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They had been following this group for a day now… The men's horses were fast, and they had the kind of motivation that made them get the hell out of Araluen as soon as possible.

Duncan was originally just going to send Horace, Halt and Will after these four escaped men, but since there four, at the meeting he decided to add Gilan just for good measure. Halt protested, but Duncan wouldn't hear it. It was an awful lot like the time Duncan sent those four, Cassandra and Svengal to Arrida despite it being a slight overkill. But it was decided. And there wasn't too much arguing, because they had no time to waste. So Gilan, Halt, Horace and Will left that same afternoon to find these four fugitives.

Those four men and twenty others were all part of a secret group the kingdom of Araluen had wrongly assuming wasn't much of a threat. One night Duncan held a banquet/party for his daughter Cassandra's birthday, and they saw their opportunity. They attacked the castle and tried to kidnap the princess. Luckily, they underestimated the knights guarding the castle just as the king had underestimated them. They were defeated and the majority of the secret organization were captured and sentenced to prison. Duncan was going to try to get more information out of them later.

But the job still wasn't done as long as one member remained. Four of them escaped and fled south towards Celtica. The very next day, the team of Halt, Gilan, Will and Horace was organized and sent after them.

Maybe if the escapees were ordinary men just trying to cause a little chaos and get a big ransom reward, Duncan would've left it up to a few regular knights and considered it finished. But these weren't ordinary men… at least, not the men who were smart and fast enough to escape.

Three were former knights who'd worked for the king, in respectively high positions. Nothing like where Horace was, but they were very skilled, and had worked for him for over a decade. Not the people you'd want to mess with.

The fourth was a former ranger.

This was a situation to be handled delicately, so Duncan had to send his very best to find them, and bring them back alive, if it was at all possible.

After almost a full day of traveling, the sun was an hour or two from setting. They had made good progress that day, and had no plans to stop or rest until the night fell, but something changed their plans. They came upon a fork in the road.

Will noticed it first. He was the head tracker for that day. "W-Wait, stop," he said, suddenly. Everybody behind him slowed their horses from a gallop to a stop, and leaned forward, anxious for more information. They didn't have a second to waste.

Will stared intently at the tracks in the ground, making sure he was right before he said anything more.

"What is it, Will?" Gilan asked.

"These tracks… they split in two directions." Will turned his horse to the slid and faced their surprised expressions. "Two of them went to the left," he said, "and two went straight ahead."

They were all quiet for a few moments. The answer to the implied question "what are we going to do about it?" was already as obvious as the question.

Horace was the first to voice it: "We'll have to split up, then."

"Great," Gilan said, smiling. "Let's make it easy then, rangers with rangers and knights with knights."

It took a second, but Horace understood and shot him a glare. "Hey!" he exclaimed. Gilan laughed.

Halt was too deep in thought, and had been since Will told them there was a fork in the road to listen to them. Will noticed this focused look on his former master's face, but decided not to interrupt him. If Halt was thinking that deeply about it, it must be important. And if Halt thought it was important… well, then, it could potentially save their lives. Will kept staring and waiting for him to speak up and change the course of everything, like he always did.

"So who's going on each team?" Gilan asked. "Should we rock-paper-scissors?"

"It's a better idea to pick team captains," Horace said.

Meanwhile Will muttered, "Why are we thinking so hard about this in the first place?"

But, seeing as Halt was the unofficially decided head of the team, everybody turned to him. "Halt, I guess you get first pick," Gilan said.

Halt lifted his head, coming out of his thinking finally and spoke up loudly. "I'll take Gilan and go to the left, and Will and Horace can continue straight ahead."

Will blinked. Something inside him stung, like he'd been hit by an arrow, but he didn't know why or what it was.

"W-Why's that?" Gilan asked, his smile now faded into a frown.

"Do you have a problem with it?" Halt answered curtly. Gilan didn't have answer. They were too stunned by Halt's sudden, brusque tone.

He turned Abelard to the left, gesturing for Gilan to follow. "Now go, we're wasting time just standing here. If we keep with our schedule, we can meet back at Gorlan in a few days."

Will, Gilan and Horace exchanged curious glances between them, but they couldn't discuss anything without Halt hearing. Gilan shrugged, gave them an apologetic look, and led his horse after Halt. "I'll see you guys soon," he said. His smile came back to him, soon enough. It was better, he thought, to leave them with a good attitude, even if things had just taken an unusually cold turn.

Horace and Will appreciated it. "Bye!" they called back to him. "Stay safe!"

"See you, Halt," Will called, but he was met with no reply. Halt's back stayed turned, and didn't change until they were out of their sight.

Will swallowed a big lump in his throat. There was something about the way Halt left… it bothered him.

It really bothered him.

"That was kind of cold," Horace said, a few minutes after they continued on their way. "His decision wasn't stupid, but it was the way he said it… I know you felt it."

Will nodded. He looked down at Tug's mane; said nothing more. He was still trying to work it all out in his head… Before too long he realized it wasn't just the way he left them.

That night, Horace and Will stopped once the sun was just about to set. Will went out and shot a deer and a rabbit or two for dinner. Usually he would only have to cook one animal, but Horace was with him now. That made for, like, twice the amount of food as usual.

Will willingly took the first night shift, because, even after the long day, he still wasn't one bit tired.

And he couldn't stop thinking about that morning.

Horace stayed awake long enough to notice how Will wasn't looking like his normal self. Of course he was going to be bored, sitting out there for a few hours, but he didn't look bored. In fact, he looked way too stressed. It didn't take long for him to figure it out.

After a half an hour of this, Horace sat up and said, "Are you still thinking about," he hesitated, "that?"

Will didn't nod, but Horace knew he was right. After a few moments of dead silence Will replied quietly, "I shouldn't get so hung up on this."

"I was just about to say that, but don't beat yourself up about it. I mean, I would think about it too… But don't worry. It wasn't directed at any one person. Halt was probably just too focused on the mission and wanting to get it over with as soon as possible."

"It isn't even the way he left," Will said. Horace tilted his head, lost. The ranger explained further, "Well, it was kind of that, but also how he made that decision so quickly. To pick Gilan over me. I mean, I know Gilan was his apprentice once, and… maybe I shouldn't be so selfish, y'know? What am I to Halt that Gilan wasn't? But…" He was starting to feel tears in his eyes. He hadn't intended that, but his mouth wouldn't stop going and there was no way to put himself on pause. "But I always expect him to pick me when it comes down to it, and I don't know why. That's really selfish, isn't it? I don't mind being with you at all, Horace, I love going on missions with you. It's just- I haven't seen Halt a lot lately and I really miss him and being his apprentice sometimes and I don't know why he doesn't want to be around me." The last part was a huge run-on sentence, and a rushed outburst of emotions that only a person who knew him quite well could register quickly enough to understand. But Horace was one of those people.

He slid the blanket off himself, and walked over to his friend. Two select tears were going down the young ranger's face, but he avoided looking at him. He didn't want Horace to see him so broken up over something so… probably, meaningless.

Horace took a seat next to him. "Halt didn't mean anything by it," he said, gently. "And of course you matter to him, Will."

Will sniffed, and let his breath out with a sigh. He mumbled, "How much, though?" Horace's face grew sad. Horace tried his best to comfort him for the rest of the evening until they got too tired, but nothing short of Halt himself was going to help.

The question "Can Halt really choose someone over me that easily?" hung in his mind like a bad virus for the rest of the night, in the morning, and drifted in and out of the back of his mind throughout the next three days as their journey continued.

Three days passed. Every day they woke at the break of dawn, and stopped after the sun set. Will made them dinner. It rained once, which was awful, but Horace and Will pushed through, knowing that the people they were chasing may have not been so strong. One night, they spotted the two fugitives making camp for the night, and thought out a plan to surprise them.

Maybe it was because Horace and Will weren't too scared at the moment, or because they were too tired from the few days of traveling… or, rationally, just because the two fugitives' guards were down, but they didn't make a complex plan to beat them. Will and Horace talked about it for barely a minute, and immediately went into putting it into action. This wasn't the sort of plan they needed to do any preparation for.

Will circled around to the other side of the camp, behind one man sitting at the campfire. Horace was behind the other. They couldn't signal to each other from this far, so Horace would just have to be ready.

Because Will was quieter than Horace, he had the responsibility of moving to his position. As silently as he could, he crawled through the front part of the forest closest to the small clearing where the camp was, just before the trees thinned out and exposed him. He crawled in a half circle around the perimeter, to the end of the fire opposite Horace. Even if the former ranger were one of these two men, it was doubtful he would see Will before it was too late, considering Will's skill level. And if he did, well, they could improvise.

Will creeped up, as slowly as he could, behind one of the men… Horace was on his toes, ready to dash out of the bushes at any moment. The two men at the fireplace were positioned so they faced each other, meaning if either Will or Horace moved into sight too soon, at least one of the men would notice. But Horace had the same, if not a worse view than the man facing Will. If Horace could see Will, so could they. Horace had to be extra ready when Will came into sight so he could act faster than the fugitive on his side.

Slowly, slowly through the grass, Will crawled… he didn't have his ranger cloak on at the moment, but he didn't need it. Everybody knew that the saying "trust the cloak" was just a simple way of giving young apprentices the confidence they needed until they could trust themselves to stay in the shadows. The cloak didn't do the work; they did.

Will stopped. He was close enough. Will shot up off the ground as fast as a bolt of lightning, and before the guy facing him could even scream, Will flipped his knife around to the hilt and hit the closest man in the side of the head. That was enough to knock him out. He fell limply to the side, unconscious before he hit the ground.

Horace sprung out of the bushes at top speed, and did the same thing to his guy that Will did, except with a sword. Both of the men were on the floor, unconscious less than ten seconds after Will made his first move.

Simple as that.

Horace and Will were slower, going back the way they came because of the two prisoners slowing them down.

A day passed, then another, and two more before they finally got to Gorlan. When they arrived, Halt and Gilan were already there, waiting for them. Gilan saw them riding up from a ways away, and grinned. He started waving to them excitedly. Will and Horace sped up their horses to close the difference between them and the other rangers. It'd been seven days since they had last seen each other, and it was such a relief to see them again. Horace and Will (mostly Horace) had been looking forward to the reunion since they left that morning and figured that they'd get to Gorlan that day.

After they got closer, they could see two prisoners knocked out next to the horses Blaze and Abelard. They had succeeded in their mission just as quickly as Horace and Will had with theirs. It was only half a day's difference between their arrivals.

Will and Horace slowed their horses to a stop. "Hey! How did it go?" Gilan asked, as the two men slid off their horses. "It feels like it's been forever."

Horace grinned. "I know what you mean," he said. "And it went pretty smoothly." Horace gestured to the two prisoners tied to Tug. "We caught them by surprise. Didn't take much work."

"Same here," Gilan said. "Halt and the former ranger got into a little fight, but it was over quickly. Halt didn't get a scratch on him. Did you guys get hurt at all?"

"Only part of me that's hurt is my back from riding all day," Horace replied with a laugh. He reached back and rubbed his lower back for emphasis. "I'm still not used to it."

"And you, Will?"

Only my feelings, and everything inside me, Will thought bitterly. Out loud, he said, "No, I'm okay. We should get going, though." Succumbing to compulsion, (because he hadn't since they got there) he gave Halt a half second glance. Then he tore himself away quickly. He hoped nobody saw that look… unfortunately, literally everybody there saw it. "Let's get these guys out of our hair as soon as possible."

Gilan nodded. He and Horace sensed the mood, and got on their horses again to follow their path back to Araluen. On the way back, they kept up the conversation, so the air didn't seem too empty. They discussed anything that came to their mind; even a stupid conversation was better than none. Halt and Will were silent to each other the whole way.

But Halt's silence did nothing for Will. He thought he was going to be happy if Halt knew he was ignoring him, but it just made him sadder how Halt wasn't doing anything to change that.

That night, it was the same. Will and Gilan went out to catch and then cook some fish for dinner, which of course was delicious. Will and Halt were a little more social that night, but never once did they directly speak to one another. Will realized at some point during that night that it had been seven days since they spoke.

It wasn't really a reunion yet.

"I forgot to ask, but did you guys run into any traps on your way to catch them?" Gilan asked, after swallowing a piece of fish. He was done with his first serving, while Horace, across from him, was finishing his second.

Horace and Will exchanged brief glances. "Yeah, a few," Will answered. "They were pretty rushed, though."

"Ours weren't," Gilan said. "There were several bear traps laid out and Blaze came really close to stepping in one. They were hidden well."

"Why do you think that is?" Horace asked. He glanced at the prisoners, tied to the trees. They had been given a small dinner but hadn't touched it yet, out of stubbornness. That would change. They were missing out on a great meal. "The ones we saw were lazy. I could've set better traps."

"You say that like that's so surprising," Will said. "That's sad." Even though it was mostly for his own thoughts, he still paid Horace a glance in case he heard. He didn't.

"It's because we had the ranger," Halt said. "Rangers are calm under pressure."

Horace's eyes and head turned sharply to Halt. "Hey!" he exclaimed. "Knights are too. At least I am," he added, after a second thought.

"Wait, but you just insulted yourself about the traps!" Will interrupted. "How does that work?"

Gilan was laughing quietly the whole time. Knights could insult knights, but rangers couldn't. Rangers did it all the time for fun; knights just didn't know it. They spent all their time secluded in the forest, so they had plenty of opportunities to insult anybody they wanted without anyone hearing.

"Anyway," Gilan said, "it's also because we paid extra close attention. We knew we had the ranger, so we knew we were going to have a harder time."

"Ah." Horace and Will nodded, and turned back to their food briefly, having understood… Then Will realized something odd. He looked up.

"Wait, how did you know you had the ranger?" Will asked. "Wasn't there an equal chance of him going to the left or straight ahead?"

Only then did he realize Gilan was preoccupied and couldn't answer his question. He was facing Halt, trapped in his death glare, and nobody could help but cower in fear under Halt's glare. Gilan looked extremely guilty. Will didn't understand why Halt was angry, until Gilan answered his question with a nervous voice:

"W-Well… Halt figured it out really quickly…" Gilan said, his eyes unmoving. "He knew the ranger's old fief was Seacliffe, and he grew up in Seacliffe, and guessed that he was fleeing to familiar territory so we just assumed…" He gulped. "But he told me not to tell you."

"Don't say that after you tell them!" Halt snapped. "That's pointless!"

Horace blinked. "Why didn't you want us to know?" he asked. "Would've been useful information… Not that it messed us up in any way, but why not?"

"I have my reasons." There it was again. Halt was obviously glazing over something, but he used the excuse 'it didn't matter' to keep from discussing it. As if that was good enough for Will.

He did the same thing when he picked Gilan.

"Like?" Will asked. It was the first time he spoke to him directly, but he still wasn't looking him in the eye. At this point, Will figured he might've been overreacting, but all sense of logic and reason had been thrown out the window.

Halt stared up at him. "Do I have to explain every choice I make to you?" he asked. He waited a moment for an answer, but got none. "I didn't think you'd be so interested."

"When you're glazing over something that may be important to us, yes, I'm interested," Will replied. "You've done that twice."

"Like when?"

"Like when you picked Gilan to go with you and didn't explain why. There was a reason; I could hear you trying not to explain." The words were out of his mouth, and he couldn't take them back. The bitterness was plain and clear in his voice.

"That was a week ago," Halt said. "Why does it matter?"

"Why does it not matter?!" Will's head came up and his voice rose. He and Halt's eyes were locked and they both glared. "Maybe you don't understand, but it matters to me!"

"Why?"

"B…" Will hesitated, "Because you usually pick me, and excuse me for being selfish, but goddammit you didn't have to go and-!"

"If you're so interested, I'll tell you!" Halt snapped. "It's because, smartass, I knew about the ranger! I took Gilan when I usually take you because I knew with me there was a higher risk of danger! But I knew that if I told you that you'd get on my case for thinking you weren't strong enough." He let out a sharp sigh. "But," he continued, "since you're antagonizing me for trying to protect you then I guess I should've taken you anyway.

Will was speechless. They were all speechless. The silence in the air was almost unbearable.

Everything made sense now: the way Halt was thinking so hard before he split them up… why he didn't explain himself…

Will opened his mouth to say something, but Halt stood up before he got a word out. He didn't even know what he wanted to say. Halt walked past Gilan, and away from the camp. Will wasn't far behind.

After the two left, Horace and Gilan turned their stunned looks to each other. Their shock quickly turned into worry, but neither of them wanted to follow them. The two rangers were going to work it out now that all the cards were on the table. The question was, how much yelling was left…?

Will caught up to Halt just as soon as they were out of earshot from Gilan and Horace. "Halt," he called, even though Halt was just a few feet in front of him. He reached to take his hand and pull him around, but Halt turned before he had to.

He didn't look angry… not exactly. He was upset, but he wasn't mad. Was he hurt? No, impossible.

"S-Sorry," Will stammered. "I…" Will's eyes flickered away for half a second, but he forced himself to look back and face him. "I wasn't thinking that way. I didn't think…"

"What did you think?" Halt asked.

"I-I…" Will sighed. He felt like an idiot now. "I… thought you just wanted to go with Gilan. Rather than me, I mean. Which is okay, but… I mean…"

"You mean?"

Will rolled his eyes, exasperated. He was too afraid of saying the wrong thing, but, again, that all went out the window and he was only left with his feelings. "Shut up," he said. "I'm trying my best not to sound like a spoiled little kid."

"Stop trying so hard, then, to say the right thing."

Will stopped. There was something surprising about those words, completely different from what had surprised him a week ago… In fact, the exact opposite tone from the one a week ago was coming up, unexpectedly, in his voice. It was compassion. Gentleness.

"I was worried you'd gotten tired of me," Will whispered. Those were the right words.

Halt sighed, out his mouth. Now he was the one exasperated. "Don't worry, Will," he said, "I got tired a long time ago."

Will couldn't help but chuckle at that. It was so mean, but it wasn't cold, like before.

"Don't be such a child. You have to think of every single possibility before you set your mind on something."

"Okay." Will nodded. Suddenly he felt like an apprentice again. Halt started to walk past him, back to the camp.

Will felt a boulder slide off his shoulders. Not only was Halt not tired of him, but he was also not angry at him for thinking, as he put it, 'acting like a child'. He was.

"Wait." Halt stopped. "Thanks," Will said, before he could think it through.

"For what?" Halt asked.

"For protecting me. I mean, you didn't have to," Will said. His eyes keep trying to pull away but he kept them where they were. He told himself to stop acting like a coward. "I could've definitely handled him on my own. But I'm not angry about that. I'm relieved, actually, that that was the reason you didn't want to go with me rather than it being… well… you didn't care."

Halt shook his head. "Well at least you're not mad," he said, and he turned back around so Will couldn't see him smile.

The younger ranger thought he was done talking, so he started to follow him again, but on the way back to the camp Will thought of something else to say.

"I'm glad you're back," he said.

"Likewise."

And there was the reunion they'd been waiting for.

Will smiled. It was such a simple thing to say, but it made him happier than anything else he'd heard from Halt before. Halt didn't know it, but even in the darkness Will could see his jaw moving as he smiled.