A/N: AreiaCannaid and RAPJ thank you both so much for the wonderful reviews! Again I'm really blown away how many people read this story, and it makes my heart skip.

Day 7

Will had planned to get up early again to meet Gilan. He wanted to find the best Christmas tree for the celebration.

However things did not according to plan. Will woke up with a blinding headache and realized it was not that early anymore. He had tried to ignore his body getting tired the past few days but right now it felt like a massive achievement to get up.

His throat was more sore than yesterday and he tried to repress a coughing fit coming up. If Halt would find out he was getting worse, he would probably bind him to the bed.

No way this is going to ruin Christmas he thought. So he stood up and walked to the living room. Halt had already made breakfast. "Finally woke up then?" he asked. Halt had been curious why his apprentice would sleep in today but seeing the boy now he knew it was the exhaustion.

Will sat down without saying a word. He didn't trust his voice to sound normally and he didn't want Halt to know he wasn't feeling that well. But he didn't manage to fool his mentor. Halt's eyes followed every moment, saw every irregular breath and every little detail that showed him that the apprentice wasn't feeling good.

"That's it, you will stay here today. Go back to bed and I'll get you some tea." He said. Will's head shot up. He didn't want to go to bed. There was so much to do for Christmas and there weren't many days left.

"I can't Halt." He croaked. "I just didn't sleep very well, but I'm feeling fine." Halt's eyebrow raised as he watched his apprentice giving poor excuses.

"You and I both know that's not true. You've been out of form ever since the snow started falling and you've been working too hard. I can't believe I'm saying this but you need to rest Will." Halt was starting to lose his temper. The past weeks he had seen Will training hard and doing extra chores while he was clearly suffering from the cold.

Will knew he hit a new low when he used his puppy look, but desperate times called for desperate measures. "Okay Halt, I'm not feeling great. But I don't want to just sit here all day, so can I please do something this morning. I promise I will stay inside the whole afternoon."

Halt sighed at the stubbornness of his apprentice, but at least he got Will this far. "Fine you get some firewood in the forest and practice with your knifes but then you return straight back, no excuses whatsoever," he said. Will's smile returned on his face.

"I promise Halt." He yelled as he rushed towards the door before Halt could even start to reconsider.

Once Will was in the woods, he started heading towards the place where he would meet Gilan. After a few minutes he saw a figure sitting on a fallen tree. Observant as Gilan was, had noticed the young boy.

"Hey Will what took you so long?" he said smiling as he stood up and walked towards him.

"I'm sorry I overslept and Halt kept worrying over me trying to let me stay home." Will didn't want to go much into the details. He trusted Gilan and he knew Halt had told him some details about Skandia, but he didn't want to look weak.

Gilan noticed the nervous tone "You're not sick are you? I know Halt can sometimes be a worrywart but if you are feeling ill, you should get inside." He looked more carefully at Will now and noticed the dark circles under his eyes, and the paleness of his face. Maybe Halt was right this time and Will should have stayed inside.

But Will had other things on his mind. "No I'm okay. We just need to look for a Christmas tree and I need to be back fore midday, otherwise Halt might kill me. That would probably ruin the whole idea of Christmas."

Gilan smiled seeing the determination shimmering in the brown eyes. As an ex-apprentice of Halt he knew how difficult but also how delightful it was to keep secrets from Halt. It had surprised him that Will had managed to keep this whole event a secret under Halt's nose. No wonder the boy was exhausted.

"Okay let's go quickly then," he said, "I know just the place where we can find some trees." They started walking and immediately Will and Gilan became more and more excited.

"So what did you tell Halt to get away today?" Gilan asked curiously.

Will smiled mischievous, "Well he ordered me to get some firewood and practice knife throwing. I suppose I'll have to think of something why there is no wood when I come back."

Gilan laughed, this was indeed not something easy. "Well after we've bought a tree, you go home and I'll make sure there is new wood. Just tell Halt you forgot to take it with you on the way back and it's at the edge of the forest. I'll put it there and remove all of my traces."

The boys looked at each other, knowing fully well they were enjoying this too much. But they didn't care, you didn't get often a chance to surprise a mentor like Halt. They were going to make sure no one would ever forget the day.

They approached a farm where it was really crowded. Normally this was a quiet farm where you could get some milk or eggs but not many people were willing to ride that far out of town.

Now the whole village had gathered here. Will looked in surprise to Gilan, who was getting more enthusiastic every minute. "As you know this is farmer Ben. He has some connections to get wonderful Christmas trees. As you can see a lot of people love it and I heard that Baron Arald even gets his tree from Ben."

He guided Will towards the trees and they started searching. It turned out that both Gilan and Will were not that easy. One tree was too small, the other too big, one had weird branches, others had gaping holes at the sides. Finally after a long time they found their perfect Christmas tree.

"You will stay with our tree and I'll pay Ben. We can hide the tree in the forest where I'm staying." Gilan said and headed to the farmer.

Once he got back he saw Will swaying on his feet. Sweat glistened on his forehead and his eyes were staring at the ground. So he is sick, thought Gilan. He shook Will's shoulder and with a shock the boy jerked his head up. "Oh hey, you're back already. Sorry I drifted off. It's really hot today don't you think, or maybe I put on too many clothes. Normally I'm literally freezing in this weather." He brabbled.

Gilan gently put his hand on Will's forehead and was shocked by the heath coming from it. "Will you should have told me you were sick. Halt was right, you should be in bed right now. We're going now and then you head home straight away" He lectured.

Will bowed his head "I'm sorry Gilan, I really thought I was okay. But now I think I should indeed get some sleep," he whispered. Gilan slowly started to push Will forward. Both carrying the tree back to the forest.

When they reached the forest, Gilan got nervous. Will hadn't spoken a word, which was an unusual thing. After a while Will's feet started to stumble over branches and soon his legs buckled beneath him.

Gilan's quick reflexes prevented Will's head hitting the ground but the boy was already unconscious. "Shit, Will wake up. Come on I need you to wake up." He started patting Will in his face but nothing worked.

He knew he should bring him back to the cabin, but that would mean that Halt discovered he was here. Will had gone over his limits to make sure this Christmas would be magical so no way he was ruining it. He took off his cloak and wrapped Will in it. He grabbed some snow and put it in a cloth and placed it on Will's head.

The cold against his skin woke Will up. He jerked up and tried to escape from the warmth of the extra cloak.

Gilan pushed him back "easy Will, just stay down for a few minutes. You just collapsed, I don't want you get knocked out again." Will blinked a few times and let the words sank in. He relaxed a bit a laid down in the snow.

Gilan wanted him to stay awake, as long as he wasn't in his bed he didn't want Will to fall asleep. "I need you to get back to Halt. Do you have any ideas?" he asked, knowing a question would keep him awake.

It worked because Will's eyes became much clearer again, "You can't bring me to Halt, the whole surprise would be ruined." He said. Gilan nodded and smiled slightly, it had been exactly what he thought. He would gladly pick Will up right now and run straight to the cabin, but all would have been for nothing.

Will continued "Maybe I can walk the last few meters. If something goes wrong I'll call Halt. Abelard or Tug will certainly hear me and warn him." Gilan knew this was their only option, although he didn't like it very much.

"Fine but I'll stay on lookout, I don't want you to collapse again in this cold weather." But this made Will shook his head frantically. "No we can't risk Halt seeing you." He stopped as Gilan raised his hand, "He won't, when he sees you like this he will only pay attention to you. There is no discussion, if I can't bring you home, let me at least do this." Will nodded as he saw the logic in it.

Gilan stood up and lifted Will with his strong arms. Luckily for him, Will was not that big and didn't weigh a lot. He put Will's arm around his shoulder trying to support him, or rather dragging him along. Will would probably not approve of him being carried back.

Before they started to walk back to the cabin Will looked up and said "what about the tree?" Gilan had to laugh, of course even on the verge of collapsing and being sick, Will would still think about Christmas.

"I'll get the tree later don't worry." He said with a grin and started walking. When they were just a few meters away from the cabin he put Will down on his feet.

"You sure, you can walk that way?" he whispered, making sure no one could hear them. Will was concentrating to stay on his feet but managed to nod. He started walking, or rather wobbling, towards the cabin while Gilan climbed in a tree to make himself invisible for Halt.

Will bit his lip trying to stay focused. Just a few more steps, he thought. Tug was already neighing as a greeting. After a few meters Will finally came into hearing distance of the cabin. He felt terrible and didn't know whether he could stay awake those last moments. But he knew Gilan would immediately storm towards him if he collapsed now so Will did the only thing he knew would work.

"Halt, I need help!" he yelled. His voice didn't have much power anymore but it was enough. Within seconds the door of the cabin burst open and Halt ran outside with his bow ready. When he saw Will struggling to stay on his feet he ran towards his apprentice.

"Will! What happened? Did someone hurt you? Are you injured? Can you say something please? Halt started to search for injuries but found nothing besides the burning fever. Will smiled at him with glazy eyes and mumbled "look who's asking too many questions now, huh? No worries, I'm just tired." And with that his body went limp and darkness surrounded him.

Halt cursed under his breath and pulled the boy in his arms, carrying him back to his bed. "Stubborn apprentices" he mumbled.

Gilan had watched the whole scene unfold. He was glad when Halt had rushed outside to help Will otherwise Gilan himself would have jumped out of the tree. Will was finally inside and Gilan knew he had to make some of the preparations for Christmas. Hopefully Will would get better in time.

Yeah we all saw this probably coming, poor Will. Luckily he has already a herd of helpers around him! I hope you liked it.

Put on your Christmas cloak and see you tomorrow.