Authors note: This is my first fan fiction! It's so exciting, but I don't know if I'm doing this right... Anyway, the Inheritance cycle doesn't really come into here yet, just a little. There also aren't many characters either, just Will, Halt and a nameless sailor. He gets a name later, but not now, and, you know what, I don't think anyone cares. Anywho here it is!
Disclaimer: I do not own Any thing from the Inheritance cycle, nor The Ranger's Apprentice. Christopher Paolini and John Flannagan do.
Chapter 1: New Land
Halt leaned over the rail yet again as sea sickness overcame him. When he stood upright once more he noticed someone standing beside him grinning. Halt's youthful apprentice, Will, always found it amusing that the gruff old ranger couldn't handle riding a ship.
"Remind me again why Duncan sent us on this infernal trip," Halt asked grumpily.
Will smiled as he replied, "We have to scout the new land that fisherman found, and since the king needs Crowley with him, we were sent as the next best thing." Halt new this was a lie, at least in part. If he was truthful, he would say King Duncan sent them because he wanted Will to have the experience. The boy was already the most famous ranger in the corps.
But he didn't need to know that. It most certainly wouldn't help his ego. Rangers shouldn't be proud. Instead, his only answer was, "He should have sent Gilan." Will grinned once more before moving away from his master to speak with the captain.
A few days later
Will woke up and climbed up to the main deck. He looked about, startled by the commotion. Grabbing a passing sailor, he asked what was happening.
"Shores been spotted, just o'er yonder," the man said shortly as he dashed off to help land the ship. Will peered over in the direction the man had gestured. Just after locating the small rise, supposedly land, Will felt a hand on his shoulder, and turned to face Halt.
"You've heard the news?" Will questioned of his mentor, nodding his head toward the bump he had seen.
"How could I not, everyone is running around here like a mad dog, and-" Halt's face turned green and he leaned over the rail just as they passed over a particularly large wave. Coming up more grey than before Halt just muttered, "Can't wait to get off this thrice blasted boat." Then he stumbled away.
An hour later shore was reached, and Halt was the first to jump onto the newly discovered land.
Once everyone got on the land, they quickly set up camp on the beach, and ate lunch.
"Halt," Will started, "Do you really think no one lives here? How will we talk to them if the language is different? What if they attack us?"
Halt smiled at Will's tendency to so many questions as he replied, "I don't think you need to worry, if anyone lived here, they would have come to at least one other country before, and therefore we would have heard of them. Celtica is only a month's sail from here. Let's start scouting." And with that he walked into the woods.
Will hurried to catch up to Halt, and said breathlessly, "Only a month? You sure seemed to think it a long distance,"
"I get sea sick,"
"Yes, I'm sure no one else in the world does," Will sarcastically replied.
Halt frowned at Will before replying, "They aren't stuck with a crew of smelly sailors and an overly inquisitive 17 year old."
After an eventless three hours of rough mapmaking, Will and Halt came across a clearing. The latter sat down with a sigh on a fallen log, happy to be able to take a break. But Will strode through the waist high grass, and kneeled by the stump of the log.
"Halt!" Will cried out, "That didn't fall naturally!" Halt sighed as he got up from his seat, and as he examined the stump, his brow furrowed. It was not jagged and torn looking, as a stump from a tree felled by nature, but clean cut, like that from an… ax. Looking around, there were dozens of such stumps. The grass was too tall to see any tracks through, and none of the grass was trampled.
"What do you think happened?" Halt questioned of his apprentice.
Will paused before thoughtfully answering, "The tree is just starting to rot, it was chopped down by an ax maybe… two months ago?"
"Are you asking me or telling me?"
"It fell two months ago," Will corrected.
"I thought the same thing. Too bad this grass grew so fast," Halt said. Then he stood up, brushing off his hands. "We should head back to camp."
So apprentice and master walked through the woods, a half hour walk to camp. Will jumped at every noise, expecting gargantuan men to charge from the surrounding trees, screaming their war cries. They couldn't get back soon enough. But when they did, he wished they hadn't come back. Everyone was gone.
So I had to put two chapters in one, they were shorter than I thought. I guess that means most cliffhangers are now void:( But this one was pretty good huh? No one left at camp. I wonder where they went. I don't really though. I know, but you don't! Review please, I really want to know what you think!
