Snow fight

"That was quicker than I thought it would be," Halt said as the two rangers rode slowly back into Redmont.

"Yeah," Will agreed. "I didn't think they'd surrender that easily."

Behind them, tethered to the horses, were a string of bandits. They moaned and groaned and staggered along, shouting out an occasional curse when they tripped. The horses never stopped for them to regain their footing.

"I do wish they'd shut up though," Halt added mildly. "I might have to shut them up myself. With an arrow." He glanced back at the line of bandits. "It will hurt," he told them. There was no more moaning after that.

They dropped the bandits off to the baron.

"Now what?" Will asked.

"Patrol the fief," Halt replied. "Write our report. Don't think we have free time."

"This snow is really deep," Will said, not bothering to reply.

"It's snow," Halt was unimpressed. "It comes and goes every year. It's really not that exciting."

"Hang on, my shoelace is untied," Will said and dropped to one knee. Halt waited patiently. Unseen to him, Will scooped up a handful of snow.

When he straightened up, he spun around and hurled it at his former mentor. It hit Halt squarely in the face.

"I can't believe you fell for the shoelace trick!" Will cried in delight. Then he ran for his life.

Halt kept up easily and pelted him with snowballs. Every now and again, Will found a moment to hurl one back at his former mentor.

He ran into the forest. This was his area of expertese. He launched himself up a tree, snow shaking to the ground.

Halt slowed when he caught up, seconds later. He peered around, seemingly unsure where his enemy was. But his sharp eyes noticed a lack of snow on the branches of a tree, compared to the others and the pile beneath it.

Under the shadow of his cowl, his eyes studied the tree. He could just make out a shadowy figure, unmoving in the branches. He doubted a normal person, or even a less experienced ranger, would have noticed Will's position.

He knelt to the ground, pretending to search for tracks. The folds of his cloak hid the mound of snow he scooped up. His movements were fast as lightening as he sent the snowball spinning towards his target. Will didn't have time to react. Taken by surprise, he was knocked backwards from the tree and into a snow drift.

"Argh, I'll get you for that!" Will shouted as he leapt to his feet. He ran towards his mentor. Than stopped. Two snowballs spun out of nowhere and hit them both.

"A bit out of practise, aren't we?" Gilan stepped out from behind a tree.

"Gilan!" Will said. That was the second time he'd been surprised today. "What are you doing here?"

Gilan shrugged. "Oh, I had some free time, so I thought I'd come by."

"To see Jenny?" Will suggested with a grin.

"Well- gah!" Gilan brushed snow from his face. "Halt that wasn't fair, I was-argh- that's it!"

Soon the three of them were in a full out snow fight. They moved away from the forest and back into Redmont. The civilians were more than surprised to see three rangers messing around in the snow.

They built forts to protect them and pelted each other. Will's fort was paricularly strong. Gilan decided there was no way he could break through it unless he took desperate action.

He rose from behind his and moved silently across the ground. Will didn't notice and continued to hit Gilan's fort with snowballs.

"Aha!" Gilan said in triumph. He leapt to his feet and kicked over Will's fort, sending snow all over the younger man. A massive snowball hit the back of Gilans head, surprising him and sending him tumbling forward over Will.

"Looks to me as if I won," Halt said smugly. Gilan and Will, collapsed over each other, glared up at him.

Then the last snowball was thrown, slamming into Halt's face and spraying snow down his shirt.

"Doesn't look that way to me," Alyss said.