Yo, sorry I haven't updated recently. I was having trouble figuring out what to do. Please don't kill me! A/N: Sorry that this chapter is really short.
Chapter 3
Pets
"I just had to say something, didn't I?" June mumbled as she was led through the woods.
"It does make my job a lot more fun," The Ranger said, smiling.
June growled and turned to Will, "Can you tell me his name already?" She snapped.
"He chooses who knows what. And only he will tell you, and even if I did, you'd die where you stood and nobody would find the body. And in the morning I would most likely be hung from the castle tower." Will said, a smile on his face as if in amusement.
"That's right, so let's keep moving!" The Range called cheerfully.
I do believe there is something mentally wrong with him. He'll complain that a girl stole his toast, but an hour later he'll snap her neck about his name. June groaned, quietly trudging behind the Rangers.
As she did, they often stopped to ask her random questions about tracking, hunting, and silent movement. She answered as best she could, which was rather poorly. June followed the two to an old rundown stable, where a REALLY old (by her standards) man was waiting.
"So, who did you bring this time Ranger Will, and that other guy." He smiled as he said Will's name, but gave somewhat of a frown and a confused face at the other Ranger.
"Hello Old Bob," The Rangers replied cheerfully.
"What can I do for you today?" He asked, clasping his hands together.
"A horse, for my apprentice June, preferably one that doesn't wish to nibble on my fingers." The Ranger said, an odd aura settling over him and Old Bob.
"But that was so much fun!" The old man replied with a chuckle.
"Didn't I break that horse's jaw?"
Old Bob smiled faded into somewhat of a scowl and he grumbled something under his breath. He then walked back into the stables and brought it out, seemingly as the horse was whining the loudest amongst the others. June raised an eyebrow, but withheld he witty comment about the horse's small stature. She assumed that it had to deal with Ranger business and that a smaller horse would move quieter. She reached out with her hand and took the rope that was attached to the horse's harness. Then she held her hand out towards its mouth.
The horse sniffed it and the butted the hand out of its way. June frowned.
"So what's this one's name?" Will asked, looking at Old Bob who and moved to lean against the fence.
"I call her Lily, but she doesn't like it, and she won't really accept any other name I can think of." The old man replied, shaking his head.
"Rose," June stated, looking at them.
"Hm?"
"Rose, that's her name." June said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. They immediately frowned.
The horse however, nodded and then looked at Old Bob. It snorted, causing June to giggle. The old man just raised and looked at Will and then the other Ranger, exchanging a silent message.
"Well, it hasn't bitten my yet." The Ranger said, shrugging.
"Yet," Will replied, a smirk playing at the tips of his lips.
"I liked it better when apprentices would chase the horse around the stables and then look at their masters, or me, for help." The old man said.
Will smiled as he remembered his first-time meeting Tug. He gave a dry laugh, ten he turned to June. "Okay then, mount her."
June nodded and climbed onto the horses back. Rose stood perfectly still, and when nudged carefully with a toe, set off in a light trot around the stables. The Ranger scowled and gestured at the horse. Old Bob shrugged and told June to get off Rose.
After she did, Will walked over to the horse and inspected it. He frowned, putting his foot through the stirrup and hoisted himself up into the saddle. He felt the familiar bunch of muscles as the horse prepared to buck. His feet quickly slipped from the stirrups and as the horse bucked he slipped away, more or less keeping on his feet as he stumbled away from the horse.
The other Ranger smirked as he looked at the horse," So Rose isn't faulty is she?" He snorted as he said that and glanced at Will. That was his undoing as he didn't notice Rose easily hop the fence and turn her rear-end at him. "Oh cra-" The Ranger gave a yelp as Rose's hooves slammed painfully against his shoulders and sent him with a muffled thump into the dirt. He groaned.
"I'd rather have the one that bit me." He groaned as he propped himself up on an elbow.
"Nice job Rose!" June giggled, running over to the apple bin and throwing the small horse one.
"I like her, she has spunk!" Will said, smiling from the fence post.
Old Bob smiled, although the ghost of a frown traced his face before it passed. Will took some notice to it, but ignored it as a horse trainers worries. Although Will himself didn't like the fact that Rose didn't have a password or phrase.
June looked between the Ranger and Will and slowly put two and two together. "I'm I missing something important?" She asked.
"Yes." The Ranger answered.
Will rolled his eyes, "Usually Ranger horses have a password or a pass phrase in which they know that lets them identify what people are allowed to ride and those that aren't. Smoke and Tug have passcodes that you'll learn later if you ever need to borrow a second horse for a bit or something." Will explained.
"So what now? I got a horse, she's great." June asked, trotting up to the two Rangers on Rose.
"First, Will'll show you how to look after Rose, grooming her and fixing her saddle and tack after that, ride up to the castle and get me a cherry pie…and some ice. I have a feeling that this will swell." The Ranger said, rubbing his head, which had hit a rather large rock.
"I really need to learn to shut up." June muttered, her head drooping slightly as she followed behind the two mentors.
It only took about five minutes to ride back to the cabin and get Tug and Smoke stabled back in their respected places. (The Ranger laughed when Smoke snorted and nudged June. She claimed his breath smelled like smoke.)
As June soon was brought back to the errands the Ranger had set out for her, she paused by the door and considered knocking. She had been gone for over an hour as it took a little for Mr. Chubb to bake the fluffy pie and she got stopped by Simila.
As she stopped by the door, accidently doing so silently, she heard chatter behind the door. She assumed it was Will and the Ranger as they were the only possible two that could be in there.
"I know she has the capabilities! I want to know why you're going easy on her!" Will's voice drifted through the door.
"So you were wasting over an hour chatting about coffee and my addiction and you suddenly want to talk about June!" He growled, a loud bang echoed in the house nad June assumed he had just slammed his fist on the table.
"Yes."
" Fine! The reason I'm going easy is because I don't want her to be arrogant, or show-off-ish! You remember that first mission I went on as an apprentice? I don't want her to have the same humiliation I had when I missed like a failure." The Ranger barked.
"The first mission was fine! Every apprentice will get nervous the first time! I got nervous and missed!" Will replied, June could hear the annoyance in his voice.
"No!" The Ranger barked, " I didn't get nervous, I got reckless nad confident, overly so, I wanted to show off so I would have a story to tell!"
"Then train her better! Train her not to make such a stupid mistake and NOT to screw up or showoff or be arrogant! Don't pity yourself and put others at risk! The ONLY reason she was allowed to be trained is because Me, Halt, Gilan, Crowley, Paulina, the Baron and a few other influential people stuck out necks out and have an executioners axe above our heads! We're trusting you to whip this girl into shape nad have her be the best dam ranger there has ever been and ever will be!" Will yelled, the voice blasting clearly out of the door, evidence of his anger at his former apprentice.
"AND HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DO THAT!" The Ranger barked, "I CAN BARLEY TRIAN AN APPLE TO STAY PUT IN A BOWL! And then there are your, Halt's, Crowley's, and Gilan's reputation's in the way! I mean, your' named after your bloody talent, WILL TREATY! Then Halt who saved the whole dam country from at least a dozen invasion schemes, or invasions, and Crowley, and then Gilan! For the love of all things holy! Gilan established international trading laws for every country were have a treaty with, and topped it off with drinking an entire fiefs coffee supply in a day! How can one little girl, top that in TWO FREAKIN' MONTHS! YOU EXPECT ME TO TRAIN THIS GIRL TO BEAT THE TOP FIVE RANGER'S EVER! WHAT IS WRONG IN YOUR HEAD! I'm sure we can start a couple hundred wars and end them all in sixteen seconds or less! I don't have beautiful wife to help me with stress, do you think I'm not stressed enough as it is! Bytheway, how'." The Ranger snapped.
"Goodactually,accordingtothedoctorsit'llbedueinsixmonths." Will smiled brightly for a second despite their grim topic.
"Anyway, I don't have any support! I have enough on my plate for three people! You know my past! Or at least some of it! And then Duncan already told me that she'll be sent on a mission over to Skandia to shut down there smuggling and black market dealing! That's something any Ranger would have to spend at least a week or so planning to execute somewhat smoothly! If that mission goes wrong we could start a war! Even I would have trouble with it! And I was trained since I could walk at the age of two! How do you expect a tiny fifteen year old girl who's had two months of training on a mission that only a full-fledged Ranger could do! I mean-"
"SHUT UP CARTER!" Will barked, interrupting him mid-sentense.
June felt tears in her eyes as she heard this new information. So all they want from me is to wave we around and show what they can do in two months with a girl.
"Don't use my name." The Ranger growled.
"BOTH OF YOU shut the hell up! I'm sick of you two. All you and the freaking king want ot do is show me off saying, 'Look at us, we trained this girl to be a Ranger in two dam months!' Do you even care about what I think! What your own apprentice thinks!" June yelled, kicking the door open as she stormed in.
"That's not tru-" Carter was cut off by a pie in the face. The smoldering and piping hot insides burning his face.
"All you want is something flashy! Something that'll stand out and show this country off! And you," June turned to Carter, stalking up to him and jabbing her fingers into the surprised young man's chest, "Did you ever stop to think maybe not EVERYONE has such a big unsatisfiable ego? Have you ever given one single thought, both of you, though that maybe, just maybe I didn't do this to start a big giant sensation all around the world. And that maybe, I just wanted to follow what I wanted to do? That maybe I wanted to have FUN! I mean, do you think they would even consider letting me be a knight? Or a stablehand? Or an archer? Or a …a…a…an…I don't know!" June had tears streaming down her face by now. "My father died in the last war, he saved this godforsaken piece of dirt! He died protecting this land, and I wanted to do the same! If all you want to do is dress me up and show me off like a new doll in the schoolyard, maybe I should have just been a farmer! At least the nI wouldn't be treated like…like…like some project!" June cried, shoving bother the surprised boys over as she ran to her room.
The boys were left there, somewhat sprawled out on the floor as they heard June race past them, the added weight of her pack creating a louder thud that normal. The exchanged looks and bolted to the door, finding that June, Rose, and everything she owned was gone.
The only thing left, was the tracks of her shoes and a couple hoof prints.
Sorry again! I hope this makes up for being late! You can see why it was hard wording this stuff. Tell me if someone is out of character and give me some of your own opinions! Read, review, and no falming please! (or putting me in a giant toaster or boiling water) [A/N: I had a lotta fun rewriting June's rant]