Epilogue
A/N: Here's the epilogue. I really hope this story proved to be an enjoyable diversion. Thank you guys for all of your support, it was really encouraging. Also, thanks for reading!
Adjectiveant: Thanks for the constructive criticism. I've made sure to fix those errors you mentioned. Funny thing is I did use to center and bold my line breaks, but it seems that I've gotten progressively lazy about it; sorry about that.
Also, special thanks to TrustTheCloak and Andy the willow tree for your kind reviews; you guys totally made my day!
Epilogue
It was about a week later that Alyss came to the small cabin in the trees to visit with Halt, Horace, and Gilan. Usually, she saw the latter two very infrequently, and hardly ever together. It was because of this that she wanted to make the most of it. Obviously, they both thought the same for they had been chatting the day away, sitting around Will's table with steaming cups of coffee beside them. Will really should have been there too, but he had been called away the night before on urgent business. There had been the problem of an arsonist in one of the more outlying hamlets and Will had been forced to settle it. Rangers, it seemed, could never truly catch a break.
"I never did ask," Horace said suddenly to Alyss, "how did Jenny take it when you told her what happened?"
"Not very well," Alyss said, raising an elegant brow. "Think about it: how do you think you would you take it if Will came to you one day and told you that he'd nearly gotten Cassandra killed?"
Horace winced slightly. "I can see how it didn't go so well."
Alyss nodded. "But at least she was more worried than angry and didn't go after me with her ladle."
There was a moment of silence as all of them considered that. Nobody, if they were wise, would ever want to get on the wrong end of Jenny's ladle. Her reputation with it almost rivaled that of her mentor Chub.
"What about you Horace?" Alyss asked, changing the subject. "I would have thought you would have returned to Castle Araluen already."
"I've decided that I'm not leaving until Gilan is well enough to back to his own fief." Horace said in answer.
"That's really sweet of you," Alyss said, surprised.
"Not only that, but Jenny has been making dinner for me every night, and there's been more than enough for Horace and Will too," Gilan put in, grinning. "There's no way he'd miss out on that by leaving sooner."
Horace smiled and nodded his head in agreement, sighing happily.
Alyss rolled her eyes. "Trust you men to turn a beautiful act of kindness and altruism in for something as simple as food." But she was smiling too.
"Halt also thought it might be a good idea for me to ride back with Gilan to Whitby. I can ride with him there and then take the main road to Castle Araluen without going too far out of my way," Horace added. "It'll all work out pretty nicely."
Gilan nodded in agreement, and then changed the subject again, "speaking of Will, Jenny tells me that some of the village children have started singing the parody that he made of George," he said, chuckling.
Will hadn't left out George in his recent parody writing spree and had come up with a modified version of The Hero of the Highlands about him, re-titled The Scholar's Hero.
.
George, he was a scholar bold.
Afraid of combat true,
But challenge him with pad and pen,
And that's the day you'll rue.
.
He had no head for valor.
Detests adventure too.
But has a love of paper,
No better writer true.
.
Three cheers for the pencil lads!
For desks and papers too!
Scholar talk and legal terms!
And George who loves them true!
.
Horace also laughed. "Poor George," he said, shaking his head slightly, "he really hasn't appreciated it: says that it's bad for his legal reputation."
Alyss's expression, however, had darkened at the mention of Will's modified songs.
"I have had just about enough of Will's parodies," she said, frowning. "They are beginning to get out of hand."
Gilan looked up at her in surprise. "I thought you thought they were funny—and besides, the song he made about you was actually pretty flattering."
Alyss and Pauline had so far been the only ones to get a parody made about them that wasn't riddled with playful insults.
Alyss brushed that aside. "Yes, most of the songs he writes are funny—and the one he wrote about me was very sweet. But I'm not talking about those, I'm talking about Will the Ranger or what used to be Liam Naylor.
"Oh, that one," Gilan and Horace said in unison, glancing at each other and trying very hard to hide their smiles.
They knew the one she meant, and knew also why Alyss hadn't liked it. The song poked fun at rather difficult time in Alyss and the Princess Cassandra's relationship to each other and to Will. It was a very lively upbeat sort of song, with a catchy tune that belied the theme.
.
Will the Ranger was no great stranger, full of life and heart and play
Then one day did he discover, a lovely Courier maiden gay.
Twenty of the kings officials, met him on the king's highway,
As he was heading to be married, on a mission he was sent away.
.
Courier clothing she put on, and went about her duties and task,
Going on her Courier's missions, till she learned that he was back.
Wistfully, she long to see him, longed to make their parting right
She rode to the castle of Araluen, on the threshold did she alight.
.
When the King did she discover, he said, 'my lady, why came you here?'
'Milord, I'm seeking Will the Ranger, a quest you sent him on last year.'
'If you get up in the morning, and set out west at break of day,
There you'll find young Will the Ranger, walking with my daughter to stay.'
.
She rose up early in the morning, and set out west at break of day.
There she spotted Will the Ranger, walking with the princess gay,
She procured two loaded crossbows, from the guards at her command,
There she shot poor Will the Ranger; and the princess at his right hand.
.
What made it so bad for Alyss was the fact that she knew she had been overly jealous during that whole fiasco— and jealous without cause as it turned out. In fact, it had been so bad that she might well have been tempted to consider the idea going after the princess with a loaded crossbow. She and Evanlyn had moved on from that and were actually very good friends now; but Alyss wasn't really happy or ready to have that regretful stage of their life turned into a joking parody. It wasn't at all funny to her.
It was easy enough for Will, she thought bitterly, his feelings hadn't really been involved in that whole debacle. In fact, she was positive that he had been entirely oblivious to the whole situation while it was happening. He had only figured it out later.
"I just wish there was a way for me to get back at him a little bit," Alyss said then.
"I wouldn't mind getting in on that myself," Gilan said, grinning mischievously.
"Me either," Horace agreed, then his brow furrowed. "But how would we do that?"
Halt, who had been listening in on the conversation while he finished a report, provided the answer immediately.
"Simple," he said flatly, setting the paper and quill pen aside, "we make a parody about Will." An ominously wolfish smile touched his grizzled face then. "And I know just where to start."
In truth, he had been waiting for such an opportunity ever since the invention of Greybeard Halt.
~x~X~x~
Will returned from his unexpected trip about a day and a half later, having settled the arson problem. The young Ranger put Tug in the stables and gave the little horse a rub down and measure of oats. As he worked, he hummed. He had come up with another brilliant parody idea and was trying to flush it out.
He had seen Abelard in the stables so, when he was finished tending to Tug, he glanced around to make sure that Halt was nowhere nearby. Once he was certain, he gave Tug, Kicker, Abelard and Blaze an apple each as a treat. Then he left the stables. As he headed towards the little cabin, he sang softly, trying out a verse that had been giving him particular trouble.
.
Oh Princess of Araluen, as stubborn as they come
But brilliant, true, and brave
Fighting with sling and stave
Strong of will and heart, and never to succumb
.
Princess Cassandra, to his knowledge, had never actually ever used stave—or any spear-like weapon for that matter—in combat. But he really needed word that rhymed with brave and would fit with the context of the song. He shrugged to himself philosophically; it would just have to do.
He opened the door to the cabin and was surprised to see the room filled with his friends. Halt was standing off to the side, a rather unsettling smile touching his face. Gilan, Horace, Alyss, Jenny and George, were standing in the middle of the open room in a sort of formation.
Alyss was holding Will's Mandola—he hadn't had the time to take it with him when he'd left do deal with the arson problem. Horace had the drum they had gotten on the mission in Devon; the knight had taken quite a liking to the instrument and Alyss's contact had given it to him as a gift. Jenny was holding two large metal spoons bound together so they would make a 'tink' sound, and a covered bowl filled with grain that made a rattly sound, when she shook them. George was holding the little pan flute he had been learning to play. Gilan stood towards the middle of the group.
As soon as Will entered, the tall Ranger raised his good arm like a music conductor to give the beat. As one, they started in on a song, Gilan singing lead. Though his voice wasn't as resonant or refined as Will's, it was a pleasing enough tenor and he could hold a tune. Alyss occasionally joined him to sing harmony. Seeing all his friends together making music was a huge surprise indeed, but it wasn't quite as surprising as the actual content of the song itself—a modified version of The Merchant Bold.
Will felt his cheeks flushing slightly as he stood there in shocked surprise and listened—it appeared that his friends had finally found a way to get him back for all the parodies he had been making. He shook his head slightly, a smile etching it's way across his face.
.
There chanced to be a young boy alone,
a boy with no name there chanced to be.
But then a hero he did become,
known as the Ranger Will Treaty
.
By chance he was quite a troublesome lad,
a troublesome lad he chanced to be;
Finding both trouble and danger great,
whilst asking questions interminably
.
The mind of a butterfly did he have,
a butterfly's flitting mind had he,
There is no one thing he'll focus on,
because his thoughts flick so speedily
.
He gets himself into tons of scrapes,
Tons of trouble he'll always find.
But even when he's completely lost,
He overcomes with sheer luck and mind…
The End
A/N: Thanks for Reading. Feedback is always appreciated! Let me know if you see anywhere I can improve or have any suggestions. I'm still planning to do the other two story ideas I had for this little mini-series: Hides and Messages... though, school starts back up of me in about a week so I'm not sure when that will be exactly (I have an extremely nasty full schedule). I also have a few other ideas running around my head for RA that I'd like to put on paper, so I'll see how it goes.
Side note: George and Cassandra's songs I free wrote; but for Will the Ranger I was inspired by, and wrote it to the tune of, William Taylor which is (I believe) an 18th century Irish ballad (I also kept the theme of the song) I think it's pretty funny. The song that Will's friends wrote for him I wrote to the tune of The Bold Peddler and Robin Hood which is an old English Ballad, I believe.
Side side note: Here are the summaries for the other two shorts I mentioned above if you're interested.
Hides: Will finds himself climbing a tree after playing Greybeard Halt one too many times and discovers something interesting. And that something might just end up holding the key to helping him devise a plan to save his mentor when he finds trouble. (Will, Halt, Crowley, Gilan)
Messages: Will decides to try and train a hawk from the mountains of Rain and Night to carry messages for the Ranger Corps. Unfortunately, training it successfully turns out to be much harder than expected. In hind sight though, that turned out to be a rather good thing; especially when Horace finds himself in pretty deep water. (Will, Horace, Evanlyn/Cassandra)
Thanks again! I hope you all have an amazing day!
~ATGTJ~