Ranger's Apprentice: The Tantalizing Tales

Changed

Something had changed.

I couldn't tell what, exactly, but seeing him after all this time wasn't anything like the million other times I had seen him.

Will had changed. And maybe I had changed, too. Perhaps. But not as much. Definitely not as much. Maybe it was simply the way he was sitting on Tug. Maybe it was the way he was looking around. But I could tell that he wasn't the sixteen-year-old that had left for Celtica. I could only stare as he dismounted his horse. He didn't see me. Maybe that was a good thing, for the moment being, because I had no idea what I would say to him if he did see me. Hi? Good afternoon? How are you? All of them I dismissed, they were not diplomatic or friendly or anything I assumed you'd want to hear after having been away from home for over a year. After having gone through God knows what.

Will looked different. More mature. Skinnier, too - had he lost weight? He looked pale, his skin was pulled over his bones tightly and he had dark wings under his eyes. When his sleeves moved back and revealed scars - more than two, or three, many, many more, I felt my heart skip a beat.

As Pauline moved forward, to Halt, Will looked around and his eyes found mine. My heart skipped another, longer beat. His eyes, always so full of passion and excitement, were dull. Sure, there was a sparkle, but only one, somewhere deep in there. These were not the eyes that I had grown up looking in. I moved forward, he did too, and our arms embraced.

I grasped his cloak, pinched it, to make sure it was really him. To make sure that it was Will, my best friend, and that this wasn't one of those dreams that I kept having. Although my dreams were happy. In my dreams, when Will came back, it was a happy reunion, full of laughs and smiles. This wasn't anything like that.

I felt something cold and wet rolling down my cheeks. It took some time before I realised that those were tears. I was crying. I grasped his cloak tighter and pulled him closer. I buried my head in his neck and I felt Will doing the same. When he released me, a few minutes later, I stepped back to look at him more closely.

Before he left, Will had been so full of life. So determined. So excited. And now? Sure, he was Will. But he had changed. So, so much. What had happened to him? What did they do to him?

Halt seemed to be telling Pauline something. It was late, but there was still a small group of people assembling around us when they saw who had returned. They quickly walked away when they heard the heavy posture of Baron Arald approaching. Will noticed too and smiled. At least his smile hadn't changed.

Our eyes locked again and I saw tears in his brown eyes. I laid a hand on his cheek and felt his cold skin. I pulled him towards me again, into a hug.

Will whispered something in my ear and I laughed softly. I whispered a reply and could feel his smile.

Tears were still falling down my cheeks. But I felt a little glow of warmth inside me as I realised something. Whatever had happened to him, in Skandia, he was scarred, beyond a doubt. But he survived. And he came home. Whatever terrible had happened, he was back, here, in Redmont, in my arms.