unusual because the girls had swore to each other to always be where they promised to be.

She arrived and saw Will, Djaq and Allan, no Mari. The trio looked up as she arrived

"About time" Allan spoke "we were wondering where the two of you had snuck off..-" he stopped seeing David's frantic searching

"Something wrong David?" Djaq asked worried getting up from the ground.

"Where's James?" Sophie exclaimed

"He left this morning" Will answered now also coming to stand next to Djaq

"Alone? Was somebody with him? I can't find him!" David started pacing and then looked up again "where's Robin?

"Delivering food to Locksley with Much and John. But-!" Will didn't get to finish his sentence, because David was already off running into the direction he had arrived from.

"I guess we should follow him?" Allan asked from the ground sighing as he stood up mumbling something about "never a calm day". The three of them quickly grabbed their things and hurried after the boy.

"Explain to me again why we give all of our food to the villagers Robin?" Much complained as Robin, John and he made their way to Locksley. They were already at the outskirts at the village. Robin did not have a chance to answer.

Their conversation was interrupted by a woman's scream. The three of them shared a glance and dropped the food sacks and raced in the direction of the scream Robin pulling out his bow and arrow at the same time. The scene that greeted them was a woman on her knees crying and a few other villagers at her side trying to comfort her. The woman was frantic screaming she had to go to the sheriff and exchange herself for her baby. Robin feared the worst when the trio neared the villagers. The woman Margaret Robin remembered got on her feet and practically flung herself at him when he arrived clutching his shirt.

"Please Robin you have to save my baby they took my child!" She cried desperate

"Maggie, calm down" Robin put his hands on her shoulders and stroked them reassuringly so she would calm down. Maggie took a breath deep and wiped her tears with her hand

"My boy Lucas he was t-taken by the guards"

"Lucas ? but he's only a child" Robin frowned Maggie sobbed and more tears flowed down her cheeks.

"Robin" John spoke and Robin turned to face his companion who was kneeling on the ground a piece of red clothing in his hand. Much eyes widened "That belongs to the Red Hawks! I'd recognize that piece of clothing anywhere" At that moment David arrived at the scene panting from running all the way.

"Is James here?" Sophie asked stepping forward and then she noticed the red clothing piece in John's hand. Sophie frowned with widened eyes and grabbed the piece and compared it the color of her own cape.

"Oh no"

"I'm guessing that's not from your cape" Robin sighed and turned to Margaret mumbling words of comfort while getting the whole story from her. Meanwhile Much was pacing and John and David searched the ground for more clues. Both Sophie and John cringed when they noticed two particular dark spots that clearly was dried blood what freaked out Sophie more was the gang necklace she found next to one of the spots, Mari never took it off. Robin came to them

"He and a boy names Lucas have been taken"

"Why?" John asked his face grim thinking of his own son

"As payment.." Robin sighed "apparently James stepped in and tried to stop them and would have succeeded had not the boy been held hostage, according to Maggie James gave up himself for Lucas and after the guards beat him unconscious they still took Lucas with them"

Sophie's world was in turmoil, John put a hand on her shoulder but she barely felt it.

"Wh-what if he's dead?" Sophie croaked out Much put his hand on her other shoulder and gave her a comforting smile "Come on, this is James we're talking about he's too stubborn die" Sophie snorted in half a laugh and nodded. Sophie turned to Robin

"I have to save him" she said determinately and put James's necklace around her own neck.

"We will save him" Robin answered the other two nodding, just then the rest of the gang arrived Will and Allan carrying the food sacks that Robin, Much and John had dropped earlier, they gave them to the villagers who gratefully took them while Robin quickly filled them in on the details.

"John, you take everyone to Nottingham, see if you can find where James is held and see if anyone's heard if he's been sentenced" John nodded

"Master, where are you going?" Much asked worriedly because let's face it when did Much not worry about Robin.

"To Knighton Hall Marian might have heard something about James's capture and she might know where Gisbourne is, if we're lucky he doesn't yet know about James" Robin grabbed his bow and headed in the direction of Knighton Hall.

The rest started to quickly make their way to Nottingham.

Lucas had just managed to unshackle Mari and the girl gratefully rubbed her sore wrists when steps out of the darkness were heard.

"Gets back" Mari whispered "and hide the lock pin" Lucas scrambled closer to the cell wall, Mari was going to rise but couldn't move and inch now, that her arms were free she noticed the pain in her rib and almost doubled over from the pain. Two guards came to the cell and opened the door one stepped in and made a grab for a Mari who tried to crawl away but alas her attempt was useless the guard grabbed her roughly and hauled her up to her feet which caused Mari to cry out in pain and collapse. Her knees wouldn't carry her. Mari breathed heavily almost in panic. Tears burned at the back of her eyelids; all she felt was pain. The guards grunted annoyed and dragged her up again and with the assistance of the other guard hauled Mari to her feet and supported her by slinging her arms around their shoulders. Mari protested but the sound was so weak she decided it was more dignified to suffer in silence. She managed to cast one last glance at the cell. Lucas was grabbing the bars and looking worriedly after her. She tried to give him an encouraging smile but she realized he wouldn't see it through the darkness and through the blood that covered her face.

Sheriff Vaisey was sitting at his desk signing very important papers that would probably lead to him getting more money and even higher taxes for commoners. The sheriff was contently humming a tune for himself, after all things were finally turning around. One red hawk caught one more to go and then Robin Hood and his pathetic comrades would just be dust he would flick away.

"Away, away" he hummed grinning to himself

Mari had given up on trying to use her legs when the guards started to force her up the stairs, they were pretty much carrying her, well dragging her while her head hung low. Every time they moved her Mari winced, she was pretty sure a wound at her side had started bleeding again and her head was pounding.

"I just have to hold on until Sophie gets here, she'll get here" Mari repeated in her head

The guards stopped at a large door Mari looked up. "She'll get here!"

The guards pounded at the door and the sheriff's voice could be heard barking from the inside

"Enter!"

Mari tried to struggle but was simply too weak, her legs didn't have the strength to put their feet down and stop the guards from dragging her in.

"I just hope she hurries" Mari shot worried glances around in hope to see somebody, anybody but she was all alone with the guards in the deserted hallway. The guards opened the door and dragged Mari inside and she put on what she hoped wasn't her last brave face.

Ta-da! Sorry for the lateness but I'll be quickly diving into the next chapter (*pulls out tons of papers with ideas and buries herself in front of her computer*) I want to finish this story since I have a sequel planned!