Epilogue

Halt and Will sat facing each other over the table. Between them was a board, painted black and white. Carved wooden counters were sitting innocently on the wood, black for Halt, white for Will.

Halt drummed his fingers on the table, waiting for his former apprentice to make his move. Will leaned forward, lips slightly parted, allowing the tip of his tongue to poke through. His eyes showed intense concentration as he tilted his head sideways to see a different angle of the game.

He reached a hand forward, touched a crude resmblance of a horse, and withdrew his fingers, frowning.

"Proposed yet?" Halt asked with a hidden smirk.

Will huffed. "I'll do it when the time is right." The ring was still in his pocket, still untouched by the hands he most wanted to touch it. "Stop trying to distract me." He frowned at the board, studying the counters.

"I thought you said you'd do it when you got home," Halt said.

"I will," the younger ranger insisted. He glanced over at the object of his affections- and his nerves.

They were in Halt's quarters at the castle. The rangers were playing chess, while Pauline and Alyss talked about work. It'd been a week since returning to Redmont. There had been a banquet to welcome their return in which everyone patted them on the back and told them it was good to have them home safe. They formally introduced Antil to the baron- he was going to work with Redmont's healers.

"Who's winning?" Alyss asked, catching him watching her.

"Not sure," Will muttered because while things were looking good for him, Halt always had a cunning plan up his sleeve.

It was nice to have an evening to relax. They'd been firing arrow after arrow into targets like he had when he was an apprentice to hone their skills after what felt like ages without their bows. There had been the tearful reunion with their horses, then the equally touching reunion with the couriers and their other friends. They'd farewelled Lillian and Svengal; the skandians promised to take her to Caraway.

"That doesn't sound like a proposal," Halt teased.

"Shh," Will hissed, alarmed that Alyss would overhear. But she was once more engaged in a discussion with Pauline.

Since returning, the wild still haunted him. He sometimes glimpsed feral eyes in the mirror, and moss on his skin. He shook his head to clear these visions. The nights were the worst. His dreams were dark, filled with trees, where tigers lurked but he could not see them, and the only thing he was sure of was the campfire.

Sometimes, when he woke, he swore his matress was the damp soil of the jungle. And when he heard the rain, he thought of a boggy swamp rushing in on him. Ruch and Sirisa would come to him too. Ruch with his wisened, crinkled eyes, and Sirisa accusing him, 'why does a worthless, jujoan foreigner get to live?' Worst of all, were the moments when he relived the spear slicing through Halt's stomach. There were days when he couldn't look at his mentor because he feared he would see pale skin and half closed eyes, chest barely moving. At these times, Halt would grab his shoulders and force their eyes to meet.

He showed Alyss the tiger pelts. She said they were beautiful. He let her keep them. He showed her the spears too and she was less entranced by these. When he showed her the obsidian sword and told her about Ruch and Sirisa, she put her arms around him and kissed the top of his head.

"Are you going to move sometime today?" Halt drawled, bringing him back to the present. Will peered at the pieces.

"I'm thinking," Will replied.

"Haven't you had enough time to think?" Halt wasn't talking just about the chess game, Will realised. The older ranger raised an eyebrow, jerking his head towards Alyss. He swirled the dregs of his coffee around. "Isn't it time to stop thinking and just do it?"

"You kow what?" Will said, "I think you're right."

He stood up, sliding the ring out of his pocket. Then he paused and glanced back down at the board. He moved his queen. "Checkmate in three moves," he said.

He was almost certain Halt's lips had twitched in a smile as Will strode over to Alyss, took her hand in his and dropped down on one knee.

And when her lips met his, he heard Halt exclaiming, "took you long enough!" and Pauline hushing him, but that was as distant as the wild now for all that sunk in was her whispered 'yes.'

The End.

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