By the time Will woke the next morning, rubbing sleep from his eyes and pointlessly attempting to smooth out his hopelessly tousled hair, Halt was already up and preparing breakfast, having woken up at his usual ungodly hour of the morning. Halt turned from the wood-burning stove as his apprentice walked bleary-eyed into the kitchen.

"You would think that after months of the same sleep schedule, you'd be able to be halfway aware in the morning," he said dryly.

Will slumped into a chair. "Wha's the point of being aware this early?" he yawned nearly unintelligibly.

"Or halfway coherent," Halt muttered, adding on to his earlier statement.

He walked over and put a full mug of coffee in front of his apprentice. Will smiled and took a drink. "That's more like it."

"And now that you're awake you can get your lazy backside off of that chair and help me with cooking."

The statement certainly delayed Will's return to his common chipper mood.

"Today you'll be learning a bit more about yesterday afternoon's lesson," Halt announced over their meal of bacon and eggs.

"You mean the Powers?" Will asked.

Halt sighed. "That was the lesson, wasn't it?"

"Well… yes."

"Then that's what we're learning this morning."

Halt got up and went into his room. He returned a moment later with a candle. Will raised an eyebrow but lowered it again as Halt set the candle on the table and lit it with the Power of fire. Apparently this was going to be his lesson.

Halt blew out the candle. "Light it," he commanded.

"If you want it lit, why did you blow it out?" Will asked innocently.

"Just light the candle."

Will nodded and stared at the candle for a moment. He looked up Halt in quandary. "Um, how?"

Halt decided that an example would do more good than words would. He drew upon the Power of fire and rubbed his thumb across the tip of his pointer finger as if striking a flint. A small flame appeared on his fingertip. Will mimicked the action, drawing on the Powers himself, but rather than a small burst of flame, a sudden spurt of shadows erupted. Will started in surprise.

"Wrong Power, Will," Halt said with amusement. "You need fire, not shadow. Fire will feel warmer."

Will nodded. He reached for the Power again, this time looking for something else inside it. But it seemed to be all just one thing. Though he thought that perhaps one section was warmer, one cooler. One section, the section that he realized he had been using before, was darker, and there was another section that was lighter. He drew on the warmer Power and repeated his earlier action. There was a sudden, bright flash of fire in front of him and Will gave a shout, releasing the Power in alarm. The flame disappeared with it.

Halt raised both eyebrows. "You certainly enjoy doing the unexpected, don't you? First the shadows, now the fire." He looked up and huffed, "Oh, just great."

Will followed his gaze and saw what he was looking at. There was a large scorch-mark on the ceiling. The apprentice winced; he must have made it by accident when the flame flared upward. "Sorry, Halt."

Halt snorted. "At least that was all you did. Gilan nearly burned the house down the first time he tried using the Power of fire. We were in the castle for two weeks while some carpenters made repairs."

Will grinned and suppressed his laughter.

"Work on making your flame smaller when you spark."

"Spark?" Will asked. "What do you mean?"

Halt made another little flame on his fingertip using his thumb and forefinger like he had before. "That right there is the most basic move with the Power of fire. We call it sparking. When you spark, make it smaller. It only needs to be about two inches high to light the candle. Don't use as much of the Power and it'll be a bit easier."

Will nodded his understanding, dipped into the Powers and sparked again. The flame shot up to about a foot high. Concentrating, Will was able to get it down to four inches, then it hopped back up again. He tried to get it lower, but the flame leaped up and down in sporadic spurts and he couldn't keep it steady.

Halt banged on the table suddenly. Will jumped and let go of the Power. The fire snuffed out immediately.

"What was that for?"

Halt shrugged. "I wanted you to stop playing with fire for a moment. You've got other things to learn, you know. We can come back to this later." He stood and walked over to the door, pausing to wait for Will to get to his feet and follow.

"What are you going to teach me now?" Will asked as they went out the door.

"The Power of earth. No more questions."

Will reluctantly fell silent.

Master and apprentice walked through the woods, Will wondering when they were going to stop and Halt was wondering when Will was going to stop looking around like an idiot who'd never seen trees before. Finally, Halt stopped.

"Why'd we stop here?" Will asked.

"Because I said so," Halt snapped.

But he didn't say anything, Will thought, but wisely didn't say.

Halt knelt in the dirt. He gestured for Will to kneel as well. Halt scooped up a handful of dirt and clumped it together tightly. Holding the lump of dirt on a flat palm, he stared at it with eyes narrowed with concentration. Will could have sworn up and down that he saw the dirt shift a little in his hand. Halt suddenly switched his grip and threw it at a tree. As it connected with the trunk, rather than spattering dirt everywhere like an earthen snowball like it should have, it thunked noisily against the wood as a rock would have and dropped to the ground in one piece.

"The easiest thing to do with the Power of earth is change what the earth is. Change dirt to rock, rock to metal, metal to dirt, or anything interchanging between the three," Halt explained.

Will perked up. "You can make gold, then?"

Halt shook his head. "Not really. The more precious the metal, the harder it is to make. However, we can take a bit of gold from outside sources and change its form into that of the Oakleaf. That's how we make our pendants, yours included. Anyway, you try it now. Make sure you reach for the right Power. Have you noticed that they're paired in opposites?"

Will nodded. "A warmer one, a cooler one, a darker one, a lighter one, a firmer one and the last one is… the opposite of firm. Floppy, maybe?"

Halt gave him a withering glance. "Floppy? It's air. Well, that one's not important right now. Use the firm one, earth."

Will nodded. He copied Halt's actions, scooping up some dirt and using the Power to try to make it turn harder. Unfortunately, it didn't work. He clumped the dirt together with his hands and tried again, but even with the Power, it just wasn't happening. His shoulders slumped.

"Looks like we found your weakness," Halt said.

Will looked at him curiously. "Weakness?"

Halt nodded. "Every Ranger has a weakness and a strength. It's a Power that they're abnormally bad or good at. For example, I'm weak in fire while it's Crowley's and Gilan's strength. I have a hard time using it beyond the basic things, such as sparking. Gilan and Crowley have no such inhibitions. However, my strengths are shadow and earth, so I can use those particularly well, while Gilan fails miserably every time he tries to use earth."

"Kind of like me?"

"Don't be hard on yourself, that was your first try. Now, let's get back to the cabin."

"Why do we walk for half an hour, do one thing, then walk all the way back?" he asked while scrambling to his feet. Halt rose as well.

"It's good exercise."

"Wouldn't running be better?"

"If you want to run, go ahead."

"Um, no thanks."

There was a brief silence until Will had another question.

"Halt?"

Halt sighed heavily. "Another question?"

"You just answered a question with a question!" Will said, surprised.

"Just spit it out before I answer with violence instead," he growled.

"Um, well, with the Powers, you can feel all six of them, but you can't feel the seventh Power. Why is that?"

Halt gave him a level stare. "I'm not answering any of your questions about the seventh Power until I absolutely have to."

They lapsed into another silence until Will broke it again.

"What am I going to be doing when we get home?"

"You'll be walking toward the cabin."

"After I get home," Will amended.

"You'll be practicing archery."

"Are you going to teach me more about the Powers tomorrow?"

"Everyday for the next couple weeks."

Will was satisfied with that answer.

That was a lame ending, sorry. The next chapter will be better, but I'm going on a trip for a week and a half, so unless I get it up tomorrow, it won't be up until I get back.

Reviewers are awesome, so review! They give authors warm fuzzies. Unless they're flames, but you're not that mean. ^_^

-Rydd Rider