A/N: Okay, this is a LONG chapter, so I won't waste too much time. Some quick notes: In this chapter I'm going to be introducing a few very important elements of the story. First, you'll catch a glimpse of the supernatural/magical elements that I have added to this story/AU. This includes, strange creatures and the use of magic from them. Secondly, I have introduced a total of four OCs in this chapter. I'm not the biggest fan of OCs in fanfic so trust me when I say each of them are very necessary and have been included for a very good reason. I couldn't find any canon characters that could fit into their roles since I had assigned most major characters a role already. Also, in the books, there is no mention of any other apprentice Rangers around Will's age, which is a very important role in this story (which also requires more than one apprentice Ranger). I also tried to make the OCs at least a bit interesting, but either way, they aren't major characters so I hope you don't mind too much /
This chapter was a hard one to write. I'm honestly still not happy with it completely, but I need to leave it alone eventually, so I decided to stop myself while I was still ahead. Also, fun fact, this is the longest chapter for any fanfic I've ever written. It was a great learning experience and fun to write though, and I hope it's fun to read as well. ALSO, IMPORTANT NOTE: the first scene in this chapter comes again from the future but will NOT be officially connected/revisited later on. Instead, it shares some certain elements and I think it's a fun way to start this chapter and kinda serves as a nice parallel.
To everyone who reviewed/followed/favorited, THANK YOU. I was paranoid that nobody would be interested in this story, so it's nice to know that there's at least somebody out there reading other than me :) I'll be responding to reviews at the end of this chapter.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot.
Chapter 2: Strange Faces
The Ranger felt his legs shaking as he stumbled onwards. He wasn't sure where exactly he was heading or what he was going to do whenever he got to wherever he got to, but he did know that he needed to get away from here. It was all he knew now.
His hands, slippery with blood, struggled to grip at various tree trunks as he continued walking. Currently, he was making his way up what felt like a very large slope which seemed to be getting steeper and steeper as he got closer to the top. He could feel his strength draining away with every step and by the time he finally got to the top of the slope, he was almost completely spent. He fell to his knees and leaned heavily against a nearby tree.
Despite the nearly endless forest he was in, his current position gave him a pretty good view of where he was. Looking up into the distance, he saw that he appeared to be at the peak of a relatively small mountain within a very long mountain range, so extensive that he couldn't see the end of it in any given direction. Unlike his current location, the valley below was dry, gray, and bare. He could see enormous clouds of dirt and dust skimming its surface, driven by powerful winds. Judging by the color of the sky, previously covered more or less by the canopy of the forest, he could also tell that the sun was currently setting, with the night quickly approaching.
Somewhere deep in the depths of his mind, he felt a flash of confusion. Although he couldn't really remember much right now, he knew that he must be far from home. Wherever his home had been, he was certain that it didn't have mountains like this. Doubt crept into his mind like a poison as he wondered how exactly he was ever going to make his way out of this mountain range, let alone find his way to where he needed to be. In the end, he decided to take things one step at a time. Northwest. That was the direction he should be going.
On the night right before his miraculous escape, that was one of the few things the frail, tattered remains of his mind had managed to remember as he had stared up at the stars, which always seemed to be too bright nowadays. Now, as night fell, the grim stare of those stars returned, seeming to cast a spotlight on him. He felt like he was being watched.
No, that was crazy talk. The exhaustion of his travels must be catching up with him. Maybe he should simply stay here and rest for the night. He needed to save his strength for tomorrow anyway, so that he could continue stumbling his way home.
Northwest. He just needed to keep going northwest.
He was in the process of nodding off when something woke him up. It was a sound, so quiet that he sensed it more than he heard it. It would be all too easy to ignore, but out of all of the other Rangers that had been captured with him, he had been the only one to escape for a very good reason. Forcing his heavy eyes to open wide, he looked around into the darkness of the forest surrounding him. For a few minutes, he saw nothing. Then, a dark shape, slowly detaching itself from the shadows, could be seen coming towards him. It was so calm and something about it was so familiar, that he didn't feel any panic at all and allowed it to reach him.
When it was only a few meters away, he finally recognized the shape to be that of another Ranger. He was an apprentice Ranger, judging by his apparent young age, although he was missing his Bronze Oakleaf. Suddenly, he felt very tired, but also very relieved. He tried to croak out a greeting, but the words ended up getting strangled as they tried to make their way out of his parched throat.
The apprentice, now only a meter away from him, knelt down before him. The boy's eyes were covered by the cowl of his cloak. The Ranger frowned at that observation, wondering how the boy seemed to be in such a better shape than he was in. After all, he had lost his cloak as soon as he had woken up in this nightmare. These thoughts however, soon evaporated into whatever void half of his sanity had been sucked into as the apprentice then spoke up in a low, strangely hollow voice that sounded altogether too friendly for some reason.
"Halt? Are you Halt?" Halt. The name was a familiar one, not because he remembered whoever this "Halt" person was, but because that was the name that had been repeated to him throughout his interrogations this past week. He wasn't sure why his captors had been so fixated on this "Halt" but he knew that even if that name did ring a bell, he wouldn't tell. "Halt" he felt, had been an ally once, before his time here, and he would never betray a comrade.
He shook his head slowly, wondering why this apprentice was now asking about "Halt" as well. The boy tilted his head and he managed to croak out, "No. Not me." The apprentice frowned at that.
"Are you Crowley?" Again, he shook his head. "Gilan?" The young voice seemed to be getting icier and icier with every passing second. He distantly wondered why. "How about Will?" That final name was spat out with particular resentment and yet the Ranger still didn't recognize the name. He shook his head once more, frowning now.
Slowly, he was starting to get the sense that something was off here. He could practically feel the waves of anger and frustration radiating from the apprentice. Why was he so angry? And why was he asking such strange questions?
"Do you know where any of them are?" The boy asked impatiently, any pretense of friendliness now gone. Instead of answering, he squinted at the apprentice, trying to get a better look at his face to figure out why he was asking these questions. A gentle wind blew past them at that very moment, pulling the apprentice's hood back enough for him to see the boy's eyes. His breath caught in his throat as, to his horror, he saw that the eyes were completely pitch black. And in that moment, he knew that he was never getting home.
Had he any tears left to cry, his eyes would've welled up then. But dehydrated as he was, he couldn't even do that. Looking into the void of those soulless eyes, he said defiantly, through gritted teeth, "No." The next thing he knew, something seized his heart and he gasped for breath.
A few minutes later, he was dead.
The "apprentice Ranger" stood up, his black eyes glaring down at the man. It would appear that his search would continue.
He was about to leave when suddenly, he seemed to remember something. Turning around, he knelt down next to the man once more and took out a knife. It was a rusty old weapon, clearly not the knife of any true Ranger. Still, the blade was sharp and as he dragged it across the dead Ranger's arm, it broke skin as blood started trickling out.
The boy, or rather the creature in the disguise of a boy, licked off the blood on the knife until it was clean once more. A few moments later, his current form wavered and twisted until he no longer looked like a boy, but rather the man that he had just killed. The creature grinned to itself.
It was always good to add another form to his ever growing collection.
Three months earlier…
Gilan and his fellow Ranger, a man by the name of Peter Madison, scanned the trees for any signs of one of the four apprentices lurking about, trying to sneak up on them.
The group that Will and Gilan had met up with had consisted of one Ranger and three apprentices, who had been on their way to practicing their skills in unseen movement while they were all still waiting for the senior Rangers to make an announcement explaining the current situation. With nothing better to do, Will and Gilan had offered to join their practice and before they knew it, they'd found themselves a little ways into the forest surrounding the Gathering Grounds.
"Will, I can see you hiding there next to that tree." Gilan now called out casually, not even bothering to turn his head towards the direction of the apprentice's hiding spot. Somewhere to his right, he heard a frustrated sigh.
"But how?" Will asked in almost a whine. Gilan grinned.
"Well, as the best and most skilled Ranger in the art of unseen movement, I also happen to be an expert in spotting movement." He said with exaggerated arrogance. The apprentice scoffed at that.
"Oh, shut up." He grumbled, stepping out from his spot next to the tree. Gilan smirked.
"Now, Will, is that any way for an apprentice to speak to a fully fledged Ranger?" He laughed as the boy scowled at him. "Alright, alright. No need to look so glum. Your face might end up stuck like that and Halt would of course blame me completely. What gave you away was your choice of position. By standing directly next to a tree like that, the green of your cloak stands out a lot more, especially when the wind blows your cloak in the wrong direction and makes some of it cover part of tree. You're kind of hard to miss when that happens."
"What should I do to avoid this problem then?" Will asked as he walked over to Gilan.
"It's as simple as not standing next to a tree like that." The Ranger explained. "You were practically leaning on that tree, which is especially problematic considering how close you were to us, your supposed targets. You should've kept yourself detached and part of the background instead, so that you wouldn't be near any object of greater focus like that tree. After all, part of the effectiveness of our cloaks comes from the fact that it helps us blend into backgrounds. Remember that and use that knowledge. That and of course, you should…" Will sighed and nodded.
"I know, I know. Practice." He said resignedly. Gilan smiled widely in satisfaction. Then suddenly, he felt the stare of the other Ranger, Peter, next to him. He turned to the other man.
"What?" He asked, feeling oddly defensive. "Why are you looking at me like that?" The other Ranger simply shook his head.
"I'm just shocked. Against all odds, you can actually be a pretty effective instructor when you bother trying." Peter stated, his voice completely flat and serious. Will stifled a laugh as it was Gilan's turn to scowl.
"Thanks," He said sarcastically. "That almost sounded like a compliment." Peter's mouth twitched upwards in what might've been a smile, before he turned and pointed in a seemingly random direction.
"You two, over there. I can see you. Try moving a bit slower next time. Your quick movements forward gave you away." Two disappointed groans could be heard. As Will squinted at the spot the Ranger had pointed at, he noticed two small, cloaked figures standing about fifteen meters away, seeming to shimmer in and out of sight under the camouflage of the forest. They came forward after a few seconds to join Will and the two older Rangers.
"This is all your fault." One of the apprentice Rangers growled, glaring at the other. "You just had to go the same way I was going. If you hadn't been next to me, I wouldn't have moved when you did." Peter frowned at the boy at that.
"Your mistakes are nobody's fault but your own." He said disapprovingly. "If the mere presence of a fellow Ranger can make you reveal yourself, then that in it of itself is a problem. After all, once you earn your Silver Oakleaf, you'll find yourself having to work with other Rangers on actual missions. And as my apprentice, I also expect you to have more respect for other Rangers than what you've just demonstrated." The apprentice scowled at the words, but wisely didn't say anything more.
"Look on the bright side, Hen," The other apprentice said cheerfully, apparently not minding his companion's attitude. "We both got pretty close to them this time."
"Alex, that might be the stupidest thing you've said all day. First of all, I told you not to call me Hen. The name's Henrik." The grouchy apprentice snapped. "Secondly, in case it escaped your notice, the first year got closer than we did." Will wasn't sure whether he should take that comment as a compliment or an insult.
"Alright, that's enough, both of you." Gilan interrupted, before the other apprentice, Alex, could reply. "Let's at least try to get along here. After all, you're both members of the Corps and a major key to our success is cooperation and unity. Got it?" Both apprentices nodded in understanding, but Henrik still practically had a storm cloud hanging over his head while Alex either didn't care about or notice the other's mood. Gilan narrowed his eyes at the pair suspiciously before sighing and shaking head. He then looked around at their quickly darkening surroundings. "I think that's enough practice for today. It's getting pretty dark now." He said wearily.
Peter nodded in agreement. "The senior Rangers also might be ready to share some news with us tonight at the feast and we wouldn't want to miss that." He then looked around the woods as well, as if searching for something. "Where is that last apprentice? What was his name again?"
"Runar Bardenson," Gilan provided. "I must say, he's pretty good. I haven't seen a shadow of him during the practice. We should probably get him to come out now though." With that said Gilan took a deep breath before calling out into the woods. "Runar, practice is over! You can come out now! We're about to head back to the Gathering Grounds!" The group waited for a moment in silence. After a solid minute, it became clear that they weren't going to get a response. Gilan frowned and called again. Still, nothing.
Will was was also frowning now, as he felt the strange dread he'd almost managed to forget returning to the forefront of his mind once more. He knew that danger so close to the Gathering Grounds was next to impossible, for its location was jealously guarded secret. Still, he suddenly felt very tense.
Calm down, Will. Runar's probably just trying to pull our legs or something. He told himself as his eyes scanned his surroundings like they had earlier that day. Admittedly, Runar had seemed much too serious to do a practical joke like this when they'd initially met earlier that afternoon, but there was every chance that Will had misjudged him on that account. In fact, thinking over their current situation, a prank was actually the most likely explanation for the lack of response they were getting. Somehow, that did little to make Will feel any better.
"Runar? Did you hear us? It's time to go!" Alex called out, and soon the rest of the group joined in. For a few minutes, they were all calling and searching, until it eventually became abundantly obvious that there was nobody out there to hear or answer their calls in the first place.
"Where on Earth is that apprentice?" Peter asked to no one in particular, frowning darkly.
"Perhaps he went hiding so far away that he couldn't hear us from this distance." Will suggested. The two apprentices shrugged at that while Gilan and the other Ranger looked rather doubtful.
"Not likely. Even if he did choose to start today's practice from a long distance away, he should've moved closer and closer and be within earshot by now." Gilan said, shaking his head slowly. "No, the only explanation I can think of for his current absence is that he wandered off at some point during the practice."
"Without telling any of us or leaving any signs?" Peter asked, his expression concerned. "What could've possibly possess him to do such a thing?" Gilan shrugged.
"I guess it's up to us to find out. I'm sure he would've left a trail around here or something. How about you three apprentices head back to the Gathering with Peter here while I try to track him down?" Most of the group seemed ready to accept this decision. Will, however, could practically hear his instincts screaming at him.
Don't leave him here alone, don't leave him here alone, don't leave him here alone, don't leave him-
"Wait, wouldn't it be faster if one of us stayed here to help you search?" Will blurted out, secretly shocked at how calm his voice came out as he spoke up. "After all, two heads are better than one and we have no idea where his trail might start. And like you said, it's getting late, so the sooner we can find Runar, the better." Gilan considered this suggestion for a moment before slowly nodding.
"I suppose that could help." He said, looking at Will with mild suspicion as if sensing the ulterior motive for the suggestion. "What do you think?" He then asked, turning to the rest of the group. Peter nodded eventually.
"It makes sense. Let's do it. I wouldn't really mind. Besides, it's not as if Runar could've gone very far away. I say we split up and search the area." Will wanted to protest this, again getting an ominous sense that something was about to go horribly wrong, but for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth this time.
"Good idea. I'll search this area." Gilan agreed, pointing to his left. "Peter, you can search here." He pointed to the right. "And you three apprentices can search over there." He finished, pointing at the direction directly opposite to the Gathering Grounds. "How does that sound?" Even as everybody else in the group nodded, Will found himself staring into the depths of the forest doubtfully, the sound of his heartbeat loud in his ears.
You're being ridiculous. He told himself harshly. What could possibly go wrong? You're at the Gathering surrounded by all the- well, more like half- of the Rangers in the entire Corps. Either way you'll be fine. Even as such thoughts ran through his head, the rapidly growing shadows of the forest seemed to be slowly reaching out towards him and he felt the temperature around him plummet. I'm not scared. Don't be scared. I won't be scare. I have no reason to be scared-
"Will? Are you alright?" Gilan asked suddenly, cutting Will out of his trance-like staring into the forest. The apprentice abruptly shook his head to clear his mind and turned to the older Ranger.
"Yes, Gilan. I'm fine." He said, in as normal a voice as he could manage. It was clear that Gilan was unconvinced by his pathetic act, but the Ranger apparently decided to drop the subject for now.
"Well, let's get going then. The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can all get back to start dinner." There were eager murmurs of agreement throughout the group and everybody then turned to their assigned area to start the search. Reluctantly, Will trailed behind the two other apprentices. As they walked, he couldn't help but glance back at the direction towards the Gathering Grounds. At that moment, he found himself wishing that Halt was there with him. He and the two other apprentice Rangers walked on in silence for a short while.
Approximately two and a half minutes into their search, the complaining started.
"The incompetency of that Runar is mind-boggling." Henrik snarled suddenly, kicking aside an innocent rock unfortunate enough to be in their path. "What made him think that he could just walk off without telling anybody? And why should we have to search for him? He can find his own way back to the Gathering Grounds. In fact, I bet that's where he went. He thinks himself too good to practice with the rest of us, doesn't he?" Alex smiled at him calmly.
"I'm sure Runar will have a good explanation for us whenever we find him." He said reasonably. "There's no need to always assume the worst in people, Hen." The words only seemed to further irritate the other apprentice however.
"I told you not to call me that! And your pathetic optimism disgusts me." Henrik hissed. "If you want to search out here for that bumbling buffoon then go right ahead, but I certainly shouldn't have to be here. I've earned a break. We've been practicing out here in the woods all day! I'm tired, my feet hurt, I'm hungry, and I'm covered in bug bites. It's almost as if you people think I'm a peasant. Peter may be my mentor but that doesn't give him the right to subject me to this! I was hoping that he would be sensible and allow us to wait at camp for news or maybe just do some tactical exercises back at the Gathering Grounds at least, but no. We just had to come out here because if we aren't busy then we have to be training and practicing."
It was around this point in time that Will stopped listening to Henrik's nonsensical rambling, as the realization of just how annoying his fellow apprentice could be began dawning on him. He just went on and on and on. Will would've been impressed by how much and how long Henrik could keep talking with what seemed like just a single breath, but he was too irritated to entertain the thought at the moment.
After around five minutes, he glanced at Alex, who was energetically strolling right next to Henrik, to see if he was getting just as annoyed as Will was. Will was then disturbed to notice that the other apprentice's face seemed to be in a perpetual state of smiling to the point of being rather creepy, and that he was completely unaffected by Henrik's nasally voice constantly spewing grievances against their current situation.
Will mentally sighed to himself in resignation and desperately scanned the forest around them for any signs of Runar. The sooner they found him, the sooner his fellow apprentice would shut up. His eyes lit up slightly as they happened to catch sight of something.
"I think I found something!" Will exclaimed excitedly and the two other apprentices turned to him. Henrik looked somewhat miffed at being interrupted in the middle of his rant, but Will didn't even notice as he walked over to the clue he had found. It was a piece of cloth stuck within a particularly thorny bush. With its mottled green and gray pattern, it clearly had once been a part of a Ranger's cloak.
"Good find," Henrik praised reluctantly as he came over along with Alex. "With any luck, We'll be out of here in no time." Will nodded meaningfully at that.
It didn't take long for them to find the rest of the missing apprentice's trail, for Runar had apparently made no attempts to hide his tracks. In fact, based on the trail they were following, Will thought that it almost seemed as if Runar had been in a rush. He had asked his two companions for their thoughts on the matter but they had both shrugged.
"I don't have that great of a memory so I've never been that great of a tracker. I always forget what I'm supposed to be looking for and how predict things based only on a trail." Alex said apologetically.
"I'm more skilled in tactics rather than any type of… fieldwork." Henrik managed to admit through gritted teeth.
Will had to force himself to resist looking too shocked and disappointed, before he turned around abruptly and continued following Runar's tracks. It would appear that he would be leading them for now.
As minute after minute passed and they went deeper and deeper into the woods however, Will couldn't help but begin feeling that his earlier suspicions had been correct. The more they followed the tracks, the more it looked as if the missing apprentice had practically crashed his way through the forest and his footsteps had grown progressively sloppier as the tracks went on.
By now, it was almost completely dark and the chill that Will was feeling was no longer just his imagination as the temperature dropped with the last fading rays of sunlight. He could barely see the tracks at this point, let alone follow them, despite how obvious they were. Eventually, he stopped abruptly and turned around to face the other two apprentices, who had been uselessly following his lead.
"I think we should head back." Will said, viciously forcing any nervousness from affecting his voice. "It's getting dark and soon we won't be able to see any of these tracks anymore."
"Fine by me." Henrik agreed instantly. "I'm ready to go back to a nice warm dinner and my tent." Alex however, wasn't quite on the same track.
"What about Runar? We can't just leave him here. He clearly hadn't been going towards the Gathering Grounds. What if he's lost? As fellow Rangers, we should help him or at the very least, we could continue following his trail until it's fully dark." Will wanted to protest, but a stab of guilt shut his mouth. He hadn't thought of his suggestion as abandoning another Ranger, but now that Alex put it like that, he couldn't bring himself to do it.
The dread swirling around in his gut was so strong now that he almost wanted to throw up, but he determinedly resisted the urge. Every scrap of instinct he had was shrieking at him to turn around now, but like he had been doing all day, he pushed those voices aside.
"Alright, fine. We'll keep following the trail for a little while, but then we're heading back." He relented. Henrik glared at both him and Alex.
"I hate you guys." He declared flatly, but made no move to head back by himself.
And so, the three of them continued to follow the tracks. The rest of their search didn't last very long however, for about a two minutes later, they reached the end of the trail. Will felt a sinking feeling in his gut as he stared down at the ground before him. There was no Runar here. Instead, the tracks, which had been so clear and violent up to this point ended here abruptly, as if the missing apprentice had simply disappeared at this very spot. He saw no signs of a struggle, nor any signs of any more tracks indicating where the apprentice could've gone from here.
Beating down a rising sense of alarm and frustration, Will sighed heavily. "There's no more tracks. I think something is obviously wrong here and the sun has completely set. We should head back now and tell some other, fully fledged Rangers about all this." Turning to his companions, he saw both of them finally nodding in agreement and he felt a cautious sense of relief at the thought of finally being able to return to the safety of the Gathering Grounds.
"Finally!" Henrik said. "I think I have calluses on my calluses now. I swear-" He stopped his complaining abruptly as his eyes seemed to notice and focus on something behind Will. Both of the other apprentices, noticing this, eventually followed his gaze. Will frowned and felt his heart suddenly picking up speed.
Perhaps about fifty meters away, almost completely hidden by the shadows of the night, was a relatively small shadowy figure.
"Is that…" Will began, his voice trailing off uncertainly.
"Runar!" Alex called excitedly. "It's us! What're you doing here? We were actually out here looking for you! Why haven't you gone back to the Gathering Grounds anyway? It's nighttime now!" In the silence of the forest, the apprentice Ranger's voice sounded like thunder. Will winced.
"You better have a good reason for wandering off on us like that!" Henrik joined in angrily. "What were you thinking?"
Runar however, was dead silent and didn't even seem to notice them. Will suddenly became very aware of his position being slightly in front of his two companions and felt strangely exposed and vulnerable.
That's not Runar. That's not Runar. His instincts chanted. But who else could it be? The location of the Gathering Grounds was a secret, so there was no way that anybody else other than a Ranger could be wandering around in this forest... Is there?
"Why isn't that imbecile responding to us?" Henrik growled, stepping forward.
"Maybe he still can't hear us?" Alex suggested uncertainly. "Or maybe he's hurt or something! We should go over and check on him." The two apprentices both began approaching the dark figure. Will hung back for a moment, petrified. For some reason, his feet refused to move.
"Guys…" He said in a small voice that he knew his companions would never hear. "Wait-" At that moment, apparently finally noticing them, the small figure began waving at them violently. Not in greeting however, but instead trying to warn them to stop approaching. "Stop!" Impulsively, Will ran forward to pull the other two Rangers back.
Perhaps if he had just been a little faster, just a single step ahead, everything would've been different. But as it was, the moment he grabbed them, they all seemed to step across a line, over a point of no return.
With a violent rush, the world suddenly seemed to turn upside down and they all stumbled and fell forward. The figure of Runar abruptly vanished into thin air. Will lost his hold on the two other apprentices, but at that moment, that was the last of his worries.
He felt suddenly dizzy and off balance, as if somebody had hit him on his head. There was a ringing sound filling his ears and he heard himself groaning as if from a long way away. Will tried in vain to focus on his breathing to calm down and regain his bearings quickly, but the air seemed to keep getting stuck in his throat and he just ended up choking on it. It was almost as if he was suffocating. His heart seemed to be attacking his ribcage as it beat desperately and violently against it so hard that it hurt. Will clutched at his chest weakly and curled up on the forest ground, squeezing his eyes shut as he desperately hoped that whatever this awful feeling was, it would quickly pass.
He was on the verge of passing out into a nice, oblivious state of unconsciousness when the screaming started. The voices were somewhat familiar, but he heard them as if from a long way away. Reluctantly, he managed to crack open one eye.
Everything seemed to be spinning around him and his vision was blurry, but he managed to make out the forms of several Rangers, way more than the amount he had seen back when he first arrived at the Gathering Grounds. For some odd reason, he saw his two companions fighting and struggling against the other Rangers and he recognized the familiar shouting and screaming voices to be them. The other Rangers were strangely and ominously silent.
For a moment, he entertained the idea that he had gone insane. It was the only explanation he had for why he was seeing what he was seeing at the moment. After all, why were there so many Rangers here suddenly? He and the other two apprentices had been out here completely alone just a few moments ago as far as he was aware. There was no logical explanation for how so many Rangers could've suddenly appeared, and therefore he had to be hallucinating.
He didn't get much time to ponder on the matter however, as the screaming and shouting of the two apprentices soon abruptly stopped and Will's vision suddenly dimmed for a moment. He tried to see what had happened, squinting in their direction determinedly, but he couldn't see anything for the life of him. In fact, he couldn't even see the blurry figures of Alex and Henrik at all anymore. For all intents and purposes, it would appear that they were no longer here. He blinked. So he was hallucinating.
Even as he struggled to process his predicament, he saw some of the unknown, mysterious Rangers break off from the rest of the strange pack they had formed to approach him. He tried to look up at them only to be initially blinded by the unexpectedly glaring light of the stars above him. As his eyes slowly adjusted, he finally managed to make out the faces of a couple of the Rangers that were now standing over him.
The first thought that crossed his mind when he saw them was that neither of them looked particularly familiar. The second was the realization that they both had pitch black eyes, so dark that they almost looked like that had empty eye sockets. Will, frowned, too out of it to think too much about this observation beyond the fact that something was off about their strange faces.
They were reaching down now, evidently intending to grab him. Perhaps they were trying to help him up. Despite that that thought however, his body seemed to move on its own as it desperately backed away from those hands. The screams of his instincts had long ago been exhausted, leaving him now with only with its echoes and a resigned, empty sense of dread.
He shouldn't let them grab him. That much he was pretty sure of. Those hands reaching out for him now didn't seem to be friendly or inviting, but instead menacing. He couldn't help but feel that the moment those hands caught him, they would never let go. Those were not hands in his mind. They were more like shackles.
Disoriented and unable to even sit up properly however, the hands eventually caught a hold of him. He fought back violently, kicking, clawing, and biting at the creatures surrounding him while he screamed. Throughout all this, his mind became distant and calm.
He wondered what exactly had went wrong this evening, what had led him to this moment. Perhaps he should've listened to his instincts. Maybe he could've headed back earlier or not volunteer to stay in the forest to help Gilan search for the missing apprentice in the first place.
But he hadn't done that and he found that he didn't regret that particular action. If he had allowed Gilan to search the forest on his own, there was a very good chance that the other Ranger would be in his own current position. He might've been the one to never return to the Gathering Grounds.
At that thought, Will realized that he had already given up. He was not expecting to somehow escape the "Rangers" surrounding him. And with that realization, he felt the hands finally getting a secure, iron-grip on his arms.
It was over. All over.
At least I managed to help Gilan escape this fate… He thought, swaying on his feet within the grasp of the strange-faced creatures around him. Suddenly, he felt very tired and sleepy. Not a second had passed after he had thought however, when he heard someone screaming again.
"Will! Hold on!" His eyes snapped open wide as he heard the voice. It was instantly recognizable, but he couldn't comprehend how he was hearing it. Once again, he wondered if he was hallucinating or having some really long and impossibly weird dream.
But that hopeful notion shattered before it was even fully formed, when he turned his head to the direction from which the voice had come. Horror filled his eyes as he saw with dismay a single, unfortunately familiar Ranger around seventy-five meters away, recklessly crashing through the forest and heading straight for him. The swarm of the not-Rangers around him charged forward to meet the lone, actual Ranger, while a small group stayed back to quickly finish dealing with Will apparently.
Will's sight of the scene was soon blocked and filled by the strange faces of the creatures that now had their iron grips locking him in place, preventing any movement. There was a roaring sound in his ears and he felt like his head was about to split in two with the tidal wave of confusion and terror flooding his mind. He only had time to cry out a single, desperate word before he blacked out.
"GILAN!" A fraction of a second later, a blinding white light exploded before his eyes and his breath seemed to be forcefully sucked out of his own lungs. A numbness centered in his chest quickly spread to the rest of his body.
A few moments later, his mind went blank and he knew no more.
A/N: Did you make it here to the end? Congrats and thanks if you did! I wasn't expecting this to be so long... Constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated, especially considered how much I struggled with this chapter! Please? I'd love to know your thoughts beyond "it's good, please update" although those are nice as well. Now onto responses to reviews:
To my two (?) guests and M.T.: I'm glad you're reading and excited for this story! However, be aware that these chapters are going to take awhile to write. Nothing is prewritten and as you can see, these chapters are long. It will take me at LEAST 1-2 weeks to update and sometimes even longer once school gets started again. Sorry, that's just how it is. So there's no need to despair if I don't update as quickly as you might expect/want. If it helps at all, I usually update on Sunday afternoons, so there's no need to check in everyday either. Just have some patience, ok? I know you probably mean well but it kinda feels a little pressuring to have someone constantly asking about updates, especially when I'm a slow writer. Thanks :)
Christian: Thanks for the review, hope you enjoyed this chapter!
Weirdo: Here's the next chapter! Next one is coming hopefully soon!
MagicalMysteryPhantom: What? XD
I think I'm going to start giving some hints about next chapters at the end of each update. So, I'll say that the next chapter I'm currently working on will be dedicated mostly to briefly going over Gilan's side of the story and the consequences of this chapter. That, and of course Halt's reaction to this chapter's... momentous events ;) But until then, I EndlessStars, bid you farewell!