Finally up! I think I re-wrote this part no less than four times, haha. There's some tough stuff in here. Hanso doesn't actually say anything about it in the comic, but his sad expression after Brynn tells him that it's his fault that Faerieland's in danger and that she almost lost her job because she trusted him made me think that he DID actually learn an important lesson about trust and friendships at that point. I tried to include some discussion about that conversation in here, but that's not exactly the kind of thing you'd dwell on while talking to a bunch of kids, is it? Therefore, it was mostly dropped.

Thanks for the feedback! I have another doctor's appointment tomorrow, oh joy of joys. So there probably won't be any updates tomorrow. There are two more chapters after this one, and I'll get them up this weekend at the latest.

I was actually eating ice cream as I did the final editing for this chapter. Yay! (It wasn't faerie-themed ice cream, though.)

What was it with the faeries' obsession with wings? Why did they feel the need to put them on everything? Hanso watched as the kids sat down, each holding a faerie-themed sundae in a delicate plastic glass. Both boys had dark faerie sundaes; no surprise there. That's probably the one he would choose, if he dared to eat a faerie sundae.

"How come you didn't get any ice cream?" Ileana asked once she sat back down. Her Taelia sundae looked to be very, uh...cold?

"Brynn brought some faerie bubbles. We're good," Hanso said.

"I like faerie bubbles," Nuala said. "But I like light faerie sundaes even better!"

"Me too," Adele agreed.

They were getting distracted, so he had to make sure to get the story back on track! "Maybe next time, you should get your ice cream before we start the story, OK?" he suggested. "So, where were we...?" He knew where to start, but he wanted to make sure the kids remembered. And he wanted to observe how they treated the wings on their sundaes. The sparkly wings on Tanith's fire faerie sundae looked kind of dangerous, and were the wings on Nuala and Adele's light faerie sundaes glowing? What were they made of, some mysterious element from Kreludor?

"You'd just gotten out of Nox's castle, and they tied you to a tree," Ileana told him.

"And the skeith from Altador was eating ice cream," Erik added, cramming a spoonful of his sundae in his mouth. What kind of ice cream toppings were purple? Grape? Purblare?

"Right! So everyone was sitting around the campfire, discussing what to do next and ignoring me. I noticed something rocky poking beneath the clouds, and after a few moments realized it was Faerieland! Somehow I was the only one who noticed, and it took several attempts to get some attention!"

"Well, we were busy," Brynn pointed out. "Don't make us look bad, all right? We didn't know what to do next! We thought that Nox had escaped, although Xandra had actually, um...you know. And honestly, I thought you were interrupting us as revenge for my interrupting you earlier when you were trying to tell your story."

The kids giggled, and Hanso shifted uncomfortably. "So that's why you got so annoyed, huh? I think all of you needed some lessons in awareness, because I don't understand how I was the only one to notice that and that the wraiths were starting to attack us!"

"I've seen wraiths once," Cael said. "My dad said they're getting really rare, though."

"As they should be," Brynn told him. "We want them to disappear for good!"

"But, anyway, once we all noticed that the wraiths were there, we started fighting them off. I fought most of them single-handedly, of course, but Brynn and Alta—ow! What?"

Brynn had kicked Hanso (gently) to interrupt him. "I believe you were still tied to the tree at this point, Hanso."

"...Right, I was. Well, I still managed to—"

"And I still had your dagger." The kids were starting to giggle again.

"Well, then maybe I used my feet? Like you just did? Actually, now that I think of it, Brynn did something really awesome at this point. She saw I was still tied and being attacked by a wraith, and she managed to take out the ropes holding me to the tree and took out the wraith with just one swipe with her sword! Cool, huh?"

"Did you really do that, Captain Brynn?" Tanith asked, her eyes wide and ice cream spoon stopped millimeters from her mouth.

"With just one swipe?" Erik looked equally surprised. His ice cream was almost gone. The wings were still there, though.

"Could you show us? Do you have your sword?" Adele asked. She was getting ice cream and glowing yellow sauce all over her mouth. It looked hilarious.

"Yes, yes, and no," Brynn answered their questions in order. "I'm sorry, Adele, but I don't carry my sword when I'm not on duty."

"I'm glad she doesn't carry it with her all the time," Hanso said. "She gets mad at me so often, I'm sure one of these days she's gonna hit me with it."

"I already have," Brynn dryly pointed out. "With the blunt end, of course."

"Can you train me to use a sword?" Erik asked Brynn. "My parents say I'm still too young."

"When you get older and can enter the academy and begin your training, you'll start learning how to use a sword early on," Brynn told him. "Just be patient, Erik."

"Weren't you about his age when you entered the Brightvale academy?" Hanso asked.

"Y-yes," Brynn admitted. "But they do things differently here in Faerieland! You have to be older before you can begin training as a guard!"

"We're getting sidetracked again, so let me continue. Even though I was unarmed, I was more useful than that blind ogrin, who kept wandering off or getting lost or something—"

"Hanso! Don't speak about the Ogrin Master like that!"

"Well, it's true! We fought the wraiths off for a while, and stopped to take a break somewhere in the Haunted Woods. It was then that Brynn formulated a brilliant plan to use Jazan as a decoy to distract the wraiths while she went to Brightvale with me and Xandra so we could do some research on the artefact. Altador, his guards, and the ogrin opted to stay with Jazan, and...what?" Hanso now realized that Brynn was glaring at him yet again.

"You're a little off. The others all agreed to stay as decoys. We didn't force King Jazan to. We couldn't have if we wanted to, anyway. And, you," she thrust a finger into his chest, "were going with me and Xandra because I was supposed to throw you in the dungeon until everything blew over."

"But you needed my help doing research!"

"Well, I knew that your, uh...experience in life might help," Brynn admitted. "You're good at cracking codes, so..."

"Yep, guess who ended up learning the key to disabling the artefact?" Hanso asked with a proud grin. "And, truthfully, even if the others had wanted me to stay, I would have declined, or escaped, or whatever, because I didn't want to be separate from Brynn. I mean, I didn't want her to become best friends with Xandra while they were in Brightvale or something."

"I seriously doubt there was any danger of that..."

"You did chat with her, though. If I remember right, you even went as far as to telling Xandra about our history together, huh?"

"Yeah, I did, but she asked about it...sort of." Brynn shrugged.

"I guess it does make for a good story," Hanso admitted. "You know, kids, when Brynn worked in the Brightvale guard, she was the only guard who could catch me!"

"You must be a good guard," Ileana told Brynn. Her ice cream was gone, and she was now toying with the faerie wings that had come with it.

"Well, I think...I think Hanso let me catch him on purpose for some reason." Brynn looked at Hanso as she spoke, and he shrugged. "He would always make sure to steal something within plain sight, and then wouldn't put up much of a fight. I'd take him to the dungeon, and he'd escape overnight. It happened that way dozens of times over the years. No one else could catch him."

"Well, maybe I wanted to boost your arrest record," Hanso said. "You know how we first met? I picked her pocket, years ago, when she was brand-new to the guards and I wasn't much more than a street urchin. I think we were just barely teens then, huh? And, honestly," he grinned as he made a big display of draping an arm around Brynn's shoulders and leaned against her, "How many other couples can say they met that way, huh?"

The kids laughed while Brynn hid her face in one of her hands.

"Captain Brynn, why do you get embarrassed so much?" Nuala asked.

"This only happens when he's around, believe me," Brynn muttered. "You know, Hanso, if you'd decided to take up some kind of law-abiding occupation, it would have been much easier for both of us!"

"Pfft, there's no fun in that," Hanso said. "I don't think we'd have been able to save Faerieland if I'd decided to give up thievery!"

"But—" Brynn paused abruptly, spurring Hanso to look down at her, wondering if she'd suddenly remembered something or seen one of her fellow guards. But she didn't looked alarmed. She looked lost in thought. "But," she started again, "If I remember right, I think you learned a very important lesson while we were en route to Brightvale?"

"What do you mean?" Hanso asked, genuinely confused.

Brynn gave him a smug smile. "You never admitted anything, but the way you reacted after we told you that stealing hurts the victims and how I'd almost lost my position in the guard because of you made me think you actually took our words to heart. Everything came out a little meaner than I'd meant it to, but that was apparently what you needed, because it looked like I really got through to you. I didn't think that was possible!"

"...Oh, that." Hanso remembered that quite clearly. He didn't care about what Xandra had said, but... "That did kind of...hit home, I guess you could say. I thought maybe you didn't trust me any more..."

"This should be a lesson to you children: you're never too old to learn an important, and very basic, lesson! Stealing things is wrong for many different reasons." Hanso couldn't help but notice that there seemed to be a bit of mischief in Brynn's smile. Revenge for the many times he'd embarrassed her, perhaps?

"Pfft, Brynn! You know I'm not the type to have regrets," he pointed out. "If the person you're stealing from has some sort of dangerous thing that she wasn't supposed to have in the first place, stealing it is fine! We somehow managed to make it safely to Brightvale, which was clearly celebrating Xandra's arrival, because everything was grey and drab and waaaaaay too quiet. Brynn decided to decline my offer of assistance and instead locked me up in the dungeon, because, apparently, I'd be able to help our cause better that way."

"No, that wasn't the reason," Brynn protested. "I just...needed to put some distance between us."

"Distance, huh? That really worked, didn't it, 'cause you went straight to me when you thought you'd found something!"

The kids giggled while Brynn glared. "Oh, shut up. Maybe I just needed to get away from that crazy yurble librarian!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. At least I knew you still trusted me. Brynn soon found a book that she thought had a picture of the artefact I had liberated from Xandra on it, though it wasn't quite the same. It was really similar, though, and she'd glanced at the book and found out it might somehow be connected to it. Since the book had been written by intellectual people a long time ago, they made sure that the book was as confusing as it could possibly be."

"That's...probably true," Brynn agreed. "They wanted to make the directions on how to use the artefact as confusing as possible."

"Like the directions for putting together a new piece of furniture," Cael said.

"Exactly!" Hanso nodded, and paused a moment to stretch. Already he was beginning to get tired, and he was only halfway through the story! "Just as Brynn was about to run off to try to find Xandra, we noticed that something was going on outside. It sounded like there was fighting going on! Brynn decided to give me the book, but instead of freeing me from that cell, she decided to run off and fight by herself. Not the smartest move, you know."

"I can take care of myself just fine, and, besides, it's not like you were armed or anything—"

"—because you still had my dagger. No need to remind me. Brynn had, however, left my lockpicking tools nearby, so I made a lasso out of my belt and the sheets from the cell's bunk and was able to rope it in no time!"

"You didn't want Hanso's help fighting off the wraiths?" Erik asked Brynn.

Brynn shifted uncomfortably. "I...I didn't know what was going on. I didn't think that, well..."

"I don't know what you were thinking," Hanso finished for her. "I'll bet you made sure that my lockpick set was close enough for me to grab it if I needed it, huh? You knew you'd need my help!"

"...That was an accident. Honestly. An accident."

"Sure it was, sweetie." Hanso flashed Brynn a cheesy grin, getting a glare from her and giggles from the kids. "I made sure that the guards took a nap—the guards were a skeith and a draik, by the way—and made my exit. Brynn, do you know if there's some sort of law that says that every country in Neopia has to hire inept skeith and draik guards into their forces?"

Brynn snorted and shook her head. "That's a really stupid question."

"So, you mean, the answer might be 'yes'?"

"Are there many skeiths and draiks in the Faerieland Guards?" Nuala asked.

"There are a few of each," Brynn said. "They are quite capable, however. Not inept."

"Once I got outside, I could see Brightvale was in some every deep trouble. Wraiths were everywhere! Some of the monsters looked much stronger and more substantial than what we had seen in the Haunted Woods. One of them was even trying to attack the Brightvale Guards with a catapult: it was carrying the catapult over its head and looked ready to throw it on someone!" Hanso laughed. "I think someone needed to teach it how to use a catapult, huh?"

"It was really a mess out there," Brynn agreed. "We'd never trained for anything like this, so it wasn't easy trying to keep up with them."

"Yeah, and it showed! Remember how you got your sword stuck in a signpost? And then one of the monsters almost attacked you?"

Brynn nodded. "I remember that. You jumped on it and wrestled it to the ground."

"Whoah, really?" Ileana asked.

"Yes, he did, but it probably wasn't as cool as he will try to make it sound," Brynn said.

"What?" Hanso scowled at Brynn, pretending to be deeply offended. "The monster fell into a fruit stand, which was hilarious and created a big mess! What's not cool about that, huh? I tried to reason with Brynn, pointing out that we had no chance whatsoever against these creatures, but she was really stubborn and wouldn't listen."

"I wasn't about to abandon Brightvale," Brynn protested. "As a member of the guard, it was my duty to keep the town safe!"

"Kinda hard considering there were lots of wraiths and not enough soldiers. Not only were you extremely stubborn, but you also had the brilliant idea to throw your sword at me, huh? Quite an amazing moment for you, Brynn!"

Brynn kicked him again, though she was flushing just a little. "Don't joke about that! It was a very serious situation, and you were having a rare moment: you somehow hadn't noticed the wraith sneaking up behind you! I saved you!"

"And then you taunted the wraiths! That was probably the single stupidest thing you've ever done in your life! Can you imagine Brynn acting like that?"

The kids giggled while Brynn buried her face in her hands. "I was just...feeling...reckless, I guess. I didn't know what I was doing!"

"No, that was just plain stupid," Hanso corrected her.

"Yeah, that's pretty stupid," Erik agreed. "My dad said we have to be very careful around the wraiths!"

"I would never do that again," Brynn admitted, looking back up. She was still flushed. "That...I guess I just wasn't thinking when I did that."

"See, Brynn has a reckless side to her. Just, unlike me, she doesn't let it dominate everything she does," Hanso said. "She also nearly gave me a concussion with that sword. But then something really scary happened: the wraiths grabbed Brynn and dragged her away! They started ganging up on me, too, so I grabbed Brynn's sword, got into one of the catapults, used her sword to cut the rope and catapulted over the wall, out of Brightvale!"

All six children were staring at him with wide eyes. "Are you serious?" Ileana asked.

"You didn't really do that, did you?" Tanith asked.

"How could you do that without getting hurt?" Cael wanted to know.

"Did he do that?" Adele asked Brynn.

Brynn shrugged. "I didn't see it, since I was busy being captured, but he did get out of Brightvale awfully fast, so he may have done it. I certainly wouldn't put it past him."

"But how did you do that without getting hurt?" Cael asked again.

"I don't know. I was just really lucky, I guess," Hanso said. "Once I was outside, I heard Brynn call me, and saw the wraiths dragging her away. She told me to go and take the book to King Altador, but, honestly, do you think I'd just leave her like that?"

"Nope, you would never do that!" Ileana said.

"Exactly. Brynn didn't know that, though. She should have, but she didn't. I followed behind at a safe distance and saw that the wraiths took her to a cave. I managed to sneak in unnoticed. Wearing dark clothing all the time can have some major advantages!"

"I'm still amazed that the wraiths didn't see you," Brynn said. "Xandra was in the cave, too. She claimed she had been in the library trying to find me when the wraiths grabbed her and took her to the cave. Now, though...I'm not so certain she was telling the truth."

"If she was controlling the wraiths at this point, she wasn't doing too good of a job of it," Hanso muttered.

Brynn smiled. "Knowing Xandra, she either hadn't tried controlling them yet, or she was getting impatient and angry with them and zapped them all the time."

Hanso laughed. "That makes sense. That explains a lot, actually. I knew I had to rescue Brynn first, because she was the only one who trusted me and could vouch for me and, besides," he shrugged, "I wasn't just going to walk away from the only one in our merry little band whom I actually liked. I may be a thief, but I have standards. Working together, we managed to get out of the cave and save all the neopets who were stuck in there."

"'Working together'? Wow, I thought for sure that you'd try to take all the credit," Brynn muttered.

"Oh, right. I guess I should have, huh?" Brynn shook her head, and Hanso continued. "I traded Brynn's sword for my dagger, so at long last, I got that back! Xandra actually helped us fight against the wraiths; I'll bet they weren't too happy about that. Of course, Xandra seemed just as eager to hit me, so that gave us some problems."

The kids giggled. "Actually, Hanso," Brynn said, "At some point during our ordeal, I think everyone wanted to blast you, me included."

"Well, you certainly hit me several times. You've even hit or kicked me a few times today! "

"That wouldn't happen if you weren't such a smart-aleck all the time!"

"Well, soh-ree, sweetheart, but that's just the way I am! Once we were a safe distance away, Brynn praised me for going to save her, and...Xandra, I guess, from the wraiths instead of going to Altador, and Xandra—"

"Ahem." Brynn interrupted. "I did thank you for coming for us, but I also told you that you should have gone to Altador and the others. I was quite capable of—"

"—taking care of yourself, I know. You proved that at Brightvale, didn't you?" Brynn rolled her eyes, but said nothing. "And Xandra, I was pretty annoyed with her at this point, because I had risked my neck to save her and Brynn, and she thanked me by trying to zap me with her magic and was pretty rude on top of it all. She did finally thank me, but it wasn't genuine, like Brynn's. I gave her the book since I was finished with it, and she and Brynn found a map inside. The map just happened to be a place I knew about!"

"Quite a contrived coincidence, really," Brynn muttered.

So I really do think Brynn was uncharacteristically stupid and reckless during the wraith attack on Brightvale. I don't know if she was just distracted or her brain froze or what, but it's interesting to note that she decided to toss her sword and taunt the wraiths after Hanso grabbed her arm and tried to reason with her. Did she just not like him touching her, or did she not want to admit that Hanso was right and that she should have followed his advice? I have a feeling it might be both...