"What are you doing?"

Halt turned away from the window and smiled sadly at Pauline.

"Thinking of the days gone by, I suppose," He turned back to the window, "You don't really realize them until something makes you."

Pauline had known Halt for quite some years and didn't remember having ever heard this particular tone of voice. She of course completely understood.

"He wouldn't want you to be thinking of the things that you can no longer change, such as yesterday or the days before. He'd want you to think of ways to change tomorrow. Change it into a better time."

"I know I don't know what happened to me." Halt continued to stare at the sunrise with his sad eyes.

"You know what he would say right now?" Halt smiled a little and answered,

"Well, looks like it might be a busy day, but at least it will be a beautiful one."

He turned to Pauline, "lets get this over with."

They left the window and the room and went to the cabin outside of Redmont. The cabin in which Halt had lived for many years. Now stood empty.

They entered the woods behind it and came to a clearing where a crown of close friends had gathered. At the front of the group stood a lone casket.

To the side of the group three small almost identical ponies stood together. Their eyes told all who knew this particular breed of horse that the small horse knew just what was going on.

Halt went and patted the horses, to comfort both them and himself. They were the only ones who saw his tears.

Everyone sat in their respective chairs and Horace went up to speak.

"Will was someone we all knew. Someone who made you look up to him without him realizing it. Though that was the only way we ever could. He may have been small, trust me I should know, I grew up making fun of him for it, but his heart was anything but. His courage was something I looked up to."

"His loyalty, his honesty, his cleverness, his wit, his love for his family, friends, music, job, horse and home. It was these things and much more that we loved. He also had his bad sides that we couldn't help but love;"

His honesty, his cleverness, his wit, clumsiness, and his love for music. They were things that made you not sure if you wanted to hit him or hug him."

"I never had a brother till he saved my life from the boar. And now we all lost a brother and a son."

Halt went up to speak,

"I took will on to be my apprentice. In the time that he was he became something more. He became my son even though I had known his father. The Kalkara, the bridge, the scandians, the temujai, the poison, and so much more, I felt the pain of a father."

"Now I feel it ten-fold as I stare into this box. Will was the last one we ever even thought would go."

"I always thought that I would be the first to leave, I suppose I was wrong."

Alyss came up next,

"I loved Will. More than I ever thought that I would. When he proposed I thought my life had become perfect. It had. But now I feel as though it is falling apart. Will was the best thing that has ever happened to me. And he left me with something that I will never let go of."

As she finished she placed a hand on her belly and walked away sobbing.

Others went up one at a time and said something about and for Will. There were some who couldn't speak and some who might have said too much.

They closed the lid of the casket and laid it down in the ground.

They sang Cabin in the Wood in quiet voices, and talked until sundown when they watched the sunset and went home.

Halt stood alone watching the sunset for a moment longer and allowed the tears to slide down his face,

"Good-bye Will"