(A/N: Heeeeyyyyy…. So, it's been about half a year…. Sorry about that! :/ The only explanation that I can give you is "college" because that's the only excuse that I have and I am sorry, but it was unavoidable. The good news is that I just finished my first semester and I'm on my way to obtaining a degree in creative writing, so yeah! :) Fun! I really should be writing daily and I'll have less classes next semester, so I might start writing more, but NO PROMISES! I hope you all enjoy this chapter and that you have a wonderful week! :) (P.S. I might post some of the short stories that I wrote for my intro to fiction class if you guys express any interest :3 The one's pretty gay and I think you guys would like it)

It didn't take long for them to walk back to the cabin and the trio were ready to ride within the hour. The two Rangers were obviously used to these sorts of situations and it took them only half an hour to pack up their provisions, camping equipment, and various weapons and saddle up their horses.

"Do you ride?" Halt asked as he cinched his horse, Abelard's, saddle into place.

Clint nodded. "My wife and I have two horses back home."

Halt turned to pierce him with a searching gaze. "You have a wife?"

Clint nodded. "And two kids with a third on the way."

Halt didn't say anything as he took in Clint's straight back and firm, carefully blank gaze. He simply nodded back and gave the archer's shoulder a steadying squeeze as he walked past him to duck back into the house and grab the last bag of field rations.

They rode back into town several minutes later with Clint riding behind Will. Clint had watched in fascination as Will had whispered a code phrase into the shaggy horse's ear, explaining how Tug would throw Clint if he didn't. Through the entire ride into the village, Clint asked question after question about the horse's training and the signals that the Rangers used to communicate with them.

Clint was surprised, to say the least, when Halt bought him his own horse as they rode through town. The mare, whose name was Diana, was a hand or two taller than the horse's that the Ranger's rode, with a slightly shaggy earth-brown coat and a black mane and tail that had both been lovingly brushed. She had intelligent, kind eyes that didn't seem to miss a thing and Clint knew immediately that she was perfect for him.

The rest of the day was spent riding through forests and fields as they made their way across the fief. They were about halfway through their journey when dusk started to settle over the forest, the lavender sky signaling that it was time for them to make camp. They quickly found a small clearing off to the side of the path that they had been traveling on for the past hour and pitched the two one-man tents that Halt and Will had brought along before building a small fire in the middle of the clearing. Halt set about making a simple stew using the potatoes, carrots, and venison that he had brought along and Clint watched in fascination as he worked. By the time the stew was finished, Clint's stomach was growling loudly enough to wake the dead.

Halt served the stew in wooden bowls and the three of them dug in. Clint didn't come up for air until he had finished the entire bowl plus seconds. The two Rangers were looking on in equal parts fascination and horror by that point, having already finished their own meals.

"I don't think I've ever met a man who could eat more. He'd probably give Horace a run for his money," Halt remarked to Will with a smirk.

"And I don't think I've ever met anyone who could cook so well," Clint said with a contented sigh as he leaned back against one of their packs and set his bowl on the ground next to his bow and quiver, which they had retrieved from the cabin. "Who taught you? Or did you teach yourself?"

"I'm mostly self-taught, but I've met many chefs along the way," Halt replied, leaning against his own pack.

"Cooking is actually a vital part of Ranger training," Will supplied as his fiddled with his spoon. "Without it, we'd be forced to eat a lot of cold rations."

"And what's so wrong with cold rations?" Halt asked, turning to his apprentice with a raised eyebrow.

Will wrinkled his nose. "Their unappetizing, plain, and bland," he said simply.

Halt smiled and nodded. "Fair enough."

"You know, I've never tasted anything as delicious as this time period's food," Clint said. "Even Wanda never cooked this well, and she was excellent."

"Who's Wanda?" Will asked, still fiddling with his spoon.

"She's one of my teammates," Clint said with a smile. "I recruited her and her brother Pietro a few years ago. At the time, they were working for this guy named Ultron, who was trying to exterminate mankind. Of course, they didn't know this, so it wasn't too hard to convert them," he said with a shrug.

"You said that your teammates had powers, right?" Will asked, leaning forward eagerly. "Did these two have any?"

Clint chuckled. "Yeah. And believe me, you never want to be on the wrong end of them. Wanda and Pietro are both mutants that were experimented on by an evil organization called Hydra. Mutants are people with special powers given to them by something inside them called the X-Gene. Wanda can manipulate objects with her mind, read the minds of other people, and force others to see visions. We call her the Scarlet Witch. Pietro calls himself Quicksilver. He can run so fast that you can't see him. He's snatched my arrows and even my bullets out of the air more than once."

The two Rangers blinked at him.

"You know, if Will didn't see you appear out of thin air and we hadn't seen you fire that gun, I don't think that I would believe you. At this point, I think I'm willing to believe just about anything," Halt said as he crossed his arms over his chest and slowly shook his head.

"What about you're other teammates?" Will asked eagerly, a wide grin on his face.

For the next hour, Clint told them about impossible people. He told them about the army captain that was frozen in ice for seventy years and the man's best friend, who had a metal arm and had been under mind control for most of his life. He told them about the kind, quiet man that could turn into a wrathful giant and the god of Thunder who liked to visit the animal shelter on weekends. He told them about a fifteen-year-old that could climb walls as easy as walking, a man that could shrink to the size of an ant, the ex-soldier with metal wings, and the two men with impenetrable suits of armor. He tried to explain the man with a gem embedded in his forehead who was also a machine and the warrior king who would always choose peace over revenge. But mostly, he told them about his best friend, an ex-assassin who could kill you a hundred different ways. But she wasn't just a killer. She danced beautifully and sang Russian lullabies when she thought no one else could hear. He told them about the times that she had helped him to prank Tony and how she gave Peter tips in hand-to-hand. She was quiet and calculating, but that didn't mean that she wasn't observant and kind.

"I think you guys would like her," Clint said as he twirled an arrow between his fingers, the fire in front of them starting to die down. "She has the same quiet presence and commanding tone." He smirked. "You probably would have liked all of them, actually. They're bat-shit crazy and Tony's a pain in the ass, but they're good people."

Halt smiled as Will tried to stifle a yawn. "I think we would, if we ever got the chance to meet them. Your time certainly sounds like an interesting place."

Clint chuckled. "Yeah, it certainly is."

Halt dumped the dregs from the coffee that he had been nursing into the fire as he stood and dusted off his pants. "I'll take first watch. Will, I'll wake you in a few hours."

Clint and Will stood and brushed themselves off as Halt crossed the clearing. The Ranger seated himself against a tree at the edge of the clearing and the other two men immediately lost sight of his against the dark foliage.

Clint blinked as he stared at the spot where he knew Halt had to be. "That's incredible."

Will grinned as he followed Clint's gaze. "It is, isn't it? Halt's one of the best in the Corp."

The two of them moved over to the two low tents and crawled inside. Clint collapsed onto the bed roll and his head had barely touched the ground before he was fast asleep.

Clint was on watch when the sky finally started to lighten. It didn't take long for him to wake the other two and after a frugal breakfast and more coffee, they were on their way. They rode for a few more hours through the forest before they finally reached farmland again. Ahead of them stretched miles of wheat, corn, and potatoes with farmhouses scattered here and there like old toys that a child had lost interest in. In the center of the fields was a cluster of six buildings, which must have been Debber's Crossing.

The three companions trotted down the dirt road that bisected the fields, eliciting curious and guarded glances from the field workers as they passed. Once they were close enough to one of them, Halt reigned in Abalard, signaling for Clint and Will to stop as well.

"Hello!" Halt called out, heralding a farmhand that was pulling weeds within hearing distance. "Do you know where we can find a Miss Rose Herring?"

The man furrowed his brows, eyeing the two Rangers with slight suspicion.

"She lives over yonder," he called, gesturing to a farm house a few fields over without taking his eyes off the strangers. "Why?"

"Official business," Halt replied with a nod. "Thank you for your time."

A few minutes later, they were approaching in the house. The walls were white-washed wattle and daub that had turned a dusty beige long ago. The thatched roof sagged in the middle and unlike Halt's cabin, the windows only had rickety shutters to keep out the elements rather than canvas coverings. Off to the side stood an outhouse that seemed to be leaning a bit to the right. A woman emerged through the sagging front door of the house as they approached. She was middle aged, with gaunt features and a plain beige dress that almost perfectly blended in with her house. Her eyes were a warm brown, but they were piercing and severe, more like the brown of a sharpened stick than that of chocolate or whatever else that color is usually compared to. Clint immediately didn't trust her and he was willing to bet that the Rangers had the same instinct.

"About time you showed," she greeted them irritably, a deep frown creasing her already-wrinkled face.

Halt gave her a slight bow from his saddle. "I apologize. Castle Redmont is a day's ride from here, after all."

Rose huffed, motioning for them to dismount before turning sharply on her heel and walking back into her house.

Halt sighed softly before swinging down from his saddle. Will and Clint followed suit and Clint secured Diana's reins to Tug's before the three of them followed Rose indoors. The inside of the hut was just as battered as the outside and was segmented into two rooms. The main room took up most of the house. There were two windows, one on the back wall and one to the left of the door. There was a wood stove tucked into the corner with two straw mattresses leaned against the wall a few feet away. On the other side of the room near the door was a sink, table, and two chairs. Other than that, the room was pretty bare. The doorway to the second room lacked a door and through it Clint could see a small bed, a table with a basin and a bar of soap, and a big chest like the one at Halt's cabin.

Rose took a seat at the table as they came in and glowered up at them.

"I'm assume you'll be wanting the full story," Rose said as Clint gazed around the room from his stance behind the two Rangers.

"Yes, ma'am, that would be useful," Halt replied, his tone somewhat flat. It hadn't escaped any of their notice that Rose hadn't offered them seats, despite their long ride here. Normally, the Rangers would have just chalked that up to worry or grief, but Rose didn't seem to be experiencing either of those emotions.

"A knight showed up here three days ago," she began as Clint continued to examine the room, filing away anything that was of interest for later. "I walked outside to see him talking to my daughters out in the field. Ever since their deadbeat father skipped out on us, they've been taking care of the crops. I shooed him off, told him to move along, but he obviously came back because the next morning, my girls were gone," she snapped, waving her hand at the mattresses up against the wall. "Beds empty! Clothing gone! Thank god they never knew where the money was kept, otherwise they would have taken that, too." Clint began to amble around the room, glancing at the stove and pocking at the mattresses. This eliciting a glare from Rose, but she didn't reprimand him. "That knight must have seduced them and dragged them away in the middle of the night."

Halt nodded, his brow furrowed. "Were you able to see this knight's coat of arms?" he asked.

Rose shrugged. "It was hard to see from a distance. It looked like a red tree, but I couldn't be sure."

Halt nodded again, his countenance darkening even further. He could check the records in his bag, but he was quite sure that there weren't any knights in the kingdom that had a red tree in their coat of arms.

"Could you tell us what your daughters look like, Miss. Herring?" Will asked, his face earnest.

"They're all tall, real skinny, all got my brown hair," she said, gesturing to the thin strands that were tied up in a strict bun. "They're all in their mid-twenties. The oldest is named Anthea, middle one is Leah, and the youngest is Sarah."

The two Rangers thanked her for her time and promised that they would find her girls as they headed back outside with Clint trailing behind them. She simply grunted that they'd better before slamming the door shut behind them.

"If those girls really did leave of their own free will, then I have no trouble seeing why," Clint said as he and Will looked back at the old, dried-out door. The three of them mounted their horses and headed off towards the cluster of buildings in the center of town. Maybe there would be someone there that could tell them where the knight had gone.

"Did you see anything of interest?" Halt asked as they moved away from the house. "I'm assuming you noticed the manacles behind the stove."

Clint nodded, a scowl twisting his face. Will looked between them with an alarmed look.

"Wait, what manacles?" he exclaimed.

Clint shook his head grimly. "There was a pair chained to the foot of the stove. Anyone with those on wouldn't be going anywhere any time soon. I…" Clint reached up and scrubbed a hand over his face. "I think I saw dried blood on them, but I couldn't be sure." He scowled as he glanced over at his companions. "Do you guys have anti-cruelty laws around here or am I going to have to come back when we're done and make sure that she treats her kids right?"

Clint didn't seem like the kind of person that would beat up someone who couldn't fight back, but the dark look in his eyes made both of the Rangers doubt that assumption.

Halt gave him a stern look. "We do. There's no need to become a vigilantly just yet. Let's focus on finding these girls first and then we'll arrest the mother."

Clint nodded, satisfied with that, and looked ahead, his gaze going straight through the approaching houses and far into the distance.

They spent the rest of the day asking around the village as they searched for anyone who might have seen the knight and where he'd headed. They finally managed to find a pot-bellied man outside the local blacksmith who said that he'd seen him while he'd been out drinking.

"I don't remember much from that night," the man had said with an amused shake of his head. "My buddy's wife is expecting and we were celebrating, you see, but I don't think I'd be able to forget seeing a knight leading three young women out of town." He frowned up at Halt, who sat astride Abelard. "An awefully strange sight, that. Last I saw, they were heading thataway towards Ringer Village, the town east of here," he said as he pointed towards one of the roads that headed out of the village.

Halt nodded gratefully to the man as he handed him a silver coin and said, "Thank you." He trotted out of the village with Will and Clint close behind.

The three of them moved through countryside and forests for the next few hours, sometimes bantering with each other or swapping battle stories and sometimes sitting in companionable silence. The sun was once again dipping towards the horizon when they finally emerged from the forest and arrived at Ringer Village.

The village was fairly large, with about twenty buildings separated by wide thoroughfares and thin alleys. The three men immediately headed for the center of town where they could see a steep-rooved two-story building that must be the inn. Despite the encroaching twilight, there were still plenty of people bustling along the main road that bisected the town like a spine. A lot of them cast curious glances at the two Rangers and bow-less archer, but they quickly and resolutely averted their gazes.

"There it is!" Will exclaimed, pointing forward to where the inn sat on the right side of the road and leaned slightly out over the cobblestones. "Enjoy this while it lasts," he said, turning to look at Clint with a wry smile. "After this, it'll probably be mostly forest floors and cold rations."

Clint shrugged as they dismounted and began to lead their horses behind the inn, which was called the Drowned Goose. "Eh, I'm used to it. Natasha and I have had to camp out plenty of times on missions."

The three of them stabled their horses out back and headed around to the front. Will pestered Clint with questions about his missions the entire time, but Clint didn't mind. He'd grown to be quite fond of the kid over the few days that he'd been traveling with them. He liked Halt, too, but that was more of an intense respect thing than fondness. From what they'd been telling me of their exploits, Halt seemed to be an amazing warrior and tactician.

As they entered the ground floor of the inn, they were blasted with a wall of heat and the smell of stale beer, sweat, and roasted meats. The low ceiling was crisscrossed with wooden beams and tables were set up throughout the room with chairs ringing the crackling fire in the back of the room.

There were several patrons seated around the room and conversation lulled as they entered and everyone turned to examine the newcomers.

"Halt?" A voice exclaimed into the silence.

Halt raised his hand in greeting to the man who was making his way across the room towards him. The man looked to be in his late twenties and was wearing a ranger's cloak with a sword sheathed at his side.

"Gilan," he greeted as he embraced the man, a warm smile breaking over his face. "What a surprise!"

"Hey, Gilan!" Will said happily as he stepped forward to claim his own hug. "What're you doing here?"

"I'll tell you all about it once we're away from prying eyes," he murmured back as he ruffled Will's hair and glanced over his shoulder to give the other patrons a meaningful glare. Conversation immediately resumed, but the curious glanced didn't stop. It was rare to see three Rangers in the same place, after all.

"Who's this?" Gilan asked as he turned to Clint and held out a hand.

Clint shook the man's hand and was about to introduce himself when Will beat him to the punch.

"This is Clint," he said as he clapped a hand on Clint's shoulder. "He isn't a Ranger, but he's a really good archer."

"Really?" Gilan asked with an amused smile. "Well, then it's an honor to meet you, Clint. I'm Gilan. I'm a former apprentice of Halt's," he said, nodding his head in the direction of the grizzled Ranger, who'd gone over to the bar to order them some food. "How'd you end up traveling with these two, by the way?"

Clint chuckled and shook his head. "That's… a really long story, actually. To make it shorter, I'm helping them with their mission until I can find a way to get back to my home."

Gilan's brows furrowed and he glanced to Will, who gave him a nod, his face deadly serious. "Well okay then," Gilan said as he looked back to Clint. "It's good to meet you, Clint. Will, you and Halt can tell me about your mission later. For now, let's eat."

Will grinned. "Yes please!"

Clint simply chuckled and followed the two of them to where Halt was already seated in the corner, his cowl pulled forward to hide his faint smile as he watched them from afar.

(A/N: Feel free to leave some more reviews and tell me how you like this story and what I should do for the other Avengers. Thank you to those of you who have already reviewed!

ZeAwsumOtaku: YEAH! :D I'm gonna have to brush up on my spn knowledge but I'm PUMPED!

Catsar: Thank you! I'll be honest, it's been a while since I've read Ranger's Apprentice, so it's good to know that I'm doing something right. :)

Quirkygallade: Thanks! As I said with Catsar, it's good to know that I'm portraying them well. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. :)

Mala: Well, Diana isn't a Ranger horse, but she's something! XD I literally wrote her before you even posted that comment, which I find hilarious, and I also have been planning for them to meet Gilan for a while now, but thank you for the suggestions anyways. :) Unfortunately, I don't plan on including Alyss, Pauline, or Horace, which is a shame because I've realized that this story could use some more badass ladies. :( Finally, UMMM HOLY SHIT I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE THAT? Seriously, I love it when my readers create theories that I hadn't even considered. :)

Thank you all for reading and I hope you are all comforted by the fact that I am not, in fact, dead!

ALSO, please go and check out my good friend, ChickWithThePurpleGuitar! She's an amazing writer and an even more amazing person, so feel free to show her some love. :)