Author's note: Let me know if you enjoy this! Thank you for reading!
Shivering and soaked beneath a tree, Will was trying to wait out the storm. He had seen it, a deep rumbling grey ghost rolling across the landscape, blackening everything beneath it. Instinct had told him to seek shelter, but it had been raining every day for the past week and he was falling desperately behind in his training. With The Gathering coming up, he knew he needed every opportunity to train, so he had decided to ignore his instincts and continued on, sending arrow after arrow through the mist into his targets, until the rain began to pour. Only then had he run for what shelter he could find, resolved to wait out the weather. But it had been hours. The ground around him had grown soft, then muddy, and now the water was lapping around his ankles. And the rain still went on.
"Will!" Halt was just a dark shape through the driving rain, but Will recognized his voice at once.
"I'm here!" he yelled back and saw Halt come to a stop.
"Get out of the rain! Come inside!"
Needing no further invite, Will splashed toward his mentor, but the frigid wind whipped up the rain into his eyes and soon he was running blind.
"Head for the sound of my voice!" Halt yelled over the noise. And Will did until he felt someone grab him by the shoulders. He forced his eyes open and there was Halt, absolutely soaked, standing in the rain.
"Come on!" Halt roared.
They ran through the rivers the rain had made, and once or twice, Will had fallen into the mud only to get reefed up by Halt who practically dragged him until he regained his feet.
They burst through the door to Halt's cabin like a pair of stampeding bulls and stood, dripping and shivering on the timber. Gilan emerged out of the kitchen holding towels for them both.
"There you are, Will!" He said with a grin, "We were starting to think you'd been swept away!"
Swept away? Will looked back out of the front door. The water was mighty high, and the rain was nowhere near over.
"You think it will flood?" He asked.
"It has flooded." Halt cut in, and Will looked at him. He'd stripped off all his wet clothes and was now wrapped up in a towel.
He eyed Will scathingly. "Stop dripping on my floor." He added.
Will hastily began removing his own saturated gear and gratefully took the towel from Gilan.
Gilan picked up their wet things, took them out to the verandah and slung them over the chairs, even though there was no chance of them drying any time soon.
"Redmont's flooded. They've moved most people into the castle itself, out of the village." Halt went on. "There's water through at least half of the houses."
Will shuddered at the thought. "Do you think the Tarbus will break its banks?"
Halt snorted, then took him by the shoulder to the window in his bedroom. He pointed out at the grey landscape.
"You see that there?" He pointed to a surge of brown water.
Will nodded.
"That's the Tarbus there."
"Oh."
A chilling thought went through Will then.
"Halt, are we safe here? Are the horses-"
"We'll be fine here, and so will the horses," Halt reassured him. "I dug channels around this place when we built it. It's not the first flood we've seen here, right Gil?"
"Definitely not." Came Gilan's warm laugh from the kitchen, and Will immediately felt at ease. Even with the rain thrashing the windows and drumming on the roof.
"Here Halt." Gilan emerged again with two steaming cups. He handed one to Halt, then turned to Will. "Hope you like honey in yours." he smiled.
Will beamed. The coffee was warm and sweet.
"Look at you!" Halt said to Gilan, "Turning into an old nursemaid!"
"Well you know what they say, gotta look after the young and the elderly."
Halt's face went as dark as the storm clouds.
"I'm not above making you sleep in a tree in this weather."
"You are."
The storm went on, long into the night, but just as Halt had promised the water never reached the cottage. Also, as Gilan had promised, Halt did not make him sleep in a tree.
By the next day, the clouds had finally parted and the rain had eased to a drizzle. The three rangers emerged in the early dawn light to observe the damage.
Will was shivering in the icy wind. Without his rangers cloak, he felt vulnerable. He missed the warmth and weight.
"You think anyone drowned?" Asked Will, and Halt looked away, the wind whipped his hair around his face.
"Before I left the Castle, we got as many people to safety as we could." Halt sighed, "But yes, Will, I imagine some people may have drowned. Sometimes people don't want to leave their homes or can't. Sometimes the weather just sneaks up on them."
Will thought of how he had decided to stay out in the rain and shuddered, he could have easily drowned out there. Until Halt came, he was still half-prepared to wait out the weather.
"You could have easily drowned." Halt said, echoing his thoughts, "Although I don't understand why you stayed out there so long. You weren't that far from home. Why not just come back?"
And Will just… Froze.
Was now the right time to tell Halt how he was afraid he would never catch up on his training? To tell Halt how he was afraid he was going to fail his assessment? No. People had drowned, and there were more important things to focus on. He realised Halt was waiting for an answer.
"Ah." He stammered, "Just underestimated how bad it was. Thought I could wait it out."
Halt didn't look satisfied.
"Well, it's a good thing you two came back when you did." Gilan cut in, and he pointed. Will's heart sank into his boots. The whole training ground had become a mudslide. The tree Will had sheltered under had toppled over. Even now, rivers were running across the mud, feeding into the swollen Tarbus.
"Shit." Said Halt, and at first, he thought he was reacting to the mudslide, but then he looked up. Halt's gaze was locked on the horizon.
Where another black cloud was coming.