A/N. I have been trying for a couple of months to find something to write for this chapter to make it not a filler chapter. But, unfortunately, I failed. Miserably. So, what I'm going to do is show a little bit of Alana and Gilan's travel to Aspienne fief. Sorry for being a little bit boring.

Part 9: On the Road

The sun was warm on my back and the breeze blowing gently down the roads of Redmont fief kept me and Gilan in high spirits as we traveled. Though he kept a friendly chatter going with me, I could tell that he was alert, looking for any sign of trouble even though the average stranger would find him to be laid back and relaxed. Finally, I decided to ask why he was so paranoid.

"If you expect the worst, then you won't encounter any unpleasant surprises. They will still be unpleasant, but at least they won't be surprises," he replied. "Right now, I'm working off the assumption that we could run into a band of thieves any moment and we will have to fight for our lives."

"You're right about one thing," I replied.

"What's that?"

"It will be unpleasant."

He grinned broadly. "You're learning quickly."

"In the Ranger Corps, from what I can tell, there is no other way to learn."

"There isn't." Gilan glanced at the side of the road. "We can stop here for tonight."

I checked the sun. We still had an hour until sunset. "Why are we stopping now? There is plenty of daylight left."

Gilan led Blaze off the side on the road into a clearing where the trees would obscure us from the view of anyone passing down the road. Blaze turned her head and looked at Tracker and me. Sometime today. If horses could raise their eyebrows, I would have sworn that she did.

"Why the off the road clearing?" I asked as I dismounted Tracker and lead him to follow Blaze. "It's no secret that two Rangers are traveling within Redmont." The obscured clearings were where Rangers usually camped if they were trying to avoid detection.

"It is the force of habit," Gilan replied. "And, it is going to rain tonight, so we will want to be under trees."

"You neglected to answer my first question. Why are we stopping now?"

Gilan unbound his pack from Blaze's saddle before answering. "I told Will that I would help you build the strength up in your left arm and that is precisely what we are going to do. Set up your tent. I'll be back in a few minutes."

This was unusual, so I tried to avoid sounding like a whiny child as I asked "Where are you going?"

"To find some firewood."

Tracker couldn't help contributing. So there.

I will never get the last word with my horse. I unfastened my camping equipment and unfurled the tent. I was using the handle of my saxe knife to drive the last tent stake into the ground as Gilan returned. Something that caught my attention was the two long hardwood sticks protruding from under the pile of firewood.

"What are those for?" I asked, resheathing my saxe knife.

"Full of questions, aren't you?" he asked, a smile on his face.

"I'm Will's apprentice, what did you expect?"

"Nothing less, I suppose."

"Now that I've answered your question, it's your turn to answer mine. Why are you carrying those sticks?"

"Relentless, aren't you?"

"Stop trying to sidetrack me. It's not funny."

"The sticks are for practice. In order for you to strengthen your arm, I've decided that you ought to learn how to fight with a sword. Left handed."

I winced. This was not going to be fun, so I tried to wiggle out of it. "Swordsmanship isn't a Ranger skill."

"Ranger skills, as you called them, are whatever they can pick up and do well," Gilan replied, "so I suggest you pick up that stick so you don't get your head taken off."

"Where'd you learn?"

"I'll tell you when we're finished. Now pick up your stick."

Blast it. I'd been hoping to stall him a little bit longer, but he was set upon me learning, so I picked up the stick and held it out in front of me.

"Switch hands," he instructed. "You're using a right handed grip."

I alternated positions on the end of the stick.

"Now, which would you like to learn first: attacks or blocks?"

"Attacks, I think."

"Good choice. You have to learn the attacks in order to learn the blocks. The first we're going to use is an overhand cut."

And so we went through various techniques: cuts, thrusts, and the like, Gilan pausing occasionally to correct my technique and offer various bits of advice. By the time he called a break, I was pouring sweat and exhausted.

"Now we need to start supper," Gilan said. "I need you to fetch two bucket loads of water from the creek. One load is for soup and the other is for coffee."

I was tired and I really didn't want to make two trips, so I borrowed the foldup bucket from Gilan's camping roll and added it to my own as I trudged the two hundred meters to the creek Gilan had mentioned. The promise of coffee, however, made the trip worthwhile. By the time I had toted the water back, Gilan had a fire going and various stew ingredients assembled.

"Is stew a favored Ranger delicacy?" I asked as I carefully set the two buckets on the ground next to him.

"No, but it tastes better than about everything else I can cook. Now, would you like stew, or would you like to continue making comments about my cooking and have hard rations?"

In response, I withdrew my knives and crossed the clearing to a large tree where I could work with throwing. After several minutes of practice (not a single stick any more than an inch way from the spot where I had been aiming), I grew tired of throwing and switched to practicing the fighting maneuvers that Ben had taught me when I was small. Many were similar to the offensive strikes that Gilan had taught me, but many of the fundamentals, such as how to get close to a swordsman in order to invalidate the use of the sword and how to use the knives to counter a swordsman's strikes, were almost opposite of my habitual techniques.

"Had I known you were that good with a knife, I would have started you on the double-knife defense."

I jumped as Gilan spoke, whirling around with a knife in hand. Really need to sharpen up that skill. "Do you enjoy that?" I asked.

He adopted an innocent look. "Enjoy what?"

"Sneaking up on people."

Had he been the owner of a beard, he likely would have stroked it. "I don't view it as sneaking up on people, as you say. I see it more as a way to keep apprentice Rangers on their toes."

I growled mentally. I had left myself wide open for that one.

"Once again, you have failed to answer my question. Do you enjoy sneaking up on apprentices that are simply minding their own business?"

"Considering the fact that my business involves training you, I could say that you were interfering with my business."

I sighed internally; there was no way to win with these Rangers.

Gilan continued without seeming to notice my reaction to his comment, but I knew that he was silently laughing about it. "Who taught you how to fight like that? I don't think that they teach knife fighting in the Redmont Ward, but I could be wrong."

I really didn't care to get into a discussion of my past, so I gave him the short version. "My brother."

Gilan took the hint and didn't pursue the questioning any further. "Stew and coffee are ready," he said.

I brightened up at the mention of food. "On my way."

After eating dinner, there were two things that I noted. The first was that all Rangers made fantastic coffee (and apparently Halt taught all of his apprentices to drink it with honey. Adding sweetener to coffee must run in the family). The second was that, while Gilan was a decent cook, he was nowhere as good as Will. Perhaps Gilan simply wasn't a quite average cook or maybe Will was far above average, but, whatever the case, I was already longing for Will's cooking.

After dinner, Gilan decided to try again to get me to talk about my brother. "Where did your brother learn to fight?"

I knew that he wasn't going to give up, so I decided to tell him. "I don't know."

"Didn't you ever ask?"

"My brother started training me when I was very small, long before I can actually remember. They say that you can best learn and retain the things you were taught when you were young, so I learned hand-to-hand fighting, some swordsmanship, and knife fighting and I remembered all of it. My brother, Ben, disappeared when I was seven years old. I never was old enough to be curious as to where he learned to fight like he did. I kept practicing and improving as I lived in the Ward at Redmont."

Gilan was interested. "Where did you live before?"

"We found a cabin way back in the woods in Redmont Fief, miles away from any other farms. Ben said that it had been deserted for years when we found it and we fixed it up as we lived in it."

"Do you have any idea what happened to your brother?"

"He went to town to trade like he always did when we needed sugar, coffee, honey, or something like that. It was summer, so he told me that he could be gone for up to a month. He also said that if he wasn't back by the time the leaves started to change color and I needed to build a fire, I was to make my way to the Ward at Redmont. He would find me there when he returned. 'I'll find you, no matter what,' he said. He wasn't back by harvest, so I went to the Ward. I waited until the next summer, but he didn't come back, so I went back to our old cabin." I felt like I might cry, so I paused for a moment to collect my thoughts. "When I went back, the cabin was nothing but a pile of ashes and had been that way for months, judging by the growth."

Gilan sat speechless for a few moments. "I can't imagine that the Baron was very happy that you left."

I chuckled grimly. "He wasn't. I was gone for almost two weeks and I had to make up a really wild story about why I was gone."

"Did you have any other family?"

"I found out who my father was a few weeks ago. I'm assuming that my mom is dead."

"Who is your father?"

I considered Gilan for a few seconds. He seemed like someone that I could trust and he genuinely wanted to help me. "Halt."

He almost choked on his coffee. "What?" he spluttered.

"Halt is my father."

"Does he know it's you?"

"I don't think so, but I don't know for sure."

"Have you told Will?"

"No. I don't plan to anytime soon."

"Why not?"

"He'd have more questions and I don't really want to answer them. Some of them I don't even have answers to."

"Oh, I see."

We were quiet for a few moments before I asked "Do we need to do watches?"

"Yes. Has Will shown you how Rangers do watches?"

"Yes."

"Good. Do you want first watch or second watch?"

"I have a lot to think about, so, if you don't mind, I'll take first watch."

He nodded. "Alright then. Wake me up when the moon is there." He pointed out an angle in the sky and I devoted it to memory.

Gilan banked the fire and settled into his tent while I chose a place a little ways into the undergrowth where I could remain unseen but had a clear view of the camp. True to lessons, I had my bow strung and an arrow already knocked on the string.

Most of my watch passed uneventfully. About an hour after midnight, I was working on expanding my radius of vibration detection when I felt someone coming up the road. Actually, it felt like more than one someone. I felt them come closer and closer to the point where we had turned off the road. They actually got so close that I could hear them.

"Where do you think we should go next, Craig?"

"Well, Cal, I remember a farm a few kilometers up the road. What do you say we pay them a little visit?" I could detect menace in the voice of the man that must be Craig.

"Sounds like a fine idea to me," Cal replied. I could see the moonlight reflect off the blade of a knife.

"Put that away until you need it. There may be soldiers on the road. Or worse, Rangers."

I grinned in spite of myself. You're right; there are Rangers nearby.

The mention of Rangers seemed to shut the other man up.

Craig was speaking again. "Those cloaked sorcerers have a knack for popping up when you don't want to see them."

"I don't think we'll have to worry about that. What Ranger in their right mind would be out here at this time of night?"

The voices faded away and, as soon as I judged that the vibrations were far enough away, I ran over and woke Gilan. His eyes snapped open the moment my hand made contact with his shoulder and he was instantly alert.

"Robbers on the road," I said. "They're heading for the next farm down."

Between the two of us, the campsite had all traces of our stay erased within the space of five minutes.

"How many?" Gilan asked as he swung into the saddle.

"Two that I know of. There may be more."

"Armed?"

"Naturally."

"How awake are you?"

"Like I was just pushed into a frozen lake."

"Good. I don't want a sleepy apprentice watching my back."

"Just so long as I don't have a tired Ranger watching mine," I replied, leaping nimbly, at least, nimbly for not having had any sleep at all, into Tracker's saddle and turned him to follow Gilan, my recurve bow in my hand and strung.

Any time that we had lost when we packed up the camp was made up within a matter of minutes as we followed the two would-be thieves. It never ceased to amaze me how quietly the horses could move when told to. It seemed that the only thing that I could hear was my own no-so-loud breathing. It is needless to say that I was a little bit nervous. Yes, I had been in fights before, but there had never been anyone senior to me watching and critiquing my strategy, methods, and so forth.

"Go around back," Gilan told me in a whisper. "If they try to run, put an arrow through their left calf. If something happens, handle it."

I nodded. It was all the instruction that I needed. I, like Rangers were expected to be, was a master of improvisation, so simply knowing that the thieves needed to be taken alive and that I had creative control over any unforeseen circumstances provided a basic plan of operations.

I crept through the shadows that the full moon and the trees to the back of the house where I could see the two bandits taunting a man and a woman, presumably his wife, who were still dressed in their night clothes. To the bandit's eternal discredit, they left the door cracked open. As I watched, I noticed a faint shadow ghost through the door and head to the corner next to the fireplace. Hello Gilan.

The bandits were still taunting the couple when Gilan materialized from the corner, playing with the saxe knife. "Good evening, gentlemen," he said nonchalantly.

Both of the bandits leaped almost a meter in the air. One, recovering more quickly than the other made for the door. The path of the saxe knife that passed within a hairsbreadth of his face changed his mind. The other made for the window where I was keeping watch. He didn't see me. The bandit jumped out the window and landed within arm's reach of me. With so tidy an opportunity handed to me, I tackled the bandit and used a grip that locked out his elbow, shoulder, and wrist, meaning that any movement of the arm would result in massive fractures and breaks.

I marched the other bandit around the cabin and forced him inside. Gilan had tied his bandit up using the thumb cuffs that he carried. "Not smart of him to go out the window, was it?" Gilan asked, his usual cheerful manner present.

"Not in the least," I replied as I presented my bandit's hands for binding. "Now," I continued, "which one of you is Cal and which is Craig?"

The two bandits looked shocked at the mention of their names. "I'm Cal," the dark haired one said.

"Which makes me Craig," said the other, tall with blond hair.

"No, you're not. Switch those names." I recognized the voices that I had heard before, so I knew that they were lying, but I didn't let on to that.

Once again, they regarded me with shock. I sat down on a chair behind the table and regarded the pair with a smirk.

"I told you that those Rangers were black magicians," Craig whispered.

"Be nice or she'll put a spell on you," Gilan cautioned, teasing me, but they didn't believe him. In other words, the men clammed up quickly.

Gilan now turned his attention to the shell-shocked farmers. "I apologize for any inconvenience that these fellows may have caused you. If it is alright with you, then my companion and I will take our leave."

The farmer was still too shocked to do anything but nod. Gilan and I each grabbed one bandit and marched them outside. We searched them thoroughly and removed the knife from Cal and a club from Craig. Then, we refastened their hands in front of them and fastened them using two ropes to the back of Gilan's saddle. I would follow behind them and ensure that they didn't do anything that didn't involve the transportation of themselves as prisoners. They were dropped off outside the local authority's office as dawn cracked, both of them knocked unconscious, still cuffed, and with a letter to the local authorities in Craig's pocket.

I kept watch from a tree a short distance away while Gilan scouted out the town. I climbed down as the two bandits were taken into custody. The moment my feet touched the ground, I heard Gilan's voice behind me, making me jump slightly. "We need to leave. Now," he said.

"Why? What's going on?"

"I'm not sure, but something has got these people scared and we need to get to Aspienne to figure out what it is. That means that we need to head out right now. If we use a forced march pace," he paused when he noted my groan, then continued, "we should be at Aspienne Fief's border by dawn."

A/N. Happy end of the school year. Consider this my present to y'all. I will hopefully have a couple of chapters added over the summer. Have a good one, y'all.