Expanation: One day, I was sitting on the bus with my two friends, Kaleigh and Megan. Kaleigh had a copy of Halt's Peril with her, and she was looking at the cover.
Kaleigh: Hey! Halt is wearing boots! I always thought they wore tennis shoes!
Megan and me: Really?
Four months later...I figured that it would be a fine fanfiction idea.
In the end, it was Horace who convinced Halt to get new shoes.
"Why don't you get new shoes, Halt?" Will asked one day. "You're boots are all…worn out. Plus, they aren't in style."
Halt looked at his former apprentice. "Why should I care about style?"
"Because…" Will trailed off, for he did not have a good answer. "You should at least replace those boots."
"I've had these boots since…" Halt stopped, searching for a good hyperbole that Will would most likely take literally.
"See? They're so old you can't even remember when you got them." Will said.
Halt glared at Will, which caused Will to not be so annoying. For the moment, at least. But he forgot that Will was fundamentally annoying, so Halt mistakenly thought that the argument was over. He was entirely wrong.
The next day, Will went to lunch with Gilan and Horace. Will told them about the conversation that had taken place the previous day.
"Will, you can't just tell Halt to get new shoes." Gilan said. "You have to trick him into doing it."
Will looked at Gilan. "And how would a person do that?"
Gilan shrugged. "I've tried to trick Halt into buying new shoes before. I wasn't successful, although, I did sort of end up sleeping in a tree that night…"
Will's eyes widened. "Um…Any way we can avoid that?"
Gilan shrugged again.
Horace rolled his eyes. "Why don't we just tell people to tell Halt that he looks like an old man, all…Not in style with his ratty old boots…"
Will and Gilan both looked at Horace. "Good luck finding people who aren't afraid of him." Will said.
"Seriously, that plan would fail because everyone would get scared." Gilan said.
The next day, Horace went into town, looking for brave souls.
He carried sign that said, "Looking for brave souls!" In really large print, because many people are attracted to large print and exclamation marks, and even more people want other people to think that they're brave. The sign also said, in much smaller print, "Need people to insult Halt." It was in much smaller print because many people would not want to insult Halt. Not even if other people would think that they were brave.
Many people were attracted to this large, colorfull sign, including the shoe-store man whose name escapes the narrator at this particular moment. Many people were also assigned to tell Halt that he looked out of style, or that his boots made him look like a crusty old man.
With this this taken care of, Horace proceeded to go and hide, lest Halt figure out that Horace was the one who organized this.
When Halt walked into town, he was not expecting to be insulted. Generally the civilians stayed away from him because Halt emanated an epic-ness that made everyone ashamed that they weren't as epic as Halt.
But on this day, Halt had only just walked into town, when a young man (whose name was Anthony) stepped up to him and said, "You really ought to get new shoes. Those ratty boots make you look like a crusty old man."
Halt's mind instantly went to Will, thinking that Will had set it all up. But, by the time he managed to be outraged, another person was insulting his shoes, then another, then another…
Halt did end up getting new shoes that day, much to the satisfaction of Horace, Will, and Gilan. But, they didn't think about the fact that Halt was a smart person who could easily put two and two together. (Much easier than any of those three, at least.) He had figured out that Will had set it all up to get him to waste money on new shoes.
So, he went to the shoe store and bought new shoes. And then he went and made Will pay him back for the shoes, which Will did gladly, even though he had no idea why Halt wanted his money. He was just happy that Halt had gotten new shoes.
Then Will saw them, and he was slightly mortified.
Instead of buying new boots, or anything else sensible for their line of work, Halt had bought tennis shoes. Which wouldn't have been so bad, had they not been PLAIN WHITE!
Halt's new shoes were extremely visible, which was not good, for the very next week Halt and Will got sent on a mission.
The mission was top-secret, so no one knows what really happened. But Will and Halt never came back.
The lesson is, NEVER tell Halt to get new shoes. You'll disappear forever.
I know, it's kinda melodramatic.