A/N: I apologize for not updating? I'm not sure how many people read this still . . . But sorry for not updating! Hope you enjoy the chapter :)

Disclaimer: If I owned Ranger's Apprentice, wouldn't someone else be writing this story then? Or wouldn't this be a published book?

Chapter 4

The voice, it turned out, belonged to Falcão, our "beloved" leader of the Wanderers. How come the Wanderers always seemed to be there at the worst of times?

Vontade was joyed at seeing him, but Halt and Sylvia sure weren't. "Why is there always one of you to stop us?" Halt wondered aloud, mostly to hopefully distract Falcão.

"Because we do a better job of protecting our apprentices than you so believed," Falcão retorted, "Now back away from Vontade, he did nothing to hurt you. Just leave him alone." Halt's eyes flared seems you're the one hurting him but he backed away. Falcão's tone of voice was so patronizing. Halt sneered as he thought this, he bet his voice was also so. Halt gestured at Sylvia to follow and left.

"I don't think that Wanderers are such good guys after all!" Vontade screamed after the two Rangers left. "They didn't do anything to me! We were just talking!"

"Oh, tell the truth, you were scared out of your wits," Falcão said while frowning, they had lost more than one apprentice this way. Of course, most still stayed and denied the fact Rangers never hurt them or made the first move unless provoked.

"Oh really?! Well, Halt is much nicer than any of you! He actually cares for his apprentices!" Vontade yelled. Little did he know, Arrettez was just hiding in the trees, he had come back to check on Vontade and was just about to walk into the clearing, but when he heard this a tear slid down Arrettez's cheek unbidden and unchecked. Arrettez knew that he had not been Vontade's favorite, not even close, but this? He sighed and trudged back to the cabin, heartbroken. But Vontade didn't go back, he jumped up on Puxão and rode away fast and hard, suddenly overcome with emotion. Falcão decided it was best to leave him alone for a while. He would go check on Arrettez, they were not the best of friends but they had the strongest relationship in the whole corps, but that didn't really mean much.

. . .

"Arrettez, what's wrong?" Falcão asked awkwardly, he knew that Arrettez wouldn't be comfortable sharing his feelings. But he was wrong, in a way.

"I saw what happened," Arrettez whispered, nothing else needed to be said. Even Falcão had never seen him like this, he had never felt this way either, because, well, he never had a kind of child in his life. No younger brother, no apprentice, and definately no son. Falcão for once, felt hopeless. The Wanderers were falling apart from the inside out, slowly and agonizingly. This would not do. Then Arrettez's head snapped up, "Where is he?" he demanded, then saw the look on Falcão's face. "You left him in the forest?!" he hissed, alarm evident in his voice. "Then we must find him."

. . .

But it was too late, Halt would never just leave without a fight. No, he had stayed, now, he had Vontade. Puxao twitched his ears, and Vontade patted him reassurringly. he looked aorund for whoever Puxao was reacting to, and saw nothing. Probably a mistake on his horse's part, of course, he only thought this because he had no idea about the training of a Wanderer horse, or more correctly, a Ranger horse.

Then, Halt stepped out from behind a tree. "Hello again," he said. Vontade looked up, startled. "I - uh," he managed then asked "Did you hear what I said?". Luckily, he didn't faint this time.

A/N: Thanks for sticking with the story! Also, I would like to know, did I drop a whole bunch of followers by tossing in a female Ranger, or seperating this story into two stories? Review?