Whatever Johnny had thought the Ranger had meant during their meeting on the wolfship turned out to be entirely made up. There was a predawn wake up time, enforced with a bucket of ice water, and a long morning session on the green with Horace before breakfast. Angie was up before him, she was out in the green when Johnny shuffled out with his practice gear shooting her bow under the watchful eye of Maddie.
Horace beat Johnny to a pulp. Not intentionally, but Johnny was so out of focus that he could not block the swift strokes of the old knight. With every hit Johnny winced looking down at the assaulted spot picturing the bruises that would appear before the morning was over. After what felt like the whole morning, Johnny could not hold his practice sword in his hands and collapsed to the ground breathing heavily.
"I think that'll do," Horace beamed at the boy looking over to the Rangers.
Will and Maddie were demonstrating something to Angie, who unfortunately was not paying attention as she picked grass from where she was sitting on the dewy ground.
"Angie," Will snapped, breaking away from Maddie who was wielding a long double edged sword, her knives sheathed at her side. Angie jerked upright, looking up at Will with a look laced with remorse. "What did I just say?"
"That the X thing doesn't work with battle axes. So don't use it when fighting against the Skandians," Angie gave a cheesy grin to the Ranger.
Will looked up at the sky, as if asking for guidance and sighed looking back at Angie. "Yes, what else did I say?"
"Maddie said it was harder than it looked," Angie offered.
"What I said," Johnny was under the impression that this was a normal conversation between the Ranger and his apprentice.
Angie clicked her tongue looking at the ground between her and the Rangers. Her brow rose marginally, then fell to a point as she thought and then rose again with a tilt of her head. She looked up at Will with a small half smile.
"Rangers aren't strong close range fighters, so I only use the X thing when I have too. Like I'm not supposed to throw the knives, which I guess makes sense now, since I have to use them for the X thing."
"The double knife defense," Will corrected.
"Yes, that," Angie climbed up to her feet, drawing her knives. "But we talked about this like two weeks ago."
"It obviously didn't stick," Johnny muttered as Horace led him over to the Rangers.
"We did," Will nodded. "But I said something, just now while demonstrating with Maddie. What was it?"
"I do not know," she responded instantly, flipping her saxe knife through the air and catching it by the tip of the blade. "Did it have something to do with deflecting the thrust?"
"Pretty close," Maddie shrugged looking at Will.
Will looked to the sky again holding his hands out as if once again asking for something. When he looked back he could see Horace and Johnny were coming to join them.
"Ah, here's our whack and bashers!"
"Whack and basher at your service," Horace grinned with a mocking bow.
"Whack and basher," Maddie's brow rose looking at her father.
"It's what Halt always called me, when he thought I wasn't listening," Horace shrugged. "And there are two of us now, so he's basher," Horace motioned to Johnny not missing a beat. "I like whacking."
"Now, we were discussing the double knife defense," Will ended the whack and basher comments quickly knowing Horace and Maddie could keep them going for a while. "And as Angie kind of spoke of, we were getting to the part about deflecting the thrust." Will looked between Angie and Johnny, the two who were learning about the defense. "Horace if you would be so kind as to attack Angie, while I defend from Johnny."
Johnny stood facing the short Ranger, his wooden practice sword weighing heavily in his hand. He had thought the morning session was over. He had believed he was finally going to get breakfast, not more training. And what was this knife defense thing they were talking about anyway?
The Ranger had two knives in his hand, they rested easily in his grip. What were they expecting? Was Johnny just supposed to attack? That did not seem right; yes, this was a Ranger but all he had were little knives.
Johnny looked over at Angie who was being supervised by Maddie as Horace swung his sword at her. Angie raised her knives, setting the smaller blade under the larger for support, more or less stopping the sword mid-stroke. Maddie and Horace both smiled and nodded approvingly.
"Care to try an overhand?" the Ranger asked, startling the battle school apprentice. "I'll try not to carve your practice sword up too much."
"But all you have are those knives," Johnny pointed with his practice sword.
"And all you have is a wooden stick, now overhand." Will shouted the last word. Instinct took over, Johnny had spent days in the yard drilling, listing to shouted commands. He swung the wooden shaft up for an overhand, only to have it come to an arm jarring halt.
The Ranger had crossed his blades, the smaller knife supporting the larger blade. He had done as he said, the wooden practice sword had crashed into the flat of the saxe knife, sparring the practice weapon from damage. Johnny looked down at the crossed knives with a scowl. How was that possible?
"This is the double knife defense. The second knife gives leverage to the larger weapon, giving it the ability to stop the stroke of the large swords. It works for all stokes, as I will demonstrate."
Johnny stepped back from the Ranger, waiting for the next command.
"Underhand, if you don't mind," Will dropped his knives to his side once again. Johnny growled as he preformed the underhanded stroke. The Ranger crossed his blades once again, the flat of the large saxe slapping the practice weapon, stopping the stroke half way through.
Johnny needed no encouragement for the next stroke, he pulled back and swung at the Ranger's side. Will moved and blocked the attack.
"Getting a little ahead of ourselves, aren't we?" he asked, a single brow rising. This time the saxe had embedded itself in the hard wooden practice sword. With a flick of his wrist the knife was free, leaving a cut half the width of the shaft. Johnny looked down in anger and amazement, the ease in which the blade had cut his practice sword was impossible.
"You cut up my practice sword!"
"You didn't wait for my call," the Ranger responded coolly. "That should be a lesson, I'm attempting to teach you."
"I'm a battle school apprentice, not an apprentice Ranger."
"You could still learn," the Ranger looked past Johnny to Horace and the others. "You've been given a great opportunity here. Joining the Task Force is a great honor, learning from Horace is an even greater one. If you don't want to join us, if you don't want to be great, just say so. We'll stop training you and send you back to Redmont and the Battle School.
"You were going to do that anyway," it was more of a statement than an actual question. Johnny knew that the Ranger would not have just forgotten about him bullying Angie. Johnny was smart enough to know that all of these people would side with Angie before him, and at a word from her he would be outcast.
"No," Will shook his head. "If something happened we were going to discuss what to do. If Angie had been out of line she would have ended her training. If you were out of line, you would have been sent back to Redmont. We are fair."
"Right," Johnny dropped his broken practice sword on the ground. "You'd side with her and not even listen to me."
"You know me and Horace use to hate each other," that took the battle school apprentice by surprise.
"So," he spoke guardedly, uncertain of where this was going.
"We grew up together in the Ward at Castle Redmont, he bullied me our whole childhood."
That sounded a lot like the relationship between Johnny and Angie. Johnny did not miss that, but he was also smart enough to see that the Ranger was lying. The king of Araluen did not grow up a commoner in the ward at Redmont. What kind of king would he be if he did?
"Then one day, I saved his life."
"If he bullied you, why save him?"
"He was trying to save mine," the Ranger smiled. "We were on a boar hunt, there was a second pig, none of us knew about and it charged after the circle broke up once we killed the first boar. It was coming right for me, Horace, a first year battle school apprentice rushed forward to save me."
"But you saved him," Johnny pointed out, thinking that he had caught the Ranger in is lie.
Will nodded. "Horace dropped his spear, the boar charged him. I shot it with an arrow, distracting it and drawing it away from him."
"Then who killed it?"
"My mentor, Ranger Halt."
Johnny felt very small. He had heard the tales of the Ranger Halt, there were hundreds of them portraying him as a giant among men, a hero a hundred times over. He had trained Will Treaty, and this Ranger was Will Treaty. Essentially, Johnny was calling the Will Treaty a liar. So he felt small and stupid.
"Since then, Horace and I have been best friends. We've gone on many quests, fought many foes and overcome great obstacles."
"Is there a point to this," Johnny asked, waiting for the proverbial end to this story. He knew it was there, adults never just told stories, there was always a lesson to be learned.
"Your past does not define you, Jonathan Pritchard. You can do anything with your talents, you can do great things. But if you insist on staying in the past, on trying to place yourself above everyone around you, you will be nothing."
The Ranger held Johnny's gaze for a long time. He said nothing and Johnny could not find any words to say to him. That had been what he was expecting the Ranger to say, some proverb about the future, but it was still unsettling.
All his life, people had told Johnny about his parents. How they were great people, well respected, liked, sought after for counsel from their peers. They had been amazing people, so Johnny had to be just as amazing. He was talented and likeable, but not the favored one.
He had been in Angie's shadow when he first arrived at the Ward. She had always been there, she had been so bright and bubbly, people just liked her and she had never tried. He had not like that, even at four Johnny had know that he did not like that. So he had pushed Angie down, making up stories about her and making sure no one liked her.
It was like the Ranger knew all of that. Like, he had known that Johnny was purposely trying to be better than Angie at everything, and had destroyed her in order to do it. The Ranger probably had known, he had no doubt see that when he was in the castle. Johnny could remember seeing the Ranger on a regular basis in the castle while he lived in the ward.
And now Will was saying that none of that mattered. Will was saying that they would all forget that and allow him to move forward. They were not going to judge him.
He could do that. He could stop, if he really tried.
Sadly, old habits die hard.