This part was suggested by a reader. This type of story I don't think I was going to do because there are a lot of them, but since someone suggested it, I shall write. If anyone else has any other suggestions, can you please give them. Enjoy the story :)
Will packed up the map that was spread out on the table and put it away in its case. Him and Halt had just been doing some geography work and now it was time to move onto something else.
'Go get your bow,' Halt said and Will suddenly felt frightened. It was the first winter since they had gotten back from Skandia, and since their return, Will had been fine, with the occasional nightmare of course. But after a while the nightmares passed and everything went back to normal. But as the weather started to worsen and the temperatures dropped, the nightmares and memories of Skandia would come back sometimes. He had been out in the snow that much, as Halt knew what his apprentice was going through, and he knew that Will should take little steps. Today Halt wanted to test if Will was ready to go out into the cold, or at least if he was doing better.
He noticed how Will looked a little tense as he walked into his room, and how his hands were shaking slightly. Will was scared of course, but that may have been because he was anxious as to what he would feel out in the snow. Neither of them would know if Will was ready or not unless he tried. If he wasn't, Halt decided, they would go back inside.
Halt opened the front door and stepped out into the cold air, Will following hesitantly behind. Will's hands started shaking even more and he was breathing a bit faster. He had a slight moment of panic when his foot sunk deep into the snow when he stepped off the porch step.
Halt heard the boy suck in a quick breath and turned around to make sure nothing bad had happened. Will had calmed down from the shock and nodded to his mentor, signalling that he was alright. For now. As they walked closer to where the targets were set up Will felt a little more at ease and not as nervous as he had been before. Maybe today would be the day when he could finally conquer his new found fear of the cold and the dreadful memories would finally go away.
But then a sudden gust of cold air came and hit him like a bag of bricks. As soon as he felt it, Will immediately froze up. He was now tenser than ever and he was breathing rapidly, his entire body shaking. Small fragments of memories started flooding in, and he closed his eyes, trying to drown them out. But that just made them more vivid. The blackness that came with his eyes being shut, made it like a canvas, a black canvas, that the memories could be painted on.
Halt immediately noticed that something was wrong and walked over to his shaking apprentice. He lightly touched Will on the shoulder, knowing not to be too forceful. Will flinched slightly but relaxed when he saw it was just Halt, looking at him with concern.
'Maybe we should go back inside,' Halt suggested, though really it was more of an order. Will nodded and they walked back to the cabin, taking cautious steps, Halt keeping his hand on Will's back, making small circular motions to soothe the shaking boy.
Once inside, Halt led Will over to the fireplace and sat him down in front of the fire that Halt had lit earlier, that was still burning with a bright passion. While Will warmed up, Halt went to the kitchen and got some coffee for the two of them ready. Once that was done, he walked over to Will and sat down close next to him, handing him a mug of the delicious drink.
'You can just rest for a while, then we might work on the courier's code. You're still a bit rusty on that,' Halt said. Will nodded, staring into the fire not saying anything. After a few more minutes of silence, he spoke up.
'Halt?' he asked, 'Do you think I'll ever get better?' Will was looking down at his nearly empty mug now, as if he was ashamed.
'You say that as if you're sick,' Halt replied, 'Like there's something wrong with you. But there isn't Will. You need to know that. What you went through would have been terrible. And traumatic. Eventually, you will get used to the cold. Your mind will start to realise it's all in the past, and that it's all over. That you're safe. That will just take time. For now, just take small steps and you'll get there eventually.'
'You think so?' Will asked looking up at his mentor.
'I know so,' Halt replied. Then giving Will a slight squeeze on the shoulders he got up, placed his mug on the bench, and walked into his room to get the materials for their next indoor activity, leaving his apprentice to think.
Will was sitting straight up in bed, the blankets wrapped tightly around his shoulders. It was around midnight, and the night air was colder than ever. Just a couple minutes ago he had woken up from yet another nightmare from Skandia. The day's events and the fact that it was getting even colder, as it got into the middle of winter, did not help matters either. But he had stopped crying out when these dreams happened, instead he would just sit in silence, thinking about them.
His blankets weren't doing much to keep the cold out, and he could feel himself starting to freeze up again. He needed more blankets. Will knew there were two really warm ones hanging on the back on the two armchairs by the fire. If he could get up and walk to them, he would be warm. But the problem was he didn't want to get up. If he did, the small amount of warmth he had now would disappear.
He sat still for another five minutes until he finally decided he would get up to get the other blankets. He wouldn't be able to go back to sleep without the extra warmth anyway. Still keeping his blanket wrapped tightly around his shoulders, he quietly got up, shivering against the cold. He was glad he had decided to sleep in his socks as he could feel the cold of the floorboards through them. Without the socks he thought he might even be able to step on boards.
Will quietly made his way into the kitchen, avoiding the floor boards he knew would creak and make noise.
Halt was lying down on his bed, drawing in his sketchbook with a charcoal pencil. He was drawing a strange creature that if it was shown to a small child, they would be terrified. The creature had a long thin body with long arms that dragged across the ground. The body was black with spots of red that seemed like it had just been splattered there. The face was really pale, and had no features, other than a really big distorted smile, the corners of the mouth coming up all the way to where the ears should have been. Parts of the mouth and the smile looked like they had been sliced open to look wider, and more mysterious red stains were around it. The teeth were sharp and once again, splattered in red stains. The creature had some hair, really thin hair, that came down about shoulder length. The drawing had the creature's head tilted slightly to the side, as if it was studying you.
Halt had no idea where he came up with the idea of this creature, but if asked, he could have sworn that he had seen it somewhere before. But it didn't seem like something from any paranormal horror story he had read before. It seemed more like something from a dream. In fact, this creature was not the only horrifying thing he had drawn in the book, and they all seemed like a dream to him.
He looked up now as he heard the quiet sound of a door opening, and footsteps from out of the doorway. He placed the pencil down on the middle of the page he had been drawing on and lightly closing the book on it. He grabbed his saxe knife from the table it had been sitting on and silently walked towards his door, waiting near it, listening closely. He heard the person walking around in the kitchen and it sounded like they were moving something.
Halt decided to go out and see who or what it was. It was probably just Will getting water, but it was better to make sure. He opened the door and saw that it was Will, but he wasn't getting water, instead he was collecting up the blankets on the armchairs. He watched as Will gathered the two blankets up in his arms, struggling to carry them as they were pretty heavy. He kept on shifting the blankets to a different position so he could hold them better. In the end, Will ended up having one blanket draped over his arm, and the other on draped over his head, like a veil. Plus there was the one that was already on his shoulders. He looked kind of silly, Halt thought.
Will turned around now to walk back to his room with new warmth and saw Halt standing in the shadows, watching him with amusement.
'What the hell are you doing Will?' Halt asked.
'Getting blankets,' Will explained, deciding there was no harm in telling the truth. 'It's cold.'
Halt was immediately a bit concerned and worried. 'Too cold?' He asked anxiously. Will nodded slowly. Halt sensed that the boy wasn't telling him everything though, and he thought he knew what it was. 'Another nightmare?' He asked simply. When Will nodded again Halt walked over to him and wrapped his arms around his shoulders, leading him back to Will's room.
Halt gently pushed Will down onto the bed, and forced him to stay down. He then grabbed all of the blankets into a big pile and dumped them all on top of Will.
'There,' he said, 'Warmth.' Will laughed softly and then pulled the blankets better up onto himself. 'Thanks,' he said, and he meant it. He didn't know what he would do without Halt.
'Now,' Halt started, 'Are you going to tell me what you dreamt about?' There was silence between them for a minute. Will had looked down as if he was ashamed or he had done something wrong. Then he shrugged his shoulders.
'I don't know if I want to talk about it,' he replied quietly. Halt sighed and sat down next to the boy.
'Will, I want to help you. But I can't if you don't tell me what actually happened in Skandia. If you want to get past this then you have to talk. Believe me,' he added, 'I know it's hard to say how you're feeling.'
Will looked up at Halt now. Just like had happened a couple years ago at his first gathering, with the alcohol incident, he felt better about himself when he found out Halt had been through something similar. Knowing that Halt knew what it was like to be afraid to talk helped him. Taking a deep breath he started talking.
'You know about the warmweed and the slavery of course,' he started. When Halt nodded he continued, a little shakingly. 'But I haven't told you why I was put on the drug. There's a form of punishment there called the paddles. Apparently people don't last too long on those. It's when you have to push some paddles over and over again, breaking the ice on the water. While that happens, the ice water splashes onto you and freezes onto you. But since you're moving while that happens you don't feel it until afterwards. Then it gets really cold. I got given the drug because it was supposed to make you warmer. And it works. That's why I got addicted. But of course, it also basically destroys you, as you know.'
Halt listened quietly as Will explained all this. Anger raged inside of him, getting worse and worse as Will spoke. But he kept it down for Will. His kid needed support. Keeping his voice calm he asked: 'Was there anything else?'
Will hesitated for a second, looking down again. Eventually he got the courage to talk. 'They bet us as well. If we didn't meet their expectations they would hit us and kick us until we were unconscious. Sometimes they would pull out a knife. The worst got a whip though.'
Halt was shocked. Why those people would do that to such an innocent young boy was unbelievable. But then he realised, they were cruel, horrible people with no respect for humanity. They treated people like they were dogs. He hated the people who had done this to his son with all his heart.
'What did they do to you?' Halt asked, fearing the worst.
'They never pulled a whip on me,' Will said. Thank God, Halt thought. 'But they got close,' Will continued. 'The worst thing they did was cut me with a knife. They grabbed my arm and sliced it open.' Will then rolled up his sleeve to show Halt the damage on his arm. There was a long cut from right down his upper arm, starting at the shoulder and coming down to his elbow. By the looks of it, the cut had been pretty deep.
Halt gritted his teeth and his hands went into fists. It was all he could do to keep his temper and stop himself from punching the wall in rage. 'Why the fuck would they do that?' He asked more to himself, in a barely controlled voice.
Will shrugged again. 'I don't know what I did. I think the people were drunk or something. Luckily it didn't get infected. One of the kitchen slaves noticed it when they were walking past and gave me something for it.'
'Well thank God for them,' Halt whispered. He gently took Will's arm, noticing how the cut was basically just a scar now. Will surprisingly didn't flinch against Halt's touch. His hands were actually quite warm, making Will feel better. Will grabbed one of his mentors hands and put it against his cheek, feeling the warmth spread through his face. He eventually closed his eyes, the reassurance of Halt calming him down enough to make him tired.
'Thanks Dad,' Will mumbled before falling into a deep sleep. His hand that was holding Halt's to his face dropped. Halt gently pushed Will's hair away from his face and then pulled the pile of blankets further up to the boy's shoulders until he looked like a caterpillar. He then quietly left the room, closing the door behind with a soft click.
Halt didn't know the exact people that had hurt his son, but he swore to himself that he would find out and make them pay one day.
So this one was much longer. And took a couple days to write because I haven't been bothered to write and didn't know what to write. So was it good? I don't know. And to the person who suggested it, what did ya think? Hopefully it was good.
Well that's all I have to say.
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-That One Enby Ranger-
Song listening to when published: Bang! by AJR