Alright! Once this chapter is done, there's only one more chapter I've got to put up. Don't worry, many of you don't appreciate cliff hangers. I don't appreciate cliff hangers in stories myself, honestly. So, in light of that fact, I'm going to post this and the last chapter all together. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the ending, so please read on. ^^~~~~

After that, things were very peaceful for them. Although, not everything was settled quite yet. Once the conversations had ceased, Gilan, Aaron and Will were waved away by the older men. The older folks had much to talk about, now that Aaron's Master had given an interesting bit of information for Halt and Crowley to chew on, so to speak.

Days passed on and on, finally allowing the difficult matters to be sorted out with time.

For Urosia and what was left of his cavalry, the majority opted to return to where they'd come, all those millions of miles away. Urosia had offered to go back alone, but almost all of his men had protested this. Then he also offered, instead, to tell their leaders of their failure. Once more, his men proved to be as loyal as men can come. None of those returning with him were willing to let him take the heat for this mistake alone.

It took much time and effort from all of the men from both Araluen and from Urosia's cavalry to get everything ready for their inevitable departure for home. First it was a matter of simply getting Urosia's men to full health. Once that was done, these men all needed provisions, a means to cross into Gallica with their horses, and a multitude of other things to get them to where they were headed.
Thankfully, the people of Araluen were more then willing to help they're guests from a far away land. The politeness of Urosia's cavalry had earned them a special place in the hearts of the people around Castle Araluen in particular. Many were more then willing to put in the time to help them back to their homes and families.

When finally the time came for them to depart across the Narrow Sea, the cavalry men were refreshed and more then ready for their long days of riding to come. As for Urosia, he was found leaning against the side of the boat, watching the shoreline as they shoved off for home. Taking a deep breath of the salty air, he stroked his stallion's neck to ease the poor creature's mind. A boat was no place for a horse, but it couldn't be helped. A smile creased his face when he gazed at the stallion very proudly, before searching the shore again.

" All that time chasing her," he said to himself and his stallion now, still watching the land slowly get farther and farther from his sights, " and she doesn't have the decency to come and give a formal farewell to me. We'll never meet again, I'm sure." he added, turning his back to look on the deck at his men instead now. " What a little bitch she is, that Aaron."~~

There was another dilema that kept Aaron from saying her final farwell to Urosia. This she deemed far more worthy of her time then dealing with the man who had hunted her down. After all, they didn't exactly like each other. When all was said and done, they hadn't really gotten over the facts that had happened to them before, even if Aaron's Master did take things so lightly as that.

That was actually what was on her mind as she sat on a roof top that same day that Urosia was leaving. Her Master. Only the day before he'd had these words to say:

" I'm leaving." the room had frozen to complete silence when he said this. It was at a dinner that the Ranger's had arranged. For a few moments the silence held, all of them too shocked to say anything at first. Aaron's Master took this as an opportunity to explain himself. " All these years, and I still don't feel right staying in one place. Besides, I can't stay here now," his eyes filled with shadows as he added, " after what happened."

Frowning, Halt gave a slow nod to his friend and Crowley wasn't about to protest this either. They both enjoyed seeing their friend again, but there was no keeping a wandering soul grounded, or that's how Crowley would describe it if asked. Gilan glanced at Aaron. She had a carefully set, unreadable expression. Her eyes were glued on her Master, but she gave no hint as to what she was thinking as she looked at him.

" When do you plan on leaving?" she asked her Master.

Aaron's Master held up two fingers, his index and middle finger. " Two days."

" That's so soon." Will commented.

" Are you really up to leaving that soon, in your condition?" Gilan added on what they were all thinking. Despite that his injuries were healing well, he still had a few scratches and visible bruises on him. Not only that, his body still seemed a bit under nourished to be going out and surviving as a traveler. A travelers life was a hard one to survive for any good length of time, and at this moment, Aaron's Master just didn't look up to the task. However, the man scoffed at Will and Gilan both, stomping his foot rather childishly at them as he crossed his arms in defiance.

" Bah!" he scowled with a throw of his arms. " I've survived with much less and in far worse conditions then this! With that little devil tagging along, no less!" he pointed at Aaron or "little devil" as he'd said it. " I'll be just fine, thank you very much!"

Aaron stood there still, Gilan giving a worried glance at her, waiting to see how she would react to all of this.

" I'm glad you think so highly of me, you stupid old dick!" she said, getting right up into her Master's face. He puffed up in her face as well. It might seem rather strange, when you see it for the first time. Actually, this let Gilan give a sigh of relief. Why? Aaron and her Master did this all the time. They bickered more then an old couple out shopping. What made it funny was the more they argued, the longer the name calling got.

For example, at that moment Aaron was saying:

"- You god damn, penniless, shit wearing, huge ass of a mooching vagabond on a good day!"

Gilan didn't dare ask how she had come up with this or how the argument had suddenly led to this comment. He'd missed the conversation leading to these words, and in all honesty, he felt it was better not knowing.

"- Either way," Aaron's Master finally got back on topic with Aaron still up in his face, glaring up at him from her slightly shorter height, " I'll be leaving in two days, no matter what anybody tells me and that's that."

This left Aaron with a bit of a dilemma. What was she going to do now? Go with her Master and travel again? Or stay here and find out more about these Rangers and their work? She needed to decide, and it wasn't going to be any easy pick. Even now she couldn't decide what it was she was going to do. She'd decided some time ago not to worry what was going to happen to herself until after she'd delivered her Master's message.

Well, now that said message was given and over with, she had to pick what to do next.

However, she hadn't been expecting to meet up with her Master again. Not only that, now she had to consider what the message was all about too. Her Master sent her here to become a Ranger. Would he still insist that she does this now? After all, he'd been expecting to die when he'd sent her off, but the message had also said that he'd put a lot of thought into this decision before sending her. Meaning he was thinking about it before he thought his life was in any sort of danger. Aaron couldn't be sure of that fact though.

"GAH!" she muttered to herself, deciding it was time to start thinking out loud.

Placing her head in her hands, she rubbed her temples soothingly before running her hand through her long black hair that she had only loosely tied so that it lay against her back. An entire night of her sleep had been lost to this stupid problem that could be totally avoided by anyone who was twice as decisive as she was.

"If I didn't have time to think about this then I could make a choice," she said scratching her head and throwing her head into the air with exasperation, " but since I have two days to figure it out I can't decide! How dumb is that?"

" Pretty dumb, Aaron." a voice chimed in. Aaron nearly leaped out of her skin with fright. Turning around she wouldn't have noticed Gilan if he hadn't been coming towards her. The cowl of his hood was hiding the majority of his face except for the friendly grin that Aaron knew so well that was tugged across his face right then. Giving a cross frown at him, Aaron scowled at what he'd said as he came beside up beside her.

" I don't remember asking your opinion on it." Aaron retorted, as Gilan cocked his head quizzically to the side, looking around as if he expected to find another person seated on the roof of a spire on Castle Araluen with Aaron and himself. Aaron just went on scowling at him, and he laughed a bit and sat down next to her.

" Troubled as always, I see." he commented, Aaron giving him a dry smile.

" That obvious, is it?" she asked and Gilan gave a shrug.

" After you hang around someone long enough you notice these sorts of things." he replied, easily and Aaron gave a single laugh.

" True, true." she agreed, and a silence stretched between the two of them. " You're troubled too, so don't get all high and mighty with me, Gilan." He glanced at her a moment, and she gave a wolfish grin. " You're so much more friendly when you're not worried about something." He gave a chuckle. That was true, though he'd never thought about it before.

" As always, observant of you." he told her and she gave a small laugh at this too. " What are you going to do now?"

Aaron drew her knees close to her chest, her eyes searching out on the wide land that seemed to go on for miles and miles from here. Even so, Aaron was well aware that the sea lay far beyond them and her thoughts drifted on Urosia for a moment, and right back onto topic again. What she was going to do was the question of the day, she guessed. She couldn't even answer that question for herself.

Gilan was just sitting there too. Not turning her head, her eyes darted to him. The jerk was acting all calm about it, but Aaron knew he was very anxious and interested to hear the answer to his question. There was nothing for her to say, though. No answer to give him, other then "I don't know", but that always sounded so lame and Aaron hated when people said that. She had to say something though! Come on! He was still just sitting there waiting for her, patient as could be despite his curiosity!

Curling up, she started to chuckle to herself a bit, hiding her face in her knees a moment with her right arm dangling off the opposite side of her leg while the other went into her long hair. Looking up again, she moved the hand that had gone through her hair to her mouth and turned away from Gilan, shaking her head.

" I have no fucking idea." she said finally, frustrated with herself as she set her hand back over her mouth after speaking to him. Glancing at him, she gave a scornful smile behind that hand of hers. " I suppose you're here to try and persuade me to stay here, right?" she asked, ruefully. Gilan, however, surprised her.

" What the hell gave you that idea?" he replied, blunt, scowling at her for making such an assumption of him. She kind of stared at him a bit as he explained himself. " Don't count me so low as that! Besides, you're not a kid. Pick for yourself, you little rat." Well, that had been rather unexpected. Aaron couldn't help but stare at him with wide eyes for a bit after he said all of this. " Besides, whatever I said wouldn't effect your choice in the least, right?" Gilan looked at her for a moment. She actually had to think about the answer to his question, though at any other time Aaron knew she would've answered instantly.

" No, it wouldn't." she answered, speaking almost to herself rather then to him, as if it was some new revilation to her. To that Gilan gave a smile.

" I thought as much." he said, being very forwards about all of this.

" Why are you here, then?"

" Is it a crime to wanna be with you for a bit?" he asked, sounding almost irritated with her at this point, his smile having turned into a displeased frown as he looked over at her. Giving a frustrated look at him, she shook her head at him and looked away without saying anything. " This is really throwing you off, isn't it?"

" What gave you that idea?"

" Well, you haven't said that you were going to kick my ass yet, for starters."Gilan teased her with a laugh, earning him a hard shove and a smile from Aaron. " You've also started talking to yourself."

She raised a brow at him. " Yes. Obviously, if I'm talking to myself then this really must be an issue for me." she said to him, sarcasm thick in her voice as she frowned at him, unconvinced.

" Of course." he agreed, so flat, that Aaron was sure it would've been a tone paper would use if it could talk. It forced a shocked little chuckle out of her body.

" Well, shit, don't sound so sure of yourself." she replied, but Gilan just gave one of those friendly smiles at her.

" I'll try not to be." he said, pointing at her while he added. " Although, I give no guarantees on that." They just look each other in the eyes before Aaron just breaks into full blown laughter. What a joke to drag on! There was no end to the sarcastic, biting sort of humor that Aaron and Gilan could share now. Once their laughs had died down into smiles, they looked out and around at where they happened to find themselves now.

The view from this single spire of Castle Araluen was one that was very breath taking, and for good reason. Aaron had picked it especially because of the view it had of the surrounding fief, the forests beyond that, and the sea still further beyond that. They knew it was there, though they couldn't see the waters, by the mild hint of salt on the wind when it blew from that direction.

" Why is it that I seem to find you in the oddest of places?" Gilan asked now, Aaron frowning and giving him a rather befuddled sort of look. He gestured around at the spire they were on with wide arms. " On the roof of the castle? I mean, seriously? Shouldn't you be tired of heights after what you did to your damn arm?" Aaron grinned at this.

" You'd think I would be after that, but here I am." she shrugged her shoulders slightly holding her knees to her chest still, resting her chin on her arms, being careful with the wounded one. " The world looks so much bigger from up high. It's very beautiful." Gilan tilted his head at her, then thought for a moment about what she was saying.

" You feel rather small in comparison." he commented and she nodded agreement with that.

" That's why I came up here. To keep things in perspective." she mumbled softly, as though speaking more to herself then to Gilan for a moment. Her eyes moved away from him, out at the scenery once more, mind drifting off into thought. Gilan let her and was silent for the time being.

This was something he couldn't help her with, though he wished he could more then anything else. Seeing her in such distress as she was in right now, with her hand running through her hair for who knows what number of times it was now, bothered him. That had actually been why he came looking for her. Just picturing her trying to figure this out alone in some little shadowy corner had unsettled him enough for him to start physically looking for her.

Finding her like this up on the spire had given him a bit of relief, but at the same time sent a pang of sadness through him. Alone . . . it seemed like she was always alone to him.

Reaching out his hand, he almost touched her on the shoulder. Almost. Seeing his hand and seeing her, Gilan froze up. At a time like this, the last thing this young girl needed was for him to do something stupid and confuse her even more. So, carefully he pulled his hand away, holding it to his chest for a minute before putting it back at his side.

Suddenly, Aaron got to her feet. Gilan had been thinking so hard that he about leaped out of his skin when she moved. Seeing him jump, Aaron sprouted a grin at him while Gilan looked back with a question on his face. What was she doing was the basic thing his face said.

" Time to change location." she explained to him with as few words as possible.

" 'Change location'?" Gilan echoed, still confused by what she was getting at. Nodding, she waited for him to get up before heading off across apart of the spire. Then she looked back, waiting for him to follow after her. He did follow, wondering what she was up to now. Knowing her, it would be nothing good.

Off they went, across part of the spire, away from the window that they had both used to get on the spire to begin with. That really had Gilan wondering where it was they were headed. It couldn't be anywhere higher up on the spire, Aaron's arm was still a complete wreck, she could barely use the thing. She couldn't possibly be climbing . . . could she? Slipping along Aaron had walked right up to a space between a two spires. It took only a small jump for her to get to the space, and she used her good arm to help her balance.

Gilan followed after, ready to jump to the rescue if something went wrong. However, Aaron was as determined as ever and pressed onwards.

" Bull headed as ever, I see." Gilan said and Aaron let out a laugh, not saying anything more to him. When they reached the last bit of space on which they could walk Aaron stopped for a moment and looked around.

Then she did something that nearly made Gilan's heart stop in his chest. Without a hint of hesitation, Aaron leaped off the edge! She hung, almost in slow motion, in the air for a moment before time sped up and she landed a little unsteadily on a bit of roof top on the right of where Gilan was.

" ARE YOU CRAZY?" he exclaimed when she had stood up straight and looked back at him.

" YES!" she called back, waving at him with her good arm. " COME ON! LET'S GO!" Then she began to head away, off across another stripe of rooftop. Gilan leaped after her, landing more steadily because of his better physical condition and taller form. Then he jogged to catch up with her.

" All of this for a change in location?" he asked, thinking this was silly, especially since they were so far off the ground and jumping around like squirrels. One wrong move and they were splatter on cobblestone. Aaron was already looking at something else though, getting ready to be on the move once more. Gilan took one look and knew what she was thinking, quickly grabbing her before she could get far enough to actually attempt her newest stunt.

" No way!" he said, dragging her back down from one of the ledges that she was about to climb onto. " No more of this adventure time ontop of the castle! You'll get yourself killed jumping around on the spires and trying to climb the flag poles!" Moaning with frustration at Gilan, Aaron was forced back down to the level he was on, crossing her arms.

" Come on! I can do it!" she insisted.

" Your still injured!"

" Only a little bit!"

" You only got let out of the infirmary here a few days ago!" Gilan said, scowling at her for being so careless.

" So? What's your point?" she said, putting her good arm on her hip as she glared defiance at him all the while. Shaking his head, Gilan rubbed his temples, trying to think of how best to get the girl to listen to him.

" How are you ever going to heal?" he wondered, half talking to himself.

" Ah, come on, just relax and live a little, huh?" she told him, meeting his eyes with a smile on her face. Aaron looked the same as she always did, those tired blue eyes of her giving those faint hints of her hidden trouble making intents. Looking at her like this . . .

Finally, a sigh escaped him.

" I'm seriously going to regret this, aren't I?" he asked, and Aaron laughed and grinned at him about that.

" Probably, but come on! This way!" she grabbed him by the arm and led him away, back up onto the ledge where they proceeded to start climbing up the spire. " It's not much further!
Just up here!" she explained, crawling on all fours, struggling with her injured arm a little bit as they went along.

Once the angle took a turn for the worst, Aaron stopped, turning and sitting down where she'd come to a halt. She grinned down at Gilan as he closed the gap between the two of them and sat down beside her. From here, the view was just as good as the one that they'd been at before, in fact, maybe even better if that was possible. Here you could make out the people that were walking around in the fief, looking like small, colorful ants that interacted with one another at this height. One small spire interrupted the grand landscape scene, a flag flapping brilliantly in the wind.

" Wow . . ." Gilan murmured to himself, Aaron letting out a little giggle.

" Worth it." she said, taking her eyes off of Gilan at the moment and turning them to the scene that she'd discovered only the day before. " Totally worth it." she sighed, still thinking of her decision for the time being. Gilan turned his gaze back to her, concern returning to his face.

There was a long time where they both just sat there, looking on as the fief was going about it's usual day of work and play. Gilan took to looking at the fief, trying to keep his eyes off Aaron to attempt not to worry about this himself. It was failing miserably. Uh . . .

While trying to avoid looking at Aaron, he'd missed the way her eyes had started to brighten. Little by little, she began to appear a bit more happy until she was sitting up straight, looking out at the fief while taking side glances at Gilan in the meantime.

Finally, she stood up a bit unsteadily and stretched, drawing Gilan's attention.

" I think I know what I wanna do now." she said, not meeting Gilan's eyes for a moment.

He quirked a quizzical sort of brow at her, curious now.

" Oh?" he asked, and all she did was smile at him.~~~~

Yeah. That's this chapter for you. Hope you enjoyed. Don't worry, the next chapter is coming at the same time as this one. So just head on to the next chapter. Reviews are welcomed and encouraged though! Thank you!