Yet another chapter to enjoy. You're all keeping up with my updating I hope? ^^ Anyways, read on.~~~
" Everybody ready?!" Halt called out to his companions. He frowned, as Aaron came up next to him on that black stallion of his. The stallion was taller then the average Ranger horse, so the boy could look down at Halt from horse back as well as one the ground. This fact rather annoyed him, but there wasn't nothing to do about it, so Halt didn't mention it.
" Looks like we're all ready, Halt." Gilan answered, also, like Aaron, sitting tall enough on his horse that he might look down at Halt from both regular standing height and astride a horse. Halt glanced over his shoulder, and nodded, setting out with the small band of Rangers, except for Aaron. According to Gilan, apparently, Aaron may as well be considered a Ranger by himself.
" The boy has had much of the training for a Ranger from his Master," Gilan had told him in private one of the previous nights, " he's even had some variations for the traditional training we receive, although, it looks like he's also never gotten any of different parts of the traditional training as well." Basically, what Gilan had told Halt, to his understanding, was that Aaron was a smart kid. Of coarse, he would judge that for himself while they back tracked towards Castle Araluen.
Gilan had also mentioned that the boy had no sense of direction what so ever. Now, at the beginning of the day, Halt had found that rather funny. It couldn't be true, right? Well, by the time they stopped to camp for the night, he no longer thought this was funny. Actually, he still found it funny, just in a different way by the end of the day.
The boy really didn't have a clue! It was worthy of a huge laughing fit, but, as always, Halt resisted the urge to laugh out loud, containing it to a smile instead, hidden by the coil of his Ranger's cloak.
The day had gone by without a disturbance in the least. It would've been a lazy day if it wasn't for the fact that Aaron and Gilan insisted urgency of this situation, and had the horses at a canter for a good amount of time over and over again throughout the day.
Gilan also had them trekking around, just to keep an possible follower off their trail.
This, obviously, drew one question after another from will, that Halt had to answer. Of coarse, Halt also took to quizzing Will on his abilities as a Ranger thus far along the way. Which brought questions from Aaron, whom had no quells about interrupting right in the middle of this or that conversation. Or sentence for that matter.
Also, the boy had a language problem, and Halt began to worry that staying around the young man too much might get Will speaking the same vulgar language as well. Anytime Halt mentioned it, both Gilan and Aaron would shrug, and Aaron usually just swore again, just to try and get a rise out of Halt. He'd grin the entire time too. The end result would be Will answering Aaron's questions, and Aaron answering a great deal of Will's questions.
Which worked for Halt, because it gave him a chance to analyze just how much Aaron really knew. However, this process was a long and increasingly annoying one every time it happened. To say this turned into a vicious cycle in one day doesn't even begin to describe how bad it felt by the end of the day.
To be sure that there is full understanding, Halt was, in fact, one of three people that Aaron had to find. Halt knew exactly who one of the others that his old friend would want to deliver any kind of message to as well.
" There are three people my Master told me to get to." Aaron had told Halt the first night that Aaron and Gilan stayed with Halt and Will. " He never told me their names either, but I shouldn't have expected my Master to make it easy for me." shaking his head, Aaron explained to a confused looking Will.
" Nothing is easy with that man, take my word for it. Anyways, he told me to find the Gray Fox, the Black Crow, and the Sly Ferret." Gilan and Will both laughed at the last one. It sounded funny, and Aaron even cracked a grin.
" I'm assuming Halt here is Gray Fox?" Halt gave a firm nod to him at this fact.
" What made you think that?" curiosity had gotten the better of Halt on this one. Aaron smiled at him in that way that never quite reached his eyes, though the smile did crease his lips.
" Oh, that's easy. I know my Master," he put it simply, and took a moment to explain it to them in further detail, " he's rather silly, and with something like this, you would have to think in a silly way to understand it." Grinning madly, he turned to Gilan and Will saying. " Halt reminds me of a fox. Simple correlation, no offense intended." he added to Halt, who only shrugged in reply.
" White Stag gave me that name himself. So I gave him his." he said, and Aaron became interested instantly at this.
" Really?" he asked, and Halt nodded to this fact.
" Why'd you call him White Stag?" Will questioned, interested with Aaron now.
This actually got Halt to start chuckling!
Glancing nervously, Gilan could only shrug in reply to Will's worried face. Halt laughing was a rather unusual thing, but then, it was clearly at the memory, so Gilan found no reason to worry.
" The man is so clumsy, he stumbles around like a baby deer on it's first walk." Halt said, chuckling still. Aaron grew a smile that finally reached his eyes, and he let out a good, long laugh himself. He slapped his knee, pointing at Halt too, practically falling all over himself, laughing.
" That's so true!"he giggled right along for awhile too. " For someone so smart, my Master isn't very light on his feet. He's always falling all over himself, it's hilarious!" Aaron insisted, holding his sides, and tried to take a deep breath.
After a bit of time, Aaron had calmed down, giggling every once in awhile as the thought repeated itself in his head. Gilan and Will were rather confused.
" If you knew him, you'd understand." Halt affirmed to them, simply. Gilan shrugged.
" Do you know who the other two are I'm looking for?" Aaron asked Halt, drawing attention back to the present problem that presented itself to them. " To be honest, I have no idea what my Master could mean by Black Crow or Sly Ferret." Halt frowned slightly at this set of questions, thinking for a moment.
" Any message sent by White Stag would go to Crowley, obviously," Halt mentioned, then scratched his head, " but I couldn't tell you who this Sly Ferret or whatever is. I've never heard it before, and no one I can think of that remembers White Stag these days could have such a strange reference name." Halt avoided saying the name simply because Gilan, Will, and Aaron all kept laughing when it was said.
" Why Crowley?" asked Gilan now, interested.
" The two had an unusual bond, and who else could be Black Crow?" Halt said, simply. Gilan kicked himself for asking something so obvious. Crow, Crowley, obvious resemblance to the Ranger leader's name. Easy to figure out. Duh.
" We might as well head for Castle Araluen to visit Crowley. Once we find him, then we can decide how to figure out who this Sly Ferret is." the name still got laughs from all but Halt.
This all lead up to this party of four heading out several days later, after Aaron and Gilan were back to full health. This also allowed for them to gather provisions for the trip ahead of time, and for Halt to let Baron Arald know that Will and he were leaving.
(Note: Unlike Gilan, Halt doesn't feel he needs Arald's permission to leave. Telling Arald he's leaving is a formality that Halt exercises more often then one might think necessary, but none the less . . )
And that is where they can be found now, at the end of their day, setting up a campsite after a long day of riding. Of coarse, Aaron and Will were doing most of the labor sort of work that required running around, finding, catching, basically all the grunt work.
Meanwhile, Gilan and Halt took advantage of their age in comparison to the two to get out of the hard work. Gilan, of coarse, grinned like a ward boy on his first day as an apprentice.
A sound caught Aaron's ears, and he leaped at Gilan, tackling the grinning man to the ground.
Gilan was about to start yelling at him, but Aaron placed a finger to his lip to stop him from speaking. Glancing upward, Halt gave a vague nod to Aaron. The tall grass was all that had saved them from being exposed.
" Hey!" a holler came from a little ways off, and Gilan felt his blood freeze over. It was the strange accent that he couldn't identify! Urosia and his men!
" What?" snapped Halt, giving off the idea of a grumpy old man.
" We're looking out for some people. Seen any shady looking people?" asked the voice from a ways off. Aaron's eyes fell anxiously on Halt, his muscles tense and his skin crawling.
" The most suspicious people I've seen all day are you two." Halt answered, plainly back at them. There was a silence for a time.
During all of this, Gilan took to observing Aaron, though Aaron wasn't quite aware of this fact. He took in more then just the boy's bright blue eyes now. His hair dangled about his head loosely, as he'd let it out of it's confining ponytail once they'd stopped to camp. The boy's skin seemed so smooth, more then the average boy had, or so it seemed. It might have just been the twilight playing tricks on his eyes. Aaron was panting too, but very quietly, so as to remain hidden. Gilan could feel Aaron's breath, warm against his cheek.
" There was a boy, black hair, tied up and blue eyes."
" Another guy should be with him. He would be in his mid to early twenties, I think." said another voice a little ways off. Aaron glanced over at Gilan at that moment, then looked anxiously back up at Halt.
" Haven't seen anybody like that." Halt replied, in a tone that suggested that the men should leave or be at the mercy of a lecture from an old man. " Like I said, the most suspicious looking people I've seen all day are you gentlemen." There was another silence, and this too, was eventually broken.
" Fine. Sorry to bother you." one voice said finally, and Aaron and Gilan could only wait while the two left. They didn't dare get up or even move a great deal until Halt gestured for them to get back to their feet once more.
" Good ear." Halt commented, and Aaron grinned.
" My Master taught me quite a few tricks." he answered, shrugging the compliment aside. " Either way, it appears that Urosia still thinks we're alive and well." Gilan nodded.
" So it appears." he replied, flatly, getting a laugh from Aaron. " We'll need to be very cautious. So long as we give neither sight nor sound of us for the time being, there's the chance Urosia might think he was mistaken and give up."
" Should've thought of that when we were in Redmont those few days ago." Aaron said with a sigh of frustration. " It's only a day's ride away from here, there's no way that they'll miss it. Once they catch word of us, it'll only be a matter of time before they'll be after us again."
" We'll need to get a good head start on them, then." Halt stated, plain as day. Now Will finally spoke up, as he got an idea.
" I know how we can get around them and still get sleep." he said. ~~~~
What could this wonderful idea of Will's be? Of coarse, you'll all have to keep reading to find out kids. Wow, that really sounded like a sales pitch right there. Hope it wasn't too confusing, I thought it might be after looking at it later. I think it's alright though. Reviews are encouraged for all who read, so please review and keep reading! Thank you, good night!!