Gilan and I continued to search for another horse for him, but had no luck. That's when we heard the high pitched screams.

"Gilan, what was that?" I asked.

"The Kalkara are hunting,  and I'm pretty sure that's the sound they make when they locate their pray, but which important person from last time is that way?" he explained slowly.

"Could they be hunting Halt, imean, he was very important to is winning against Morgarath last time, right?"

"You know what Cora? You could be right. Let's forget the horse and find Halt. He can't kill them both on his own."

He jumped backup on my horse, and then lifted me up in front of him. Again, I shivered at his touch.

"You ok?" he asked, noticing this time.

"Yeah, I just don't like people touching me." I answered apologetically.

"I couldn't tell, because you don't shiver like that when Will touches you."

"Well I've know Will all my life, and we've always hung out together. I guess I'm used to it being him, or Horace, or Jenny, or Alyss."

"What about George?"

"I still shiver when he touches me for some reason, and he knows it."

While we had been talking, we had covered a lot of distance. Then we set up camp for a little while.

We were eating when some kind of giant dog, bear mix came up and tried to attack us. Gilan had laid down his weapons by his roll, but I kept mine on, so I drew my sword and fought this thing for a coiple minutes before I cut off its head. I was exhausted, for that whatever it was fought hard, and by now, in tears. It scared me badly. It also reminded me of one time at the Ward that I don't want to remember.

"Gilan, what was that thing?" I asked, still in tears. That's when he noticed.

"That was a Wargal, another servant of Morgarath. It scared you badly, didn't it?" he replied, walking over and embracing me.

"Not so much scared me as brought back memories." I whispered.

"Care to talk about it?"

***Flashback***

It was a normal day at the Ward. Horace, George, and I were just sitting outside, talking. there was no particular subject, well yes there was. We heard that one of Morgarath's slaves was heading for the castle with a specific target. We didn't know who, but we knew Halt was hunting it.

Next thing we knew, some kind of monster attacked Horace, knocking him out. The beast was about to kill him when George jumped up and tackled it, trying to hold it down. It broke free, and went to kill George, and I didn't know what to do. I didn't even think when I picked up a sword that had been dropped by the monster in the struggle with George. I fought the beast for a moment, not coming close to its skill level, and all of a sudden, there was an arrow sticking out of its chest. It fell back dead, just as I turned aroung to see Halt with his bow raised. Then I notice a large pool of blood around George, and a smaller one around Horace. My arm had been cut open, but I didn't care.

"Run to the castle, and tell them Ranger Halt said to bring 2 stretchers to the Ward immediately,  no questions." Halt ordered, kneeling next to George who was injured the most.

I was only 7, but I ran all the way to the castle without stopping. I told the gaurd exactly what Halt told me to say, and Baron Arald himself sent the stretchers, and wanted to talk.

"What's your name?" was the first thing he asked me.

"My name is Cora." I was still crying from the possibility of losing my brother and one of my best friends.

"Are you going to tell young Horace and George that you saved them?" he asked.

"No, Halt can have the credit. I want to forget this and move on. Anyway,  if Halt hadn't shown up, we'd all be dead."

"Not from what he tells me. He says that you were starting to best the wargal, but instead of waiting a few minutes in which time both young men could have died, he just shot it so you could get help from them."

"I still don't want credit. Who was the monster after anyway?"

"That's the thing, Cora. It was after you, but wanted to take them out first so its job would be easier."

"But what did I do wrong?"

"Nothing, Morgarath has just heard of a prophecy that when we fight him once again, on Ward child will seek her revenge, and he saw you as the biggest threat."

"Well, the prophecy is correct. I will get my revenge on him. He almost killed my brother and my best friend." I had a dangerous glint in my eye, and the Baron actually looked scared.

"You will do great things one day, my dear. Now let's go see if they have woken up yet."

When we got to the infirmary, I heard Horace say, "I would like to know where my sister is."

"Yes, where is Cora?" George asked.

I ran up to Horace to hug him, and George said, "Found her." I giggled at his response.  Next I hugged George who asked, "Who killed that whatever it was?"

"Halt saved us all." I said, sitting on the edge of George's bed.

Halt, who was leaned up against the wall not far away, raised an eyebrow at the statement, but he did not question it.

***End of Flashback***

"So you just wanted to forget about it?" Gilan asked.

"Yes, I don't like taking credit for saving people like that, when I watched them het injured. George and Horace still don't know what happened. It's gonna stay that way, at least till the end of this kalkara thing." I whispered, still crying.

We sat down, but Gilan kept an arm around me until I calmed down.

The next day, we got to the ruins of Gorlan at dusk, just in time to see Will shoot a flaming arrow at the last kalkara. I ran over to where he was to see Halt unconscious and injured, as well as Baron Arald with bad cuts in his back. Sir Rodney must have looked into its eyes, because he was frozen for a few minutes. When he was unfrozen and saw me, he started explaining how worried Horace has been, and how George didn't know. Then he notice a cut on my arm, and it was a deep one too. I told him not to worry,  that Hilan had taken care of it and that I would explain later, but that right now we needed to get Baron Arald and Halt some help.