There was a steady transition of snowy fields to green and lively grass as they traveled further south. The change in environment showed in the attitudes of the towns in which they rested. Here in the heartlands of the empire, the general populace didn't have as much fear from bandits or savage animals. For the most part, the biggest threat to their health was taxes.

"Wait here while I pay," her master had instructed her outside the inn where they had stayed the previous night. She nodded, leaning against the doorframe, patiently scanning her environment in an unconscious self-defense routine, making note of any figures coming toward her. It was the standard practice whenever she was ordered to wait somewhere, and she often did it even when no order had come simply out of habit. She couldn't understand how these other people would allow themselves to lower their guard in an area filled with strangers. It was one of many things that her master said she would probably never understand but have to accept about other people.

"Excuse me?" At some point, a young boy around her age approached her. He didn't seem afraid of her like most people she had met, which she found strange until she remembered that they had stored their signature cloaks in their travel bags in order to blend in with the general population, "Are you new here?"

"Passing through." She replied, as she saw no benefit to lying to him. The child was clearly non-hostile to her, in fact he was being openly warm and friendly. She supposed this was what a normal child looked like

"Oh, will you be staying awhile? Me and my friends-"

"I won't be." She said before he could begin an explanation. She already had a general idea of what the child wanted and was not interested. With that knowledge, she saw no reason to continue conversing and hoped he would see the same.

The boy seemed discouraged yet Shade had a feeling he might have kept talking anyway, had her master not come out from the inn. He stopped outside and looked between the two of them, his steely gaze forcing the child to shrink off. "Who was that?"

"No one."

Her master seemed content with that. She had a general knowledge of how people viewed her master and their relationship, but one thing about him that she would always be grateful for was that he trusted her absolutely. After hearing her report, he simply nodded without any further investigation, "We're going."

She followed his lead, steadily creating distance between themselves and the town. It was only when they were outside of visual range that he spoke to her again, "We're going to an old ranger shack here in Redmont. It's been abandoned for some time and has fallen into disrepair. You'll help me rebuild it, and there is where we'll be stationed for the near foreseeable future while we continue with your training. Five years from now you'll be capable of killing me."

"If I'm not?"

"You'll probably be dead."

Shade understood. It wasn't a threat, just a statement of the facts. He had told her very early on that retired Rangers were a dying breed. With the Emperor's new expansionist policies, Rangers were being placed in more perilous positions than they ever had in the recent past. Enforcing his will was much easier in areas where Ranger authority was respected and feared. Doing so in the lands overseas and uncivilized territories was much trickier. Thus, she would either become a great Ranger capable of overtaking her own master, or she would die.

Soon they came upon a forest, thick with wildlife and vegetation. Unlike the hostile nature of the forest she had spent the past year in, this place was clearly meant to support life. It was a friendlier side to nature than she was used to. The welcoming feeling that she got from it made her uneasy. Hostile and cold forces she could understand, she found the open disdain comforting as it gave her a clear idea of where they stood, but an entity displaying warmth and affection was a wildcard.

It was likely due to this natural uneasiness that she was able to easily pick up on the human sounds originating from the nearby bushes. Looking through her peripheral vision, she clearly saw the glint of sunlight bouncing off of steel.

Shade coughed exactly one time into her hand, as part of a pre-arranged system of non-verbal communication with her master. "We're not alone."

Her master scratched behind his right ear, "I saw them." He followed up the signal by fidgeting his hands. "Stand by."

So she continued as ordinary, not giving any indication that she was aware of their stalkers. It did not take long before they showed the courtesy of revealing themselves. Two in front, one behind. Their clothes were ragged, and the knives each one held was dull from frequent use. It was clear that these weren't professionals of any sort, most likely bandits just getting their start. Clearly not intelligent for trying to do something like this on public roads. Intelligent criminals always knew that the roads were strictly off limits; if the Imperial Guard ever learned you or your gang was committing banditry on the roads, they reserved the absolute worst form of execution for you. Roadside banditry was on par with rape and murder due to how vital the road system was to the sustainability of the Empire, and obstructing them in any form was treated as an act of terror against the Empire itself.

Even the slightest possibility of capture was enough to discourage most intelligent bandits. Meaning the people they were dealing with were clearly not intelligent.

"We'll be taking whatever you have in those bags," One from the front snapped at her master

"Hmm," He looked over the three of them, "Young. You haven't been at this for very long. Do your parents know you're out?"

The original speaker's face contorted into an offended expression. Add low self-esteem to the list of weaknesses. "Really? We have you surrounded and you're going to insult us, old man?"

"You're right, it was foolish of me to bother. You insult yourselves easily enough."

"You know what, we were going to let you go, but now I think we'll just gut you!"

Shade felt a hand grip onto her right arm, pulling her harshly and forcing her to regain her balance, "Maybe we should take your daughter. How does that sound to you?"

Her master looked back at him, then at her. He looked her straight in the eyes, and then closed his. 1...2...3...

Eyes closed for exactly three seconds.

Kill…

Shade let the knife hidden in her left sleeve slip into her hand. She turned inward toward her attacker, plunging the small blade straight into his heart before he could understand what was happening. Then, retracting and flipping it around in her hand to hold it by the blade, she threw the knife into the neck of one of the front attackers.

With two down in less than five seconds, the last one remaining ran at her with his knife, his vision falling off of her master. Suddenly her master was standing in front of him with his knife extended outward. The bandit ran right into it, impaling himself and collapsing lifelessly onto the ground.

They immediately checked their surroundings, on the look-out for anyone who might have been with them, hiding in the brush in case things didn't go as planned, but the forest was silent. Until they heard the gurgling of a man choking on his own blood, drawing their attention to the man with the knife lodged in his neck.

Her master looked at her. "Four centimeters too low." He told her. Shade looked down in shame; sure, right now it didn't make much difference, but if she had been trying to preserve her cover then the noise he was making would alert any nearby hostiles. A kill needed to be quick and clean, otherwise it was worthless. A true Ranger accomplished nothing less.

She committed this lesson to memory.

Her master calmly walked over the dying man and knelt down, "You know what, we were going to let you go," he echoed the words back to the young fool, before placing his gloved hand over the man's mouth and nose, smothering his source of oxygen and leaving him flailing around on the ground until he finally simply lied back. Dead.

"I want you to wake up early tomorrow to clean this up, assuming the wildlife haven't eaten them by then," he told her, "We can't have bodies on the road to our home, and it would be too bothersome to report this to the guard."

"How do I dispose of them?"

"Right, I forgot I haven't taught you that yet. For now, just drag them into the forest where they're out of sight, with luck the wildlife with take care of them for us. If they're still around after a few days, I'll show you how to dispose of them properly."

He stood up and continued walking as if nothing had happened, indicating a need to move on. Looking up, she saw the sun beginning to set in the distance and realized the need to hurry.

When the cabin finally came into sight, she didn't think much of it. The hut was run down, several collapses in the infrastructure and walls decayed from centuries of neglect, and the nearby stable wasn't in much better condition. She could see at a glance why the place had been abandoned for so long, she couldn't see what even a Ranger could do with it. It offered the opposite of protection against the elements and any defensive capabilities the old ruin might have had once were long made useless.

"Be mindful. You're standing on historical ground," said her master, "Two of the most famous Rangers in history lived here, back when Araluen was still a fledgling kingdom. If not for them, there wouldn't be an Araluen today, and we'd be no better than the savages across the sea. If you're going to be a Ranger someday, you need to have a good understanding of our history."

"Who were they?"

"One was named Halt, we know that for certain. The other is a bit harder to pinpoint. We know his first name was Will, but there were a few Rangers with that name and record keeping back then was less than superb, even if there hadn't been a civil war."

"If they were talented, shouldn't they have kept themselves out of the history texts?"

"Hmm, there's truth to that," he said with a hint of amusement, only a hint though, "A famous Ranger is a bit of an oxymoron, but sometimes one can't really help it. When you get results, people tend to take notice whether you want them to or not." He dropped his travel bag in front of the ruin, "I'm going to go to Redmont keep to make contact with the headquarters there. When I return we'll begin patching this place up and making it livable again. I want tents pitched, a well dug, a fire pit made, and an archery course set up and practiced on by the time I get back."

Shade nodded, committing everything he had listed to memory. After confirming her understanding, her master simply walked back down the path he came.

Now alone, Shade looked over the work ahead of her. Given the distance between the hut and Redmont and what he'll be doing there, she could estimate that she had a day and a half before he returned. The well would be a challenge, but given the forest environment she shouldn't have to dig further than 10ft in order to find water. If she pitched the tent, cleaned up the bodies down the road, and built the fire pit that night, then she could dedicate the whole next day to the well, and the archery range that night if she didn't sleep.

A plan in mind, she went to work without hesitation.