The Quest for Skandia (Ranger's Apprentice Fanfiction)

6

Emily stared at Samantha in surprise. "I highly doubt it. Besides, there's another girl in the orphanage named Emily that looks like Erak." She explained. Samantha frowned. "Well, what's your last name." She asked. "Nobody knew my parents, so they gave me a fake last name. It's Dawnbreaker." Emily replied. This time Kane asked the question. "What's the other Emily's last name?" Emily looked at him. "Nobody knows." She replied. "Well, no matter what, you still do look like Erak." Samantha said. Emily sighed quietly. "I've been in this room for a while. May I go outside to stretch?" She asked. Halt and the Baron nodded, and Emily walked out of the room. Kane and Samantha looked at Halt, who nodded, and they rushed out the door. They found Emily waiting at the door. "Uhh, which way do we go?" She asked, embarrassed. Samantha smiled and pointed down the stairs. "I'll lead the way." She said kindly, and started down the stairs, with Emily and Kane closely behind. When they exited outside Emily took in a deep breath. "Finally, fresh air." She said happily. Kane and Samantha smiled. Emily stretched and ran around for a minute. She stopped as they heard a shouting voice. She ran back to Kane and Samantha and watched quizzically as a man on a horse came galloping out of the forest. He rode up to the kids, and got off his horse. "Do you know where Halt and Baron Arald are?" He asked. All of them nodded, and Kane pointed to the door. "In the Ward." He replied. But the man didn't have to move because Halt came out of the Ward before the man could go in. "Halt!" He shouted happily and ran up to Halt. They started talking in quieted voices, so that Emily, Samantha, and Kane couldn't hear. Emily noticed that Samantha was in something like awe around the man, the same look as when she's around Halt. "Who's that?" Emily asked. Samantha looked at her and smiled. "That's Gilan, he's the Ranger Corps commandant." She explained. Emily nodded and looked back to Gilan and Halt. Gilan said a word and Halt got a surprised look on his face. "They're back?" He said a little louder then he meant to. "What's back?" Emily said. Halt and Gilan looked at her. Emily stared at her feet as Gilan replied. "It's nothing you need to worry about." Emily nodded and looked at Samantha and Kane. "Lets go." Samantha said, and they ran to the forest. They stopped at one of the first trees, and Samantha looked at Emily. "You know how to climb?" She asked. Emily looked at her and smiled. "They don't have many forests in Skandia, but yes, I can." She said kindly. Samantha nodded and Kane said,"We'll let's see." Emily nodded and jumped to the nearest branch. She pulled herself to the top of it and then grabbed the trunk. She grabbed a ledge in the bark, and put one hand there, and then put her feet on other ledges. She pushed herself up, using the process over and over again until she was about 8 meters in the air. "Does that prove enough?" She yelled down. "You bet." Kane said, and she climbed back down the tree. "Now the question is, can you guys climb?" She asked sarcastically. She got a nod from Samantha, and a shake of the head from Kane. She smirked and looked to Samantha. "Lets see you climb." She said. Samantha nodded and started climbing up the trunk, she was a little shorter than Emily, so she couldn't reach the branch Emily used. Samantha climbed up the tree quickly, until she was about 8 meters in the air. "Good job!" Emily said and clapped. Samantha smiled and climbed down. "How'd you learn to climb?" Samantha asked. Emily shrugged. "One time my friend Diamante and I were throwing a ball to each other, when he accidentally threw it too high. It went into a tree and I climbed up to get it back." She explained. "How'd you learn to climb?" She asked Samantha. "It's something similar to yours. One of the younger kids in the Ward was playing with her toy when one of the older kids came by. He's 17 now, and in battle school, but he was really mean. He threw her toy into a tree, and when he left, I climbed up the tree to get it." She explained. "Which reminds me, Kane, it's time to go watch the younger kids." Samantha said. Kane nodded, and Samantha looked to Emily. "You're welcome to come." She said. Emily nodded and followed them back to the Ward. They walked inside, to a new room this time. They were greeted by 3 little kids. Two were laughing and playing, and one was crying. Samantha and Kane walked in, while Emily stood at the doorpost. "Come on in." Samantha said kindly, and Emily walked in after them. There was an older lady sitting in a rocking chair, rocking the crying baby. She looked up as they walked in. "Ah, hello Samantha and Kane." She said kindly, then looked to Emily. "And who might you be." She asked. Emily smiled and bowed her head, being raised to treat elders with respect. "I'm Emily Dawnbreaker." She replied. The older woman nodded. "News has spread of your arrival." She said kindly. Emily smiled and looked to Samantha and Kane. They were playing with the two happy ones. Emily looked to the crying one, who had calmed down. "Why hullo there little one." She said softly. The baby cooed and Emily smiled. "What's his name?" She asked. The woman looked at her and smiled. "His name is Jack." She said. "And that one over there is Cecile. And the one next to her is Adiley." The woman said, pointing to the two girls Kane and Samantha were playing with. Emily nodded as looked back to Jack. She smiled and tickled him. He giggled and cooed. Emily smiled an got up. As she started to walk away, Jack started crying again. When she looked back he stopped. Emily raised an eyebrow at him, and then walked to Samantha and Kane. They were drawing with quill and ink. Samantha was drawing what looked like a horse, and Kane was drawing something that looked like a dog. She looked to the two young girls, who were both just scribbling on their paper. Emily shook her head and smiled, sitting down next to Samantha. Samantha looked at her and handed her a quill. "Want to draw?" She asked. Emily nodded and took to quill into her left hand. "You're left handed?" Samantha asked. Emily nodded an started drawing on a piece of paper. She was drawing a Skandian ship. There were a couple of tears in her eyes as she remembered her home, but she quickly wiped then away with her right hand. She was almost done with the sail when the door opened. It startled her, so she drew a stray line. "Darn." She said quietly and turned around to see Halt, Gilan, and Baron Arald. She put her quill back into the ink and stood up, and Kane and Samantha did the same. She hard exited chattering behind her and turned around to see the two younger girls playing with her picture. She rolled her eyes an then turned back to the three men. "We need to talk to you guys." Halt said. Emily, Samantha, and Kane looked at each other and walked out the door. They walked outside, and walked to the forest, so nobody could hear them. The three men glanced at each other, and Gilan started off. "We've found Wargals." He said. Kane and Samantha gasped, while Emily had a confused expression on her face. "They're very ugly monsters." Gilan explained. Emily nodded and then Gilan continued. "Some must've survived, and so more Wargals are alive. In the mean time, we need to stop them, but without alerting all of Araluen. The only people that know of this are King Horace, Queen Cassandra, and us. Like I said, we don't want word spreading, and there aren't that many Wargals, so we've come to a conclusion." He said. He glanced at Halt, and Halt finished. "We've watched Samantha and Kane practice with weapons before. Kane, you're pretty good with your dagger and saber. And Samantha, you've practiced with the mace and bow. How you got these weapons, and practiced with them without the ward knowing, I have no idea, all we know is that we need your help." Halt explained. He then looked at Emily. "Have you practiced with the battle axe in Skandia?" He asked. Emily shook her head. "They haven't taught you?" He asked. Emily shook hr had once again. "I practice with other weapons." She said. "What weapons?" Gilan asked. Emily looked at humans smiled. "Sword and bow." She replied. There was a surprised look on everyone's faces. "But sadly, my weapons were left on the boat when I was washed over." She said. Halt nodded. "I have an extra recurve bow you could use." He said. Emily nodded. "And I'm sure the blacksmith could make you a sword." Gilan said. "Then we'd better get started now." Baron Arald said. Halt and Gilan nodded, and Halt raced off to his cabin on his horse, and Gilan raced off to the blacksmith I his. Samantha and Kane went behind the Ward and grabbed their weapons from where they hid them, Baron Arald raced off to his place, and Emily stood where she was, with a confused look on her face. About 30 minutes later, Halt arrived with a recurve bow, and handed it to Emily. She smiled and took the quiver with the arrows he also gave her. She put the quiver over her shoulder and around her neck, and held the bow in her left hand. Even though she was left handed, she did a lot of things with her right hand. Halt looked at her and raised and eyebrow. "Are you any good with it?" He asked. Emily looked to him and smiled. "You'd be surprised."