The Araluen war party had almost made it to Redmont in about 5 days. After the final battle with MacHaddish and his men in the tent, Halt and Duncan rode out to MacHaddish's now stranded and confused party of men gathered on the other side of the plains and told them to leave and never return, and that Will had killed MacHaddish. After hearing this, all the men turned and ran into the forest, like a dog with their tails between their legs. After that, Halt and Duncan sent some of the men went over to what remained of the Scotti war camp and burned it all up. Then they had packed up their camp and began to move their way slowly back to Redmont and Araluen. Now they were only perhaps a few hours from Redmont.

"So, Will, how do you feel now? You held off another invasion from these same people and managed to single-handedly kill their leader. Now everyone in the army is talking about it. I heard some men talking about it yesterday, and you would not believe how heroic you were! But of course, you must be in terrible pain." Horace said with a grin on his face.

He and Gilan had been teasing Will all the way home about his head and hand. During his fight with MacHaddish, his wrist had been nicked by the sword and bled heavily. A doctor had bandaged it up even though Will had protested strongly, and now they never let him forget it, Halt less so than the other two. He had been wounded in a similar fashion sometime ago, and he had more pity, or rather, self-control.

Before Will could respond to Horace, Gilan put in, "Yes, it's all very well and good, but is your head troubling you? Or perhaps you hand? Both were sliced open rather dramatically." Gilan had a very good poker face, but his eyes glittered with laughter as Will turned in the saddle and glared at him.

"No, Gilan, I'm fine. It wasn't dramatic." His answers to these sallys had gotten shorter and shorter as his irritation grew and his dignity shrank.

Horace couldn't resist. "Oh, but it was very dramatic. First you come sprinting into our camp with blood all over you face. Then you fight in a heroic battle with a very handsome looking head bandage and then you make it to the end without dropping your knife because there's blood all over your hand! On the contrary, it was extremely dramatic." He reached out in mock concern and grabbed Will's wrist and yanked back his sleeve to reveal the bandage. Will wrenched his arm back and pulled the sleeve back down.

"Well, it wasn't my fault that it was that way. In fact, you two are the only ones making this all a big deal." But of course, as soon as Will said that, Alyss rode up behind him. She had been back riding with Cassandra for a while. They were, after all, the only two females in the camp, and they had been sticking together, but she occasionally came up to see Will.

She rode up beside him. "Hello, Will." When he turned towards her, he still had a light of irritation in his eyes, and his face was tight looking. But Horace and Gilan had been very careful with their teasing. They knew that if they teased Will in front of Alyss, she might get angry at them, and they didn't want to deal with it. So they had immediately stopped as soon as Alyss has rode up next to him. Alyss interpreted Will's irritation in a completely different way. She looked alarmed at Will's expression. "Will, are you alright? Are you in pain?"

At these words Will actually groaned and muttered through clenched teeth, "I'm perfectly fine. I do not need to be checked on every few minutes."

"Alyss, I think he does actually need something. He's been grabbing his head and kind of moaning occasionally. And he says his wrist is throbbing." Horace poked in, desperately holding back a huge grin. Alyss looked worriedly at Will.

"Thanks, Horace. I'll go talk to the doctors." She quickly turned her horse around and galloped off. Will whirled sharply in his saddle and gave Horace his most steely glare from underneath his cowl. He had been wearing it up a lot to hide his head and face. They both drew attention, his bandage just encouraged more teasing from Horace and Gilan, and his face made him get swarmed by soldiers who wanted to see him to see if all the rumors were true. All in all, he had just decided to keep up his hood to protect both himself and his dignity.

"Horace, Gilan, one more word from either of you about my health, which is perfectly fine, and you won't be able to say anything, courtesy of me." With that, he wheeled Tug around and rode off towards the middle of the party. They had been leading the way, but Will had had enough, so he went off to finish the journey with Alyss, Cassandra, Halt, and Duncan, who were certain have a least a little more pity, or at least the intelligence not to say a word about it.

As Will trotted through the ranks of men on Tug, the men turned to look at him, and when someone recognized him, they all began to shout, "Will! Ranger Will! Will Treaty!" He kicked Tug into a gallop and got out of there before they could all cluster around him and trap him. He came thundering towards the small party that was the back of the train of men, and he slid to a stop next to Halt, who looked up startled at his sudden appearance.

"In a hurry?" he asked. Cassandra leaned around Halt and said, "Oh, he's just avoiding the soldiers."

"Oh... I see." Halt fell silent and said nothing.

"Oh, hello Will." Duncan greeted him with a smile from Cassandra's other side.

"Good afternoon, sir. Do you mind if I ride with you and Cassandra and Halt?"

"Of course not. A pleasure to be in your extremely famous presence. The men just can't stopping spreading rumors. I've heard quite few theories about you." Will couldn't resist just a hint of a glare as he looked at the King. He noticed, and said, "Oh, I see. You've already had plenty of that from.... Horace and Gilan, I would assume? I apologize, I'll leave that job to them."

"Thank you, sir," Will said gratefully. "I had been riding with them, but... well, let's just say they seem to have lost all respect for me. But I dealt with them, for the time being."

Halt raised an eyebrow at this. "Dealt with them?"

"Yes." Will said tightly, and closed the topic of conversation with that last word.

"Men! Take a break! Be seated and eat something. This will be our last break before we reach Redmont!" Duncan called out. Immediately the men stopped moving and sat down to rest.

Alyss rode up. She had returned from the doctor. "Oh, there you are, Will. I went up to the front, but you weren't there. Gilan and Horace had said that you had gone back here because you had a headache and needed some quiet time. I brought some pain medicine from the doctor. He says that you should come to get your head checked soon, because it might be healed enough to remove the bandage now."

Will sighed, exasperated, and said, "Alyss, listen. Those two idiots up there are taking every opportunity to make fun of me right now. Everything they've said to you about my head is completely false. They are using you to drive me crazy without you even knowing it - wait, what? They're going to take my bandage off? Get out of the way, I'm going now!" He nudged Tug and he unceremoniously shouldered aside both Abelard and Alyss's horse and trotted over to the small group of medics that were resting together. He spoke to them for a moment and then they went inside a small tent they had set up for the break.

Alyss watched all of this, and as soon as he was out of earshot, she began to laugh. Halt looked at her. "What?"

Alyss just laughed harder. "I - I just, it's just so funny to watch his reaction to Gilan and Horace! He has no idea that I know exactly what's going on! He thinks I'm on his side!" With that, she laughed even harder.

Even Halt smiled. "I see. Now that is perhaps the funniest way to tease someone. But I have to say, it's not a very wife-ish thing to do..." But he stopped when he saw Alyss's expression.

"Halt, are you telling me that Pauline has never done this to you?"

Halt's grin disappeared and he muttered, "Never mind." Now even Cassandra and Duncan laughed with Alyss.

After about ten minutes Will rode over again. His cowl was still up, but as he came over, Alyss could see he had a small grin on now. "What does it look like? Do you have scars?" Alyss asked.

Will smiled. "No, the doctor says that once the scabs fall off I'll have small ones, and then they'll fade out eventually. "

"Can I see?" Alyss asked. Will lowered his eyebrows and gave her a look.

"Not if you're going to make fun of it."

"What? I wouldn't."

"Never mind. No one can see it." Will said, some irritation creeping into his voice.

"What? But why?" Alyss asked. She had been looking forward to seeing his scars.

"Because I'm not deaf." Then he turned away from her.

Alyss turned to Halt. "I think he heard me."

"You think?" Halt said incredulously, raising both eyebrows for once.

"Not deaf!" Will called over to them. Halt and Alyss both smiled.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They glimpsed Redmont Castle within the hour. The army themselves continued on to Araluen, and Duncan, Cassandra, Gilan, and Horace all rode in just to say goodbye to Halt, Will, and Alyss. Duncan formally shook Will's hand, and said, "Will, I don't know how many times I've said thank you to you, but I'll add another to the list. On behalf of the Kingdom, thank you."

"Anytime, sir." Will grasped his hand firmly, and then came Cassandra. She kissed him on the cheek and gave him a hug, and thanked him as well. "Look out for Horace. You'll never know what he'll get into."

Cassandra smiled. "Of course, Will. I'll see you soon."

Then Gilan slapped his back a few times, saying, "Well, I'm off to Norgate. I'll see you at the Gathering, alright? Oh, and make sure to stop by the doctor. You wouldn't want your hand to infect."

Will rolled his eyes. "See you, Gilan, " and Gilan walked back to Blaze, laughing silently.

Horace gave him a hug and slapped his back. "Well, we did it again. Rather, you did it again. Next time, let me help a little."

"Hopefully there won't be a next time, Horace, but if there is, I'll come and get you."

"You'd better. How's your head? Heard you got your bandage off."

"It's fine. Quit asking about it."

"Can I see i - "

"No."

Horace put up his hands in a gesture of defeat. "Alright, alright. I'll see you if I ever come around this way. Bye!"

"Bye, Horace." He mounted Kicker and rode off towards Araluen with Duncan and Cassandra, and Gilan went towards the north again, headed for Norgate.

Will turned to Alyss. "Want to go back to the cabin?"

"Of course. We both need a nice long rest."

"Oh, and Halt! Before you go, I'll be around the castle tomorrow. I need a new cloak. Would you like yours back?" He slung off the cloak and handed it sheepishly to him. "It got a bit torn up."

Halt raised both eyebrows for once. "A bit? You call this a bit torn up? This is shredded! I don't want it back, you can burn it for all I care." He tossed it back to Will.

Will shrugged. "So be it." He slung it over his shoulder. "So I'll see you tomorrow?"

"Possibly. If I decide to get out of bed. I have a feeling I'll be very sore."

Will smiled. "Alright. Tomorrow after lunch then." Then he turned Tug around and he and Alyss rode up the forest path to the small cabin in the woods.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that evening, Will and Alyss were sitting by the fire on the veranda with blankets, looking out at the stars. They had been sitting, silently digesting the stew they had had for dinner, when Alyss spoke up suddenly. "You know, Will, I've been thinking. I've never actually gone on a mission with you where it's just been me and you, until now. Well, I guess we did get Ebony back from the Roamers, but that wasn't really a mission. I thought it was rather nice, I should go with you more often."

"Well, you can come with me only if I'm going to need saving," Will said. "And only if I know for certain it won't be too dangerous."

"I just proved that I can deal with dangerous. So take me with you next time you need a companion."

"I'll try, but a lot of the missions assigned to me are either with Halt or Horace or both, because I'm in the special task group. And a lot of my missions require me to separate from my 'companion', and go out alone to gather information. That would be hard to do with you, because it would be hard to leave you alone."

"Oh, come on! Just agree already!"

"Fine. When the opportunity arises, I will ask Halt and Crowley if you can come with me."

"Yes! Thanks, Will!" She leaned over and kissed him gently, and he kissed her back.

He leaned away from her and said, "Alyss, I've also been thinking... about where we should live." He swallowed, a little nervous at what her reaction. "I, well, I talked to Crowley, and he said that, basically, one Ranger, by tradition, has to live in the cabin outside of the castle. And since Halt got married first, he got the choice to live in the cabin versus the castle. And he chose the castle, which leaves me no choice but to live here. I know it's not the castle, but - "

"Oh, Will, no it's perfect!"

Will floundered to a stop and stared at her, wide eyed. "What?"

Alyss smiled a little. "Will... all I need is right here. I don't need the luxuries of the castle to be happy. Everything I need to be happy is right here. All I need is you! I don't care where we live, so long as it's with you. Well, with you and your cooking." He laughed at this.

"Well, it's good to know that you like my cooking. Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm completely certain."

"Because, I could have the carpenter come and make our cabin a bit larger, if you like - "

"Will, stop." She put her finger to his lips. "I love this cabin. Everything out here is so beautiful and clean and green. I love it. Nothing needs to change. Absolutely nothing."

Will smiled. "Good." And they both fell asleep on the veranda, watching the moon rise over the star-covered sky.

THE END

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All done! Much thanks to my devoted readers who made it all the way to the end with me! Please vote and comment to let me know what you thought about this story!

If you enjoyed this story, go and check out my other Ranger's Apprentice fanfiction, The Surprise Siege!

Thank you everyone! ❤️❤️❤️ ;)