Another chapter ready to go. Enjoy. ~~~

Once more it was time to set out. Gilan had allowed Aaron to do the first watch, at the price of some precious hours of sleep that Gilan knew the young man needed. Still, Aaron was stubborn as could be, and rode as hard as every other day this day just the same. After the previous conversation, things were very ackward between Gilan and Aaron.

Silences felt riddled with tension, and pleasant conversation was more difficult to reach then it had the times before this one. In fact, coversations were kept rather short and to the point, at least in Aaron's case. The boy seemed to be more and more unwilling to talk as the next two days went past without any disturbances.

" Looks like we've shaken them." Gilan commented once the third morning had come without any signs of their apparent pursuers.

" For now." Aaron replied darkly.

" . . ." Gilan was finding this harder and more frustrating to deal with then ever. " Hopefully our luck holds out until we get to Redmont. It'll be difficult for them to cause problems for us without getting the attention of the local knights. Then we'll be safe for at least a short time."

Aaron nodded to this one. " I'm looking forward to that." he said, smiling. Once more his smile never reached above his eyes, only just below them. Gilan grew a grin too.

" Me too. I can introduce you to my Master while we're there looking for that person you need to find." he mentioned, puffing up somewhat proudly. Aaron noticed the motion, looking with pure curiousity at the older man. " My Master is the Ranger of Redmont Fief. I figure we can stay there while we look for that person. It'll be better then camping out, and won't cost anything like an inn would." Aaron nodded slowly.

" So," he spoke slowly, hiding a smile, " basically, you're a cheap skate, am I right?" Gilan let out a good laugh at this comment, and nodding to Aaron.

" And don't forget free loader!" he answered, giggling some still. Aaron let out some laughs too now,looking forwards once again.

Sliding a hand through the mane of the black stallion, a smile creased the boy's lips as he thought over the idea proposed.

" The master you're not going to be able to look straight in the face again?" Aaron inquired, rather thoughtfully to Gilan. Again, Gilan busted up laughing at the question.

" Yes! I'd nearly forgotten!" he answered, honestly, chuckling as Aaron let out a few more laughs too.

Calming themselves down, Gilan glanced over at Aaron again. When Aaron glanced up at Gilan, a question entered the boy's face.

" I'm betting you'll get along with Halt pretty well." The boy's head tilted to the side at this.

" Who?"

" My master," Gilan rephrased the sentence," you and he will get along well, if you ask me."

" Oh?" Aaron countered grinning and cocking an eyebrow. " What makes you say that?"

Gilan gave a sort of smirk at Aaron, getting a very obvious, sly sort of look to his features astride Blaze as he leaned slighlty towards Aaron.

" I dunno," he replied, his voice a bit menicing and michievious as he went on to tell the boy, " it's just a feeling I have, that's all." Gilan took Blaze a stride or so ahead of Aaron, who stared after him, looking very irritable, but smiling none the less as he followed after the brown mare.

Gilan chose a path that wove and spun around in the trees, having them trek their horses through any small stream or trickling lanes of water, made only after a good rain storm,they came across while they rode along.

" They don't have dogs," Aaron informed Gilan later, " no need to worry about out scent trail."

" They might get some," Gilan replied, "besides, it doesn't hurt to be careful." To this Aaron nodded, as it was true enough. " It's more then just hiding a scent trail too." Now Aaron looked at Gilan, a bit befuddled by what he meant by this.

So, Gilan explained. " It's a good way to throw our followers off, confuse them a little, and hides our tracks too, in the small streams and such. At least for a short time." He pointed down into the mucky water of the stream they rode through currently.

" Oh," Aaron commented, realizing the importance of this simple action now, " forcing them to spend time re-finding the trail once they lose it in the muddy water." His eyes fell on Gilan with a new found approval of the Ranger. " Very clever." Gilan grinned at the compliment.

" I do my best." he answered, proudly.

Thus they moved on, trying to cover their tracks as best they could as they went along.

However, the ground was still damp from recent rain storms. It was the rainy season in Araluen this time of year, and unfortunately for Gilan and Aaron this worked less in their favor. The horses tracks, though not totally clear to an amatuer tracker, could be easily found by anyone with even the slightest inclination on how to track anything. Expert trackers would not only find this child's play, but be able to point out their general direction, and that worried Gilan a great deal.

Not all was lost, though. They did have the streams, which, when used correctly, could keep any followers at bay for hours. Once more, because of the rainy season, there were many all over the place that they could cross between to keep their tracks lost for even longer, the only sign being the free tracks left between one stream to the next. This combined with the fact that Gilan wove and twisted the path around made it nessicary for anyone following to search around for miles along stream sides, seeking a trail, in both directions of the stream.

This did waste a lot of precious time. That was another problem. Wasting all this time trying to keep these men off their trail was going to double or even triple the amount of time it would take to reach Redmont without any pursuers.

True, they could split up, but Gilan wasn't fond of that idea. Aaron not only didn't know the land, he didn't have any sense of direction in the least. Gilan was amazed that the boy had even made it to Araluen at all, that was how poorly Aaron knew his way around. For someone who seemed so smart, the poor boy had no idea what way to turn, when, or where. It proved to be an even bigger problem now, in this situation.

No, it would be best for them to stay together, as it greatly bothered him to let the boy go out of his own. Vaguely, he wondered how Aaron's Master had the will to send the boy out all this way.

Gilan assumed Aaron had traveled a great distance by how well adapted the boy was to the lifestyle on horse back. Gilan had seen enough to know that Aaron was not only okay with costantly moving, it was actually as normal as breathing for him.

That left Gilan still more curious about all this. To say the least, it appeared, that Gilan had taken Aaron under his wing, at least for the time being. Still, this did nothing for their present pardiciment,which was unfortunate. They would find that out soon enough, by what happened next to them on their journey.~~~

All done. Read and review. This is actually just supposed to lead up into the next chapter really. You'll all have to wait for that chapter though! XP Vacation, here I come!! XD