A/N: To celebrate my freedom from school a little but, here a long chapter! I hope you all enjoy the story so far.

Day 5

Will opened his eyes not entirely sure where he was. Then he saw the familiar room around him. He was on the couch in the cabin. He had been covered with many layers of blankets, which immediately explained his sweating.

He didn't remember how he had come home. He remembered leaving the castle after paying lady Pauline and Alyss a visit, but nothing after that. Something must have happened, he thought. Maybe Halt had found out about his plans for Christmas and knocked him out, no Halt would never hit him even in all his rage.

Will suddenly looked around the cabin and saw Halt slumped down in the chair next to him. Why would Halt sleep in the living room, he thought.

He tried to sit up but his body felt like he had just been put through a mangle. A soft moan escaped his mouth when he tried to push himself up on his elbow. The sound immediately woke Halt, who scanned the whole room for a possible threat.

Then he realized the sound came from his apprentice who had just woken up. He rushed to Will's side and scrutinized the boy with a careful eye. He seemed more awake and his eyes weren't that cloudy anymore.

"How are you feeling?" he tried to start with an easy question, not wanting to upset Will again. But Will was even more confused by this question. So something did happen, otherwise Halt would never talk like this. Normally he would get a snarky comment on sleeping in late or a command to make some coffee.

"I'm fine Halt. I just feel like I've been trampled by the whole cavalry of Araluen but nothing extreme. Why what happened, how did I get here?" He saw Halt sigh in relief.

"I found you in the forest, you had another drawback." he watched Will closely, he knew how much the boy hated it when this happened. Although it hadn't happen in a while now and definitely not this severe. Halt thought about how worried he had been when he found Will completely out of it. The first year after Skandia it happened a lot, and every time it was painful for Halt to just watch and hope for it to be over soon.

Will just showed a tiny smile "Well I guess you were right about the weather then." He instantly knew this was not the right moment to say that. Halt's protective mother bear side disappeared like snow near a fire.

"About that, why were you late? You were supposed to be back before the snow started so this wouldn't happen. It's not a large round to patrol and I know you could've done it in no time."

Will had to carefully choose his words now. Halt had learned him if he had to lie that he should stick to the truth as much as possible. "After my round I bumped into Alyss and we talked a lot so I forgot the time. I'm sorry Halt I should have returned earlier."

Halt's brow rose as soon as Will mentioned Alyss' name. Of course, he thought, these boys are always distracted when it came to girls. "It's okay, I'm glad you're all right now. But I want you to stay inside for the rest of the day is that understood?"

Will wanted to protest at first, he definitely didn't like to stay inside a whole day and he had still so much to do before Christmas. But then he looked again at Halt's face and he knew there were some battles you just couldn't win. This was one of them. "Fine Halt I'll stay inside today."

Halt gave a firm nod and started to make some coffee. "I'll be out for most of the day probably. I came upon tracks of a boar yesterday and I want to find that beast before it does some serious damage here. It's probably headed to the east and there will be some farms and people he could definitely hurt."

Before Will could ask the obvious question Halt already answered it "No you won't come along today, maybe if I can find the beast you can come tomorrow with the hunting party. But only if you're feeling normal again."

"I'm feeling normal, Halt. Yesterday was a relapse but I'm fine now, really." He actually felt as usual except for the excessive tiredness and sore muscles. But the look on Halt's face gave him answers enough. "Okay I'll stay inside" he said.

Will took a few sips from his coffee but felt his eyelids drop down. He put down his cup and after a questioning look from Halt he explained "I think I'll get some sleep." And he walked towards his room. Not long after he touched his bed, he fell into a deep sleep.

Halt watched satisfied how his apprentice finally gave up and went to his bed to get some sleep. After he made sure Will was actually asleep, he left the cabin to find the wild boar.

Will woke up with a shock when he heard a soft neigh of Tug which sounded like a warning. Not long after that he heard footsteps on the veranda. Silent as a ghost, Will moved through the cabin to grab his knifes and bow and he stepped towards the door.

He didn't have to wait long to hear a knock on it so Will opened the door and saw a nervous boy looking at him. "What brings you all the way here?" asked Will.

The boy didn't even dare to look Will in the eyes. He had probably heard to much dark stories about the rangers, thought Will. "A boar attacked our farm mister ranger, my father is wounded and we don't know where the boar is now. We need help."

Will immediately woke up at this. Halt was looking for the boar but hadn't probably figured out where it was. "Where is your farm?" he asked feeling another thousand questions lingering on his lips but Will had learned from Halt that in these situations asking the right questions one at the time was crucial.

The boy quickly explained where the farm was and where the boar had ran away to. It was nowhere in the direction Halt was going. "how badly wounded is your father?" asked Will further. The boy answered instantly with big eyes "I don't know sir, he was bleeding a lot sir."

Will felt uncomfortable with being called mister and sir, but now was not the time to correct it. "Okay, listen carefully. I want you to go back home and take your father back to the castle and let him get checked by the physician. If anyone asks just tell them ranger Will has given permission. Under no circumstances are you to try to find that boar is that understood?"

The boy nodded firmly and turned around back to his home. Although Will knew that he was no full fledged ranger yet, it would bring less trouble for the boy. Some people had issues with authority and the name ranger apprentice was not always a name of enough status to get to the physician in the castle.

Will took his cloak and ran to the stables to saddle Tug. He needed to warn Sir Rodney quickly, the boar had already attacked one farm, it was only a matter of time before others were attacked. They had a location and Halt would probably find the beast later this day. However Sir Rodney would need more time to organize the hunting party. So it was up to Will to warn them in advance.

After a short race on Tug's back he arrived at the battleschool. He knew Horace was always here around this time of year so he started looking for his friend or Sir Rodney. Luckily for Will they were easy to find.

"Sir Rodney I need a quick word please," he began. Sir Rodney turned to face the young ranger before him. "Of course, what is it?" he was never a man of many words. Just like Horace the man followed orders and knew how to keep things simple.

"A boar has attacked a farm nearby, I'm afraid that it will move closer to the castle and attack many more people on its way. I suggest we organize a hunting party as soon as possible to get the beast."

Rodney nodded he knew he could trust the young ranger. He had no idea why those rangers upheld such a long training period. As far as he knew the boy in front of him was more than ready to become a ranger himself. He already trusted the boy's instinct.

"So I gather Halt is tracking the beast as we speak?" it was curious that Halt had left his apprentice to inform him about the boar. Surely if they had heard the news there was enough evidence to gather a hunting party. He had heard the rumors about Halt being a little overprotective over his apprentice ever since their adventure in Skandia. Indeed he hadn't seen the two apart for long periods and only if it was necessary for the training or an emergency. This was neither such a situation.

"Yes he is, but I'm afraid he is looking in the wrong direction. I was at home when a boy came and told me about the attack. I thought it would be best to inform you immediately, Halt will reach the farm right now, but it will take some time for him to come back."

"So our famous ranger is just sleeping in the cabin while Halt is doing all the work." Will heard the voice coming from behind. He didn't even have to guess who it was.

"Nice to see you too, Horace." He smiled and was immediately pulled into a hug by his friend.

"A wild boar on the loose again, I hear? Feels like old times, huh Will!" Will had to laugh, luckily their weren't many boar attacks at Redmont and his first hunt was of course with Horace when they were attacked by the second boar.

Sir Rodney decided to cut between the reunion of the two best friends "I'll make sure a hunting party is ready tomorrow at dawn. I assume you and Halt will be there, am I right?" Will gave a nod and the battlemaster left to make preparations.

When Will turned back to his friend he saw him looking curiously at him. Horace blurted his question out immediately, "Why were you in the cabin? Normally you would go with Halt for these kind of things right?"

Sometimes the knight was a lot more observant than people gave him credit for. Will knew he could tell Horace about his big relapse, but he felt like it was not the time for it. "Oh you know with the winter months, Halt wanted me to stay inside today so I thought it might be a good idea to actually listen."

Horace knew Will was not telling the whole truth, but decided not to question him any further. If Will was ready, he knew he would come.

Before Horace could ask any more questions, Will continued, "I actually had a question for you. I'm celebrating Christmas this year with Halt and I was wondering if you could come."

Horace's face lit up by the idea. He too had always enjoyed celebrating Christmas at castle Redmont. And Christmas meant a lot of food so he couldn't say no to it. "Of course I'll come! But since when do rangers celebrate Christmas? I never thought Halt was the type for it."

Will smiled sheepishly, "Well we don't, and Halt is definitely not the type for it. It might be a surprise Christmas party. But Arald and lady Pauline are helping so no worries he won't find out."

Horace wasn't convinced, he knew there were more sides to Halt than people assumed but surprising him was just dangerous. "Are you sure this is a good idea. I mean, I'm all for Christmas but I do value my life Will."

"Why do you think I'm inviting all these people? He can't kill us with too many witnesses," laughed Will trying to stay positive. "And speaking of inviting people. I don't think I'll be able to get to the castle again without Halt losing his mind so could you invite Jenny and George for me?"

The optimism of Will worked and Horace agreed. "Fine I'll ask them, you should probably return home before Halt is going berserk about you leaving the cabin."

It was indeed getting late, Will mounted Tug again and after a short good-bye rode he back to the cabin. There he saw Abelard and he knew he was in trouble. "Well too late to turn back now," he mumbled to Tug.

He tried to buy some time while taking care of Tug, but after a while he realized he should get inside the cabin. He slowly opened the door and was welcomed by a grumpy looking ranger.

The look on Halt's face made Will cower back, the last time he had seen Halt look like that he had accidently spilled coffee in his boots. Halt had not been happy about that and was not shy to show him.

A deadly silence grew in the cabin and Will decided to break it, "I can explain," he started. Instantly he knew it was a grave mistake as the eyebrows of the man before him rose to dangerous heights.

"I better hope you can. Because right now it looks like someone knocked on the door and you decided it was a good idea to run immediately to the battleschool."

"Hmm, well not immediately, but yeah it was certainly a good idea to go to the battleschool."

"Not considering the fact that you had a major drawback yesterday, need plenty of rest before returning to the field and the fact that I could come home any minute." The dangerous tone still present made way for the worry Halt had felt when confronted with an empty cabin.

"I felt alright Halt, of course I considered that you would return but I didn't know when and Sir Rodney needs time to gather a hunting party."

"You shouldn't risk your health at every opportunity Will, we've been through this enough already. Next time you wait."

"Sir Rodney wouldn't have had the time to gather a hunting party before dawn if he had to wait for you and you know it."

Will knew he was stepping boundaries, but he knew he had done the right thing today. Halt was getting terribly annoyed with his apprentice. He too knew that Will had made the right choice, but yesterday had made him more fearful and he would rather lock Will in the cabin for the entire winter.

He knew one last option to both get his wish and annoy his apprentice back. "Well as you've done such a heroic thing today, you shouldn't probably come with the hunt. Seeing you didn't rest this day like I told you."

It worked, the eyes of his apprentice grew even more bigger. "No please Halt, I told you I'm fine. I'll stay inside the whole week but please let me go with the hunt."

Halt's eyebrow rose as he saw the desperation explode in his apprentice. Well maybe enough torture for today. "Fine, you can come tomorrow. But you'll only leave this cabin the next weeks with my permission."

Will knew this would make organizing Christmas a lot more difficult, but at least he had invited all the people he needed to invite. Hopefully he could have more chances to organize the last things.

He tried to repress a yawn unsuccessfully. Halt noticed it and was done with it, "Alright to bed with you and no complaining."

Will admitted he was really tired, the cold had taken its toll on him and he knew he had to rest otherwise he would get sick before Christmas.

Not a second after he snuggled into his bed, he fell asleep. Leaving the older ranger finally satisfied and at ease.

Whoops this was a long one, don't get used it!

Hope you all enjoyed it and see you tomorrow!