A/N: This is it guys, the ending of this story. It took quite longer than I expected to post this, the last weeks of school were mentally exhausting so I didn't have much time to write. Then my old laptop crashed and I lost this chapter, I bought a new laptop, started writing again but then something was wrong with that one as well because it deleted all my documents in sleep modus two times. So this is the fourth time I wrote this chapter. So it's not perfect, maybe I'll rewrite it someday but for now this is it.

I want to thank you all for the wonderful support the past few months, I loved reading every review (shout out to you AreiaCannaid for reviewing every chapter!). You don't know how much excitement it gives when you've been working so hard on a chapter and people actually seem to like it. I'm currently working on more stories for RA but suggestions are always welcome!

For one more time: let's get back to our lovely friends.

Epilogue

An eerie silence was present in the forest. Sharp eyes constantly observing the area for danger, ears open to every sound however small. Then a command rang through the trees.

"Left!"

Will reacted immediately turning around and within a second the first arrow had left and hit the first target. In a matter of seconds all twelve targets were jammed with an arrow precisely in the middle. But the young ranger didn't have the time to appreciate his work as he heard a branch crack behind him.

Instantly he turned around and faced his opponent. Knives ready in his hands, but his attacker had been fast and the distance between them was too short to take his opponent down immediately. The two sparred for a while, each trying to get into a position to be able to win the fight. Both having to suffer some punches from the other.

In a split second the older man unwillingly left a gap in his defense. Without thinking twice Will rolled under the arm of the person in front of him. With the quick movement he put himself in a better position and was able to get the knife just an inch before his attacker's throat.

"You're getting old." He said smiling.

"You're getting deaf, I was making enough noise to wake all of Araluen." The grumpy voice said.

Will put his knife, a blunt one special made for trainings like these, and faced his mentor. He knew it was a fair point, he was so focused on his targets with the bow that he had managed to miss the noise behind him.

"Sorry about the elbow against your head, Halt." Will said sheepishly looking at the red spot on the man's face. In the struggle between them he had accidentally hit his mentor in the face. Normally when they were training one-to-one fights they tried to avoid really hurt each other but sometimes it wasn't that easy.

Halt shrugged, "Nothing to worry about lad, these things happen."

The two walked towards the targets to gather the arrows. Halt saw the perfect hits but tried not to show too much of his approval.

"Not bad, I would say you're almost back at decent level."

Will just smiled, after four months of training his accuracy and speed were finally back to normal. As they walked back to the castle Will started rubbing his shoulder unconsciously.

"Are you hurt?" Halt asked trying to conceal the worry in his voice. They had started sparring for a month now and he was still wondering if they had perhaps started too early.

Will looked up and took his hand down, "no, bit sore from training." He answered but was immediately rewarded with a raised eyebrow. He should have known he couldn't hide the truth from Halt.

"Okay yes, it hurts. I've been training non-stop this week, didn't sleep that well and you just hit the top of my shoulder during the fight." He bursted out more angrily than he meant.

Halt waited for Will to continue, he had expected such an outburst for a while now. He had noticed the young man looking worse the past few days, but Will had refused to admit it and kept on training.

When Will stayed silent Halt answered, "Thank you for the honesty. As for the training, I know for sure that I ordered you not to train more than two hours a day. You should know better than to train more than that, it makes your shoulder more vulnerable. But why aren't you sleeping well? I thought the nightmares had stopped a while ago?"

Will grinned at the mention of training hours, he hadn't been really compliant with the schedule as he thought it to go really slow. So everytime he added a few more hours to his training and now he got the brunt of it.

As for the sleeping he had a decent excuse he thought and dared to share it. "Alyss had some specific herb tea, which helped me sleeping. But she is on mission right now and I don't know which herbs she used."

Apparently Halt was not too happy with this bright explanation, "So you've been sleeping bad because you didn't know which herbs to use?" Will nodded. "As my memory serves me well, Alyss has been on mission for what, more than two weeks?" Will nodded again, not sure where his mentor was going, but already feeling the tension grow.

"You're telling me you've been sleeping like hell for more than two weeks, while you were just a walk away of Pauline to ask if she might know what herbs to use?! Not to mention that you kept on training like an idiot while you were sleep deprived!" Halt said with a thundering voice.

Will shrunk as he realized what a fool he had been and didn't know what to say this time. This was no concern to Halt as he grabbed Will by his neck and forced him to walk to the castle. Will could have put up a struggle and might even win from the grizzled ranger, but he knew better than to test Halt's temper right now.

When they arrived at the castle, they immediately noticed the carriage at the front gate. Apparently Malcolm had already arrived. After training for four months, Halt and Will both agreed that Will was able to get back into the field. They had kept close contact with the healer and when they had mentioned to speed up the recovery process the man had insisted on checking the young ranger himself.

Halt finally calmed down and turned to his former apprentice.

"Will I know you want everything to get back to normal, but you do need to learn to tell me when there is something going on. If you won't I don't want you back in the field. Promise me that you will take better care of yourself." He said with a stern look in his eyes.

"I will Halt, I'm sorry I let it come this far. It won't happen again." Will said, and he meant it. He knew how important it was for a ranger to be honest about his physical condition, because they had to rely on each other.

Halt nodded in approval and his dark eyes turned towards the carriage, "You will explain to him why you look like such a mess today, he will have my head if he suspects me. Meanwhile I'll ask Pauline the recipe for this tea of yours."

Will nodded and couldn't help but smile. Halt was probably right concerning the old healer. Even in his letters he had lectured Halt about going too fast with the trainings.

Walking towards the guest chambers, Will started to think about the past few months.

He remembered the first week of his return to Redmont. After a few days riding they finally saw the enormous castle of Redmont. The last day Will had turned more quiet than usual, making Halt more on edge.

The healer had told them that the ride home wouldn't be without trials. He predicted that Will would likely develop a fever again, but they shouldn't worry as long as it didn't hold that long. Ever since Will stopped asking questions, Halt eyes were rarely detached from the young man's face, looking for signs of a fever.

Finally the cabin came into view and Will was happy to see light coming from the windows, indicating that Alyss was already home. He quickly jumped off Tug and unsaddled and brushed him promising to give the apples the next morning.

It was just a few meters from the horses to his cabin but suddenly exhaustion swept in. Halt took his elbow and guided him towards the cabin without saying a word.

The door opened and Alyss stormed outside crashing into her beloved man. They held each other as long as they could. Everything they wanted to say to each other was communicated in that single hug.

Will felt the soft blonde hair stroking his face and he remembered the moment he was almost giving up at the Scotti camp, only getting the strength of the hope of feeling this again. They only broke apart when Will started swaying on his feet again.

"You should get inside." Alyss whispered and she kissed him again on his cheek. Will was exhausted beyond relief and followed her inside like a lamb. He crashed down on his bed and fell asleep within a second.

Alyss returned to the living room where the old ranger was waiting. He looked weary as if the past weeks suddenly hit him. The young courier felt sympathy for the man, he had been by Will's side day and night to make sure he would recover, while he himself had just fought in the war.

"I would love to offer you some coffee, but I assume you're going to Pauline." She said with a soft smile.

Halt nodded, "yes, I don't think she will forgive me if I let her wait any longer. Make sure he rests, he won't admit it but this journey was too much for him."

A wave of seriousness washed over Alyss' face, one that Halt recognized from his own wife. "Don't worry, he won't get the chance to exert himself soon."

There was no need to reassure Halt even more and he left his former cabin.

True to her word, Alyss kept Will in the cabin for almost a week. The first day he tried to struggle her, but quickly found out it was pointless. If he thought Halt had been protective the past few weeks, he couldn't have imagined it getting worse with Alyss. Apparently the separation had shook her more than he realized and after the threat that she would bind him to his bed he decided it was best to listen to her.

After a week a memorial service was held for baron Arald and all the people of Redmont that had fought and died in the battle of the north.

It wasn't a huge ceremony because there had already been one at the castle of Araluen. However not everyone had the luxury to travel all the way there and therefore lady Sandra had decided to give the people a chance to mourn the dead properly.

After the ceremony a week of festivities was announced to celebrate the victory. Lady Sandra had made clear to everyone it was her dear wish that people celebrated the life they have and that Arald would have wished for people to celebrate a long time and not mourn him all that long.

Horace had also come for the ceremony and of course the festivities, but it had taken him a few days to meet up with Will even though the young ranger did not know why.

When they finally came face to face he caught Will by surprise. Will had returned from a short training with Halt when they saw the knight pacing in front of the cabin. Will could swear he saw Halt's mouth twitch.

"I'll go see if Alyss has some coffee for us. Good luck." He said as if he knew what this was about and was already enjoying it.

Confused Will walked towards his friend. "Hi Horace! Alyss told me she had seen you yesterday." Will started excitedly, but the knight didn't reply and stared to the ground.

"What's wrong? Don't tell me you've burned down the whole castle of Araluen." Will tried to joke and this time Horace looked at him, eyes shimmering with tears.

"I'm sorry Will. I should never have convinced you to go to Grimsdell forest, it's my fault you can't use your shoulder properly right now. I wasn't able to fight those idiots off and let them take Gilan….."

"Are you done yet? I do happen to know the whole story." Will interrupted his friend. He was slightly confused by the apologies of his friend. Horace had been quiet when Will was recovering at Malcolm's cottage but he never suspected this to be the reason.

"Horace, I don't regret saving all those lives of Grimsdell. If I hadn't been captured we wouldn't have known about the Skandian force and we would have lost the war, don't tell me that is what you wanted?"

He didn't give Horace a chance to answer as he continued, "As for the fact of me getting captured. You managed to get away from those Scotti thugs. Without you, Halt would never have found us and I would be dead. We made a difference by choosing to safe Malcolm, and if my shoulder is the price then I'm glad to pay it. So no more excuses from now on."

Horace didn't know what to say without apologizing again so he just stepped forward and hugged his friend. "Just promise me not to scare me like that ever again." He whispered.

Will grinned as they broke apart, "We don't live an easy life Horace, so we both can't promise such things."

Then something came back to his mind, "did you already spoke about this with Halt? He seemed to know why you were here."

Horace smiled, "he reacted more or less the same as you did. Maybe adding something like I should be hanged for treason, because I said that if I could I would change what happened even though it indeed secured our victory."

The two friends laughed wholeheartedly and started walking to the cabin, ready for the coffee which was probably waiting for them.

Will knocked on the door where the healer had taken residence and opened the door after a soft "come in".

Will smiled as he saw the old healer, "Hi Malcolm, how was the long journey?"

Malcolm's eyes shone brightly as he saw the young ranger, "Will, my boy! Well I must say that I hope never to take a journey like that ever again. But how are you, you look terrible. Don't tell me Halt let you train even more than the schedule."

Will stared at his feet, he had hoped Malcolm wouldn't notice it right away. "No, Halt kept to the schedule. I might have trained a little bit more when he was away, but it was all okay! I've just been sleeping awful lately."

"And why is that, I've been keeping contact with Alyss and she told me about the tea she gave you." Malcolm asked.

"Well, Alyss is on a mission right now and I don't know the recipe. Don't worry Halt already reprimanded me for not asking Lady Pauline" Will admitted while shuffling his feet.

Malcolm huffed but decided to let it go for now and gestured Will to sit down so he could examine the shoulder.

After a thorough examination he deemed Will as fit as anyone else his age. He concluded, not to Will's surprise, that his shoulder would forever remain a fragile point, but as long as Will kept training the muscles around it, he couldn't see a reason not to let Will start his job again.

Exited to celebrate the news, Will decided to invite Malcolm, Halt and Pauline to grab a bite at Jenny's restaurant. Halt was secretly not too keen of Will going back in the field, but was glad he could still keep an eye on him as they shared the fief. Even Will admitted to return to work in small steps to make sure everything went smooth.

They spend the whole evening at the restaurant, sharing stories, looking forward to the future. Will's cheeks started burning as he couldn't stop smiling. One look shared with his mentor told him: all was well right now.

Sniff, wow it really is done. Again thanks to everyone reading, reviewing, following this. We will see each other soon enough.

Stay safe, share the love and never forget to trust the cloak!