Another chapter for you all to enjoy. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At dinner that same evening, Aaron and Gilan were quiet, but in good company. However,
Gilan had noticed that Aaron was shifting, and distracted for most of the meal. Once they'd finished the boy finally spoke up.

" I can't stay here," he said, slowly, almost reluctantly, " I'm going to leave tomorrow at dawn."

Gilan's brows rose as he sipped at his drink, the only thing left of his small meal. Well, it was a small meal in comparison to Aaron's meal. The boy was still eating like he'd never tasted food in his life.

" That so?" Gilan asked, thoughtfully back at Aaron. " This message you need to give out is that important?" Aaron looked rather confused by Gilan's choice of words.
" I dunno if it's important or not. All I know is I've got a job to do, and I need to do it." Gilan set down his cup, glancing at Aaron curiously, as he did very often, he found.
" Then what's the rush?" he persisted in his curiosity.

Aaron held himself, stubborn as ever as he looked right back at Gilan. Good, the boy was determined. Always a good trait. He gave Gilan a rather deviant look now, glaring at his older friend a moment.

" My master doesn't much like it when I don't do my work in a timely fashion." he said carefully back to Gilan, whom cocked his brows up again.

" Enough he can't forgive you for taking a few days to get back to full health?" Gilan challenged found himself on the losing side now. " That's rather hard to believe, if it's not something that important."

" Let me rephrase that statement before," Aaron said back, taking up a new approach, "it's nothing important for the people whom aren't meant to receive it. More then anything it means absolutely nothing to most everybody, if I did tell anyone else, which I haven't." he added with great emphasis to Gilan. " In fact, it probably doesn't mean anything to anybody. I half expect this to be one of his tests for me. Trust me, he does this more then you might be thinking, Gilan. He's a rather silly man in that sense. Either way, I feel that I have to be swift with the messages. Even if they aren't important even to the people receiving them." he spoke rather bluntly to Gilan, whom nodded somewhat to this.

However, he remained unconvinced.

True, he had no reason to doubt Aaron's intentions, but something within Gilan insisted that he could not simply take the boy by his word on this topic.

" Well, you'll have to wait til a little after dawn so I might join you." Gilan could repress the smile no more, and Aaron choked slightly on his drink. Patting his chest several times over again, Aaron stared at Gilan, whom sipped at his own cup half laughing at Aaron. Aaron was well aware of that when he looked wide eyed at Gilan.

" What?" he croaked, then coughed a few times and cleared his throat. Gilan's stupid grin only served to make Aaron's blood run cold now.

" I'll be joining you for your trip. You don't know the way to Redmont or Castle Araluen, right? Clearly you'll need my help to get where you need to go." Gilan informed Aaron more then just content with himself. The timing of that statement couldn't have been better. Halt would've been proud, Gilan was sure of that.

" Are you sure? I mean," Aaron said, somewhat bashfully as he went on," it's cool, hanging out with you, but aren't I just imposing on you now? You've done so much for me already, I mean, seriously, you don't have to come along-"

" No, it's no trouble. I've got nothing better to do, and I've already cleared it with my bosses, so I'm all good. Just need to get packed up and ready to go." Gilan answered, smiling. That was his mask. The fact was, despite some liking for the boy, Gilan was really going with him to see if Aaron would be causing problems for Araluen, as he suspected that Aaron might be doing. Aaron had mixed feelings about this, but was kicking himself for this whole thing now.

" If you're sure-"

" Coarse I'm sure," Gilan responded, getting to his feet and slipping away into the shadows, almost like magic as it appeared to Aaron, " I am a Ranger after all." And that was the simplest it ever got for a Ranger, Gilan was sure of that. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Gilan hadn't known what he was getting himself into. Now Gilan couldn't deny the fact. Aaron was a very, VERY tough guy. That, and when Aaron said dawn, he meant it.

" For a Ranger, you sure seem to hate the mornings." Aaron said from the back of Rurin that he slowed to join Blaze and Gilan a bit behind the black stallion. Gilan gave a tired look over at the bright eyed young boy next to him and grunted.
" I'm fine after a cup of coffee." he replied, shortly back, but Aaron was unperturbed ever on this early morning while they headed up a small ridge. At the top, Aaron stopped Rurin and looked about, awe in his eyes and he motioned for Gilan to join him.

" Look at this!"Blaze came to a stop beside Rurin, and Gilan looked about.

Before them,the forest thinned, and the early morning light shown over the small, calm fief of Merdic. The sun set the dew soaked fields shining brightly, and lighting the whole of the fief up in the early hours of the coming of day. Or that's how it appeared, a striking beauty to see. Gilan stared a bit then looked over at the awe struck Aaron.

" I love sights like this. So beautiful." he said and Gilan might have agreed.

However, he wouldn't have been talking about the same thing as Aaron. Gilan was spell bound almost, seeing the way the morning sun shown against the small frame of Aaron. The sun brought out a lightness to the boy's black hair and had his eyes glittering green, as Gilan just took note of the color of his eyes. It was more striking to Gilan to see the sun behind the young boy then lighting up his calm fief.

When Aaron glanced over, Gilan quickly looked away, setting his hood on his head as he tried to make it seem as if he hadn't just been watching his companion. It looked like Gilan would be safe, since Aaron hadn't mentioned it yet.

" Aw, well, let's keep going. Lots of ground to cover," he said making a clicking noise and the stallion shifted now," at least I think so, anyways." So the stallion moved on. Gilan gave his head a shake once, then followed after with Blaze. " Are you sure I'm allowed to have this?" Aaron asked Gilan over his shoulder. " I feel rude just taking it since you've been helping me so much." Gilan laughed.

" Again, Aaron? It's fine, what am I gonna do with two bows? Shoot them both at once?" Gilan chuckled on, as Aaron had insisted this several times already and it was only early morning. " It's fine. No need to say anything about the cloak either. It's perfectly okay." Aaron frowned slightly, but said nothing in protest.

Gilan had given the things to Aaron so that Aaron could have clean clothes( as his others were still a mess) and a means to protect himself, though that was just in case. However, Gilan had no second saddle for Aaron to use. This didn't bother Aaron in the least, and, actually, the boy seemed completely content riding the horse as it was. It was still a wonder in Gilan's mind how Aaron could stand it, but Aaron seemed fine with it, so Gilan let it go.

Gilan soon found out just how tough this young boy really was. The day dragged on, and even without rain, it was a tiring trek. Nonetheless, Aaron had them both moving quickly along. Hours went by and Aaron had them moving tirelessly forwards.

Even more interesting to Gilan was that Aaron got them moving gradually faster and faster from when they began. By the time Aaron wanted to stop for a bit, the horses were at a fast cantor. Gilan was glad to hear Aaron's request. In all honesty, he was beginning to wonder how much longer he could handle the hard riding. Once they dismounted and settled down for a break, Gilan noted that Aaron was sweating and panting a bit. Aaron gave a soft sigh, and after glancing over at Gilan, gave a smile and a wave at him. The boy was a curiosity for Gilan. His mind couldn't wrap around the boy's strangeness. Then again, he hardly knew the boy, he should expect that, but still, Gilan felt abnormally curious about Aaron.

One thing Gilan had begun to notice was how often Aaron looked around them. It seemed normal, until you saw just how engrossed he got in searching the land, and how often. He seemed almost like he was expecting something to come springing out to scare them at any moment. Like he expected some ghost to come sneaking up on him. Perhaps he should have taken that as a hint as for what was to come. Then again, it was not as if Aaron mentioned this to him before, so how was Gilan to know?~~~~~~~~~~~~

ha ha, I bet you wanna know what's going on now, don't you? Next chapter, kids, next chapter. Til then, reviews are a nice gift to give. Do send them to me if you's like this story. Much thanks.