"Faolan," a voice said, terse and low and not at all the usual bouncy energetic voice Faolan was used to. A hand grabbed her arm gently and turned her around and Fao found herself looking at Roscoe- a subdued, pale looking Roscoe.

"What is it?" she answered quickly, searching his face, wondering what had happened. Her group was at base camp for a one day break, and Faolan had just been making her way to dinner.

"Toril… she was killed," Roscoe said and looked away, his pale blue eyes unreadable.

"What?" the words burst from Faolan- she couldn't quite believe it, "She… she died?"

"It's a war Faolan- that's what happens to people," Roscoe told her, his voice holding a biting tone to it.

"I know- I mean…" Faolan stared at Roscoe, trying to convey her emotions. She sat down heavily on the dirt near the edge of the path and Roscoe folded himself beside her, reaching over to take her hand and give it a squeeze.

"You've been out of it, mostly," Roscoe said, "But I was assigned to a fighting group and.. it's bloody. War is bloody. It's horrible, really… I'd hate it if it weren't for true control. I wish I'd been born in a time where we weren't involved in this mass mercenary agreement. I hardly ever see Karsite soldiers- I know others who work with them a lot, but I sometimes get the feeling we're just trying to slaughter Valdemarens for the sake of our own liberty…"

Faolan stared at the dirt in front of her, feeling tears suddenly threaten to overtake her- here was Roscoe saying everything she'd be thinking… and Toril had died… and it was just too much to handle. She took a deep breath and then leaned her head over on Roscoe's shoulder.

"I know," she whispered to him, "I know… It scares me. I was out there for four days, running around with my bow and arrows, looking for Valdemarens- I think Broderick gives me light assignments on purpose so I can get into things without being in too deep. I think Ursula did the same. They still see a child when they look at me."

"You shoot like hell though," Roscoe said and Faolan glanced over to see him grin, "Your Captain will realize that quick- or he should, unless he's an idiot. You could probably shoot a fly in a blizzard from a mile off."

Faolan chuckled, appreciating the compliment, and said, "I wouldn't say that…"

Roscoe was silent for a moment, then he said in an odd voice, "Uh… Faolan?"

"Yeah?" she asked him, feeling relaxed and sleepy as werewolves walked past them through and around the tents, and the sun slowly sunk down towards the horizon.

He didn't answer but just picked up her chin and gave her a quick kiss on the lips, just brushing his against hers before pulling away with a blush and looked away. Faolan stared at him, feeling sort of shocked into silence. An odd thought popped into her head, I wonder if that was his first kiss? It wasn't hers- well not mentally anyway. She wondered what he'd think if he knew how much was in her head.

"Roscoe," Faolan started, feeling the peace start to leave her once more, but he interrupted her.

"Fao"- he said, still avoiding her gaze, "I like you- I like you a lot. I worry about you- the whole incident with your uh… mind reading… it worries me."

"I know," Faolan answered, reaching out and touching his shoulder to get him to look at her, "I like you too- but... just that, Roscoe. We're just friends, and it'll stay that way."

His eyes held an expression that seemed to say, "Are you sure? Why can't we be more?" But he didn't say anything. He just stared at her then sighed and looked away once more with a shrug.

She waited- and then he finally spoke up, and said, "Why not Faolan?"

Faolan wanted to say, "Because I'm in love with someone else." But then he'd wonder who and there was no way she could tell him about Raleigh, asleep in a coma a thousand miles away. So she only shrugged and said, "I don't know… it's just not us- okay?"

"All right," he said with another shrug, but Faolan knew he wasn't shrugging it off so easily. She opened her Empathy a bit and touched him with it to confirm what she sensed. Then, because she didn't want him moping or distracted, she gave him a little prod that would set him healing quicker- he wasn't madly in love with her, but it was still hurting.

"Dinner?" she asked, and stood up, then reached out a hand and helped him to his feet as he nodded in agreement.

She started to turn to lead them off, but then he pulled her into a tight hug first. When he pulled away he gave her a sheepish grin and said, "Still friends, Faolan."
She grinned back at him, and they went off in search of dinner, leaving Faolan feeling better than she had in a while.

OOO

Rain was pouring down in the darkness, and Faolan felt soaked to the bone. She peered through the darkness, letting her eyes slip into being more wolfish than humanoid, to better see through the rain and trees. Three others were with her- an older woman, already with true control and hanging around to help out the newbies, and two men, both in their twenties. All of them had more experience than Faolan by far. They crept along, grouped at intervals of about twenty feet, waiting for instructions from their Captain and the neighboring Scout groups.

They were looking for a camp that they suspected, and everyone was on edge- there would be bloodshed tonight. After a little longer sliding through the wet leaves they got the message as a slickly wet werewolf bounded up to them, dirt and mud streaking his coat. He changed back just enough to growl out, "Camp found. Two miles north of here- you and two other groups prepare to attack. Good luck."

Then he bounded back off into the woods, moving faster than any of them could. Faolan reached back and touched the quiver of arrows there, then secured her grip on her bow, then, on second thought, strung it. Two miles was a ways away, but Faolan was taking no chances. The older woman- Constance, motioned them forward, and led them through the pounding rain.

What seemed like ages later, climbing up hills and then winding down them, Constance held up a hand to stop and they all clustered together. She pointed and Faolan followed her hand's direction until she saw- midway up the slope, a scattering of tents. There was no movement, but Faolan could see the human forms of several sentries stationed around the border, a few half hidden. She was sure they'd be totally invisible to anyone but a werewolf. Adrenaline coursed through her system and she took deep breaths, feeling the need to run around- she was on the front of a battle, and she hadn't been someplace like this in years and years- not since Carry Rolf. Not since the day she died.

Constance soon spotted the other groups, and went over to speak to the other leaders. She came back with a battle plan. There were six sentries total, spaced with ten meters between them. They had twelve warriors total- so the plan was to take out all the sentries at once, then move into the camp, hopefully catching the Valdemarens unawares.

In a few moments they had spread out and Faolan crept closer, trying to get within range of her bow. It didn't take long, and she pulled an arrow from her quiver- her hands shaking and water running into her eyes, then nocked it and pulled it back to her cheek, sighting down the shaft towards one black and white- and mostly grayish humanoid form she could see. Her aim rested briefly on the heart- the place she'd been taught to aim, but then she brought it down and sent an arrow singing through the air to thud into the sentry's leg. There was a muffled scream and suddenly Faolan realized she'd ruined their attack plan by not killing him. In the darkness, she could see no blood, but the sentry was still screaming, his hands clutched around his leg.

Feeling a wave of sickness wash over her, Faolan nocked another arrow, then crept a little closer, waiting for new targets to present themselves as the other sentries were taken out and the soldiers in the tents woke up. Off to the side, she saw a werewolf with two long knives stalking up upon a sentry that was hurrying over to the fallen one-

And suddenly all hell broke loose. Down at the campsite, the area was swirling with moving bodies. Lithe werewolf forms- mostly human except for one or two, darted forward through the blackness of the night, and the sentries were shooting arrows out into the woods and drawing swords.

Faolan started loosing arrows as fast as she could get them, taking down soldiers she knew were about to be attacked and always hitting them in non vital areas, a leg here, an arm there, then a shoulder or two. Her arrows almost always hit right on, even with the rain and darkness. There was screaming now, and yelling, and Faolan couldn't tell who was doing the screaming anymore. In fact- she couldn't really tell who was foe and who was friend anymore and she felt a leap of fear as she realized she had no idea who to aim at. So she slid down through several more meters of wet leaves, closer to the camp and settled herself beside a tree, peering through the rain at the figures doing battle.

Finally, after loosing a few more arrows, she lay down her bow and quiver and pulled out her knife- the fighting was too thick for archers, and she wasn't doing any good anymore. Though she wanted to just sit back and wait for the fight to finish, she knew she couldn't do that. It was her responsibility to go down there and fight- for Valdemar and for the werewolves.

So, her long knife in hand, she crept over to the battle, slowly and full of trepidation. When she was only a few feet from the old sentry line, she heard a shout and whirled around to duck as a sword swung in an arc towards her.

Rolling through the leaves she brought her knife up, and jabbed it deep into her attacker's upper thigh. It sunk in with just enough resistance to make Faolan want to vomit, and she pulled it out as the soldier dropped to the ground, blood that looked black in the darkness running over his hands, pumping out of his leg. Fao turned away from him and moved farther into the battle.

From there, it turned into a haze of dancing around silver edged swords, trying to avoid being damaged and avoid doing too much damage at the same time. She could see better than the Valdemarens, she could tell by their more clumsy movements, but they were still good, and a few times Faolan only noticed just in time that an attacker was closing in.

But then she felt the cold bite of steel- steel not silver, catch her across the arm, and suddenly the liquid dripping down her skin was warm. She whirled around and sunk her weapon deep into the man's side, having only a moment to realize what she had done. She stared at the man in shock as he dropped, hollow eyed, onto the ground. Their eyes met momentarily and Faolan felt his death like a punch to the gut. She almost didn't see the lightly colored shape from the corner of her vision bringing a sword up, and reflexively, she whirled around, her knife slashing as she ducked the blow. Blood sprayed from her attacker as she cut his jugular and he too fell to the ground just in time for Faolan to notice he was wearing white. White.

Faolan fell to her knees and dropped her knife, grabbing the man's- the Herald's shoulders as she stared into his eyes where the light was fading fast. He gasped, and coughed up thick black liquid- it would be red in the daylight.

"No," she whispered, staring at the horrible gash in his neck, "No no no…"

Another white shape appeared above her and Faolan looked up into eyes that shown blue even in the darkness and she grabbed her knife and scampered away, slipping through the wet leaves and running, running until the sound of hoof beats and the Companion's high, wrenching neigh split the night. She ran until gasping, she slid to the ground and grabbed a small tree for support. She looked down at her right hand and saw the blood stained knife there and she threw it aside in revulsion, pausing only a moment before vomiting repeatedly onto the wet leaves.

"RAUL!" she screamed as she fell backwards, the rain pounding down onto her face and into her eyes, her nose, and mouth. It tasted like blood.

A/N: There, how was that? Thanks muchly to...
LightningStorms- Hee hee... Raleigh as a knight in shining armor. Cute image. They have to be my favorite couple out of all the romances I've written...
thargor01- Ooh.. I gets it. XD.
The-Elven-Bookworm- Yeah... I didn't get a chance to read over it before posting. Stupid school. XD.