A/N: Hey guys! I know I haven't updated any of my stories in a LONG time. Sorry bout that. So anyway, I have been reading the Ranger's Apprentice series and it is AWESOME! I totally recommend it to all of ya'll. I am on book 8 right now and don't comment spoilers. I hope you guys like the fanfic, I already have tons of ideas, but I am going to only try to post one once a week. ^-^ Oh and one more thing, I own none of the characters, they are all John Flanagan's, but the story is mine.
P.S. The story takes place right after the bridge is burned and Will and Evanlyn are captured.
Chapter 1: Capture
The four Skandians lugged their two prisons all throughout the day and only when it was several hours after the sun had gone down that Erak called a halt. At his call Will and Evanlyn drooped ungracefully, but thankfully to the ground. Will noticed that the burly Skandians were already getting their camp set up even without being told what to do by Erak. While he was submersed in his thoughts, he did not hear Erak tell Evanlyn to go fetch water, so that when he went to lean up against her, he fell backwards and received mocking laughs from the Skandians.
Soon they had a good fire going and Evanlyn returned with a bucket of water which the Skandians heated up and added dry provisions to make a warm, tasteless stew. As Will thought, he remembered Master Chubb and the food he used to make. Realizing that he may never see him or anyone from Redmont again, he felt a pit in his stomach.
Evanlyn somehow sensed Will's sadness and laid a hand atop his. She scooted closer and whispered in his ear, "It'll be all right." He wanted to thank her, but he did not trust his voice so he said nothing and shook his head. He dropped his eyes staring intently at the ground from looking at their captors for he did not want Evanlyn to see the tears welling up in them.
On the breeze Will heard the unmistakable chant of Wargals, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Rounding the bend in the road, the party saw horsemen and behind them were the Wargals that had to jog to keep up with the horse' trot.
Erak swiftly ushered Will and Evanlyn into the cover of the rocks behind their campsite.
"Quick, you two! Behind them rocks if you value your lives! That's Morgarath himself on the white horse! Nordal, Horak, move into the light to screen them!"
Will and Evanlyn did not need to be told twice. As Erak commanded the two Skandians stood where they were told, drawing the attention of the oncoming party to them and not the two figures in the half-light.
Even though their efforts were fine, Morgarath already saw the figures move behind the rocks.
As the beet of hooves, chanting of the Wargals, and the clang of weapons and harness got louder, Will was taking smaller, quicker breathes. Through a small gap between two of the rocks, Will could make out the figure of Morgarath as he got closer to the fire.
Immensely tall, but thin, he was dressed all in black and he rode upon a pale horse with no sheen or life to its coat. The face was thin, with a beak of a nose and high cheekbones. The skin on the face was white and pallid, like the horse. The hair above it was long, set to frame a receding hairline, and white-blond in color. By contrast, the eyes were black pools. He was clean-shaven and his mouth was a thin red slit in the pallor of his face.
Ignoring the Skandians Morgarath commanded in a low voice, with a slight snakelike sibilance to it, "You two," he pointed to two of his Wargal followers, "go behind those rocks and pull out whoever is behind them." Obediently the Wargals went over to the rocks pulled out Will and Evanlyn and brought them over to Morgarath.
Looking over them, Morgarath saw the pendant hanging from Will's neck identifying him a Ranger's Apprentice.
Will saw the anger rise in the thin man's face and shrunk back a little, so small that most people would not even notice it, but Morgarath noticed and his face went calm immediately. An idea was starting to form in his head.
What if he had a Ranger on his side, but not only a Ranger, one who was once an Araluen Ranger, a Ranger that knew all of their secrets and weaknesses.
Calmly and straight faced he told the Wargal holding Will to bind him up and tie him to the back of his horse. "The Ranger is coming with us Captain Erak." Morgarath said not even looking at the one he was speaking to.
Erak only looked on dumbstruck at what just conspired. How did Morgarath know they were there? Why was he taking the boy? He was only a child.
Before Erak took control of his voice Morgarath said flatly while looking at Evanlyn, "Kill the girl Erak." With that Morgarath left with Will tried to the back of his horse.
A few minutes passed before Erak finally was able to talk again. "What just happened?" he said.
"It appears as if you let the villain, the bad guy take off with my friend!" Evanlyn yelled angrily at Erak who seems to still not have gotten it into his big head that half of his earnings was just taken away from him.
"No use crying over it now I suspect." Erak sighed. "Well, I guess we should head to Wolfwind and make our way to Skandia.
As Morgarath was moving away he signaled a full retreat to all of his Wargals and headed back to his castle. Now that I have a new piece to play with, we shall see what happens, King Duncan. Morgarath thought evilly.
No one in the Araluen army will know what happened, but they did know that one moment the Wargal army was ready to attack at the command and the next moment they were heading back to where they came from.
All of the soldiers were cheering and whooping because of their victory. Several others let go of a breath they didn't know they were holding. The leaders and commanders however were perplexed as to why an entire army would just turn tale and run, especially if they thought they had the element of surprise. Either way they had won.
Seeing that the battle was over before it began, Halt galloped away on Alebard. Within 10 minutes he found the campsite the Skandians set up and found a torn piece of his apprentice's cloak on a branch.
He followed the trail on Alebard the Skandians took as it lead to the edge of the fens and down where the ship was anchored. He jumped off Alebard and started to lead his horse through the tall grass and swampland. As soon as he was out of the treacherous land, he saw the Skandians loading onto their ship and getting ready to depart to head back to their homeland.
He mounted Alebard again and galloped full speed, willing the small horse to go even faster.
"Gorlog's teeth!" Erak screamed once he saw the figure running towards the ship. "Row! Get moving!"
Getting closer to the ship, Halt drew, sighted, and released an arrow at full gallop. And once he saw the oars going into motion, he direct Alebard into the sea itself with his knees. Arrow after arrow he shot at the giant ship, but to no luck. He would not shoot at the center of the boat fearing he would hit Evanlyn or "Will".
"Stay alive! I will find you! Don't ever give up!" Halt yelled at the retreating ship for he knew, he could not reach it in time while Alebard was wading in breast-deep water.
Unbeknownst to him though, Will was only 7 miles away while he was being dragged to his new "home". He shivered at the thought of ever calling wherever he was headed home. To him home would always be the small cabin by Redmont castle with Halt. He smiled when he thought of the old, grizzled Ranger and how he was like a father-figure to him. Will gave a sigh when he remembered he would most likely never get to see him again or any of his other friends. A slight sense of déjà vu came over him.
When hearing the sigh from Will, Morgarath looked at him with an unwavering gaze and told him,"Shut up and you will make no sound unless I tell you to do so." With that Morgarath turned back in his saddle and thought, I have a long way to go with this one, but in the end it will be worth it. So I can wait a bit longer.
By the end of the day Will was exhausted and fell over when they decided to make camp. As Morgarath unmounted his pale-white horse he told one of his Wargal to tie the boy up to a tree nearby. Once the boy was securely tied, Morgarath got the same Wargal to give Will some of the bread that would be left over once he and his companions finished their meal. So it went like that for the next four days: wake up, walk, get tied, up eat the scraps left over, walk some more, get tied up again, and finally sleep, only to do the same thing the next day.
When the party had finally gotten to their destination, Will was so exhausted and under fed that he slumped to the ground and let the blackness over take him.
Morgarath let out a hiss when he saw the boy fall to the ground. "We will have to work on his endurance and living without eating, won't we?" He said to nobody in particular in a matter-of-fact way.
When Will came to, he felt cold metal, most likely steal he assumed, around his neck and looked to see how much length the chain had, and to his surprise, there wasn't a chain at all. Apparently he was only wearing the "collar" that was around his neck. And then he noticed that that was all that he was wearing, he had no clothes on. He looked around and was yet again surprised when he saw his molted grey and green cloak not too far away.
Will got up and went to retrieve it. He swung it over his shoulders with a small smile at its familiarity.
Unknown to him, there was a person or several people closely observing him. They took notes on paper about his actions, his appearance, and his mental state. Morgarath put them in charge of making sure that the boy was sufficiently broken before he had his turn with him.
Morgarath entered the room with two other creatures that Will recognized immediately, the Kalkara.
"What…? How…? I thought we killed them all?" Will said in an exasperated tone while looking terrified the creatures.
Ignoring Will's comment, Morgarath said with a devilish grin, "I see you are already familiar with the Kalkara. These two lovely creatures will be your new roommates. I expect you will all get along." It wasn't a question, it was a statement. "Welcome home, Will."
A/N: Soooooooo… What did you think? I hope it was good. I have loads of ideas, but I am forcing myself to write it just yet. Have a great week ya'll. Comments are appreciated as well as critical feedback, still trying to get better as a writer.
Keep being awesome.
-Fear823