"Do you see what I see?" Will asked Gilan, his eyes glinting.
"If you mean the road and the trees and the sky, then sure, I see what you see," Horace answered Will's question cheekily.
They had been riding for two days now, and while anxious to see Halt's safe return, they were also testy and moody. Now Will saw something interesting that he hoped would bolster everyone's morale.
Ignoring Horace, Gilan smiled back mischievously at Will. "Yep," he said out of the right side of his mouth.
Together, they rode their horses to the side of the path and stopped unobtrusively on the side. The two Rangers whispered their plans to the rest of the group, and watched as Alyss and Ember rode into the forest for safety. Gilan and Will tucked the bottom limbs of their bows into their boots and, straining with the effort, pulled their strings up over the top limbs and released, gasping. They identically nocked arrows in the same manner that Halt had taught them, sighted, and released.
The black-shafted, white-feathered arrows shot off into the distance and, after a few tantalizing seconds, hit their mark: a beehive.
Both boys gave whoops of excitement and jumped around a bit. They set their bows down and quickly mounted their horses when the bees started heading their way, however. Will kicked Tug and shot off into the forest, back the way they had came, with Gilan only a second behind.
After ten minutes of sprinting, they reckoned that the bees had gone off into the forest to build a new home and that it was safe to approach the ruined beehive.
Alyss, Ember, Horace, Will, and Gilan all crowded over the beehive in a circle, looking down at the ruined remains. The two arrows protruded at weird angles, making the former beehive look like a sick piñata. Gilan braced his right foot on the beehive and pulled the two arrows out with his left hand and wiped the honey off on his cloak. "And now," he said through a grin, "we feast!"
Gilan quickly halved the beehive and took turns passing it around, letting everyone take a sip of the thick honey. Alyss passed it to Horace, who passed it to Will, who passed it to Gilan, who passed it to Ember, who declined to take any because she "didn't care for honey."
In regards to her aforementioned remark, Ember received some very strange stares, particularly from the Rangers and Horace who had honey in their coffee on a ritualistic basis.
"You..." faltered Will, gesturing emptily with his hands.
"…Don't like coffee?" finished Horace. This was simply too much for them to take. Gilan just stared, slack-jawed.
"Nope," said Ember. "We never had it at home, and when I had it once at the castle, it tasted gross to me. Too thick and sticky. Felt like me throat was choked."
Alyss giggled at the expressions on the boys' faces. "Gilan," she said brusquely, "close your mouth or you'll catch flies." At once, Gilan closed his mouth, and his face reddened.
"…Just…ne'er met…anyone…no honey?" was all he could say. He turned away from them and stoked the fire. Obviously, the fact that an individual could dislike honey was something he had never thought of.
The rest of the night passed slowly: everyone took turns eating honey, except Ember, of course, and then, one-by-one, went to bed. Alyss took first watch.