Chapter one

You followed him? A Ranger? You followed a Ranger into the forest?"

I watched as he left the apartment, seeing as I couldn't do anything to stop it. But of course, I didn't want to either. I'd have to wait till he was out and sneak past my dad. He was cooking anyway, so I didn't think he'd actually see me going. (Hah, can you imagine that, the mighty Sir David cooking? In the kitchen?)

Inching slowly forward, I made my way outside, the door closing with the slightest click. I straightened, sensing it would look more proper if someone did see me, for me to look as though I was walking to the training fields. I suppose it should have occurred to me that, without my sword, and carrying no visible weapons, there wasn't really a reason I would be walking to the fields. But it didn't, and so I walked on.

Just before I rounded the turn to the field, I switched directions and ran. I doubted anyone would see the quick motion, or really care before I was gone. Besides, I had decided that I would stop as soon as I reached the forest's edge. I realized this was mad, I really did, but I let it happen anyway.

I walked slowly, trying to follow the tracks Halt's horse had left. They disappeared often, but I probably should have realized that was seriously low by Halt's standards. How would anyone not overtake him, if a mere boy could locate trough his tracks in a forest. I sped up, trying to dodge roots raised high and branches hanging low. Though leaves crunched under my feet, I doubted Halt could hear me. That though, underestimating Halt (and Abelard) and probably Will and Tug and Horace too), was the worst mistake I ever could have made.

I saw the tracks deepen, as though his horse was slowing down, so I did too. That way, I wouldn't stumble upon where they were supposedly stopping without knowing what was going on. It seemed he was stopping for a midday meal, though.

My eyes followed his small figure around the clearing, taking in how his cloak shimmered as he moved and blended into the forest background . He left his horse by a tree(and I think with a signal), and he sat by a stream to eat. I crept slowly toward him, swaying like the trees' shadows around me. I didn't have a shimmery cloak like him, but I had a brown one, and that would have to do.

I reached out my hand to touch his shoulder. Before I even made it a centimeter closer, an iron grip wrapped around my wrist. I didn't even feel flying through the air, just the water surrounding me. My situation suddenly hit me; I was standing in a shallow creek, sopping wet and at the mercy of a ranger, unarmed, that was said to have uncanny accuracy with the bow now in his hand. I didn't even run; I couldn't; I froze.

I heard a sigh and looked up. Halt's face, as ever, was shadowed and hidden in the cowl of his cloak. "Now why did you go and do a silly thing like that, Gilan?" he said, "No sane man would follow a ranger into a forest." Although, I'm pretty sure I heard him mutter "The reason for that would be obvious."

All I could do was stammer, "B-b how?" I recovered quickly, though, and took off my hood, "How'd you know it was me?"

He shrugged, as though stalking him, or rather, trying to stalk him, were the common thing in the world. "I suspected it. From your behavior, my guess is that you've been planning it for a few days now. And that you want to be my apprentice."

Beyblade: okay nothing really happened in this chapter: Gilan tries to follow Halt, he gets thrown in a stream, he is accepted by Halt as an apprentice

13: Next chapter is Halt asking if he can have Gil apprenticed to him-actually, just after that