Halt's Apprentice Chater 10
Happy Easter Everyone! Here's the next chapter.
The next day, when Gilan woke up, he immediately jumped out of bed. Today he would get a horse! He was excited. Since leaving his home fief, he had been walking everywhere. From the cabin to the town, to the castle, and on all the tracking excursions they went on every week. Since Halt walked with him every now and then, poor Abelard was left in the stables most of the time.
"Morning Halt!" Gilan exclaimed cheerfully. He wandered around the small kitchen area and reached up to a shelf to retrieve a mug. Setting it on the counter, he poured himself a cup of coffee before carrying it over to the table where his mentor sat. Halt merely grunted in response. He was sifting through the reports from the week while sipping from his own cup of coffee. He looked up briefly as Gilan sat down.
"Haul water and chop some wood before you get too excited." He said gruffly. "We're heading out in an hour so get to it." He turned back to his sheaf of papers.
Gilan sighed heavily, setting his coffee down he headed outside, grabbing his cloak from where it hung on a peg by the door. Swinging over his shoulders, he fastened his cloak before heading down to the stream, the wooden bucket in tow. Filling it, he made the several trips necessary to fill the large barrel on the veranda. Finishing that 'fun' task, he took the ax that was lodged in a stump near the cabin, and began chopping wood into more usable pieces of firewood.
Halt came out of the cabin a while later, eyeing the growing pile of firewood, he nodded slightly. Gesturing for Gilan to follow, He started down the path, heading away from the cabin farther into the woods. Gilan quickly fell in step beside him.
They walked in silence for a total of two minutes.
"Where are we going?" Gilan asked curiously. Halt turned and raised a single eyebrow.
"This way" He said dryly. Grinning Gilan shook his head.
"Where this way?"
"Do you ever stop talking?" Halt asked shortly. They came to an intersection of paths and instead of taking the left one as Gilan thought they would, Halt started down the ri right road.
"Uhhhh, Halt? Redmont is that way." Gilan said, pointing over his shoulder.
"Yes, Gilan I'm quite aware of that fact." Halt said with exaggerated patience. "But does it look like I am heading towards Redmont?" Gilan frowned slightly.
"But I thought…" Too late, he realized his mistake.
"You're an apprentice. You're not ready to think." Came the swift reply.
A while later, Gilan spotted a small wooden house through the trees ahead. The house was simple, but next to it was a large stable and hay barn, as well as a fenced off field and some ramshackle huts. Along the fence, Gilan could see several horses grazing on the grass. They looked up as they approached, eyeing them curiously.
As they neared the house, an old man came out of the house to greet them. He was a bent, wrinkled figure- a bald, bearded old man with a large grin.
"Morning Ranger!" he called, making his way towards them.
"Hullo Old Bob", Halt said. Gilan studied the man as he stopped in front of them. He smelled like horses and practically reeked of stables.
"Who's this you've brought with you?" He studied Gilan with bright keen eyes.
"This would be Gilan, my new apprentice. Gilan, meet Old Bob. He breeds and trains horses for the Ranger Corps."
Gilan grinned and held his hand out.
"Morning sir" he said happily. Gilan could see right away that Old Bob was a likeable friendly person. Old Bob laughed in a cackling manner
"He calls me sir! Polite this one is. He'll make a good Ranger!" He turned towards Halt. "About time you've got an apprentice. My horses and I have been feeling forgotten without some new faces to get horses!"
"Do you have one ready for Gilan?" Halt asked.
"Why yes indeed!" Old Bob led them over to the paddock and let out a sharp whistle. A shaggy mare trotted up to out. She eyed Gilan, seeming to evaluate him. She was, he noticed, slightly longer legged than then other horses in the paddocks.
"This here's Blaze", Old Bob said, grinning. He reached into a nearby bin and pulled out an apple, tossing it to Gilan, he motioned towards the mare. "Give her an apple. She's crazy about them."
Gilan stepped forward until he was right in front of Blaze. Reaching out with the apple in hand he let her take it. She took, crunching on it happily. She turned to look at Gilan and snorted as if to say Yes, we can be friends now that you gave me food.
Old Bob nodded. 'She likes you, go on and try to ride her". Gilan smiled and quickly hopped over the fence to stand beside Blaze. He saddled her quickly and swung up into the saddle. Taking ahold of the reins, he said a simple "Giddy up!"
And then chaos ensued.
Blaze bucked a jumped as if a giant spider rather than a rider had landed on her back. Gilan was tossed through the air, crashing into the ground beside the fence. Old Bob was doubled over with laughter while Halt seemed to be trying not to grin.
"You shouldn't rush into things." Halt said. Gilan huffed, annoyed, and stood up and dusted himself off. He kept a wary eye on Blaze who now stood innocently off to the side as if to say what are you doing on the ground?
"You need to say her code word before you can ride her," Old Bob cackled, recovering from his bought of laughter.
'Code word?" Gilan repeated.
"Yep! It's what keeps these horses from getting stolen! No one can ride them unless they say their code phrase first. Blaze's here is Brown Eyes".
"Brown Eyes" Gilan repeated. Old Bob laughed again.
"Not to me, say it to the horse!"
Gilan walked up beside Blaze again. Feeling a bit silly, he leaned next to her ear and spoke softly.
"Brown Eyes."
Blaze tossed her head, as if understanding what he just said and stood perfectly still as Gilan tried again to mount her. This time however, she didn't buck him off. He guided her around the paddock getting use to riding her. He grinned happily.
Now I have my own Rangers horse! He thought excitedly.
And there you go! I know that this was a short chapter, but I was working on this other story that was based off of a prompt and I just had to write it. If you want to check it out, it's my Easter RA fanfic. Don't forget to leave a review since I love getting feedback!