Another chapter to go. Wow, this is way long. Oh well. For all of you reading and liking it, please enjoy.~~

To say Gilan was surprised by this statement would've been an understatement. It fact, he was outraged that Halt would suggest such a thing. However, he kept himself calm for the time being. The Ranger's training had been drilled into him for years, and it was times like this it was good to use them.

" What gave you that idea?" Gilan asked in a soft voice of disbelief.

Halt frowned at Gilan, knowing this wouldn't be pleasant for his former apprentice to hear. Still, he felt he needed to tell Gilan, for Gilan's safety. Truth be told, Halt was worried about Gilan, and wished that his old apprentice not be hurt by Aaron, even if it was painful for for him to hear it now.

" You've given her clothes, weapons, directions, advice, used all your skills to help her along the way thus far. All she's every told you were lies since the beginning. Even her gender up until now." Halt emphasized the point as much as he could. " Never told you she was being followed, or where she's from, or where they're from," Halt made a wide gesture to mean the army that they had been fighting all this time," or her Master's name, or his message, hell, she even pretended not to be the girl her Master adopted."

Gilan hadn't considered this, but now that he thought about, the way she'd explained the situation with her master made her the poor child whose parents had been shot by White Stag.

" Not one work of truth has passed her lips." Halt said forcefully, as if saying it this way made it more likely that Gilan would agree with him

" And? What's your point?" Gilan felt a pit form in his stomach, and it dropped lower and lower as Halt kept talking on this topic.

" She's using you, Gilan." Halt tried to put it as nicely as he could.(Which in retrospect, isn't nicely at all)

" How do you know?" Gilan persisted to question Halt.

" She can't be trusted." Halt replied, watching Gilan carefully still. He found that his " gentle" approach wasn't working. So he opted for blunt( or at least more blunt then he was already being.) " Aaron is a bad person, Gilan. Can't you see that?" Once again, Gilan could only stare at his former master. He couldn't believe what he was hearing.

" What could you possibly be thinking that would make you think that, Halt?" more questions passed Gilan's was just as confused about Gilan's reactions to all of this was Gilan was about what Halt was telling him. Frowning, Halt only showed his confusion now.

" Does someone who's not using you need to lie so much?" he answered Gilan's question with one of his own.

His master had a point, Gilan was well aware of that. In fact, he was even more aware of the truth of this statement then Halt realized. Still, something within him kept Gilan from believing Aaron was a bad person. Something just seemed off with that idea when he placed it in his head.

Maybe it was the way that Aaron looked at him. Gilan guessed maybe that was it. Aaron had this way of looking at someone sometimes that showed such a depth of person that it was almost as if she saw through the entire person she looked at with those blue eyes. Gilan had found her looking him in that way multiple times through all of this little adventure they were on. Once he caught her blue eyes with his own and knew what it felt like instantly. Like she looked at him, the flaws and the scars, every smile and laugh, the little quirks and annoyances, all at once. With those eyes understanding, almost comforting in a way.

Perhaps that was why he couldn't believe her a bad person.

Or it might be the way her voice got soft and her eyes grew sad when she thought of her Master. When those memories flooded over her eyes, putting her in a daze of sorts, and the smile she grew at the memory turned sorrowful with a slight turn of her brow or smallest changing curve of her lip. Laughing ruefully that way she did when a laugh need be let out, but she was hurting within herself.

No matter what it was, it denied Gilan the ability to think that Aaron was a bad person, despite her lies and with hold of information.

Still, the Ranger's training drilled into Gilan told him to look at this logically. Logically, Gilan knew, that Halt was absolutely correct. If the truth was so hard for her to tell, then she was just using them to her own ends. The things she did and said were only acts to get them to help her along her way, whatever that may be at this point. Obviously, she'd used Gilan to make it to Redmont Fief so she could find Halt, Crowley, and whoever this third person was supposed to be.

Pursing his lip, Gilan thought this over completely before saying or doing anything else. Halt waited, patient, but not eternally patient either. Finally, Gilan gave a nod of his head to Halt. A nod of understanding.

Halt was glad to see it, but sad that this hurt Gilan now. With a sigh, he patted Gilan's shoulder, and walked off. Gilan would need to find his own answers to such a betrayal, and Halt knew that all too well. He'd leave Gilan to do just that for the time being.~~~~

The next day they had no choice but to move on from their camp site. Now that the horsemen had lost the proof that Aaron was dead (so to speak) they would be after Gilan, Will, and Halt in no time. They'd been disorganized the day before, when Halt had decided to spend one more day at this camp site, but there was no more chance to delay now.

Aaron totally agreed, insisting that she would be fine to ride all day. Gilan was having some serious doubts about that. She was still very pale faced, like she were stricken with some sort of illness and not recovered. That alone made him weary of this move. There was also Aaron's arm that was strung up in the sling, and the wound on her stomach to consider during all of this. Those giant bruises wouldn't be helped by a ride all day.

Still, it was inevitable that they had to leave, or risk getting discovered. In this condition, they wouldn't be able to get Aaron moving fast enough to escape capture again.

" Are you sure your up for this, Aaron?" Will openly expressed all of their concerns really. Glancing over from next to the black stallion, Aaron stared a moment, then gave a weary, sad smile. That mournful smile she had.

" Does it matter?" she replied, on a rather dark note. " No matter if I'm ready or not, we'll go all the same." then she sighed, seeing Will's worried face, patting him on the back and laughing a little bit, grinning at him. " If I'm not ready, then I'll make myself ready for this."

With that, she carefully got onto Rurin, wincing from the use of her injured arm that she needed to lift herself onto the tall stallion.

" Let's ride." she said in a stern voice, trying to reassure the uneasiness of her companions.

On they rode through the day, at a lesser pace then they would've done before. Still it was enough that they felt they were getting significant amounts of miles behind them while still headed steadily for Castle Araluen.

Aaron seemed her old self again for most of the morning. Laughing as always, talking with Will and Gilan a great deal, with a casual side comment directed to Halt. Usually something to tease the old Ranger, commenting on his gray peppered hair, the jagged his hair was cut, or generally his old age in comparison to everyone else didn't take too kindly to this ( for obvious reason). All was well and good Then as the afternoon rolled in, the signs of Aaron struggling along became clear to them all.

None had noticed in the beginning of the day the slight wincing. Aaron had hidden it pretty well, as she was accustomed to try and hide her pain. It was a poor habit, she was aware of that, she'd been scolded by her Master for this many times before. Still, the way that people looked at her, worried faces and concerned glances at each other, made Aaron's blood boil red hot. Something about it just made her angry with herself and whomever gave her that look too many times over.

After some time had passed, however, the wound on her abdominal began to ache horribly, and the way the horse jostled her around made her arm sting every few steps. Aaron quickly found that she could ignore this for the most part.

However, one bad bump, and suddenly Aaron felt her like her stomach had just had flames thrown on it. This caused her to give a bigger wince then the others before, but she found that she was lucky and nobody noticed it. Carefully, she slipped her hand to feel the wound gingerly.

Blood.

The wound had reopened.

Dammit.

That was to be expected, she told herself. After all, it had only two days to heal, and unfortunately healing was a slow process. She pulled the cloak closer around herself, and proceeded without telling the Rangers.~~

Yep, all done. What next? Who can say? Well, I could tell you, but that wouldn't be very fun for any of us, especially me, so I'm not giving any hint. Anyways, please REVIEW ME!! I love to see reviews. They make me very happy. Send them in please.