The Red Hood

Prologue

"Marian!" The shout echoed through the courtyard, reaching the little five year old girl playing with her three year old brother in a tree. The girl smiled when she saw her father walking towards her. She jumped out of the small tree and helped her brother, Joshua, out of it. The tree was very small, so it wasn't that hard for her to catch him as he too jumped. But he did not return the smile, in fact he had a scowl on his face. "What are you doing, Marian!"

The girl, Marian, looked confused. "I am playing with Joshua?"

It came out more of a question than a statement. Her father continued to look annoyed. "Climbing in a tree is not playing, Marian, do you want to get your brother killed?"

He said this a bit too harshly, causing Marian to cry in shame. He sighed and knelt down to his daughter's level. He hugged her, "You just need to be more careful with your brother, my child. You know why he's so important, it's rare for a psychic to be born." Then he took hold her small shoulders and pulled her back, looking gravely in her eyes. "You have to promise me, Marian,...."

"Yes, Father? Promise you what, I'll do anything." The girl said, brushing away any left over tears.

"You have to promise me, that no matter what it is, no matter who it is, you keep your brother safe. I don't care what you do, but you keep him alive. I have a feeling he is going to be needed in the future. And you are going to be there with him, as his protector."

Marian saw how important this seemed to sound, and nodded her head several times. "I promise, Father."

And she will always keep her promise.

Things changed drastically after that promise. Marian stopped acting like how most girls acted at the time, oh she still learned everything that a woman needed to know, but she also learned how to fight with a sword, bow and arrow (thought she not very good), but her specialty was with knives. It was part of her father's wish that she learned such things, even if it was at the disapproval of any man that learned of this. Even after, no, especially after her father was murdered in front of them, she trained and did her best to protect her brother.

Eventually when they grew older, Marian seventeen and Joshua fifteen, they managed to get a job from Kind Richard the Lionheart after he heard of the psychic. The king also allowed the sister to train with his guards, though he doubted her abilities to do much, like all men do, but she managed to prove him wrong. He respected her for it, he promised her that if she could beat his head knight in a sword fight then he would knight her himself. And secretly she hoped for it, maybe then the rest of the women of court would accept her odd ways.

But then the crusades came, King Richard left with his crusaders, and Prince John (Richard's brother) was put in charge. Marian knew that things were going to be harder from then on, but accepted the challenge, that was a month after her eighteenth birthday. Things did change, some of it being things she never would have thought would happen.

But what she didn't expect was what would to cause things to change drastically. All because of the promise she made at such a young age. All because of her brother's visions.