Chapter 6
"Alright who wants to read now?" Halt asked.
"I will" Horace answered. He really wanted to know what happened in the book and he knew Will well enough to know that he wouldn't want to read about himself.
"Let's start then; we've got about an hour left until we disperse for our sleeping quarters." Duncan informed.
"SO TELL ME ABOUT THIS NEIL PERSON," SAID WILL, AS THE three of them settled comfortably by the fire, steaming mugs of herb tea warming their cupped hands.
"MACNEIL!" Horace, Duncan and Arald exclaimed.
"Hey I was young back there give me some credit, be easy on me." Will was making peaceful hand gestures at the now angry men sitting next to him.
"You've got them on a rampage now haven't you?" Jenny shook her head disapprovingly and told Horace to continue reading.
"MacNeil," Horace corrected him. "He's a legend."
"Oh, he's real enough," said Gilan. "I should know. I practiced under him for five years. I started when I was eleven, then, at fourteen, I was apprenticed to Halt. But he always gave me leave of absence to continue my work with the Sword master."
"But why did you continue to learn the sword after you started training as a Ranger?" Horace asked.
The warriors in the room leaned fore ward to hear Gilan's answer as for years many of them too had wondered what his motives were for loading double the work on himself.
Gilan shrugged. "Maybe people thought it was a shame to waste all that early training. I certainly wanted to continue, and my father is Sir David of Caraway Fief, so I suppose I was given some leeway in the matter."
"Oh yes that reminded me of something." Gilan interrupted. He leaned down to Jenny's ear and whispered for a few seconds before her face turned pale.
"Me? Really?" Jenny squeaked. "What if he doesn't like me?" She asked nervous yet oblivious at the same time of the rest of the room looking at the pair.
"Of course he will don't worry my father loves everybody, I mean if he managed to be good friends with Halt he'll definitely be able to be friends with you." Halt scowled at the mention of his name but knew that Jenny needed reassurance since his older ex apprentice had told him he planned to bring Jenny to dinner with his father.
"I didn't know Battle Master David was good friends with Halt." Duncan mused.
"Well he is sir. It's there in the book I think I said it at some point." Horace continued to read after Gilan made his point.
Horace sat up a little straighter at the mention of the name.
"Battle Master David?" he said, obviously more than a little impressed. "The new supreme commander?"
Gilan nodded, smiling at the boy's enthusiasm. "The same," he agreed. Then, seeing that Will was still in the dark, he explained further:
"You really don't know much about the knight's code or knights in general do you?" Horace turned to face Will who had an indignant expression on his face.
"Well I'm sorry that I don't know every prissy little fact about knight's and the way they live I'd be hard pressed to find any people who know what the Ranger codes are."
"I didn't know there were any Ranger codes." Alyss asked. From a frown to a smile Will answered that there were ten main Ranger rules "What we like to call RR." He added a bit smug.
"Don't forget who made the rules." Halt's stern face reminded Will and Gilan that it was Halt himself who had come up with the ingenious ten all important rules that were still used in gatherings to test the apprentices.
"Alright I get your point now let me read." Horace said.
"My father has been appointed supreme commander of the King's armies, since Lord Northolt was murdered. He commanded the cavalry at the Battle of Hackham Heath."
"Damn good at that he was too." Arald muttered yet again.
Will's eyes widened. "When Morgarath was defeated and driven into the mountains?"
"Yay finally he gets it." Cassandra cheered while Will glared at her.
Both Horace and Gilan nodded. Horace continued the explanation enthusiastically.
"Sir Rodney says his coordination of the cavalry with flanking archers in the final stage of the battle is a classic of its kind. He still teaches it as an example of perfect tactics. No wonder your father was chosen to replace Lord Northolt."
Will realized that the conversation had moved away from its original gambit.
"You always did have a good grasp of your priorities Will." Pauline smiled at him.
"So what did your father have to do with this MacNeil character?" he asked, returning to the subject.
"Well," said Gilan, "my father was a former pupil as well. It was only natural that MacNeil should gravitate to his Battleschool, wasn't it?"
"I suppose so," Will agreed.
"And it was only natural that I should come under his tutelage as soon as I could swing a sword. After all, I was the Battle master's son."
"So how was it that you became a Ranger?" Horace asked. "Weren't you accepted as a knight?"
Halt shook his head at Horace with anger.
"How dare you Horace? Do you think people don't actually want to be a Ranger?" Halt confronted him. Horace actually found himself spluttering in the presence of a man half his size. Gilan almost exploded with laughter at Horace's shocked expression and everyone else in the room joined in.
"Well Will thought the same as I did." Horace protested despite the sniggering in the back ground. Immediately Will stopped laughing and almost choked at Horace's tactic.
"Oh right go on and blame me then just because you don't have an answer!" Will stood up. Alyss dragged him back down and whispered in his ear causing Will to blush again. Cassandra looked at Alyss and wondered what she said to make Will react that way, she would need to use that sort of method on Horace soon.
"Look Horace why don't you continue reading." Cassandra said quickly.
Both Rangers looked at him quizzically, somewhat amused by his assumption that a person only became a Ranger after failing to become a knight or a warrior. In truth, it was only a short time since Will had felt the same way, but now he conveniently overlooked the fact. Horace became aware of the extended lull in the conversation, then of the looks they were giving him. All of a sudden, he realized his gaffe, and tried to recover.
"You do that a lot you know." Alyss added.
"Do what?" Horace asked.
"You offend people unintentionally."
"Yeah well it's just in my nature."
"It's also in your nature to fart a lot." Will mumbled. He was still angry at Horace.
"Will that's a really late comeback and you're going to have to find something better than that." Though his voice was calm Horace blushed at Will's quiet outburst.
"I mean…you know. Well, most of us want to be knights, don't we?"
Will and Gilan exchanged glances. Gilan raised an eyebrow. Horace blundered on.
"I mean…no offense or anything…but everyone I know wants to be a warrior." His embarrassment lessened as he pointed a forefinger at Will. "You did yourself, Will! I remember when we were kids, you used to always say you were going to Battle school and you'd become a famous knight!"
"Again there you go trying to pin me instead of taking the blame." Will's anger flared again.
"Well that's just because you're the only one around I can blame." Horace replied then continued to read.
Now it was Will's turn to feel uncomfortable. "And you always sneered at me, didn't you, and said I'd be too small?" he said.
"Now look who's blustering." Horace pointed out.
"Alright truce but you did say that." Will said.
"Well that isn't very nice is it Horace?" Cassandra hit her husband on the arm.
"Aah well erm you see…"
"Horace and Will basically hated each other when they were young." Alyss put it bluntly.
"Well you could say it like that." Will rolled his eyes. Horace blushed.
"We didn't hate each other." Horace said quickly trying to calm down his wife.
"We did." Will added while Horace glared at him then Will got the message a little too late and said. "I mean of course not we didn't hate each other, we just didn't get on the best of terms." He eyed Cassandra to see whether she bought it or not. Her face said it clearly.
"Nice try Will, and you and I are going to have to talk about this." She turned to Horace who looked panic stricken.
"Nice going Will, real smooth." Horace said in a tone low enough so his wife wouldn't hear him.
"Sorry Horace I didn't realise you hadn't told her."
"Well you do now." Then after seeing his wife on the brink of smacking him, he cleared his throat noisily and continued reading.
"Well, you were!" said Horace, with some heat.
"Still doesn't change the fact that you said it in the first place." Alyss said.
"I know you're right." Horace looked down then realised why Alyss had always seemed so aloof to him in the past. She was always on his side and she always would be. He almost felt ashamed when he thought back to how scornful and rude he was and he was glad that phase of his life was over. Evidently Battle school did more good for him than he could have imagined possible.
"Is that right?" Will replied angrily. "Well, does it occur to you that maybe Halt had already spoken to Sir Rodney and said he wanted me as an apprentice? And that's the reason why I wasn't selected for Battle school? Has that ever occurred to you?"
"I wasn't aware I ever spoke to Rodney about this." Halt said with amusement twinkling in his eyes. Will blushed furiously at his immature behaviour and looked at the table as if wishing he could dissolve into it.
"Rodney never told me this happened." Arald declared.
"No sir that's because it's not true, that didn't happen." Will almost whispered.
"Don't worry Willikins a man does what he has to to save his ego." Gilan replied not the least bit deterred from his enthusiasm.
"Willikins?" Jenny asked.
"Kind of our nicknames for each other you could say."
"But Willikins is longer than Will, so isn't that defeating the point of having a nickname?" Alyss asked suppressing fits of laughter waiting to escape from her mouth.
"Don't break the flow Alyss I was improvising, that's what all good rangers do these days."
"Sure, sure." Will said easily though his eyes betrayed him. Anger was so resolutely fixed in his brown eyes that Gilan almost flinched. Almost.
"Let's carry on reading shall we." Duncan boomed, though nerves were almost evident in his voice. He loved this prized room too much to witness a fight occur.
Gilan interrupted at this point, gently stopping the argument before it got any further out of hand.
"I think that's enough of childhood squabbles,"he said firmly. Both boys, each ready with another verbal barb, subsided a little awkwardly.
"Oh…yes. Right," mumbled Will. "Sorry."
Halt looked at Gilan and nodded again, extremely pleased at the fellow ranger's authority. Nearly everyone in the room felt the same way. Though Gilan could be confusing, funny and a tad bit annoying at the worst of times he had an air about him that made people think twice before messing with him.
Horace nodded several times, embarrassed at the petty scene that had just occurred."Me too," he said. Then, curiosity piqued, he added: "Is that how it happened, Will? Did Halt tell Sir Rodney not to pick you because he wanted you for a Ranger?"
Will dropped his gaze and picked at a loose thread on his shirt.
"Well…not exactly," he said, then admitted, "and you're right. I always did want to be a knight when I was a kid." Then, turning quickly to Gilan, he added, "But I wouldn't change now, not for anything!"
Everyone smiled at Will's eagerness to be a Ranger and realised how much he had changed over the course of 7 years.
Gilan smiled at the two of them. "I was the opposite," he said. "Remember, I grew up in the Battle school. I may have started my training with MacNeil when I was eleven, but I began my basic training at around nine."
"That must have been wonderful," Horace said with a sigh. Surprisingly, Gilan shook his head.
No one seemed surprised that Horace would have loved the idea of starting training at 9. Though Will was extremely grateful he hadn't otherwise he shuddered to think of how much worse bullying he would have had to tolerate. He didn't let that fact be known to others, to save Horace from more humiliation.
"I'm not particularly surprised that you didn't like the idea of training at that age I had to start when I was 5." Duncan said sympathetically.
"Me neither, I never liked the drills or punishments they gave us, they've gone soft on you lot but I remember in my day what they used to do." Arald nearly flinched at the memory of his childhood nightmares.
"Not to me. You know what they say about distant pastures always looking greener?"
Both boys looked puzzled by this.
"It means you always want what you haven't got," he said, and they both nodded their understanding. "Well, that's the way I was. By the time I was twelve, I was sick to death of the discipline and drills and parades." He glanced sidelong at Horace. "There's a bit of that goes on in Battle school, you know."
The heavyset boy sighed. "You're telling me," he agreed. "Still, the horsemanship and practice combats are fun."
"Maybe," said Gilan. "But I was more interested in the life the Rangers led. After Hackham Heath, my father and Halt had become good friends and Halt used to come visiting. I'd see him come and go. So mysterious. So adventurous. I started to think what it might be like to come and go as you please. To live in the forests. People know so little about Rangers, it seemed like the most exciting thing in the world to me."
"That's a first." Jenny muttered. She had always been wary of Rangers almost scared at the tales that swirled around the village of their uncanny powers and their mercilessness. Gilan laughed openly.
"I'm being truthful you know. I actually did think it was a pretty cool job to have. You can ask Halt any day." He added after seeing her incredulous expression.
Horace looked doubtful. "I've always been a little scared of Halt," he said. "I used to think he was some kind of sorcerer."
"Didn't we all." Arald joked and everyone was laughing apart from Halt.
"Even when I knew what Halt did I still have fleeting thoughts that maybe this man was a sorcerer." Duncan added on.
Will snorted in disbelief. "Halt? A sorcerer?" he said. "He's nothing of the kind!"
Horace looked at him, pained once again. "But you used to think the same thing!" he said.
"Well…I suppose so. But I was only a kid then."
"So was I!" replied Horace, with devastating logic.
Everyone laughed yet again at Will's foolishness and Cassandra commented on how daft he could be at times.
Gilan grinned at the two of them. They were both still boys. Halt had been right, he thought. It was good for Will to be spending some time in company with someone his own age.
"You couldn't be more right about that." Will added. Halt sniffed in mock anger and turned away from Will.
Will turned to the older Ranger. "So did you ask Halt to take you as an apprentice?" he asked. Then, before receiving any answer, continued, "What did he say to that?"
"You do that a lot you know." Alyss commented casually.
"You couldn't be more right about that." Halt said emphasising the line, as the first opportunity rose to get his own back at Will for his comment.
"What do you mean what do I do?" Will asked completely baffled.
"You ask questions firing one after the other and sometimes simultaneously like you're shooting arrows. And most of the time the questions you ask can be completely unrelated to the topic." Halt scoffed. Will sat there stunned, unable to think up a response witty enough to repay Halt. Gilan and Cassandra were roaring with laughter while Jenny and Alyss had sympathetic looks on their faces, and Horace exploded again unable to contain his amusement at Will's face. Eventually the giggling died down while Will managed to recompose himself.
Sorry for not updating in a really long time but here you go! This is around 3/4 of Chapter 6 and I'm hopefully going to get the other part up soon as well. Than you for waiting and as ever please review this chapter.