25. Trouble Lurking
"Wrong. Do it again."
Gilan whined. He'd been practicing silent movement for two hours, and that's exactly how long he'd been doing things wrong.
"Keep whining and you'll be cleaning the fireplace again."
The Ranger apprentice gulped and started yet another attempt to walk silently.
Grumbling, Gil walked toward Redmont castle. Halt had said that he could have the rest of the day off, but the way he said it annoyed his apprentice.
"Gilan, if you keep attempting whatever you're doing, the future of Arulen is at stake, so you can have the rest of the day off."
And the girl he liked shot him down. All in all, today was shaping up to be a very bad day.
Which was proven when Gil got a very bad idea: he was going to take food from Master Chubb's kitchen.
Gil crept quietly into Chubb's kitchen. His plan wasn't to take anything new, but to take some leftover pastry of something. A plan that was quickly foiled when his robe caught on something and he pulled it free without looking, which caused a surprisingly large clatter.
And the fact that Chubb was actually in the kitchen made things worse. Because before Gil could recover, Chubb found him and latched on to his ear.
"Ow! Owowowowow, sorry, Master Chubb, I wasn't stealing anything, I just wanted to get some leftover cookies or something..."
The only responses he got were a ladle to the head and a kick to the ass on his way out.
Gil sighed, walking back towards Halt's cabin. He wasn't actually going inside until it was dark, so he would have to hide outside in the woods or something. And considering his luck today, Halt was probably going to find him and pick on him.
Just before he turned off of the main road, Gil felt a small tug on his cloak. He turned to see a little girl and her mother, who was looking at him apologetically.
"Sorry, she just saw you and wanted to meet you..."
Gil managed a smile. "It's alright." He looked down at the little girl. "Yes?"
She beamed up at him. "Thank you."
"For...what?"
"Being a Ranger and keeping me safe."
The apprentice Ranger smiled down at the little girl. You know, something told him that he would have no trouble with his training at all tomorrow...
Well...this had more cursing for some reason...