DISCLAIMER!I do not own Ranger's Apprentice or any of the characters in the stories. They all belong to John Flanagan.
"Hear it? Halt asked. Will craned his neck but didn't appear to hear anything out of the ordinary. "Change gait on three. One, two, three! They both nudged their left toes into the horse's shoulders. It was just one of the many signals to which Abelard and Tug were trained to respond to. Both horses immediately paused in their stride before continuing their even gait. The slight pause however, had changed the pattern of their hoof beats for a moment. Halt could hear another set of of horse's hooves behind them, like a slightly delayed echo. The other horse then changed gait as well and the sound was lost. "Ranger horse." Halt said quietly. "It will be Gilan for sure." Will turned to look at him curiously. "How can you tell?" he asked. Halt sighed inwardly before answering. Only a Ranger's horse could change his pace so quickly and it will be Gilan because it is always Gilan. He lovestrying to catch me out." "why asked Will. Halt turned in the saddle and looked sternly at his apprentice. "Because he was my last apprentice and for some reason former apprentices just love to catch their former mentors by surprise." Will opened his mouth as if he was going to say something but evidently thought better of it. Halt signaled for silence and scanned the trail ahead. He pointed at a fairly large tree a little ways up the trail. "That's the spot there," he said. "Ready?" Will nodded and stood up in the saddle reaching for a branch. As he climbed up and Tug continued along the trail until he was out of sight, Halt stopped and swung down from he knelt while pretending to look for tracks, Halt almost smiled at the thought of how crestfallen Gilan was going to be. The look on his face when his attempt to surprise Halt failed would be priceless!