Another chapter with some new action to come. Let's get started, one and all. Read and Review!! ~~~
The plan went well, and Will had much to be proud of, as did Halt, as Will was his apprentice, after all. To be sure, it should be told that none could have expected what was to pass not long from them. Even without this clever plan, not even the great Halt couldn't have predicted such a chain of events to occur even in his wildest of dreams.
Days passing, it was Halt's turn to switch off with Aaron, who should've been off a little ways back, jogging for a time as they all had to do. A frown creased Halt's lip. No matter what Halt told him, Aaron insisted on telling Halt at any opportunity that he was a slow runner. When he came to get the boy, there was no doubt it Halt's mind that the boy would tell him in some new way of this fact.
The young one seemed to take joy at poking fun at them all, and it wasn't just restricted to Halt. Will and especially Gilan got a good taste of teasing throughout the majority of the day. If it wasn't for the fact that Halt did similar to this when he was young, he might have asked why Gilan tolerated it so much. With a quick request for forgiveness directed to his Master from long ago, Halt went to fetch Aaron before the boy got too out of breath. He slowed the black stallion, Rurin's pace down so as to catch the running young one.
The stallion became uneasy, suddenly. Forced to keep a hold on the stallion's mane, Halt had to strain at the mane hair to keep himself steady while the horse jerked around and brayed in a low tone.
" What's the matter with you?" Halt asked, gritting his teeth and forcing his muscles to pull him back on to the horse's bare back.
However, the horse didn't seem to feel like cooperating with the old Ranger, as it grunted and brayed lowly still, looking around and moving anxiously from side to side. Then, while Halt tried to calm the horse, it bucked up, almost throwing him off, and suddenly took off in a seemingly random direction.
" The hell-!" Halt exclaimed, nearly thrown once again from the horse. He had to hold on tight, because he was jostled by the horses quick movements so much.
After a short ride, the horse slowed down, and Halt was able to struggle back onto the horse's back. Gilan and Will would've been surprised by the sorts of cussing that came out of Halt's mouth at that point. Aaron's constant cursing had brought back the old, bad habit Halt had picked up from Aaron's Master all those years ago.
" Aaron, the idiot, can't even train a horse properly . . ." he spent some time muttering under his breath until the stallion bumped Halt around with a small jump in place and grunted lowly in annoyance at the rider in question to pay attention.
It worked. Halt finally looked around after settling for the third time onto the stallion's back. Then his eyes stretched wide. This time, when the horse bucked him off for maybe the forth time, Halt jumped right off of it's back, and slipped away into the trees. Then the stallion let out a loud bray, and snorted.~~
" Huh?" one voice said.
" The hell was that?" a second asked a bit too loudly, getting hit on the head and hushed by the third person. The forth was far too interested in the young man that the four had brought down.
" Just a stray horse." snapped the third to the other three members of the party.
" Well, go grab it. We could use a horse." the first said, flatly. The second scowled at the first, stomping his foot in a fury.
" If you think it's so important, you go get it!" he snarled, hotly.
" Alright, alright, don't get into such a pissy mood, Karl, Sol." said the third, dusting off his tattered pants and heading towards Rurin in the distance. Once this man got close enough he reached out, trying to pull a rope around Rurin's head, but the stallion knew better.
Instead, he danced sideways, far enough away that the man missed his mark completely. In fact, the man stumbled forwards, and his fellows laughed at him.
" Oy! Having some trouble there, Ouran?!" called Sol, now chuckling with the others. Ouran got up, turning slightly red, and ignoring them while he focused on getting the horse. Again, just as he got close and tossed the rope, the stallion trotted out of the way, snorting laughter as he toyed with Ouran. Again, his companions burst into fits, laughing at the show the horse put on for them.
Ouran gritted his teeth and got up, this time lunging blindly at the stallion. Rurin laughed at him, easily moving out of the way.
" Sure you can handle catching that horse on yer own, Ouran?!" called Karl, mocking his companion clearly, and getting the others to laugh again. Ouran got up in a flurry, and pointed at Rurin.
" Alright! Let's see you do any better!" he snapped. Karl glanced back at the other three, and after shrugging pleasantly to them, went to help Ouran try to capture Rurin. He, like Ouran, began, swaggering up to Rurin in a way that suggested his superiority to the horse. This would be his mistake. Reaching out, he tried to take hold of the horse.
At this, Rurin brayed, bucking up, swatting Karl, and knocking him into a puddle. This got howls of laughter, especially from Ouran.
" Not so easy is it?" Ouran mocked Karl, who from the ground, grabbed and yanked Ouran's leg right out from under him.
" Oy!! The fuck is your problem, Karl!!" Ouran exclaimed, and the two began to wrestle, attempting to punch and kick each other while in a wild no not. The other two simply sighed, while Sol went to go break the two up from their, the nameless forth person watched them, giggling to himself, but keeping watch over their currently unconscious captive.
Soon, however, Sol got mixed up in the fight between Ouran and Karl. Now it was his turn to give a disdainful sigh, and go over to break the lot up. This always happened. Despite that they could hardly stand each other, there was no way that the four brothers could live apart. They were all poor, and so, took to mugging anybody they came across in the woods.
True, it wasn't an honest way to live, but they were together as a family, and they tried the best they could.
Once the fight had been broken up, they turned back, only to find that their captive had totally disappeared!~~
Slowly the fogginess faded from Aaron's eyes. However, the world around him was moving around, and that confused, He took a moment to try and remember what had happened to him. Oh, yeah, they were using Will's plan, and suddenly something hit him in the back of the head. Then . . .
" Take it easy." Halt's voice made Aaron jolt, caught by surprise. This was a bad thing as they were on Aaron's horse, and the movement caused Halt to loose his balance with Aaron at the same time. They fumbled for a few moments, and it took one firm hold of Halt's hand to keep the both of them steady.
" AH! Your just like him!" he snipped.
" Sorry, not in my head quite yet." Aaron amended, smiling at the comment. " Must be picking up my Master's habits because I've been around him so long . . ." To this thought he grew a bit sad, and gave a sigh.
" You owe your this beast we're riding a favor." Halt said, changing the topic. Aaron glanced up at Halt, befuddled by his choice of words. For a moment, there was a silence, where Halt patted the shoulder of the strong stallion as it galloped along. " No matter how I directed it, the menice wouldn't listen to what I had to say."
Recognition dawned in Aaron's eyes, and a smile passed his mouth.
" You've rubbed your stubbornness off onto your damn stallion." To this Aaron could only giggle a little bit, grinning.
" Yeah, Rurin here has saved my ass more then a few times now." he admitted, shrugging his shoulders, and offering an apology. " The reason he doesn't listen to others is cause he's specially trained to save my ass."
" Specially trained?" Halt inquired, curious, as Aaron was beginning to notice, was a trait of all Rangers, or at least the one he encountered. He nodded his head, shifting to a slightly more comfortable position then before.
" Yes. My Master trained Rurin and I rather harshly. It wasn't easy, but it gave us a sort of special bond thing, I guess," he tried to come up with the words right away, " but Rurin here knows what to do when I get separated from him, how to track me by smell, give me warning signs to attackers, that sort of thing." It seemed almost that the boy unconsciously stroked the horse's neck and mane. The stallion tossed it's head, glad to feel the touch.
" Sounds like a Ranger horse to me." Halt commented, casually, looking somewhat expectantly at Aaron. Truly, he wanted to see how the boy would react to such a comment
" Well, I wouldn't know something like that, as I'm not a Ranger, am I?" Aaron inquired, still giving a smile at him.
WHOOSH!
The two leaped in fright, twisting around to see what had come at them.
" Oh, shit!" Halt had really taken up the use of his fowl language in just the past 20 minutes. He faced forwards, looking around side to side, checking the area around them.
" That's not good." Aaron said, still looking backwards at those following them
" You got any weapons on you?" Halt inquired, seriously, edging the horse into a full cantor now. Glancing sort of upward, sort of sideways at Halt, Aaron took a moment to check what he had on him currently.
" Doesn't look like they got to stealing any of my belongings other then my bow and arrows. Still got some of my throwing knifes and my dagger." Aaron told him, looking around himself now. " Gilan and Will aren't anywhere near here, are they?" he asked, seriously.
When Halt gave no answer to him, Aaron made the assumption.
" Well, shit, we're on our own for this one." ~~~~~
Another chapter said and down. The fun is about to start now kids, and I'm hoping everyone likes as much as I'm going to enjoy typing it all up. On another note, I'm going to start up another story in a different section in the hopefully near future. All of you whom recognize the title Man and also read this story keep an eye out for it. Hoping you all enjoyed this, REVIEW PLEASE!! PRETTY PLEASE WITH SUGAR, CHOCOLATE, CHERRIES, FUDGE, AND ANYTHING ELSE YOU WANT ON TOP!! PLEASE REVIEW!! Thank you.