"Today we are going to work on the art of unseen movement," Will had led her a fair distance from the clearing hoping to keep her attention.
"The what," Angie asked looking up at Will with her brow furrowed.
"The art of unseen movement," Will repeated slowly waiting for the next phase of this game Angie was playing.
He was uncertain if she was actually confused by everything, or if she just enjoyed making Will repeat everything. Sometimes it seemed like the later, but anytime Will did not repeat himself Angie had no idea what they were doing, or why. So he just repeated anything Angie asked about.
"So, we're learning about art? I guess I'm good at that," she shrugged dropping to sit on the ground. She crossed her legs and looked up at him expectantly. "I can draw maps, does that count?"
"No," he decided they would work out mapping later. "We're not talking about art."
"But you said the art of something," she pointed out quickly.
"Yes, the art of unseen movement."
"So we're not drawing," she asked.
"No," Will let out a long slow breath. Even if she did not mean it, Angie's constant off-topic questions were infuriating. "It is part of that sneaking thing we talked about before."
"I'm good at sneaking," she perked up with a smile.
"I know," Will said dryly.
She was at good at sneaking, in the month that she had been with Will, Angie had attempted to sneak out at least twice a week. It was time to put all of that energy to some sort of use, since chores, practicing her archery and with the sling, and throwing her knives were not exhausting her enough. Teaching her unseen movement would mean more work for Will, but it was a skill that needed to be refined.
"What we're going to do is learn when to stay still and when to move. And how," he said slowly then looked at her expectantly, waiting on the follow up question.
"If it's movement, why are we staying still," she asked almost hesitantly.
"That's the unseen part of it," Will smiled, she was asking the right questions, now they could begin.
Angie bit her lip looking up at Will. This sounded like something he was just making up again. She knew Will did not make everything up, but all this stuff seemed like the tasks sorcery would make irrelevant. What she really wanted to learn was the sorcery.
"So it's like how you just appear places?"
"I don't just appear places," he forced a laugh down. It reminded Will of the long ago time when Halt was teaching him these skills.
"Yes you do, I've seen it."
Will opened his mouth about to respond, but Angie kept talking.
"One minute you're standing at the edge of the clearing, you vanish and then you're ten meters away and up a tree," she exclaimed quickly. "And Teki does it too!"
Will's brow rose as he looked down at Angie, "Teki too? You've seen the dog climbing a tree?"
"Just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it's not true," Angie crossed her arms defiantly. "He climbs trees with me all the time."
"When do you have the time to climb trees?"
Angie realized her mistake too late. She had let it out that she had a lot of free time, and that was a large stretch of the imagination. What really happened when she had her "free time" was that she got bored with her current task and wandered off. Yes, Will knew about it, but she knew better than to admit to it.
"Well, you know, from time to time," she bit her lip trying to think her way out of this situation. Nothing was coming to her. "We like to go on little adventures, so I can practice."
She could tell by his rising brow that Will was not buying her excuses. The higher his left brow rose, the smaller she wished she could be, and the more she wished she already knew this unseen movement thing so she could escape that expression. She gave him a forced, cheesy grin, hoping to at least make the brow return to its normal place.
"I'm sorry," she sighed. "I'll be better, I promise." She looked at the ground, hiding her face with her long curly hair.
"See that you are," Will straightened himself, moving away from the side conversation and starting again with the reason for their trip. "We are going to be working on unseen movement."
"You said that," she brushed part of her hair aside to look up at Will with one eye.
"Why do you think we learn when to stay still?"
"So we look like statues," Angie tossed her hair over her shoulder and struck a pose with her arms stuck out at odd angles. Will could not suppress his smile.
"No," he forced his smile away and gazed down at her expectantly, waiting for her to try a more reasonable answer.
"Then I don't know," she lowered her arms slowly.
"Think about it. Why would we want to stay perfectly still," Will prompted.
Angie's face twisted in concentration, she scratched her temple and muttered to herself, "perfectly still?" Finally she shook her head and shrugged looking up at him. "No idea."
"Think harder," he tried again.
Angie was bright, she just needed a push in the right direction and a lot of prompting. Will was slowly learning how to teach Angie and how to get her to focus. Whatever they were doing, it had to hold her interest, the best way to do that was to constantly interact with her.
"So, we look," she started again, her arms rising to their awkward positions once again.
"No," Will cut her off before she could reach her statute pose. "Why would someone sneaking around want to know when to stop moving and stay perfectly still?"
"Cause they got caught," Angie instantly responded, making Will wonder if she was just drawing this out for fun.
"Close, it's to avoid being seen."
"But if we just stand there, they'll see us," she shook her head, "Unless blind people are looking for us. And then it wouldn't matter as long as we're quiet."
"You would be surprised," Will smiled, shrugging his cloak around to cover his chest. "Have you ever considered why our cloaks are mottled like this?" Angie quickly shook her head. "It's because it helps break up our shape."
Will stepped back from Angie and stopped between two trees, standing perfectly still with his cowl pulled low over his face. Angie squinted looking at him. She knew exactly where he was but with the cowl pulled over his face and the cloak wrapped around him, Angie was having a hard time distinguished where her mentor was actually standing.
"That's amazing," she whispered looking down at her own cloak, sprawled out around her. She had never even thought about the oddity of the cloak's pattern, she just thought it was something to set the Rangers apart from everyone else.
"It's a very simple trick," Will rejoined Angie sitting next to her on the ground. "Most people won't be looking for someone. The cloaks help break up our shape, but we have to remain perfectly still."
"Even if someone sees us," Angie asked skeptically. Will nodded.
"Especially if you think you've been spotted. People will look for movement. They'll see what they want to see," he repeated the words Halt had told him a thousand times. "If all they expect are trees and grass, then that's all they'll see."
"Then how will I know when to move," she arched one of her brows failing to mimic the Ranger.
"We'll get to that," Will promised with a smile. "Right now, we're going to work on staying perfectly still."
If Angie had any expectations about this task, they were crushed almost instantly. She had liked the talk of not moving. That sounded exceedingly easy in theory. Actually sitting still and not moving was impossible.
She had no more than found a nice hiding place to practice in than she had to sneeze. Nothing could stop that sneeze from coming, not even her customary chant about pineapple elephants. And it was a loud one. Angie groaned rubbing her nose after the fact trying to determine what had caused that horrendous thing.
"Move and try again," Will was behind her, and startled, Angie screamed. "Move and try again," Will repeated, shooing her away with his hand.
The second spot was in a tangle of roots from a trio of hickory trees. Angie weaseled her way into a tight fit, and lay sprawled out for several minutes. Miraculously a twig worked its way into her stomach, and the more she tried to ignore it, the deeper it dug into her abdomen. She could not take it and reached around to remove the twig.
"Try again," if she had not been tangled up in the roots, she would have leapt at the sound of Will's voice right behind her.
Angie shimmied out of the tree roots and set off in search of a new hiding place, deciding that she did not like this game. She grumbled as she stalked through the trees, not even caring that she was making unnecessary noise that made it impossible to Will to miss her. When she finally found a spot, Will was already there. Grumbling even louder she set off for a new location.
Will sent Angie off for a new hiding place more times than he cared to count in a single hour. Finally she seemed to have the hang of the exercise. Will had turned away while she sought out her hiding place and when he turned to watch her, he had no idea where she had settled to hide.
Will scanned the forest around him slowly, his eyes unfocused so he could catch any movement. There was nothing. Will frowned wondering how Angie had managed to suddenly become so good at remaining still. He started walking through the brush in the direction he had last seen her, hoping to come across her trail. There was nothing there, it seemed she was better at stealth than Will had given her credit for.
"Where did she go," he muttered quietly looking around him once again. "She hasn't wandered off completely, has she?"
He searched longer than he liked before he came across a small indent in the grass, telling him that Angie had passed through that way. Satisfied that he had finally found Angie he set off after her, and nearly tripped over her.
Angie was stretched out in the grass, her cloak spread out over her back, the cowl over her head helping her blend in. Her head was resting on crossed arms, and her breathing was deep and regular. The young apprentice was sleeping.
Will shook his head looking down at her. She had finally managed to remain perfectly still and she had fallen asleep. They had a long way to go, and he could already see how much trouble this was going to be.
Gently he shook the girl awake. Angie groaned stretching as she rolled over and sat up. She smiled up at him happily, like she had done nothing wrong.
"Have a nice nap," he asked helping her to her feet.
"You took too long, I got bored," she responded through a massive yawn.
"So you decided to take a nap," he asked curtly, hoping she would hear the displeasure in his voice.
"It was an involuntary action," she yawned again covering her mouth with the back of her hand. "But I did it, you didn't find me."
Will could not help but smile at the girl beaming at him. She did have a point, but she still should not have taken a nap when they were training.
"Next time, let's avoid the naps," she nodded as they headed back for the cabin.
"I'll be better," Will hoped she could actually keep that promise. He loved her for who she was, but her lack of focus would make things extremely difficult later in her training.