"Wait... did I just hear you correctly?" Shay said, brows furrowed.

The allied Templar and Assassin were currently seated at an inn. Luckily no one was there to bother them, all lost far away in their dreamworlds. Neither had been able to find sleep after their encounter, and thus spent the remainder of the night discussing the headless man.

Connor repeated, "When I saw the horseman the first time, he had a pumpkin for a head."

Shay opened his mouth, but then shut it again. The horseman wearing a pumpkin for a head really shouldn't have surprised him. The mercenary was headless after all and not to mention immortal. Really, a pumpkin was nothing compared to that.
"Where was it you saw him?"

"The frontier. Just beyond New York."

Shay stood, slamming his palms against the top of the table as he did so.

"What are you doing?" Connor asked.

"Going to the frontier. Maybe we can find something that'll help us."

Connor stood and followed him out of the inn. He shivered as he was hit with brisk night air, "There were... frontiersmen that told me about the horseman. They seemed knowledgeable on the his origins. They told me he was a Hessian whose head was blown off in battle."

"No explanation as to why he is still here?"

"They were convinced he was searching for his head."

Shay halted, turning to Connor, "Poor guy must've been really ugly if he could be mistaken for a pumpkin. Or maybe his head really was a pumpkin, even before the incident on the battlefield!"

Connor's face scrunched up in confusion, "I do not think anyone's face could resemble a pumpkin. I also do not think a man with a pumpkin-head would be allowed in the military."

Shay smirked, clasping Connor on the shoulder, "I was joking. Let's see if we can't find these frontiersmen and see what else they know!"

"Connor! It's been years!" Boone shouted, throwing his hands in the air and grinning as Connor and Shay approached.

Connor nodded and took a seat on a large, sturdy log. The heat of the small, crackling bonfire before them was a pleasant contrast against the fall air. The Assassin put up his palms to further indulge in it and return feeling to his numbed fingers.

"Whose your friend?"

"Shay. This is Boone."

"It's nice to meet you, Shay. A friend of Connor's is a friend of mine!"

"Thank you." Shay nodded with a soft smile before sitting beside the Assassin.

"We have come with questions." Connor said, turning to Boone.

"Oh?" Boone said, poking the fire with a long stick. Something within the blaze popped, shooting more embers upwards only to disappear.

"You once told me about a headless horseman."

Boone's face visibly darkened, but he said nothing, staring fixedly into the fire.

Shay cut in, "We've seen the horseman. He's killing the residents of Sleepy Hollow. We intend to defeat him, once and for all. If there's anything you know that could help us..."

Boone sighed, "He's looking for his head. That's all I know."

hay felt the man wasn't sharing everything, "Come on. How many innocents has he taken? There must be something. Something you overheard or you've seen. Even if it seems like rubbish superstition."

Boone turned to him then, gaze intense. When he spoke his voice was barely above a whisper, as if the horseman himself would hear his words and somehow be summoned by them, "From what I've heard, the clash in which his head was severed took place on a battlefield in Pennsylvania. He was a mercenary for the British army. I know... of one survivor from his regiment. Gerhard von Stantten. If you can find him... maybe he can lead you to the battlefield."

"Do you know where Gerhard is now?"

Boone nodded, turning back to the fire, "He was a friend of mine. After the battle, Gerhard left the military and relocated to Boston. I can't guarantee finding the head and returning it to its owner will stop him... it might even make him stronger."

"It is the only lead we have. We will try."

Boone turned sharply back to the pair as they stood to take their leave, "And if it makes him stronger? What will you do then?"

"He's already immortal. If there's even a slight chance this will work, we have no choice but to try." Shay stated.

Boone sighed, "Just don't get yourselves killed, eh?"

"We don't plan to."

For Gerhard's stories of the headless horseman, his reputation had taken quite a beating. He'd become target of endless gossip and shaming. Due to this, Gerhard was an easy enough man to find. His quarters sat on the outskirts of town, far from those who deemed him crazy.

Connor knocked on his door, Shay at his side.

Gerhard answered the door reluctantly, "What business do you have here?"

"We have questions about your... experience in the war."

"If this is some joke, I won't allow myself be victim to it. Verpiss dich!"

Gerhard went to close the door, but Shay stuck his foot in the way at the last moment, "Gerhard, we aren't here to criticize you or mock you. We mean to defeat the horseman, but we need your help."

His gaze flickered between the two visitors before he opened the door fully, "What is it you need from me?"

"We wondered if you couldn't take us to the battlefield. It is believed that returning the man's skull will put him at ease and end his killing spree."

Gerhard sighed, disappeared a moment to retrieve his coat, and joined the pair outside.

"Let's go, then, and get this over with." he muttered, shutting the door behind him.

The field was barren, grass and shrubbery all brown and lifeless. Sure signs of the oncoming winter. No bodies or skeletons were to be found, however. It was still difficult for the Hessian to return to the site of such violence and gore nonetheless.

The three split up, checking under piles of leaves, behind trees, anywhere a skull could possibly be hidden.

"Gerhard, could you locate the exact spot in which the man's head was severed?" Shay asked, sighing in agitation. Already so much time had passed, the day ending much too early. Soon there wouldn't even be enough sunlight to continue their pursuits.

Gerhard closed his eyes for several moments, returning in his mind to the day of the battle. When he opened them, he turned sharply and headed quickly away without a word.

After a glance was shared between Shay and Connor, they followed.

Gerhard pointed to small clearing before an old, towering tree, "It happened over here. I watched from the treeline."

Shay nodded and kicked away numerous vines and leaves that had gathered. From this area Connor searched outwards, analyzing the overgrowth in methodical sections.

Finding nothing, Shay looked up at the tree, letting his gaze wonder along its trunk down to its roots, spread out like long, thick legs. Struck with an idea, he wandered over to the tree and knelt before its roots.

Pushing aside even more thick, thorny vines revealed something white, stained gray by years of dirt and weathering. Reaching in, Shay turned it slightly and recognized a skull, shattered in half. The left eye socket and the entire lower jaw were missing, the remainder cracked and brittle.

The Templar carefully picked it up, cradling it as if it were an infant.

"Connor? Gerhard? I've found the skull."

Gerhard shuddered as he laid eyes on it, "That's definitely his. Our work here is finished. I pray your plan succeeds. Gott segne dich!"

The Hessian didn't wait for a response, instead quickly heading back the way they'd come. Connor joined Shay and studied the skull curiously, "It is... broken."

"He was hit by a cannonball. What'd you expect?"

"Will he accept it in such a state?"

Shay sighed, "There's only one way to find out!"

Upon their return to Sleepy Hollow, the pair immediately went to the Church. Shay set the skull carefully atop a gravestone and the pair flocked to the top of the church to await the horseman's arrival. They could only hope this time would not include actually fighting the horseman.

"The first time you saw the horseman..." Connor began, trying awkwardly to strike up a conversation in order to pass the time.

"I was on a mission, sent by the Grand Master to... that's unimportant."

Connor tensed at the mention of his father. Briefly he wondered how close he actually was to this Shay. In the short time of his alliance with Haytham he'd learned very little. Perhaps Shay could tell him more?

"Does my fa... the Grand Master know?"

Shay smirked, "Your father didn't believe me. He said I was 'acting as a child, corrupted by fairy-tales and superstition.'" He shook his head, "Hypocritical bastard, considering his obsession with the precursor artifacts."

Connor couldn't fight his grin, "How has the Old Man not killed you for the way you speak?"

"He needs me and he knows it!"

They lapsed into a comfortable silence for the remainder of their wait.

Luckily it was not long before both tensed at the snapping of twigs below. Peering over the edge of the roof, they could make out the horseman's dark form, axe in hand. From where exactly he'd come they couldn't tell.

Immediately, the horseman's attention snapped to the skull that now sat atop a gravestone. The Templar and Assassin held their breath as he headed towards it and carefully picked it up, as if to gaze upon it.

He held it for several moments before promptly crushing it.