Authors Note : The story doesn't have much to do with the summary, apart from the fact one chapter is set on The Night Before Christmas, but the rhyme popped into my head so….
Part 1 – The Night Before Christmas.
"Come on Much…hic…stay up…hic…late. Have some ale, it's…hic…Christmas." A drunk Robin coaxed his friend.
"Robin your completely drunk, all of you are and…"
"I'm…hic…not," At Djaq's comment everyone but Much burst out laughing.
"Just let me get some sleep," Much muttered.
"No way, I mean…hic…your outnumbered…hic…" Robin objected, grinning madly and stumbling towards Much.
"You stink," Much exclaimed, "I'll be back later, when you lot have gone to sleep and I don't have to listen to the drunken rambles of my friends." And with that Much stalked off into the woods, cursing under his breath.
Pausing until Much was out of earshot, Robin asked, "Do you think we fooled him?" the others nodded, "Come on, let's go and apologize, hopefully he won't be too angry."
The obviously 'un-drunk' outlaws got up and silently followed Much into the trees, after an hour they'd lost track of Much and were completely lost.
"What now?" John asked, shivering.
"Not being funny but we're either going to be killed by the outlaws that live in this part of the woods, because if any of you hadn't noticed we've come out unarmed," the outlaws looked around in dismay and Allan's next comment didn't make them feel any better. "Or we're going to die of hypothermia."
"Cheery," Will joked, and the rest of them gave a nervous laugh, clumping together keeping an eye out for any sign of movement.
"We'd better go back," Djaq said the first sensible thing that evening.
"What about Much?" Robin replied.
"We've got no chance of finding him now, we go back." John's low grumble made the gangs final decision, as they retraced their steps back to camp.