Chapter 2
As they arrived back in Halloshalm Will was gently butted by Tug while giving him a friendly neigh, his eyes seemed to warn him.
At least tell me when you're about to leave you had me all worried
"Worry wart, stop mother henning me." Will muttered quietly in a low pitched voice that he always used when bantering with Tug.
"What was that?" Evanlyn looked up at him, saw his cheeks flame with embarrassment and smiled inwardly to herself. She knew what he was doing. She had seen him and Gilan both whispering to their ranger horses while they were in Celtica and knew of the strong bond that existed between a ranger and his horse.
"Nothing, anyways I've gotta go and practise some archery do you wanna come and watch." He asked a tad hopefully, the last time she had seen him practise he had been worse than abysmal not even near hitting the targets he had aimed at and that only served to remind him that he was in that state because of that damned drug. He wanted the chance to prove to her now that he was a lot more accurate and a lot quicker. He saw her face frown out of the corner of his eye and his hopes sank.
"Maybe not today Will I might just drop by on Horace see how he's doing you know" she added casually. She didn't actually want to see Horace and a Skandian bash and whack at each other for hours at a time but it was at least better than seeing Will practise. Not that she didn't admire archery, she loved the precision in which the archers in the kingdom of Araluan shot at but the last time she saw him not going up to the standards he had expected she realised his embarrassment so she didn't want to see that now, though little did she or Will know that his shooting had improved so much these last few weeks that right now back in the Ranger corps gathering he would have been regarded as one of the top ten best archers.
"Yeah you do that." Will mumbled under his breath. He didn't know why he wanted her to watch him but he wanted some form of praise in the isolated patches of snow covered woods where he had to practise alone.
"Alright bye." Evanlyn said missing his sarcastic comment while she waved her delicate little fingers at him and walked off in the direction she had last seen Horace practising at in the morning. Will watched her slender figure gradually become smaller until she was too small for him to see. Sighing he kicked a rock and went back towards the area he was practising.
Will fired his last shot and grunted in satisfaction when the arrow hit the wooden bulls mark sign bang in the centre. As he was walking over to fetch his arrows he added casually
"So how did you find my shooting?" Maybe he hadn't seen the person creeping in to watch but he had definitely heard and from the sounds of those footsteps he figured the person watching was a girl. When he turned around he saw the girl jolt from the suddenness of his question.
"It was really good. I was very impressed I've never actually seen anyone shoot the way you have before, I just wanted to know whether you would like me to carry your arrows for you ranger?" He flushed at her compliment making sure he kept his face neutral; it would never do to see how easily he could be pleased. She stepped out from the trees she was hiding behind and saw his youthful face frown.
"Sorry your name is…" He left the sentence hanging. He didn't know her name but she sure was a sight to look at, long flowing blonde hair and sparkling blue eyes accompanied by high cheek bones and a slim, fit figure.
"Tyra" she finished for him. His features suddenly broke out into a smile with his eyes twinkling.
"Well Tyra I would be delighted." After all it would be churlish to refuse.