Ghost of the Past-Ranger's Apprentice Fanfic *Working Progress*

Chapter 6

Will placed his empty mug on the small table beside him,

"so you lived with Gretel for how long?" Ayla frowned slightly as she tried to remember,

"I think it was for seven years. We went for a walk one day and she collapsed, I tried to help her but I couldn't. The next morning I buried her beside her cottage and left, I couldn't face to stay there without her so I set off in search of somewhere I could make my home or somewhere that I was welcome. I didn't mind if I didn't have a home, I just needed to get a weapon and a few essential things so I could fend for myself and survive."

"so what did you do?"

Seven years ago

Ayla grabbed a bag and shoved in it everything she needed, a spare set of clothes and some tools that she could use to protect herself and to use to make simple things that she might need. Before leaving the idyllic cottage in the woods she had called home for the past seven years she placed a bunch of freshly picked flowers on Gretel's grave.

"Goodbye, and thank you for everything you've done for me." With that she turned away and walked off into the trees in search of her next adventure.

She walked to the crest of the hill and looked at her old home. It looked deserted, she guessed that it was, after all it had been eight years since she'd been there. Gilan would be twenty two now, so he'd have gone off on his own and would be living his own life now, probably far away from here and the horrible memories it held for him, for all of them.

She peered through the smeared window; the place looked like it hadn't been lived in for years. It looked like it had been left in a hurry. Everything was still there, exactly where they had left it, except for the people who owned it. She knew it was possible that someone else owned it but she didn't think her father would have sold the cottage because of everything that happened here. This is where she and Gilan had been born, where he had trained them and where her mother and she had died, well where her mother had died.

She drove her shoulder into the old wooden door so it opened; the rusty hinges had become stiff over the years that it hadn't been used. She knew what she was looking for, and where she'd find it. She walked through the living room and kitchen, straight into the side room where her father stored his weapons. She looked around the room, tears began to roll down her face when she saw he sword that her father used to train her with. She ran her fingers over the slightly rusted blade. Then her eyes fell on the sword she was looking for. She walked over to it and picked it up. It was Gilan's old sword that had once belonged to their father. She knew that once she was older that this sword would have come to her; her father had always told her that. She held the sword in her hand, it was perfectly balanced, but then all the swords in here were. She swung it in an experimental ark and smiled, it had been a while since she'd used a sword or even held one. Though she still remembered everything her father had taught her, but when it came to the rest of her past she was a little sketchy, she couldn't remember anything about her mother or much about herself but she remembered Gilan, he was the only person who she could remember clearly.

She picked up a sword belt from the table, fitted it around her hip and slid the sword into it. She carefully closed the front door behind her as she stepped outside. It was as she closed the door that she heard voices and footsteps in the distance. She quickly hid behind the west wall of the cottage, much like she had eight years ago, and peered around the corner. To her surprise she saw Gilan walking with a large man beside him, they were talking and it looked like they were...crying. She frowned slightly. She felt like she should know who the man was but she couldn't remember him. She looked back at Gilan, he didn't look like how she remembered him but then the last time she saw him was seven years ago. He wore a green molted cloak, soft brown boots, green shirt and trousers, with two knives at his side as well as his sword, as well as a long bow and a quiver of arrows. She frowned in confusion,