𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑎𝑤𝑛 | 𝐆𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐒𝐎𝐍

2⋆☾⋆Loose ends

"It feels good to be back." Gilan beamed as he threw his green-grey cloak over his broad shoulders.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Let's just go you drama queen."

We'd worked all night to pin-point Foldar's location and from all the reports the one from Heathcliff sounded the most like the real one: ruthless, killed an entire family in their sleep for fun and was after a lot of money, not just some small scam. Every time that man's name was mentioned I got flashbacks to how he treated the Celtican slaves. It wasn't a pretty image, which had made the night very unpleasant.

I wasn't really looking forward to finding that man, but I had my orders. And I had Gilan with me. Even though he was cripple and wouldn't actually be able to help.

Cockily grinning the tall brunet spread out his arms and tilted his head. "Come on, it's a big day for your mentor!"

Holding back a smile I pushed him out the door. I was impatient to get going. Not only had my mentor been on bedrest, but my training had also halted for the last couple of weeks, because in such a public place as castle Araluen, I wasn't allowed to be seen training. And even though the first few days I had really enjoyed the nice warm bed and hot baths, it quickly passed and somehow I was longing to sleep alongside worms and twigs again.

Blaze was very excited to finally see her owner again, and to show it she kept nodding her head and nudging him, almost throwing my  wounded mentor on the ground. Despite that we still got underway to Heathcliff fairly quickly.

"Do you even have any contacts in Heathcliff?" Gilan inquired curiously as we rode on the road that seemed to stretch out endlessly.

I averted my gaze from the long path and shrugged. "Not really, but I know where to find trouble anywhere I go." I explained, throwing my long hair over my shoulder while proudly smirking to myself.

He chuckled shortly. "Yeah, I've noticed."

I squinted my eyes at him.

The rest of our ride was fairly calm, we just had to stop a whole lot because Gilan still had trouble riding for multiple hours. But at last the next day we arrived at Heathcliff.

The fief had a castle that was true to its name, even though the building itself wasn't anything special, a vast construction built form natural stone, the usual towers on the four corners connected by crenelated walls; in the middle a higher and thicker tower, the keep where the duke lived with his loved ones and where his office was. The castle stood on a high cliff, and I just assumed that was where the fief's name had its roots.

There were sentinels patrolling the walls in rounds. One of those was leaning on the balustrade, when a second figure joined him and pointed at me and Gilan. The first hurried off, probably to let us in, with the Ranger's cloaks it was easy to recognize Gilan, if people were able to see him.

"Come on, they've seen us." Gilan gestured for me to ride along with him down the rocky path that led to the castle.

There was already a sentry post, manned by two bored out of their minds soldiers. I told them who we were, with Gilan's cloak, huge bow and quiver not giving a lot of reason to doubt his identity. They did frown at me though, people did not know a lot about Rangers but they did know that they never brought chamber maids.

As we were arguing and I was trying to convince them to let me in, Gilan put a hand on my shoulder and chimed in.

"Guys, she's my fiancee, all right?" he explained, like it was actually true, "we wanted to keep it under wraps, but I guess the secret's out now."

With big eyes I turned my head to the tall Ranger's, but then I quickly put on a sweet smile. If they needed to believe we were a couple it would take some work.

Suddenly the two soldier's moods changed as quickly as weather on an April day. They started apologizing and approved me as well.

"Raise the yellow flag, Knob," the older one said. Without saying a word the other one got up and walked over to the flagpole that stood beside.

"So, where's my ring?" I whispered sarcastically to Gilan when the guards weren't looking.

"Wait," he ordered holding up a finger, before he hurriedly started rummaging through his pockets. He held up a stunning silver ring with a dark blue gem on top of his, most likely a sapphire. Diamonds laced the gem in the middle and sparkled in the early morning sun.

"Here," my mentor slipped it into my finger smoothly and right on time, because the guard looked up.

Furrowing his eyebrows he looked at the huge ring on my hand, but then shrugged. "You may ride on," he said as he pointed at the continuing headland.

As we rode up the steep road, I turned to Gilan. There was a question that was bothering me.

"Why did you have an engagement ring in your pocket?"

The tall man grinned. "Well Crowley told me that if somebody would ever question your presence, this would be the easiest way to fix it. Truth be told, I've been waiting to do this act for years."

Internally it stung my heart, but on the outside I just rolled my eyes and put on a fake smile. I'd missed my chance with him, so the sooner I got over it, the better.

"As long as I get to dramatically throw it at you when we leave again," I insisted.

"Deal."

When we arrived at another sentry post, Gilan pulled out his silver oak-leaf, which granted us passage to the castle's courtyard. But before I could motion Vacker to pass over the bridge, I felt a gaze burning in my back. I snapped my head back, but when I looked behind me there was no one there. However there was a small bush at the side of the road of which one of the twigs moved suspiciously.

"Are you coming?" Gilan called from the portcullis.

"Yeah," I answered as I rode with him, still keeping my eyes on that bush.

A/N:
Hi guys! Happy new year :). So the question today is: what are your New Years resolutions? (I'm kinda asking because I don't really have an idea yet haha)

Xxx.HeelsAreCute