A/N: Hey, there … It's been awhile (dodges flying projectiles). To anybody who is still following this story, I apologize for the incredibly long wait. But I have not given up! I'm back with the next installment of "A Wild Boy's Journey". Please R&R!

"Wake up."

"Come back to the day."

"Robin needs you."

"Todd needs you."

"Rowan needs you, now more than ever."

"Get up, Rook, get up."

Rook's eyelids parted no more than a crack, yet the harsh light of morning still sent them snapping shut. He groaned, groggy and confused.

"Wake up, Rook."

Wake up? Had he gone to sleep? He fought to remember. No...no, he had been caught in the mantrap. Had he been rescued? No, he remembered weakening with pain, losing consciousness…

Am I dead?

Rook forced his eyes open, ignoring the sunlight that was driving knives into his skull. He had to know. Had he passed on to some afterlife? All he saw above him were the boughs of a Rowan tree, the leaves gilded gold against the dawn sky. He would have smiled if not for the pain. How fitting to awaken in the Rowan Grove.

"You are safe."

"Come back to the earth."

He started at the voices, realizing for the first time that they were not the remnants of a dream or fever, but surrounding him as vividly as the birdsong. Rook sat up. He searched the line of the grove for the speakers, but found no one.

"Who's there?" He called. His throat was scratchy from lack of use.

At first, no one answered. Rook continued to survey the trees. Just as he was beginning to doubt that he had heard anything at all, a low rumble seemed to envelope him, rising from the very rocks he sat atop.

"Rook."

"Son of Jack Woodsby."

"Son of Jack By-The-Woods."

"The boy called Runkling."

The voices were neither male nor female, young nor old, but Rook knew at once who spoke to him. These were the Aelfe, the spirits Rowan had always spoken of...the spirits Rook had never believed in… He could not speak for fear and awe. These spirits knew him. They knew everything about him. They held his very life in their hands. He trembled.

"Speak, boy."

Rook gulped. He whispered,

"I am here, spirits. What do you ask of me?"

Rook looked a little closer at the Rowan trees about him. He could just make out the faint figures standing between the trunks. They were so faint he had almost mistaken them for morning mist.

"Rowan needs you, Rook."

"She ignored our wisdom."

"She is heading towards her doom."

"If you fail to reach her in time, her life and the lives of your friends will all be forfeit."

Rook's heart clenched. They were all to die without him? How could he possibly make it to Celadine's Wood before his friends did? And what of Robin? And now that he had his injuries from the mantrap to contend with-

The mantrap!

"Spirits!" Rook exclaimed, turning his attention to his legs. They were healed! There was only a scar left where the teeth had sunk into his flesh. He felt a dull ache, but not the fire that should have been there, scalding him into madness. He should long since have died.

"Spirits!" He called, looking back up to the immortals. "How am I alive? The trap would have killed me…"

"We brought you here." The Aelfe responded, sounding almost haughty.

"We healed you."

"You are needed and so you must live."

"Live to save the daughter of Celadine."

Rook nodded quickly, reverently.

"I will. I will, I swear it to you."

"You will." The Aelfe agreed. "But you need her father's help. He is the only one who can stop the evil that hunts her."

"Bring him to Celadine's Wood, before Rowan is lost forever."

Rook hesitated.

"But Robin is already lost...He was captured because of me." Rook choked.

"He lives yet, young one. The Sheriff's son has played his part well. Robin and his friends search for you as we speak."

"Todd? Todd saved him?" Hope surged through Rook, the relief flooding him with warmth. It was not too late! Robin lived!

"Yes, he escaped, but all is not well. Robin has seen the empty mantrap and moves to regroup with his men. They are camped in the only sanctuary left for outlaws in Sherwood."

"The crags." Rook supplied. He had spoken to Robin of his former home in the caves. They were just to the west of the road; it was a small wonder that the men would seek shelter there when they learned of Robin's capture.

"Robin is headed there now. But he does not know he is pursued. He is leading the Sheriff's army right to his own men. It will be a massacre."

"I have to stop them!" Rook cried, clambering to his feet.

"Go now, child! They're depending on you!"

Rook dipped a hasty bow.

"Thank you."

"Go! Make haste. Let the spirits of the wood guide you!"

Rook vaulted over the rock wall of the grove and dashed off into the forest.

Please don't let me be too late.