Hello again, I know that I have been really slow in updating recently and I apologise but I know what is in the next chapter so it should be up quicker. Also this chapter is from Mark and Kyle's point of view and some of the chapters following will be too. I hope you like this chapter as it is starting to get to the main part of the story.

Mark

Mark could see the small black and white dog running around the snowy field. Every now and then she would disappear behind large mounds of snow and all you could see was flakes of snow being tossed in the air as she rolled about in it. She usually stuck her head over the top of the snow to make sure Mark was still there but sometimes Mark had to whistle to get her to come back. Ahead of them was the village, all the houses had smoke swirling up from the chimneys keeping the occupants warm, and the windows had a warm yellow glow shining through them. Mark felt slightly jealous of them as the cold flakes of snow landed on him and Bolt. He shivered as the bitter wind blew again making his entire body cold. The small powdery flakes of snow landed on Bolt's mane and he shook his head in an attempt to get them off, Mark let out a small laugh as he watched his horse shake its head about. Bolt neighed: It really isn't amusing, stop being immature.

"Sorry but it was funny, besides I am a kid I am meant to be immature" Mark said to his horse. Ebony came running over and barked a greeting. She had noticed that Mark had stopped watching her so she had decided to run over to see what was going. Mark read her eyes, it was very funny you looked like you were dancing.

"You were not even here." Mark looked at Ebony, over the months he had lived with the Treaty family he had noticed that they all talk to their animals and over time it had rubbed off on him and he started talking to them too. No but I could see him shaking that mane of his from where I was, Ebony looked at Mark as if it was obvious that she could see them from that distance. Mark rolled his eyes, he was arguing with a dog and a horse, basically talking to himself.

Bolt rode into Redmont village and Mark guided him to the bakery. Mark could hear Ebony's soft paws padding along the path behind him, he turned in the saddle and whistled, she ran over to Mark and looked up at him. "Before you ask, I am going into the bakery and I need you to wait with Bolt" Mark said as he climbed of Bolt. As he landed on the ground he heard a squeak as the snow flattened beneath his boots. He looked down at his boots, there was the soft white powder of the snow coating the top of them. Before he entered the shop he brushed the snow of so that he wasn't leaving wet footprints in the store. He looked back at Ebony to make sure she was still there, Bolt was shaking his mane again and the snow flew off and landed on Ebony who then shook the snow onto the ground. She looked up at Mark, What? I am not going anywhere, hurry up though I have a horse shaking snow onto me. Mark thought about replying with 'Then why don't you move away from his mane' but stopped himself, people already thought ranger's were mysterious and used dark magic, if they saw him talking to Ebony then they would think they could talk with animals as well.

Mark opened the door and walked inside. He felt the warmth of the fire on him as it heated the room. The store smelt of freshly made bread which made Mark's mouth water. The store owner walked out of a small room at the back behind the counter. "What can I do for you ranger sir?" she asked. The store owner was small and dumpy, she had her light brown hair tied into a bun on the top of her head and her face was covered in flour making her look a ghostly white. When Mark looked closer he noticed that her hair actually had flour in which was making it look lighter in colour. She was in a brown dress with a white apron over the top tied around her waist. The apron had brown stains on it from the food she had been cooking and like everything else is too was covered in flour. She is the colour of a ghost Mark thought to himself.

"I would like to buy some bread please" Mark said "and you can just call me Mark" he added. Mark loved being a ranger, but the one thing he disliked about it was how people acted nervously around him. The women smiled and walked of back into the room behind her. A couple of seconds later she came back through the door with a loaf of bread in her hands.

"Here you go ranger" she said putting the bread in a bag and passing it over. Mark exchanged it with two silver coins from his pocket. The women took the money and dropped it into a small pouch at her waist.

"Mark" Mark corrected. "Actually could I have another loaf if you have any?" For some reason Mark felt like they were going to need more than one loaf of bread tonight. The women nodded and scurried back into the room to get more bread. Mark gave her two more coins and then he left with the bag of bread. He opened the door and shivered as the wind blew into the warm room. He quickly walked out and closed the door behind him so that the wind didn't blow the fire out that was lit inside.

The snow had already covered the footprints he had left when he had first climbed off Bolt. Mark strapped the bag onto Bolt's saddle and then climbed up himself. Instead of the slow trot Bolt had gone at on the way to the village Mark put Bolt into a canter so that they spent less time outside. Ebony chased after them all the way to the cabin. He climbed of Bolt and led him into the stables. There were two extra horses in the stable and Mark recognised them to be Sky and Blaze, Kyle and Gilan's horses. Somehow Mark got all the horses to fit in the stable with a reasonable amount of room. It took about ten minutes but he managed to get Bolt in with the other five horses. He pulled out an apple from the barrel and fed it to Bolt who crunched happily on it spraying Mark with apple juices. Mark wiped the juices of his face with the back of his hand. He put Bolt's saddle in the corner and took the bread outside with him. Ebony followed him up to the door of the cabin and then decided to shake the snow of her covering Mark in it. Mark smiled at her but the smile didn't reach his eyes.

He stepped in the house and saw Will, Alyss, Gilan, Arianna and Kyle around the table. From where Mark was standing they all looked squashed, the table clearly wasn't built for five let alone six he thought. "Hello Gilan and Kyle" he said as he handed Alyss the bread, he was glad that he had bought an extra loaf as he didn't want to go back in the snow.

Gilan raised his hands to the heavens "how comes none of you are surprised that we are here?" he asked.

"I asked" Arianna said feeling slightly disappointed that Gilan had forgotten about her.

Mark looked at him and smiled. "I saw Sky and Blaze in the stable" he said like it was obvious, well it was obvious really.

"How did you fit them all in the stables?" Will asked looking up from his coffee.

"If I am completely honest I have no idea but I did" Mark said, "eventually" he said more to himself than the others. Kyle let out a snort of laughter over his cup of coffee. "You know it was a tight squeeze and I couldn't actually fit all six horses in there, I managed to get Bolt in after I got Sky out of the stables and into the snow." Mark didn't look at Kyle as he spoke, instead he busied himself with making a cup of coffee for himself. He let out a smile when he heard a chair scrape on the floor and the door creak open and then close. Mark got a chair and sat next to Arianna.

"That was mean" Arianna said looking up at Mark. She had a frown spread above her eyes.

"Yes but he deserved it" Mark said taking a sip of the coffee.

"No he didn't"

"He did, he laughed at my misfortune so I can now laugh at his." There was a shout and a thud outside. "I will definitely laugh." The door creaked open to show a grumpy looking Kyle. Will, Gilan and Mark started laughing. Kyle was covered in snow, especially his hair which was now white. His clothes were dripping with water from the snow that had melted from his body heat. He shook his head and the snow fell to the floor all around him. Mark was reminded of Ebony as Kyle shook his head left and right to get rid of the snow just like Ebony had done out on the veranda. Kyle glared at the three rangers sitting around the table. He looked at Mark who was trying to hide his laughter behind his cup of coffee.

"Amusing isn't it" he said walking up to the table and sitting down. Mark noticed that there was already a bruise forming above Kyle's right eye.

"Are you all right?" Mark asked.

"I'm fine, just cold" Kyle said wiping his wet hair of his face. Mark knew he wasn't, Kyle was soaked from head to toe.

"Go get changed into some other clothes" Gilan said. Kyle nodded and picked up his bag that was by the door.

"Use Mark's room to get changed," Alyss pointed towards Marks room. Kyle smiled and went into Mark's room. A minute later there was another thud and a groan. This time even Arianna and Alyss smiled. Kyle walked out of the room in dry clothes. He wore a blue shirt with a brown jacket over the top. He wore brown trousers much like the ones he was wearing before and his usual ranger boots. He had his belt with his Saxe knife and throwing knife attached to it around his waist. He put his wet ranger clothes in his bag and placed it by the door. Everyone turned to look at him.

"I tripped over" Kyle looked at the smiling faces. "His room is a mess, I am surprised he hasn't broken his leg in there" Kyle said glaring at Mark for the second time in less than twenty minutes. If only looks could kill Kyle thought. I am glad looks can't kill Mark thought.

"So why are you here" Alyss asked changing the subject. She came over with bowls of stew for everyone she also bought over a plate with slices of bread on. Everyone started eating.

"This is good Alyss" Gilan said.

"Thank you Gilan," Alyss smiled at his complement.

"Crowley wants to speak with me at Araluen but I thought we could come and visit you lot on the way" Gilan said. "We will be leaving soon though, we just popped in to say hi and then Alyss offered us tea."

"And it was delicious" Kyle added finishing of the last of what was in his bowl.

"Thank you Kyle" Alyss said with another smile on her face, it was nice to know that people liked her food she thought.

"God! It is like another Horace is in the house" said Will looking at Kyle's empty bowl. "How did you eat that so fast?"

"He has a big appetite, although I have to say you wouldn't think it when you see him" Gilan told Will who was looking at Kyle's small appearance.

The three adults talked whilst Mark and Kyle sat and listened to what they were saying. Arianna sat on her chair staring into space, as Mark watched he saw her eyelids starting to droop. Alyss noticed as well. She walked over and picked Arianna up into her arms, she then went off to Arianna's room and appeared a couple of minutes later without Arianna. At half past nine Gilan and Kyle left in the direction of castle Araluen.

Kyle

The rode to castle Araluen was long and cold. There had been no snow since the day they had seen Mark and Will but Kyle was starting to wish that there had. The snow had started to melt every day since then which was a problem for anyone camping out. Every night Kyle and Gilan would have to sleep on cold wet ground as the snow slowly turned into a dirty brown slush. They had tents, but after a while the water started to seep through the thin fabric and make anything inside of the tent wet.

Kyle's clothes were damp, every time the wind blew, the water on his clothes would become freezing and his skin was starting to go numb. Both he and Gilan were delighted when they turned the final bend in the long road to castle Araluen and saw the magnificent castle in front of them. Kyle pushed his legs into Sky and his horse rushed towards the castle with Gilan and Bolt not far behind him. Their horse's hooves clopped on the wooden drawbridge. Gilan showed his silver oak leaf and the guards let them into the castle courtyard.

Kyle got of Sky and led him to the stables after telling a stable hand that he could look after Sky himself. A ranger always puts his horse before himself. He fed and watered Sky and brushed him down. He then put the saddle on a peg in the corner making sure he had taking all of his things of it first. Gilan and Kyle walked into the castle. Kyle closed his eyes as he let the warmth of the many torches in the castle soak into him. His clothes were still damp and uncomfortable but they felt slightly warmer. Every time he moved his damp top rub against his arms. I can't wait to get out of these Kyle thought. They walked through the corridors of the castle leaving a trail of wet footprints as they went. Kyle had only been in one castle before and that was in Whitby, which compared to Castle Araluen was nothing. He wiped a drop of water of his head which was slowly sliding down his face. They stopped outside a wooden door. Gilan brought his hand up to knock when they heard a deep voice from inside say "Come in."

Gilan did as he was told and opened the door. It squeaked open, obviously from the thin layer of rust that Crowley had let build up on the hinges. Kyle rubbed his arm as he felt goose bumps forming on his arm. He had never liked the sound of thinks squeaking of creaking open, it was like nails scraping on a chalkboard to him. Kyle closed the door behind him and turned round to face Crowley. The room was small, there was a table in the centre and it had four chairs around it. On the left side there was a fire place that had flames crackling inside it and there was a stack of wood next to it. In front of it was a small rug. Behind Crowley was a window which had a view of a snow covered field, in the distance you could see the beginning of the forest that Kyle and Gilan had travelled through and it too was also covered in a thin layer of snow. On the right was a door which led to the living quarters. Crowley gestured for Gilan and Kyle to take a seat. Kyle took the one closest to the fire and sank into the chair. Crowley disappeared behind the door on the right and he came back with three cups. He gave Kyle a cup and Kyle took a sip. He didn't care that the coffee was burning his tongue, he was just happy that he wasn't freezing to death right now. He put the coffee down on the table and relaxed. He could feel the heat of the fire soaking into his back and clothes. Kyle could already feel that the back of his clothes were dryer than the front. There was a long silence that went on for about three minutes. Kyle waited and waited and waited.

"So why did you want to speak with us?" Kyle asked not being able to hold his curiosity in any longer. Like always Crowley wanted to see how patient the new apprentices could be.

"I have called you both here because I have your first mission" Crowley answered. "Normally I would send Will and Halt out on this and I would have Gilan and you stay at Redmont whilst they are gone but I have decided not to."

"Why?" asked Kyle "What is it?"

"It doesn't matter why and if you give me a chance I will tell you." Kyle closed his mouth and felt his cheeks redden. "Remember I sent Will and Halt to Celtica about five or six months ago, well I think that the bandits are in Araluen, we have had reports that there have been sightings of some strange looking men. I want you two to go and find out what you can about them," Crowley said looking at Kyle. Kyle could feel the excitement wanting to escape from his body but chose not to show it, he wanted to keep his cool in front of the ranger commandant. Crowley went through the rest of the things he wanted them to do when following the bandits and then they left for their own rooms.

So did you like it? Please let me know what you think. Thanks to everyone that reviewed my last few chapters: BirdKid13, Hibernia12, Lorrie the Ninja Elf, Kiss-My-Asphalt and AmazingWriter123. I apologise if I have spelt any names wrong. Like always please review, favourite and follow. Criticism is welcome as well as long as it is something that I could change.
Also I have started another fan fiction called 'Ranger's Apprentice short stories' so it would be great if you could read that and tell me what you think too.