First, I would like to apologize for the awful cliff-hanger at the end. I do know where it is going!
Second, I would like to thank Cirruz the Night Elf for a wonderful review and bugging me to write this. Thanks for making my day!
Enjoy!
Chapter 1
Seeing Halt O'Carrick fighting was a normal thing. But seeing him lose-that was quite another. Even as it happened, he was only losing from sheer weight of numbers. (Which was still pretty remarkable.) He fought ferociously with bow and arrows, Saxe knife, throwing knife, and almost any other weapon that he could find on a dead opponent. There were many of them, especially near Halt. The army was huge, and Halt ferociously fought them off, but they just kept coming. After a while, despite his fitness, Halt's body began to feel the strain, but he forced himself to continue, no matter what the personal cost. This was Pauline, Gilan, and Will's lives on the line.
Halt was having a nice, quiet day. That is, until Will showed up. Halt still thought of him as a son, even now that most of their adventures were over and Will was a grown man. Will had gotten a lot more responsible lately, and also restless because Redmont was so peaceful and there weren't any significant problems going on that needed them-they were the go team after all. Though sometimes Will's old self showed through, and this was one of those times. He banged open the creaky door of the cabin they shared so hard it slammed into the wall, making a strange scree-whump noise that was partially muffled by the cloak hanging on the wall. Normally, Halt might have jumped up and drawn his saxe knife to fight off whatever intruder had just come barging through his front door, but once again, Halt knew Will too well and had recognized his almost silent footsteps on the veranda as he was sipping his midday coffee. Why Will was in such a rush, he had yet to find out.
Of course the first words out of Will's mouth were exactly what Halt was wondering.
"Redmont's been taken!"
For anyone but Halt, this might have at least stunned them for a second, but Halt's mind instantly processed this and he immediately asked the natural question.
"Who did it?"
Will gravely looked his old mentor in the eye for a long second before replying "It's the Temujai. They're back for revenge."
Back for revenge- indeed they were. They struck swiftly, killed Baron Arald, and took over the castle in a matter of minutes. Then again, it wasn't very difficult when your attacking force was 8 times the size of the defending force. Redmont was completely unprepared for the assault, and it took its toll.
A few days after taking over the castle, and when they were settled in, they began ravaging the countryside and murdering anyone they came across. They arrived at a farm, killed the occupants, stole the food and livestock, burned the house and left. The rangers had frantically tried to fend off these attacks, but they were too random and happened too quickly for them to do anything about them. Word had been sent to the king right when the first attacks on the castle started, but the Temujai had somehow brought over thousands of men and surrounded the castle in a 5-mile radius of mounted cavalry. Any men from the king would take at least two weeks to get there, and Redmont's neighbor fiefs were much too small to provide any kind of military support. That left the surviving occupants of Redmont on their own, and the Temujai had all the power.
After a week's worth of frantic defense, the rebel force that consisted of Halt, Will, a few other rangers that made it through the heavy barriers of men and a hundred or so castle and countryside occupants received a message from the Temujai. It read:
To Rebels
From All Superior Temujai Army
Before you continue fighting this useless battle , you might want to consider a few things. We have your castle, and there is nothing you can do to get it back. Your people are perishing by the day in our very productive raids. There is no help coming. You are losing.
If you want the raids to stop, all you have to do is hand over the arrogant boy by the name of Will Treaty.
If you do not, not only will you be sealing your own fates, but those of two members of your rebel force we took in earlier today. We have been informed that their names are Pauline and Gilan. Consider this.
Remember who is in power here.
That was it. The ransom note for his wife and former apprentice. If he didn't want them killed, he had to hand in the other person he loved. It was a lose-lose situation, and for the first time in his life, Halt didn't know what to do about it. The only thing he could do was continue attempting to fight back.
That was what Halt was doing right now-fighting back. They had finally organized the farmers into a fighting force and attacked the castle defenses. However, it had gone badly and the fight had gradually moved across the field and into a clearing in the forest. Almost half of their force had been killed in the initial attack- a huge portion of their already small force. It was down to the rangers to keep the rest of the people safe, but Halt's main goal was to keep Will out of Temujai hands. Will still insisted that he be able to fight, and as he would obviously be a great help, in the end Halt gave in. Now Will was shooting Temujai from a distance with only the occasional close-quarters fight, which was the compromise.
Just as Halt thought of Will, there was a brief respite in enemies to attack as the focal point moved away from him, and he quickly spun around to check on Will. His heart leaped when he saw no sign of him. Halt quickly called for another warrior to take his place in the line, threw the cowl of his cloak over his head, and disappeared into the background to look for Will. Halt made a large circle of the battle going on, and still not seeing him, ducked into the forest to search for him in there.
As he jogged silently through the trees, he was reminded of another time and another place, many years ago, also searching for Will. Except this time, there was no burly warrior named Horace walking next him, and the boy he was searching for was not a boy anymore but a man. This was a rather saddening thought, but it did not take long for the complete and utter pride in his accomplishments to take over. Will may not have been aware of it, but he was already one of the most famous Rangers to come about in many years. He was only rivaled by himself and maybe Crowley at this point, although he was probably better than the old Commandant.
Halt rounded a copse of trees and finally spotted his former apprentice. He was lying on the ground at the base of a great oak tree, deathly pale, a huge bloody cut across his entire front. Halt sprang to his son's side and immediately felt for a pulse. What he felt there scared him more than anything ever had in his life.
Nothing.