A/N: Heya everybody! :) I hope you liked my last story and said I'd be updating soon so here it is.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters…obviously :P

"If you move another inch this horses head will be on the ground before you can shoot that nasty bow of yours"…

Will puts his hands in the air and says, "I'll do whatever you want, just please don't hurt tug."

"Tug's his name huh? What a stupid name for such an ugly horse. Where did you get this thing anyways?", the voice says behind him. The man then tosses two old looking ropes to Will and says, "Bound your right hand to your right leg and your left hand to your left leg. Will obeys and ties the ropes according to the mans wishes.

"What do you want with us?", Will asks the stranger. "What do I want with you?, he replies, "I'm gonna sell you both as slaves in Skandia that's what I'm gonna do." The man then makes his way over to will and cuts his bowstring. "Dang.", Will mutters.

The man then picks up Will and sets him on top of tug. The man sets Will on top of his Tug and Tug takes off running. "Hey!", the man screams as Tug and Will run off into the distance. Will takes one good look back at the man and realized he is just a lonely bandit. Once they get a quarter of a mile away Will cuts himself free with his sax knife. "Dang Tug, now I don't have a bow. These arrows are near useless.", Will says to his horse. "We might as well head for Araluen to see if we can get in contact with Horace.", he says aloud.

So Will and Tug head off in the direction of Araluen. They take all the back routes and detours they can to remain unseen, but as Halt always said, "If something can go bad, it will." So as Will and Tug pass through one of the many forests on the outskirts of Araluen a peasent farmer sees the boy and his horse riding through. The boy and his horse look oddly out of place so he decides to report his findings to a chief guard.

Naturally the chief guard he happens to report to is Horace. Horace understands the man and recognizes the description of his former friend that betrayed them. Looking to seek revenge, Horace sets out to find and dispose of Will single handedly.

As Will ventures towards Halts old house, a place where he hopes to maybe find some food, a bow, and some clue to why all of this is happening. Horace guesses that Will may go there. So of course the young warrior goes and waits in Halt's bedroom in the house.

Will approaches the house, and seeing no signs of life nearby, he tells Tug to stay in the stable outside and gives him some food. Will then hears a faint, almost inaudible noise of a chair being moved inside the house. Instinctively he draws his sax knife in his right hand and his throwing knife in the other.

He walks to the front of the house, seeing the door slightly ajar, he pulls off his cloak, and throws it into the door and jumps back quickly. As soon as the cloak clears the door a long double-edged sword pierces it. Will then throws his throwing knife at the exposed hand, ripping it from the owners arm. Blood, bones, and skin fly everywhere as the sword falls from the owner's non-attached hand.

Will then kicks the door off of its hinges and sees Horace lying on the ground gripping his right wrist that no longer has a hand. Will's mind goes crazy at the sight of his friend on the ground. Then he realizes that this was the very same person who would have killed him in a second a few minutes ago.

Horace looks up at Will and says, "Please spare me. I promise I didn't tell you what they did. I didn't even want to kill you, I was just following orders.

Will with a now less caring heart says, "Whose orders Horace, your own?" As he recovers his throwing blade from the other side of the room and re-sheathes it. "What did I do Horace? Why is everyone after me?", Will asks his friend.

Will turns around to see Horace sprinting off out of the house. He quickly unsheathes his throwing blade and throws it at Horace. The Warrior, knowing how accurate Will is with it turns and allows the blade to pierce his already injured arm. He cringes again, but hardly feels the blow despite the loss of blood in that arm. He runs toward the kingdom out of Will's throwing range.

Will then draws his sax knife and looks around the house urgently for any sign of a bow he could use. Nothing is there. The house had been looted long ago.

Once he confirms the house is clear he re-sheathes his sax knife He then notices a letter that Horace must have dropped during their small skirmish. The letter is soaked in blood but most of it is ledgible.

"Dear Ho_ce,

My d_ _iend, I am sorry to inform _u that your dear fr_d, Will, has b_ray_d the king_om by t_g my daughter hostage _ _ _ _ _ _, which could very well cause a full scale war. Ne_tiations are ha_g at this moment betw_ us but they a_'t goi_ well. I h_ put out the o_er to all of the ran_ers to kill him if they e_unter him. He_ns knows what h_'ll plan up next. Pl_e let me know if you fi_ anything

-K_n_ Duncan"

"Eff, Will mutters as he tries to interpret the bloody parts. He copies what he deffinately can interpret onto a separate piece of parchment. It now says,

"Dear Horace,

My dear friend, I am sorry to inform you that your dear friend, Will, has b_ray_d the kingdom by t_g my daughter hostage _ _ _ _ _ _, which could very well cause a full scale war. Negotiations are happening at this moment between us but they aren't going well. I have put out the order to all of the rangers to kill him if they encounter him. He_ns knows what he'll plan up next. Please let me know if you find anything.

-King Duncan"

"Ugh", Will mutters to himself. "I need to figure out what this says.", maybe the king has a copy of it. No, no, no. There is no chance of me getting in there, especially without my bow. Maybe I should head to Skandia to see if Erak can tell me what's going on."

So Will walks outside and gets Tug. "Run as fast as you can boy.", Will says, "The kings men may already be after us.