The Angel
By: Trep092
Disclaimer: John Flanagan owns the Ranger's Apprentice, not I.
A/N: I just finished reading the ninth RA book. I know it's taken me a while, but at least I don't have to wait too long for the tenth book to come out (April 19 in Canada yay!). So I was thinking about how Horace is afraid of dark small spaces and this is what my mind came up with to explain his phobia. I know the first chapter is short, but the next one will definitely be longer.
The autumn wind that tossed his dark hair was crisp, though it didn't bother him much. He was too engrossed in his game of knight to be bothered by such trivial things.
His parents were busy gathering in the crops with a bunch of the neighbours, and the neighbour girl that had been entrusted with his care had been easily distracted and he had given her the slip. She was boring; she never wanted to play knight with him. She was always making gooey eyes at a boy from a few farms away. He screwed up his small face in disgust at the thought. If a girl ever made eyes like that at him he'd run them through with his toy sword. With that matter settled, he turned his full attention back to the band of thieves he was decimating.
The grass in the field through which he was running was painted gold by the fall sunlight, though in his mind he was in a forest surrounded by trees and thieving brigands. He whooped as he swung his small wooden sword over his head in an overhead cut, and in his mind, it went straight through one of the thieves.
He leapt lightly to the side and swung around and cut through another thief that was trying to sneak up on him. With that man dispatched, he had only one last enemy to face.
He snuck from tree to tree, and then, with a blur of movement, darted out and ran the last brigand through.
Turning from his imagined enemies, he faced the family he had saved. With a gallant (in his mind) bow, he said, "my Lady, sir, I have saved you!"
With a impish smile, he abandoned that imagined scenario and set off through the field in search of a dragon which was causing great havoc in a nearby town.
He loved playing knight. His parents were constantly reminding him that he was a farmer's son and was unable to become a knight, but that is all he longed to be. He wanted to ride a gigantic battle horse and save helpless people from thieves and bandits. He imagined himself wrapped in shining chainmail, bearing a long shining sword and astride a towering horse. He couldn't see himself ploughing the fields year in and year out like his father did.
As he reached a small rise in the field, he dropped to his belly and inched forward through the dying grass. He could see the dragon over the hill and it was huge and spewing flames into the sky.
He leapt to his feet and charged. He was the bravest knight in the land and a mean, old dragon wasn't going to stop him.
With a few jabs, and a vicious side cut, he felled the towering beast. The last cut though had knocked him off balance. He hopped backwards to regain his footing and gasped in horror as the ground beneath his feet buckled and he fell deep into the earth.
*RA*RA*RA*RA*RA*RA*RA*RA*
To be continued. Please R&R!
