Ara couldn't remember a time she had done so much manual labor. She was accustomed to working hard at her studies. That was a given, but splitting wood and then beating a rug had been an experience to say the least and she was sure she was going to have to give an encore in the near future.
For the next few weeks her and Gilan rose well before dawn to train. First it was strength and conditioning training. Ara was using and building muscles she couldn't even name. Though she was better at the Nihon art of stretching than Gilan was. Then she was sent off on a mile long run around Redmont. Some days she was sent through the forest to retrieve hidden objects. They were always small, and they were always well hidden. Some days she found them all. Some days she couldn't find a single one.
After her run, and quick bath, came her daily chores. Ara never realized how much it took to keep a cottage running. The cooking, chopping, kneading, the water fetching, sweeping, polishing, and all the wiping.
The water consumption alone was enough to put Ara off baths. She now appreciated her father's servants more for keeping their gigantic house running as smoothly as they did. After choirs the real lessons started. Tracking, following, shooting, trapping, and botany were just a few of the lessons Gilan was teaching her.
At night after the dinner dishes had been scrubbed and put away was history and geography. It was her favorite time. During the day Gilan rarely talked above correcting this or that, but when the candles were low and the frost in the air he came alive. His eyes danced and he smiled and joked. Ara loved that. She was also teaching Gilan Arridi. He was a quick learner. They could hold entire conversations in Arridi now. She found it funny that the Ranger sometimes fell into Arridi without even realizing it. Ara never corrected him loving the sound of her native tongue in the strange land.
Before bed they played chess. Gilan had been delighted to find that Ara knew to play. There weren't many Rangers that knew how to play and even fewer that would play with Gilan. He took the game a little more serious than was necessary.
They fell into a nice routine. The days and the weeks started to fly by. She felt her homesickness lessening day by day. Of course she missed her father. That would never albeit, but she was started to think of Araluen as home.
As her training progressed she judged how well the day went by the amount of coffee she got in her cup every morning. She suspected Gilan knew how serious Arridi people took their coffee so thus he was using it as way to reward her without making her head swell over the little victories she won throughout the day. She didn't tell Gilan that she knew what he was doing, but she suspected he knew that she knew.
If she got a full cup it means that she excelled beyond what Gilan thought she should have. If she got half a cup she needed improvement. If she didn't get coffee it meant that either she had failed or that her temper had gotten the better of her. Some days she didn't get any coffee at all. She was letting her temper get in the way. She was trying to work on that.
Fresh from her bath she sat at the table hoping that Gilan had noticed her hard work. Today she had a full cup.
She couldn't hid the smile. Yesterday she had hit all of her targets. From five meters to the full 250 meters. She had done it from behind cover and out in the open. She was still using the recurve box, but already she could feel herself reaching the maximum draw strength of the little bow. Her slender frame was now supporting five more pounds of muscles. She had to let out the sleeves of her tunics already. She was going to graduate to the long bow any day.
"Pack a lunch today we've got a bit of a trek to make." He announced in Arridi before getting up from the table. It was Ara's signal to get the dishes done as fast as she could. Ara rose from her chair and got to her first choir of the day. Something important was happening today. She could feel it.
After setting the dishes out to dry Ara went to her room to get her traveling cloak, her quiver and bow. Though it was not the standard long bow Ara felt naked without it. She strapped her knife sheath to her hip as well.
Gilan was waiting for her on the porch when she finally emerged. He didn't say anything. He just started walking. Ara followed silently behind him. It was unusually for Gilan to be so quiet. He was always talking and Ara always felt free to talk as well. They were both lively people. On the few occasions that they had gone into Redmont she had had the pleasure of meeting the one person that could make the Ranger blush, Jenny.
It was as clear as the mole above her right eye that Gilan and Jenny were smitten with each other. Ara wondered why her father hadn't started negotiations with Gilan for the marriage contract. Of course she never let the thought slip out. She was quite sure Gilan would not have appreciated that one little bit.
So Ara was left wondering if he was taking her off to some dangerous unknown test that required his silence so that she could mentally prepare herself or if he was escorting her back to the harbor to put her on the wolfship to send her home.
So it was a silent trek through the woods. They were heading down an unfamiliar path and Ara tried to memorize everything around her in case this was just the start of the test. "Relax Ara. This isn't a test." Gilan chuckled from up ahead.
"How did you know I was thinking that?" she asked.
"Because I did the same thing. You forget I was an apprentice just like you. It wasn't that long ago I keep telling you." He smiled back at her and Ara relaxed.
It took them nearly three hours of walking to get where they were going. Ara expected to stumble onto a little village or hamlet by the sea. They had been walking so long. She was keen on seeing the sea again. In another life she could see herself as a seawolf skirl.
Instead Ara nearly tumbled into a rundown little cottage. Well it wasn't rundown the paint just hadn't been refreshed, but she could see it was well cared for. A stooped man with a beard that swept down to his belly shambled around the side of the house. "See you've finally brought Ole Bob a girl. A little long in the tooth for a wife now." The toothless man laughed.
Ara didn't find that funny. "Bob this is Ara, my apprentice. Ara this is Ole Bob. He's harmless." Gilan said introducing them. Ara shook his hand. It was well calloused, but it was warm and gentle.
"Well come on. I know you didn't come to chat me up." He waddled back around the house to a horse pen. Ara heard Blaze knicker a greeting. She waved to the little horse, but her eyes were on the tiny mare standing in the center of the pen.
Tiny thing she was. If Ara had to guess she would have said the horse had been bred for a child. A child Ara's size. She was the color of molten gold with a jet black mane and tail. Golden eyes surveyed Ara as walked to the fence.
Ara stared right back. Her eyes glazed over. "Is she for me?" she breathed. She hoped she was. She was in love and she would burn the world to the ground if any tried to take her from the little mare. Her heart skipped a beat a beat as the mare's ears flickered toward Ara.
"Of course. I ain't climbing up on er." Bob said with another chuckle.
Ara opened the pen door. The mare didn't move, but her eyes never left Ara. Gilen and Bob stayed outside. "Can I ride her?" She fully intended on riding the mare, but it was only nice that she asked.
"If you want to." Gilan answered with a smile quirking his lips.
Ara didn't need to be told twice. She practically ran into the pen. The mare didn't make a sound as Ara climbed up into her saddle. The saddle hugged Ara's legs and her butt. The saddles that she had been riding in weren't made for her. She was warm and not too big around that Ara felt like she was doing the splits. Ara knew that Ranger horses weren't like regular horses. Especially not those monsters that the knights rode. She could walk under the belly of one of those beasts, but still this mare was smaller than Blaze.
For once Ara liked that something was made for her small build.
She touched her heels to the mare's sides.
Ara felt the mare's muscles tightened and the first lick of uncertainty crawled up her back. She rose slightly in the saddle ready to jump off, but Ara only had a moment before the mare jumped straight up into the air. No warning, not a whisper of a sound. Ara screamed and tried to grab onto the pummel. The mare came down hard with a twist of her back legs. Ara sailed through the air like she was built for flying. She screamed the entire time she was in the air.
Her landing made Gilan wince.
All the air rushed out of her body upon impact. Her breath blew a horsefly off course.
Black dots danced before her eyes. Ara wanted to cry, but she wasn't going to give anyone the satisfaction of seeing her cry. When Ara finally got her eyes to work she blinked up to a grinning Bob and Gilan. "What happened?" she croaked. It hurt to talk.
"Weren't you there? You got thrown from yer horse," Bob smiled. He was a little too cheerful about her near death experience. She tried to glare at him but it made her head swim.
She lay on the hard ground for a few more seconds just to make sure the world was going to be in one piece when she moved. Ara tried to stand. Bob stooped over to help Ara get vertical. She groaned like an old man sliding into a warm bath. It took several minutes for the world to stop spinning.
Gilan couldn't help the burst of laughter that burst from his lips. Ara glared at him. This time it didn't hurt as much. "You knew that was going to happen didn't you." She accused him. Even her anger made her hurt all over again, but she wasn't going to let him off the hook.
The bow sting had been one thing. She could have been killed being thrown from a horse like that.
Gilan wiped the tears streaming down his face. Ara let him carry on till he was done. "What have I told you about rushing into things?" He asked trying to wipe the smirk off his face. It was difficult.
"If memory serves you were knocked out for two hours after Blaze tossed you." Bob told Gilan. That made Ara smile and Gilan blush.
Her back cracked like crackling as she pulled herself up to her full height. Which brought her a few inches taller than Bob.
"Why did she let me get on her if she was going to toss me?" Ara wanted to be mad at the mare, but she was too beautiful for anger.
"Whisper here is a Ranger's horse." Bob patted Whispers flank. The little mare nickered and for a second Ara could have sworn she smirked. But horses didn't smirk. "You need a code word to ride er." Whisper looked over at Ara and the Arridi could swear the horse was now grinning at her.
"That's why Rangers horses are never stolen." Gilan explained.
"So what's Whisper's code word?" Ara asked.
Bob smiled, "M'lady may I." It was always a treat for Bob to watch the apprentices getting their horses. It was a art form to match an apprentice to their horse, and it was an important step in Ranger training. If an apprentice didn't bond with their horse both parties might as well give up.
A Ranger wasn't a Ranger without a horse and a Ranger's horse wasn't a horse without a Ranger.
Ara moved to make sure all of her parts were in working order. Her butt was going to be bruised in the morning, but she figured she could worry about that later. She was going to ride her horse.
Ara approached Whisper slowly. Whisper watched her, "M'lady may I?" Ara asked. The horse didn't give any indication that Ara had said anything. She went to climb up on her mare. The reality check smacked her in the back of the head. She looked back at Gilan and Bob. Ara didn't fancy another trip through the air. Whisper had a mean toss.
"Oh she's good now. Go head." Bob bobbed his head.
Ara slide into Whisper's saddle. "Been waiting a long time for the Rangers to wise up and get the fairer sex in the ranks. Had a whole stable of mares bred for female riders. Whisper here is ma first one. Take good care of her." Bob looked wistfully at Whisper.
"I will." Ara promised. She was the best gift Ara had ever received. Well other than the hairpin her mother had given her on the last birthday they would share.
"You can speak Arridi to her as well. Little birdy sent word ahead that you were coming so I been training her." Bob gave Ara a wink.
"Who told you I was coming?" She had only been in Araulen for a few weeks. There was no way he could have trained a horse in a few weeks let alone master the Arridi language enough to speak it to a horse.
"Tall willow of a man. Dark as coffee grounds he was." Ara had no doubt that he was speaking of her uncle, but how did he know Ara would end up running away to be a Ranger? Ara had to smile. Her uncle knew her better than her own father did. She would send him a letter as soon as she could.
With that happy thought Ara touched her heels lightly to Whisper's flank. Whisper softly trotted around the pin. It was as if her hooves weren't even connecting to the ground as she moved.
Bob opened the gate. "Let's see what she can do." Ara grinned.
"Run m'lady," Ara told her in Arridi.
Whisper didn't need to be told twice. The little filly leapt off like a bow shot. Ara gripped hard with her thighs to keep from sliding off her back. It was amazing how fast she went from standing stock still to racing through the woods.
The horse barely made a sound. Ara could see that Whisper wasn't sticking to any trail so she should have been breaking branches left and right, but she wasn't. Well if she was there Whisper wasn't making a sound. It was eerie, but freeing. The crisp air rushed into Ara's lungs and was whipped away just as fast as she exhaled. She wanted to whoop for joy, but that would have been childish.
Whispered turned around of her own accord to head back to Bob's pen. "Let's show them how a lady enters a pen." Ara told Whisper. The mare's ears flickered. Ara could feel Whisper preparing for the jump.
Whispered sailed easily over the pen fence. Bob whopped and clapped. Gilan gave her the barest of smiles. "Hope that isn't how you plan on sneaking up on a band of thieves." He said once Ara had swung down for her saddle.
"Just giving Old Bob something to smile about." Ara said. Whisper trotted behind her. She reached into the barrel of apples set to the side of a stroked Whisper's neck as the mare munched on her well earned apple.
"How nice of yer." Bob smiled. Ara rather thought he would be embarrassed to smile with his teeth in that state, but he didn't seem to mind. Ara would just over look it.
"Well take her over to the lean to. I'm sure Bob wouldn't mind showing you how to take care of Whispers tack. Mind if we stay the night with you?" Gilan asked as he handed Blaze as apple before she could knock him over.
"Don't mind at all." Old Bob led Whisper and Ara over to the lean-to. Gilan took the time to rub down Blaze and talk to her about Ara. Blaze had been staying with Old Bob to get her used to her new bunkmate. Gilan had missed her something fierce.
The three friends spent a cheery time in the two room cabin. Old Bob offered Ara his bed, but upon seeing the state of his room Ara politely declined. She slept next to the fireplace on a clean bed of straw. Gilan rolled up in his cloak on the floor beside him.
The next morning they set off back for their own cabin. Ara was glad to spend time with Old Bob but she was itching to get back to her own bed. Her clean bed. Ara was afraid that Old Bob might have had fleas. She couldn't stop scratching her backside.
"You're going to be raw if you keep that up." Gilan called back. Ara snatched her hand away from her butt as her cheeks flushed.
"I think something bit me." she confessed.
"Got some salve back at the cabin when we get there, but I daresay it will be next week if you and that nag don't pick up the pace." Gilan teased.
Whispered snorted at the same time Ara did. "Bet you dinner me and Whisper can beat you and that old mare you're riding." Blaze flickered her tail in arrogant annoyance.
"You're on." Gilan cried. Blaze didn't give it a second thought before she jumped off through the forest. Whisper didn't need any prompting. She was hot on Blaze's tail.