I do not own Ranger's Apprentice
"Greetings. You would be the Arulean party?" The man asked across the metre stretch of water. He was armed with a bow and sword, Halt noticed, and held himself in the way that said he knew how to use them. Duncan signalled to the herald standing next to him
"King Duncan of Arulean for the conference." He said loudly.
"Feel free to come ashore." The man said. There was a brief period of waiting while the sailors lowered the plank, which grated against the pebbles on the beach. The man bowed his head "Sharasan, King Duncan. Welcome to the land of the eternal forest."
"Sharasan, stranger. May the leaves of your homeland protect us all." Duncan answered also bowing. The man smiled
"And may yours not miss you for too long. My thanks for studying our culture. Know that my name is Wolfpaw, so we are strangers no more." Duncan came down of the ship and the others followed, apart from the sailors. "There is a bay where the others are mooring their ships around the headland. Tis a natural harbour where you can stay." Wolfpaw told them, before turning and walking back into the forest "If you would follow me, formalities can be carried out in the city."
"Wolfpaw!" Gilan said quickly, a grin breaking through his face as he threw back his cowl "Do you remember me?" Wolfpaw smiled, inclining his head slightly to the side in a dog-like manner
"How could I not remember the man who caused so much trouble? It is good to see you again Gilan. We should fight again sometime. But for now…" He gestured to the forest and started walking again.
"Wasn't that a little cold?" Will said quietly to Gilan as they started walking behind the king. Gilan grinned at him
"Nah, they just get nervous in the open. It's one of the main reasons the Guard are purely defensive, a lot of their fighting involves the trees. They don't like open spaces."
"Crazy." Horace muttered. There was nothing wrong with open spaces, he thought, it was small, enclosed ones that were the problem. They all stopped behind Wolfpaw, who was facing one of the huge trees. He whistled, and a rope ladder dropped down.
"Who wants to go first?" He asked smiling.
"How high is it?" Will asked curiously, testing his weight on the ladder.
"High." Wolfpaw replied, "Are you holding on?" Will nodded. Wolfpaw whistled again. The rope ladder went up the tree at surprising speed. "It is on a winch system." He told the Aruleans calmly "You should have seen the trouble I had convincing the Oberjarl to go up it." One by one they were all hoisted up into the canopy.