Chapter 1

"Sir! Sir!" The page yelled waking Halt from his peaceful sleep.

"You better have a good reason for coming all the way from the castle to do this," Halt growled as he opened his cabin door. Halt scowled; on a normal occasion Halt's scowl was enough to scare even the bravest of people.

"Sir!" The page yelled once again seemingly undaunted by Halt reputation and mood."There is an important message from ranger commandant Fredrick. He wants you to meet him at the gathering grounds with ranger Crowley as soon as possible.

Halt sighed, "What mission could Fredrick want the two most junior rangers to do," He wondered to himself, "no doubt something boring." For the millionth time Halt thought about what his life could have been if it weren't for his brother. "Stop." He told himself, "Forget about your other life this is your life now. You know Ferris would never let you be king.

Halt gathered up some supplies and saddled Abelard. It was a 4 day ride to the ranger gathering ground. Halt spurred his horse forward ready to find out what his next mission was.

"I hope it doesn't involve crossing the sea Halt whispered to Abelard," he had started talking to his horse midway through the trip. So far the horse was the only one to know about his dreadful seasickness. Abelard nickered sounding very similar to a laugh. "That would also mean I would have to leave you behind," Halt said hoping to get the last word with his horse. For some reason the horse seemed to like this idea very much. "You know why I even talk to you is a mystery," Halt replied.

Halt rode into the gathering grounds scanning the road for signs of Crowley or Fredrick. His keen eyes caught movement up in the tree. "Come down here Crowley," Halt called, slowing his horse to a stop. Crowley dropped to the ground without making a sound, he was considered exceptional at unseen movement even by ranger standers. Yet, he never could sneak past Halt. "I thought you would have stopped this when we graduated," he grumbled in mock annoyance.

"You never liked this game," Crowley called cheerfully as he called his horse over.

"Only because I always won," Halt replied dryly. Not for the first time Halt realized how much he had missed Crowley when he was sent to Redmont fief. Happy to be back in each other's company, the two best friends rode into the gathering grounds chatting about what there assignment could be. Ranger corps commandant Fredrick stood in the center of the clearing. Both of the rangers greeted him and began to unpack.

"Quickly, quickly!" Fredrick hurried them along. The distress was obvious in his voice.

Once they were camped and had dinner ready Fredrick started his speech.

"We have a problem in Celtica," Fredrick began his speech. "There have been garbled reports of a Basilisk there."

Crowley gasped. "I thought they went extinct years ago," he said gravely. The basilisk was a huge snake with a venomous bite and eyes that would melt your will and turn you into a babbling slave.

"Yes I heard that too," Halt added still as taciturn as ever as he waited for Fredrick to continue.

"They have been for some years now. The ranger corps was even responsible for some of it. However, A few weeks back the Celtics mined up what they thought was a massive pearl. They brought it out and sold it. A few days later it hatched. Now a basilisk is lose in Celtica and it's just a matter of time before it comes to Araluen. The basilisk's eyes are said to have the power to bend the weak minded to its will and its bite is the most poisonous of all snakes. We already sent two Rangers over there and neither has come back yet."

"And I suppose you want us to go over there and check it out," Halt said unfazed by the turn of events. Crowley on the other hand, was terrified. He was fidgeting with his hands, looking around nervously and, the expression on his face was comical. "Crowley I think your hand is trying to escape there," Halt said sarcastically. Crowley stopped fidgeting but was still scared out of his wits.

"Check it out find out where it is hiding and report back so we can take an armed force and clean it out."

"If I may," Crowley interrupted when he had finally regained his wits. The larger the force the more likely it will be able to bend one to its will. Then, we will have to fight men and the snake. Crowley had always been good at finding the easiest solutions to a problem.

If you think you can kill than you may try but don't get enslaved for I don't think the men would be able to kill a ranger if it came to it.

"That's the reason he doesn't want us to get captured we might be hard to kill," Halt said dryly under his breath to Crowley. "What a good commandant." Crowley chuckled the reputation of Fredrick was a joke to other rangers. He had only got the position because of his father Baron Sharman back when the rangers had been weak ceremonial positions.

"You know Crowley," Halt said while away from the camp fire, "I think you might make a good ranger corps commandant. The way you can up with solution and explained it was quite impressive."

"I would never," replied Crowley, "too much paper work."

The three rangers finished dinner together than Fredrick retreated to his tent while Crowley and Halt stayed to pack supplies for their trip the next day.

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