It's so sad. This story is planned to have 39 chapters :( 10 more left to go. I will be sad to see this go. It has been a part of me for so long that it will feel so off not having to post a chapter anymore. It has gone from a sentence and a very, very vague idea from that sentence to a whole chapter plan (which for me is rare) and a completed story (again rare).
But then again, you aren't here to read this, you are here for the story.
Will didn't want to stand up from his current position ever. He was perfectly content to stay where he was for the rest of his life, and he believed that if he were to die suddenly where he was, whilst being annoyed it would be ok. His two children had been put to bed a few hours before and he had sat up with Alyss just talking. There was nothing more and nothing less to it. There were no promises of a future. There was just them.
And Will was happy.
After all of the difficulties recently it was nice to have some down time. So far as he knew there was no one after Alyss right in that exact moment and he was home for the first time in who knows how long after being locked in that small room. Yes, Tug wasn't with him and that fact had disappointed his children, he was thankful that Pauline had declared him 'safe enough for Alyss to stay with him one night and his children to be there as well'. Fairly soon after they began to talk Alyss had drifted off to sleep as Will had told the failure stories from his mission. He was able to see the pain that she was experiencing and after she managed to settle down in a position that didn't hurt for her, Will was willing to leave her there, no matter how much she was digging in on a bruise that he had gotten from the soldiers when he had resisted.
Whilst it was bad for her to have been pushed down a flight of stairs and to have a child murdered in front of her, in a way Will was so glad. If it hadn't been for that then she might not have gotten her memory back.
It had been a bittersweet reunion at first. The two of them had been separated by different experiences and unlike normal, hadn't been able to properly communicate how they felt over that at first. Then after she had slapped him, sending him to the ground and stomped off Alyss had returned only a few minute later to see Will sitting where he had landed after she slapped him crying. At once her heart had melted and she had come forwards to comfort him. He had tried to shake her off but she had told him how stupid he was before bringing him into a hug.
Willingly he went into it and together they allowed the other person to help with some of their burdens.
Pauline had seen them make up and slipped away giving the two a moment to themselves as she collected their children. Gathering them from where they had been placed in the ward for the time being, because even though they weren't technically orphans, neither of their parents were able to take care of them properly, with Alyss not remembering anything and Will being insane. Their joy at seeing their grandmother made Pauline realise how little time lately she had been spending with them rather than going and promised to see them more. At least going in there had been less intrusive to their education than staying out would have been, she thought.
Back in the Ranger cabin Alyss had raised the light levels of the room slightly, trusting that Will would be able to cope with it. For a little while he was seeing stars but soon was able to see properly again. He walked over and offered Alyss a cup of coffee jokingly before making her a cup of tea just as she liked it.
This time it was Will who did something to care for the other. He was able to see Alyss in quite a bit of pain from her recent incident, so he placed the made beverages on the table before walking forwards and gently grabbing her around the waist. For a moment he stopped her as he placed his head on her shoulder and closed his eyes. That moment there was the most relaxing he had felt in a long time, and Alyss' hair had always been one of the main things that drew him towards her, her wit and intelligence being the others.
He stretched out of the couch in front of the unmade fire before pulling Alyss down with him. It had taken a little while but soon Will was able to see the frown lines caused by her pain disappear into a content and relaxed expressions. The two of them had managed to take a sip each of their drinks before their moment was ruined.
Two noisy children had ran through the door, ecstatic to see their parents again.
An hour later it had gotten dark outside and both children were out for the count on the floor. Will leant down and picked them up in turn placing them on the beds in the spare room. Alyss smiled at him happily and he couldn't help but to return it. If only I came back to something like this everyday, he thought.
After a little while Alyss had managed to settle back into her previous position and promptly fallen into her first deep sleep in a long time, content in the safety her husband provided. Just as Will was about to wake her slightly so the two of them could move to a real bed and not wake up with stiff necks in the morning, the peace was ruined.
There was someone moving outside. Will attempted to narrow down the list of people it could be as quickly as possible.
It wasn't Halt as Will would have known if he had come back. The same was for Horace.
Pauline had left earlier promising to come the next day, and she wouldn't have been outside travelling at that time of night anyway unless for a really important mission.
A messenger from the Baron was highly unlikely as Will hadn't reported in as the official Ranger of the fief due to his 'medical discharge' from the corps.
That was pretty much only leaving someone will ill intent. Not for the first time Will wished Tug was with him. The previous warning would have enabled Will to get his family to a safer position, or at least warn them.
"Alyss," he whispered hurriedly and urgently. She awoke groggily and raised her eyebrows in a sleepy question.
"There is someone here and I don't know who it could be," Will explained. It took but a moment for this to enter Alyss' mind. Beyond the words, there was a panic to Will's tone that she rarely had ever heard before.
"What do you want me to do?" she breathed out.
"Go to the children avoiding the loose floorboards and opening the doors if need be," Will replied and helped her up. No matter her injuries, he knew that she would insist on doing something about the protection of their children and he couldn't deny the fact that he loved that about her. In return she knew that he respected that decision and although she knew everything to do, always left situations such as the one they were in up to his command.
Will waited until she had made it into their childrens room before creeping forwards to a certain spot on the floor. If careful and if you knew what you were looking for there was a section of the floor that rose up and had weapons hidden underneath it. It was always filled with the current Ranger's spare gear in case the rest was damaged or lost in some way or another. The position of it in the floor meant that someone wasn't able to sneak in and steal it when the Ranger wasn't there and in times like what Will was experiencing, where there were no weapons in sight, it was within easy reach. Only the Ranger who lived in the cabin knew where the stash was and it was something mentioned in their letter to the next person to take over that fief. Will remembered the day that Halt had shown him where this one was. He had asked why it was where it was (for in the seacliff cabin it was in the bedroom in a back corner), and had received an hour long lecture about the best positions to hide things in houses and why hadn't he been paying attention to that thing in his apprenticeship.
At least I know where it is now, he thought.
From one of the back rooms he was able to hear a little scuffle as Alyss walked around trying to see what the unknown danger could possibly be. After lifting the piece of floor Will allowed himself to remain motionless and to count to three before continuing.
He reached in and grabbed the recurve bow (sadly the place wasn't big enough for a proper longbow to be hidden), the double scabbard and his strikers. Each had been his second set ever and all showed large amounts of wear. After the handles to both knives began to cause more issues to his hands than to actually help his throwing, he had gone to Crowley to get another set.
At least I won't be needing another set, Will thought humorlessly. His current set, which had been returned to him by the corps had been left behind in Castle Araluen as he hadn't had time to grab another change of clothes and his camping gear, let alone them.
He rose from his crouching position, for the first time in a long time feeling complete again. It had been so long since he had gone without his weapons that the past few months had nearly sent him legitimately insane without them. It now made sense why all of the retired Rangers still kept their weapons rather than putting them away for keeping. Then again, all retired Rangers were bizarre in Will's opinion. They were retired, but quite a few of them still conducted large aspects of their work except together within Araluen fief.
Two steps, pause. Another two steps and Will had reached the door. He took a large breath in before cracking it open. Sometimes he wished that he had actually oiled the damn thing, but majority of the time, not doing so was a good thing, no matter how often Alyss told him to do it and complained of how much the noise sent her up a wall.
The noise from the intruder suddenly ceased to be.
Will moved forwards onto his verandah and had the feeling like he needed to duck. A long time ago in Skandia he had learnt that this was a good thing not to ignore so he did not ignore it here. A split second after ducking Will heard the familiar sound of an arrow hitting wood. He forced himself not to jump in shock at the thought that his assailant might had a similar skill to his in archery and spun so that he was again protected by the door.
Whilst there was still a moon in the sky, later on in recounting the events that changed the corps at this time, Will would have sworn it was the darkest night he had been in. The thought that this person was out to kill his children and wife was a chilly one. Double that with the fact that Will was unable to see the assailant in the trees but he was highlighted against the cabin was indeed scary. For all he knew the person could have slipped away and into the room that Alyss and the children were in.
Will rushed forwards from his protection all of a sudden and shot an arrow in the direction that the one previously had come from. He was disappointed to have missed the person, however not surprised. Now they knew that he was shooting after them they would have to either be more careful or make a rookie mistake.
Rookie mistake it was for this person then.
They hadn't realised that they held the high ground by being under the cover of the trees. If they had they also would have known that as long as they remained still Will wouldn't have been able to see them. Instead fraught with worry that Will's next arrow would somehow find them perfectly and kill them straight away they ran from their hiding position to another to the right.
Will shot straight after them in the hopes that they would do it again, keeping his target on where they would have appeared. This time his arrow didn't frighten them and he was left wondering how he was going to get to them now.
If he moved forwards into the forest, gliding with the shadows from the cabin to the trees, there was always the chance that his eyes would adjust to be able to see the person, bringing the resulting tussle down onto a near par fighting level. However in order to successfully blend in and do so, Will would have to place his bow over his shoulder and that moment of being unprotected could either cause him to lose an opportunity or, worse, get injured. The other option was to wait it out to see if the person would move. He knew that he had the patience to sit there and wait until the person had either gotten bored and left, got cocky moved towards his targets, or the sun came up and provided Will with a clear line of shot. Neither of the options sounded preferable, however as the second still left the opportunity for the person to move whilst Will had his attention turned for a split second needed to refocus, Will went for the first.
He slung his bow over his shoulder and without hesitation began to move forwards to the tree line. Once past the first line he was able to see clearer and the person wearing different shades of green in an attempt to blend in with the forest became clear. The unplanned close quarters meant that Will wasn't able to access his bow and he wished that the person's skills at armed combat weren't very good because all of the sitting around wasn't going to do him any good in getting better.
Will leapt forwards into the air like a graceful swan and nearly came crashing down on the assassin. Just in time the other person moved away from him and looked shocked. He glanced at the cabin for a moment, allowing Will to make a strike at his arm. That brought his attention back and he responded with a few attacks and parry and respostes.
It was an intense fight within the woods between the two as normally they would have been equally matched, however Will had the slightly disadvantage, not being able to practice with anyone.
I should have just thrown the thing whilst I had the chance earlier, Will thought to himself normally a thought that Tug would comment on. The lapse of conversation that Will had from it made him pause for a second and frown. For a moment it was all too easy to pretend that he was on a mission or another; it was a scary thoughts realistically. This moment allowed the assailant to make a like cut on Will's arm as the one he made earlier.
Hissing Will moved forwards to make a final attack at the other person and was surprised to find no resistance and slid straight through until the person's head was separate to his body. Will winced at the sight and mentally made a note not to let his children play outside until someone had cleared the body or it became safer.
He looked back to the porch and noticed that due to the position of the verandah the whole undercover section was pitch black. He promptly swore in a way that would have made Halt belt him over the back of the head.
Long chapter for you all!
A huge spider just went under my bed! I was going to go to sleep but now I'm not. I am going to stay up and write these updates all night long if I have to! I will find the thing!
Aly