Ranger's Apprentice
When they say that being yelled at by your parents is being in damn trouble, I digress. I don't have parents though I guess if you drastically categorized a father as a strict and gruff man that reprimands your every move and punishes you by making you sleep in a tree, you get Halt. Now, I understand how parents can be if Halt is any similarity, though I still believe that being yelled at is a par down from the trouble I am in right about...now.
"Your coming with us boy," voiced a man gruffly, "any little "mistake" on your part will cost you a limb or in your case a couple of fingers."
This statement caused me to grimace. The man was taunting me by threatening to cut off my bow pulling fingers. Bastards. Scowling at the men, I complied and had my thumbs bound with leather thumb-cuffs. Then, as a very important after thought, I remembered something that Halt said to me this morning, "Going off to town for a while. I'll be back by the time the shadows touch the cottage." This may not seem quite important to most people but the whole point in recalling this was to glance to my left.
The shadows of the setting sun were just about to reach the cottage.
"Gorlog's beard," I muttered and then thought," so damn close. Well, I do believe some type of diversion for called for."
As they tied me to their horse, I struggled and true to effort, fell to the ground.
From the ground, I looked up to see the scowling faces of my assailants looming hauntingly above me. I took a moment to scan the group of five rather large men and finally found the leader. He held himself with more arrogance and authority than the others and he had the largest sword around. It was time to throttle my plan into action.
"Hey!" I shouted at the leader, judging by your less than average looks, your mother was probably an ugly Skandian woman whose only suitor was a horse."
The man scowled when he realized what I was implying but he kept calm while the rest of his band seethed looking ready to see blood. That was probably the reason he was the leader, the only calm one in the group.
"Well, you will be gasping and groaning out your jests after what we have planned," scowled the leader.
Wearing a mask of surprise, I replied,"oh, you guys are actually smart enough to formulate a plan. I guess looking stupid and being stupid are two different things."
"Thanks," a subordinate bandit started saying, "wait a second. You're insulting me!"
"Not the brightest mind," I thought shaking my head.
Then the leader turned to his crew sneering, "now is not the time to be blubbering around. We have captured the Ranger Halt, an accomplishment indeed."
"Let's play along," I thought and then replied, "my apprentice is nowhere to be seen. I wonder if Will is hoarding the coffee again."
The bandits looked frightened but the leader was trying hard and successfully reassuring them.
"If we were able to capture a fully fledged ranger, how hard will an apprentice be?" he declared.
The men all nodded their heads and smirked.
That was the last expression they portrayed in their lives as black shafted arrows consecutively pierced the heart of the four followers.
The leader bewildered by the flawless accuracy of the attacking archer (and the dead bodies of his comrades' on the ground) tried to run from the scene but Halt materialized from the forest in which he was running to.
"I was told that an arrow in the left calf hurts like hell," Halt said matter-of-factly at the man while aiming a notched arrow at the said area.
The leader was stunned at the turn from triumph to failure, so he did the most obvious action of a condemned man.
He tried to get out if the situation.
"My lord," he started, "I..."
"I have grown quite fond of flattery haven't I, Will," he said looking at me with an eye brow raised then at the once assailant," no more of this "my lord," or "my liege." You will receive your due punishment.
Then as an afterthought," let's start now, "he smiled a smile that didn't reach his eyes.
He released the arrow, letting it lodge itself into the man's calf and producing a scream that I was sure could be heard throughout Redmont Fief.
After a rather long while, the criminal finally ended his scream for his mother and laid there on the ground whimpering while cradling his leg.
Halt was appearing quite impatient at the moment and finally he had to break the silence due to the lack of intelligible phrases and words coming from the injured captive's mouth.
"Now, I believe that there is an important bit of information missing from my calculations," Halt said bluntly while waiting a second for a response that never came," and I have decided that you have that information."
"I will tell you nothing," stated the criminal weakly, "you are not part of our plans."
"Well," continued Halt rather promptly," you made a mistake in bringing my apprentice and me into it."
He then stepped forward, grasped the arrow protruding out of the man's calf, and pulled the arrow out. Stating that it was pulled out was an understatement.
Halt ripped the arrow out.
As the man withered in pain yet again, Halt continued on with his "interrogation," though blatantly speaking it was one-sided, completely the opposite the definition of the word "interrogation."
"Please, my lor...," the criminal began and gasped because of his mistake and his obvious source of pain," please stop."
"Are you ready to speak?" inquired Halt who was accompanied by a raised eyebrow.
I could tell that the man was going to break soon but Halt sped up the process by shooting his other leg.
The man as before uttered his cries that I was no long surprised to hear.
"Halt," I asked, "do you think that's enough."
"Yes," Halt replied," I do think so, though you shouldn't. You're an apprentice and you're not supposed to think."
"I've could have said the same thing, "said a voice from behind me.
Slightly surprised by the voice, I threw my saxe knife at the general area without looking back.
As the knife left my hand, I spun around in my heel to see the knife spinning towards G.