Felt like I was having trouble coming up with ideas for awhile there, but now I'm good, so this chapter is coming pretty fast to everybody. Please enjoy the product of my long hours of boredom. ~~~~
So, the Ranger's took to talking to one another. Gilan took to apologizing to Will about an event Aaron had no knowledge of. Aaron waited patiently while they spoke. After looking over Halt again, Aaron glanced at the ground, thinking hard on something. The three spent the period that Aaron spent thinking talking still with one another. That was, until Halt took to observing Aaron with a curious eye.
"Introductions, Gilan." he commented to his former student. Gilan glanced over, and his former master raised a menacing brow at him. " Who is this?" he prompted. Gilan grinned, sheepishly.
" Right. Halt, Will, this is Aaron. Aaron . . ." Gilan's voice trailed slightly, seeing Aaron's distracted expression. Tilting his head at his companion, Gilan wondered what Aaron could be thinking of right now. " Aaron, you alright?"
" Corin Si." Aaron murmured, thoughtfully, in the Gallican tongue. Then, he glanced up at Halt, looking intense.
" What?" Halt asked, catching the strong set of eyes with his own older ones.
" Corin Si," he repeated himself, louder this time and went on to say, " Falla ri du Chene urata nira." Halt stared at the boy a few moments, then glared suspiciously at him. Aaron blinked, and spoke again in Gallican. " Ona du Pararuea."
" Ona du Pararuea?" Halt echoed as a question what Aaron had said, and Aaron gave a firm nod of his head to the old Ranger. " Whom sent you, if you don't mind me asking?" they began to speak in the common language rather then in Gallican that Aaron was so fluent in.
" My Master," he replied, rather matter of fact in manner. Then he realized how rude it sounded and amended," he told me not to speak his name. He told me that you'd know him by his nickname just as well. 'White Stag' is what he said it was."
Clearly this nickname meant something to Halt, as his eyes showed an amazed sort of understanding.
" White Stag sent you?" Halt questioned further, and Aaron nodded affirmation, looking hopefully at the grizzled Ranger. Meanwhile, neither Gilan nor will had any idea what was going on.
Gilan was a Ranger, but he wasn't required by this job to be fluent in another language. He knew an odd ball word or two in Gallican, enough to get a muddled sentence that he couldn't understand. Will simply didn't understand a word of what was said. So neither were sure where this conversation had been rooted from.
Glancing around once, Halt instructed. " Everyone get inside." he ushered them swiftly into his home. Gilan held back while Aaron and Will went on ahead of Halt and himself.
" What's going on?" he murmured with concern to Halt. All Halt did was frown more then he had been before.
" That's what I'd like to know." he replied, and Gilan nodded his understanding. His old master glanced up at him, with clearly curious, but serious eyes. " You may have involved yourself in something bigger then you realized." Gilan chuckled at this statement.
" I was getting that idea on the way here." he informed Halt. " Aaron told me he had a message from his master to deliver to three people here in Araluen. He told me it probably wasn't anything important but," he grinned at Halt as he went on," that gets hard to believe once you've been attacked two or three times along the way here." Halt nodded, grimly, glancing over his shoulder.
" With White Stag it's hard to think it would be something pointless." he agreed, then asked. " Were you followed?" Gilan stared at him, impressed with Halt's abilities, but not surprised that he'd figured it out.
" We managed to shake them awhile back. We haven't seen anything for a few shouldn't still be looking for us, but we're going to have to be cautious about it." he answered Halt's question, and Halt gave him an inquisitive look.
" How exactly do you figure that?" he asked, and Gilan grinned again.
" When you end up jumping off a cliff into a raging river just to get rid of followers, you kind of hope that they aren't out there right now, hunting you down." he responded. There was a silence for a moment between the two, until Halt finally responded.
" Idiot." he told Gilan, blunt.
" Glad to hear you're so concerned, Halt." Gilan said, grinning still as he added. " By the way, I'm fine, thanks for asking." Halt's lips made a semi-smile.
" Of coarse you are." he replied simply, then ushered Gilan inside, before following and closing the door behind himself.
They sat in a snug circle, Halt and Gilan in chairs while Aaron and Will were seated on the floor. Aaron had helped Will in his chore of boiling water for coffee, and in Aaron's case, tea again. He fetched the tea leaves from his bad. Halt gave Gilan a curious look.
" The boy likes tea. Can't understand coffee, I can't begin to understand why." Gilan grinned when he got an incredulous look from Aaron.
" Pardon me for being so strange," he retorted, thickly back to Gilan, " I didn't realize drinking tea over coffee was such a crime around here." Gilan chuckled a bit at this, while Halt gave a thin smile.
" A strange habit I'm sure you picked up from White Stag, I presume?" Halt asked. Aaron stared at the small, grizzled old Ranger for a few moments while Halt continued to sip his coffee.
" How did you know?" he asked. Halt shook his head at these three with him.
" All these young people, bursting with questions," he said, then answered Aaron's question," White Stag always loved moving around from place to place. Came to see me after one trip he had. He was addicted to tea, straight from the leaves, as you do. Never seen White Stag drink anything different since then." Aaron grinned, pleased with the explanation.
That sounded just like his Master.
" What's it taste like?" Will asked, and all eyes fell on him. Holding out the cup, Aaron allowed Will to take and try a bit of the contents of the cup. Will tasted it, eager to find out what it was, but pretty much spat it out back out the instant he got the taste. Aaron took the cup back, laughing along with Halt and Gilan.
" Rather like dirt when I tried it, how about you?" Halt sad and Will nodded, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand.
" Yeah, that about sums it up." Will agreed, face twisted with disgust as he went to wash the taste away with coffee. Aaron went back to sipping the tea, looking very thoughtful now.
" Most people who first try it add sugar in, but I've been drinking it for years so it tastes fine plain to me." he told them, then added on as an after thought. " This is actually one of the sweeter flavors. You haven't tasted the really bitter stuff. Now that I even have trouble swallowing it's so strong." Will was a bit squeamish on the thought of bitter tea and drank his coffee more eagerly then previously.
" What of White Stag?" Halt asked Aaron. This drew a smile from Aaron, but the smile soon faded from Aaron's face. He looked down, running his finger along his tea cup, trying to pick the right words to say. Then he sighed.
" Hopefully better off then I think he is," replied Aaron, ruefully, " I left on strange circumstances, in the middle of a chase, with a message I can't begin to understand." Halt nodded to him.
" He coded it, I'm sure."Halt commented and Aaron nodded.
" My Master always did have a mind for riddles." Aaron stated. " It wouldn't surprise me that he hid the message with a code or riddle." Halt nodded agreement once more.
" He was always gifted when it came to code breaking." he commented, and Aaron glanced up at him, looking over the older man's details. " The best Araluen has ever seen, I'd venture to admit." to this Aaron grew a grin of gratitude at the graying Ranger.
Somehow, Aaron knew that he and Halt would get along just fine.~~~~~
This might seem a little dry, but I think it's important to tell this stuff, so do be patient. It'll pick up again soon enough. Oh, and thank you to all of you loyal readers out there. Appreciate you taking your time to check this story out. On that note, READ AND REVIEW PLEASE!! HTHG over and out.