Disclaimer: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters

Halt rode into the clearing on Abelard as the sun was just coming up to shine light across the castle. He made the remaining mile of the journey to the cabin in less than five minutes. Crowley was sitting on the verandah in the chair and covered in a blanket. Halt's brow creased. It was odd for Crowley to go back to the Ranger life style after falling in love with the castle comforts but it was even more out of place for him to make it even more below standards by sleeping outside in a chair. Abelard slowed to a stop as they drew up in front of the cabin. Halt dismounted and made the 'free' gesture to release Abelard to the surrounding grass. The Ranger glanced lazily at Crowley and rolled his eyes.

"You're losing it Crowley. I know you're not asleep," Halt said. He had seen the commandant stir slightly as he rode into the clearing and then watched as he shifted his head in fake sleep so he could get a better look at Halt.

"Sorry if we can't be as good performers as you," Crowley muttered as he rolled out of the chair and stretched. Sleeping in a chair for one night was painful, any more than that was torture. Halt looked at him with his eyebrows raised.

"May I ask why you're sleeping down here? I thought you'd become rather fond of castle living," Halt teased. He had always knew his friend had a soft spot for fine food and poufy beds.

"If I've heard right it seems that you're getting rather fond of raiding Chubbs kitchen in Redmont instead of shooting your own meat," Crowley retorted. Halt grunted and absently rubbed a spot on his head where said cook had whacked him a few weeks ago. It still gave the occasional throb.

"That still doesn't answer my question as to why you are sleeping in a chair," Halt pointed out after a pause. Crowley smiled and walked down the steps to his friend who still stood where Abelard had left him.

"Well if you want to try and navigate the mess in there, go ahead," Crowley said while motioning towards the cabin.

"I don't think I could." Halt had seen the interior of the wood building once before about five years ago and he could hardly imagine how much more paper Crowley had collected.

"Well I have cleared a path to the kitchen at least," Crowley said thoughtfully. He was rather fond of the idea of getting a mug of coffee right now.

"I'm guessing you snuck some coffee off the innkeeper as well?" Halt asked although it was more of a statement.

"I did not!" Crowley protested. Halt raised his eyebrows. "I snuck it out of his cupboard," Crowley mumbled. "Does it really matter where I got it from?" Crowley asked after a pause. Halt considered the point.

"No, I suppose not," Halt said while looking around. He noticed that Crowley had left Cropper meandering around in the clearing instead of putting him in the lean to. Not too far away was a bucket of water and another of grain.

"I'll make the coffee while you take care of Abelard," Crowley said as he noted Halt's actions. Halt nodded.

Crowley turned and made his way back to the verandah as Halt went the opposite direction to Abelard. He spoke quietly to his horse as he opened a pocket in the saddle pack and pulled out a brush. When he was done brushing him down, he unpacked the folding bucket and filled it with water from his canteen. Abelard finished the water and Halt handed him an apple while giving him an adoring pat on the neck. The horse pushed against his shoulder with his snout and Halt turned to look at the cabin. Crowley was inside and couldn't see him so he pulled out another apple from his pocket and fed it to Abelard. As he turned to go back inside he caught a movement from the corner of his eye. Without breaking pace or showing any appearance of having seen anything Halt assessed the area by moving his eyes. He couldn't see too well from the corner of his eye and didn't sense any trouble but he had the odd feeling that he had just witnessed something important.

Halt frowned but continued into the cabin. As he stepped through the threshold he was greeted with the smell of coffee and all troubling thoughts were dispelled. He took a deep breath and fought his way through piles of paper to a table that was scattered with reports and maps. The chairs were clear of anything and he assumed Crowley had just swept their contents onto the floor. He took his seat and accepted his mug as Crowley handed it to him and took his own seat.

"Where's the honey?" Halt asked a little confused. He couldn't fathom how Crowley could have forgotten to get him some honey.

"No need to ruin good coffee," Crowley said while barely hiding his grin.

"It can't be that good if you made it," Halt muttered darkly. Crowley faked offense as Halt took a sip of the dark liquid anyways. "It'd be better with honey," Halt said quietly to himself and Crowley smiled. His smile quickly faded as he remembered why he had called Halt here.

"Thanks for coming," Crowley said. Halt frowned at the sudden serious tone his friend had adopted.

"Don't think I had the option to say no," Halt responded. Crowley looked into the swirling contents of his mug without answering. "What aren't you telling me?" Halt asked, picking up on his friend's body language. Crowley looked up at him and gave a wan smile.

"I always wondered why we were friends Halt," he said amusedly. Halt frowned. "Until you went to Clonmel and revealed your relation with Ferris I never realized it," he continued before Halt could ask where this was going. "We both came from something we never wanted to be."

"What do you mean?" Halt asked, truly baffled. He set his coffee down on the table and leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest.

"You became a Ranger because you had loyalty to Araluen and you found it a tempting prospect to defend the country as your job and not receive any praise for it," Crowley stated. Halt nodded slowly. "I did it for the same reasons."

"What does this have to do with us being friends and me coming to take over for you?" Halt asked perplexed.

"We are friends because I understand you and to a certain extent you understand me. You ran away from your family and life whereas I was…" Crowley left the sentence hanging. He knew he had made the right choice in becoming a Ranger but talking about it made him uncomfortable. Halt raised his eyebrows. "I was disowned by a beast of a father because he felt being a Ranger was a pathetic thing for a man to become," Crowley finished and despite Halt being Halt, he showed a significant amount of surprise as his eyebrows shot higher than he would have let them in normal circumstances.

"Who?" Halt couldn't think of any better thing to ask as his anger and loyalty to his friend kicked in.

"Lord Feller," Crowley mumbled half hoping Halt wouldn't hear. Halt frowned and went to ask what this had to do with anything but Crowley beat him to it. "We left off on a…bad note about twenty-five years ago and now he's in Araluen."

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Halt asked. It was none of his business he knew but he had thought that after the adventure in Clonmel they knew each other's history perfectly.

"Never really saw a need to go into something that would be best left alone. Feller is a beast. He only acts for himself and I gave up trying to be good enough." Crowley sighed, if he was going to have Halt take over for him he needed to give his friend the whole story. "One day I was in the forest practicing throwing knives and Pritchard came across me. He started giving me tips and it went from there; whenever I would come out in the woods to practice he would show up. But one day I came home and Feller had found out. We exchanged some words and I left on his promise to see me dead. A week after I had started to live with Pritchard we discovered that a boy with a resemblance to me had been mauled by a bear and Feller had convinced enough people it was me so that memory of me started to fade.

"Now he's here and I don't really think it'd be a good idea to meet again," Crowley finished. He avoided telling Halt of the incident a few days previous with his father and was glad to see his nose didn't look to awful. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to. It's my problem and I'll have to deal with it sometime or other."

"I'm already here, may as well stay," Halt said matter of factly. Even though Halt showed no emotion, Crowley knew that he understood what he was going through. "Besides, you're my commandant and my friend which makes this my problem." Crowley had to smile at that. It was so like Halt to dig his feet into troubled ground.

Please review