Here's Chapter Four…sort of. I established their trust last chapter (In the books and in real life, when a friend of a friend is introduced, they are usually trusted.), the readers can see everyone's battle skills when they fight enemies (no need to show off everybodies talents all at once and they have gone past training with Thorn by now – don't train with Thorn in the fourth and fifth Brotherband books) and so I will be skipping most – if not all - of the original fourth chapter.

Chapter Four

The next morning, Edvin made breakfast. He claimed it was only fair – after all, Roxie had made dinner the night before. Everyone gathered by the fireside for breakfast as they discussed their plans for the day.

"Well, the first thing we will need to do is restock our supplies," Thorn put in wisely.

"You're right," Hal agreed. "Stig, after breakfast, I'm going to need you to go with Ulf to town to get supplies."

"Why me?" whined Ulf.

"Yeah, why him?" added Wulf, agreeing with his twin for the first time in months.

"Because we are now on land and I need to separate the two of you before you get into any arguments," answered Hal.

"We don't argue!" Wulf said angrily.

"Yes, we do," Ulf said contrarily.

"See, you're starting already and you just got up," Hal said.

"Okay, now onto the next event!" said Lydia.

"I know the area pretty well," Roxie put in, unfolding a map. (She had finished her breakfast.) "To get to this so-called Zavac's stronghold, we need to get through her." She tapped a spot on the map. "Most people prefer to go around this route, instead of directly through, because there are thieves hiding in the middle of it. It will be better for us to go through because it is faster and we need to reach the hideout as soon as possible, before the supposed Zavac leaves. Besides, we're a strong group and will be a match for any bandits or thieves we happen to come across. So, we'll be going this way, then turning here to get to the fortress."

"Is that all?" Edvin asked.

Roxie nodded, folding the map up to the way it had been before. "We should get going," the girl said.

Hal pulled her a little aside. "You said this was the safest route," he stated. "So why do I get the feeling that it isn't safe at all?"

"I said it was the fastest safe route," Roxie corrected him in an undertone. "But we will be in danger. We have to keep an eye out or we could get killed before we even get to our fight."

Stig stopped for a moment to catch his breath. He had thought he was in shape, but trekking through the forest – not even on a trail, just through the foliage – tired him out surprisingly quickly. Well, Stig thought, at least I'm not the only one.

Indeed, most of his brotherband was just as tired as he was. The only ones who seemed fine were Thorn, Lydia, and Roxie. Well, and Roxie's horse. Everyone else seemed to be in varying degrees of exhaustion.

Surprisingly, Ulf and Wulf were at the front, talking to Roxie. She kept laughing at the way they talked. Stig couldn't be sure, but he suspected that they were trying to compete to get Roxie to like them. She was pretty, to be fair. But it was a kind of quiet prettiness that took you a while to notice. Not really like Lydia had struck them all when she first met them.

Hal was at the back of the group, but Stig suspected that it was more for the purpose of a lookout than because he was too tired to keep up.

It had been three days since they first met Roxie. Each day, they started out with a friendly breakfast around a campfire; then walked. And walked, and walked, and walked. The walking was endless.

Lost in his own thoughts, Stig was caught by surprise when the people in front of him stopped, and he ran into Jesper. "Sorry," he said automatically. Then he added, "Why are we stopping?"

"I don't know," Jesper responded.

It didn't take long to get to the front. Hal and Roxie were talking with Thorn standing nearby, listening. Stig stayed quiet so he could listen to what Hal and Roxie said.

"What is it?" Hal asked in an undertone.

"Tracks," Roxie replied in the same quiet manner. "The same ones as before, I think, but this time they look fresh, and I'm a little worried that it'll be today that we catch up to this group. But just in case it's not, I don't want to worry the others. So I need you and Thorn to stay up here and be on your guard. And put some other good fighter at the back, and tell them to be on their guard, just in case."

"I can do that," Stig offered.

Hal looked rather startled by that, like he hadn't realized Stig was there, but he nodded, glancing at Roxie. Almost as if he was asking for her permission.

How long had that been going on without him noticing? Stig couldn't help but be surprised. He had never seen Hal ask for permission from anyone, except maybe Thorn. To see him doing that for Roxie meant that he had a major amount of respect for her.

"Well, go on, then," Roxie said, peering at Stig quizzically.

Stig realized he had been standing there staring at the two for several seconds. He quickly turned and made his way to the back of the group as everyone resumed walking.

Roxie watched Stig go and then looked back at Hal. He was watching her steadily, waiting.

She cocked her head. "What?"

"Don't you think we ought to send Thorn to the back, too? I'm sure the two of us will be fine."

Roxie considered it. "Why not?" she said. It would be nice to have a real conversation with Hal, too, without Thorn sticking his nose in.

Hal relayed the idea to Thorn, and Thorn, surprisingly, agreed, leaving the two leading the group.

"On we go then," Hal muttered.

And so they continued on.

Roxie stole a sideways glance at him, remembering her first assessment of him. She had pretty much been right on.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"And I thought I was being discreet," Roxie commented.

Hal grinned. "Yeah, well, not as discreet as you should have been."

"You know, Roxie said thoughtfully. "I really don't know that much about you… What's you favorite color?"

"I like green," Hal answered. "You?"

"Blue. I could tell you the exact shade of blue but it might take a while, so I'll spare you the details."

Hal smiled again.

He seems to do that a lot, Roxie thought distractedly. I wasn't under the impression that he smiled a lot, but he has been doing it a lot lately.

"All right," Hal said. "I guess that makes it my turn. Favorite…place."

"Oh, that. Well, you can't tell anyone."

"I won't," Hal promised.

Roxie shrugged. "There's this place in the forest about a half of a kilometer from where I live. It's a clearing, but it's pretty well hidden. There's a family of wolves that live there, but they leave me alone as long as I leave them alone, so when I'm upset or confused, I just like to sit there and think. What about you?"

"That sounds really cool. I was just going to say the Heron." He paused. "Speaking of which, are you sure…"

"Yes, it's perfectly safe, I promise. Mr. Baker is very careful with the ships in his shipyard. He'll keep it safe. I really am sorry you had to leave it."

"That's all right," Hal said unconvincingly.

"Mm-hmm," Roxie made it clear she didn't believe him.

Hal smiled a little sheepishly. "I just get kind of protective of my ship."

Roxie laughed. "That's all right. We all have something we get that protective of. For me…well, I don't know what it is for me. Star, of course, and maybe people? My older brother, though I'm not sure how much protection he would need, as well as my other friends." She paused, then just a little shyly, added. "Like you."

"We are friends, aren't we?" Hal asked in a tone of contentment, like he had just found some interesting new thing he was happy with.

Roxie opened her mouth to answer, but before she could, Star, trotting alongside Roxie, nudged Roxie and she froze.

"What?" Hal inquired, though he had a pretty good idea as to what it was.

"That means there are other people nearby," Roxie replied. "So we've caught up to them, in other words."

"So, is that good or bad?"

"Could be either. Depends on your point of view. It's better than them sneaking up on us, anyway. Hal…what do you want to do? Should we try to go around them or challenge them or negotiate their camp?"

Hal sighed. "While you might be able to get by, I doubt that the rest of us could sneak pest them undetected. I don't know how many there are or how good they are at fighting, so I'll just ask – what do you think? Should we challenge or negotiate?"

"Criminals are notoriously hard to negotiate with, and we don't have much of anything they'd value, so I'm just gonna go with challenging – or sneaking up on them and defeating them that way – whichever the case may be."

"All right, then. Let's go challenge some thieves."