Nyer is a young ranger with a great responsibility. He has become the ranger of the important Withby Fief after his mentor died. And, he also takes a child under his wings. But disaster strikes the kingdom and it crumbles. What can Nyer do to save the Kingdom?
Note: This story takes place roughly 25 years after the uniting of the 50 Fiefs and the creating of the ranger corps so all characters will be self-created. But I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
Disclaimer: I don't own Rangers Apprentice and am just writing this story to enjoy myself and hopefully others.
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'Come here!'
A loud voice startled the birds. They flew up loudly and landed after a couple of seconds. A young boy stood up from where he had been sitting against a fallen tree. He turned towards the sound of the voice.
'I'm coming mom.'
The boy stood still for a moment, shaking some fallen leaves off his woollen jacket. Then he walked towards his mom, outside of the forest. It was not a big forest by all means. A bewildered, small patch of trees would be a more accurate description. But they were the only trees on the small lands of the Ackberg family and they provided a little bit of shade for the ones working on the farmlands.
Because that was what the Ackberg family did. They were a small farming family, one like the many others that were shattered across the lands. They weren't particularly wealthy, but they could survive with the small amount of farmland and animals they had.
The young farmers son now emerged in the open. His mother was standing fifty meters farther, next to a small house. It was a wooden shack, with a straw roof. Attached to the house was a small chicken coup and a bit to the left there was a small barn with a couple of sheep and cows.
The young boy quickly bridged the distance between him and the house and was now standing right in front of his mother.
'There you are', she said: 'I thought you might have been sneaking around in the forest again.'
'I was just sitting in between the trees for some shade', he answered while gesturing vaguely to the small group of trees he had come from.
'Good', she simply answered before picking up a small axe that had been leaning against the wall of the cabin and was used for cleaving wood.
She walked a few passes away from him, then turned around. 'I want you to go to the market. There is some spare wool I want you to sell on the handcart on the front.'
The boy's shoulders dropped and he sighed. It was a long walk towards the village to get to the market. Pushing a handcart wouldn't make it easier.
'Can I at least take Levina with me?'
'Fine, but make sure to be back before nightfall!' But the words didn't reach him as he was already sprinting away to fetch his sister.
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It was late at night. But not late enough for the men in the inn to go to bed. They would probably go on for a couple more hours, chatting and drinking. That's how it always went. The inn was packed with men. There had been a market in town today so all the traveling farmers from the neighborhood would find a place to rest here before going back home tomorrow.
Suddenly, the door opened and a fresh wind entered through the gap. The fire, burning in the fireplace at the right wall, flickered for a couple of seconds. That flickering, together with the cold breeze that had entered the room when the door opened, made it so everyone in the room looked at the door for a split second.
Standing at the door, was a large man. He had messy, long black hair and a black beard. Both looked like they hadn't been cut for at least a year. He wore simple clothes, a brown leather jacket, woollen pants and leather boots. The most surprising about his appearance however was the long sword on his left hip.
As he moved into the room, two more men emerged at the door opening. Both of them were also wearing similar clothing, and they each also had a sword hanging from their hips.
The man who had entered the inn first now moved towards the counter, where the innkeeper was standing.
'And what can I get for you gentlemen', the innkeeper asked friendly.
'Three beers.' The first man – clearly the leader of the three – spoke with a low voice with a thick Teutlandic accent.
The innkeeper quickly gave the man the three beers. He didn't really like these men. It was only an instinct, but it told him that these men would cause problems. It was never good to have armed men in an inn, especially not if they were going to get drunk.
'That will be 7 copper pennigs.'
The leader of the group took out the asked money and put it on the counter. Then they took their beers and moved towards the fireplace on the other side of the room.
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The three newcomers were really drunk. They had already had their eighth beer and were being very loud. And, they were chasing the customers away. There were only a couple of people left in the inn. There were still a young boy and girl, both around the age of 15, and then there was a cloaked stranger sitting at one of the tables in the back. Normally at this hour, there would still be some more people but due to the three newcomers, all the normal townsfolk had left.
Abruptly, one of the three jumped up from his seat near the fireplace. 'Bring us an other round of beers', the man shouted. It was followed by a lot of laughter from his drunk friends.
The innkeeper put on his friendliest voice. 'I really can't give you another round I'm afraid.'
'And why is that? We're customers right? So you have to give us food and drinks.' It had been the leader of the group who had spoken up now.
'Well, you are drunk and the law says I can't give anymore alcohol to drunk people.'
'That's nonsense.' The man stood up and stumbled towards the young boy and girl, who were sitting not too far away. He now spoke to the young girl. 'Can you tell them we are not drunk, young lady.' He put his arm around the young girl to prove his point, but then all hell broke loose.
'Stay away from my sister!'
The boy, who had been sitting next to his sister jumped up and lashed out at the mans face with his right fist. But this was still a trained warrior…
The older man immediately let go of the girl and simply stepped to the side. The punch had been so hard that the young boy, now that he didn't hit his target, lost his balance and fell forward. The warrior wanted to jump on top of the fallen boy but a loud voice stopped him.
'Don't move or I'll shoot an arrow through your chest.'
The warrior immediately looked at where the voice had come from and saw a lone man. He was standing in the darkness at the back of the tavern so he wasn't clearly visible. But what was visible was the deadly longbow he was calmly holding in his right hand. The bow wasn't drawn. There simply was an arrow lying on the string. But something about that made it even more terrifying. Any normal archer would have his bow drawn and ready to fire, but this man had so much confidence that he didn't think it was necessary.
But unfortunately for the three men, they didn't realize that. They only saw that the bow wasn't drawn and thus not ready to fire. So they took out their swords and charged.
It was a big mistake. Because before the warriors even had the chance to charge at the archer, three arrows were flying through the air. The leader got hit in the shoulder and because of the power of the 100-pound bow, he fell back and landed with his head on one of the edges of the tables. His vision went black and he immediately passed out. The other two men got hit in their shoulders and their calves and they both fell down to the ground screaming in pain.
The ranger had quickly hung the bow back over his shoulder and moved swiftly towards the two wounded men. The leader was unconscious so he could deal with him later, he had decided. His companions were screaming in pain so they had to be treated first. The ranger broke the arrow just outside the wound, then pulled the rest of the arrow through the limb. After he had done that, he put some warmweed salve on the wound and bound it. Then, he repeated the process with the two other men. They would probably not run away in this state but just to be sure, he also bound their arms together behind their back using his thumbcuffs. After that was all done, he stood back up and walked up to the young boy and girl.
'Are you guys ok?'
Both of the kids nodded quickly and stared at him with big, scared eyes. He guessed the kids were around the age of 15. They were wearing woollen clothes so old they were fixed up with al sorts of materials. Her brown hair was greasy and messy and hung loose till about halfway her back. The boy's hair was a lighter brown and was shorter. But it had the same greasy look and hung till his shoulders.
'What are your names?'
The two kids were still looking at the ranger with a mixture of shock and fear. He realized the kids were scared of him and shook off his hood. A bright, young face appeared. It was a young man, somewhere at the beginning of his twenties. He was clean-shaven and had hair that was cut short on the sides and back but left a thick bunch of brown, curly hair on the top. All in all, he looked like a very friendly guy, who was maybe in his end twenties begin thirties.
They still looked quite shocked but their first expression of fear had disappeared. Moments later, the boy answered the question.
'My name is Wyot, and this is my sister Levina, sir.' He tried to bow down to the ranger but got stopped by a firm hand on his shoulder.
'Leave all that sort of nonsense Wyot, and please just call me Nyer.'
The boy nodded quickly and he felt the hand leave his shoulder. The ranger now sat down next to the two kids and took out a piece of paper.
'Dear baron Morris, I have caught these three bandits in the village Martny', the ranger muttered under his breath. Simultaneously, he wrote the words down on the piece of parchment. 'They have been charged with being overly drunk, assaulting a girl, and…' The ranger stopped and looked at the boy standing next to him who was looking at the paper over his shoulder. He slowly raised one eyebrow.
Wyot quickly backed off, realizing he had been reading a very important document. But the ranger wasn't paying attention anymore and looked back at the paper. Wyot wanted to go back to look at what the ranger was writing and leaned back over Nyers shoulder.
The ranger's voice made him immediately jump a couple of steps back. 'What do you think boy? Did they hinder a ranger in his job or did they attack a ranger?' When the boy didn't answer he went on: 'They tried to attack me, which would be an assault, but they didn't really get the chance to actually get to me.'
Nyer sighed, he hated this kind of paperwork. But it was necessary for the job, so he had to fight through it.
'I think it is an assault', Wyot mumbled.
Nyer nodded slowly and wrote some more lines on his paper. Then, he stood up and turned toward the innkeeper, who was still standing behind the counter. 'I assume there is some sort of a guard in Martny?'
The innkeeper nodded and answered: 'There is a village guard indeed, sir ranger.'
'Good', the ranger answered: 'Can you bring these three men to them? Tell them they're bandits and tell them to give this letter to the baron.'
'To the baron, sir', the innkeeper asked surprised. He had never in his life traveled outside Martny and the baron was someone far away from his normal life.
Nyer sighed, not for the first time that evening. 'Yes, to the baron', he answered.
'Can't you bring these bandits to the baron, sir ranger?'
'No, I've got to bring these two kids home.'
The young boy immediately protested. 'We can perfectly get home by ourselves!', he screamed.
This time, Nyer stopped the urge to sigh and calmly turned around till he was facing the boy. 'After what happened tonight, I think you'll need a little help.'
His tone tolerated no further protesting. And this time it was Wyots time to sigh, before following the ranger into the night.
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Authors note; Thanks for reading the first chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any critiques, feel free to leave a review to tell me what you thought I could have done better. I am just a beginning writer so all criticism I can use to improve my story is welcome.