Halt threw himself down as the second arrow came pelting out of the trees. It struck another Temujai, dropping him instantly next to the first. The shocked rebels stood frozen as yet another arrow struck a third man in the leg. Then they all started babbling frantically, hiding behind one another, trying to figure out where the arrows were coming from. A few tried to shoot back, but the onslaught was too heavy and the Temujai were too panicked. Their numbers had been greatly diminished in the ambush at the Gathering, so there was only about twenty of them left, and with three of them down, only a few remained.

The Temujai may be elite archers, but they sure don't know how to counter archery. They'll shoot at you all day, but fire an arrow back with some accuracy, and they'll break down and panic.

The next thing that dropped from the sky was not arrows, but rocks. Stones fell from the sky, smacking into the men's heads and arms, knocking out a few and breaking the bones of the others. As the rocks hailed down with surprising accuracy, Halt crawled over to the dead Temujai and wrenched the arrow out of his neck. He reached down and struggled to cut the ropes binding his ankles. By the time he got himself free, another few Temujai had been hit by arrows. He used the tree to haul himself to his feet, wincing and groaning as his broken ribs and bruised body protested, but the Temujai were too busy to even notice him. Should I stay? Or do I go find Will? The shooter up in the trees continued his onslaught of arrows, and he seemed to have the situation under control.

I can't lose him, not again.

Halt took one last look at the panicking Temujai, and took off as fast as his injured body would carry him. He ran in the same general direction as Will had, but he had no way of knowing where he really was. Should I call out for him? He can't have gone very far. "Will! Will, where are you?" He paused for a moment, but the answer wasn't long in coming.

"Halt! I'm over here!"

Thank god.

"I'm coming, hold on!" Halt took off running in the direction he had heard his voice from from.

He was running full steam ahead when Will called out again, "Watch out, there's a cliff!"

Halt skidded to a stop, and just in time. Only a few meters away from him, the ground dropped off suddenly, and if Will hadn't called out to him, he would have probably run right over the edge into the dark ravine.

"Where are you?"

"I'm over the edge, but just a little ways down! I would climb, but my hands are still tied. Can you toss a rope?"

"I don't have one! Are you near the top?" Halt knelt down and peered over the edge.

"Yes, I think so. Can you see my hands?" Sure enough, Halt could see two hands clinging tightly to a thick tree root just a few feet down.

"Yes! I'll grab them, and try to use your legs to help me pull you up."

With a lot of grunting and heaving, Halt barely managed to pull Will up most of the way, to a point where Will could swing his legs up and roll away from the edge. They both lay there in the loose rocks, panting and gasping for breath in the darkness. After a minute or so, Will sat up, grabbed one of the sharper rocks nearby, and started cutting at the ropes on his wrists. But his hands were all scraped and bloody, and he couldn't seem to get a good grip on the rock. Halt leaned over and gently took the rock from him, cutting the ropes off in a single movement. Will rubbed his hands gratefully, wrapping his bleeding fingers in his cloak. Halt sat back and leaned heavily against the large rocks, his eyes drooping in exhaustion. "Will, where's Or'kan?"

Will pointed mutely over the edge of the cliff with a blood-smeared hand. Halt leaned precariously over the edge again and could just barely make out the shape of a man sprawled on the rocky bank next to the river. He wasn't moving. "Is he dead?"

"Can't tell from up here, and I don't think I have the energy to go down there and check. He hasn't moved since he landed, so he's either dead or very badly hurt."

Halt nodded wordlessly. "Then I don't think we have to worry about him just yet. Are you alright? How's that cut on your neck?"

Will shrugged. "It's fine, it was pretty shallow. I saw it coming and leaned back just in time. What about you? How was Crowley's shooting back there after I left?"

Halt raised an eyebrow. "I see, so that was your plan. That was Crowley shooting, eh? I suppose that makes sense. So he's taking care of them while we take care of Or'kan?"

Will nodded. "Yes, that was… roughly how it was supposed to go."

"So you're saying that your plan succeeded, in a manner of speaking."

Will grinned faintly. "Yes, in a manner of speaking. Sounds like Crowley's got the other Temujai under control."

The screams and shouts from the Temujai rapidly became softer and softer and Crowley took care of them, and the forest became gradually silent, except for the whoosh of wind in the trees and a few owls and frogs out for the night. The moon shone down through the trees, huge and bright, but not quite full.

They both were silent for a while before Halt asked, "Look, I know we'll have plenty of time to explain everything to each other later, but I just have to ask… Some of the things you said to Or'kan, I've never heard you say things like that before. Did something happen?"

Will's face darkened in the moonlight. "Or'kan was crazy. I was just saying things to get him riled up, nothing more."

Halt pursed his lips. "I know some things were just for baiting him, to get him angry, but I'm not sure about all of it. Will, I know you, " he said softly, "I know when something's wrong. We have time, right here, right now, and I think it's better if we clear all this up before we have to deal with anyone else." He leaned in closer to him, and said simply, "Tell me."

Will remained silent for a moment, but then something seemed to break within him and he started talking, slowly. "It was during the ambush, after you left, I was finishing off the men near me, and when I looked across the clearing, Harrison and Trevor were struggling, they were surrounded… I shot the last few of them around me, and then I just started running, but I couldn't make it. They stabbed Harrison and shot Trevor, dead center of the chest. When I got there, I - I killed them all. Every single one of them." He buried his face in his cloak for a long moment, unable to continue. After a few moments, he looked up again. "After the Temujai ran, we tried to stop the bleeding as best we could, and we carried him for miles as we ran through the darkness, terrified that something was going to jump out and shoot us…" Will was babbling now, his hands were shaking, but his voice was soft. "We had to rest, and we set him down, and he was dying. He asked for me, and I… I held his hand. I held his hand as he died, I felt the life go out him, his heart stop pumping. He was so afraid in those last few moments, so afraid… and I couldn't help him. It was too late." Will took a breath. There were tears in his eyes. "We carried his body the rest of the way to the safe houses. And my team carried his body all the way back to Araluen. I had to ride through those gates with two Rangers' bodies strapped to their own horses."

There was a long period of silence. Will stared mutely at a rock, glassy-eyed, and Halt just mulled over what had happened.

"I'm sorry you had to go through that," Halt whispered.

Will flashed back to his first discussion with Halt after he escaped from slavery in Skandia. He had told Halt about his addiction with warmweed, and his mentor had said the exact same thing.

"Will, it's a terrible, terrible thing when people die, people who you love and care about, people who you know don't deserve to go the way that they do. But you need to know that you did absolutely everything you could to save him. If it wasn't enough, then it wasn't enough, but that's not on you." Halt reached out and put a gloved hand on Will's arm.

Will met his gaze, his eyes red. They just looked at each other for a long moment, and then Will nodded once, reassuring himself, and then nodded to Halt. "You're right, Halt. You're right. I suppose I've just been under so much stress, so many things have happened that I wasn't expecting, it's all driven me a little crazy." He grinned a little.

Halt nodded once, and then let out a long sigh. Tell me about it. "I suppose I have something to tell you as well, something to get off my chest."

Will raised an eyebrow. His eyes were already less red, and his face seemed less tense and lined. As he sat more comfortably in the loose gravel next to the cliff, he looked a little more like his old self again. "Oh no, the last time you told me that, you told me you were retiring. Don't tell me something else, I don't think I could take it."

He was grinning widely, but the smile faded as he saw Halt's sad, hard face. Halt gave another long sigh. "Will, I've been having dreams."

"Dreams? What kind of dreams?" Will's voice sounded concerned.

"Well…" Halt hesitated. "They're about… you."

Now Will's voice was puzzled. "Alright. What about me?"

Halt shrugged, embarrassed. The movement sent a few pebble smattering off the cliff side, hitting the surface of the river with a soft splosh. "I've had three of them, one about the ambush, one about you during your first year as my apprentice with the boar, and one last one where you… well, where you had died."

Will was quiet for a long time. Finally he said haltingly, "Your dreams were about me… dying?"

"Y-yes." Halt felt some weight lift from his shoulders. Telling Will, just telling him, about the dreams had lightened his heavy heart. Even though Crowley had known, he could never understand it like Will could. Will was his son, after all. There's a special bond between father and son that doesn't exist between friends, Halt thought. And, of course, considering the small matter that the dreams were about Will. That made a difference, too.

Will chewed his lip. "Why do you think you would dream things like that? I mean, you know none of it is true. Here I am, perfectly alive." Will gestured to himself as if to show him.

Halt raised an eyebrow at Will's beaten, battered body, his heavily bandaged knee, his bloody face and hands, his torn and dirty clothing, his exhausted face shadowy in the light. "I'd say you're more dead than alive at the moment…" he flashed a small smile as Will grinned wanly, "but yes, I know none of it is real, or, at least, most of it." He sighed and rubbed his beard feverishly before continuing. "I don't know what it's all about though, they've only started after I told you about my imminent retirement."

Will rubbed his own beard, or rather, scruff. "You said each of the dreams was about me? And the Corps? Anyone else?"

"I don't think so… oh, my last one was about Alyss. After you died." And your two children that you haven't had yet, if my dream was true.

"Huh." Will's brows knit together. "I'd say… I'd say you are worried about retirement. But not just that, it's the things that have to happen along with it."

Halt raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

"Well, from what I can see, I think the underlying problem is me."

Halt was stunned. "What? You? Why would it be you?"

"I think you are afraid to leave me on my own, so to speak. No, not just missions or having my own fief, but altogether leaving active duty. I think you haven't ever really left me to fend for myself, at least, not really."

Halt tried to protest, but Will didn't let him. "Look, even when you found me, when I was a baby, you saved me from bandits, you brought me to the ward, and you were always nearby. Then you took me in as your apprentice, and from then on we were together all the time. Even after I graduated, I did most of my missions with you, and now we even occupy the same fief. I think you're afraid to leave me and the rest of the Corps."

Halt sat in silence, stunned.

"And, because your dreams also seemed to be about the Corps as a whole, I think you're afraid of leaving the organization that you devoted your life, no, your existence, to. It's been your entire purpose for living ever since you escaped your family in Clonmel, and taking the gold means you are no longer fulfilling that purpose.

"But mostly, I think you are afraid of change. You're afraid of all the different things that will happen after you leave."

Halt absorbed all of that. Yes, he supposed, Will was right. He was afraid. He was afraid to leave because he didn't want to abandon his old life, everything that he had built, the reputation he had carved for himself, his importance to the kingdom, the knowledge that he was needed. Needed by someone or something.

He shook his head a little, and then raised both eyebrows at Will. "Since when did you have the ability to interpret dreams?"

Will only smiled a little. Halt suddenly realized how much Will had changed. He had gone from the timid apprentice to the accomplished, confident, capable Ranger in the span of a few years. He had made Halt into a much better person every second he spent with him, and, Halt figured, the only reason he had ever gotten the courage to talk to Pauline about how much he loved her was because of Will.

In short, Will was responsible for most of the happiness in Halt's world.

"You're right," Halt murmured. Will just looked at him.

"You're right," he said a little louder. "About everything. I am scared, scared about what the future is going to be like, scared about leaving the Corps. I suppose I just needed to pin all that fear onto someone or something, and that happened to be you."

Will nodded. "It's alright to be scared, you know. I'm just as scared as you."

"Yes, scared of the Temujai and their bloody ambushes. I spent the last few days thinking they would be my last," Halt muttered.

Will nodded. "I was sure I wasn't even going to make it to Castle Araluen, much less all the way back here." He paused for a moment, and then said softly, "I don't know if I told you this yet, but it's good to see you. These last few days… well, they've been -"

"I know," Halt interrupted. "They've been hell. And it's good to see you, too, Will." They both clasped gloved hands tightly.

Halt spoke up again. "You know, in my last dream, the one where you had died… you had children."

Will looked up sharply, his eyes wide in surprise. Then he suddenly grew sad, so deeply sad, and asked wistfully, "What - what did they look like?"

Halt smiled. "They were beautiful, like their mother, and handsome, like their father."

Will smiled, his eyes still so sad. "I bet they were."

Halt couldn't help but add, "There were two of them, a boy and a girl. Beautiful and healthy and curious and smart."

Will sighed and wrung his hands. "You've probably heard about it from other people, but I haven't properly told you yet, have I?"

"I've heard things, but I'd prefer to hear the truth from your own mouth."

Will nodded. "Yes, well, the truth is that Alyss and I have been trying - trying for months and months - to have a child. And it hasn't been, well, it hasn't worked yet. I've been trying to keep my hopes up, but Alyss sees right through it. We're both sad and… discouraged."

Halt chewed his lip. "I know you said you had both been checked by a doctor, and he didn't seem to think there was anything wrong. So you'll both just have to be patient, it's bound to happen sometime."

Will sighed heavily. His eyes were glassy. "When I was back at the castle, when we had just gotten in, we were all beat up and exhausted, Horace came up to me and offered for me and Alyss to come and see little Maddie. When Alyss was holding her, I could see, I could just see how much she wanted one of her own. Her face, her voice, I knew in that moment that Alyss wanted a child just as much as I do, if not even more. And it's just so hard to know that we both want it so bad, but it just won't happen."

Halt felt a hand clench around his heart. It was hard for him to hear all this pain in Will's voice. But, he reflected, just as he had realized back when Will first fell in love with Alyss after Mackindaw, that was part of the pain of being a mentor. "It will happen, I know it will. Just wait, in a few years you'll be complaining to me about not getting any sleep and having to clean up all kinds of messes and deal with all the crying. You'll look back on this moment and wonder why in the world you ever wanted them so badly."

Will grinned. "I might complain later, but right now I'd give just about anything to have to deal with any of that."

"Arrrrrrgggggggghooooooooohhhhhhhh…."

Both Halt and Will jumped a meter in the air. "What the hell -" Halt spat.

"I think it's Or'kan. It came from over the edge." Will leaned over the ledge a little so he could see the body sprawled on the rocks below.

Another groan echoed from the bottom of the ravine. Will could just barely make out Or'kan's body down below. As he groaned, his head moved ever so slightly. "I can't… Can't feel my legs," he mumbled. "Or my arms. Why can't I feel… my arms?"

Will and Halt both looked at each other gravely. "If I'm not mistaken, I'd say that when he fell off that cliff, he broke his back. He's probably paralyzed," Halt said matter-of-factly.

Will nodded. Once. Then he leaned over the edge and called out, "You hear that, Or'kan? You might be paralyzed!"

A much louder groan followed by the weak sound of sobbing echoed up.

"It's his reckoning. After all the harm he tried to cause…" Halt muttered.

Will pursed his lips. "I don't know if that's the fate he deserves, but it's worse than anything I could ever dream up as punishment for what he's done."

Halt nodded solemnly. "I don't know if anyone deserves a fate such as that."

Another voice called out from the trees a few meters away, but this one was familiar. "Have you two really just been sitting here all this time, chatting, while I had to deal with all the rest of them by myself?"

Will turned to see Crowley marching through the trees. He looked indignant, but he could tell that he was relieved to see them both. Will pulled himself painfully to his feet, and then took Halt's arm and pulled him up, wrapping an arm around his shoulders. "You could say that, I suppose."

Halt grinned cheekily through teeth gritted against the pain. "Yes, Will and I were just sitting down to tea and biscuits when you came along. Too bad you didn't come sooner when we were eating a nice hot meal with good pint of beer and fresh bread."

Crowley grinned cheerfully. "Since you all have been having such a good jolly ol' time out here, I suppose you're ready to go home then? It's only a day's ride, and I figured we could drop most of the prisoners off at the nearest castle. But we'll be taking good old Or'kan down there all the way to Araluen with us."

Will nodded. "That sounds like a plan."

Halt smiled. "Time to go home. Now, before we leave, who wants to shimmy on down and get Or'kan?"

Hello! Thank you so much for reading all of that brand new content! I know it was a lot, hopefully that makes up for how long I made you all wait for it. I'll be posting the ending soon. Please tell me what you think. Which dream was your favorite? Which character is your favorite point of view?