Chapter 5

Evanlyn frowned in absolute anger as she saw Will topless and a girl apparently massaging his chest, if she had seen the spreading of the yellowish bruise with a tinge of blue on his chest she most probably would have been more reasonable but Will had his back to her. Horace of course as a typical teenage boy would, had a huge grin lighting up his face at the thought of Will managing to get himself a girl within the first couple of weeks. I seriously am going to have to ask him how he does that he thought to himself wryly. Initially his second reaction was to blush, after all it was a very rare case in Araluan that anybody exposed such nudity in public and he wasn't sure how to deal with it. He immediately felt Evanlyn stiffen by his side.

Tyra for her part stopped what she was doing and looked uncertainly over Will's shoulder to where 2 other foreigners were making their way. She blushed furiously as she realised what must have been racing through their minds. Will opened his eyes frowning; he had liked the soothing gentle touch of her fingers and was surprised when she stopped so suddenly.

"What's wrong Tyra?" He saw her indicate with her head and he turned around to see Evanlyn and Horace. Evanlyn with a frown that immediately changed to one of concern when she saw his bruising and Horace taking notice of nothing still with a ridiculously wide grin pasted on his face. Once Will saw them he yelped in surprise and fumbled around looking for his shirt which seemed to take a millennium to find, all the while his skin becoming more and more red until he hastily donned it on ignoring the sudden pain in his chest and turning to face them.

"Horace, Evanlyn what are you two doing here?" He replied as casually as he could seeming his cheeks were still burning red.

"We were just checking up on you Will we didn't realise you were busy" Horace eyed meaningfully to the girl behind Will and coughed gently.

"What? Oh yes I mean she was just helping me that's all I got hurt." Will replied hurriedly.

"How did you get hurt Will?" Evanlyn asked. Will was about to open his mouth blushing while doing so when Tyra took pity on him and helped him out.

"He was shooting when I appeared out of no where and the sudden noise led him to trip over a log and bruise his chest." She intervened. Evanlyn reluctantly turned to face the girl that was speaking with an accusing glare still in her eyes.

"Yes well after that she decided to help me out and now we're friends. Tyra this is Evanlyn and Evanlyn this is Tyra." Will wringed his hands apprehensively as the girls looked at each other. Both of them had an instinctive disliking towards one another. Evanlyn didn't seem to know the girl but as first impressions went she sounded like a git. Evanlyn forced herself to smile and said.

"How do you do?" Tyra tossed her hair in a defensive manner which Will noticed.

"I'm good how are you?"

"Just great" Evanlyn replied with a touch of iciness as they shook hands. As soon as they did Evanlyn regretted it, whoever this girl is has bloody massive hands she thought as she winced inwardly, her hand being crushed against Tyra's.

"So Tyra, where are you from?" Even as Horace asked it he realised it was a stupid question but he felt the tension in the air and he asked the first thing that came to mind. Brilliant she probably thinks I'm some sort of mentally handicapped guy he berated himself.

"I'm from Skandia." She assumed it would have been obvious to him from her naturally strong build and pale complexion but then again she didn't know much about these foreigners.

"Oh yeah course I knew that. Anyways I need to go and practise some more my break shift is over." He walked away from them awkwardly and made down hill for his practise arena.

"Wait up I'm joining you." Evanlyn seeing a potential escape from this extremely awkward meeting seized the first chance she could to get out of there. As long as they didn't start rubbing each other again she thought bitterly.

Tyra turned to face Will with a look of utter despair on her face.

"What the hell was that Will? They probably think I'm some sort of creep now." To her surprise and anger she heard him laughing. "What? What's so funny? Here I am embarrassed to the core and you start laughing." Of course this only served to make him laugh harder. He had no idea why he was laughing in the first place but soon after Tyra joined him and they were giggling uncontrollably on the floor like a pair of 5 year olds. When Will got control over himself he forced himself into a sitting position and wiped the tears from his eyes.

"Awwww man my stomach aches now. This is all your fault."

"My fault? How is it my fault?" She asked vehemently.

"First you bruise my chest and then you kill my stomach who am I to blame for all that?" She realised he was teasing her again and replied.

"Blame yourself. You're the one with the weak body parts."

"Weak? Did you see how many muscles I've built?" Will asked incredulously because even if he didn't show it he took great pride in his body structure.

"Please any Skandian here would have ten times the muscles you do."

"Yeah well their muscles are creepy I don't even know how they move if I had muscles like that I would be stuck to the floor." Will added defensively. Tyra laughed again as she remembered telling her mum the same thing when she was a young child.

"Yeah you are right about that." They both laughed together and got up as they realised the sun was setting and it was getting late. "Well I better head home my mum will get worried. Are you gonna be here same time same place tomorrow?"

"Yup. I don't miss a day of practise." Will replied cheerfully.

"Good, then I might drop by and see how you're coping ranger. Bye." She walked of towards the setting sun in the direction of her house. Will watched her go but eventually couldn't see her as the suns light burned his eyes. He sighed again and thought about Evanlyn's reaction which surprised him, and walked towards the area he knew Oberjarl Ragnaks great hall to be to meet Halt and catch up with any oncoming news to do with the war. What he didn't realise was that Evanlyn was sighing too but for a different reason.