Okay! First, I'm incredibly sorry for such an awfully long time since last time. Second, I hope you don't mind if I respond to reviewers here. Reese Sparrow: Many many thankses for your niceness. As for the relationship between Much and Midge (who is indeed his dad), good point and thanks for bringing it up. I sort of accidentally based it off my own dealings with my dad, so I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't said something! OutlawEris: I'm so happy to get reviews from you! Good of you to point out Much's naivety. I had kind of been aware of it, andmy reasoning is, it's just how he gets around the outlaws; all nervous and forgetful and so forth. Nevertheless, I guess he is a bit too ignorant to be realistic sometimes. I'll work on that. Thanks! Entertainedbygrass: I was just so very grateful for your nice little review! So much for updating soon... Oops.
One final thing. If you've read my story about Marian's maid, you'll realize that the characters are almost identical to these. Thus, I'll be merging the two stories, and it'll probably come into effect next chapter. Some things will be different; tell me what you think! Reviews make me run up and down the stairs singing the Robin Hood song in ecstasy, so please give me your input!
"I told you! That archer's not natural!" one of the men said as the ten of them galloped off. With an especially bright smile, Robin hastened on with Much.
"Where are we going now?" Much asked.
"Figuring out where the rest of our people are." Robin crawled up a nearby tree. Much, eyes heavenward, saw not a sign of him. Not too much time had passed before Robin slithered down a neighboring tree. For no apparent reason, he merely stood at the base of it, rocking back and forth. Just as Much was about to ask him if he knew that rocking back and forth was the first sign of insanity, he heard someone.
"Robin!" called a voice, far closer than Much had thought there would be any people. He flicked his head from side to side and finally caught the hint from Robin Hood that the speaker was right behind him. Much spun one hundred and eighty degrees to look up into the face of David of Doncaster. The boy could just see the held-back laughter in his brown eyes. David turned them to Robin, however, a little more serious now.
"Glad I got you; they're all at Wat's grove, resting while I have to run around looking for you, cuz they're too lazy to go tell you." Robin lifted his eyebrows and shifted to the left. Much was perfectly content to slump against a tree while they talked.
"To tell us?" Robin prompted, shifting to the right and grinning. Much suddenly noticed that he was a member of the plural 'us.' The bliss that lit his face made David look at him strangely, but the black-haired outlaw nevertheless continued.
"To tell you about the visitors we spotted along the road," he replied, resting his hand on the bark of a nearby tree trunk. The whole casualness of his attitude immediately caught Much's attention, and the boy sharpened his ears.
"And?" Robin said, not even bothering to cover his smile. David's eyes sparkled with equally unconcealed glee.
"And guess who they are!"
"Ummm…"
"I didn't mean it. Anyway, it's Marian and her maid with Guy of Gisbourne! Can you believe it?" David was bouncing by this point. Much was clueless as to any significance this may have had except that Guy was the most villainous bounty hunter Prince John had ever hired. The boy's light brown eyes turned to Robin Hood for any clues about what emotions he should be feeling. That wasn't much help. A typical expression of neutral euphoria seemed permanently plastered to the freckly face, and Much hadn't been around long enough to distinguish joy from depression yet.
"Believe it? Not easily, but I'll assume you didn't go gallivanting after us for fun," Robin said. "Wat's Grove… I'll see how fast Arthur and Much and I can get there. We may have to quicken the pace again—" Much made a highly expressive moan. "But I think if we run—" Another howl of death. "We can reach you a few hours before dusk. Just wait at the grove, get people started on dinner—for ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and then if you include Guy's men…Oh, we'll just send them away. Thirteen. Send a couple men to track their progress, if you haven't already. What am I forgetting?" Robin rubbed the shiny wood of his bow and looked towards the clouds. Then his green-eyed gaze flipped back to David, who surprisingly enough had actually mostly followed the non-logic of his little speech.
"I don't think so," David said in proper random fashion. Much scratched his head and made a bunch of his brown hair flop on his face. He brushed it away and tried to catch up with the conversation, which hadn't moved on but was still awfully befuddling. Robin Hood glanced at him and almost giggled at the confusion making itself evident on the boy's face.
"Come on, Much. Time to run!" Robin exclaimed brightly. And off they went, to the (not exactly) delight of Much.