Sorry about the rapidness of this chapter; I'm impatient to get to the exciting parts haha.


Will and Sandy rode the rest of the way to the next fief talking with each other. Will learned the boy's name was Sander, but everyone called him Sandy. His dad owned a farm two fiefs over but he had been in debt, and then his father had died and the farm had been sold, leaving Sandy and his older sister on their own. His sister had found work in the nearby town, but Sandy hadn't been content with that and wanted to go find something to make of himself.

Will told Sandy little of himself. When Sandy mentioned he was now an orphan, Will sympathized with him, and mentioned that he too was an orphan. The boy had been somewhat surprised at the mention of a Ranger ever having parents, almost as if he had thought they weren't exactly human; then flushed at his own stupidity, never uttering a word of his thoughts.

At one point in midday, they dismounted, and between the two of them had some dried bread and salted meat, and heated up some coffee. Will had noted with some interest how the boy walked; he stepped with his toes first, rolling his feet in his steps slowly and catlike, but not walking slowly for it; the result was hardly any noise. Of course, the boy was no where near as silent as Will, but when he thought back to going through the woods with Horace, he was impressed by the boy's footsteps. Sandy also moved in a gliding walk, although not entirely in a straight line, as if he was blown with the wind. With a Ranger's cloak, or in dim light, or anything but that crimson cloak he wore, he would be hardly noticed. Farmhand indeed.

Will noticed the boy was looking at his longbow with interest, and asked if Sandy could shoot.

"I've never done more than a little itty bitty hunting bow," the boy confessed. Will considered him for a moment, then stood and unsheathed his saxe knife, and cut away the bark in a circle on a tree. A very small circle, because there wasn't enough room for distance. He then handed the boy his long bow and a single arrow.

"Really?" the boy had asked, awe in his face. Will nodded. The boy took a rough stance, not entirely proper, and tried to draw the bow. The 90 pound draw weight was too much for him, and he hardly managed a half draw. The boy scowled as he aimed and fired, missing the circle but still hitting the tree, and yelping as the string slapped his arm. Will nodded his approval; obviously he hadn't had any proper training or practice, and the boy was by no means an expert; he had only been ten meters away. But, he wasn't totally hopeless.

Will removed his arrow from the tree, careful not to damage the arrowhead. It was hardly lodged in the tree much at all, with the weak shot it had been.

At the inn where they stopped for the night, Will decided he would go in without his Ranger's cloak, so he could play his mandola without messing up the mysterious Ranger stereotype. Inside, Will asked Sandy if he knew any songs on the Mandola. He said he didn't, although if there was a guitar he could play that with Will. But, the boy did sing.

Together, Will played a few songs while Sandy sang along with him. Sandy had the ability to hit uncannily high notes for a boy, and that got them several silver coins. The innkeeper gave them a dinner of mutton and bread free of charge, even though they admitted they weren't jongleurs.

Will recalled once more the fond days he spent as a jongleur, and decided it didn't much matter if they had a free meal or not.

Despite the innkeeper's requests to have them another night, they left the next morning half an hour after the sun rose. As they rode, Sandy asked Will about what it was like to be a Ranger. The boy was incredibly curious, and he seemed totally fascinated with the concept. Will recounted stories from Skandia, from his first year as an apprentice, and from when he just became a Ranger. The boy was interested through the whole of it, and by the time his first tale was done, it was time for the noon day meal, and when he was finally done, they were riding into Redmont.

Will knew Gilan had been positioned at Redmont, and wondered if he hadn't left yet for the Ranger's meeting. Perhaps they could ride together. Will broke off the conversation with Sandy in thought, then spurred Tug into a trot as he got within a kilometre of where he knew the Ranger's cabin was that he had spent his apprentice years with Halt, just as the sun began to set.

Happily, he noticed that there were lights in the cabin. As Will dismounted, and Sandy pulled up even with him, Gilan opened the door and waved. Sandy dismounted, and looked at the cabin uncomfortably, unsure what to do. Will led Tug to a stable, where Gilan's horse Blaze whinnied a greeting. Sandy shifted uncomfortably, looking at Will with a question in his eyes. Will motioned him to come.

"Don't worry," Will said dismissively, unsaddling Tug.

"I don't want to intrude, I mean... I can go to an inn or something," the boy said, embarrassed.

"Nonsense. There's a perfectly comfortable couch, if you'd like," Gilan said from the door.

"Ah, well, thankyou," the boy said, uncertain still as he led his grey horse to where Will was hanging his tac. The boy quickly loosened the girth and pulled the saddle off the horse, grunting under the weight of a fifty pound saddle over his head. He hung his saddle and pulled off the blanket, and Will handed him a brush. Sandy nodded his thanks, and Will walked out of the stable and up the steps of cabin and gave Gillan a hug.

"An apprentice?" Gilan asked quietly, his eyebrows raised. Will laughed, and shook his head.

"The boy wanted to ride with me, so I agreed," Will said, looking over his shoulder to where Sandy carefully locked the gate behind him, patted his horse's nose, and walked up to the two Rangers.

"Hello," Gilan said, surprised to notice he was well over a head taller than the boy. He was tall as far as Ranger's went, but generally not that tall. "What's your name?"

"Sandy," the boy answered, shifting nervously. Gilan held out his hand, and the boy shook it. The boy's hand completely disappeared in Gilan's grasp.

"I'm Gilan," he responded. He pushed open the door, and motioned Will and Sandy inside. Gilan set some water to boiling in the fire place, and got out three mugs and a bag of coffee beans. Sandy noticed, with a barely covered laugh, he had an entire pantry filled with bags of coffee beans. Will noticed as well, with an amused grin.

"Planning on supplying the whole Gathering with coffee?" Will joked. Gilan looked confused a moment, then caught on to the joke.

"Only if the entire Gathering consists of you and me alone," Gilan responded. "And it was only a week long." Will threw back his head and laughed openly. Sandy grinned; he had already seen the Ranger's coffee addiction. Gilan gestured them to sit at the table while he prepared the coffee, then he sat the three mugs on the table and got out a jar of honey and spooned a healthy serving of honey into his mug. Will followed in suit, and Sandy, unsure of exactly what to do, spooned some into his coffee as well.

"So, Gilan," Will said. "How's Redmont running?"

"Good, thought the Baron misses Halt and Lady Pauline something awful now that they're up at Castle Araluen." Will nodded his understanding, and Gilan continued. "Maybe Halt will find some way to transfer back? If so, it'll mess up all our fiefs again. I don't think he'd do that."

"Sorry to interrupt," the boy said, eyes wide. "But, Halt? THE Halt? You guys know him personally?" Will and Gilan exchanged a glance.

"He was our master," Gilan said with a shrug. Will watched the boy's odd eyes, seeing the pieces fit together. The boy's eyes flew wide and he almost fell out of his chair looking at Will.

"Will Treaty?" the boy said, watching him. Will nodded with a grin. "Gilan... heard of you, too." Gilan grinned again. The boy wrapped his hands around his coffee, an held it to his lips looking over the rim at the table in an odd silence.

"You should wash that dirt off your face," Will suggested, motioning to the smears of dirt on his face. The boy flushed, embarrassed, and stood quickly. He left went to leave the room, then paused uncertainly. "The washbasin is in the room between the two bedrooms," Will answered the unspoken question. The boy vanished.

"So what's the deal with the boy?" Gilan asked.

"He asked to ride with me, and I agreed readily enough," Will said. "At the noonday meal when we stopped, he moved very quietly. I also let him shoot my bow. Nothing of an expert, and he didn't hit his mark, and he didn't reach a full draw, and he was only ten meters away- but he had next to no experience with a bow, which was remarkable. I estimate he had about 50 pounds of draw weight going for him. He'd make a good Ranger."

"He's small enough," Gilan joked. "Are you going to take him on?"

"Maybe," Will said with a shrug.

'I will if you don't," Gilan said with a grin. "I'm starting to turn into Halt." The two laughed together as the boy re-entered the room.

They sat around finishing their coffee and joking, before they decided it was time to go to bed before leaving in the morning for the next leg of their journey.