I got my cast yesterday, so I can finally straighten my elbow (finally- stupid splint) and type easier. The pain was back down as of this morning. So, I should be able to update more frequently. Hopefully I'll update everyday, but that's really optimistic. Probably reality is closer to three or four times a for the next three weeks, more... I have nothing else to do. (I won't lie, I based my character sorta off me; I do guitar and art. I can 't do guitar now, and I am a very hands on artist... both hands.)

Anyway, enjoy and review please!


Will sat back against a stump, watching the sun rise. Sandy mumbled in his sleep, saying seemingly random words like Baron, Rangers, Paint, Max, and Will. Gilan complained, half awake, about the mumbling, but Sandy didn't stir from his sleep. Gilan finally gave up, and came to sit by Will. Will stood and put water to boil over the fire, and put a bag of ground coffee beans by the fire and sat back with Gilan. Sandy suddenly bolted upright, his hands fluttering around his mouth, stifling a scream. Terror was in his eyes, and he wrapped his arms around his knees. He looked at Will, mumbling No over and over again.

Gilan beat Will to his feet, and sprinted over to Sandy's side. Sandy didn't even look at him.

"Sandy?" Gilan asked, hand on his shoulder. Sandy didn't respond. "Sandy?" he shook Sandy, but Sandy didn't so much as glance at him. His eyes were locked on Will, mortified.

"Sandy?" Will asked, kneeling in-front of the boy. Will put his hand on Sandy's knee, and the boy screamed and scrambled back.

"Dead," the boy muttered, terror in his eyes. "Dead dead dead."

"Who's dead, Sandy?" Will said, worried the lad had lost his mind.

"You," the boy whispered, hoarse.

"I'm not dead, Sandy... See?" Will said, taking a step forwards and touching his chest. The terror began to fade from the boy's eyes.

"You died," Sandy said persistently, though he wasn't as frightened. He allowed Will to get closer.

"No," Will said. "It was just a dream." The last bit of terror faded from the boy's eyes, and fell to the ground. He put his head in his hands, and Will went slowly to his knees and hugged him. Sandy stiffened, but didn't bolt.

"It wasn't a dream," the boy said, looking up at him with those weird blue eyes. "It was a nightmare."

"What happened?" Will asked, sitting back on his heels. "It helps to talk."

"You died," Sandy said, shuddering. "An arrow, straight through your heart." Will frowned to himself; why it would shake the boy so, he couldn't place. But he didn't push. After a moment, Sandy stood and brushed himself off.

"I'm sorry about that," Sandy said. He noticed the water was boiling over now, and pulled it from the fire. He retrieved the coffee mugs from where they sat from the night before, and added some grounds to the bottom before pouring the boiling water ontop. Sandy handed Gilan and Will each a cup before sitting down with his own. They drank it black; no one felt like getting up to get the honey. After they finished the coffee, Sandy stood and tossed his grounds into the trees, then returned and did Will's and Gilan's for them.

He rinsed out the mugs with the leftover warm water, and stashed them in a saddlebag. Gilan stood and kicked out the fire. Will stretched, then gathered up other stray items from around the campsite and stowed it in the bags.

"Will?" Sandy's voice broke the silence that had engulfed the camp. Will looked up, and arched an eyebrow.

"Yes?"

"Does the offer from last night still stand?" the boy asked, uncertainly.

"Of course," Will said, taking a moment to realize the cause for the uncertainty in the boy's voice. He discarded it; everyone had nightmares.

"Well... I think I would like that," Sandy said, shifting his weight uncomfortably. "Being your apprentice, I mean." Will grinned at the boy.

"So that's a yes?" Will asked. Sandy nodded, hesitantly at first, but then with vigour. The boy smiled at him, and Will smiled back.

"So, shall we be setting off? If we go soon, we ought to be able to get there just after sunset," Will said.

"Sir?" Sandy asked. "Now that I'm your apprentice, would you mind telling me where we're going?"

"No need to call me sir, goof. Just Will," Will laughed. "And we'll be setting off for the annual Ranger's Gathering, where all the Rangers meet up and talk."

"And have coffee?" Sandy asked innocently.

"And have coffee!" Gilan bellowed, laughing nearly doubled over. He straightened, still chuckling, and threw the last of his bags over Blaze's rump and tied them in place. Will and Sandy did likewise with their own horses. They did the basics for getting their horses ready for a days ride; checking their hooves, tightening the girths, fitting the stirrups, making sure the tack was in place and undamaged. Sandy swung up, and Will and Gilan followed suit.

With mild, companionable chitchat about the weather and the woods, and a few questions from Sandy about the Ranger corps, they rode through the trees toward the Gathering Ground. They made good time, and only an hour after their noon day meal (which has been a bit late; they had been too absorbed in conversation) Gilan ushered them to a stop.

"Dismount," he said in a whisper. Sandy looked at them in confusion, and arched an eyebrow in question to Will's unconcealed grin.

"Halt?" Will whispered back. Gilan nodded. Will slid silently from his seat, and as Sandy started in his downward slide to the ground Will caught him and placed him soundlessly on his feet.

Will threw the grey gelding's reins over Tug's pommel, and whispered a command in his ear. Tug started trotting away, digging his hooves into the dirt to not mark the change in weight that would show Will dismounted. Will whispered for him to stop, and got all the saddlebags and put them on the gelding's back to make up for Sandy's weight; the gelding wasn't trained like the Ranger horses. Then he gave the command for him to go again, and Blaze followed in his stead.

Sandy pulled off his boots and held them in his hand, then padded to the tree line where the leaves would better cover his steps. Just the barest outlines of his heels showed up in the sand. Will ghosted into the trees beside him, and Gilan followed suit, brushing out their steps.

"How's your aim with a rock?" Gilan whispered in Sandy's ear. It sounded like a rustle of the wind, Sandy hardly realized they were words.

"Reasonable... within a foot of my aim," Sandy responded.

"Distance?"

"thirty metres," Sandy whispered.

"Good, good. Now, what you're going to do, is you are going to throw a rock at a tree close to the man we meet up with. Alright? Don't let him see you. And take off that ridiculous red cloak; you look like a little red robin in a hood. We ought to call you Robin," Will said. "Wear this instead." Will un-shouldered his own cloak, and draped it around Sandy's shoulders. It was big for the boy, and completely covered the crimson cloak below.

A quiet clop of hooves registered in Will's ears a fraction of a second before Gil's and Sandy's. He shoved Sandy to the ground, and fell with him. Gilan froze dead still. A man in a Ranger's cloak, cowl up, on a Ranger horse trotted around the corner. Gilan ghosted through the trees alongside the man, and the man paused. He looked to the right of the path, the opposite side Sandy, WIll, and Gilan were on. He then looked down at the path, where the faint scuffs of erased tracks still showed. Gilan ghosted out of the trees behind him.

"Hullo, Halt," Gilan said easily. Halt turned, totally unstartled, to look at his former apprentice.

"I'm not slow, Gilan. Where's Will, now?" Halt said, smiling despite the harshness of his words. Gilan's shoulders sagged, seemingly crestfallen.

"Ello, Halt," Will said, rising from beside Sandy. Sandy sat perfectly still, eyes casting around for a rock. A small one, half a foot from his left hand. Will strode out of the trees and further down the path to stand beside Gilan, sufficiently drawing Halt's attention from where he might see Sandy.

"Yes, it does seem you got the best of us," Gilan said, frowning unhappily. "But it's a tradition. Remember that time when you first brought Will, here, to the Ranger's Gathering? What was it you said to me?" Sandy's hand crept towards the rock, and he moved it to his right hand. He rose slowly to a crouch.

"I do believe he said something along the lines of 'keep in mind all the factors... like apprentices'," Will added. Will made eye contact with Sandy, and he took this as his cue. Just as realization dawned in Halt's face, a rock whirled inches in-front of his nose and thudded solidly into a tree about five feet from him. He spun, and made eye contact with Sandy, astonishment fading too mild irritation and amusement.

"So, which one of yours is he?" Halt asked, looking back over his shoulder.

"Mine," Will said. "His name is Sandy."

"Well hullo, Sandy," Halt said, looking back at the lad. "Pleasure to meet you." Sandy nodded.

"Pleasures all mine," he said breezily. If Will hadn't known better, he would have said the boy was raised in court; the boy was full aware of who he was speaking to. Will whistled, and Tug trotted back around the far corner leading the gelding, Blaze on their heels.

"Shall we proceed to the Gathering..." Will said, then added, "And brag about how we won?" Halt scowled as Will, Gilan, and Sandy mounted.

"You didn't win."

"Oh, yes we did. Give it up," Gilan laughed, and they set off down the trail towards the Gathering once more.