I continue to apologize. Part 2/3 of today's uploads, nothing new to say here, enjoy!

16

"Will!"

Maddie jolted up at the happy exclamation made by her mother. She groaned as she realized just how sore she was, and fell back down onto the floor where she had slept. She had never gotten to bed, she realized through the fog in her mind. She managed to sit back up and watch for signs of overexertion on Will's part. She'd be keeping an eye on him for a few weeks, until she was sure he was back to normal. Evelynn came out of the girl's space, rubbing her eyes. Their escape hadn't managed to leave her be either.

"Hello, Evanlyn… how are you?" Will managed to get out through the shock. He sat down, and Maddie didn't miss the tiny grimace that graced his features for a moment.

"Forget about me. What happened to you!?"

"Long story." Will's eyes searched for Maddie's form. He missed her, his mind still half-asleep. She got up and started a small breakfast - and coffee, of course. Horace finally decided to join the group, and he gently led Evanlyn away. He was just as curious, of course, but he could tell that Will was in no shape to explain right now. Evanlyn's curious gaze strode to Maddie, her eyes prompting for an explanation for her absence.

"Mom, can we at least eat and wake up fully before you start prodding into our lives? Please?" Maddie asked, and Evanlyn nodded.

"Of course, Maddie."

Evelynn sat down near Will, and when Maddie put food in front of the two of them, she perked up some. Will tried desperately in a losing battle to not eat his breakfast as though he was half-starved, which Maddie was pretty sure he was. She made a 'go on' motion with her head towards him, and he shot her a thankful smile before abandoning all care. Maddie rolled her eyes, and gave her parents a questioning look.

"Do you want some too?" She asked, and Horace, to her great surprise, shook his head.

"I do, but I'll wait. Seems Will needs it more than the rest of us," he said, and Maddie nodded. She had no idea what had happened to him while they were searching for him, but it clearly wasn't pretty.

She slid a mug of coffee over to Will, who took it gratefully, before sitting down with her own breakfast and a mug of coffee. She didn't miss Evelynn's disbelieving glance towards the cups.

"You know, it wouldn't kill you to try it," Maddie said. Evelynn looked at her.

"No thanks."

"Whatever you say," Maddie said, taking a drink from her own. "More for Will and I then."

Will glanced up at Maddie and raised an eyebrow. Maddie glared at him playfully, and he rolled his eyes before returning to his food. Evelynn didn't miss the exchange, and wondered what it had been about.

Later in the day, Evanlyn brought up the question of what had happened. Will was looking better, to say the least, and seemed perfectly fine with answering Evanlyn's questions. He explained his side of the story, to everyone else's great shock.

"You what!?" Evanlyn said at the end, though likely referring to the beginning of his story. He held up his hands.

"I wasn't risking your daughter -"

"Hey! I can take care of myself, and you know that perfectly well!" Maddie protested.

"Or her apprentice."

Maddie shut up.

"But...still," Evanlyn said. "Going off on your own?"

"I do it all the time in Araluen."

"But that's Araluen. This is Skandia, Will! What if Maddie hadn't gotten to you before they put you under warmweed's effects? What would you have done then?"

Will looked down for a moment, before looking up at Evanlyn.

"I think you should probably go back home, Evanlyn."

"What? Why?"

"All of that - they wanted to know where you where. So they could kill you."

Evanlyn's face went pale.

"Evanlyn, I'm not risking my friends out here. I can handle it if -"

"The only reason you're not still a slave here is because Erak and I got you out."

Evelynn looked shocked. Maddie and Will noticed it, and the same thought of what the importance of that statement was to her flew through their heads.

"Yes, Evanlyn. I'm perfectly aware of that. But Maddie knows about it, apparently Evelynn knows about it…" Will trailed off for a moment. "It's not like I'd be totally helpless."

Evanlyn glared at him.

"Will. I can defend myself, Horace is a master swordsman, Maddie's a Ranger. I can handle myself."

"It was this stubbornness of yours that almost put me into a position of either being dead right now, or back in slavery, Evanlyn!"

Evelynn was gradually slinking away, into the corner of the room. All the color had drained from her face. Maddie looked over at her and stood up.

"Both of you, stop!" She glared first at Will, then at Evanlyn. "This is getting no one anywhere. Both of you are too stubborn. On top of this, Evelynn's terrified! Something about what you're talking about is scaring her halfway to death." Maddie looked over at where Evelynn had been a moment before, but she wasn't there. "Where'd she go?"

The cabin erupted into activity. She surely couldn't have gone too far, right? What worried Maddie was that the girl had the skills of a Ranger, and was extremely scared. They also knew that the Skandian rebel group they had been tracking down for so long had possession of warmweed, which she had gathered Evelynn didn't have a great connection with.

Evelynn had climbed into one of the few trees in Hallasholm and had wrapped her cloak tightly around her. She rocked herself back and forth, wishing for the awful memories to leave her be. To just go back to Araluen, away from Fenn, away from warmweed… all of it. She realized dimly that she was crying, and did her best to keep back the whimpers that would certainly give her position away. She heard the door to the cabin open, and she glanced down. Will came out, wrapped in his own cloak. He glanced around, before looking up. His gaze passed her spot in the tree, and he noticed her. He closed the door behind him, and walked over to the trunk of the tree.

"Hey, you can come down."

Evelynn glanced down at him, and shakily removed herself from the branch she was on and lowered herself down to the ground. Will sat down, and motioned for her to do the same. She sat beside him.

"What's going on? I've never seen anyone who's spent their whole life in Araluen react so explosively to that topic."

Evelynn stayed silent, weighing the risks of telling Will about her experiences. On the one hand, he'd probably be an ally in the matter - from what she had gathered, he'd been through it, too. On the other… it could get her kicked out of the only family she'd ever known, abandoned once more. She couldn't deal with being abandoned again.

She didn't remember the ship, the travel across the ocean from Skandia back to Araluen. She never found out the identity of her rescuer. She remembered waking up on the ship, the effects of warmweed gone from her system, and running. She had run into the forest, avoiding all contact. She didn't want to be forced to do anything. She didn't want anyone asking her about her parents' whereabouts. She knew they were dead.

Evelynn ran for days, eating little from the forest. She had finally come across a town, the forest around it cut away as an early warning system. She made her way around to where the trees were closest to the village and looked on. She was starving, in need of rest, and far too young to be having to deal with this existence. At the same time, she didn't want to be caught by anyone and sent back. She had found herself slinking into the lit town, looking around for signs of food amongst the mostly empty streets. She hoped to find a mostly empty building to sleep in.

She wound about the streets until she came upon a building where the open windows let the smell of food leave into the streets. Evelynn found herself entering the building, attracting glances from the many people inside. She was suddenly aware that she probably looked half-dead. That perception was confirmed when a woman, blonde with blue eyes, approached her. She glanced around her, before lifting Evelynn up and moving her to the kitchen space.

"What in the world happened to you?" She asked, worry lining her face. Evelynn didn't respond, too shocked by the attention.

"I… was attacked by bandits," she lied, hoping it wasn't too weak.

"Where are your parents?" There was the question she had been wanting to avoid.

"...they're dead," she said.

"Oh, you poor thing… You look like you're starving." The woman rushed away, quickly coming back with a plate, loaded with things that Evelynn didn't know the names of, but did know was food. She ate it without care for the people around her, before remembering she wasn't alone. When she looked up sheepishly at the woman, she was smiling.

"It's fine. What's your name?"

"Evelynn."

"Just Evelynn?"

Oh no. Evelynn couldn't remember if she had a last name, so she slowly nodded. Understanding seemed to grace Jenny's features.

"I see. Well, you could stay here with me, at least for now."

Evelynn wasn't sure how to take that.

"What about after right now?"

"Well, I don't really know. I can't see the future."

Evelynn found herself liking this woman. She spent the next few months with her, but rather than staying past then, one day, the woman - Jenny - was taking Evelynn to the castle.

"Where are we going…?"

"Castle Redmont. I can't take care of you forever, at least not…" Jenny started, but Evelynn didn't hear anything that she said past there. She was being abandoned. She felt tears streaming down her face, before she pulled away and ran towards the forest.

She didn't realize it, but she had started crying under the tree, sitting next to Will. She felt his arm slide around her.

"It's okay. You don't have to tell me. However, we should probably get inside before Maddie completely loses it."

Evelynn had to smile at that. Maddie did seem rather nervous whenever Evelynn wasn't in her mentor's sights, and she had just found Will. The two Rangers went back inside, and everyone relaxed visibly. Maddie raised an eyebrow at Will, and he shot her a I'll explain later look. She left the matter be for the time being. They also dropped the topic of Evanlyn possibly going home, but Evelynn felt like it would be brought up again, when she wasn't in earshot.