This is my first one-shot. These will be one-shots that involve Gil and can be read with the Gilan's Story series and some stories are hinted at in my react stories like this one. While these will be uploaded very randomly I hope to have one up on the 31st of October as a Halloween special, and I hope to have another one up before then as well but who knows.

I do not own Ranger's Apprentice

A Little too Cheerful Gilan

Ten year old Gilan Davidson was practicing his sword work with some of the other children of the nobles. Each boy had a post and was whacking away under the watchful eye of Sir Morton. Morton was one of the Battleschool instructors at Caraway and he was a very scary looking guy. Morton had broad shoulders and a loud booming voice. The other boys were terrified of him but not Gilan.

Gilan wasn't afraid of a lot of people and he not being afraid of Morton was kind of a problem. It was ideal for all the cadets to be afraid of the instructors that way they could put lots of stress on the cadets. As usually Gilan had a big grin on his face as he worked. It was rare for Gilan to not be smiling. He was sweating and should have been worn out under the hot sun, considering they had been drilling for almost three hours. Gilan enjoyed being outside though and couldn't help himself.

Unfortunately, for Gilan, he was the son of the Battlemaster and as such was always getting unwanted attention. Morton, who had been shouting for the last thirty minutes at several cadets who he believed to be slacking off, had noticed Gilan smiling as he practiced. Furious that Gilan was smiling when quiet obviously should not be smiling Morton headed over towards Gilan, who like the rest of the platoon was standing at rest when Morton had gone quiet.

"DAVIDSON!" he shouted. Gilan tried not to groan. The cadets next to Gilan winched a little.

"Sir!" Gilan shouted back.

"Why are you smiling Davidson…are you enjoying this!?" Morton asked. Gilan was by no means stupid and decided it was not a very good idea to say he was in fact enjoying the fresh air.

"I am not sir," Gilan said softly.

"CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Morton shouted. Gilan really wished the man would take it down a notch.

"I said no sir!" Gilan said much louder this time.

"Then why were you smiling cadet!" Morton shouted. Gilan could not help the next remark that left his mouth. He tried, he really did, to keep it from coming out.

"I do believe you should lighten up sir," Gilan called back. Several cadets sniggered and Gilan covered his mouth as he realized that it just came out. Morton looked taken back. He really had not expected that to come out of Gilan's mouth. He recovered with catlike speed however.

"You think I should lighten up do you Davidson? Do you realize that this is a serious assignment, you should not be smiling on my time! To make sure that lesson sinks in you can drop and give me fifty in that puddle over there," Morton shouted at Gilan then addressing the other cadets he said, "Dismissed!"

More than a little aggravated Gilan headed over to the mud puddle Sir Morton had pointed out and dropped in push-up position. Morton yelled at him the entire time but Gil was more worried about his chain-mail soaking up the water, which it seemed to be doing every time he lowered himself. Gilan bit his lip to keep anymore unpleasant remarks from leaving his mouth.

"Now you are dismissed," Morton said when Gil had finished.

"Thank you sir!" Gilan said. Morton didn't reply but simple walked off to join his comrades. Gilan headed back up towards his home feeling more than a little put-out. Gilan couldn't see himself ever not smiling and he wondered what Morton would do if he showed up tomorrow smiling again, but Gilan couldn't help himself he was a very cheerful person.

Gilan lived with his mother and father in one of the apartments in Caraway Castle. His father was the Battlemaster of the fief and as such had his own apartment in the castle; of course it was on the far side of the castle so it overlooked the Battleschool. When Gilan slipped into the apartment he spotted his mother in the kitchen. While she didn't cook all the time she usually tried to have some sort of treat available for Gilan after his lessons. She looked up as Gilan came in and nearly dropped her plate of peanut-butter cookies.

"Gilan! What happened?" she asked.

"Evidently my instructors don't like my cheerful nature," Gilan replied. His mother placed the cookies on the table and looked over Gilan carefully. Gilan had no idea why his mother was so protective of him but she was. She could always tell when he was upset or happy. Gilan suspected it was a mother thing but his mom was really good at it. After a long pause she finally said:

"Well honey being a knight is very serious and you need to take it seriously."

"I do mom, it's just I didn't know it was forbidden to smile every once in a while," Gilan complained.

"Well go clean up and then you can have something to eat," his mother replied. Gilan nodded and headed up to his room. He showered, cleaned his chain-mail and changed then headed down the stairs. He was about to snatch a cookie of the table when he nearly ran into his father.

"Oh, hi dad," he said hiding the cookie. It wasn't that he wasn't allowed to eat good it was just he was supposed to be in training. Even with the brief reprieve he had to shower while other cadets had to get their dorms up to spec. Gilan was the only one that was able to go home during the break and he wasn't supposed to be eating, particularly not something as good as peanut-butter cookies.

"Gilan, I heard from Sir Morton," his father said. Before he could stop himself Gilan blurted out:

"Dad I can explain"

The knight raised an eyebrow. Gilan mentally kicked himself that was a great way of saying he was guilty of something.

"Well start explaining Gil, seeing how you already know what I am referring too," David said.

"Well…I was smiling in the middle of our lesson and he told me to quiet smiling and then I told him to lighten up….and then I had to do 50," Gilan said. David sighed.

"Gil you aren't supposed to be doing that. When you are in formation you shouldn't be smiling," David said sternly.

"I know dad…I can't help it," Gilan said, dropping his eyes from his father.

"You will need to work on it Gil for now you should probably be headed out for marching," David said.

"Yes sir! Sorry sir," Gilan said and slipped out of the room stuffing the cookie in his mouth as he went. David watched him go then turned to his wife.

"He gets it from you," he said. His mother, Katie, smiled at her husband.

"I know dear," she said.

David left the room to watch Gilan.

Gilan was out marching with some second years in the Battleschool. As usually, when he was marching, Gilan's mind began to wonder and he wasn't paying much attention to what was going on. During this time he saw a first year try and mount his Battlehorse. Every time the boy tried to mount the horse would move sideways or backup so that the knight had a hard time mounting. It was comical really.

Gilan was trying to hold back his laughter (getting in trouble twice in one day for pretty much the same thing wasn't a good idea) but was unsuccessful. Fortunately for Gilan the instructor couldn't see Gil from the angle he was at and the rest of the cadets were making far more racket. The only person to see was his father.

He sighed as he saw Gil's shoulders shake with suppressed laughter.

I give up, he thought.

Here is the first one-shot. I could see this being a problem while Gil is training I really could. I think we could all take a lesson from Gil. Please review and enjoy! Any particular thing you want to see let me know and I will work on it.