Will's apprentice, Matthew, disappeared the moment he finished unsaddling his horse. Maria sighed, she couldn't see what Will say in here. She flipped the hood of her cloak up, hiding her face from view. She smiled and strode across the vast lawn and into Redmont castle. Her distinctive Ranger cloak earned her many stares, but Maria ignored them. She was definitely used to them, being an almost-apprentice ranger and the famed ranger Halt's daughter.
Maria slipped silently through the halls of the castle she called home. She knew her way by heart, and her padded feet made no noise when they struck the floor, propelling her the final few meters to her parent's rooms. She opened the door silently, her mother must have gotten fed up with the rust and had someone clean it off, and slipped into the sitting room. Maria quickly became aware that she had stumbled upon a conversation that was extremely private, to say the least.
"Pauline, what are we going to do?" Halt said, sorrow seeping into his voice.
"About what?" the elegant diplomat said. She knew exactly what her husband was talking about, but she didn't let on.
Maria slipped into the hallway beside the living room and peered around the corner, observing them without them knowing.
"Maria, Pauline! You know what I'm talking about! We can't have her living this, this, lie!" cried Halt, a bit louder than before. Pauline sighed, she wanted her adopted daughter to follow her dreams, but her increasingly stubborn husband was making this difficult.
"Pauline, you know Maria can never be a Ranger." Halt said softly. Maria's stomach plummeted, along with her hopes and dreams. She stomped around the corner she was hiding behind, startling her adoptive parents.
"What do you mean I can't be a Ranger?" cried out Maria. The tears that welled up in her eyes hurt Halt, but he had to voice his opinion on about what his adopted daughter's future.
"It's too dangerous, Maria. I don't want to loose you." Halt tried to explain, but Maria cut him off.
"If too dangerous for me, than why has my entire life been dedicated to Ranger training? I live, breathe, and love everything Ranger! And now you tell me that the one thing in life that I have wanted in my life more than anything can't happen because it's too dangerous? Because my own father won't teach me? Thanks for nothing Dad!" Maria spat at her father. She turned and sprinted into her room, her cloak falling to the ground where she stood.
Halt walked over and picked up his daughter's fallen cloak from the floor. He sighed, couldn't his daughter see that he was only looking out for her? He turned around, and came face-to-face with his livid wife. Pauline glare was as frightening as his own.
"Way to go. You just crushed your daughter's hopes and dreams." said Pauline. She glided past him, towards his daughter's room. Halt heard his wife try to coax their adopted daughter out of her room, but with no avail. Halt's shoulders slouched.
Will, unknown to Halt, had slipped into the room. He took one look at Halt's posture and the Ranger cloak he held in his hand, and said; "I guess she didn't take the news well." Halt glared at him. Will turned and ran as fast as he could out of Halt's rooms, before Halt could get his bow and arrows.
Later that night, when all of the castle was long asleep, a petite figure with a small pack crept out of her rooms. It darted through the halls and out of the castle without anyone knowing the difference. The sentries barely blinked when the figure passed them in the shadows. It approached the Ranger cabin but passed right by it, heading around to the stables. The deep cowl of her Ranger cloak fell, revealing long chestnut brown tresses. Maria's white horse looked up and whinnied a greeting. What are you doing up so late? the gesture seemed to say.
"Come on Blizzard. We have to go!" Maria whispered fiercely to her Ranger horse. Blizzard was saddled without too much complaint. As the pair rode out of the stable, Maria looked back at the castle she called home for all her life.
"If it is a Ranger you don't want be to become, than a Ranger I shall be." Maria whispered the words that she had wrote down for her parents to find the next morning. Then she turned Blizzard in a half circle and cantered away.