"Are we nearly there?"

Allie fought down the urge to punch Will in the arm again; this was the fiftieth time in three days that he had asked that question.

"I swear, Will, if you ask one more time…"

Taking the threat seriously, Will immediately shut his mouth, teeth clicking against each other with the force.

Letting out a relieved breath, Allie rubbed the back of her neck as Shadow climbed up to her favorite perch on Storm's head.

The mare snorted impassively at the movement, but didn't seem to mind the cat's dozing presence between her ears.

Resting her free hand on the pommel, Alex relaxed fully, her senses beginning to drift…

One-Two-Three-One-Two-Three-One-Two-Three.

Alert, she tilted her head to one side, focusing on the odd beat she had heard.

Storm, Tug and Abelard were in perfect time, a three-beat of gentle thunder that never wavered, but there was a fourth beat, only a second out of tune, underneath the thunder.

"Halt?"

The Ranger sighed, patience having already been tested by Will's persistent questions.

"Yes?"

"Someone's following us."

"So, you finally noticed." He replied, a hint of pride hidden beneath the sarcasm.

"How?" Will questioned, most likely listening for the elusive fourth set of hoofbeats.

"It was pretty obvious." Allie replied, shrugging her shoulders beneath the cloak.

"It was for me, at least."

Halt was impressed; only a few highly-trained Rangers would have noticed so quickly, or at all.

Still, that didn't mean he would admit it.

"Change gait on three." Halt whispered, catching their attention.

"One, two, three."

Nudging her left toe into Storm's shoulder, Allie felt the little mare immediately respond by skipping a pace.

The fourth set of hoofbeats became as apparent as a war drum for a few moments before the unseen horse matched their gait again.

"Ranger horse." Halt deduced softly.

"It'll be Gilan, for sure."

"How can you tell?" Will asked.

"Only a Ranger horse could change their pace as quickly as that. And it'll be Gilan because it's always Gilan. He loves trying to catch me out."

"Why?"

"Because he was my last apprentice, and for some reason, former apprentices just love to catch their former masters with their breeches down."

Feeling his accusing glare, Allie held up her hands in a gesture of peace.

"If there's one thing I don't want to do, it's catch you with your breeches down. I'll be fine tripping you."

The Ranger snorted.

"At least you're honest about it." He muttered, causing Allie to grin.

"That's the spot there. Ready?"

Hearing Will shift in the saddle, Allie kicked free of the stirrups and balanced on Storm's back in a crouch.

Will tapped five fingers against her forearm four times, and she tapped her thumb on the pommel to the steady beat as she counted to five.

It was another silent communications system Will had invented, and one of the few that Halt had approved off after initial testing.

At least they'd gotten some good dinner out of that experience…

Tensing on 'four', Allie leapt off to the left, curling into a compact ball to roll through the bush she landed in.

Not bothering to remove any possible leaves or twigs from her hair, she pulled up her hood.

Taking a moment to listen, she slunk along the trail, as silent as a prowling cat on the hunt for a skittish bird.

Hearing Halt dismount, Allie found a tree directly across from her mentor and scaled it with relative ease.

She had plenty of practice from when she would play hide-and-seek with John, or when she had to get away from the other village children.

Living with Will had only honed her skill, though she still had some trouble going at his pace; the boy was part monkey, she was sure of it.

Stopping three branches up (she didn't want to kill Gilan, after all), Allie crouched on the sturdiest one she could find and waited.

…

Snap.

Resisting the instinct to twitch, every muscle in her body coiled, ready for action.

The rustling of leaves, the slight crunch of grass; all of these sounds helped her track Gilan's progress, though they were soft.

Unable to repress a grin when he stopped below her on the trail, Allie waited for her cue…

"Halt, Halt!"

"Well, Gilan, I see you're still making that old joke."

"The joke appears to be on you this year, Halt."

"Really, Gilan? And what joke would that be, I wonder?"

"Come now, Halt. Admit it. For once I've got the best of you-and you know how many years I've been trying."

"It beats me why you keep on trying, Gilan, as a matter of fact."

The younger Ranger laughed; Allie theorized that Halt had sold his ability to laugh in order to better scare people silent.

"You should know how much pleasure it gives an ex-apprentice to get the best of his master, Halt. Now come on. Admit it. This year, I've won."

When Halt didn't respond right away, she could hear the slight shifting of the other's weight from the soft crunch of gravel.

"Ah, yes…apprentices and masters. They're a strange combination, alright. But tell me, Gilan, my old apprentice, aren't you forgetting something this year?"

An arrow hissed through the air and hit a tree to her right with a satisfying 'THOCK'.

The next moment, when her prey was most likely distracted, Allie dropped from her perch with the intent of a jungle cat.

Gilan nearly buckled under the sudden weight on his shoulders, absorbing the impact through his legs in order to keep from falling over.

"…Alexandra, I presume?" The young Ranger questioned, a hint of laughter in his tone signaling that he wasn't upset.

Allie grinned.

"Yup!"

"Come down, both of you, and meet Gilan, on of our more careless Rangers." Halt commanded, tone prompting immediate obedience from his current apprentices.

Releasing her hold on the young Ranger's shoulders, Allie landed in a slight crouch and brushed leaves off her cloak as she stood.

"I told you when you were a boy, didn't I? Never be too hasty. Don't rush into things."

Will joined them at that moment, dropping from a tree branch much like Allie had, and Gilan sounded a bit subdued when he responded.

"It appears that I was so intent on catching myself an old gray fox that I overlooked the small monkeys hiding in the trees."

"Monkey, is it?" Halt retorted gruffly.

"I'd say they've made a monkey out of you today. Will, Alex, this is Gilan, my former apprentice and now Ranger of Meric Fief-although what they did to deserve him is beyond me."

"And just as I was thinking I'd finally gotten the better of you, Halt." Gilan voiced cheerfully, shaking Will's hand.

"So you're Will. I'm pleased to meet you. That was a neat piece of work, young fellow."

Allie remembered Halt's instructions, that you should never gloat when you best a man ("or woman," Halt had been careful to add) and should find something in his (or her) actions to praise.

Luckily, Will remembered as well.

"Yes, I'm Will. Could you perhaps teach me how to move like that? It was brilliant."

Gilan laughed ruefully.

"Not too brilliant, I think. You obviously saw me coming from a long way away."

"I saw you when you arrived, and I saw where you'd been. But I never once saw you from the time you rounded that bend. I wish I could move like that."

"…Well, Halt, I see this young fellow doesn't merely have talent. He has excellent manners as well."

Halt was silent for a moment, prompting Allie to wonder what he was thinking again, before speaking.

"Unseen movement was always Gilan's best skill. You'd do well if he agreed to tutor you."

Allie yelped in surprise when a hand ruffled her hair through the hood of her cloak, and she pushed the cloth back to shake leaves out of her hair.

"And what about you, young lady?" Gilan voiced joyfully, putting an arm around her shoulders in a friendly gesture.

"Getting the drop on a Ranger like that isn't easy."

Flushing at the praise, Allie turned her face down to hide it.

"You weren't too bad yourself." She replied jokingly, managing a smile.

"You should be honored, Gilan." Halt voiced.

"That's the nicest thing she's said to anyone since I met her."

"Is not!"

…

"Oh, wait…It is."

Smile turning sheepish, Allie twiddled her thumbs with a subdued chuckle.

"Old habits, I guess…"

Another good-natured ruffle of her hair showed that Gilan still appreciated the thought, and she mock-pouted at the action.

"A lot like a grumpy kitten, isn't she?"

The older Ranger barely managed to hide the humor in his voice.

"More like a grumpy mountain lion, I think."

Blowing a raspberry at her mentor, she flinched when the Ranger flicked her forehead.

Halt had promised not to cuff her upside the head at the Gathering.

Unfortunately, he hadn't said anything about flicking her in the forehead…

Rubbing at the stinging skin, Allie sulked over to Will's side as Halt embraced his former apprentice.

"It's good to see you again." He greeted warmly.

"You get lankier every year. When are you going to put some meat on those bones?"

"You appear to have enough for both of us." Gilan joked.

"Is that the beginnings of a potbelly I see there? I'll wager he's sitting around the cabin letting you two do all the housework these days?"

Grinning at the truth in that statement, Allie turned her head slightly as Tug and Storm trotted up, Shadow jumping onto her owner's shoulders with a purr.

Fondling the cat's ears lovingly, she allowed Shadow to curl up inside the hood of her cloak before mounting Storm.

Patting the pony's shaggy neck while taking up the reins with one hand, she lifted her head at Will's voice.

"I thought we weren't allowed to have swords."

"…It's not that we're not allowed. It's a matter of priorities. It takes years to become a good swordsman and we don't have the time. We have other skills to develop."

There was the slightest pause, and even Allie sensed Will's next question before Halt answered it.

"Gilan's father is a knight, so Gilan had already been training with the sword for some years before he joined the Rangers. He was considered a special case and he was allowed to continue that training when he was apprenticed to me."

"But I thought…"

The boy paused as Gilan's horse trotted up to them, unsure on if he should proceed.

"Never say that in front of Halt." The young Ranger warned playfully.

"He'll simply reply, "You're an apprentice. You're not ready to think"; or, "if you thought about it, you wouldn't ask"."

Allie had to admit, Gilan was very good at impersonations…

"If Gilan's father was a knight, wasn't he automatically eligible for Battleschool? Or did they think he was too small as well?" Will questioned.

"I could have gone to Battleschool." Gilan admitted.

"But I chose to join the Rangers."

"Some of us do, you know." Halt put in mildly.

Allie had to agree; she had chosen to become a Ranger, after all.

"But I thought…"

Halt and Gilan had timed their reply perfectly: "You're an apprentice. You're not ready to think."

Storm immediately followed as Abelard and Gilan's own horse trotted off, Tug not far behind her, and both little ponies squeezed in-between their elders.

Will took hold of her wrist with a gentle squeeze, and she tilted her head towards him in question.

"…I'm glad I decided to become a Ranger." He admitted in a whisper.

A grin crossed her face, and Allie shifted her arm until she could grip his wrist in return.

"I'm glad you decided to become a Ranger, too."

The rest of the trip to the Gathering Ground was spent in a companionable silence.