Long time no talk…

I'm good, how are you?

Halt was riding alongside Malcolm, who was spending his whole time complaining about being called out more than once in order to deal with pesky Rangers who were never able to solve their own problems. Halt would have found it entertaining had he not been the one on the receiving end of the whole thing.

Every now and then he would feel the urging need to raise one eyebrow sarcastically at the other man, but knew the respect Will had for him and so for his son's sake didn't. It was largely tempting though.

Really tempting.

It took two days but eventually the pair reached the site where Halt had seen the witch. From there he knew it would be easy to track where her house was because of the obvious continually used passageways to get around in the bush. He knew this because last time he had followed one until he had gotten close to her house.

When they reached it Halt got off his horse and made a move to set up camp for the night. It was only early evening but he would prefer facing the unknown in the day where he was able to assess what was going on. Malcolm certainly wasn't complaining at the opportunity to end a hard day's riding earlier than normal.

"Have you finished talking?" Halt asked him. Malcolm grinned back. He had known about Halt first from when Will had been talking about him during the time he helped Lord Oman, and then when he was called to help Halt when he was poisoned. During the first time Halt hadn't been there to annoy and during the second he had prefered if Halt had less stress placed upon him, even though he was in the middle of a mission at the time and had insisted on finishing it.

Now that neither of them was the case and that they were stuck together, Malcolm had decided to test the extent to which Halt would put up with endless chatter. Majority of the time he had spent complaining about how Ranger's were unable to get their own shit together and actually solve a mission without the help of someone else, but occasionally he had asked about things at home for Halt. This included a wife and how Will was going. It was a surprisingly short answer about his wife, unlike most people Hal did not take to bragging about her and just replied that she was the same elegant and beautiful person that she normally was. Malcolm smiled at Halt's sweet side.

Surprisingly he had managed to get a lot out of Halt about the condition of Will. Before coming on the trip he had found out that Will had tested insane and had offered to test him himself to see if that really was the case. Now that there was nothing else to do Halt elaborated for him. He had found out that Will had seen a witch and had reported it back. Without even considering why this person might have appeared to be a witch, or if she was even the same witch they had encountered many years prior, Crowley had just sent him into retirement.

It was strange how things turned out in the end, Malcolm thought. He had watched Halt's face the whole time he had been talking and had seen the cleverly hidden sadness and other emotions there. The sadness at having an apprentice be seen as not fit for work, and the sadness as he knew that the corps had been Will's all and they had rejected him without a second thought.

"I am done," Malcolm admitted. The time spent talking had tested to see how much respect Halt had for him after listening to Will. It to him demonstrated that Halt and Will were indeed as close as Will had described and as he had suspected.

"Gorlog's beard. I thought you were going to go on forever," Halt muttered. "You were nearly as bad as Will during his apprenticeship."

"Did anything really change?" Malcolm said joyfully back. Halt gave him and blank, even glare in defence of Will, then appeared to rethink the statement.

"No. He hasn't changed," Halt agreed fondly. "Was there any reason why you constantly talked my ear off?"

"Will you accept the fact that I know you're a grump old man and that I also know that that annoys grumpy old men?" Halt gave him a flat look again. "No? Fine. I was testing to see if you had the same respect for Will sa he obviously does for you."

"And what were your findings?" Halt asked genuinely curious. He knew his feelings for will, to some extent knew how Will felt towards him, but certainly could never personally compare to see if they were the same amount.

Malcolm smiled to put the man out of his misery. "Yes I do believe they are the same if not more. Will sees you as his father and you see him as your son. A closer bond I have never seen before." Halt looked back and smiled to him. Malcolm nodded, knowing how much strength that took.

"Now seeing as you brought me away from my home, did you at least bring enough coffee to spare me some?"

"Of course," Halt said, thankful that the conversation was now steered away from its previous course. "I vaguely remember Will mentioning how he drank you out of house and home in relation to coffee, and worked out that that must have meant you had some to begin with."

"To begin with it the correct phrasing indeed!" Malcolm joked.

PAGE BREAK

The next morning, after all of the coffee had been drunk that was necessary, Halt and Malcolm set off for the final stretch. Halt had chosen a path in the afternoon of the night before and made sure that it had indeed led to the correct place.

Now they followed it as quietly as a Ranger and a healer could. Halt winced every time he heard the other man make a large amount of noise before apologising. For some reason Malcolm was unable to understand, no matter how many times Halt had repeated it that morning, that his voice was actually louder than the action generally. Occasionally there wasn't anything louder. Halt had really thought that the man would know how to be quiet considering how he lived and how he managed to scare people away from his forest.

"The noise of me moving around helps. And If I'm putting on my huge night display then the others moving around also scares the people away. It proves to them that there are actual people moving around to scare them. There is also the fact that most of the people who live with me have uneven shuffling gaits, which means that it doesn't sound like walking, it sounds like something else," Malcolm had explained. halt had looked at him dumbstruck and then walked away, slightly not comprehending.

Twenty metres away from the cabin Halt got Malcolm to get off the horse and for him to attack the horse to the tree next to where he was standing. After doing as he was told the pair began to move forwards. Now that he was on foot, Halt noticed that Malcolm was a lot quieter than previously. Perhaps it had something to do with the way he rode? Oh well. It wasn't as though he was a poor apprentice Halt was assessing later on.

"There doesn't appear to be anyone home. Did you get the right place?" Malcolm asked Halt when they reached the clearing. Halt frowned as he walked around the place. Surely there was something here that would tell him that this was the right place. He had seen the witch here after all! What was going on?! Where had she gone and why?

Something shiny caught Halt's eye on the ground near him. He brushed the dirt aside with his foot before deeming it safe to pick up the object. He pulled it out of the ground and held it aloft for Malcolm to see.

"Horace's sword!" he said triumphantly.

"How can you tell?" Malcolm asked as he came forwards from his hiding spot to look at it closer. As far as he was able to tell it was the same sword as every other one he had seen.

"This one was made by the same people who make the Ranger ones. See here," Halt explained pointing to an area that would normally be covered by the hand when being used and inspected. "This is a small mark that all of those weaponsmiths make so we can tell for sure that it is one of our weapons. Occasionally we come across something that is rather similar."

"What's the difference between yours and theirs then. Other than that mark of course."

"The Ranger ones are perfectly balanced for throwing as well," Halt said. "There are also other small differences. It is extremely hard to get a knick in our blades and this different design causes them to shine ever so slightly differently."

Malcolm nodded with a thoughtful look on his face. He knew that Halt was telling him the truth, but he hadn't actually seen an example of the differences in real life. Halt could see what the other man was thinking and so quickly cast an eye around for another weapon to show the example. He was lucking in spotting another crudely made sword on the verandah of the place. It was obviously one of the villager's weapons. He brought it over for Malcolm to look at and then placed Horace's sword beside it.

"Now I can see. On a battlefield I guess that difference wouldn't even be visible."

"No, it isn't. It has saved our lives a few times."

"How did he get a weapon made by the Ranger weaponsmiths?" Malcolm continued. They for the moment ignored their setting as they discussed this. Malcolm was always willing to learn something about the group that was just as secretive as he was, and Halt admitted that if Malcolm was called to help them every now and then, the least they could do to repay him was to answer any questions he had that were like this. He highly doubted that he was going to betray the whole kingdom with the secrets he had learnt.

"Will got it one year as a gift for him. He had asked Crowley about it and Horace being the next in line for the throne was an acceptable person to have one. It's the second ever Ranger made sword. The other belonging to a Ranger who is the exception in using the sword."

Malcolm nodded, stared at it for a little longer then motioned to the house in the trees.

"I suppose we need to investigate that to work out where we are going next. I bet it is going to involve you tracking them though so best start as soon as possible. Another road trip awaits! Aren't you excited?!" Malcolm cried gleefully. He laughed at the expression on Halt's face.

He then laughed even harder as Halt said some words that would never be repeated around young people.

Its sad to think that the plan for this only has 39 chapters :(

Aly