Ranger's Apprentice One Shots

Mission Impossible

Will struggled futilely against the bigger man. He tried elbowing him, kicking him, and even biting him, but it was useless in the bear hug the man held him in.

The man pressed his huge hand against the back of Will's head, forcing him to nearly suffocate by his fur jacket.

The man cuffed Will on the head, hard, bringing a ringing to Will's ears.

Dimly, Will heard Evanlyn's screams and cries. They seemed distant. Too distant.

Will felt himself being dragged. A moment later, his back arched. For the sharp edge of wood cut into his back. The man had dragged him to the ship's railing and forced Will back, pushing him against the wood.

The man was ugly. Some would even describe him as a pirate. His yellow and crooked teeth, hair disheveled and knotted, even his breath stank. The pirate leaned against Will, so their faces were almost touching. Will cringed as he felt the hot breath

"You wanna go back?" the man snarled in a menacing whisper, "there is no back. You don't have a home anymore. Forget everyone you know. Your only future now is in Skandia. You don't have a family anymore. Because you're a slave!" he spat the last word at Will.

Pressure built up behind Will's eyes, but he refused to let the tears fall. Not now. Not in front of the man. Angrily, Will pushed against the man with his arms, flinging him back. Before the man could attack back though, Will was out of reach, running across the deck, looking for some way to escape. The crew just finished untying the ropes that kept them ashore, and it would only take Will a second to jump back on land.

The sails went up. Ropes flung. The man pushed the crew aside, charging at Will. Will desperately looked over at the railing and started running. He knocked crew members aside. His escape was dangerous and probably very unstable, but it was the only one he had. Part of his brain vaguely thought he should grab the girl, Evanlyn, and escape with her too, but the savage part of his brain said to shut up and leave her. After all, she was only a girl.

Will got to the railing and braced himself. The man was right behind. It was now or never.

He jumped. For a second, all Will heard was the sound of wind whistling in his ears. Then, suddenly everything went dark as he crashed into the water. He stayed under for a second or two, then began swimming upwards.

When his head broke above, he could hear the crew shouting and flinging ropes into the water.

Will didn't wait for them to catch up. He instantly began swimming southwards to the shore. But the waves didn't allow him to swim far. They were moving north, stopping Will's strong swimming. Within seconds, the man caught up to Will and roughly yanked him by his collar.

Will's head went under and for a second, Will thought he might drown; he accidently swallowed water. But the man pulled him back up. Will spluttered and let himself be dragged towards the ship. The swim had tried him and by now, the ship was too far to even swim to shore.

It was only when Will was dropped back onto the deck when the man yanked chains around Will's wrist, twisting them so much that Will was sure they would cut off his circulation in seconds. He was right. Within a minute, he couldn't feel his hands. The man then chained his wrist to the main sail, and gave one last punch in the diaphragm.

Will doubled over, coughing, trying to regain air in his lungs. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Evanlyn try to approach him, but roughly be pushed away by Erak, the captain.

When he was finally able to breath again, he leaned against the pole, staring dully out back at the shore. A small figure on a horse was riding towards the water. Will squinted and his breath caught. For a second. Then, "Halt!" he screamed, "Halt! Halt!"

The man who tied him up slapped him upside the head and told him to shut up. But Will didn't care. He would've screamed until his lungs gave out, but as he began to yell angina, the man lost patience and knocked him out with a cuff to the temple.

Will never heard the small figure on the shore wiper words of a promise:

"I'm coming, Will, I promise."

Thank you so much for everybody who's reading this! I never thought I'd get more than, like, two views. So thank you. As usual, feel free to comment, I always welcome suggestions. And if there's anything you'd like me to write about, comment! Thank you so much!