R&R please!


The three days following before the official beginning of the Gathering were filled with other Rangers arriving. Sandy (Or as Gilan and Will insisted on introducing him, Robin Hood) was introduced to so many Ranger's and Apprentices he couldn't keep them all straight. (Though Alis did secretly decide a second year apprentice named Ray was cute). There was only one other first year apprentice, who's name was Mauch.

Mauch followed Robin around like a puppy, even though he was older than Robin by a year. Mauch had eyes that came too far out of his head, and long messy blonde hair; he also wasn't exactly... "slim"... or anything close to it, really, either. Mauch mimicked everything Robin did, and Robin couldn't stand it. He tried to avoid Mauch by hanging around Will, but Will just laughed at him and told him to bond.

Much to Sandy/Robin's horror, when they were sitting at dinner together, he overheard Gilan offer to take Mauch with them to take care of the business up north; and Mauch's master accepted! (With many many thankyous for taking the boy off his hands.) Sandy tried frantically to gesture a no to Gilan when he started it up, but Gilan too obviously ignored his motions.

On the first official day of the gathering, the apprentice Sandy remembered was named Rodger, pulled him to the side and gave him a recurve bow. Rodger also gave Robin a quiver full of plain brown shafted arrows. Sandy/Robin grinned, and hugged Rodger. He froze for a moment, then patted Robin on the head. Robin scowled, and released Rodger.

"I'm not a small child," Robin huffed, and stormed away. He tried to keep the grin from his face, and failed miserably. He couldn't resist a glance over his shoulder, and laughed aloud at Rodger's bewildered expression.

"Hullo, Robin Hood," Will said with a grin, tapping his apprentice on the shoulder. "I see you have your bow, finally. How about you come with me, and we will shoot and talk."

"Alright," Robin said eagerly, glancing over his shoulder at Mauch. "Privately, right?"

"Absolutely," Will said, with a face all too obviously forced to be kept straight. Will threw his arm around his apprentice's shoulders, and led him away from the main group of Rangers, who were sitting and chatting. Mauch seemed to know this was no place for him, and stayed with the others. Will lead Sandy through the trees, to a separate clearing that was relatively narrow, only twenty or so meters wide, but a good 200 long.

It was caused by a large, narrow strip of stone that kept the trees from growing up. On the stone, a line was painted, dividing the clearing into two chunks, one about 15 meters wide and the other having the better part of 200. On the larger side, there was a thin layer of grass growing, presumably to help prevent damage to arrows. On the left side of the range, there were targets that were only ten meters away, and it varied as you got closer to the right side to the full 200 meters away.

Will pulled an arrow from his ever-present quiver, knocked it on his ever present longbow, planted his left foot firmly on the ground in-front of him, sited, and fired. The grey-shafted arrow whistled away from the bow, and thudded into the target well near 175 meters away. As near as Robin could tell from this distance, it was perfectly in the bulls-eye of the target.

"You try," Will said. Robin looked at him uncertainly, then at the 175 meter target. Will laughed, and ushered him into the middle of the place, just behind the line that had been pasted on the stone. He pointed to a target only thirty meters away, and said, "That one." Sandy nodded, and placed the quiver on the ground. He pulled an arrow and knocked it on his recurve bow, and knelt to the ground. He held the bow sideways, and fired before Will could tell him to pause and try the right way.

Will looked at the target, and saw the arrow, quivering, in just the second ring of the target, barely a hands-width from the centre of the bulls-eye.

"Not bad, not bad. Now, try upright," Will said, pulling the boy to his feet. Sandy pulled out another arrow, knocked it, and stood uncertainly. His feet were in roughly the right position, but Will tapped them into perfect position with his longbow. The lad had turned the rest of his body so he was facing full forward, and Will turned his shoulders so he was facing sideways like was proper. He then fitted the bow properly into Robin's hands, and then Robin took over. His toes moved just the tiniest bit into a more natural stance. His head turned to face down the range, and he locked his arm straight out in front of him, and pulled the notch back to the corner of his mouth. He kept both eyes open, sighted, and shot.

He missed the target by about four centimetres.

He cursed quietly, and pulled out another arrow and tried again.

After emptying half his quiver on the field, one finally thudded into the target, in the bulls-eye though not quite in the centre. He paused, drew another arrow, and fired again. This time, it hit the second ring. Not better, but more consistent.

Of the last ten arrows, nine of them hit the target, and one of them punched into the very middle of the bullseye. Will nodded to himself, and settled down on the ground, folding his arms behind his head. "Alright, now you have to go find all of them." Robin looked at Will with a frown, then set out across the range, picking up arrows as he went. He pulled the eleven arrows that hit the target out without damaging them, and managed to find all 13 of the ones that had missed. He walked back across the line and started to sit down next to Will.

"Nope nope noooooope," Will said, eyes closed. "Keep shooting." Robin scowled, but stayed standing. He shot two more arrows into the target before Will interrupted.

"Alright, now shoot for the one that's a little further away," Will said, now sitting up and watching his apprentice shooting. Sandy paused, then moved to shoot at the one 40 meters away. This time, it took him 5 arrows instead of 12 to find the proper way to shoot and hit the target. After hitting it 8 times in quick succession, none managing to get into the bullseye, Will called for him to stop again.

"Now, move between the two targets," he said, pushing himself to his feet. "Every other arrow." Robin frowned in concentration, moving back and forth between the two. He moved slowly, so slowly in fact Will was on the verge of impatience. A minute to move, aim, and shoot? Unacceptable. After Robin had shot four times, he lost patience. "Faster." Robin did so, only taking 10 seconds to knock, aim, and shoot. Three of his remaining five shots went wide, and only one managed to get in the second ring of the bulls-eye.

"Practice, I suppose," Will said, remembering the hours he had spent behind the cottage with Halt, shooting, practising, throwing, walking in silence, and he abruptly got more patient with the boy. Will pulled out his saxe knife and his throwing knife, and took the bow from the boy's hands, replacing it with the two knives. Together, they talked as the sun set about anything from the upcoming trip to weapons to coffee, as Robin shot his bow and threw the knives.


The next day, they gave Robin his own cloak and his knives and scabbard. He spent the whole day practicing, and even managed to get a perfect bulls-eye in a fifty meter target with the bow. There were three more days of Gathering before they'd set out, and they passed with gallons of coffee and stew and hours of laughter and practicing.

On the very last day of the Gathering, Will came to get Sandy from the practice range and led him to where the horses were. Robin looked at him questioningly, then back at the horses. There was something odd... was there one too many? Yes, yes, there was. There was another bay horse, just a shade smaller than Blaze's 15 hands, but taller than Tug. There was a huge white star between the eyes, which were big and brown and intelligent.

"Her name is Nudge," Will said to his apprentice quietly. In response, the horse nudged Robin so hard he nearly fell over.

"Is... is she mine?" Robin asked, looking at Will in a mixture of hope and surprise. Will grinned and nodded. Robin patted the horses muzzle, and stroked her neck. He put his boot in the stirrup and started to swing up, then paused, seeing the expression on Will's face. He looked far too smug. "... What's the catch?" Robin paused, putting his foot back on the ground.

"You caught me?" Will said, unhappily. "You didn't... not fair." Robin heard a quiet chuckling that turned into huge shaking laughter, and saw Halt watching them. Will's face was turning very red.

"Looks like your apprentice is bright, Will! Maybe you could learn something!" Halt hooted. Halt held his sides and stopped laughing, though he was still grinning. Will scowled, and walked to Robin's side and whispered a word in his ear, explaining the password for Ranger horses.

"Ahh," Robin said, taking his left foot out of the stirrup to be on the ground by his right, and whispered in the horse's ear. "Moonrain," Robin breathed. Nudge's ears pricked up, and Robin swung up into the saddle, a huge grin on his face. Now, he really felt like a Ranger's Apprentice.