First Snow
Christmas snow... a foreign concept to me. In NZ christmas is beaches, barbeque ham, summer heat, iced drinks. I wish I could have a white Christmas...
WARNING: SPOILERS FOR BOOK 9
Will tossed and turned in his sleep. Sweat trickled down his face. His body was trembling under his blankets.
"Ah...!" He cried, thrashing out with his arms and legs. His left leg knocked painfully against the wall and the young ranger shot up, wide awake.
His chest rose and fell with raggid gasps. He reached up to wipe the sweat from his face.
"Damn," Will muttered, clenching and unclenching his jaw. He'd had that nightmare again. A warped memory.
In his sleep, he had been back in the dead forest in Picta, searching for purple cloaked assasins that he knew were lurking. He still remembered the terror like it had happened yesterday. The horrible, heart wrenching moment when Halt had cried out in pain. Will's body had turned to ice at the thought that his mentor might be dead. And in the dream, he rolled over Halt's dead body and stared into unseeing eyes.
Of course, Halt had survived, thanks to Malcolm. The genovesans were dead. It had all ended happily.
"Everythings fine," Will whispered to himself. "Halt's fast asleep with his wife."
He became aware of a scratching sound. He frowned, before he realised it was Ebony pawing his door. The cold kissed his bare arms as he slid from bed to open the door. The border sheperd dog whined softly and nudged his leg with her nose.
"Sorry, girl," Will reached down to pet her. "Didn't mean to worry you."
He dressed quickly. It wasn't the first time he'd had a nightmare and he knew from experience he would never get to sleep again.
He made himself a cup of coffee. The cup shook in his hands.
"Damn," Will said again. He felt weak and fearful; the aftermath of a bad dream.
Ebony flopped down under the table. He buried his feet in her fur. Her body was warm and comforting. But it wasn't her he needed to see.
"What do you say we go visit Halt?" he said.
Ebony raised her head at the sound of his voice. Will swung on his cloak. There had been times in the past, particularly after Skandia, that Halt would sit awake with him all night when he couldn't sleep. Will would fall asleep when the sun rose and wake in his own bed. Halt never said anything of it, just that half the day had been wasted and they would have to work hard for the rest of it. And that was good too, for Will would be too exhausted to dream by nightfall.
So he hoped his mentor wouldn't be too angry at being woken up in the middle of the night. Will just needed to see that he was okay, then he would go home.
He saddled Tug. The horse still had his christmas garb, but Will just wasn't in the frame of mind to smile. He left Tug and Ebony in the castle stables and wandered up the stairs.
The castle was, predictably, empty of movement. Torches still burned in the brackets on the walls. The shadows they cast gave the stone walls an eery feel.
He rapped on his mentors door. There was no reply so he knocked a little louder. He heard movement inside and hesitated. It had been a silly, impulsive decision to bother his mentor.
The door was pulled open to reveal a slightly disgruntled looking Pauline. Her hair was flowing free down her back and she rubbed sleep from her eyes.
"Will?" she asked. "What's wrong?"
Before he could reply, an extremely grumpy voice called out, "Who the hell is awake this time of night? Tell them to get lost and come back to bed, Pauline!"
"It's Will," Pauline replied simply.
Halt appeared from a doorway. He had thrown a loose shirt on over his sleeping clothes and his hair and beard were even scruffier than usual.
"What happened?" he asked immediately.
Will's face coloured. He definitely hadn't been fully awake when he decided to come here.
"Ah, no nothing," he said awkwardly. "I'm going now."
"Wait, Will, come in," Pauline held the door open. She had a lantern in her hand and she set it down on the table. "Tell us what's wrong."
They were both staring at him, clearly worried.
"What are you doing here?" Halt asked. Will knew him well enough to tell that the sharp question was in no way intended to be rude- rather, Halt was fearful of the answer.
"Sit down," Pauline ushured him over to the couch. "I'll make coffee," she said and slipped away into the kitchen.
"What happened?" Halt asked again and Will knew he was never going to get away without telling his mentor.
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "I had a nightmare," he mumbled. He felt like a fifteen year old ward again, not a highly skilled ranger.
"Is that all?" Halt asked bluntly. "You woke me up in the middle of the night to tell me that?"
Will dropped his gaze to the floor. "I just wanted...to make sure you were okay... is all..."
"Okay? Why wouldn't I be okay?"
"Well," Will coughed. His face was bright red now. "In the dream.. we were fighting the genovesans again...and...you weren't."
Halt was stunned. A large part of his mind was flattered that his former apprentice cared so much about him, as he did for Will. But still, it had happened months back and it was time that Will let it go.
"Will, I'm fine. You and Malcolm saved me. It ended well." he said.
"I know that. But what if it hadn't!" Will dropped his head in his hands. "You were so close to..." he choked up. He couldn't say it. A warm arm wrapped around his shoulders.
"I'm fine," Halt said, more forcefully. "There are a lot of what ifs from the moment we are born. What if we had done this, or done that. But we can't go back and change the past. So we have to focus on here and now, or we'll make mistakes in the present, alright?"
"Mistakes like waking you up," Will said ruefully.
"Exactly," Halt said. "I don't like being woken up in the middle of the night."
"Sorry Halt."
"You should be," Halt snorted. Then, he frowned, because he hadn't actually meant it to sound quite the way it had.
"I mean to say," he continued. "Try to let these things go. But sometimes that's hard to do, so if you do need to come here, I don't mind. Much. Just not too often."
He hoped Will had gotten the point. He had tried to say that he would be there for the young man that had become his son, in his own roundabout way. He glanced around to see his wife smiling at him, with three cups of steaming coffee.
"There see," she whispered to Halt. "You can be sensitive when you try."
"Would you like to sleep on the couch, for tonight Will?" Pauline offered.
"No, I wouldn't want to be a bother," Will hurried to decline the offer.
"Look," Pauline pulled back the curtains. "It's snowing. You don't want to ride back in the snow, do you Will?"
"Besides," Halt said gruffly. "You can hardly be more of a bother now you've woken us up."
"Thank you," Will smiled at them both.
"The first snow of Christmas," Pauline said. "Redmont will be covered tommorrow morning."
"It's funny," Will laughed. "Jenny's chocolate calender had a snowflake chocolate for today."
"What chocolate calender is this?" Pauline asked and wondered why her husband was looking guilty.
