Disclaimer: For those who care… I don't own RA and I never will…

A/N: For those who care my trip to England was AmAzInG! I really hope that I can go back sometime, and I also hope that your school years are going well too
I know that it is a little confusing sometimes to read an updated chapter if you're not quite sure what's happened so far so I'll type up a quick summary to refresh everyone's memory (Including my own).

Will, our accident-prone little junkie has once again gotten himself addicted to Warmweed. Good going, mate. Now Halt is all outta sorts worrying about his young apprentice and Gilan is there too. Gilan's short-term-apprentice-and-now-fully-fledged-ranger friend Rodger has gotten himself killed by some rogue Ranger that no one can seem to find. The murderer left the first part of a message at the crime scene. "i". Yep… and that's all that you've forgotten from previous chapters of- Adonne de la Chaleur.

So without further ado here is chapter 7! Happy reading!

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November,

There has not been much to report on this month. Will and Halt both seem to be doing much better- Will is improving miraculously and only requires two doses of warmweed a day…and Halt? Well Halt seems to be exuding a strange sort of confidence he didn't seem to have whenever I was his apprentice. This may stem from the fact that Will never complains or asks questions but whatever it is it has Halt in a great mood.

I think we are all settling into our routine. I still have not been called back to my fief, although I find it strange that Crowley hasn't done so. He seems to be hiding something from us, even Halt says so. I don't think Rodger would have gone without a fight so it must be something about that. I don't understand, though. It's been 5 weeks. Surely my cottage in Meric still cannot be a crime-scene? What does Crowley need before he will let me return to give last rights to Rodger?

I guess for now I must wait for something to happen, as it turns out Halt and I are to take Will on his first hunt since the sickness took him bright and early tomorrow morning, so for now I will rest. I only hope that my brain will be as tired as my hand is so that I may fall asleep quickly.

Gilan closed the small leather bound notebook and stuffed it in his nightstand. He stretched slowly feeling the long hours of hard labor start to melt away as sleep called to him. He lay back against the pillow, hoping that all would go well in the morning.

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"Gilan. You must wear more than that! You'll freeze to death!" Halts scolding words were upon him as soon as he stepped from the cottage door. Gilan looked down at his four layers of clothes underneath his large Ranger's cloak and wondered how much more would fit under the black and white flowing fabric.

"I think this whole thing is making you paranoid." Gilan told his mentor who was strapping a saddle onto Abelard. Will stood silently by Tug doing the same and the small horse was chewing on his mussed hair.

Once the horses were ready they headed off, their bows ready for action. Halt glanced back at Will and saw that he was currently attempting to grab snow from lower hanging branches as they passed them by. He turned head, from fear of laughing as Will pulled some off of a branch upsetting the rest of the tree and getting an avalanche of snow that cascaded all over him and Tug. Gilan didn't hold in his laughter and after a while Halt couldn't help the smile that spread across his face. He didn't know what was funnier- Wills' blunder or watching his dance the snow off of himself.

The horses did well making their way through the heavy snow, but Halt knew that they would need to be on foot for the actual hunting. They found a dense copse of trees that gave a warm shelter and left the horses with oats and treasured apples as thanks. Then they ventured out into the cold.

Halt tried to include Will as much as possible, telling him to practice his tracking. He still wasn't remembering everything and had to be told what to do at every step of the way but he had surprised them in training and they had high hopes for him today.

"Okay, Will now I want you to think hard. What tracks are these?" Halt pointed at the obvious array of snow rabbit tracks and waited while his apprentice puzzled it out. He could see the confusion in Will's eyes but there was a harsh determination beneath it. After a good long look Will looked up at Halt and said, "Rabbits?"
"Are you asking me or telling me?"

At that moment something changed in Will's eyes. The cloudy film that constantly seemed to cover them dissolved and he blinked several times taking in his surroundings. There was a strange clarity in his eyes and a bright intrigue that Halt had not seen in months.

"…Will?" He asked tentatively, not wanting to break what was happening but wanting to know what was going on.

"Where are we?" Will asked in a voice that wasn't what Halt had become accustomed two in the last two months. For the first time he sounded alive and curious.

"Will? It's really you! Gilan get over here- It's Will!"

Gilan who had been tracking a herd of deer in a nearby glen hurried over, all chances for snagging the stag gone with Halt's reckless yelling. As he neared he heard Will asking questions a million miles an hour.

"What do you mean? Where are we? Was I asleep? Why are we here? Wait… is that Gilan? Why is it snowing? Did we go North!"
Halt seemed unable to summon the strength to stop Wills' rambling so Gilan cut him off "Will. Will look at me!" When the boy looked over Gilan found himself at a loss for words.
"What happened?" Halt asked.

"I would like to know that myself!" Will interjected, looking around wildly.

"Will I need you to think hard and tell me everything you remember."
"Well we were getting ready to go meet Gilan. I remember feeling sick so I decided to go to bed early… but I don't remember waking up," He paused for a moment before a look of horror crossed his face, "…Am I dead?"

"No! No you're not!" Halt took Will's face in both hands, "No Will—You are very much alive!" Relief and Happiness washed over Halt's face, but Will looked even more confused.

"I really am dead, aren't I"

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Crowley surveyed the scene in horror. Two more rangers had been killed bringing the death toll to eight. Crowley shook his head as flashes of gruesome crime scenes danced through his subconscious. He didn't want to remember them. It was all too much.

He motioned for an apprentice Ranger, who looked very pale and was shaking to come over to him. He reached into his pocket and drew out a pad of leaf paper and a lead pencil and wrote a few lines. Then handing the boy the message he sent him on his way.

He gazed past the two bodies, torn apart and piled by the stables at the two rangers leaves painted in blood on the side of the barn. "t" and "H".
The message was now "i play wtH" Crowley didn't know how it would all end but he did know that there was no "playing" involved.

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Gilan heard a knock at the door and found Alyss, bundled up and red faced holding a messenger hawk. He invited her in and she quickly walked to Halt and passed the bird off.

"I wasn't supposed to talk with anyone until I had given you the message," She said as he unrolled the small scroll that had been attached to its leg.

Halt read the short note and shot a glance at Gilan, then with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes he said, "Thank you Alyss. If you would like to stay and warm up please do so. Will is in the next room—he made a lot of progress today and he's sleeping it off." She thanked him and quietly made her way into Will's room. Halt's face dropped.

"What is it?" Gilan said crossing to Halt by the fire.

"Crowley is sending an urgent message for us to meet him in Meric. He wants us to review the first crime scene."
"Wait…first?" Gilan said, "Then there have been more than one murder!"
"It would appear that way. He's also said to not tell anyone where we are going."
"What's happening, Halt?"
"I wish I knew, but Crowley seems to want to keep whatever it is a secret—even from his own people so it must be something huge." Halt stared into the fire with troubled eyes.

"…I've never heard of Ranger's being murdered in their fiefs. Sure there have been some incidents while traveling but in their homes?"

They were both quiet for a time.
"I can't go." Halt said—stating what they both knew. Will was finally making real progress and they had been warned not to hinder him. If they went on some road trip following a murderer who knows how long it would take him to recover.

Gilan sighed and said, "I'll go pack." He started to walk out of the room but Halt stopped him.

"Gilan," He turned to his former apprentice, "Thank you for everything you have done for me. For us," he added gruffly.
Gilan nodded, "It was my pleasure to live here again. I hope that the next time I am here Will will be recovered fully"

"I do too."

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Ok ok so a pretty short chapter! I'm sorry! I've been trying to plan and type the rest of the story just because I don't want it to get too confusing or become full of detail mistakes. I'll be posting more as soon as I finish
Thanks for being so patient with me!
Lee

PLEASE REVIEW! I spent a lot of time writing this the least you could do is take two minutes to drop in and write a sentence or two. Thank 'ya!