The Last Ranger

The Misunderstanding

The noble closed the door quietly and locked it.

"Sir?" Said Markus, becoming more unsteady by the second. The Kings face turned into a slight frown.

"Markus, have you used my signature, at all?" Said Geralt, slowly.

"I can assure you that I've done no such thing." Said Markus, slowly readying himself for what may lie next.

"Hmm" Said Geralt, "Mr. Stave, call for the guards, we have to take care of this, I'm sorry Markus."

"What? No!" Yelled the ranger. Markus turned around and kicked down the door, unaware that there was a knight right outside of it. The splinters from the light wooden door went straight into the knight's face. The knight hunched over and screamed, the splinters were in his eyes. Markus bolted past the man, while Geralt called for more guards. He ran straight out of the front exit, there's no way the guards near there could know yet. As soon as he went out of the exit, he jumped, and mounted his horse.

As he got on, he instantly put his horse into a full gallop. He rode for a little in silence, then that silence was broken by a crossbow bolt flying right past him, they were there to kill. He pulled his hand-crossbow from the holster on his thigh. He looked back for a second and saw the man, he was reloading the bow then. Markus veered Blaze into the right direction, then looked back, readied his crossbow, and took the shot. He looked back in front of him, and started to steer Blaze for the forest. Upon looking back at the target, Markus noticed it was a hit, but in the shoulder, the man was just standing there screaming in pain. Markus shook his head, and didn't let the screaming get to him.

As they rode into the forest Blaze started to, out of instinct, go for the stables. Markus, still being troubled by the situation, yanked on the reins and caused Blaze a slight amount of pain. Blaze whinnied, and started galloping in the direction his master wanted. They were headed for the raid house, they wouldn't find him there for quite a while. Raid houses are built next to every city specifically for the ranger of each town, nobody knows of the whereabouts of any specific raid house as it is built by the ranger, and then passed down to the next one. They are made for protection of the city's intelligence in the case of a raid. Raid houses are normally hidden by surrounding trees, and intricate designs on the house making them seem almost invisible. The rangers spend weeks upon weeks learning the exact path their raid house, putting subtle markers to let them know they're headed in the right direction.

Markus saw the house, it was within a minute from them. As they reached the house Markus jumped off of the horse, and opened the door. He couldn't risk having Blaze outside, so he put a lead on the horse and brought it inside, the horse unwillingly complied and got inside. The house was made to be smaller than the typical ranger houses, so the horse started to feel claustrophobic, and became uneasy. Markus led blaze away from the door, and put the blockade on the door. Markus walked over to blaze and took the saddle off. He started to scratch behind the horses ear to calm him, and noticed the cut on Blaze's head that he had caused.

"I'm sorry boy." He whispered, as he was upset with himself for being so rough. Blaze blew air out of his nose, and lowered his head, to give Markus a better angle to scratch behind his ears. He pulled out a small bed he was given for his horse if he were ever in this situation. He was given this by the previous ranger, William. He led Blaze over to it and laid him down, making sure the horse was comfortable. Markus laid down on the bed next to the horse, and the house was silent.

This was the last time he'd be able to relax for a while, and he probably wasn't going to make it out of this one. They wouldn't find him for another hour or so, so he decided to sleep while he can. He slowly closed his eyes, and by Blaze's decreasing energy, he could tell the horse was too. The house was completely silent, and Markus was surprised he felt so tired with what was going on.

Markus was awoken by Blaze whinnying and moving around. Markus was about to get up to calm the horse, but then noticed, they were ramming into the door in an attempt to break it. He got up, and took the quiver full of arrows, and the bow that were laid next to the bed. The door started to unhinge, and Markus knocked an arrow into place, then started to pull back. As the door blew open a man came in. Markus, now having a bow, which he was more comfortable with, shot the man. It was a direct hit, and the knight fell.

More started to come into the house, and Markus released arrow after arrow on them. They kept falling, one after another. Markus started to tire from having to shoot this many arrows, he'd never had to do this since his training to become a ranger. He pulled another arrow from the quiver, and noticed it was the last one, he pulled the arrow back on the bow with almost lightning speed, and let it fly, without even looking if he his target, he pulled out his shortblade and readied himself. Within seconds he became overwhelmed and met the blunt end of a sword. The last thing he heard before being knocked out was the sound of Blaze.