𝑡𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑑𝑎𝑤𝑛 | 𝐆𝐈𝐋𝐀𝐍 𝐃𝐀𝐕𝐈𝐃𝐒𝐎𝐍

1⋆☾⋆A new start

Snow flakes were drizzling down from the early morning sky as the lonely Ranger rode off, being gazed after by two others with heavy hearts. Gilan watched Halt from the small window above his bed, so long until the rider was completely merged with the raging snow. His heart ached and pressure was building behind his eyes. He longed to go with him, after all he was the one who'd left Will and Evanlyn behind.

He let himself fall back into the comfortable bed that was overloaded with pillows thanks to his apprentice. She'd felt really guilty because he'd taken a sword to the leg for her, so now every opportunity she brought him a pillow back from the market, which he wasn't complaining about.

However he was complaining constantly about having to lie in bed all the time. Even though his apprentice came to visit him more than enough and she was always thinking up new things for them to do, he was still bored out of his mind. He was finally able to go for short walks about the castle, but the healers still advised him to stay still as much as possible. However, they had cleared him to ride on his horse again. Obviously not for too long, and not too wild, but at least he could go into forest, with Blaze doing the walking for him. But still it wasn't the same as the thrill of being on a mission. Though he didn't know salvation was near, because across the castle his apprentice was picking up an assignment from Crowley.

A fairly small girl in a dark blue dress, with long sleeves and golden accents knocked on the corps commander's door and Crowley called for her to come in. She pushed the heavy door open. The office was vast and light, like most chambers in castle Araluen. A big window looked out over the snow-covered lawn, that ran from the castle to the river. Crowley sat in a comfy armchair by the window. He gestured to the other chair, that was a bit smaller, across from him.

"Ah Y/N! Take a seat," he looked up from the paper in his hands and pointed at a pile of rolled up documents, each with a black lace wrapped around it, that was lying on the small table next to him, "Those are Halt's reports about the Foldar case. You should read them." After that he bended forward, dipped his pen into an ink pot, scribbled down a note on the piece he had in his hands and continued reading.

There were about ten reports on the table. On every one stood the name of the fief, from which it had been sent. On three reports was written, in bold letters "FINISHED", on the outside. The girl chose one of those, sighing deeply. Reading was still one of the things she struggled with, though she could, any chance she got she would shove it onto Gilan. But she was determined to try, because she knew that one day she wouldn't have her mentor around anymore and it would be better if she could read reports on her own.

"Why would Halt ask me to take over this mission?" she said, while putting the paper down before she'd even started on it. Ever since Halt had asked her, just before he'd left, the question had been bothering her. And now that she was looking for any excuse to discontinue her task, it had just popped out.

The red haired Ranger looked at her with raised eyebrows. "Maybe if you actually read the reports you'd find out."

She rolled her eyes, fell back into the armchair and begrudingly started on the reading. It took her a while, because she had to ask Crowley a few times what some words read, which he patiently assisted her in. Foldar apparently was a ruthless killer, who would murder an entire family in their sleep for good measure. The problem was because of his reputation a lot of bandits were using his name to strike fear into their victims, most people gave their money easily and without discussion when they heard that name. And those imitators were making it quite hard to locate the real Foldar.

The report she'd read was about one of those robberies. A highwayman, the leader of a bunch of scum, had taken on Foldar's identity and in that role he'd tried to rob a rich merchant and his wife, when they were traveling through the forest in a travel carriage. Halt had heard of the plan, made sure he was there at the right time, and this so called Foldar was now behind bars.

When the young apprentice put down the paper Crowley glanced over to her again, stroking his red beard. "Do you get it now?"

"It's because I was a thief, right?" she hesitantly tried as she carefully tried to put the report back, but Crowley stopped her.

"Gilan will probably want to read that as well," he started, which was a mistake. His whole explanation about why her skill would be contributing to the mission was abruptly thrown out the window.

"You're putting him on the mission too!?" the girl excitedly called out as she gripped the handrails of her chair. Crowley wanted to shush her and tell her that it was just so he knew what was going on, and that in case of an emergency he'd know what to do. But somewhere in his heart he felt bad for her that she'd have to go alone, after all she had been quite affected by everything that happened in the war. The young woman and her mentor had been annoying him for weeks that they should get a mission again and that would mean he'd have a little more peace and quiet, which was a great bonus.

So he sighed and waved his hand around. "Yeah, as long as you do all of the heavy work. I don't want to see one of my best Rangers permanently cripple, all right?" he pointed sternly at her, and the girl nodded, trying to hold in her excitement. Crowley saw it and tilted his head towards the door. "Go tell him," and as she hurriedly sprung up, he had to stop her once again to remind her to take the reports with her. The Ranger's apprentice took them all in her arms, and hardly being able to see anything she sprinted down the corridors.

With a loud burst she kicked open Gilan's door, which startled the Ranger who had been peacefully reading a book just moments before. She stormed in with the pile of parchments and dumped them on his bed. "Guess who's got a mission." A wide smile was plastered all over her lips.

Gilan closed his book and raised an eyebrow. "You?"

"We did." Her grin widened and his eyes went big. He ran a hand through his brown looks and looked at her with disbelief. He grabbed one of the reports from the pile of unrowdy papers, which had spread all over the bed.

"Where are we going?"

The young apprentice scratched the back of her head and also took one, gesturing for Gilan to make room next to him for her to sit. He scooted over and as she sat down she said: "Well, I don't know that yet. We'll have these reports to find out."

With raised eyebrows Gilan gazed over the heap of rollup documents. "Looks like we're in for a long night then..."

A/N:
Soooooooooooo FIRST CHAPTER OF THIS BOOK IS UP AAA YAY. And it's also the last chapter for Winter Writing Week :((.BUT I HOPE YOU GUYS HAVE A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND GET LOADS OF GIFTS AND EAT A SHITTON OF FOOD!!! Question for today: What's your family's traditional Christmas food? I will see you guys next friday!!

Xxx. HeelsAreCute