"I could imagine they'd leave an outpost, or maybe even a village," mumbled Gilan almost to himself as we were riding past countless abandoned mines. "But I have never met a Celt who abandoned his mine, as long as there's still a grain of metal to be found."
Big black holes in the mountainsides, propped up with wooden stellages, a few buildings circled around the entrance. There wasn't a sign of life for miles.
In the afternoon we passed a pass and saw in the valley that stretched out before us the neat terraced houses of Gwyntaleth. There was a slim tower in the middle, where a temple stood - the Celts had their own religion, in which gods of fire and iron were worshipped. There was also a sturdier tower, which was supposed to defend the city in case of an attack.
We were too far away to see if there were people in the streets. But I did notice that there wasn't any smoke circling out of the chimneys. And what was even weirder, according to him because I had missed that small detail, it was dead silent.
"Silent? Why is that odd?" asked Horace.
"Normally you'd hear all kinds of forging sounds - Kling- Clang- Bash- Boom," Gilan said. "The Celts don't just delve iron ore and charcoal, they process it as well. The wind is coming from that direction, so we should be able to hear the forges, even from this distance."
"Well, let's take a quick look then," Will said and he rode on again. But Gilan put up his hand and held him back.
"I think we have to go forward alone," he said slowly, his gaze fixed on the city below us. Will's eyebrows shot up and his eyes got big.
"Alone?" he asked, and Gilan nodded.
"You said it yourself yesterday, that we weren't exactly hard to miss when we rode into Pordellath. Maybe it's gotten time to become a bit more careful. There's something going on and I want to know what it is."
The small Ranger's apprentice looked conflicted for a second, but then he looked at me already by my mentors side. He furrowed his eyebrows and gestured to me. "Why are you taking her then?"
Gilan turned a bit in his saddle, to look at me and then shrugged. "Because she's my apprentice, of course."
"And what are we supposed to do in the mean time?"
"Prepare everything for the night," said Gilan. "But no campfire. We'll have to do with a cold meal until we know what's going on here. We'll be back before dark."
With that he turned Blaze around and pressed his heels against her belly. We rode over the pass, towards Gwyntaleth. Both of us didn't say anything the whole ride.
"This town also looks completely abandoned." Gilan said as we were walking through it, "Where did these people go?"
"Maybe I chased them away." I promptly said. This evoked a burst of laughter from the tall Ranger next to me. His laugh was loud and deep. If there was anyone in a twenty kilometer radius, they would've been alerted to our presence.
"With your archery skills I'd run too," he doubled over from the laughing, "you're a hazard to society. You might break their window!"
"Hey!" I squeezed his side and he immediately squirmed. He narrowed his eyes at me and then started smiling mischievously. I saw where this was going.
"No!" I started running, but he had already pulled me back by my waist. A warm feeling erupted in my stomach when I felt his arms around my chest. He seemed to realize how close we were too, because he suddenly stopped. I could hear his breath getting slower.
He spinned me around crashed his lips onto mine. His hands were resting on my hips, but the more heated the kiss got, the tighter the grip got on them. I put my arms around his neck and savored the feeling of his warm lips on mine. His hands were slowly going lower, until he was full-on grabbing my behind. A small moan escaped my lips, something that only encouraged Gilan more. As much as we both wanted to, now was not the time to go further. And that was most definitely where it had been going, so I broke off the kiss and buried my face into his neck.
"When we're home I'll let you do anything you want to me."
He squeezed one last time and growled. "Does it really have to wait that long?"
"If you're going to whine anymore I'll make you wait until you've wed me, to bed me," I teased, which earned me another pinch, but this time in my side.
"I love you." He mumbled.
My heart dropped into a black abyss. I turned away and started walking towards where we had left Blaze and Vacker. "We should go back to Horace and Will. They're probably wondering where we are."
I did not have to turn around to know I really hurt him, but I couldn't say it back. My throat was dry and my heart was racing.
Then a memory itched in the back of my head, begging to resurface for me to give attention to it. I repressed it, wiped my sweaty hands dry with my cloak and waited for Gilan to arrive.
⋆✶⋆
How we found them was not what we expected, they were training and we could hear them from miles away.
I shook my head in disapprovement and nodded towards the bushes.
"These two idiots haven't even noticed these burglars sneaking up on them."
With a plain face, Gilan turned around a bit in his saddle and said to me: "Well I remember one time I was able to sneak up on you, because you were blaring some song. While we were on a mission and I had specifically asked you to be on guard."
"That was one time! And I was still young!" I protested, while throwing my hands in the air.
"Well they're still young too, so don't be too hard on them."
He was right of course. I of all people shouldn't judge, I had made many mistakes in my years of apprenticeship. Of course there was the time I had tried to run away my first night and the time I accidentally almost lit the cabin on fire.
"Come on, we're going to them." Gilan said coldly. It was like a knife in my stomach.
We left the horses behind and made our way to the camp, silently. When we got there Will hadn't even noticed us, despite Tug alerting him several times.
Horace had gotten into a skirmish with one of the robbers, who wasn't paying attention to his surroundings very well anymore. Else he'd maybe noticed two more people spectating the show.
Will got an arrow and was ready to shoot at him when Gilan said to him: "Don't shoot, yet. I'm curious to see how this ends."
With big eyes Will turned around, to see Gilan nonchalantly leaning on his bow.
"Gilan!" Will started, but then Gilan admonished him to silence.
"Let him have a go at it," he said softly, "He'll do alright if we don't distract him."
"But..." started Will, now seeming desperate. He looked at Horace and the frown on his face became deeper, then he looked back at Gilan.
"Horace can take him" he said, putting a hand on the young Apprentice's shoulder.
The fight took a bit longer than expected, but it didn't take away from my newfound respect toward my new, younger, travel companion. Even though I was sure I could take Horace on in a fight, I would prefer to keep him on my side.
Then it was time for Gilan to scold the both boys for completely being reckless.
"Apparently you were surprised by these two losers?" Gilan asked Will and Horace, but directed his question towards the smaller one directly, who nodded yes with his head hung low.
"When did you get here exactly?" his eyes wandering from the older Ranger to me.
"We got here at the same time as these men," answered Gilan, "we weren't far away when we saw them sneaking through the bushes."
"Now-" Will straightend his back and continued- "why were you guys gone for so long?"
I shifted my position on the rock I was sitting on with an uncomfortable cough. Thankfully, Gilan responded.
"We decided to check the city a bit more thoroughly than before." And with that, the subject was closed off. He continued to scold them a little bit more until he was sure they had learned their lesson. He had just started his interrogation when someone walked into our camp.
I turned my head to look at them and saw a young girl with short, blonde hair, a small figure and dressed in a ripped tunic, pants and soft leather knee high boots. A dirty and sleeveless sheepskin was draped around her, which didn't seem very warm. She reminded me of me, before I became Gilan's apprentice. A shudder went through my spine.
The girl spoke up and said: "O, they're still alive," everyone else turned to look at her. "They've fled for Morgarath - for as far he hasn't caputered them."