Alyss' Return: She Lives

Chapter Three: Halt and Pauline

Halt was sleeping peacefully next to his wife, Lady Pauline, when there was a loud, but slow banging at his door. The loud noise woke him and Pauline from their peaceful sleep. "What is it?" Halt called. He really didn't enjoy being woken up this early in the morning. And he knew that Pauline shared his hatred for those times.

The door opened reluctantly to reveal a nervous and shifty boy about fifteen years old. Halt looked at him through half-awake eyes, while Pauline still laid there on the mattress. "What is it?" Halt repeated, his resentment of being woken up very clear in his voice.

The boy shifted from one foot to the other from his nervousness of waking the Ranger. The whole castle knew that he deeply resented the thought of being woken up early in the morning if the knock didn't sound urgent. "Um...I wanted to tell you that Ranger Will has arrived...sir." The boy said eventually.

"Tell him to relax and wait until I'm awake. He'll know when." Halt responded grumpily, flopping back onto the soft mattress. The boy nodded and hurried to shut the door.

The closing of the door enveloped Halt and Pauline in darkness. Halt waited until his eyes became accustomed to the dark, then he put a hand around Pauline's waist, which was under the covers of the warm blanket over their shoulders. The movement made Pauline open her eyes and smile.

Halt and Pauline loved each other with all their hearts and everyone in the Castle and village knew it. Halt and Pauline knew that they couldn't have children, but there were a select few whom they thought of as such. Will and Horace being among them. The thought of Will made their hearts ache.

The famous Will Treaty. The one who helped rescue the Skandian Oberjarl from the evil Tualaghi warriors in Arrida, the one who besieged a castle with only thirty men and a healer at his call, the one who fought battles in several other contries including Nihon-Ja and Skandia, was reduced to a depressed and angry man to a point where he flatly refused missions from the Ranger Corps' new commandant, Gilan, all because he wanted revenge for his late wife, Alyss.

Alyss was the only spot in Will's life that shined the brightest. He had loved her with his very soul, and now she was gone, lost to a fiery inn in Anselm fief.

Halt and Pauline snuggled closer into each other's arms and soon fell asleep as they were.
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Halt got up out of the bed, so carefully as to not wake her up. But she seemed to sense him missing from the covers and opened her eyes anyway.

When Halt turned to kiss her on the cheek before he left, he froze, seeing her eyes open and staring straight at him. He smiled apologetically. "I have to see what Will wants with me. Otherwise, he'll throw a fit and come running for me." He said.

Pauline rose and he went over to her. They sat in silence as their foreheads rested against each other for some time and as Halt gently rubbed his thumb against Pauline's cheek. He moved his chin forward and he felt his lips meet hers for a moment.

After the moment passed, they were resting their foreheads on each other once more. "My dear, sweet Pauline." He whispered. He lightly kissed her cheek and stood. "I'll obviously be in Will's cabin. If you need me, come running or send a messenger. Unless you want to come with me." He said.

The minute he finished the last sentence, Pauline threw off the covers and began to get herself dressed. After she was finished, she turned to her husband who was grinning like he knew she would do what she had just done. "Of course I'm coming with you, my dear. Will is our surrogate son. I want to see how he's improving with Maddie keeping him busy." She said. Halt nodded."I thought as much." He said simply. Then, he turned to the door and approached it, only to have the door almost slam into him.