...

His breath clouded in front of his face as he walked towards the cabin and stables. It was a cold early in the morning after Choosing Day. Will kept a firm hand on the reigns of Smoke and Aiden sat on his shoulder. If someone saw him he would have looked like a Forester headed out for another hunt.

The cabin though. That was known by the village as the Ranger's cabin. No one came out here unless they were in danger. Will had to wonder if he will find a place to belong here.

Will put Smoke up in the stables giving him a good brushing down. With the gear stowed away he left the stables. To find Halt standing in the doorway of the cabin. For the first time since he knew the man he wasn't wearing his ranger cloak. He wore a plain green shirt and trousers. Will's own cloak moved with the wind but there wasn't any sound.

Halt gave him a sharp approving nod as he said, "You're early. That's good. Come inside and leave your bag by the door. You can take it to your room later."

With that he turned around and headed back into the cabin. There was a moment's hesitation before Will followed him inside. Just inside the doorway he dropped his bag to the side. Aiden for his part launched from his shoulder and began to circle the room. It was a plain living room with two fairly nice chairs and a fireplace. To his right he could see a set of stairs which must have led to the bedrooms. To his left was an open doorway leading to the kitchen. The walls were made of perfectly cut wood. If he didn't know any better he would have thought it was cut by the One Power.

Halt gruffly pointed, "The kitchen is through there. Through the door in the kitchen leads to a porch and on it is a water barrel. Up there are two bedrooms. Mine is the first on the right."

Mutely Will nodded. Water barrel. Why did he have the strangest feeling that it would be him who would be filling it?

Halt asked, "Have you eaten already?"

"Yes sir."

That got him a nod and then instructions to start on chores for the house. He was right. He would be doing all of the chores of the house as an apprentice. It was going to be the Tower all over again. Still he didn't argue he knew better than to do that. Lan would have put him into running laps if he argued. There was little doubt in his mind Halt would find something similarly unpleasant. So he unbelted his sword and laid it against the wall. Aiden following him out with a happy screech.

The first chore was taking a bucket to the river and filling the barrel. Sweat soon soaked his shirt with the amount of trips even in the cool air. Will didn't stop until the bucket was filled which wasn't until an hour and a half later. He pulled at his shirt briefly allowing air flow before moving onto the next chore.

Beating the dust off of rugs wasn't much better than hauling buckets. It was boring mindless work. They were done quickly before once again he was given another chore. Will wanted to growl in frustration.

This continued until lunch which they made and Will cleaned the plates. He took them to the river to clean. Kneeling down by the river he scrubbed the plates. The sound of rustling leaves caught his attention. That was too loud to be a rabbit or other small animal.

Looking up across the river he felt his heart stop in his chest. His hand dropped to his concealed knife as he analyzed it. There on the other side was a massive brown furred wolf with amber eyes. Its eyes were solely focused on him and his heart began to race.

It wasn't one of the Shadows creatures. The color was all wrong. Lan had said the Shadow had wolf like creature known as a Darkhound that were as black as night. That and he would have sensed it before it got this close. His senses while not as strong as Lan's could still sense things like Darkhounds. If it had been he doubted he would survive the encounter. While big he doubted this wolf before him weighed the 250 pounds that they thought a Darkhound did. A check to the wind direction and a sniff told him there wasn't a smell of sulfur on the air either. Better safe than sorry.

A quick cast out of his senses did not give him the feeling of danger expected of a member of the Dark. Still even normal wolves can be a danger to a person especially given Will only had a knife on him. To his surprise the wolf slowly began to back away from him. It's amber eyes never left him until it disappeared back into the forest.

Will immediately picked up all of the dishes and ran straight back to the cabin. It was only when he was safely inside did he breathe easy. That was the oddest thing he had ever encountered. And he had travelled with Moiraine.

"What's wrong?" Questioned Halt, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Will hesitated but knew wolves were a danger to the village farmers so admitted, "There was a wolf. By the river."

Halt's eyes widened as he questioned, "Are you sure? A wolf hasn't been seen near the Castle since the war fifteen years ago."

Will gave him a withering look as he snapped, "Of course I'm sure it was a wolf. I have spent time on the plains travelling Ranger. I know what a wolf looks like."

"Alright, alright," conceded the Ranger, "Let's go look for your wolf."