Chapter 1
Rangers
In the past wars over the borders, Araluen lost two Rangers. They saved the war effort and won against the invading forces. And so their names were inscribed on the castle's walls and every flagstone. One of those heroes was a young man named Arina. He was married to the beautiful young women named Maria, who, unable to let her husband go alone, disguised herself as an archer. She fought and died in the war effort, in the same battle her husband died in.
They had left a small baby girl in Redmont with a wet nurse, just in case they both died in the war. Within a week, the nurse received word of their death, and she left the child on the Wards doorstep. She was found in the morning, crying an wet from the morning dew. They named her June, because that's when she was found outside the Ward. In the fabulous month of June.
June grew up in the Ward with other children, but she never took a real liking to any of them. She was always singled out by the older boys and chased around the courtyard when she was younger. And she was constantly getting scolded for being a bit dirty from climbing a tree, when the boys were covered in mud up to their noses. And she had always managed to slip out of lessons and even disappear on a moment's notice.
She was often found up one of the large trees dotting the walls of the Ward or Castle. And she loved it, because it was nice and peaceful, with on one to yell at her, and the only guy who could climb up any good length in the trees was Simila, one of her friends.
She slipped away from her caretakers, her teachers and the people looking for her, and hid until the end of lessons. Then she would silently merge into the group of her classmates under the loud obnoxious noises they would make as they exited and follow them to dinner.
Currently she was hanging awkwardly upside-down from the kitchen window's arch. The stone jutting out to make a perfect place for her feet as she reached for the steaming cherry pie on the sill under her. She had to move quickly and quietly. Mr. Chubb was still in the kitchen, but attending to matters across the room and yelling at a student. Something about a soufflé. She loved the pies, the light flakey crust on the outside and gooey inside.
As she reached for it in the barely lit room, she noticed another hand reaching for it. It was long and she assumed it belonged to a man by the fact of its width and the twitching of the muscles beneath the black long-sleeved shirt it wore as is lifted up the pie easily.
She frowned and carefully as she could, crawled down from her hiding place onto the window sill and looked up. Hidden in the rafters, a darkly clothed person crouch, joyfully eating the cherry pie, crumbs falling lightly on the counter top. She almost screamed when it smiled and she noticed the silver oak leaf pendent all Rangers wore.
She briefly wondered if she should ask him if he practiced Black Magic, but since it seemed ridiculous to her even as a child she ignored the thought. She glared at him, wishing daggers would randomly stab him.
His smile broadened, "You'd better leave, this is my pie." It whispered, a small bit of crust lodged between his teeth.
"Funny coming from a Ranger who just stole my pie," June replied in the same hushed tone as she grabbed a small chunk and jumped into the tree beside the window, already shoving the piece in her mouth.
The Ranger smirked, licking off the yummy pie residue it left on his fingers as he watched her swing with practiced ease from branch to branch. He dropped to the window sill and set the pie tin down. Then he waited until she looked away from his spot and jumped silently into the tree.
He seemed to miss the branches by mere centimeters as he hurtled through the tree. He caught a branch about midway, letting out a click as he snapped his teeth shut and swung up onto the branch.
Interesting girl I found…I wonder who she is…and more importantly. Why she stole my pie! The ranger thought as June dropped out of the tree. He tilted forward with a sharp jerk of his head and let his body weight shift him off balance and back into a controlled fall down the tree.
As he approached the ground his foot shoot out and hooked around a branch, but unlike before, it simply spun him upright as he landed on the bottom most branches. He winched as the limb creaked under his sudden weight and the leaves ruffled. He resisted the urge to duck behind the leaves nad stayed completely sit as her eyes snapped over his position.
She's good, to hear the rustle from a good fifteen possibly twenty meters away. He thought, smiling as she turned and continued her way back in the direction of the Wards, chewing on the bits on crust in her teeth. She's almost fifteen by the looks of it. I wonder what she'll pick…
June yawned as she got up in her plain room. The plain wooden walls coated with bland white paint. And a pine wardrobe in the corner filled with clothes and other things that she didn't really want, but kept anyway. There was a small bag which held what she did want, mostly the clothes she would actually wear and a small silver ring she had found and wore every once in a while.
On a chair by the door was a simple blue dress laid out for her to wear, she grimaced and almost screamed when she saw the formal shoes that went with it. Reluctantly, knowing that if she didn't her caretaker would lecture her, she put it on and walked down stairs, although for going the shoes and wearing the black high heels she had.
The boys, Simila, Alex and Aaron where sitting around the table joking around and eating. Marry, the only other girl about her age was staring at Aaron as he smiled at one of Alex's jokes. Simila looked up, cocking his head to the side as he heard June walking down the stairs.
He grinned, the big playful smile he always got when he was about to pick on her, "It's the end of the world, June's wearing a dress."
"Oh shut up Smiley. You know that if I had a choice I would wear pants and a short sleeved shirt!" She snapped, glaring at him.
Simila was one of the only guys not to pick on her because of her attitude (or her height) or just because. Simila was roughly 5'11 and broad shouldered. He was about as carefree and nice as could be, but he loved to mess around. He wanted to go to Battleschool, or into Cooking. He never really liked the way Alex would mess with June and often stood up for her.
Alex was 6 feet and didn't want anyone to forget it anytime soon. He was broader than Simila and sadly the more muscled out of the guys. He almost had a shoe in for Battleschool. He was annoying, arrogant and an immature idiot that June wished she could slap with an iron pole a couple times.
Aaron was quiet, but he often tried to fit in with everyone and make them all happy. He wanted to go into Cooking as well. He stood 5'8 and had a funny way of explaining things. He was always yelled at for having his head up in the clouds and actually liked June. Now that didn't mean he'd risk a verbal beating from Alex if he stood up for her, but he liked her.
Marry was a short skinny girl that hadn't ever picked anything for herself in her entire life. What upset June was that she was cute, thin and curvier than her. Marry would apologize for it, but June ignored it, and would worry about the girl. She had a crush on Aaron, but she was too shy to tell him and June doubted Aaron would notice between getting beat with a wooden ladle and actually cooking something.
"True, and don't call me that! But if you're hungry me and Aaron can make you something." Simila offered, starting to get up.
"No it's okay Sim, I'll get something from the kitchen. You don't have to cater to a little thing like me." June smiled and walked towards the kitchen.
She found a young man wearing a short-sleeved shirt and dark green pants as she entered. He was reading a small stack of reports and chewing absent mindedly on a piece of toast as he read. He grunted as she walked up to him. June smiled and snatched the food out of his hand and sat down across the table from him, chewing on his breakfast.
He slumped on the table and muttered, "First you steal my cherry pie and now you steal my breakfast? How cruel are you?"
"I didn't steal your pie, you stole mine. I was reaching for it when you took it from me." June replied, popping the rest of the crunchy food into her mouth.
"You're wearing a dress." The Ranger noticed, getting up.
"Yeah, I'm supposed to look nice for this Choosing thing. Really I just think it's a waste of time." June snapped as the man put a pair of knives, a bow, quiver, a foldable spear, a set of throwing knives, a machete and a thick wire on the table. "Arm wrestle you for it," He smiled.
June looked at his arm. Yesterday she couldn't see him very well, but now she could see the highly developed muscles resting underneath his skin. He flexed as if know where she had been looking. She glanced at him.
"Nope, you can have it." She said and promptly left.
"Killjoy," The Ranger said, fetching the toast from the oven and once again happily chewing on it as he read the reports.
He flipped his hood up, which he modified from the standard issue to shade his face more. He then got up, stuffing the papers back into a packet which disappeared underneath his cloak, and strolled around the castle, knocking on random doors and fleeing before the owners could answer.
A minute later the caretaker's voice rang out from the upstairs of the Ward, "June, Aaron, Alex, Marry, Simila! Get down here for your Choosing!"
Then they were set up in a single file line, tallest to shortest, leaving June fourth, in front of Mary. Then they marched to the hall, where they had to present themselves to the Craftmasters and request their preferences.
"Alex, step forward."
Alex stepped forward, "Which school would you like to be in boy?"
"Sir, Battleschool Sir." Alex asked and immediately was granted.
One of the two Rangers of the fief walked in and took his seat near the door, quietly without anyone noticing, except June.
"Sir, Battleschool, sir." Simila requested, smiling.
The Craftmaster, Brent answered, "If you think you can keep up!" (Sir Rodney died in a boar hung with Erik. Fortunately he killed the boar and they ate it at his funeral [they also put a large piece in his coffin for fear of his ghost] which was rather delicious!)
"Thank you sir." Sim smirked and glanced at June, only to find her missing.
Aaron was accepted into cooking, and while denied cooking, Marry was taken into Diplomacy. June was missing and therefore, skipping.
"I do believe there was another madam." The Baron Arald said, looking around.
All of a sudden June burst through the door, tugging a young man in a molted green and brown cloak by his ear. She waved and dragged him up to the other Ranger. "I believe this is yours." She said, and then walked back to the center of the hall.
"So, what would you like madam?" The Baron asked, smiling that one of his Rangers had been caught.
She smirked, and across the room the new Ranger smiled. The wiry upward curve in his lips concealed in his cloak.
June took a deep breath and the Ranger started to chuckle quietly to himself. "Sir, Ranger Corps, sir!" And the new ranger burst out laughing.