A/N: Next chapter's up! This one was getting into a 9k word count so I decided to split it up to help with the flow. That said, you can probably expect the next chapter a little sooner than usual. (It still needs quite a bit of editing though.) Also, just so everyone has a head's up, I'm planning on writing this book in a little bit of an episodic sort of fashion with some smaller plot arcs inside and tied into the overarching one. I hope that sort of style won't put anyone off. This weeks flashback belongs to Lady Pauline and Alyss (because their awesome and I love them) XD Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited, and reviewed: you make it all worth while and really provide the motivation to continue!

jaymzNshed: I love them together too XD They've got a few adventures/trials/mishaps in their future that I'm looking forward to writing. Thanks so much for the kind words and review!

Anonim: I'm excited to write what will happen next XD. Thanks so much for the review and the compliment. I try pretty hard to make my fight scenes interesting, and I'm really glad/relieved to hear that it's working out. Thanks again!

Ranger-Corpses: Things are indeed looking up… for now anyway :) Thanks so much for the review, it means a lot!

TrustTheCloak: I have it planned for Crowley to actually going to start becoming another one of the main focuses (I totally don't have too many already *sheepish smile*), so you'll definitely see more of him—especially starting in the chapter after next. Thanks for the review!

Dragonslover98: Thanks so much for the review, and the encouragement! It made my day to read. I'm really glad you liked it. You'll find out about Halt and Evanlyn today XD And yes, Halt's not going to have the best of times when he starts to meet up with everyone he knew before. Thanks again!

helloyesimhere: Thanks for the review! I'm really glad it's actually exciting. I get often get worried that my writing is boring/uninteresting, so it was encouraging to read that it wasn't this time. X) I hope this next one proves exciting too XD

Chapter 9: Of Outlaws and Friendships Part I

~x~X~x~

A Year Previous

~x~X~x~

Lady Pauline glanced up as Alyss entered the room in the Inn that they were sharing, a small smile transforming the solemn look that often adorned her face. Alyss was young for an apprentice—only 14. But she took her training seriously, often too seriously in Pauline's opinion. When Alyss smiled it could brighten up an entire room, so it was nice to see her so happy. It had been that way ever since they'd come to the village of Bawtry, and Pauline was glad.

Pauline and Alyss had come to Bawtry in the guise of the wife and daughter of an itinerant farmer, in order to gather some information. Bawtry was a village that was very near the border between the King's Lands and Morgarath's current holdings. This made it a prime spot to gather information. Pauline and two of her agents had made several small forays across the border and Alyss had been tasked with staying in Bawtry to handle the communications, and to see if she could gather any other useful information from the village.

Pauline had only just returned the day before; her two agents, Allan and Edmund were still across the border. The Couriers had recently been getting intelligence that Morgarath was preparing to mobilize again, attempting to gather strength. Truthfully, there had been many scares like that over the years that she and her fellow Couriers, and even the Rangers, had had to investigate—often to little purpose. Unfortunately, this time, the reports they were receiving were already looking ominously promising. Now, she brushed all that aside and instead focused on Alyss.

"You look happy," she said, smiling at her apprentice.

Alyss only nodded in agreement. "I think I made a friend," she admitted, her eyes bright, cheeks bright with a flush that spoke of excitement—and something else that Pauline couldn't quite discern. "A real one this time."

"Is this the boy you were telling me about earlier this week?" Pauline asked. "The friendly one who showed you around when we arrived?"

Alyss nodded and gave her a conspiratorial smile. "He works on one of the farms during the day, but we've been meeting in the late afternoon. He's given me a lot of good information; he's actually really observant."

What she didn't say was that this boy had nearly single-handedly brightened the past two weeks she had spent in Bawtry alone. She had been nervous and worried: this had been her first solo assignment after all. But Will had been a bright spot and helped ease her worries of making mistakes.

There was also one other thing she had purposely neglected to tell her mentor: that she had been trying to teach him how to read and write during their spare time together. Will had been picking up her lessons quickly. He had a curiosity and an almost hunger for learning that made him an excellent student.

The problem was that Alyss wasn't certain her mentor would approve or her taking time out of her assignments to teach a farm boy how to read—or even that it was the right thing to do. In Alyss's opinion though, she was certain that it was. She had seen how Will lived, and she'd been hoping that teaching him to read might give him more options, and a quicker way out.

Another more selfish part of her had taught him because she didn't want their friendship to just end when she inevitably left. She'd been hoping that they might be able to write each other. This was the other thing she wasn't certain her mentor would approve of—especially considering the sensitive nature of the field she was training to enter.

But she hadn't been able to let even those doubts stop her. Will… well, there was just something about Will that brought a warm feeling to her stomach—especially when he smiled—that made her happy and content just to be near him.

She was still silently debating whether or not to tell Pauline, when one of Pauline's agents came bursting through the door, an urgent expression on his face.

Pauline saw it and was quick to ask, "Edmund, what happened?"

"Allan is fairly certain that his cover was blown," he said urgently.

"How deeply?"

"Very, I'm afraid."

Alyss saw Pauline's expression turn grim and she knew why. If Allan's cover had been blown, it could put their entire operation in jeopardy. Pauline had told her before that, in cases like this, it was usually best that they get out as quickly as possible. As if in line with her thoughts, Pauline spoke.

"Alyss and I will get packed and we'll leave as soon as we can."

As Alyss hurried to pack, she felt her stomach sinking for two reasons: one was apprehension over their suddenly tenuous situation, and the other was because she hadn't yet given Will an address with which to send any letter he might try to write her—or even a way in which to send her letters. And she knew she'd never have the time to find and tell him before they left.

~x~X~x~

Present Day

~x~X~x~

Pauline stared across the table, glancing briefly at the Ranger commandant, before looking back to the King as he spoke again.

"It's just that I'd prefer not to leave anything like this to chance. If the reports from Pauline's contact are true, we will need to send people into Morgarath's lands to assess the situation. We can't just leave it at this."

"But how would we go about doing that?" Lord Northolt, King Duncan's supreme army commander asked. "It has been getting harder and harder to get our agents in, and the Ranger's are already spread too thin."

Duncan sighed heavily. "I know," he said dully, then brightened a little as he looked back to Pauline. "Is there any chance of sending your contact—the one who first gathered the information—back in?"

Pauline thought about that for a moment before she answered. "I suppose there is a chance, but it isn't a very large one—especially not if this needs to be done with any immediacy. This particular man isn't a Courier; he is a mercenary I've worked with before. Consequently, my contact with him tends to be more sporadic than not."

"Besides this," Crowley finally spoke up, "we need first-hand information for a situation as serious as this."

"What do you suggest, Crowley?" Duncan asked, leaning carefully forwards.

Crowley chewed thoughtfully on his lip before replying. "I think it would be for the best if I went myself."

"That's out of the question—it's too much of a risk," Duncan protested, angrily moving his hand in a sharp negative gesture. "I need you here."

"I think Crowley's right," Lord Northolt interjected carefully after a pause. "War, as you well know, Your Majesty, is a risk. And, in this instance, I think there is a greater risk in not finding out the exact nature of Morgarath's plans."

Duncan, knew that Northolt had a point, knew that he was probably right, but he wasn't quite ready to let it go. He looked almost helplessly towards Pauline who so far hadn't said anything, hoping he might find an ally in her.

"What do you think, my lady?"

"I agree with Crowley and Northolt, I'm afraid," she said after a pause. "We need official confirmation as well further information and I think that Crowley is our best chance of getting it."

Duncan breathed out another sigh, the tension slowly draining out of his body. "I suppose you're right." Then he looked towards his Ranger Commandant with genuine concern. "Just promise me, Crowley, that you'll come back in one piece."

"I'll certainly try," Crowley replied cheerfully.

It was as they were all getting up to leave that there was an urgent knock at the door. Duncan's steward poked his head in.

"I'm sorry to interrupt, Your Majesty, but I've just had news in from Gallica."

Duncan nodded at him to enter and he complied, handing a sealed parchment to his King.

Duncan opened it and scanned it quickly. Then his face paled and he sat heavily back down into his seat.

"What is it, my lord?" Crowley was the first to ask.

"It's Cassandra," the King breathed. "I've just received word that my cousin's holdings, where she was staying, are under attack by a Gallic warlord—and the situation doesn't look good."

~x~X~x~

It had been about only a couple of days since Will had begun to travel with Horace and Gilan. Needless to say, things weren't going as well as Will had hoped they might—especially when it came to relationships. Well, Will got along just fine with Gilan. He was already starting to view him as a friend, maybe even like a sort of older brother. But when it came to Horace, things were… strained, to say the least. This had been especially true since the day before when Gilan had left them to take care of some business. Both Will and Horace and had been instructed to lie low and mind the camp and each other while he was gone.

It was the minding each other part that they were struggling with now. And Will was at a loss as to what to do. At first, Will had admired the bigger boy for his skill and thought they might just become good friends. That had been a fairly exciting prospect because he'd had very few actual friends over the course of his life. But all of Will's attempts to befriend the bigger boy were either ignored or rebuffed.

He wasn't certain which of them had actually started it, but both of them had made some careless remarks that the other had taken offense to… and it had only escalated from there. All their conversations somehow rapidly degraded into a battle of insults and slights.

Will had a quick tongue and a faster mind that usually put him on top of these verbal arguments. Horace however, had physical strength and size that Will could never hope to match—and he usually resorted to it when his tongue failed him. Will was fast and agile and was always able to escape into a tree or into the woods until things blew over.

But none of that was conducive to building friendships. And as he had gotten to, or at least thought he had gotten to, know Horace better, he wasn't really certain that he wanted that anymore. So far as Will could tell, Horace was not much more than a bully who had some skill at arms.

Now, however, Will felt a little bad about his recent behavior. He decided that he owed it to himself and to Horace to try again. Maybe they had both just gotten off on the wrong foot. After all, there was no real reason why they shouldn't try to be friends, right? So thinking, he approached the bigger boy who was currently sitting on the opposite side of camp, facing away from him.

"Hey, um, Horace?" he asked tentatively as he approached.

The bigger boy grunted noncommittally, and Will took that as permission to continue.

"I just wanted to say that maybe we got off on the wrong foot earlier. I was hoping we could try again." So saying, he cleared his throat and smiled brightly, holding out his hand. "Hi, I'm Will."

Horace however, frowned, not taking Will's offered hand.

"Look, I'm really not interested in being friends," he said at length, shooting Will a mistrustful look.

"Why not?" Will eventually stammered once he found his voice. "After all, we'll be living together now?" he pointed out, confused and a little stung that Horace had refused him so easily.

"It's not my fault that Gilan has a dumb habit of picking up useless strays," Horace said bluntly, a small bitter edge to his words.

Will, stung even further by that, immediately shot back angrily, "well then, what exactly does that make you?"

He was instantly gratified to see Horace flinch, knowing he'd scored a solid hit in their verbal battle.

"Well, at least I'm actually worth something. I'm a warrior. I've been training as a knight and can actually lend a hand in a fight," Horace protested immediately, his face reddening.

"A knight who obviously never finished their training," Will pointed out, "or you'd still be there. I'll be a much better knight than you when I get accepted into Battleschool."

For a moment, all Horace could feel was an ugly all-encompassing sense of hurt as everything poked just too much at his insecurities about himself. He'd been fine with helping Will and his village out, but he honestly hadn't wanted Will to join them. Things had been just fine when it had only been him and Gilan—better than fine actually. He'd actually started to feel safe, comfortable, and happy for the first time in a long time. Then in came Will, threatening to throw all of it out of balance. What was worse was that Horace had already been rubbed raw by the bullying he'd experienced over the past year. And here was this smaller, cowardly, boy reopening and rubbing salt into old wounds on top of everything else. For a moment, Horace floundered in the hurt. Then he saw a chance to get back on top of the argument, a chance to pay Will back for the pain.

"You? A Knight? Don't make me laugh."

"Yes," Will said defensively—already wishing that he'd just kept his mouth shut about his dream.

But Horace was far from finished. "You'll never be accepted into any Battleschool. You're too small. You don't even have a last name. You can't even do anything with Gilan and I. You're nothing but dead weight."

"And that's all that you have in between your ears!" Will shot back, refusing to let Horace know how much what he'd said had hurt. He glared a challenge at the bigger boy, then turned to dash away into the woods, refusing to let the tears he now felt trying to build in his eyes show. That hadn't gone well at all.

~x~X~x~

"Evanlyn," Halt's quiet words reached through the covering of her fairly flimsy hiding spot. "You can come out now; the ship's underway."

She breathed out a massive sigh of relief. It felt like she had been in that cramped spot for days. It had certainly been hours. She had overheard a few snatches of conversation from the captain and the crew that told her that the ship had been delayed by some goods that hadn't arrived on time. In waiting for the goods to arrive, the ship had missed the favorable tide and so hadn't been able to leave port until late afternoon. It had been one of the most uncomfortable waits she had ever experienced. She crawled free of the covering that had sheltered her, groaning softly as she eased her cramped muscles. She could see the ship's crew and several other people she assumed were passengers milling about on deck.

"Comfortable, were you?" the Ranger asked mildly as he watched her stretch.

She shot him a glare in answer. "No. I wasn't. In fact, that was the most uncomfortable—" she started to say when she was cut short as the captain of the boat made his way past them.

He gave them a curt nod as he walked by and then stopped short, turning around in surprise.

"It's you," he said incredulously to Halt. "I thought that we had left without you."

"We've been here for a while now," Halt shrugged.

The captain's face flushed with annoyance. "Well, why on earth did you not answer and come forward when I was calling for your earlier? I read the passenger list several times! You caused some significant headaches for me in keeping silent like you did. I kept thinking we were two passengers short!" the man said angrily.

"You called us?" Halt asked. "I didn't hear it."

"You didn't hear—why, you," The man started to protest in angry disbelief before he decided to give the matter up. "Just make certain to answer next time if I call! As captain, I do need to be aware of the passengers I've taken on this ship!"

Halt nodded seriously. "I'll certainly answer," he said agreeably before adding "… if I hear you."

Evanlyn thought so could detect the barest edge of a wolfish smile touching the corners of Ranger's lips as he said it.

The captain threw his hands up in despair and marched off back to the tiller. Evanlyn smiled at Halt.

"You could have gone easier on the poor man." She said as soon as the captain was out of earshot.

Halt only shrugged, that faint trace of a smile still on his face.

~x~X~x~

Horace sat worriedly in the camp, glancing surreptitiously up at the sinking sun for what must have been the millionth time. Will should have been back hours ago. This had happened innumerable times during the time Gilan had been gone, after all. They had fought and Will had left… Or, rather, Horace had as good a driven him off, he thought wincing. An unsettling guilty feeling seemed to settle in the pit of his stomach. During all those past times, Will had usually come back within an hour or two... but he hadn't this time.

At first, when Will hadn't shown up, Horace had been too angry to care. But, as the hours dragged by, that feeling slowly faded into another: worry—and even the beginnings of guilt as he recalled Gilan having told them to keep an eye on each other. That, he had begun to realize, was the exact opposite of what he'd done. As he replayed what had happened between them over in his mind, the guilt only got stronger. When he'd been in the heat of the moment, he'd only been paying attention to how much Will had hurt him, how much Will was a potential threat. He hadn't thought on his own actions.

He realized now that he'd been behaving little better to Will than the bullies at Battleschool had behaved towards him. For the second time in as many months, he found himself wondering how what he'd done was the least been knightly. First, he'd nearly robbed that man and his wife in the woods and now he'd been bullying and fighting with Will.

Horace shifted uncertainly as he glanced again at the sun and tried to think of what to do. He had no idea where Will had gone to, and he hadn't the faintest idea how to track. His gaze lowered helplessly to the surrounding woodlands before he decided to take a guess. Perhaps Will had gone to the nearby town—it was as good a place as any to look. Decided, he got to his feet and hoped he wasn't too late.

~x~X~x~

Will sat dejectedly on the outskirts of the small town. He'd hoped that being near people, or watching their goings-on, might help him forget his most recent fight with Horace… It hadn't worked. He couldn't help his mind from thinking back to what Horace had said. What if he was right? What if he really was just some useless add on? What would happen if Gilan started to agree with Horace? Would he send him away? What if—he cut his musing short as he saw three men making their way past where he sat.

There was something about them that Will took an instinctive dislike too. If he was asked exactly what it was about them that was ringing alarm bells in his mind, he wouldn't have been able to put a name to it. Perhaps it was their stance, expression, or look in their eyes. Perhaps it was the way in which they seemed ominously familiar.

Whatever it was, Will was certain that they were trouble; the kind of people who didn't mean well to anyone. So thinking, he got up and started walking casually away as they drew close and passed him. He pretended to be busy with something so as not to attract their notice. It seemed to work for they just continued past, heading for the woods at a languid pace.

Will was in the middle of letting out his breath in a small sigh of relief when he realized why the man in the middle of the group, the one wearing a worn and grubby surcoat with a leaping boar emblazoned on the front, looked familiar. Will has seen a rough sketch of that man's face on one of the many bounty posters Gilan had been looking through shortly before he had left.

Will wasn't the fastest or the best of readers. He'd only just started learning a year ago when he'd met the girl he'd considered to be the first, and best, friend he had ever made. She hadn't stayed long though. In fact, he often wished he could see her again, wished that she had managed to leave a way for him to write her as they'd promised. But she had left too suddenly for that. Will had practiced his reading whenever he could because it reminded him of her.

It was because of this that he knew how to read well enough to ascertain the description that had been underneath the picture. The man's name was Edric Gamel and he'd once been a knight before he'd been dishonorably discharged from the army. From there, he'd become a criminal. Based on the list Will had seen on the notice, he had become a rather nasty one. He'd murdered and brutally attacked several people during his numerous robberies. There was a fairly big reward out for him, Will thought with a small shudder as he watched him disappear into the tree line. Then he froze, the wheels of his mind beginning to turn.

If he could somehow find a way to capture this man and his companions for the bounty, then maybe he could prove to Gilan and Horace that he wasn't merely dead weight—that he could be just as valuable a member as Horace was. More realistically, and at the very least, he could follow the men and find out where they had made camp and report back to Gilan with the location. He was fairly certain he could do that safely.

As Will looked around in thought, trying to decide what to do, he saw a familiar figure making their way down the street. It was Horace. The sight of him settled Will's thoughts into a decisive course of action. He was going to go after those men and he was going to prove himself—he had to.

Quickly, so as to be out of sight before Horace managed to spot him, he turned and made his way away from town and towards the point where he'd seen the men disappear into the woods. As soon as he had made it in, he could just make out the small forms of the men as they moved ahead of him through the trees. Will ghosted after them.

~x~X~x~

Gilan was passing through the small village on his way back to where near he, Will, and Horace had made camp. When he had offered Will the choice to come with him, he had done it on impulse—he hadn't really been prepared to take on another… student, he supposed now.

In all actuality, he hadn't really been prepared to take Horace in either. That was another time he had simply acted on impulse. He wouldn't have just let Horace wander into that camp of Morgarath's men, and he wouldn't have left Will with that poor excuse for a guardian either. As for taking them in, he'd felt a strange sort of connection to the two of them—maybe it was because he had seen a bit of himself in both of them, he wasn't certain.

Regardless of the reason, he'd realized that Will would need several things if he was going to be staying with them and living the life of a wandering mercenary. He needed clothes that fit and would offer him protection and warmth; he needed shoes, basic supplies like a bedroll, cloak, and even some simple basic care items. And he also needed a way in which to defend himself—which meant he needed weapons too.

It had taken Gilan quite a while to find everything—as well as gather supplies to make a recurve bow for him. It had also significantly diminished the amount of coins he had saved up. He'd need to pick up several more profitable jobs in the next few months if the three of them were to live comfortably through the winter. The price for impulsivity, he supposed with a wry smile. Not even the inner voice that often cautioned against him rushing into things without thinking, had saved him this time. He shook his head ruefully at himself as he continued on his way.

He was nearing the edge of the settlement when he picked up on the muttered conversation of two elderly women. From what he could make out, they were whispering about a man named Edric Gamel. Apparently, he and his men had just recently passed through. During the course of their discussion, they even gestured towards where they'd seen him pass by and leave the village. The name had immediately caught Gilan's attention and his mind flew instantly back towards his earlier thoughts of needing some more lucrative jobs.

Following the women's words, he came across the footprints of three men, right at the edge of the settlement and heading off into the woods. He frowned as he studied the ground more closely, absently drumming his fingers on the hilt of his sword. The prints of those three men weren't the only ones. There were two smaller sets that traveled parallel to, and sometimes overlapped the first set, as if these two new people had been following in the wake of the bandits. One was the bare footprints of a youth, and the other set had a distinct heel print that Gilan had become very familiar with over the past few weeks.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Reviews always make my day and really give me the motivation to continue—as well as help me learn. Don't hesitate to let me know if you think something needs improvement: grammar, flow, character portrayals—and I'll try to fix things as soon as possible.

I hope Horace and Will seemed in character/believable in their responses, feelings, and reactions... I did what I did because it seemed too simple just to have them immediately become friends, especially considering their backgrounds in this AU and their rocky start in The Ruins of Gorlan. Things will work it out though I promise, don't worry XD Next chapter half will be up soon! And the next two little chapter arcs will be called: 'The Dark of the Moon', and 'Memories and Outsiders' respectively. Which might give a hint as to where things will be headed X)

I hope you all have an amazing week! Until next time!