Hi guys! So, I recently got hooked on the young Halt stories (of when he is crown prince of Clonmel) so I decided to write one myself. This is basically the dismal failure of a story that I came out with. Please review and tell me what you think =D
This is my RETELLING of the events that led to Halt leaving Hibernia, and his life when he first gets to Araluen. So yeah, it's AU. Mostly.
Disclaimer: No, I don't own ranger's apprentice, it belongs to John Flanagan. *insert legal stuff here*.
Prologue
MY PoV
Halt hated his life.
Well, not completely, as he loved his little sister, Caitlyn. He was the one who supposedly had everything a man could want, but didn't want it. All he wanted was peace and quiet, and a life of solitude and freedom. They were among the few things he didn't have.
He was the crown prince and heir to the throne of Clonmel, one of the six kingdoms of Hibernia. He never wanted to be a king. However, his ungrateful brother did, adored by every except for the only people who saw his true self, his siblings.
His brother, Ferris.
Ferris had wanted the throne for his whole life, but his brother, TWIN brother, no less, would get that. In his eyes, Halt was to blame. Halt was to blame for being born seven minutes earlier than he, Ferris, was.
Both twins resented those seven minutes.
The only thing that stopped Halt from abdicating was that he thought, and was usually correct on matters such as these, that Ferris would make a bad ruler, and put the kingdom in an even worse state than it already was.
What's more, everyone looked at Halt as some sort of sociopath, simply because he didn't do public speaking, and kept himself to himself, barely uttering a word out of place. He was the crown prince, yet he spent more time outside hunting or relaxing in solitude than inside doing royal duties.
Yet, everyone looked at Ferris as some sort of angel, but they couldn't see his true self. Halt was one of the few who saw the true workings of his mind - If there was something Ferris wanted, Ferris would get it. There was always somebody else to blame if something went wrong for Ferris, or if Ferris didn't have his way. He would do anything to get what he wanted, even eliminate anyone who stood in his way.
And Ferris hated Halt with a passion, although he hadn't done anything about it. Not yet, anyway. But Halt could tell it was only a matter of a couple of years. They were 15 then, and Ferris would surely snap soon enough.
Being the crown prince, Halt had more lessons than Caitlyn or Ferris, one of which he chose. He did one study of a foreign country, which changed every 3 years. He got to choose which country. So far he had learnt about Gallica, Toscano and Nihon-Ja. He had just finished learning about Nihon-Ja, and so far he liked that the best. He had opted to learn about Araluen next.
It seemed like a boring choice, which is why he didn't pick it at first. He would soon find out that that was not the case. However, he opted to do it now, because Araluen was the closest country to Hibernia. And being the future king, he had to know about the country he would most often be in legal relations with.
He had opted to do it for the next three years as he could tell that his father wasn't too far from death, so Halt would be taking the throne within the next 5 years, most likely. He would need all the knowledge he could get.
If he kept his decision to not abdicate to Ferris, he would try to form treaties with as many countries as possible. He didn't enjoy war. He thought it a pointless waste of life. Unlike Ferris. Which was yet another reason why Halt didn't see it as a good idea to abdicate to Ferris.
He was already fluent in old Hibernian, although most Hibernian kingdoms spoke either Araluen or the common tongue, both of which Halt was also fluent in. He knew some Gallican and Toscan, and even a little Nihon-Jan. Skandians also mainly used the common tongue. Halt didn't really like learning languages, he saw it pointless, seeing as how most people grew up learning both their native language and the common tongue.
This epic tale of Halt's past starts one morning when he is 15, the morning of the day when he was due to start learning about Araluen Culture. Little did he know that it would change the course of his life forever...
Don't forget to firstly review, then make sure you read on when a new chapter comes out, and review that too! Come on, everybody review! You don't even have to have an account, just click the link below that says 'review this chapter'!
And to people who read my other R.A. story 'The Legend Of Raven', don't worry, it is not discontinued, I just have an EXTREMELY bad case of writer's block, and I don't really want to clog up my story with MORE author's notes. However, I will if I have to.