"Papa!" The girls squealed, as they rushed to their father, throwing themselves at him.

Edward had to hastily retract his arm from around his wife so he could catch the flying children.

"We've missed you so much!" They said, gripping onto him tight so that he could never go away again.

"So have I," he kissed the tops of their heads, as his wife wrapped her arms around him. "I've missed you all dearly."

"What happened while you were away?" Mary asked. "Tell us everything!"

"I will, I will," he chuckled, attempting to release himself from their hold. "I have presents for you all as well, but you'll have to let me go before you can have them."

The girls immediately pulled away but Eleanor still held on.

"I prefer this present," she grinned and kissed his cheek.

Anne and Mary made a repulsed face.

After Eleanor eventually let go of her husband, Edward retrieved the presents he had bought while on his trip. To his wife he gave green glass earrings that sparked like emeralds. To Mary, he gave a ruby pendant which she received with a shriek of joy and insisted to wear it immediately. Anne reacted the same and found that her bracelet of blue and silver matched her dress perfectly. For the rest of the day, the family talked and ate while Anne twirled about in her presents, refusing to take it off while she ate. Instead, she was forced to wear an ugly napkin over her dress to not ruin it.

"Papa, tell us what happened while you were away!" Mary repeated and her father inhaled deeply with a laugh to retell his adventures.

He told them about chasing down the precursor box in Shay's ship, the Morrigan. At the mention of Shay, he stopped.

"Edward, what's wrong?" Eleanor asked, noting her husband's wince.

"It's nothing dear, not to worry," he smiled before continuing.

"So after the Morrigan docked, another ship comes into sight and Liam and I rush around thinking it's an enemy but Chevalier just laughs! We ask why he-"

"Papa," Mary interrupted, "Shay was in trouble the other day."

Edward frowned.

"What?"

"I was at Achilles- Oh yes! I forgot to tell you, I'm an apprentice for the Brotherhood now!"

"Yay." Anne grumbled.

"What?" Edward turned to his wife but she waved it off.

'I'll tell you later,' she mouthed.

"I was working for Achilles and talking to Liam and then there's this crashing and shouting and Achilles and Hope were really mad at Shay. He said Achilles made him 'slaughter innocents'."

"Shay was in an earthquake in Lisbon," Edward explained, "he must have triggered something when looking for an artifact that Achilles wanted."

"So it wasn't Achilles fault," Mary tilted her head to the side, "was it?"

"No it wasn't, Shay was very angry and stole something very important last night so no more earthquakes would happen."

"What did you do?" Anne asked.

"Nothing. We chased him and... He ran away."

Eleanor raised an eyebrow but said nothing. She knew when her husband wasn't telling the truth.

"I hope he's alright." Mary said. "And maybe if he gives it back, Achilles will forgive him?"

"I'm sure he will," Edward ruffled her hair with a smile, "now, can I carry on with my story now?"

Edward continued with his story, telling his family about the storm in Calais before the attack on their way home. He avoided the gruesome parts and the words that the pirate had said, words that would never leave him. He missed out the part where he nearly died.

The story over, the girls were allowed out to play. Eleanor allowed Anne to carry on wearing her dress, on the condition she took extra care in keeping it clean. She was still suspicious of the damp coat in the closet and the shawl that didn't belong to her over the back of a chair in the sitting room.

The girls shrieked as their boots crunched into the thick snow, tracks behind them denting the blanket as they burst into a run as they left the threshold on their home.

"Bet you can't catch me!" Anne called over her shoulder as she ran ahead, her sister racing in her wake.

"Wait up!" She called between breaths. "Mama told you not to dirty your dress!"

"I won't!" Anne yelled back, hoping a similar encounter to the one with the deer wouldn't happen again.

When they neared the woods, Mary slowed. Her sister however, continued her pace, kicking up snow as she ran.

"Anne!" She bellowed and her sister halted and turned, rolling her eyes.

"What?"

"Mama doesn't like us going into the forest."

"I've been doing it for years," Anne sighed, "it's fine. You're not still scared of that bear?"

Mary shrugged, rubbing her arm.

"That was years ago!" Anne stepped towards her sister and taking her hand, began to drag her through the snow covered forest. "There's someone I'd like you to meet."

They ran through the trees, Anne following the familiar trail as Mary gazed around the unknown area, occasionally stumbling from not watching where she was going. Soon, a thudding sound found them. There was a long pause in between each thud, followed by a crunching of footprints. Peering behind the trees, they watched the figure throw his knife almost carelessly with astounding accuracy, before crunching through the snow to tug it out of the makeshift target. He resumed this game, throwing and retrieving, his posture was slumped. He was waiting.

"Antinanco!" Anne called and the boy turned, a smile on his face at the sound of her voice. The smile faltered at the sight of the third character.

"Who is your friend?" He asked her, watching Mary with suspicious.

"This is Mary, my sister."

Antinanco nodded, noting the resemblance. The second thing he noticed was the way Mary looked at the knife in his hand. It was not with fear, or anxiety, but with curiosity.

"You want to have a go?" He held the knife out to her, pinching the blade as she took the handle, nodding.

Anne watched on, an eye raised sceptically as her younger sister approached the tree, one eye shut as the other squinted, her tongue sticking out. She moved her hand back and forth before letting it fly. With a 'thunk!' the knife imbedded itself in the tree, joining the dozens of marks left by the owner of the knife.

"What?!" Anne exclaimed as Mary shrieked with joy. "How did you- You couldn't- huh?!"

"Anne, look!" Mary pointed at the mark the knife had made, the deepest indentation in the bark.

"She cheated." Anne accused. "I don't know how, but she cheated. She couldn't have done that on her first go."

"Anne, you saw for yourself," Antinanco said with a laugh, "Mary has a good aim."

"I am destined to be a great Assassin!" Mary yelled in joy, jumping up on a fallen tree, balancing as she pretended to hunt Templars, crouching like the Assassins are trained to do.

Anne continued to grumble as Antinanco laughed at her sister, amused by her ecstatic joy due to the expert hit with the knife.

"Would you like a go?" He held the knife out to Anne and she shook her head.

"No, thank you," she sniffed. "It's not like I've got much chance of beating Mary."

"You never know until you try."

"Then I guess I'll never know."

With a frown, Antinanco sheathed his knife. He didn't like Anne acting like this. She had been shown up by her younger sister but instead of congratulating the girl, she was taking it personally. Her pride had been damaged, so she would remain miserable until it was fixed.

"Are you a Red Indian?" Mary asked Antinanco as he absent-mindedly patted his knife at his side.

"No, that is a silly name your people call me," he sighed, "I am from the Kanien'kehá:ka tribe."

Mary blinked.

"She won't remember that." Anne said, sticking her nose up, regretting taking her sister out to meet her friend.

"Kanien... Kanienkah?" She tried and Antinanco gave a slight laugh.

"Kanien'kehá:ka," he corrected, ignoring Anne's remark.

The three continued to play, running through the trees like squirrels. Mary took to it naturally, another reason for the elder girl to mutter bitterly and cast disgusted looks towards her sister. The young girl didn't notice this, too enthralled in her new wild adventure. When the sun gave signs of descending, the girls decided to return home.

Cheerily wishing the boy goodbye, Mary waved and skipped off ahead while her sister dragged herself behind, still frustrated at her sister's display of skill. As she mumbled a farewell, Antinanco grabbed her arm.

"Anne-" he began but she shook him off.

"Just leave me alone!" She snapped angrily and he retracted his hand, almost afraid it would be bitten off. At his expression of shock, she faltered.

"I'm sorry," it was her turn to reach for him but Antinanco took a step back.

"You should not chase people away, Anne," he said coldly, taking a second step back, "even if you are jealous. You never know how long they will be in your life for."

"Antinanco, I'm sorry," she repeated, stepping forward but he matched her pace and began to retreat into the forest.

"You should learn that you and your sister have different traits. Just because she has a good aim does not mean she is good at everything. You will find you are good at things she is not. Until then, treat her with kindness. And others that you see as friends. Or they may not be that for long."

Anne glanced back in Mary's direction.

"You should go," he said, nodding towards the way that the young girl had slipped away.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong," Anne demanded, "you've put up with me being snappy before. You've never acted like this."

He frowned and then his face relaxed, or more softened into a defeated expression.

"It was a while ago," Antinanco said. "Many people from my village disappeared. We thought they would never return. I saw people weeping. They mourned them when they had not even confirmed their deaths. One day, the returned. They had been rescued and released. We decided to hold each other dear from that day on. We never know what day will be the last we see of each other."

Anne bowed her head. When she raised it, she stepped forward and placed a gentle kiss on his cheek.

"I promise you I will always hold you dear," she smiled softly.

"And I, you," he replied, a smile accompanied by an innocent blush appearing on his features.

The young girl grinned and skipped away to join her sister, her anger dissolved in the cold, winter air.