(A/N)
Oehhh, Verita meets the ranger commandant! I hope you like what I thought up for him. Pritchard comes from 'The Hibernian' from 'The Lost Stories' of course. It's been a while since I read that story though, and a friend of mine who is currently on vacation in Spain lent the book, so I might have some details wrong.
Also, some comments on the timeline of this story, because I found out that it doesn't really fit right:
- Pritchard was banished to Hibernia only a month or so after Crowley's graduation.
- Crowley meets Verita ten years after he graduates.
- Verita is nearly eleven when they meet.
- Crowley becomes commander about one and a half year after he meets Verita.
That means that Pritchard had less than one and a half year to train Halt. Well, I suppose it could work. After all, if you consider all the time that went into hunting Kalkara, being a slave in Skandia, beating Temujai and gallivanting around Arrida, Will's apprenticeship wasn't all that long either.
It also means that Halt still lived in Clonmel when Verita was conceived, so one thing that I had to change is Natalja's secret love. I had this image in my head of her falling in love with the dashing young man (Sean) and then being raped by his nasty old uncle (Ferris), but then I realized that this all happened before Verita was born, so Sean wasn't born yet either, as he was born after Halt left. I decided to make Natalja in love with Halt instead, although he doesn't reciprocate it. I changed chapter one and two a bit to make it fit.
Now, before this A/N is longer than the actual chapter, thanks Ranger Robbin for yet another review, the usual disclaimer, and enjoy the chapter.
Oh, and before I forget, it'll be a while before I update again because 1) I'm going on vacation 2) I don't have any finished chapters left and 3) I'm also busy with my Harry Potter story. I'm not abandoning this thing though, so don't feel disappointed when I don't update for like a month or so.
PS: The song is a slightly edited version of 'Van Diemen's land' by the Dubliners, look it up on youtube.
Chapter 10 – The Ranger Commandant
"Rita, just remember what I told you about him and the corps and you'll be fine", Crowley told Verita while they waited until the ranger Commandant was ready to receive them.
Verita nodded and thought back to one of Crowley's various lectures about the ranger corps. He had been explaining why it was legal for rangers to poach. Apparently, it had all started with his mentor.
Ranger Pritchard had been one of the few capable people in the ranger corps when Crowley became an apprentice. Most other rangers were incompetent fools who had bought their way in. Pritchard however held on to the old ways, and taught Crowley to do the same. Pritchard was a renowned hero, with a reputation bigger than life. Still, a set of unfortunate circumstances proved able to get the better of him.
Immediately after Crowley's graduation, Pritchard was sent on a mission to gather information about Morgarath's troops. The things he discovered were of such importance that he made his return journey incognito, dressed as a peasant, and didn't even dare enter a village until he reached the king at Castle Araluen. In terms of safety measures it was only wise, but it also meant he couldn't buy any food for nearly two weeks – and worse, no coffee. As the proud owner of a huge longbow, Pritchard quickly decided to keep his stomach full by hunting animals for food, even while he traveled through the Western Woods in which all game by law belonged to the king. It was just his bad luck that one of the king's patrols happened upon him and overcame him.
They took him for a peasant because of his disguise. Pritchard tried to tell them that he was a ranger of course, but the men were inexperienced and didn't recognize his silver oak leaf. In fact, one of the soldiers took it to give to his daughter as a birthday present. This meant that he had no identification when the patrol brought him to their captain at the guard post in Wensley Harbor. He was taken for a poacher and condemned to banishment. Normally he would have to be brought before the king for that, but in times of war like at that moment, people didn't make such a hassle about protocol for a simple farmer, not when there were more important matters to attend to.
As far as the people of Araluen knew, the only thing west of their country was Hibernia. Most foreign traders approached the country from the east, so they chose to moor at the big harbor near Castle Araluen. It was therefore that Wensley Harbor, in spite of its advantageous location at the mouth of the river Tarbus near Castle Redmont, was only a small harbor, because it was on the unpopular west side of Araluen. Still, Hibernia's even more westward location made that country largely dependent on Araluen for import products, so Hibernian trade vessels came and went in Wensley Harbor almost daily.
One such trade vessel had the unpleasant task of taking along the defamed ranger.
Once he arrived in Clonmel, Hibernia, Pritchard managed to make a living by teaching the crown prince of his new kingdom the ways of a ranger. The same crown prince later fled to Araluen, found Crowley and helped defeat Morgarath. He liked the concept of the rangers and would like to become one, but he corps lay in shambles and the rangers of that day were hardly worth their title. Crowley wanted to reform the ranger corps, and Halt wanted to help him, so together they went to Castle Araluen to talk about it with king Duncan.
Duncan was all for the plan. However, both he, Halt and Crowley saw that the ranger corps couldn't be led by a barely graduated ranger and a foreigner, the senior rangers would never accept that. In the end they decided to fetch Pritchard back from Hibernia and make him the commandant, he was still one of the most capable rangers after all. Crowley would get ten years to make as many improvements to the corps as he could, and if he did a good job he'd become commandant after that.
There was just one problem with this plan: Pritchard. The man had become bitter after his banishment, and was now reluctant to help the corps. He still took the job, but hardly put in any effort. Rather than that he gave Crowley a warrant to act as his proxy and let his former student do all the work. It saddened Crowley immensely to see his former hero like this, but at least he had the freedom to bring all his plans into execution.
Coincidentally, this all happened just before the annual gathering of that year. This gathering was also the only time Pritchard actually did something during his entire career as ranger corps commandant: he handed Halt a silver oak leaf, told the rangers who complained about Halt's nationality to shut up and explained that Crowley from that point on had the same authority as himself. After that the junior ranger had had to figure everything out himself.
Coledale fief had lost its ranger in the war against Morgarath, so Halt was designated to that fief. It was a small, sleepy fief situated in the middle of Araluen, so it could easily miss its ranger for extended periods of time and most other fiefs were only a few days' ride away. To be stationed at such a fief was perfect for Halt, because Crowly had another job for Halt as well. Namely, he had noticed that his friend was very good at intimidating people, no matter their age or occupation. He had also made up a bunch of guidelines for various situations in a ranger's life, like training an apprentice. Many rangers didn't like being told what to do by the young man, so Crowley sicked Halt on them to inspect if they followed the guidelines. Needless to say, Halt left a trail of drenched rangers in his wake, dumping them in the nearest big enough water formation.
"What is it with Halt and dumping people in water?", Crowley had thought to himself while he told Verita all this. The man was known for throwing barons in their own moats, and apparently he had thrown his own apprentice in a river before taking the boy on. Crowley pitied the poor boy enormously, that he had to live with the grumpy Hibernian for five years.
He had once wondered what the name 'Hibernia' meant, and Verita had suggested that it was derived from 'hibernation', because Halt had the temper of a bear who was disturbed during hibernation. Crowley had grimly thought that the girl wouldn't dare repeat those words after she met the man in question, but he had nearly laughed his head off all the same.
Anyway, the point of the whole lecture had been that Pritchard was very reluctant to return, and that he was only willing to concede in the end if poaching would be legalized for rangers. That's how the exception in the poaching law came about.
As Verita thought about all this, she was also reminded of a song. She knew a lot of songs, because she had practically grown up working in a pub, but this had always been one of her favorites. She softly sang it to pass the time.
"Come all ye gallant poachers
Who ramble void of care
Who walk out on a moonlit night
With your dog and bow and snare
The hare and lofty pheasant
You have at your command"
At that point she noticed a man approaching in one of the corridors which ended in the hall where she sat. The man was hiding in the shadows, obviously eavesdropping, so Verita looked straight at him as she finished her stanza.
"Till by king's men you are taken and
Banished from your homeland"
Silence ensued after that, as the man and the girl stared each other in the eyes, daring the opponent to look away. The man's cloak and weapons marked him as a ranger, so Verita supposed that he was the commandant, as she had thought.
"A very apt song I suppose.", the ranger brusquely said after the silence had worn on long enough in his opinion, and abruptly turned his back on her.
"Crowley, how are things in Caraway?", he then asked to the other person present.
Pritchard and Crowley both knew that Crowley's promotion hadn't entirely been for pure reasons. The senior rangers had found out about the ten-year deal the king had made with Crowley. They had also figured out that those ten years would be over soon, and that the young upstart would become their commandant after that. In a fit of desperation they had appealed to Pritchard to promote Crowley to Caraway fief, which was a lot bigger and more important than Crowley's previous fief, in the hope that he would mess up. Pritchard did relocate Crowley to Caraway of course, but only because he considered his former apprentice up to the task. And he was.
"Caraway has never been better. I manage just fine there, especially with Rita's help.", Crowley answered respectfully.
"Oh, right. Verita no-name, our new poaching cloak maker. She's younger than I expected.", Pritchard commented, getting angry as he thought back to the song she had been singing.
"She's capable though.", Crowley retorted, hoping his friend wouldn't take the insults personally.
"Capable of speaking for herself aye!", Verita interjected, a tad loudly, annoyed with the conversation. The men turned to look at her, and she blushed. Pritchard frowned and looked thoughtful.
"Do I know you from somewhere? You seem familiar."
Verita just raised an eyebrow, she hadn't forgiven her commandant the rude insults from before and decided to give him payback. "Considering you lived in exile in Hibernia while I was born and didn't leave this castle in the period between then and now, I think that rather unlikely sir, with all due respect." She stressed the word 'due', as if she thought she wasn't due any respect to him.
Pritchard however frowned at the mention of Hibernia, and then looked as if he realized something. "You're taller, and your hair is different, but other than that you're a dead ringer for Caitlyn O'Carrick."
Verita merely raised her eyebrow a bit higher. "Who?", she enquired.
"Caitlyn O'Carrick, the sister of the current king of Clonmel."
"Well, seeing how I am, as you so aptly put it my dear commander, a 'no-name', I suppose we can all agree that I am not acquainted with her." Pritchard didn't quite know what to say to that.
Crowley studied Verita's facial expression in amazement. He had only ever seen his friend Halt lift his eyebrow that high. He inconspicuously tried to wiggle his own eyebrows, but didn't manage it. He noticed Verita glancing at him from the corner of his eye, so he quickly stopped.
Pritchard abruptly turned to Crowley again. "Crowley, you're a good lad, and you'll make one hell of a commander. You'll do better at this job than I ever could have. The ten years are almost over, I'll announce you as the new commander at the next gathering, which is obviously exactly a year away. Do the best you can, Crowley, for the sake of Araluen, because I have a feeling that the future of this country will depend on the ranger corps sooner or later. Never forget that Morgarath is still lurking in the mountains. I know I haven't been much of a commandant, but you will, you'll have to be." The man studied Verita for a moment with a contemplative expression on his face. "Look after this girl, Crowley, for some reason I think she'll play a big role in the future.", he then said.
It was silent again for a while. Then Pritchard suddenly left the room.
"Be on your way now!", he yelled over his shoulder as he closed the door, and Crowley and Verita looked at each other and shrugged. Berrigan would probably be waiting for them already.