The Ranger and the Angel

A Case of Very Bad News

Emily didn't know how to answer for a moment. She thought about using sarcasm in her answer, to try to hide her sudden bout of fear.

But before she could get an answer out of her mouth, Annabel raised an eyebrow and said, "And I don't take well to sarcasm. Don't try it."

The Ranger was taken aback. How'd the...the angel...know what she was about to say?

"You're an angel?" She finally asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl. "Right...and I'm the King." She snorted. "You can't be an angel...they don't exist."

Annabel tilted her head to the side, a confused expression playing on her features. "Why do you not think we exist?" She asked, staring at the girl intently. "You are here for a reason, after all."

"Yeah," Emily said, "and that reason is because I was told to—"

"By a report your commanding officer thought was fake." The angel interrupted. "I know."

"You—you know?" Annabel asked, suddenly feeling dizzy. This girl had known where she was going, and why she'd come. Annabel smiled comfortingly at the Ranger.

"I know."

"How?" Emily asked, forcing herself to sound forceful.

"Well, I was the one who sent the messenger to this...Crowley person, and then I was the one who made the clearing so quiet." She shrugged. "I didn't think you'd actually come. I thought that he'd send someone older, and then I'd have to use them to get a you."

Emily glared, her feeling of dizziness gone instantly. "'Use them'?" She asked angrily. "Why'd you need to use them?"

Annabel shrugged. To her, the matter was simple and she didn't know why the human girl was getting so mad about it. "To use as messengers to get you to come here." She paused. "I wouldn't have hurt them," she added, almost as an after thought. Emily shook her head, not fully believing her.

"Really, Annabel?" She asked, using the angel's name for the first time. "I bet you would have, as soon as they had served their purpose to you!"

Annabel reared back a step as if she'd been hit. Actually, the Ranger's words did nothing to her ego in anyway. She'd only done that to try to soothe any of the Ranger's ego's wounds. Of course, Emily'd expression didn't change, staying in the hard-as-stone glare.

"I'm an angel. It wouldn't have been my fault if they hurt themselves in the process of getting a message to you. It would have been—"

"Let me guess," Emily interrupted, "it would have been their own fault? Right?"

It was Annabel's turn to glare. She vanished and reappeared suddenly only centimeters away from the other girl. Dancer startled, but Emily stood her ground as the angel appeared, although all her senses were telling her to back off a few feet. "Don't you ever mock me like that again," raved Annabel."I have more power in my little finger than you do in all of your puny little insect-infested body."

Emily's nerve finally broke, and she took a couple of steps back. "'Insect?'" She asked. "That's an insult? And you're an angel? I could do better than that!"

Annabel looked surprised for a moment. This human was questioning her intellect? "Then prove it," she challenged. Emily shook her head, a smile finally breaking her glare. This angel could be a good friend, she thought absentmindedly.

"Time enough for that later. Can you ride?" She asked, and Annabel shook her head, looking confused. "Like riding horses." The Ranger explained.

Annabel shook her head again and Emily gestured toward the forest behind her. "Then we walk. Mind you, it might take longer than if we were riding, but I don't feel like hurting you—"

"Its fine," Annabel said. "I need the exercise."

"Then its settled," Emily said, and Annabel nodded, walking up to the other girl, linking arms with her. But Emily slipped her arm free. "Don't do that please, I need my arms free incase we run into trouble." Seeing the girl's point, the angel nodded and gestured again to the forest.

"Lead the way," she said, and the two girls and mare horse started walking toward the forest.