"Come on, Will! Faster!" his mentor urged him on, faster and faster.

The two were currently outside, just doing some simple training.

Will grinned like a maniac; sprinting was one of his favourite things to do. He loved the feel of the air running through his air, pumping his legs harder and harder, knowing that one little mistake might lead to-

"OW!" The small apprentice gave a cry of pain and fell to the ground in one fell swoop.

Halt was surprised – what kind of apprentice would give up? But when he looked back and saw that Will wasn't moving...that's when his heart started beating in his throat. He changed directions and ran back to his fallen apprentice.

He knelt down and saw a tear or two in Will's eyes, who was bravely trying to hold them back. He sat and was clutching his leg, high up on the meaty part.

"Will?" Halt looked imploringly.

Will only bit his lips and looked up in response.

"What's wrong?"

"I-" Will gave a gasp of pain, "It's my leg. I-I hurt it, but I don't know how."

Halt ran a hand over his face. It was probably a muscle pull, and those were never fun and could be slow to heal. He would definitely need to care for the boy for the next week or so.

"Where does it hurt?" Halt asked, now posing as a doctor in addition to his usual role as a mentor and father-figure.

"Here," said Will and gestured to his leg, a few centimeters above the knee. He ran his hand up his leg, directly over the large muscle in the thigh, exactly as Halt had suspected.

"Listen to me," Halt said. "It's probably nothing more than a muscle tear. See this?" Halt pointed to the area that Will said hurt him. "There's a large muscle there, and you've sprained or torn it, most likely from all the hard sprinting. You're going to have to take it easy now."

Will gave a sniffle or two. His leg hurt!

Halt stood up and proffered a hand to the boy. Will stood up, shakily, and favoured his uninjured leg. Halt looked him up and down, trying to asses the state of his apprentice. Everything seemed to be ok.

"All right," he said. "Go jog down to the stable and back."

"What?! You've got to be joking," shot back Will. His leg was on fire, how could Halt expect him to do that? "Didn't you just tell me to take it easy?"

"A slow jog. I didn't say it had to be hard. You've got to stretch out the muscle, otherwise it'll tense up from pain and take even longer to heal and hurt even more." He gave his apprentice a stern look, letting him know he was serious.

Will sighed but did as he was told. His leg seized up violently, and he bit his lip, but not before a cry could escape. He jogged to the shed, holding his leg the whole time.

The journey back seemed impossibly long, but in the end he made it.

Halt offered him some help inside, which Will gladly took. He hooked an arm around the man's neck and allowed Halt to take some of his weight. He limped along into the cottage and gladly sat down at the wooden table where he ate most meals. His leg still felt like there were miniature faeries – the kind from the folk tales – clawing at him.

Halt gave him a bucket of cold water – When had he gone outside? - and returned to the kitchen area to cook some soup.

While it was still cooking, he helped carry Will to his bed. He laid him down and used spare cloth to tightly bandage Will's leg.

"What's that for?" his ever-curious apprentice asked.

"The compression is good for the muscle," barked Halt, keeping it short. He didn't have time to be answering questions and he needed to concentrate. Compression bandages had never been his forte, but luckily it was only a leg. Those were easy enough to wrap.

Will stared curiously at the cloth, but his nose was intrigued at the smell of cooking soup.

Satisfied with his job, and, hearing his apprentice's stomach grumble, Halt stood up and poured the soup into two bowls. He took the food to Will, and they ate together.

Will's eyes widened when halt arrived in his room. Eating in bed? Now that was a special treat. Halt never ever allowed that, he said it made for lazy apprentices! Will knew better than to say anything to his gruff master, as it would surely embarrass him and he would never do something like this again. Will knew in his heart that this was Halt's way of apologising for working him so hard.

With a grunt Halt sat himself down and the two ate in companionable silence.

When Halt looked over, Will was already asleep.