Will didn't want to think about his current physical condition. He had been riding for an unknown number of days, most of which he had spent blindfolded. For all he knew, he could have been kidnapped in some elaborate scheme and was being taken somewhere to be killed so that they never found his body. Whilst he thought that this was unlikely, the way his mind was going, he thought it was a definite possibility.

"Can I not wear the disgusting blindfold today?" he asked his captors half heartedly. He had done the same every day he had been on this strange journey, and never once had they said yes. He was only asking now as he felt it was becoming tradition. That and he got the feeling that it was really starting to annoy some people.

"No. Today we shall be reaching our destination and we don't want you to know where that is," the leader of the group said. He then got up and began to pack up camp. Will decided not to help him like the past few days, he didn't deserve it.

If Will was to describe the group to Crowley when he was sane of mind, and Halt there would have only been one way; stereotypical bash and no think. He thought Horace was bad in a way, he had nothing on these men. It was probably why they were the ones chosen. Will was completely unable to swag their mind at all by attempting to talk his way out of it, and there had been a few situations over the years that Will had managed to talk his way out of. The most notable of these being where Gundar had payed him a visit on Seacliff.

The leader of the merry gang, was Letholdus. Will mentally had taken to calling him Lethdumdum, purely because being blindfolded there was nothing else to think about. His voice was gravelly and suggested that he had never spent a prolonged period of time away from Castle Araluen. Even Will had a stronger accent! Another notable feature of the man was his height. He came to 6"4' and towered over Will. Sitting on top of the huge battle horses, Will appeared really small, however because he was forced to leave Tug behind, he did sit higher than normal.

That was another issue Will had. Due to the fact that they didn't want Will being able to perform his creepy Ranger magic he was forced to leave Tug at the castle. He wasn't worried about the care of Tug, as the blastered horse had gotten fat without the constant exercise the Ranger's were always putting their horses through, but about his own safety. Being on a strange horse the first few days were spent attempting to get used to it, Will wasn't able to tell the last time he had ridden a horse that wasn't owned by a Ranger. However he had mastered the "make like a sack of potatoes" act and performed it rather well if you asked him.

Two hours after they began riding Will noticed a shift in the atmosphere around them. Where as before the men in the group were fairly relaxed and probably riding comfortably, now he felt as they all sat up straight. He started to smell the familiar scents around him and assumed they were going through a town.

"Can you at least tell me what town this is?" he asked. Beside him, he felt a knight jump in the air.

"Magic," one muttered to the other, obviously not intending for him to hear. Beyond that they didn't answer his question.

After a little passage of time, in which WIll attempted to be alert enough, but not look it, to notice that it was a major town or connected to a castle they were riding through as the ground was paved. He had gotten good at guessing his surrounding just based off what he heard.

What did surprise him were the gasps as his party rode through. From the sounds of it more and more people were lining the road to see him, and they seemed genuinely upset at the sight of him. It was a strange occurrence.

Well it was until they were stopped by a voice booming at them.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Baron Arald yelled at the knights who all shielded away in shame.

"We were told to present him to you and that you would know what to do with him," Lethdumdum replied.

"By whom?" Sir Rodney asked.

"The King," an idiot to Will's left smugly replied, thinking that the two overseers of this castle wouldn't have much contact with a King.

"I'll have to ask Duncan the meaning of this," Arald said to someone, Will assumed Rodney.

Will suddenly felt himself being pulled from the saddle harshly. It hadn't been this harsh whilst they were still travelling through the trees and because of the strange height of the horse, he stumbled to the ground. His legs were sore, having not ridden before this event in a long time, and being tied to a horse wasn't his best experience with them. It also didn't help that he was tied up and therefore unable to break his fall.

"Will!" someone called to his left and it took him a moment to recognise the voice.

"Pauline," he greeted, turning his head in what he hoped was her direction. Turns out he was completely wrong as she appeared behind him to undo the blindfold. As soon as it was off Will could feel his eyes watering from the sun.

"Are you alright?" she asked him softly, coming to kneel in front of him. She was able to see his eyes sliding in and out of focus and his head moving as he tried to focus on one thing at a time.

"He isn't well at all," she called worried to the Baron and Battlemaster.

"Marvin! Get a healer!" Arald called. He ignored the knights who were spluttering in protest at what was going on against their specific orders from both the king and Crowley. Whilst they didn't know who Crowley was, they knew he was a Ranger and that was all the confirmation they ever needed.

In the meantime, Pauline, Arald and Rodney helped Will to a standing position. Rodney undid the ties and Arald kept an arm over his shoulder to help him walk straight. Pauline just turned around to the crowd of distressed Villagers who had gathered concerned over Will's wellbeing and nodded an assurance. That was all they needed as they knew they wouldn't be able to stay long, and left.

Once inside Will was led to the healer's room where the man took a close look at his eyes and general wellbeing.

"Good news is that he will live. Bad news is that it might take him a long time before he goes off to fight huge scary things," the healer proclaimed with a smile, bowed to everyone present and left the room. Arald was able to see slight malnutrition from the journey, skin that was rubbed raw from the bindings and that Will's head wasn't really screwed on properly this time.

"I'll come back when you feel better," Arald said was was quickly followed by Rodney who was slowly followed by Pauline. Eventually Will was left alone and he found his mind shifting to dark things.

Accept this as my sacrifice for having a really shit day.

-Aly