Chapter 16

New moon

The next day Halt, Will and Gilan were standing outside the inn with Crowley, Pauline and a very unhappy Horace, but to Will this was a sideline as he had something standing with him that he had missed for nearly a year.

Tug... Pauline had brought him and Abelard over when they decided that they would come themselves. Will had been a little scared that Tug and Abelard would not recognize them, but they did. Halt was pleased and even though the others did not look happy that he was on Abelard they did not say anything as the ranger horse did not do anything as they saw Arretez get on his back.

As the three of them rode away, Will was smiling as the three horses kept on whinnying to each other as they trotted through the snow capped forest to meet Chase.

Gilan turned to his two companions as Will and Halt like their horses were talking back and forth acting like the young men that they were. "Time to get back at these two" thought Gilan.

"As now I am the oldest here at least until Chase shows up, a bit of respect should be shown to me" he said turning his face to the others only to get a glare from Halt.

"My body age might be younger than you Gilan, but my mind can out think yours in a minute, boy"said Halt. Will could tell that Halt would not put up with whatever Gilan was talking about.

Gilan obviously decided to keep going because he said "you should call sir including you Halt" to that Halt just raised a eyebrow.

Will couldn't believe his ears after all he had been through, that Gilan was going to act like this. Will looked to Halt who was looking away, something was going on.

"Sir?" Will said finally "you really want me to call you sir, Gilan?" then when he saw the look Gilan was giving him he continued "I mean, sir! you want me to call you sir...sir?"

Gilan shook his head "no, I don't think "sir sir" is right nor "sir Gilan". I think just the one sir would do nicely, don't you Halt?".

"Maybe... but that doesn't mean that one in charge of this party is you" said Halt again not looking at Will.

"Well, I suppose but does that mean I will have to call both of you sir? no don't think so" Will said galloping Tug ahead of them.

A few minutes later he heard a giggle behind him and turned to find the young ranger was grinning all over the place, even Halt had a smile as he shook his head at Will for falling for an obvious trick, but then Will was not so practiced with Gilan's jokes as he was.

"Joking Will, Joking" said Gilan.

This time all three laughed out loud. It was nice after all the trouble they had been through, to laugh, that was when Chase came up to them looking a little confused at what they were laughing so hard about.

Later on that night the four of them were sitting around the fire. Halt was watching the low embers of the fire as he softly stoked Will's head as the boy was falling asleep, still recovering from all that had happened to him.

"Well I should tell you of the new country that we will be traveling to but maybe I should wait until Will is awake" said Chase.

"I am awake, just talk, I want to hear of our new home" said a sleepy Will. The boy was barely awake but Halt knew that new information would keep him awake a little longer.

"Alright, the country we will be traveling to is called Summit. It has five fiefs that surround a central ruling one. The one I am proposing we live in is called Hartland, it is where most of the wolves live and before you ask Gilan you can stay there too, its just that cats are few there thats all" Chase started to say before he was interrupted by Gilan.

"That's fine, I would have stayed where ever Halt and Will were anyway. Whether I was welcome there or not. What I want to know is what about the monster you told us about before?" asked Gilan.

"That monster usually stays high in the mountains where only the people who can turn into an animal with wings can get to him, but it does not mean that he is not trouble" Chase told them.

"What do you mean by that?"asked Will. He was wide awake now that there was some sort of trouble for them in their new home land.

"He still sends his minions to kill, injure or capture us, so your skill will definitely be needed. You could even train others for other fiefs" said Chase.

"Maybe Gil you could do that seeing as you named yourself commandant. Just do a better job of it than Crowley" said Halt.

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