All right. Chapter three! Woot XD! I hope you guys like this story so far; if not, I'll delete it haha. Cos otherwise, if I didn't, it would just be sitting there...unfinished. And that wouldn't be fun at all! XD! Well, why don't you begin to read? ^?^ lol.

Chapter Three: Redmont's Curse

The two Rangers were riding hard toward Redmont, and Halt cursed the fact over and over again that they were at least a day away from the castle. It would take them such a long time to get there! And by that time, everyone could be dead.

Halt and Will didn't sleep that night, which they found out was far away when they had set out, but continued riding, stopping only once to eat quickly and water the steaming horses. Neither of them felt cold anymore, but uncomfortably warm in their tension, knowing that they had to warm Redmont right away.

They were riding once again, at night, when suddenly a long, clawed arm shot out of nowhere, knocking Will clear off of Tug. Halt whirled around in his saddle; a bad idea. Another clawed arm caused him to fall off of his pony, hitting the ground hard on his left wrist, which gave a sickening snap, almost drowning out his cry of pain.

He got up, stumbling over to Will, who was stirring, and then sat up, screaming as he saw a sight right behind Halt—something horrid. He began to turn around when he received a stunning blow to his head, and felt himself fall to the ground. Will was there immediately, shaking him violently, trying to get his mentor to wake up from the daze he was in. There was a haunting, trumpet-like howl, and then nearly twelve more answering calls like that, from all different areas of the fief.

Knowing that he was to have a terrible headache soon, Halt slowly sat up, and then Will was gone very suddenly, the clawed arm having reached out and seized him by the neck, thrusting him against a tree, pinning him there as Halt watched in horror, still unable to move at the moment, half of his face in the snow.

Then the beast began to speak. Halt could hear this, and it was in a human's language! But he couldn't make out the words...what was this monster saying? Then he realized he could see it clearly; raising himself up slightly to view as much as he could. Curious now and certain that Will was not in any immediate danger since the beast was only talking to him, though half-choking him at the same time, he opened both eyes and gazed up at the monster.

It was large, with scaly, oily black skin, and huge fangs as well as one single, huge milky white eye in the middle of it's face. It had at least twelve arms, as well as gigantic claws that looked almost as if they were pulsing—no doubt because of the poison, he reminded himself. Instantly he felt all around himself where his most recent wounds were, but felt no puncture marks anywhere; he had not been touched by the poison. Thank God. But what about Will? The boy's head was lolling now, as if he was either only semiconscious or completely lost to the world, and he looked very pale.

Suddenly the monster dropped Will, who fell to the ground, motionless, and then disappeared abruptly. Halt, still in pain, forced himself to go over to Will, who was certainly unconscious. Halt turned him over as much as he could with one broken wrist, and then bit his bottom lip. Will was bleeding lightly from four small puncture marks in his neck, from the claws of the monster. He'd been poisoned. Swearing, Halt carefully got to his feet, stumbling for a moment, and then reached Abelard and Tug, who were as calm as could be, although they had just witnessed the monster nearly kill Halt and Will.

"Why aren't you upset?" Halt asked Abelard, a bit annoyed, fondling the horse's nose before bringing him over to Will. Tug would just have to follow behind; Halt wasn't going to let Will out of his sight, not while he was poisoned and most likely dying.

"Halt...," came a weak voice as Halt attempted to haul Will to his feet. "I can get up myself..."

Halt gazed around to see Will's face. "No. You've been poisoned, Will. What did that monster say to you? You talk, and I get you onto Abelard, all right? That sounds fair to me, doesn't it? And we'll get you back to Redmont, I'll take you to the infirmary, and then I'll make some coffee and bring it to you. How does that sound?" He had to keep Will awake. He had to keep talking.

Will nodded. "Sounds good. Well, the Demon—"

"Demon?" Halt's voice was sharp. "Demons aren't real, Will."

But Will only shook his head. "You saw it, Halt. The thing was a Demon. Well, it said to me that he and the other Demons were getting revenge for something that had been done more than a thousand years ago, and that everybody in Redmont must die from it. We've been under a curse for a long time, and now it's being shown. We have three days, Halt, and then they attack us. Well, four really...since today doesn't count."

"Three days. Well, that's just great," Halt sighed. "We're going to have to hurry back to Redmont as soon as we can, and send a message to Gilan and all of the other Rangers."

"The Rangers were the ones who caused the curse," Will said quietly, now on Abelard. Halt swung up behind him, to make sure he didn't fall off. Will was injured—poisoned—and it was his responsibility to take care of him. "They welcome us inviting the others."

Halt shook his head. "Is that all it said?" he asked as the small party set out slowly, and Halt tried to avoid jarring his broken wrist. Will noticed this, and carefully reached out to touch it, but very lightly since Halt drew it away slowly when he did.

"Are you all right?" the boy asked. He seemed perfectly fine, Halt noticed, but he was unusually pale and a glaze fell over his eyes like a hazy sheet. Yes, he was definitely poisoned.

Will's beloved mentor scowled. "Of course I am," he snapped. "Now, I'll ask one more time. Did the so-called Demon say anything else to you? Or was that all he said before leaving us to die?" For a moment, Will seemed to be thinking hard, and then suddenly stiffened, convulsing slightly, and then went limp where he was sitting. Swearing, Halt held him in place while urging Abelard forward, and the pony took off into a canter, Tug following along behind as they whipped through the forest at a break-neck pace.

They had to get to Redmont right away, or else it would be too late.

~*~Hours later ^?^~*~

Halt and Will had reached Redmont castle. During the ride, Will had woken twice, was awake for a moment—just enough time to mumble something unintelligible—and then convulsed again, falling unconscious immediately afterward. Halt was getting worried now; the convulsions were getting worse.

"...and the arrows...," Will was muttering at the moment. "The—" He convulsed. Unconscious once more.

Getting down from Abelard's saddle, Halt darted over to the other side of his mount just in time to catch Will's limp little body before it fell to the ground. It was dawn now; farmers were waking up, and a few people were down in the courtyard of Redmont's castle. All of them gaped at the scene: Halt gingerly holding his apprentice upright, grimacing from the pain of his broken wrist, and the sight of all the blood. Halt had no idea where all the blood had come from, but found out when there was a cry from behind him.

"Halt!" Pauline was dashing over, eyes wide, looking bewildered. Oh, God, Halt thought to himself. Please, not now...I don't have time.

He winced automatically as she lightly touched what must have been a very bad cut above his right eye, and then he blinked in surprise as, when she took her hand away, he saw the large amount of blood that came with it. "What did you do?" Pauline demanded. "What's wrong with Will?"

"Poisoned," Halt said grimly, and then reached up carefully to find that he did have a very awful cut above his eye. He must have hit his head on a rock when the Demon had hit him in the back of the head, knocking him to the ground. How hadn't he noticed that? Well, he thought somewhat bitterly, now he knew where all the blood was from.

Pauline was looking horrified. "What do you mean? Who poisoned...?"

But Halt shook his head and interrupted before she could finish the sentence. "Not who—what. Come with me to the infirmary, all right? I have to...tell you something. You're going to think I've gone completely insane," he added with a forced half-smile. Pauline didn't smile back; instead, she looked wary.

"What do you mean?"

"Ah—you'll see," he said. "Just come with me. Help hold up Will; I can't move my wrist, the left one." Seeing the questioning look in her eyes, he mumbled something, looking away as he did so. She thought she could make out the word 'broken' among his obscured words.

Incredulous, she cried out, "You broke your wrist?" before she could stop herself. He nodded very slightly, noticing that the words attracted many amazed glances.

"Just help me get Will to help," he snapped when she opened her mouth to speak again, and then noticed the frosty look that appeared in her eyes at his tone. "Uh...please," he added, and she nodded. (So, WHO runs the world? Not men :O!) Together, they managed to get Will up into the castle of Redmont, up the stairs, and to the infirmary. The physician took one look at the scene, and then rushed over, fussing over the two Rangers' wounds.

In just a few minutes, much to his disgruntled agreement, Halt was forced to sit down, averting his eyes to gaze at Pauline instead while the broken bones were set. Pauline was rather impressed; even when there was a rather sickening crack as the bones were being set, Halt merely blinked in annoyance. If it had been her or anyone else except a Ranger, she knew, they would all be screaming in pain, and some even sobbing.

After it was all over and his wound was cleaned (it was a lot deeper than he had thought) and he was all bandaged up, he gestured for Pauline to follow him out while the physicians worked on the unconscious Will. Standing out in the deserted, semi-dark hallway, Halt hesitated, looking down at his boots. Finally he blurted out what he had been meaning to say. "In three days we are all going to be attacked."

Pauline stared at him in incomprehension. "What do you mean, Halt?"

"I mean that, in three days, Redmont will be destroyed!" Halt was looking frustrated.

"Then we need to evacuate the—" Pauline never got farther than that, because Halt put a hand over her mouth, shaking his head and saying, "Let me speak. Will and I were heading out to where the sightings of the so-called monsters were, and at the very edge of the fief was this huge, wide chasm. It goes all around Redmont fief, we discovered, and at night—at night, these...things come out."

Lady Pauline was looking almost scornful now. "Tell me you're joking, Halt. It's either that or you've gone insane. I swear, what really happened?"

Halt clenched his teeth together. "Listen to me! I'm telling the truth. Will and I were camping out, and it was snowing very hard by the time we both woke up. Will was freezing cold, since he'd fallen asleep for some strange reason, and then when I was getting blankets on him there was this sound. I didn't know what it was at the moment, but then these strange, huge dark shapes came from the direction of the chasm, and they began to go toward Redmont. Will and I got ready to go back there, and then we found out that our weapons were all gone. The strange thing was that Abelard and Tug didn't even sound an alarm, and—"

"What are you trying to tell me?" Pauline demanded. She was looking incredulous. "Are you saying that somebody crept into your camp and took everything?"

"Or something," Halt said firmly. "I'm getting to that. Anyway, we began to ride to Redmont immediately. We were riding when Will was knocked off Tug by this clawed black arm, and then something else threw me to the ground as well. I fell on my wrist, which is how it broke. Then I got up and went to Will, he screamed, and then the thing knocked me over, which is when I hit my head on a rock or something, getting this cut. Then, while I was lying on the ground, the Demon—"

"Demons?" Pauline was shaking her head. "Halt, you've gone completely insane! Saying that you and Will were attacked by Demons...a strange chasm that you seem to have made up, and an imaginary attack. You really must be joking, Halt, I'm—"

"Pauline, I'm serious!" To her surprise, his voice cracked. "We are going to be attacked in three days now, all because of a damned curse that the Rangers put on Redmont years and years ago! It spoke to Will. Spoke to him. When it cut his neck, poisoned him that way. I can wake him up right now and he'll tell you!" he shouted as Pauline backed away, shaking her head again, and then began to run down the hallway away from him, leaving him hopeless, tears of disbelief in his eyes, and a desperate need to warn people of the coming Demon invasion.

Oh no! What's going to happen to Redmont? First of all, my legs are aching again for no good reason, as well as my ankles...again. Still. Ugh. But...do you know what will make me feel a bit better since I go insane every time someone reviews? XD! You're right. You can R&R lol. And I'm serious...every time I get a review I have to stop myself from screaming happily. Yeah...I'm weird.

XD! ^?^ anyway...

Velvet out!