Note: Thanks to everyone for the support on the previous two chapters. This one took a bit longer because I had to rewrite it because I wasn't really happy with it. So hopefully you guys like it.

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The sunshine broke through the trees and lit the ground with all sorts of colours because of all the autumn leaves. The ranger and his new apprentice were enjoying the morning sunshine as they were riding through the trees. Or, Wyot though with a grim face, he's riding and I'm walking.

He still hadn't really understood what had happened over the course of the past few hours. It had been a normal day, boring but normal, and suddenly his whole life had turned around. Now, he was a ranger's apprentice. It was a big leap into the unknown for Wyot, but he couldn't complain. Everything will be better than my old life, were the thoughts entering his brain as he had accepted to become the rangers apprentice.

But to be fair, he hadn't really thought much about it at all. It had been a sudden decision on his part, but it had just been as sudden for the ranger. He had been fairly curious about the ranger, but he hadn't expected him to suddenly become his apprentice. Because even after all of last night, he was still a bit scared of the hooded man.

Now that the run had risen, he could also take a better look at the man with whom he would be spending the next months, years of his life even. He was surprisingly young, Wyot realized. During their nightly walk, and especially in the tavern, he had looked a fair bit older. But Wyot had overestimated the man's age in the dark place and realized now that he was only a year or five older than he himself.

The man had a clean-shaven face and dark brown hair. It was curly on the top but shortly trimmed on the edges and back of his head. And nothing about him looked really special. Without his strange ranger cloak on, he would look just like any other young man.

The ranger was also riding on a horse. It was not a small horse, but definitely not as big as the war-horses the knight usually rode on. It had rough, grey spotted fur and a belly as round as a barrel. Its manes and tail were a darker tone of grey.

Right now, the horse was carrying a normal, leather saddle. There were some saddlebags hanging from the back and a giant longbow was laying calmly on the saddleknob.

As Wyot was examining the ranger – now his mentor – and his horse, the man stopped and dismounted.

The boy looked at this with confusion and opened his mouth to ask why they had stopped but Nyer was quicker. 'We've stopped to let Cliff, my horse, rest. We're going to walk without me on his back so it's a little less exhausting.' And with those words, he started walking again, leaving Wyot to trail behind.

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It was a magnificent castle. Sitting atop a hill, seemingly risen from the landscape out of nowhere. All around the perimeter, there were thick forests. The castle was only visible when you stepped out of the darkness of the forest and entered a beautiful open field, where all the trees were cut down to make room for the castle and the neighbouring village. Surrounding the open place, there was a wide, slow-running but deep river. It split in two and effectively created an island with the castle and village on it, before coming back together where the open fields ended.

As they were standing at the border of the forest, Wyot could see a small bridge connecting the lands they were on now and the island with the castle and village. It was big enough for two-way cart traffic but was easy enough to defend in case of an attack.

Behind the bridge, there were two wooden towers, part of a gatehouse. They could be used for vantage points or to take the enemy under fire from the other side of the river. Combined with all the pointy sticks, which were planted all around the river to stop cavalry charges, it made a very effective front line. Only after you got through a shoulder-deep river, while being shot at and making sure you didn't get impaled, you would get to the second line of defences, the castle.

And the castle, though very impressive, was not less functional. It was made of grey limestone, with 9-meter high, 4-meter thick walls. Those walls wouldn't be easy to take down, even if you had a catapult. But it was also almost impossible to get a catapult here, the only paths to the island with the castle were small, winding forest paths.

All in all, it wouldn't be easy to conquer the castle. Although it had been done when the Scotti conquered the lands, but a group of only 50 Araluens had managed to hold off nearly a thousand Scotti for almost two months before they ran out of food and lost the castle. But they did take hundreds of Scotti with them in their graves.

Nyer smiled as he rethought this battle, he hadn't been born yet but he had heard great stories of it over the last 11 years he had spent in Whitby fief. He dismounted, swung his bow across his shoulder and put a hand on the boy's shoulder.

'It's beautiful, isn't it?'

'It's magnificent.' Wyot had never seen a castle before, but this one looked straight from one of the stories he had been told when he'd been a child.

'Good, you want to get a closer look?'

Wyot nodded and they walked side by side to the wooden gatehouse at the far side of the bridge. It was close to nightfall so the bridge, and paths, weren't very busy. They could just walk straight up to the two guards standing next to the now-open gates.

Their halberds were lowered so they pointed at the two men but they immediately moved them back up once they saw that the newcomer was a ranger. Nyer merely nodded to them and moved past the gates and the gatehouse.

Once they had passed, the path got back to a hardened mud path, build up over generations of walking in the same spots. A few meters ahead it made a turn to the right and split shortly after. The left path spiralled up the small hill towards the castle, and the path on the right moved towards the bottom of the hill, on the right side, where all the village houses were located.

Wyot wanted to take the path up to the castle. He would really want to see his first castle on the inside, but Nyer took the path down to the village. And Wyot could do nothing but follow him.

The village was bigger than any village Wyot had even been to. Not that he'd been to many, but this one was definitely the biggest one. But it was still charming. Located on the edge of the wide river, there where the water was too deep for even horses to get through so they were safe from any attack.

Now that the day was done for most, nearly all of the villagers were enjoying the last warm days outside by the river under some willow trees while their kids were either playing in the water or in the fields. Wyot also saw at least three different taverns located at the edge of the water, with terraces looking over the beautiful environment.

The two men walked through the entire village until they stood in front of a small but charming house. It was, like most houses in the region, made of a wooden frame with wooden walls and a straw roof. In front of the house was a sign with some text on but Wyot had never learned to read so he couldn't decipher what it said.

As Nyer walked in, he followed the ranger. The room they had entered was simple but charming. There were all sorts of clothes draped over wooden statues of men and women. At the back of the room, there was a counter and a chair.

In the chair sat a woman. The was about forty years old and had her black hair combed back into a simple dot. She was wearing a simple dress that looked similar to the ones in her shop.

She stood up when she saw the two men coming into the store and smiled at them. Wyot returned the smile. Nyer now plopped a big lump of clothes on the counter. Wyot hadn't noticed Nyer had taken them into the shop as he had been looking at all the wooden mannequins and the beautiful clothes.

The clothes now on the counter were a lot less extravagant. They were simple clothes, with a leather belt and vest as well as knee-high boots. The rest of the clothes, all some form of green, brown or grey were either made of wool or linen. Wyot now noticed one of the pieces of clothing specifically, a ranger's cloak. Then he looked over at the ranger and back at the clothes pile.

There were knee-high boots, some brown breeches, a brown leather vest – a sleeveless close-fitting, waist-length garment worn over a shirt –, some long-sleeved green shirts and a leather tunic, which was pretty similar to the vest, only looser.

As he looked back at the ranger, he saw he was wearing exactly the same thing as the clothes on the counter between them and the shopkeeper.

'I would like you to show this boy how to remodel his clothes so they fit him. Don't do it for him, let him do it, he had to learn it.' Then, Nyer walked out of the shop, leaving Wyot alone with the woman.

She was very friendly and showed him how to make sure his clothes would fit him. Most of it was done by cutting the clothes in specific places and then knitting them back together. It was fairly simple but it did take Wyot a couple of hours to learn how to do it.

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Three hours later, they were done. The woman, who was named Eline, had shown him how to remodel his clothes so they fit him and now he was wearing most of them while carrying his old clothes and the spare ones.

The moon had already started her orbit and was hanging at a quarter of the way. It shone brightly on the earthy paths and the wood and straw village houses It was not late enough at night for everyone to be in bed just yet, so there were still lights visible in most houses.

As Wyot set foot outside of the small shop, he looked around. The ranger hadn't given a time or place to meet after Wyot had finished his clothes, so Wyot half expected him to just be standing in front of the door, waiting for him.

But there was nothing. The only things visible in the moonlight were the glittering fireflies and the small lights flickering through some of the windows of neighbouring houses. Wyot set another step but didn't really know where to go. He realised he didn't know where the ranger lived and he probably wouldn't find his way back anyways.

Then, a movement in the corner of his eye caught his attention and he turned his head towards the movement. Only to see the ranger slowly walking up to him. He had been only a meter away when Wyot had seen him. If he had been a bandit, he could have been killed about twenty different times over the timespan he had been standing on the doorstep. And it seemed like Nyer was thinking the same thing.

'Never stand still in a door-opening. You'll be an easy target with your contours outlined in the lights from inside. And, people will expect you to stay in the door-opening to assess your surroundings. So when you leave a house, immediately step to the right or left, depending on what way the door opens. That way you'll be only visible in the doorframe for a split second, which will throw your attackers off balance and give you the time to react.'

Nyer put his hand on the boy's shoulder. 'Don't be sad you didn't know, be happy you learned something and do it better next time', he said softly. Afterwards, he stretched his muscles and said: 'Let's go home, I fancy some warm soup.'

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Reviews:

AreiaCannaid; I'm glad you've enjoyed the last chapter. The bond between Nyer and Wyot is something I love to write so I'm happy you enjoy it.

Lydia-from-Limmat; I've partly chosen the earlier timespan for the story to take place so I could show off the rougher world right after the war with the Scotti (which is still kind of going on in Norgate). Nyer has also had a lot happening in his short life. It's something that I'll explore more as the story goes on. But that makes him also a bit rougher as well. And Nyer is currently 23 years old, I knew it wasn't exactly clear in the first two chapters but here is the answer :)

Guest; I'm really glad you like the time period. It's a bit of a rougher time, only 20 years or so after the war with the Scotti. The ranger corps is definitely way less developed and different to the modern corps but more on some of those changes is coming in chapter 5 and later. So hopefully you don't mind the wait.