Authors Note: Well, here is my second chapter. Thanks to the people who gave me the reviews. I've never got so many for one chapter.


Early the next morning, Will was taking a leisurely walk in the woods surrounding the gathering area. He had woken, checked on Tug and then come back to his campsite and eaten breakfast. As he slowly strolled along, he watched the sun come out from behind the clouds that had shrouded it earlier. The weak and watery light shone through sparkling raindrops, which were perched on leaves and twigs everywhere. Tiny rainbows danced around on the tree trunks and Will smiled at the silent beauty.

Suddenly, something rustled quietly in the bushes. Will froze. He turned and looked at the juniper bush that had announced the arrival of whatever, or whoever, had passed by. The rustle had been too quiet to be an animal, too suspicious sounding. This thought was confirmed by a flash of red cloth among the leaves. The slight noises moved away and Will, after a moment's hesitation, followed.

After a while, Will came upon a small clearing in the forest. He paused and then darted behind the cover of a tree. He took a deep breath and knocked an arrow to his bow. Then he stepped from behind his tree.

"King's Ranger! Stay where you are!" To his total surprise, whoever it was shot up the nearest tree in an explosion of leaves. Will's arrow hurled itself across the clearing to bury itself, quivering, into the trunk of the oak that the person had dashed up. Will caught sight of a white-tipped tail vanishing among the foliage. Two frightened luminous green eyes stared out at him. They belonged not to an animal, they were to full of emotion to belong to one.

The owner of the green eyes showed it's face for a second. A girl's face. The only startling thing was that the ears were that of a cat's. Large, cupped orange-furred ears. Then the face disappeared, leaving Will startled and slack-jawed with surprise. First, he had almost shot an innocent girl, second, that same girl had cat ears, and they weren't fake.

He heard rustling in the bushes and he whirled around to see who it was. He relaxed when he saw Halt.

"Halt!" he exclaimed. "You started me!"

The older ranger's right eyebrow shot up. "I can see that." he said wryly. "What do you have treed up there?"

"A girl." Halt shot him an incredulous look.

"Why the devil do you have a girl trapped up in a tree?" He paused for a moment, thinking, then he continued. "But how did she find the gathering grounds?"

Will shook his head. "I don't think she even knows where she is. She darted up that tree the second she saw me. She didn't even stop when I told her I was a king's ranger." Both of Halt's eyebrows jumped up at this.

"She didn't stop?" he echoed. "That's odd in the extreme." He looked at the tree. The round orbs were staring at him. No, wait. Not at him. At his weapons. Halt quickly unclipped his belt with the saxe and throwing knife and let it drop reassuringly to the leaves. He shrugged off his longbow and quiver of arrows as well. "Come on down." he coaxed. "We aren't going to harm you in any way.

He darted a swift glance at Will. The young man caught his look and quickly disarmed himself. "Yes, that's right. We won't hurt you."

The eyes flickered. Then they disappeared with a rustle into the foliage. But she wasn't leaving. The leaves rustled slightly all the way down the trunk. The girl was coming down. There was a pause. Then a furious thrashing. The girl dropped the last yard from the tree and landed on all fours on the leaves. Her orange ears were pressed flat back against her head and her tail was lashing around with fear. Her eyes were wide as she stared at the two men before her. She pressed her self almost completely flat to the ground.

Halt blinked in surprise. Will had forgotten to tell him about her ears and tail. But Halt remained still, so as not to frighten her. "She's a wild thing sure enough." he muttered out of the corner of his mouth to Will. His young friend nodded.

Suddenly the bushes at the edge of the clearing rustled and a tall young man stepped out of the forest. There was an explosion of leaves and Halt and Will both flinched and threw up their hands to protect their faces from the shower of leaves and twigs as the girl shot up the tree again.

Halt turned angrily to the tall young ranger that was grinning at him. "Why the devil did you have to be so noisy just then?" he snapped irately.

Gilan grin widened, if it was possible because the grin was wide enough already. "Halt! What a lovely hat of leaves you have!"

Halt glared and brushed the leaves out of his hair. "Next time you say something like that, I'm going to kill you."


The next chapter may take a while to get here, so hold your horses everybody. I hope you like it so far.

R&R as always! And I will give you fluffy pink bunnies and a sword to chop up the bunnies if you wish. Because some of you might not like the bunnies.

One last thing, I'm extremely random so excuse the random part.