Hey everyone! I'm back and I brought the sixth chapter along too! Thought you guys might want to see it!😄So, I just want to say that I honestly barely know what I’m going to do with story myself, so don’t ask me for hints at future chapters because I don’t know myself. That’s just my way of writing though. My motto is, “Writing is like driving in the dark. You can’t see beyond your headlights, but you can go the whole ride that way.” So, stay awesome and READ!!!!

About an hour after the first streaks of light came streaming above the horizon line like so many upside down party streamers, Halt crawled out of his tent. He seemed surprised to see Sophie sitting next to me and abruptly asked,

"Early riser are we?" He directed the question at Sophie, but I answered before she had a chance,

"Apparently. Although I do think she rose a bit earlier than you believe." Halt rose his eyebrow and replied scathingly,

"You're an apprentice; you're not ready to think." I was about to make a sarcastic comeback when Sophie cut me off,

"Halt, is this the first time you've dealt with the Kalkara?" Halt looked at her quizzically, wondering at the change of subject no doubt, and answered,

"Yes. When else would I have dealt with them?" She just shrugged,

"I'm just wondering. In case you know something that might help us to survive." He looked at her and said sarcastically,

"And of course I would have reserved that information until the last second instead of telling everyone about a crucial piece of life saving advice." Sophie hesitated and I stepped in smoothly,

"You're Halt." He scowled at me,

"And what is that supposed to mean?" He asked innocently.

"Well, you can be unpredictable. It is a good quality in a ranger. Especially if it helps them remain unnoticed or undiscovered by their enemies." I responded, allowing a hint of admiration to enter my voice as I spoke. Halt looked at me interestingly, and I realized he was probably wondering about how I knew that was a good quality in a ranger.

"Well, I should probably go get Will and Gilan up. You two can go wake Evanlyn." Halt announced, turning on his heels and striding purposefully back towards the tents. Sophie and I glanced at each other, both knowing exactly what the other was thinking. Evanlyn.

As we walked towards the tent we had shared with Evanlyn, a thousand thoughts whirled through my mind at high speeds. They were the same thoughts that I had when we first caught sight of Evanlyn. Why was she here? We aren’t even in Celtica? Has she discovered that Morgarath is taking the miners yet or is she still oblivious to the problem? Or is Morgarath not taking the miners anymore? Only now, I had the added worry of the story not making sense anymore. We reached the tent and I was about to enter, but Sophie grabbed my sleeve,

            “At least we know that the Kalkara attack never happened in the beginning.” Sophie said hopefully. I looked at her worriedly,

            “I would have preferred that since now there are three of them and we have to make sure Evanlyn doesn’t get killed as well.” She nodded and made a mock formal bow,

            “Well then, after you.” Sophie said gesturing, magnanimously towards the tent. I rolled my eyes and stepped into the tent, stooping as I did so. Evanlyn was fast asleep and snoring softly as I went over to her and gently shook her shoulder. Her reaction was instantaneous. As soon as my hand made contact, she sat bolt upright and punched my hand as hard as she could.

            “Ow!” I exclaimed as I leapt back. As the haziness of sleep wore off, Evanlyn realized where she was and grimaced slightly at the sight of me looking at her warily while holding my throbbing hand.

            “I’m really sorry about that.” Evanlyn said, genuinely concerned. I looked at her and waved it off,

            “It’s okay. I just wasn’t expecting that.” I said while grinning a trifle ruefully, “Next time I’ll let Sophie wake you up.” Evanlyn smiled at the jibe, got to her feet, and promptly hit her head against the canvas roof. Sophie laughed and Evanlyn glared at her, making Sophie laugh even harder. Evanlyn then got back into a crouch and followed Sophie and I out of the tent.

            Once outside the stuffy confines of the tent, we saw Gilan bending over a mass of kindling with a flint and his Saxe knife. Halt and Will were arguing about something, and as we walked I saw Halt sit back with as satisfied smirk tugging at the corners of his mouth and Will throw up his hands in exasperation. Gilan stood up from his spot by the fire, having successfully caught the kindling alight, and noticed us walking over. He waved at us cheerfully,

            “Good morning. Breakfast should be ready soon, and after that you,” He pointed at Evanlyn, “can fill us in on why you were wondering about the Solitary Plains all by your lonesome.”

            Evanlyn nodded agreement and we sat down on rocks scattered across the dry ground. Will, obviously lost in his own thoughts, looked up absentmindedly as we sat down. Then, it seemed to register with his brain and he greeted us.

            “Hey, you’re up finally!” I smiled at him and countered,

            “I should be saying that to you. I’ve been up for five hours now.” He looked confused for a second before comprehension dawned on his face.

            “Oh, you were on watch huh?” I nodded and was about to reply when Halt’s voice cut me off,

            “Breakfast is ready. Dry meat and bread.” Will rolled his eyes and replied sarcastically,

            “Oh goodie.” Halt glared at him and added,

            “There’s coffee too, but if you really don’t want breakfast that much then-“ Will hastened to contradict him,

            “No, no! Breakfast is fine; it sounds absolutely delicious in fact.” I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Sophie was silently laughing with a hand over her mouth. When Will glared at her faking wounded pride, she just faked a coughing fit. Which of course made her laugh even harder.  Halt just rolled his eyes.

            “So do you want breakfast or not?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.  We all said “yes” simultaneously and went over to the fire for food, and in Will’s case coffee.

              Once we had all finished I glanced at Evanlyn. She caught my eyes and gave me a wan smile. I smiled back and then Halt cleared his throat. After everyone’s attention was on him he asked Evanlyn to recount her story. She took a deep breath and began,

            “My lady was visiting a friend of hers in Celtica and we were returning home when our group was attacked by a group of wargals.“ I heard Will gasp and Halt, as gruff as ever asked,

            “How many?” Evanlyn looked up at Halt from her far away gaze and answered,

            “No less than fifty.” Halt nodded and gestured for her to continue. She gathered her thoughts and again launched into her story,

            “My lady and I had managed to get away when a group of five wargals broke off and started following us and-“ Evanlyn choked out a sob before continuing, “And she told me to run so I did and when I looked back-“ This time Evanlyn couldn’t continue as she stifled a sob and held her face in her hands. Gilan looked at her sympathetically and suggested,

            “You know, we can talk about this later if you’re not ready yet.” But Evanlyn shook her head and sniffling she continued,

            “No, there’s something really important you need to know.” Gilan looked at her quizzically and Halt leaned forward in his seat.

            “When I was traveling north I noticed other packs of wargals taking over towns. They took the miners and killed everyone else. I don’t know why they were only taking miners, but they are. And, one night I was spying on a group of wargals because they were very close to my hideout and I overheard them talking about their plans.” Evanlyn took a deep breath and looked at us each in the eyes before continuing,

            “And I heard one of the human lieutenants mention a bridge across the fissure.”

 So that was the sixth chapter! Hope you all enjoyed, but I don't think I'll be getting another one out until friday, but maybe I can finish it early. Comment on if you want a shorter chapter sooner or a longer chapter later. Just for clarification, all Halt, Will, and Gilan know about Abbey and Sophie is that they are from America in the future and that they know who rangers are and themselves. They also know that the two have some ranger skills already. They don't know that the two know everything about rangers, just that they possess some of the same skills as rangers. Anyways, stay awesome and BYE!!!!!!!!!!