What! You think I should be working on my other stories? Yeah, you're probably right. No, wait, you ARE right. Well, then sorry, I'm in one of those kind of ruts. I know pretty much what I am going to write for my other two stories, but I can't get myself motivated to write them. There's nothing worse then trying to write something when you just don't want to, because (for me) it then turns into a jumble of slop. Word slop. Ick.
So, I wrote this in hopes of getting me into my other stories. This one was fun, I thought it was a cute idea, Halt's name is pretty odd, and I was inspired to do this after searching up on the 10th Ranger's Apprentice book (It needs to come out in the US, RIGHT NOW!) and found a interview that had been written down and someone asked why he gave Halt the name Halt. So inspiration had then struck! He didn't really know how he came up with the name Halt, and so I made a reason why ANYONE would come up with that name when giving their child a name.
Alright then, Please Read, Enjoy it, and maybe even review it! :)
The sun slowly rose, splattering a jumble of colors through the tight knit forest, spraying the ground with warm summer rays. Halt sat comfortably on the veranda of his small cottage in the woods next to the Castle of Redmount.
"Will, are you up?" He called loudly to his apprentice, "Don't make me wake you up!"
He heard a muffled reply from inside the house and crash as Will knocked something down. A small smiled crossed his face, even after four years with Halt, Will was still a disaster on a normal morning. When on the road he was up at the crack of dawn, but when they were protected and cozy in the peaceful cottage, he sure was a handful.
It was easy to tell that Will scrambled to put things back where they had been before knocking them, and then gathering up the dishes and opened the door without his hands easily.
"Sorry Halt, I'll just head down to the river to wash the dishes then," his sleepy eyed apprentice babbled on, he was talking so fast. Somehow he managed to push the door back shut with his feet and still hold on to all the dishes, which were balanced perfectly in his arms.
Once the boy was out of sight Halt shook his head ruefully, he just couldn't understand how he could be so graceful at one thing, but clumsy at another.
The rest of the day went on as it usually did, the sun came up to the top of the sky and starting to sink back down, while Halt worked his apprentice in his chores and training. It was when the sun was already starting to fall back below the horizon when Will struck the question.
He was finishing up the last of the chores and that including sweeping up the veranda, Halt was back in his chair with a pile of reports and his ever constant cup of coffee.
"Halt," Will suddenly asked out of the blue, "Can I ask- er, I mean..."
The fully fledged ranger looked up from his paperwork, an eyebrow raised. That was another thing Will had seemed never to get out of the habit of, asking a question before he even asks the question he wanted to.
"I was just wonder," he continued while he kept sweeping, "Well, why is your name Halt?"
That struck a blow at the ranger, such an off question, but he easily covered his surprise.
"What? Don't you like my name?"
"No, it's not that Halt!" His apprentice replied hastily, "I was just wondering why your mother gave you the name Halt, I mean, it is an uncommon name."
Halt stared at his apprentice for a minute, no one had ever asked why he was named Halt; they often questioned the name, but never asked for a reason. Not even Gilan had asked, despite the boys overflowing curiosity and energetic personality. He sighed; no one really beat Will when it came to curiosity.
His mind dived into the memory of when he had questioned his name himself.
"All you do is mope around and do nothing all day! You don't even like people!" Ferris yelled at his identical, silent twin.
Halt didn't make any attempt to reply, but rose his eyebrow in a gesture he had adopted over the last couple weeks. Ferris, he knew, found it ridiculous and somehow irritating, but that of course didn't stop him.
With that, Ferris continued, "You're just not right! There's something wrong with you! You're dark, gloomy, and grumpy; you never talk to anyone, and...and," Ferris was running out of insults and he paused to try and think of another, "And, your name's weird."
Halt was a little taken back, that was something he had never heard before, and he turned swiftly and started walking back down the hallway.
"At least I don't blurt out mindless comments that don't require any thought." His voice was quiet but echoed through the empty hallway. You could practically see the steam rolling off of Ferris in waves; who then stomped his foot and ran back down the hall in the other direction.
A small smirk crossed Halt's face as he leaned against the wall in the next hallway over, Ferris had been like this ever sense this year when they had turned seven and their fights were slowly getting worse and worse. Ferris found that it was easier to blame Halt for everything that went wrong. Luckily for Halt he often got the last word; Ferris wasn't the smartest person in the castle, he mused.
Despite how carelessly he had replied to Ferris's stark remarks, what his twin brother had said shook him slightly, was his name really that weird? Ferris said some pretty unintelligent things, he knew, but maybe there was something to this one.
"Halt," he whispered to himself, it wasn't really a name was it? He had heard the guards at the castle telling people to halt.
He sighed, this may be one of the times he had truly felt insecure, something that Ferris might actually have been right about.
"That's a first," the prince muttered, "I really shouldn't listen to that moron." He turned to head back the way he had came, back to his bedroom, but something stopped him. An imaginary force seemed to try and stop his advance down his hallway; of course it was really all in his head.
So, instead he turned in the other direction, turning corners and going up stairs without trouble, he had lived here all his life after all; it would be unlikely that he couldn't find his way around. The prince stopped at a large wooden door, there was an intricate design of flowers and vines carved into the hard wood. The door was cracked and he quietly pushed it open enough so he could peak his head through the door.
Sitting at a desk set against the far wall was his mother. She had long, silky, black hair that reached down to the middle of her back. Her attire was a beautiful light purple dress, only fit for someone from the royal family. The graceful queen sat with a straight back and she was quietly reading some sort of book.
She looks like she's in a good mood, Halt thought, If I'm going to ask her now would be the best time, it doesn't seem like she's had a fight with father today.
He gathered his thoughts then pushed the door open all the way and strolled in.
"Uh, Mother," he said politely once he got into the room fully.
"Oh! Halt, you scared me, dear. You're always just so quiet."
"I'm sorry," he apologized, even though there was really no reason too.
"Well, was there something that you wanted?"
"I was just wondering," he started asking as his gaze traveled around the room, "Why did you name me Halt?"
His mother stiffened and seemed slightly angry, "What makes you ask me that? Did someone say something rude to you about it? We can get them out of the castle for such words!"
"No, no," Halt tried to calm her down, he would have loved to say Ferris had said it, but he knew Ferris was one of the things in life that kept his parents from fighting, keeping them happy. So he decided to let it slide, like the thousands of other things he ceased blaming Ferris for.
"I was just sort of wonder," his voice quiet as he tried to hide his nervousness, then added for good measure, "You gave me that name for a reason, right? For instance Ferris was named after your dead cousin, wasn't he?"
Queen Andrina was pulled out of her anger and shot her elder son a warm, but fake, smile. Halt had a feeling that she knew he was lying about no one saying anything, but she didn't push her feeling and let her son decide for himself.
"Alright, if you really want to know, take a seat." Her hand waved gracefully towards a fancy wooden chair, upholstered with red silk. On command, Halt took a seat and waited patiently while she pushed papers into neat piles and books back on the shelves.
"We were surprised when we found out you and your brother were twins, if it not should have been obvious. Ferris was the name I had originally planned for my son, but when there turned out to be two of you, I decided Ferris would do for your brother's name." She let out a long sigh, and stared off into the distance as if watching it play back to her; where no one else could see.
"I wanted something different for you, something uncommon, you were and are, going to be the king after all, why would I want some common name like George?" A genuine smile crossed his mother's face and he stared intently, absorbing the information.
When she didn't continue, he asked, "Well then how did you come up with Halt?"
"Right after children are born they cry, sometimes for a very long time, others very short, when you were born you stopped crying almost immediately, as if someone had screamed 'halt'. I was quite proud of the name…"
Halt frowned slightly, his eyebrows drawn together, he didn't know if he should be proud of the name, or something else.
Suddenly, the door blow open and there stood the king. He was dressed in rich red and gold clothing and the leather crown of Clomnel was fitted perfectly in his slick black hair that was starting to show signs of gray. He had a small mustache that was perched just above his lip. He had an enraged expression smothered over his features, Halt could even tell in the way he walked, very slightly stepping harder and heavier as he walked.
"Andrina, I need to talk to you," He said somewhat coldly, his eyes holding an icy flame in them.
By this age Halt knew better than to stick around, he quickly thanked his mother, who now had a stony look on her face, and nodded his head to his father before slipping out of the room. As he walked down the long empty hallways, the angry shouts and harsh words of his parents smashed into his ear drums and echoed around the ceiling.
He couldn't help but grimace, but to think he was able to learn something today.
"Halt," He said out loud, but this time was different then the last. This time he said it with some pride behind it.
Back in reality, Halt realized how much that story gave him some happiness, his life back then surely hadn't been ideal. That story brought back a warm and happy memory of those times; his name was one thing that reminded him of the happy times of his youth in Clomnel.
Alright, not my best, not my worst...kind of in the middle.
Ummm, I didn't really know what his father and mother were named (if they even mention it) and I guessed at what they looked like.
I think the age I put for this is a little off still , but it use to be 13, which was WAY out there, and I knew it, but I still wanted the reason that he questioned it to be because of a fight with Ferris, and I doubt they fought that much when they were really little. So I tried to meet in the middle the best I could, and so now it is 7...
I might be making a few different changes as people comment, I always like listening to your comments, and so I might add a little more to the end where I go back to Will and Halk talking, but I haven't decided yet. Yeah, so...
So I'll be getting to other stories as soon as possible. We have about a foot or so of snow on the ground here in Michigan where I live, and it is really starting to get on my nerves. I don't live within walking distance of any hills, so sledding is a no go for me. So I'll probably be typing. Unless, of course, I go snowboarding. The town I live in has a nice sized skiing/snowboarding hill and I live in a small town, so it's easy to get there.
Haha, I love that place, just because of the fact that it was build on top of dump, seriously, so there's some crap sticking out of the ground. It's still really nice though. Go figure. Such an interesting place I live. :D
Yeah, so I hope you liked my story and then my little personal ramble at the end!
THANKS FOR READING!