AN: Please bear in mind this is a RH/Marian story, don't let what you read in the prologue put you off continuing.
Part 1
Long before Robin, the Sheriff and the gang reached Nottingham the red haze from the fires which burned in Nottingham were visible. It was a site of destruction and devastation when they eventually surveyed the city. Nottingham was already unrecognisable. They drew their horses to a standstill, in a row all looking at the carnage before them and wondering whether anyone would make it out of there alive.
With heartbreaking emotion Robin whispered, "Marian."
"Will." Djaq uttered her hand on her heart.
Robin signalled to Little John and they carried the body of the Sheriff in through the battle zone to Jasper.
"He is not much use to me dead." Jasper said.
"We…. I was too late. We found him murdered by a peasant woman and her children." Robin said solemnly surveying all that lay around him, a wasteland of what had been Nottingham town.
Jasper nodded and Robin just turned and walked away.
"Are we going to kill him Sir?" A soldier asked Jasper.
"We have killed enough today and Prince John wants Robin Hood to live and feel guilt that he was not able to save his people. That is better than killing him. We can kill him some other time, when it suits me better." Jasper smiled.
0o0
"This….This…. This…." Much started and wiped his eyes unable to stand the sight he was witnessing.
"I have seen sights like this before. I never believed I would have witnessed something as horrific as this again." Djaq said, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Angels cry," uttered Little John in such a compassionate tone that the other three turned to look at him instead of the carnage. "This…is the kind of thing that makes angels cry." And nobody could deny that it was anything less.
"Are we leaving?" asked Much to Robin who had been silent and they all knew what or more precisely 'who' he was thinking about.
Robin sighed and Djaq said, "Jasper might not be so lenient to let you go if you stay here."
"He will not kill me today. He wants me to suffer….he wants me to blame myself that I was unable to bring the Sheriff back alive and now the entire city of Nottingham has been lost. But the rest of Nottinghamshire has not been lost, England has not been lost, there is still so much to fight for."
"We should look for bodies." Little John said softly.
"Bodies?" queried Much. "Why do we want to look for bodies?"
"Marian," Robin softly sighed.
"And Will…..and Allan." Added Djaq.
"Allan gets what he deserves." Much stated.
"Did he? Did he deserve to die like this?" Robin asked waving his hand from one side of the devastation to the other. "What he did was wrong, but nobody deserved to die like this."
They worked silently as they made their way through what remained of the county town. It was night now and Jasper and Prince John's army had set up camp on the field beyond what had been Nottingham, all revelling of the day's events with food and mead.
With a torch each in their hands the outlaws continued to search for their own. Robin and Little John came across an infant apiece, whose Mother's dead bodies had protected and saved the life of their offspring. And the men each carried them as if they were the most precious things on earth. As if the angels had bestowed the life of these little ones as a gift from above, on a day of heartache, ruin and death.
"Here!" Much called when almost all hope had been lost.
Little John, Djaq and Robin went to his side and held their torches over the inert body of one they recognised. Djaq knelt down and examined the body.
Looking at up Robin she said. "It is a miracle, he is still alive."