Chapter 18

Disappearances

Halt woke up in the morning well rested, he had never felt so good in a long time, it was like he was born a new, "Maybe this place can give us the new start that both Will and I have been waiting for. He had just left Will by the fire place covered in a soft blanket last night. The kid's life up until now had been hard up until now being born the way he was and going through what he did to get here and Halt had decided that for a while they were going to take some time for themselves, just him and Will.

Halt heard Gilan in his bedroom and he was sure the big lion man would be exploring the village soon too, as he had planned to do with Will today. Halt soon got dressed and headed out into the main room to wake his love, only to find that Will was not there. There was the blanket pooled on the floor and some dents in the pillows on the chair but it was cold, it was as if it had not been used all night. Where was Will?

"Gilan" Halt called "is Will with you?", he was a little troubled that Will would leave the house without telling him or Gilan where he was going. The last time Halt lost Will he did not want to think about what had happened to him, that memory still plagued his dreams.

"No he is not...Ow"Gilan called out before yelling in pain, that had Halt rushing into his room to find Gilan rubbing his back side. He had tripped on his own tail and landed bottom first on he ground, some thing that had happened a lot to him when he was younger but surely he had out grown all that.

"What happened?" asked Halt, it was quite a funny sight and he was having a hard time not laughing at him despite of his worry about Will, this was too priceless.

"Oh laugh it up chuckles, next time watch me laugh when you trip on your tail. Oh and I am sure that Will just went for a walk" Gilan said "and before you get more worried lets go for a walk around and sort out this brouhaha first".

That word brouhaha was one that Baron Arald uses a lot and Halt knew that Gilan was making fun of it, trying to get his own back, not that it was working. It took a lot to get one over on him and as of yet neither Will nor Gilan had manged it.

"You have to do some thing, please rangers"said Chase as he raced into the room before they could even leave it. He to slipped a little as he ran into the room too fast for his paws.

"What has happened now?"asked Halt, Chase sincerely looked worried, as he was about half way between human and wolf.

"Do I sense another brouhaha in the making?"said Gilan innocently, as Halt glanced at him this was obviously not a brouhaha moment.

"It is not a brouhaha moment, Kipp and Hersh have gone missing and I am sure they are not the only ones either"said Chase.

Missing boys, was Will one of them? Halt thought. There was a long and increasingly awkward silence as Halt stood waiting letting Gilan come to the same conclusion, Gilan did not have the same lightning quick thoughts that Halt and Will could use but he was fast enough.

"Will...oh my god, Will is missing too" said Gilan finally.

"I would have been extremely vexed if you had not come to that answer, Gilan" said Halt before saying to Chase "Gilan and I will have a look around the forest and Chase if you could ask around the village and find out who else is missing? before you ask I would do this but you know the people here better than we do".

They left newling house in their animal forms to get a better look at the situation. Halt knew that if Will was gone there would be an absence, a void in his life. He knew that he would not want to live if that were true.

The tracks were hard to find as it looked like a lot of different animals had been through here, so they focused on smell. Will's smell like Halt's smelt of pine and Kipp's who they had only just met once smelt of willow. Halt found Will's trail soon and Gilan found Kipp's they both seemed to lead into the middle of the forest.

"Halt do you think that monster they told us about took Will and the others?What does it stand to gain? I mean its not like they will fight him" Gilan asked as he followed his trail.

Halt realized that Gilan was waiting for his answer. Halt's thoughts raced around his head before replying, his heart was in his mouth as he thought of what might happen to the boys.

"I can't give you a definite answer but if the monster is anything like the witch that turned me, he would want to use them, for what I don't know, I just hope that nothing too bad happens to them. God knows Will has been though enough" Halt replied steadily.

"I just hope there aren't monsters like the Kalkara, they were savage and merciless and total single - minded about what they had to do" Gilan said shaking a little.

"True but this monster is more intelligent than they were, we have got to keep going and hope that we find them soon" said Halt as they came to a clearing in the middle of the forest where th trail ended.

The sight that welcomed them there was one that would haunt the two rangers dreams for days to come.

An: what did they see? more soon.