The duo of apprentices were already riding away from the gates of Araluen. Leaving their hometown behind, both of them felt some sort of innate homesickness immediately, but refused to mention it.
"Hey Clyde, you've been pretty silent ever since we left the gate." Glade talked excitedly, turning his head towards the curly haired apprentice.
"Huh? Oh, yeah. Well... I just don't know what to talk about." He said honestly as he gently pet his horse's mane. Gale was looking content as he walked as if they weren't going on a mission that was completely forbidden for them. Glade's mount, Pegasus, also looked unfazed, ever looking forward.
"It was a shame the gathering got cut short." Glade spoke on his own.
"Yes, but when is the gathering not cut short, really?" Clyde asked jokingly.
"Ahaha, that's right. Besides, we're only missing out on the exams and the feast. I wish we didn't miss the former, though." The blond apprentice replied, disappointed.
"Well, there's also the family reunion... I guess that doesn't mean that much to any of us, though." Clyde uncomfortably scratched the back of his head.
"The Ranger Corps is my family." Glade said curtly. "It always has been."
"I can relate to that." Clyde stared at the ground in deep thought. "Still, I would have loved to visit Uncle, if I could. Oh well." He looked back up.
"That doesn't sound like an 'Oh well' at all." Gale chimed in.
"Yeah, anything you wanna talk about?" Glade asked curiously.
"Ah, you know, all that junk with my father... I'm over it so it's fine. No worries." Clyde tried to act nonchalant like Merlin while failing miserably.
"If you say so." Glade didn't go further on the argument. "Hey, did you ever get a hole on your medal?" He asked suddenly.
"I... I came very close, but I managed to get through all cartography exams, and the rest were nice enough, I suppose." Clyde said, unsure. "I bet you passed them all with flying colours, though." He added somewhat bitterly.
"Yep! It was super hard, but I didn't get a single dent on my medal. Just the thought of getting one hole is enough, it would mean that I am not a real, worthy ranger, you know." Glade talked as if it was the end of the world.
"Y-you're taking it so seriously, huh..." Clyde said, disturbed. Three holes on the medal would mean failing an exam thrice, therefore being expelled from the Corps before graduating.
"So, we're going to Gallica, right?" He instantly changed the topic.
"Of course! Ernest even opened the way up for us, talking to the guards. He is so capable!" Glade replied excitedly. His eyes were glittering as he mentioned the pitch black haired ranger. Clyde could see the man was a big role model for him, perhaps even more than his mentor.
"Well, do you know Gallic?" He asked.
"No, I don't. Why?" Glade asked back.
"Why? How are we going to speak to people?" Clyde almost yelled out.
"Easy! We can use the merchant language. You know, its and bits from everywhere? You know that language, right?" The blond apprentice explained.
"Okay, that makes sense." Said Clyde, having serious doubts about the journey by the second.
As they kept riding, the road seemed to be endless. The chats and laughters soon ceased and the boys decided to jump off their horses and walk for a while to rest.
"I wonder how Bryce and Jacob are doing..." Clyde said nervously.
"They'll be fine! Aren't they our mentors? We can't expect them to fail while we don't expect ourselves to fail." Glade spoke proudly.
"I don't know... I kinda have low expectations for everything right now." Clyde talked in a pessimistic manner as he stopped to catch his breath.
"Aww, don't be like that, Clyde! We are going to be true rangers, so we can't give up on ourselves or our fellow rangers!" Glade gave the apprentice a pep talk.
"D-don't worry, I never said I am giving up. Just a little nervous." Clyde tried to explain himself.
"We'll just try to catch up with Merlin and Darc, and the rest is simple! We have done much worse missions than this." Glade continued talking.
"Okay, okay, I get the idea." Clyde stopped him, laughing. "You never stop talking, do you?"
"Ahaha, are you trying to tease me?" Glade looked amused. "See? We're being more like rangers already! Now it's my turn."
"It... might be faster if you didn't react to my every sentence." Clyde uttered in confusion.
#######
Much farther than where the two apprentices had gone, Merlin and Darc were riding their horses silently along the road that lead to Gallica. The journey had been far too quiet for the ranger with the yellow scarf, so he started to speak despite the moody eyes of Merlin beside him looking elsewhere.
"Hey, how's it going?" He said jokingly as he poked the tetchy ranger on the shoulder.
Merlin made a small, somewhat angry noise, but didn't respond. Determined, Darc kept poking him until he did so.
"What?" He finally turned his head towards the other ranger and glared at him.
"I just wanted to talk. It's tedious riding like this, not even the horses are talking. Right, Lady?" Darc pet the mane of the rather young looking ranger horse as it stayed silent. "She's pretty shy. How about yours? Ace, was it?"
"Darc, look." Merlin looked directly at his eyes. "I don't know what you're thinking, but we aren't friends, so just shut up."
"H-huh? But when we were with Bryce and the others..." Darc's face instantly took on a painful image.
"That was then. You are their friend, not mine." Merlin spoke cruelly. "What we had is in the past for me now. We're not affiliated anymore, so just let go." His eyes read a strange feeling.
"Affiliated? You mean... Like The Blue Moon? B-but that wasn't..." Darc flinched for a moment. "Well, what about the old times?"
"The old times just remind me of them as well." The ranger talked as if he was forcing himself to be patient.
"No, not that... The 'old' old days." Darc corrected himself.
"Ugh, yeah, so what?!" Merlin burst out. "You yourself remind me of them, and you just went on and forced yourself into this anyway!" His breathing got faster, then slowed down again as he resentfully turned his face towards the road. "Some relationships are better kept severed."
"Merlin, you really think like that..." Darc tilted his face downwards, hiding it behind the soft yellow scarf. "And I quit just so that I could find you here." his voice cracked and got even more high pitched as he sobbed.
"You quit?" Merlin turned back to him with a questioning face. "How can I know if you're not lying to me?"
"Well, the Scourgers are after me too, so you'll notice soon..." He continued sobbing as he wiped his eyes.
"W-what? Here too?" Merlin got genuinely surprised.
"Do you believe me now?" Darc asked. His face was as pink as a peach.
"No." Said Merlin curtly.
"Ugh, fine! As I said, they will be after us anyway, then it will be all your fault for not trusting me!" He crossed his arms and pouted. Merlin rolled his eyes.
"Won't matter whose fault it is when we die." He turned his face towards the road for the last time. "It's over, Darc. Get over it."
The two of them kept riding towards the road as it got progressively less green and more of a sickly yellow from the dried grass and very few trees scattered in between. The conversation between them was over for a long time. It appeared so that the old bond the duo had was not preserved as nicely as the sensitive ranger had thought.
As they continued on the path, the sun slowly disappeared from view, bringing the night to fill the sky. The surroundings got darker and the weather was getting colder by the second. Merlin briefly shifted his gaze to his back, his right and left, then turned his head to the young man beside him.
"Darc."
"Huh?" The ranger with the yellow scarf responded almost immediately.
"They're here."
Suddenly, an arrow went right past them, driving their attention towards their backs, where they could now see two mounted people wrapped in dull coloured clothing, easily disappearing in the dark like a shadow. One of them had a crossbow in hand, the other had already put his weapon back and taken another one, a leather whip with a heavy looking metal piece attached to the tip.
"Wh-what the..." Darc got startled and stopped his mount for a moment, grabbing his bow quickly.
"Hm, I suppose you weren't with them, then." Merlin shrugged, already holding his own longbow.
The horsemen in the dark didn't say a word as they kept assaulting the duo of rangers as they rode faster. The one with the crossbow readied another shot, but Merlin easily dodged the attack. Frustrated, the man also grabbed a whip and held it threateningly.
"The Crescent Scourgers... Even here?" Darc was still surprised as he waited for the correct moment to strike. Merlin didn't respond. He was trying to feel anything he could sense, the light coming from the moon above, the sounds of the hooves hitting the ground, the sound of his breathing... In a moment, he reacted to the sharp sound of the whip reaching out to him and quickly pulled the reins of Ace to take a sharp turn, dodging the whip narrowly.
Darc also managed to dodge the other Scourger's whip and rode towards Merlin, trying to stay as one group. The horsemen were getting ready for another assault, trying to injure their horses or pull them off their mounts to subdue them, leading them to an uncertain end. Knowing it all too well from previous experiences, both of the rangers were tense, as even one mistake could prove fatal against these people that got the same overwhelming training as them.
Getting tired of waiting, the Scourgers attacked with their whips once more. As the leather flew in the air with a crackling sound, Darc looked at Merlin meaningfully. The ranger nodded as he returned the look with his deep blue eyes.
The two of them rode in different directions whilst dodging the whips once more. The crackling sound filled the sky as the Scourgers took a moment to assess the situation.
Almost sure he would be tailed by both of the riders instead of both going for one of them, Merlin took a quick look at his back with a cocky face.
There was nobody behind him.
#######
"This sure is a long road. It's almost evening." Clyde said as the apprentices were riding their horses.
"You tell me, time went out quickly, didn't it?" Glade spoke.
"Yeah, it did." Clyde agreed. "I suppose we need to set up camp now, but not here."
"Too much of an open field, right?" Glade nodded. "Then we can camp in that small grove over there. It will be easier than looking for an entire forest. Is all of Gallica going to be pathetic like this? Hardly a single tree around." He kept on talking.
Leaving the horses on a safe spot in the small grove, the two of them started to set up a small tent and a campfire.
"Is it okay to light it up?" Clyde asked.
The blond apprentice looked around. "It should be fine, the sun isn't out yet, we can extinguish it later." He started fanning the flames the ginger haired apprentice almost immediately started.
Clyde took a small stick and cleaned it, using it to mix the coffee in the small pot they put over the fire.
"It's still kind of scary, going out on our own..." He started talking.
"Ahaha, just like the old days!" Glade chuckled.
"I guess..." Clyde said hesitantly.
"Don't worry, we'll make it. A true ranger always makes it to the goal!" Glade stated excitedly.
"Again with the 'true ranger' stuff... I... I just don't get it." The apprentice locked his blue eyes onto Glade.
"Huh? What's wrong?" The blond apprentice looked confused.
"I don't know!" Clyde said, flustered. "I mean, most of the stuff you say is true and nice things, but that 'true ranger' you put in somehow just makes it... Different, like as if you see things differently than we do." He tried to explain.
"Ah, you too... I see, I'll try to speak less like that." Glade uttered, discontented.
"No, don't!" Clyde yelled out. "I'm not saying you should act like a person you're not, just that... I want to understand you. I want to know what makes you... uh... you."
"Clyde..." Glade went silent for a moment. "Heh, so be it. Since it's you, I guess I can tell... You want coffee?" He smiled as he handed the boy a cup.
"Always." Clyde smiled back as he took the cup. "Ow, hot, hot, hot!" He managed to put it on a flat surfaced rock without scalding his hands.
"I'll tell you everything Clyde, are you ready?" Glade asked a final time.
Clyde nodded seriously.
"Let's see... Where to begin... I don't really know what kind of family I had." Glade started telling his story.
"All I know is that when I wasn't even a year old, one of them left me in the middle of a grass field and abandoned me right there. They didn't even bother bringing me to someone else, I wasn't given that chance, you know that?" He talked with the same excitement as ever but with a broken, almost deranged smile.
"That's... harsh." Clyde's face took a disturbed look almost immediately.
"That's when someone, a ranger, found me in the patch of grass as I was crying. Even now, I have a faint memory of someone cradling me like that, showing me the affection no one had shown... They decided to bring me to the fort of Redmont, where I could be raised safely and be guaranteed a job. They also gave me a name... They named me Glade after the place I was found in. Isn't that wonderful?" He looked directly at the blue eyes of the apprentice.
"Oh, um..." Clyde panicked, then took a few sips out of the cup to look like he wasn't.
"Once I grew up and became a child, I learned from one of the caretakers that a ranger had found me. I was apparently the only one who didn't knew. Everyone was avoiding me for having a tie to such a 'dangerous individual' but I knew that things weren't like that. I immediately wanted to be a ranger. I wanted to meet that person, at all costs." Glade looked deeply into the fire.
"I... I would want that too, I think." Clyde tried to react, but he felt a bit overwhelmed.
"So, as a result, I snuck in the daily training of younger archers, I trained with kitchen knives, I hid at night and messed around with guards, I developed myself for years before the Choosing Day came, so that I could be a ranger's apprentice. I asked Jacob desperately each year to be his apprentice. I needed to be a ranger... No, the very manifestation of a ranger. I wanted to find that person and I wanted to pay them back, by being their shadow and protecting them at all costs be it bruises, limbs, or my life! I wanted to be someone they could be proud of." He embraced himself tightly as he spoke. "I really just want to pay my debt, above all else."
"Glade... That's... I... I understand." Clyde spoke hesitantly. "I definitely don't support how you act so sacrificial, yet I understand."
"Really? You don't find it weird?" Glade asked surprisedly. "I had told this to two other people but only you reacted this... calmly." He snickered. "You're a good listener, Clyde. Always were, always will be."
"Glade, from now on... Let's stand together, okay? I'll be on your side. You know, like a sibling." Clyde gently held his hand in his two hands, smiling.
"A sibling... In that case, I will always protect you as the older brother." Glade's eyes sparkled as he shed a single tear.
"Ehehe... Don't overdo it." Clyde laughed as he extinguished the fire. "Let's go to bed now, it's getting dark."
"Sure, I'll take the first patrol." Glade nodded as he prepared his bow.
Somewhere inside, both of them felt their bond deepening. The duo spent the night safely as they thought of their friends and how they were doing.
#######
"Y-you're kidding me!" Merlin looked around in disbelief.
Scanning his surroundings, he found the other ranger, being chased by both of the Scourgers at once.
Both of them swung their whips at once but Darc managed to dodge, or so he thought. The first whip missed its target, but the second hit the hand of the ranger painfully and wrapped around, and the moment the hard leather entangled the arm of his, Darc knew that he lost. With one pull, he flew off his horse and onto the field with pale grass, rolling along the way.
Merlin reacted quickly, taking out a large arrow, pulling the string of the bow, taking aim and shooting in the span of two seconds, He shot the one who hit the ranger in the heart with such precision that the man instantly lost his life and fell off his horse.
Getting on his feet quickly, Darc threw his saxe blade at the other rider before he could use the whip once more, landing it on the hand that held the whip. The Scourger yelled in pain, the first time they heard his voice. In a small moment, the finishing blow came from Merlin, who had taken his aim the moment the blade found its target.
As they recovered their weapons and handled the scene, the duo settled on a camp nearby a small grove. Due to the recent events, they decided not to light a fire, eating the hard, dried meat and fruit they brought instead.
"Will you take the first shift? I'll leave you alone then." Hurt from Merlin's behaviour and tired from the conflict, Darc decided to sleep early but Merlin stopped him by pulling his arm before he left.
"Wait, let me see it first." He said as Darc sat beside him, confused. "Your hand, let me see."
"Huh? Oh... Okay. It's not much of a wound, but..." Darc extended his arm to let Merlin see the wound.
The dark haired ranger took out his first ait kit and put some warmweed salve on the cut after cleaning the bloody parts.
"Okay, that should do it." He let go of the scarfed ranger.
"Is this your way of saying sorry?" Darc caught on to his acts.
"What? In your dreams." Merlin looked away instantly.
"Look, I know you don't want anything to do with Blue Moon... You probably want to evade them forever." Darc looked around uncomfortably. "But why escape alone? We could evade them together..."
"I can do it alone, too." Merlin replied curtly.
"I know... I just want it because I still like you." Darc fixed his gaze on Merlin. "I don't want our relationship to be over just because of a stupid association, so..." He quickly switched his gaze over to the ground, embarrassed. "Ugh, I miss you, alright? I should be allowed that much!" He crossed his arms.
"You're so childish." Merlin couldn't hide his smile. "Well, if you miss me that much, I guess I can't help it." He shrugged.
"Heh. I knew it!" Darc smiled back.
The friendship of the two of them was remade as Merlin remembered how relaxing it was to have someone in the same situation as himself. Perhaps opening up this small weakness of himself was worth it when it was compared to the amount of comfort it caused. He smiled just a little as Darc went into his tent to leave him to his duty.
The moonlight was blocked by the clouds gathering above, but Merlin's sight was more clear than ever.
