Chapter 6

One moment Will was sleeping, the next he was wide awake. Something had woken him. He kept his breathing light, as he had been trained to do. There was something close by, rustling outside the sheltor.

A wild animal? It was possible, but it surprised him. The fire should have kept animals away- that was why they had not set a watch. Unless the fire had died down. Again, he doubted it. He and Halt had taken turns to get out of bed to tend it during the night.

"You hear it too?" Halt said, very very softly in Will's ear.

"Yeah," Will breathed.

"There's more than one," Halt said. The second he said it, Will realised it was true. He could hear a fainter rustling in another direction. The one that was closest must be right by their shelter. It was breathing heavily, long rasping breaths.

"Should've set a watch," Halt muttered to himself. Ruch had assured them that there were no people in the Wild- it was much too dangerous. But something was out there.

Will quickly summed up the situation. They had no weapons. His bow and knives had been confiscated when they were imprisoned. That was bad enough. Worse was their position. The sheltor was cramped, especially for two people. The roof was too low to sit up. They were lying with their heads at the back where it was warmest, their feet at the entrance. To get out, they would have to wiggle bakwards, which would make them extremely vulnerable.

On the other hand, if whatever was out there found the entrance to their shelter, they would be even more vulnerable.

The deciding factor was the others. As far as Will knew, they were inexperienced at fighting. If the enemy found them, one of the rangers would have to come to their aid. To do that, they had to get out of the shelter.

Halt had come to the same conclusion. He raised himself on his elbows and toes, preparing to slip out as fast as he could.

Everything happened incredibly fast from there.

Halt slid backwards out the shelter. Just before he did the same, Will heard a yell and a flurry of noise. He scrambled out, leaping to his feet, his mind seconds behind his body. Halt was engaged fighting three men, all armed with crude spears. Will leapt to his aid, but they were severely disadvantaged by their lack of weapons.

The spearmen were all darkskinned, with matted, wild hair. Their skin was tattoed with scars and strange markings. They wore animal skins and had bones around their necks, or in their hair. Will was reminded of the tribespeople in the Solitary plains back in Araluen.

He found himself completely on the defensive, trying to avoid the sharp end of the spear. Vagually, he registered a scream from one of the girls and saw Ruch out the corner of his eye. He also saw more of the spearmen closing in on them. There must have been twenty in all.

Then Halt gave a brief cry of pain. It was a chilling sound. Will spun around in horror, just in time to see a triumphant snarl from a spearman as he pulled his spear from Halt's stomache.

"Halt!" Will yelled in complete horror. The older ranger fell to the ground, clutching his stomache. The wild man that had wounded him raised his spear to finish him off.

With a rush of strength Will didn't know he possessed, he ducked under the spear coming towards him, kicked his own attacker to the side and seized the spear threatening Halt. He ripped it from the hands of the spearman and, not bothering to reverse it, jammed the handle under the mans chin, dislocating his jaw.

There was no time to check how badly Halt was wounded. Will wrapped his arms around his mentors shoulders and lifted him to his feet. Halt staggered against him, trying to push him away, no doubt not wanting to burden his old apprentice. But Will refused to let go.

He gripped the spear tightly, stabbing at the men, trying to find a gap where he could break through and run. Then suddenly, one fell over with a grunt of surprise and Ruch was there, holding a tree branch.

Will took the opportunity, dragging his mentor with him as he sprinted for the trees. He knew it would not be doing Halt's injuries any good, but nor would it be good for Halt if they both died.

"Wake up!" Will yelled at the other shelters. "Wake up and run!"

Lillian slipped out of her shelter. She took one look at the spearmen, screamed loudly, and raced away from the camp. With Will having to help Halt, who was managing a stumbling run, she caught up to him easily.

Antil also ran with them. Sirisa was nowhere to be seen.

There was no way in hell they could outrun the tribesmen, Will thought. Ruch and Lillian were already panting. Halt's breaths came in ragged gasps as well, though from his injury.

"We can't outrun them," Antil said flatly.

Will glared at him. Then he realised the Oramine man was only telling the truth. "No, we can't," he agreed.

"So we die," Antil said.

"So we look for another way," Will glared at him. "We have to hide."

"Easy for you," Lillian said through her pants. "You're a ranger." She too had an air of helplessness around her.

Will glanced behind him. He couldn't see the spearmen, but that wasn't saying much. It was, after all, the middle of the night and he couldn't see much.

"Ruch take my cloak and lie still in the bushes. Antil, Lillian, we're going to climb a tree. Just make sure to stay very still when you spot the tribesmen," Will said.

"Wait, I can't climb trees well!" Lillian squeaked.

"What's the point?" Antil muttered. "We're just dragging out our deaths."

Will ignored their complaints. He undid the clasp of his cloak, letting it fall to the ground. He gently pushed Halt into the undergrowth, making sure the older ranger was covered with his own cloak. Glancing around, he spotted a bush rustling where Ruch was adjusting his position. Antil was climbling slowly up a tree, with no urgency at all. Will spotted Lillian struggling and quickly moved to her position. He gave her a boost up and helped her find a fork to sit in. It wasn't as high as he would have liked, but it would have to do.

Will himself climbed smoothly up to a higher position. He still had the spear with him and was confident if the spearmen spotted any of them, he could swing down easily to attack. How long he could survive was another matter entirely.

He gritted his teeth as the spearmen approached. Antil was obvious to Wills trained eyes, even in the darkness. Lillian wasn't much better. But once more it was proved correct that people seldom look up and the men passed them by.

Will forced himself to wait while he counted to one hundred, just in case any of them doubled back, even though his whole body itched to tend to Halt's wounds.

"One hundred," he muttered under his breath, swinging down from the tree. He pushed away the leaves that covered his mentor. Halt's eyes were shut and a thrill of panic travelled up Will's spine.

"Halt?" he hissed, shaking the ranger gently. Halt groaned and his eyelids fluttered. Ruch came over, taking the ranger cloak off.

"I don't know who those men were," he said, perhaps feeling the need to defend what he'd said about no one surviving the wild. Will didn't have the energy to reply. He was busy pulling Halt's shirt up to see the extent of the wound.

Ruch sucked in a breath at the sight of it. "That's bad," he said. "I've seen plenty of men die from wounds like that."

Will looked at him in horror. "He's not going to die!" he cried. "Halt can't die!"

"There's no medicine here," Ruch shook his head slowly.

"Of course there is!" Will stood up abrutly. "Medicine comes from plants, look at all these plants!" he ripped off a handful of leaves, thructing them at the old man's face. "These! Do these look familiar at all?" He grabbed another handful from a different plant. "Or these? Or these? There must be something!"

Ruch held up his hands in defence. "If there was, I'm not the right person to ask. But..." he glanced over at Antil, who was standing back, his face blank and hopeless.

"He will die," Antil said flatly. "And then we will die."

"No!" Will cried. Hopelessness was building up in his own chest, threatening to burst out of him. Tears were blurring the corners of his eyes and he had to fight to keep them from spilling. He held out his hand. It was shaking. "No one is dying!"

"Sirisa may already be dead," Antil said, with an uncaring shrug. "She ran off."

"Well, Halt doesn't die! He can't! He's Halt!" Will stared miserably down at his mentors pale face. He rested a helpless hand on Halt's forehead. The ranger already had a raging fever. It wouldn't be long before infection kicked in.

"Ranger Will, please calm down," Ruch pleaded. "Isn't it best to apply a field dressing first?"

Will forced himself to take a deep breath. "Yes, you're right."

He tore off his sleeve used it to bandage Halt's stomache. It wasn't much, wasn't nearly enough. A wound that deep needed medical care and attention, not a rough bandage. At the very least, a poultuce or painkiller would be useful, but he had nothing of the kind with him.

"You are going to be fine, Halt," he said, trying to convince himself, not the bearded ranger that lay groaning, barely conscious.

"Will?" a small, hesitant voice in the night.

"What is it, Lillian?" Will kept his eyes focused on his mentors face.

"I can't get down the tree," she confessed.

"Next time, she can use the cloak," Ruch said, moving to help the girl, "I'll climb the tree."

"Oh, but..." Lillian began then stopped herself.

Ruch laughed. "Just because I'm old doesn't mean I can't climb trees. Every Oramine is a master tree climber, I'll have you know."

"We need to remake our sheltors," Will said wearily. "Only deeper in, in the opposite direction from where the spearmen went."

"We have to find Sirisa first," Ruch said. "I'm not leaving her behind."

"Does it matter?" Antil said. "We're all dead any-"

"Shut up!" Will snapped at him. The others jerked back in shock. "Just shut up," he repeated in a quieter voice. "If you want, you can go jump in the river with the current and carnivorous animals I've heard about. No one is stopping you. I don't care. Either help, or leave me the hell alone."

"Don't go jump in the river," Lillian said quicky, an anxious look on her face. "He didn't mean that, I'm sure."

"You can't move him in that condition," Antil nodded towards Halt. "His wound has already been worsened by your mad dash to hide from the spearmen."

"What else was I supposed to do?" Will said. "I didn't have a choice."

"W-we could make a stretcher for him?" Lillian said shyly, blushing when everyone looked at her. "I've seen healers do that at home..."

"Yes, good thinking," Will agreed.

"How are you going to make a stretcher?" Antil asked, his tone leaving no doubt he thought the task was impossible.

"We'll go back to the campsite and get the rope," Will said. "All we have to do is tie some sticks together, it won't be comfortable, but he'll live."

"He might not," Antil said.

"He will!" Will insisted. "Halt is strong, he'll be fine."

"I'm not leaving without Sirisa," Ruch said stubbornly.

"Alright, you said that already. It's too easy to get lost in the dark anyway." Will said. "We'll have to spend the rest of the night here and hope Sirisa turns up."

"And if she doesn't?" Ruch challenged.

"We'll worry about that in the morning," Will replied. "We need to set watches." he grimanced as he looked around his allies. Lillian wasn't used to camping out in uncomfortable places. Ruch was old and clearly tired, his body might not be able to cope without sufficient rest and Antil just didn't seem to care. He might not even wake the others if anything came. Will realised he didn't trust any of them to keep watch.

He shivered, pulling his cloak tightly around himself. "Come over here," he instructed. "We'll need each others body warmth to survive the night."

"Eh?" Lillian's blushed deeply.

"It's a survival strategy," Will told her. "You'll freeze on your own."

"But-but-!" Lillian stammered, hugging herself against the cold.

"Please, Lillian, I need you to keep Halt warm," Will said.

She moved over and Will carefully positioned them so that Lillian, who he trusted the most, was curled up next to Halt. Antil was next to her, and Ruch next to him. Will himself was on Halt's other side.

"I'll take first watch," Ruch suggested. Will shook his head.

"I can't sleep anyway, I'll do it," he said and prepared himself for a long night, his mind strained trying to listen to the sounds of the night and Halt's raggid breathing for any change.

Will's a little bit tired and cranky :) I can't blame him, Lillian and the Oramine are so useless.

It may be a while until the next update- I could only do this one because I'm sick, but I'll be back at school tommorrow. (Just recovering)

And I'm failing Chemistry...and I have homework... so I won't be updating for a while probably. Unless anyone really wants me too, then I suppose the weekend is coming up...

Reviews will be used as medicine for Halt- like the hunger games donations haha.

Just joking, but review anyway?