Authors note: Thanks to everyone who read the first chapter. I've really enjoyed writing this chapter so hopefully you'll like it.

I'll put answers to the reviews at the end of the chapter as I don't really know how to respond otherwise.

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They walked the first hour in silence. The only noises were the soft footsteps of the kids on the path and the soft hoofbeats of Nyers horse, Cliff. Wyot was walking in the back with the ranger next to his sister a couple of meters in front of him. Everything had happened so fast in the tavern Wyot hadn't really had the chance to take a proper look at the ranger.

It was a strange man. He was wearing a green, brown and grey mottled cloak which made him almost invisible against the dark forest. His longbow was laying in front of him, on his saddle. A quiver full of arrows was swung around his shoulder. He was riding on a small, rough-furred horse. It was impossible to make out exactly what colour it was, now, in the middle of the night. But the first era of mystery and danger had disappeared. In the tavern, it had been a dark appearance, and Wyot had been extremely scared of the man. But now, he could see that it was just a man, from flesh and blood. A man like every other.

Maybe not like every other. This was still an extremely dangerous warrior. A man trained to move unnoticeable, trained to be able to fire an insane amount of arrows over a short timespan. This was definitely no man to mess around with.

But Wyot had never really seen a ranger. He had heard stories, of how rangers were dark wizards. Stories of how they could appear anywhere they wanted, unnoticed. He had heard tales of how rangers had magical powers they used to transform bandits into evil creatures.

But now that he had actually seen a ranger, he didn't think those stories were true at all. This man seemed like a fierce warrior, and he definitely looked a bit dark and dangerous. But he wasn't some sort of wizard, so Wyot thought.

And, he really wanted to know more about this weird man.

'You are a ranger, right?' It was a bit of a redundant question but Wyot didn't really know how to start the conversation otherwise.

'Yes.'

'What do rangers do?'

'We stop bandits who try to harass little kids.'

'Oh.' Wyot didn't really know what to say further. He was a bit shocked by the tone of the ranger. So they kept walking in silence. But a few minutes later he couldn't help himself.

'And what else do they do?'

'Who's they?'

'Well, the rangers.' Wyot had the feeling the ranger was messing with him just a little but shook the feeling off. A ranger would never mess with an innocent kid, he thought.

'We go around the Kingdom to see if everything is going well.'

'Is it fun?'

'It's dangerous, hard work.'

'But do you like it?'

'I do, but not everyone will.'

'And what do you', Wyot started his question but got interrupted by the ranger.

'Is that your house', he asked. The path they had taken from the village had been winding through the forest. But now the path stopped and they entered an open place. There were three small houses standing on the property. Each of the houses had a fenced-off garden with crops and a small field with animals. Wyot pointed to the smallest of the three houses. 'That's ours.'

The ranger simple nodded and turned his horse towards the small house. As they came closer, it became clear this house had already had its best time. The walls, made from thick wooden planks, were in more than one place rotten. There were multiple holes in the straw roof and the place looked overall very dirty and not well kept. These people were the lowest class of farmers.

Nyer jumped off his horse Cliff and walked to the wooden door. It was an uneven door, one side was longer than the other and it was hanging crooked in its hinges. It had probably been self-made, these people had no money to buy a proper door. Which was made pretty clear by the state of the property. The ranger knocked on the door. He could hear movement inside and a moment later the door opened.

'Yes?' The woman who had opened the door looked like a typical farmer. She was not too long, a centimeter or so taller than Nyer. She had long, brown hair and a firm nose. Her clothes were similar to the ones of her two children. They had once been woollen but had since been fixed with every sort of material available.

'I have brought your kids home.' The woman wanted to ask a question but was stopped by Nyers raised hand. 'There were some problems with a couple of bandits so I thought it would be safer to bring them home.'

Wyot's mother put her hands on her hips and stared angrily at the ranger. He returned the stare without blinking. 'And who do you think you are', she asked firmly.

'A King's ranger', he answered calmly while maintaining eye contact. She broke eye contact and looked at her two kids, who were standing a meter or so behind the ranger.

'Come in', she told them. Before turning back to the ranger, uttering a quick thanks and closing the door.

Nyer simply shrugged and walked back to his horse. He patted Cliff on his back and jumped in the saddle. 'Come on boy, let's go back home.' Cliff whinnied shortly and turned his head back towards the forest they had just come from.

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Ten minutes later they stopped.

What's the problem?

'Nothing to worry about Cliff. I just want to see what the boy does.' Like every ranger, Nyer also loved to talk to his horse. It was the only company he had most of the time and there was a strong bond between ranger and horse. He did think of it to communicate in a low, whispering tone.

What do you think he's going to do?

'Follow us.'

Why would he follow us?

'Because he's intrigued.'

Intrigued by what?

'Me of course.'

Cliff snorted loudly. Don't make me laugh, Cliff said sarcastically.

'You can't laugh, you're a horse.'

Of course I can, but I only laugh when something's funny.

Nyer turned around and stared his horse straight in the eyes. 'Are you insulting my jokes?'

Cliff simply shook his head up and down. His grey manes were twirling around and hitting Nyer straight in the face. The ranger simply took the halter and led his horse into the thick forest on the left side of the road. Nyer sat down against a tree. They would be waiting here for a while so he could just as well make it comfortable. Unfortunately, he couldn't make a fire. That would give his position away to the boy and he wanted to see what he'd do.

'They're not that bad, are they?'

What?

'My jokes.'

He didn't get an answer to his last question. Cliff just snorted loudly and not for the first time, Nyer realised his horse would always have the last word.

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They only had to wait two more hours. The sun was already rising when Cliff made a low, trilling noise. It came from somewhere deep in the chest and it was the noise the ranger horses made when there was someone coming. They didn't know if it was a friend or an enemy. There was just someone coming.

Nyer understood the signal and slowly raised himself from his sitting position. If he did it too fast, he would be seen because quick movement is more easily noticed than slow movement. He raised himself slowly, and softly, until he was standing with his back against the tree. The path laid about 20 meters farther. Then, the ranger disappeared in the shadows and movements of the forest and moved closer to the path. He was only a meter or two away now.

Cliffs sense of smell was good and he had warned Nyer way in advance. He stood there for 10 minutes or so before he saw movement on the path. He was right, the boy was indeed following them.

Wyot kept his eyes on the footprints of the horse below him. It had passed this point recently and he wanted to know where the ranger was going, he wanted to know more about him. Suddenly, the footprints vanished, both horse and rider seemed to have disappeared from this point forward. Wyot looked up and stared into the forest on both sides of the road, but there was nothing there.

He kneeled down next to the tracks. They couldn't have just disappeared, so they had to have gone somewhere. Unless the stories were true, and rangers could really disappear and appear anywhere at will. Wyots heart started beating faster but he calmed himself down. After all, if they could appear and disappear anywhere, why would they need a horse?

Nyer looked at the boy from just two meters farther. Any ranger learned at a young age to hide their tracks and they learned to find them as well. Every ranger in the current corps, except for maybe some of the youngest apprentices, would have also noticed the tracks leading off into the forest on the left of the road.

And even though Wyot wasn't a ranger, he still noticed the recently trampled plants where Cliff and Nyer had entered the forest. Nyer looked at it with a smile. This boy really has what it takes, he thought.

But then his face straightened out again. After all, the boy hadn't really been assessed on all levels. But just before Nyer had made his plan, he had decided to go a little easy on the boy. But not too easy either.

Wyot suddenly felt a firm grasp on his underarm. He lost his balance and fell backwards, but in the same movement his attacker kicked his legs from under him and he fell to the ground with a loud thump. All the air immediately left his lungs.

Any normal person would have just laid there, a bit shaken but with no serious injuries and easily defeated. But Wyot realised that his attacker would try to attack him again and rolled to the side as fast as he could muster. He was just in time, he saw a fist hitting the ground where he had just laid seconds ago.

Quickly, he jolted upwards, trying to get away. But his attacker was quicker, he grabbed his shoulder and pulled him backwards. This move threw off his balance and he fell forwards, towards his attacker.

But he was surprised to feel the grasp leaving his shoulder. He had stretched all his muscles, in anticipation of hitting the man in front of him, but he had simply let loose off the shoulder and set a step back. Due to those unorthodox movements, Wyot lost his balance again but managed to stay on his feet this time around.

He didn't have much time to think about what had just happened because he already saw a fist flying at his face. His reaction speed was just quick enough to tuck to evade the blow, but immediately after, the attacker's other fist hit him in the belly. Due to the harsh impact, Wyot flew back a meter or so before coming to a stop on the harsh underground.

He was certain he had bruised his back badly. He felt all the sharp sticks from the forest floor poking him and still had an immensely painful stomach where the fist had just hit him. But again, he was just fast enough to roll to the side to evade another of the attacker's blows. He wasn't really thinking about attacking himself anymore, this fight was all about surviving.

But he couldn't keep this up for much longer. He was getting tired and felt a lot of pain in the places where he had made contact with the ground or his attacker's fist. And, he also had the terrifying feeling that his attacker wasn't fighting at his full potential. It felt like he was holding back.

But he didn't really get more time to think about it. He saw another fist being thrown in his direction and rolled even farther to the side. But that was a mistake. There was a steep hill in the terrain and Wyot slid right off it.

He felt sharp sticks cutting and poking in his flesh and fell down with a loud noise of cracking wood and crunching leaves. Then, he laid still. He was hurt and didn't have enough energy to evade any more blows from his attacker.

Nyer quickly ran through all the stirred-up autumn leaves towards the boy. He had just wanted to see how good the boy was as a fighter, but hadn't meant for him to get hurt. He kneeled down next to Wyot and saw that the boy's eyes were still open, and he was still breathing. And at first glance, the boy looked fine. A bit shook and he probably had some minor injuries from the fall but didn't seem to bleed severely and was still conscious. So Nyer put his arms under the boy's armpits and gently raised him from the ground.

'Are you ok?'

The boy didn't answer, and Nyer didn't really expect him to. He was definitely shocked by the recent events. So Nyer gently put the boy back down, a bit farther. And he let the boy lean against a fallen tree. Then, he put his fingers in his mouth and let out a high-pitched, shrill whistle. Moments later, Cliff came trotting through the trees.

His horse stopped a couple of meters in front of Nyer and Wyot. He turned his head a bit sidewards and stared at the two with big, grey eyes. As if to ask what had happened here.

'I tried to assess the boy', Nyer just told his horse. 'And he got hurt just a little.'

It seems to me he's hurt more than just a little.

'It's his own fault', Nyer simply answered, before taking his first-aid kit out of Cliffs saddlebags. The latter looked at him and slowly blinked. It was the horse's way of raising an eyebrow and Nyer realised he had just lost again to his horse.

'Well maybe it was a tiny bit my fault as well', he said as to show his horse he was right. It hadn't really been the boy's fault, Nyer should have stopped the battle earlier. And before Cliff could make another remark Nyer bowed down over the boy and took off Wyot's shirt. He looked at the boy's upper body and saw a lot of small cuts, caused by all the sticks on the forest floor. But he didn't see any serious injuries, so he put his first-aid kit away again. The wounds would heal over the course of the next few days.

Nyer now turned back towards the boy. He was still sitting against the fallen tree but his eyes looked more clear and he was trying to exclaim something. Nyer could just make out the word 'why'.

'Well, you're following me, weren't you?' Now that the boy was ok and didn't have any serious injuries, Nyer returned to his former self. He was a fairly friendly guy, but was still young and didn't really have much tact. So he was always straightforward, never liked to linger around certain subjects for too long, and answered everything logically. He also liked to use a fair bit of sarcasm and was usually quite distant from most people. You needed that as a ranger. And, he didn't really like to show his emotions.

The young boy didn't really know how to answer so he just nodded. Nyer didn't pay much attention to it and just went on.

'But you did put up a good fight.' He hesitated for a moment. He wanted to bring up the moment just a couple of hours ago to tease the boy a little but decided against it. It was a little too early.

'And you're really good at following tracks.' He hesitated again. He wanted to give the boy a little bit of confidence, but too much confidence was never good. So he just went on with: 'It needs a lot of work, but all in all, I reckon you'd make a great ranger.'

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Review:

AreiaCannaid; Thanks for your review. I'm glad to hear you've enjoyed the story so far. I've greatly enjoyed creating the characters myself so it's nice to hear you like them.