Sorry this is almost late! I got... a little distracted... sorry... Um, anyway! Reviews!

Guest: Thank you!

hopeweaver19: I'm glad!

AreiaCananaid: Thanks a lot, character interactions actually had me kinda nervous writing that one. Glad I could make you smile!

Disclaimer: I'm not John Flanagan. Still can't think of any witty additions.

8

The weeks passed by quickly, and soon the Queen(currently under the pseudonym Evanlyn), Maddie, Will, Horace, and Evelynn were on a boat bound for Skandia. Not long after they had left port, Maddie had disappeared belowdeck. Evelynn chose - wisely - not to bother her. At least, after Will had explained the issue to her, and how much of a bad idea it was to disturb a seasick Ranger. Evelynn quickly realized he was speaking from experience, and left Maddie be until she got up the ability to return to the rest of the group above.

Evelynn watched with interest as the waves rolled by. It was spring, and Will said that they would have had problems if it were just a few months later, during summer. Once more, he appeared to be speaking from personal experience, so Evelynn heeded his words in the case that a time arose when she actually needed to know about it. It was a nice day, and there wasn't a sign of a storm as far as Evelynn could see. Along with that, there wasn't another boat for that far, so Evelynn decided that maybe Fenn had lost the map and they were home free.

Until about halfway through the trip, when Maddie had finally come back up, her temper clearly at a shorter fuse than it had been before. Evelynn guessed that Maddie just really, truly hated boats, and left her be. So did the rest of the people who had some inkling of what was good for them. Evelynn had been watching Will and the Queen - er, Evanlyn - catching up when she noticed a shape behind them that certainly wasn't there before. She climbed back down to the deck from the watch she had been keeping in the crow's nest to let the others know.

Maddie still wanted to be left alone, that much was clear, so she steered herself in Will and Evanlyn's direction.

"Uhm, excuse me…?" Evelynn said, her voice quiet. She was a little nervous about interrupting a conversation between the Queen and Will. They both looked at her with interest.

"What's that?" Evelynn pointed to the shape, which was certainly getting more clear - and closer. Will took one look at it and turned back to Evelynn.

"Get Maddie," he told her, and Evelynn rushed to do as he had instructed. Maddie, though clearly annoyed at the ocean and the boat, put her discomfort aside and rushed belowdecks to get her weapons.

The ship - Evelynn could clearly make it out now - was approaching quickly. Will told something to Maddie, and Evelynn caught the word 'wolfship'. Her heart sank to her stomach. Fenn hadn't lost the map, and now she was angry at herself for letting it happen. As Evelynn watched, it came within firing distance, and she watched in surprise as, between Will and Maddie, the forms of people she could see on the deck of the approaching ship were shot - not in a fatal spot, but to put them out of commission. Evelynn, feeling utterly useless, turned around from watching Maddie and Will.

And saw another wolfship coming, from the other direction. They were stuck, in between two wolfships, both Rangers focused on the first ship. That was the plan, Evelynn realized. The ship they were shooting at currently was, more or less, a decoy ship, designed to distract them from the more dangerous of the two. Although, since when have enemy ships ever not been dangerous? Evelynn shook herself out of her thoughts, realizing with a start that she had to tell Will and Maddie about the new ship. But without distracting them… she had no idea what would happen if they were distracted. She certainly didn't want to find out through practice.

The second wolfship was getting closer and closer by the minute, and Evelynn was panicking. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, so she simply stood there, clueless and worried.

It was Horace who had noticed the terrified apprentice Ranger first. His eyes followed her apparent line of sight, and a cold feeling gripped his heart. There was a second wolfship, and clearly, it wasn't friendly. He pulled Will away from his task, and pointed out the new ship to him. Will's gaze hardened, and he told Horace to stay and assist Maddie in any way he could. Horace wasn't sure how he could help, so he kept an eye out for any more surprise ships.

Evelynn was relieved to see Will dash up, silent as ever, and begin to rapidly injure any Skandian within his longbow's range. Evelynn was massively unsure as to how far away Skandia was by now, but all she could see was ocean on all sides. Soon, both wolfships were left behind the Araluen ship, unable to continue with so many of their crews wounded.

The trip was quick from then on, though Evelynn couldn't fight the feeling that they were still walking right into danger, blind to the warning signs.

It was the midday a week later when they finally came into port in Hallasholm. Will glanced out along the landscape with a distant look in his eyes, repeated by Evanlyn when she came above. Maddie quickly dashed onto dry, solid land, clearly happy to be off the boat. Horace watched after Maddie's antics with a smile, before joining Will and Evanlyn in their trip down memory lane. Evelynn…

Evelynn was belowdecks, wondering why she had this horrible, terrible twisting feeling in the pit of her stomach. Not to mention, why Skandia gave her such a bad feeling in general. She couldn't clearly remember anything in her past regarding the northern country, but she felt it in her mind. Not only this, but she felt like something was going to go horribly, terribly wrong while they were here, but she couldn't quite place what it was. She was sitting absentmindedly in the somewhat out-of-place belowdeck stable on the ship, petting Midnight's side as she did so.

"You wouldn't know what this was about, would you, girl?" Evelynn asked in a hopeless attempt at making sense of her own internal turmoil.

No. I'm a horse.

Evelynn looked up at Midnight's playful eyes in surprise. The message seemed to convey itself. Midnight seemed to nod. Evelynn shrugged. This certainly wasn't the strangest thing that had hever happened.

"Well, if you don't know, who would…?"

Maddie. Or Will.

"They don't seem to know either…"

Evelynn hadn't noticed Will making his way belowdecks to search for her before they set out to the Great Hall. Midnight snorted, and Evelynn glanced up at Will. His face was currently trying to contain a smile, and failing quite miserably at it.

"What are you so happy about?" Evelynn asked, maybe a little sharply. She was embarrassed at being caught talking to her horse.

"You know, all Rangers do it," he said, seeming to read her mind.

"Really."

"No kidding."

"Maddie's never talked to Bumper."

"Not in front of you. She did it plenty when she thought I wasn't watching during her apprenticeship."

Evelynn mulled over the information, and shrugged.

"Anway, we're in port now, and I was mostly coming down to get you. And Tug," he said, as his own horse snorted in annoyance at being overlooked for a mere moment. "You should probably bring Midnight. I'll grab Bumper, since I don't think Maddie's going to even consider coming on board again until it's time for the return trip. Horace and Evanlyn will just have to get their horses themselves," he said, glancing up in the case that the current royal family heard his statements. Apparently, even if they did, they were choosing to ignore him.

Maddie led a saddled and bridled Midnight off the ship, Will coming behind her with the two other Ranger horses trailing behind him. Evanlyn and Horace glanced back. A wicked smile crossed Will's face.

"Horace, wonder if the Skandians have yet managed to get on horseback without feeling like Halt on a boat," Will said, and Evelynn left them to their plotting as to how to get a Skandian on horseback. Hopefully, they really are friends with the Oberjarl, or we'll be in trouble, she thought as she caught up to the land-happy Maddie.

"Will's got Bumper," Evelynn told her.

"Alright. I'll thank him when he gets over here."

Once all horses, Rangers, royals, and apprentices were on land(most of them on horseback at that), they headed out to the Great Hall. The twisting feeling returned to Evelynn's stomach after the carefree few minutes she had spent reorienting herself to solid land, and she couldn't help but worry about what could possibly be in store for the group by trip's end.

Sorry for the quick progression of events, I can't write boats. That made no sense... um... hope the point got across anyway...

Once again, three more chapters - oh, shoot, I mistitled chapters in the doc, I just noticed this... shoot. Uhm... two chapters! Two chapters until the big backstory reveal, and in that time, I'm still taking guesses. I've had only one so far, and I'm a little upset by this... I want to know your thoughts on this! (Who knows, you might even get it right... ;) )