I'm a horrible person. I know. I updated the entire story (mistakes galore, and still I believe there are a lot) and this is not a new chapter. It looks like it is, but I found out yesterday that I was missing chapter seven (yes, an entire chapter, I'm sorry...) so the chapter called hostages is new... sorry! I cannot believe I'll pick this story up again, but I'm faily positive I will. I just really want to finish it because I hate loose ends. Anyhow- Sorry

One Raven and Two Trails.

"Aha!" Halt suddenly jumped off Abelard and yanked a piece of cloth from a branch. He handed it to Alexis, who was still sitting on Wolfie. "What's this?" he asked.

"Cloth?" Alexis said, hesitantly studying the thing.

Halt raised an eyebrow. That was the good-observation-but-I-expected-you-to-go-deeper look.

Alexis nodded: "Okay, it's erm- not native. It's too thin to be native, they wear sheepskin and wool, this is linen."

Halt was still nodding.

"You don't mean to say that Tennyson might've passed?"

"I think they did indeed," he said, as he got back on Abelard, "There is a path, why would the man walk in the bushes? He was probably pushed by a fellow traveller."

"And you can get all of this by looking at a piece of cloth that I probably would have missed?" Horace asked.

Halt shrugged: "No- we're just making stuff up as we go along. We just make it sound logically."

Will chuckled.

A couple of hours later, Will snatched another piece of cloth from the bushes. It was a miracle he even saw it, since the cloth was the exact same colour as the bushes around it.

"Halt!" he called his former mentor, "Where have we seen this before?"

Alexis stopped Wolfie next to Tug: "That's from the Genovesians."

"That means we're really closing in on them," Halt smiled.

They quickly trotted down the road.

"Maybe we'll catch up on them before sundown!" Horace smiled.

Will brought Tug to a sudden halt. Wolfie, who was trotting right behind the bigger pony, bashed into Tug. The horses neighed annoyed.

Pay attention!

You stopped!

"I smell fire," Will said.

Alexis sniffed: "So do I,"

She trotted forward, staring at the sky. "Over there!"

Leading the small herd, Wolfie galloped away quickly, to find the source of the fire.

"Leave it Alexis, we're too late anyway!" Halt called her from the back, but the girl ignored his orders.

She emerged out of the forest, which didn't scatter and then slowly completely disappear, the trees just stopped at a certain line. Someone had chopped them down for lumber and to grow crops. In the distance was a small, sad heap of ashes, the remains of a farm.

There were two bodies lying on front of it, face into the mud.

"O dear God," Alexis whispered. She jumped off Wolfie and carefully turned the lightest person, a woman, around.

"Crossbow bolts." Will said, behind her.

Horace arrived too, his face was red and he was clenching his jaw. "What exactly was this necessary for?" he asked no-one in particular.

"Calm down Horace, there's nothing we can do about this." Halt said. "They probably needed the food."

"But why did they have to die?" Horace asked.

"They probably didn't want to leave any witnesses," Halt replied, scanning the horizon. "We'd better get back on our horses again, before anyone sees us."

"No," Horace said, grabbing the little, foldable shovel from his saddlebags, "We're going to give these people a proper burial first, we can't just leave them lying here like this!"

"Oh- and what if we're digging holes for these poor bastards and their friends show up? I don't speak Scottish, are you going to explain it?" Halt got back up on Abelard again.

Will, who had already dug up his own shovel, shrugged: "But if we just leave them lying here, it'll attract more crows."

Halt sighed, got off Abelard again and grabbed his own shovel: "I can't believe I'm agreeing to this," he sighed.

Alexis got her shovel too and helped the boys with digging a shallow grave. When they were done, they lowered the bodies in there and filled it up with earth again.

"Should we say anything?" Alexis asked.

"No- that'll feel weird. We don't even know their names." Will said.

"We should get going," Halt mounted Abelard and tucked the shovel back into the bag. "I want to make it to the Oneravenpass by nightfall."

Will nodded and they went back to the road they were following again.

"Why does that pass have such a weird name?" Horace asked.

"What pass?" Halt asked.

"That Oneravenpass you were going on about."

"That's because the only thing that lives there is one raven, mourning the souls of the fallen warriors that fell in an ambush. It was a massacre, everyone was slaughtered."

"Who was the enemy?" Horace asked.

"Araluen," Halt replied, "They tried to invade us, we fought back, it was dirty, but they didn't attack us anymore for a long time."

"Until couple of years ago," Will smiled.

Horace laughed out loud: "Yes- until a couple of years ago. But I think the Skandians scared them off so much they'll stay behind their warm and cosy borders."

Alexis raised an eyebrow, the three men were obviously having fun about something.

"Is there a memo I didn't get?" she asked.

"Remember that report you read right after your first winter as an apprentice?" Halt asked, "The one about the Siege of Macindaw?"

"The one you couldn't shut up about?" Alexis said, "Yes, I remember."

"Well, we took on the Scotti with a bunch of raging Skandians." Horace smiled, staring at the starry night sky. "That was one hell of a fight."

"That was awesome." Will smiled. He smirked and then said: "At the Gathering last year,"

"That we missed," Alexis grumbled.

Will ignored her. "At the Gathering last year they assigned me a group of first year students with a rather peculiar assessment."

Halt chuckled. "Yes indeed, I thought I had heard Crowley talk about that."

"What was it about then?" Horace asked.

Will laughed: "They had to besiege a castle in the North of Araluen, cut off from supplies and help. The only thing they could use was a group of acrobats."

Horace laughed: "You've got to be kidding me,"

"He's not," Halt said. He stopped Abelard under a small pendent rock. "Anyone in for coffee?"

Horace swung his giant legs over Kickers back. "Food and sleep!" he smiled, "I could use that!"

"And coffee," Will said.

"Very important." Alexis added.

They went to bed early, after they had let the small fire die away. Horace offered to take the first watch, and the other three companions gladly rolled themselves up in their cloaks and fell asleep.

...

Alexis was woken up by Horace jumping up, and crawling over to Will. She turned around again, trying to go back to sleep, but Horace started 'whispering'.

"Do you hear that?" he asked Will.

Will sat up, leaning on his elbows. "Hear what?"

It was silent for a while, until a screech echoed through the pass.

"What could that be?" Will whispered back.

Then the screech called again, from the other side of the pass.

"It's the raven," Will whispered.

"But the other one called from the other side of the pass!" Horace said.

"Or there's one, flying really fast and high!" Will said.

"You think...?" Horace asked.

Alexis turned around again, trying to go back to sleep. She didn't really care about one silly raven flying over this pass.

Apparently, Halt agreed: "Well, for as far as I know, ravens are birds, and birds fly around." He groaned. "So could you please let an old man get his eight hours?"

"I'm sorry Halt," Horace said. "You go back to sleep too, Will. I've got another hour."

Horace got up again. "Yeah-" he reassured himself. "Just a raven. A raven flying around. Just a raven."

"Please shut your pie-hole." Alexis moaned.

When Will woke Alexis up after a couple of hours, the raven was still screeching. The next morning, when Halt had taken over the watch and the light started pouring into the pass again, the raven finally stopped.

"I kind of miss him," Horace said, pouring himself coffee.

Will chuckled, "Well, last night you wished him away," he put his hands up in the air and did a silly voice: "Oh Will! Help me! The big scary raven is trying to eat me!"

Alexis smiled.

"Uh," Horace shrugged. "Yes, I might have been a little scared. But I never knew what it was at first, so..."

"Well," Will smiled smug. "Good thing I was there to protect you."

Halt, who had started packing, sighed deeply. "Well, after the raven, Alexis and I heard something else, when Horace had returned to his post." He said.

"We did?" Alexis frowned.

"Yes," Halt nodded. "We heard something crackle."

Will looked puzzled. "Really? I heard nothing."

"It was your hair, Will, sparks of fear were flying from your skull!"

Horace and Alexis laughed, and Halt smiled.

"Oh, really funny. Haha." Will said sarcastically. He started packing his stuff and an hour later, they were back on their horses again.

Two hours later, the trail they were following split up.

"What do we do?" Alexis asked, frowning.

Will jumped off Tug and ran off, five minutes later he appeared again. "I think it's Scotti." He said. "There's a path leading to the East."

"How many men?" Halt asked. "Women, children?"

Will shook his head, climbing back on Tug. "No, men only. Halt, I fear that these men are heading to Araluen."

"To do what?" Horace asked.

"Probably to steal cattle." Halt sighed.

"And what do we do?" Will said.

"We try to convince them otherwise." Halt shook his head and turned his horse around. "But it's a really, really bad time right now."

It would become clear fairly quick after the companions passed the border of Araluen, where the thugs took the path south-west.

"We can't just let these men raid the farms here," Halt said after a moment's hesitation. "We'll have to deal with them first, and after that we can go and look for Tennyson again."

Will growled frustrated, he was in no mood to deal with some thieves right now. "Can't these men here just fend for themselves? Surely they're used to..."

"This is a large group Will," Halt said. "You've seen that yourself. Now they'll find a small farm with maybe two or three men to fight, kill them all and get the cattle. After that they'll set the farm on fire, like Tennyson did. And they'll probably even take the women and children for slave keeping, if they feel like it."

"And what if they don't feel like it?" Alexis asked, scared of the answer.

"They'll murder them too." Halt said grim. "Would you like that to happen?" he turned back to Will.

Will shook his head, he still saw the picture of the burned down farm, the killed farmers, clear in his mind. "Let's go."

Because they were on horseback, they quickly caught up with the Scotti, and the vast sea of dry grass changed slowly into forest. Halt called Will.

"I want you to go ahead," He said. "I don't want to bump into their troops out of nowhere."

Will nodded and spurred Tug up into a faster trot.

It was quiet for a couple of minutes, until Horace asked: "Why would you let him go ahead alone?"

Halt seemed to have a reply ready: "Because the four of us would make five times the noise."

"Wouldn't the four of us make four times the noise?" Alexis asked, frowning.

Halt shook his head. "No, because Tug almost doesn't make any noise, and neither do Abelard and Wolfie. But Horace here on his walking earthquake can be heard from miles afar..." Halt shot a meaningful look at Kicker.

"Well, now you're just exaggerating!" Horace said, patting Kickers neck. "I mean, he never learned how to sneak through the woods like your little ponies do!"

Halt smiled a little but didn't reply. "I'm sure Will's okay on his own," he said.

A couple of hours later, Wolfie growled and Abelard's ears popped up. Less than a minute later, Will and Tug popped around the corner. "They made camp about two kilometres from here," he reported. "They got guards, but most of them are sleeping."

Halt nodded and looked at the sun. "They walked pretty fast today. Probably they will rest an hour before attacking. Have you seen any farms near?"

"No," Will shook his head. "I thought it'd be more important to tell you they made camp first."

"Doesn't matter," Halt held up his hand. "They'll probably attack in an hour or so..." Halt was quiet for a moment, and Alexis feared that there would never come a time where Halt would stop quizzing her at the most random times. "Why would you attack at dusk, Alexis?"

She was quiet, and looked at Horace for help, but he shrugged. No idea, his expression said. She them looked at Will, who was smiling like he knew it, but Alexis knew it was his 'pretending I know it' smile. "How should I know?" she said.

"Think logical." Halt said. "What is happening at dusk?"

"The sun's setting." Alexis said. Dûh.

Halt looked meaningful.

"Oh!" she suddenly said. "Do you mean to say they will attack at dusk so that when they attack there's enough light to see everything, but when they take off with the cattle it's too dark for any survivors to follow them so they can get back over the border?"

Halt nodded. "And we're going to prevent that. Did you see what their numbers were, Will?"

"Seventeen," Will said.

"Oh, we could easily handle those once we're in the farm." Horace said. Alexis nodded. They had taken on more men in Craikennis.

Halt nodded too, but it was a I-agree-but-it's-not-what-I-planned nod. "But if were in there it could take a couple of days," he said. "And I don't want to put that much time between us and Tennyson. So I actually wanted to get behind their lines and wait for them there. Can you show us where they were going Will?"

Will nodded and spurred Tug into a trot, Alexis on his heels, when Halt called them back. "Wait!" he said and ducked into his saddlebags. He pulled a cloak out and handed it to Horace. "Put this on, it'll make it harder for anyone to see you."

Horace took the cloak and folded it open, looking a little puzzled.

"It's my spare," Halt clarified. "Might be a little tight."

Excited, Horace threw the cloak over his shoulders: "Awesome! I've always wanted to have one of your magic coats!" he smiled.

He pulled the hood over his eyes and closed the cloak in front of his chest, grinning broadly.

"Can you see me now?"