Disclaimer: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters. All rights to John Flanagan.
Title: (Needs a Title! Please include suggestions in your reviews)
Rating: T for violence and angst. That's pretty much it, I think.
Characters: Will Treaty and Halt O'Carrick (mainly) but most likely with a good dose of Horace, Alyss, and Gilan.
Summary: When trouble seems to come at his former apprentice from every side, Halt decides to find out who is responsible. But his investigation may prove to be disastrous, and Halt and Will once again realize that, while there is good in all people, that good is almost nonexistent in certain of them.
WARNINGS: Violence and angst. Maybe torture. I'm not sure yet; don't have the plot all figured out. Like all of my stories, this contains NO SEX, SLASH, OR PROFANITY.
***Author's note***: This is my first Ranger's Apprentice Angst/Action fic. I hope that you like it, and that I can keep the characters in Canon.
I wrote this for myself at first, not planning to upload it on , but when I started Chapter Two, I decided I wanted other peoples' opinions on it. So, here it is. Please, please, help me with a title.
SPOILER WARNING: This Chapter contains spoilers for Book 9. Don't read if you don't like. Nothing too bad, you might not even catch it. I just wanted to warn you.
Chapter OneThe small green and grey cloaked figure on the shaggy, barrel-shaped grey horse, at first glance, did not seem like a threat.
He was utterly and completely relaxed, leaning back in the saddle, trotting easily along the road. Not to mention his small size.
It was only when you looked closer that you could see that he could be quite dangerous. Across his knees lay a massive longbow, strung, and seemingly ready for use. Slung over his back was a quiver stocked full of two dozen black-shafted arrows, fletched with grey.
Had it been possible to delve even more deeply, beneath the shadows of the cowl of his cloak, it was clear that the young man was anything but relaxed. His eyes darted around restlessly; left to right, sometimes looking close, sometimes looking far off. Nothing, not the slightest stir in the leaves of the surrounding woods, escaped his notice.
Will Treaty, King's Ranger, knew that danger often lurked along this road; hemmed in on either side by the dense wood that it cleaved in two, it provided a perfect ambush site.
But any bandits would have been fools to attempt to ambush a Ranger. For one, even if Will didn't see them, his horse would have noticed them long before he could have. Tug, like all Ranger horses, was trained to give his rider a warning should he sense anything wrong.
Yet another precaution was in the form of the black and white Border Shepherd that trotted at Tug's heels. Will had trained Ebony well, and there were few things as sure as a dog's nose.
But, as it was, the ride continued onward without the need for it. When at last Will and his small party reached the end of the wood, he squinted in the sunlight. Practically the whole stretch of path had been a massive canebrake, the boughs of the trees hanging low over the path, in some places blocking out the sun completely. Will was not one to complain about passing through it without incident.
As a matter of fact, the young Ranger's life had been fairly easy since the incident in Nihon-Ja two years ago, albeit a bit boring. For Will, who was used to constant excitement and danger, relaxing back into a normal routine could be a bit of a trial at times.
But that routine had been broken when, two months ago, a series of robberies in a fief adjoining his had broken out. The fief's Ranger had been busy with other matters, and Will had been chosen to investigate.
It had turned out to be a bit of a problem even for a Ranger of Will's experience. The bandits who performed the robberies were cunning and ruthless; leaving no one alive to witness to their acts should they have been seen. And they themselves had holed up all over the fief, only coming together at the time of their next strike.
Yet, in three weeks, Will had managed to get the problem sorted out, and the bandits now resided in the dungeons of Castle Meric.
Now, he was returning to Redmont, not unhappy to be going back to the cabin he shared with his former mentor, Halt, in the woods outside of Wensley.
He smiled slightly at the thought. Halt could be a bit gruff at times, but Will had formed an extremely close bond with the older Ranger, more like father and son than mentor and apprentice.
Besides, once he'd gotten to know him, he'd discovered that Halt wasn't as harsh and coldhearted as he'd thought. The older Ranger had a soft side to him; though he loathed admitting it.
Tug's pace quickened, as if the little horse had read Will's mind. He broke into an easy canter as Will tightened his legs around his girth just the slightest bit.
Ebony began running, keeping up with the horse easily. Both she and Tug knew what the familiar sights meant.
They were almost there. Almost home. Less than an hour of riding left and they would see the familiar sight of Castle Redmont rising up in the distance.
Thoughts of home had caused Will's thoughts to wander a little, but he was jerked back to the present as he heard Tug's warning snort.
The horse shook his head, prancing a bit.
Will placed a hand on his neck to quiet him.
"Easy, boy," he said, in a low, soothing voice, relaxing in the saddle.
Once more his eyes darted around under his hood. But he saw nothing. No hint of movement in the trees. Except...
He stopped searching when he saw it; a thin wisp of smoke rising above the landscape.
Normally, the sight would have alarmed Will little, but now, what with Tug's warning, Ebony's uneasiness, and the fact that this area was little travelled and the woods were overgrown and unfriendly to travelers, he wasn't quite at ease.
He contemplated investigating for a moment, and then decided that it would be worth it. It could be nothing, but it could be something that he would like to know.
Silently, he dismounted Tug, his longbow ready for use.
He moved soundlessly into the woods, instinctively placing his feet so that he did not so much as snap a single twig beneath them.
Sure enough, he came to the edge of a small clearing. In the center of it were the blackened remains of a campfire, and he could clearly see where a camp had been set up.
But, now, everything had been taken.
Will stepped up to the very edge of the clearing, leaning with his back against a tree, looking around for any sign that anyone was still here.
It could just have been a simple traveler's campsite. True, the area was not often travelled, but at times it was, as was any road.
But the fact that the campsite was less than an hour's travel from Wensley was confusing. Had it been a simple traveler, they most likely would have pressed on until they reached the village, unless they did not know how close they were... or they didn't wish to be found in civilization.
Once Will was sure that no one was waiting around, he stepped cautiously into the clearing.
From the looks of the fire, it had begun to rain. Obviously, if the campers were trying to hide the fire, they were inexperienced. Now the blaze had gone out, but the smoldering embers still sent up a bit of smoke, the smoke that had led Will to the site.
He nudged the embers with a stick, and then looked around.
They'd cleaned up the site well. At first glance, he could see very few things out of place. The only things that were left were the campfire and the small holes in the ground from tent pegs.
Even Will was impressed by the care they'd taken. The majority of average people would not have bothered to tidy up their campsites as well as these had. Even the footprints and, most likely, hoof prints of the campers and their horses had been washed away by the rain.
But this just confused him more. Why would they take such care if they were ordinary travelers?
Will scanned the area once more before deciding that there was nothing more to be seen or found there. He would tell Halt about it, ask the older Ranger what he thought. Then together they would decide if it was a possible threat and what they should do about it.
Will could handle such decisions on his own; he'd been trained to, after all, but it helped to have someone else saying that his thoughts were good ones. Or pointing out flaws in his plans.
He grinned to himself as he thought that. That was what Halt was there for, after all.
Will backed away from the clearing, back to the road where he'd left Tug and Ebony.
He had nearly reached them when something caught his eye; something out of place in the wood.
Will looked again to make sure he'd truly seen something, and saw it again. A brief spot of purple.
He made to investigate, moving over to where he saw it, and finding it. A shred of purple cloth caught on a briar.
He fingered it, pulling it from the thorn, examining it closely.
The color brought back unpleasant memories of the Genovesan assassins who had nearly killed Halt.
Will shook the thought from his mind and pocketed the shred, then gave two short whistles.
Tug came trotting out from behind the bush where he was hidden, Ebony on his heels.
Will mounted up, laying the longbow across his lap, tightening his legs around Tug's girth slightly.
The horse broke into his easy trot again. And Will settled back to his natural watching.
It was as if the odd campfire had never happened. He could have forgotten about it had there not been a nagging sensation in the back of his mind that something just wasn't right about it.
Will shrugged the feeling even further back. Whatever it was, he'd know it when he saw it. For now, he was simply looking forward to getting home.
0o0o0o0
To Be Continued...
A/N: Okay, so, how was that. We'll see Halt in the next chapter, which is already in progress. I know it wasn't very exciting, but, then again, first chapters never are.
Fare thee well, I say!
~Ranger Turien