Will finds himself fighting yet another threat to the kingdom, but he realizes really how different this enemy is. This person's power feeds on revenge sought by past evils. He asks for help from old friends and stumbles across new ones with similar vendettas; though some have questionable motives, unlikely alliances are struck to fight a seemingly infallible enemy. Canon parings. Canon parings.
"Horace!" The exuberant young man leapt down from his stocky horse- who shook his head in philosophical acceptance of his friend's immaturity despite his growing age- and ran towards his best friend. "It feels like it's been a while since I've seen you!" It was true, as general peace settled across the kingdom, there were fewer and fewer occasions in which Will could make excuses to visit his friend, as Will busied himself with events in Redmont fief and Horace did... well, did God knows what with his new position as prince and royal knight.
"I know!" Horace laughed, embracing his friend tightly.
"Ah- stappit, no you're crushing me, Horace, you oaf!"
"Might as well leave you incapacitated so you don't have to leave!" the larger young man said, his arms still wrapped around his friend's lanky frame. "Why haven't you been visiting?" He finally set his friend down, who almost collapsed to the ground and had to steal a few moments to circulate air into his lungs again.
"There... there hasn't been... occasion..." Will managed to wheeze out.
"What? Since when did Ranger's adhere to occasion?" Cassandra and Halt watched the old friends banter as they entered the castle with fondness. They were close, and the very picture of best friendship.
"Just like Will to forget to address the Crown Princess," Halt emphasized the last words so Will could clearly hear them over his laughter.
Will turned around, perplexed. He was suddenly hesitant to greet her."E-erm, hello... Princess?" Will awkwardly bent into a half-standing, half-bowed stance, perturbed by the displeased and offended expression Evanlyn had plastered onto her face. Surely they were friends enough to pay no attention to such formalities? Never before had she put on such airs. Evanlyn sniffed and stepped forward in such a manner that even Horace began to become uneasy and Halt doubted whether she was pulling their legs or not. Will cringed as she stepped close, drew herself up to her full height, and then instantly doubled over in laughter.
"O-Oh, Will, your face- I t-tried- I can't- I-" she gathered Will into a tight embrace while clinging to his frame to avoid falling to the ground in laughter. "You know me better- but your-" she wiped her eyes and placed her hands on his shoulders, looking up at him with a teary gaze. "Will, you are hopeless." Still shaking with laughter, she turned and walked to the castle. Will willed the hairs standing up on end on the back of his neck to fall back down and for the goosebumps prickling his skin to go away. The remaining men all glanced at each other and shrugged slightly, smiling (with more than a bit of relief) with the realization that Evanlyn had only been joking.
"Now, are you going to stand there are grinning like idiots or come in?" Evanlyn called out, and galvanized into action, the three of them ran after her figure, who was already passing the castle gate.
"So what seems to be the problem?" Will asked. All of them were seated around a conference table, with the addition of Crowley at the head. "Halt was rather cryptic when he told me to come..."
"Cryptic for you, probably," Halt muttered. Horace coughed into his drinking cup, smothering snorts of laughter with coughing. Will glared at them balefully, and waited until he stopped.
"Quite done, yet?" he asked.
"Probably not, and I'm not making any promises."
"Please, let's focus on the problem at hand," Evanlyn interrupted Will's scathing reply.
"Yes, sorry, dear, go on," Horace said, patting his wife's hand and smiling abashedly.
"Anyways," she continued, sweeping a lock of blonde hair behind her ear, "Does the name Scrymerti mean anything to you?"
Will racked his brain, willing for something to come up so he at least wouldn't look like the three-legged horse of the group, but nothing came to mind. "No," he admitted, "should it?"
"We're not that sure." Evanlyn said, "but as far as our translators are certain it roughly means 'black death'."
"And isn't that cheery," Halt added. Evanlyn nodded.
She pulled up a small, bound roll and untied it. "Baron Edward in Whitefield Fief reported a disturbance."
"What kind?" Crowley spoke up for the first time. As the leader of the Ranger Corps, disturbances were his forte.
"It says here a large influx of travelers speaking a foreign language started arrived by large numbers some months ago. No one thought much, until right afterwards farms started be burned down and people started showing up..." the princess cleared her throat. "Started showing up mutilated and thrown away in strange places. Each with a paper lodged in their throats: 'Where are your Rangers now?'"
There was silence.
"Why did't Norway say anything?" Crowley demanded. Norway was the Ranger of that particular fief, a bit scatterbrained but a good Ranger nonetheless.
"That's just the thing. Norway had no idea any of this was happening, and when he did was when he contacted you."
"That's impossible! If it's been happening for as long as you say..." Something wasn't right. Things didn't add up.
Will pressed down the worry that threatened to show on his face.
How could they fight something they couldn't see?
Loreto had waited days. Weeks. Months for news of her father. He had found a good-paying job protecting an Araluen man- a holy man- and someone needed to keep food on the metaphorical table for their small, two-member family.
"Please stay safe, papá," she had pleaded. Never had he taken a job so far away and for so long.
"I will, mi cara, I will be back before you know it."
He never came back. And then she had received the earth-shattering letter from Bacari.
Marisi never would come back. His corpse was rotting in a forest desolata with no one to comfort him but two arrows in his heart and she couldn't even give him a proper burial.
And who's fault was that?
She would make sure the Rangers would pay dearly.
End of Chapter 2
A/N: Thanks to Dash99, snaps10, FarmersDaughter, and Savannah Silverstone for their encouraging first reviews.
EDIT: Chapters 1 and 2 have been edited.