The Quest for Skandia (Ranger's Apprentice Fanfiction)

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"Ok, who wants to do some tracking practice?" Gilan asked. "I do!" Emily, Samantha and Kane said in unison. "Alright then, lets go!" Gilan said, with a nod to Halt and Will, who followed behind. A few minutes later they reached where they wanted to go. "Ok! Lets get started. Your objective is to find an animal, and track it." Gilan said. "You will each be sent into three different directions, where you will search, hunt, and then report back to us." Halt said. The kids nodded. "Ok, so Samantha, you go that way." Will said, pointing to his left. "Emily, you go that way." He commanded, pointing straight ahead. "Towards the Ruins of Gorlan" Gilan thought. "And Kane, you go to my right. Ok, now go!" The kids jogged off into their directions.

~~~Samantha~~~

Samantha looked around until a movement caught her eye. Moving her head slowly to where it came from, she noticed a squirrel, and walked slowly after it, using the cloak he was given by the Rangers. As the squirrel scrambled down from the tree, she stopped straight in her tracks. The squirrel lifted up its nose and sniffed, and then continued on. Samantha pulled her recurve bow into her hands, pulled out and arrow, put it on the bowstring and fired. The arrow hit the squirrel a little above where she wanted, and the squirrel fell down. "That was easy." Samantha murmured, and walked over to the squirrel. She turned around, and started walking back to the meeting place. Kane~~

Kane stopped in his tracks as he heard leafs crunching to his left. He turned towards the noise. He saw a slight movement under some leaves. He leaped ontop of it and was greeted by a squirming Samanatha. "Get...off of....me!" She rasped. Kane got off of Samantha and stood up. "What in all of Araluen were you doing there?" He asked. Samantha shrugged. "I've already gotten my object, so I came to spy on you." She said happily. Kane rolled his eyes, and they walked towards where Emily was.

~~Emily~~

Emily was walking inside her area, when she heard a loud sound somewhere off. "Maybe a boar?" She thought, and went stealthily towards the sound. She flinched as the sound went off again, it sounded oddly like a roar. She took in a deep breath, and continued on. A few minutes later, she stopped as she saw giant tracks. "Maybe a bear?" She thought. Following the tracks, she used her cloak to hide her. She thought she heard a noise behind her, and turned around. She sighed as she noticed her ears had fooled her. She turned around. There, right in front of her, there was a gigantic furry creature. She scanned it from the feet to the head. As soon as she saw it, she screamed. But her scream was cut half off, because she saw its eyes...and became paralysed.

~~Meeting place~~

The three Rangers watched happily as Kane and Samantha came back. Kane had shot a rabbit on the way back, and handed it to Gilan, and Samantha handed her squirrel to Will. Suddenly, a though struck Gilan. "Where's Emily?" He asked. "You mean she's not here yet?" Samantha asked, surprised. All the Rangers nodded, Emily was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, a scream sounded through the forest, but was stopped half way through. "That sounded like Emily!" Kane said. "We need to go find her!" Samantha said, and they set off, following her tracks. Half an hour later, they reached where Emily's tracks ended, but they were combined with bigger footprints. The three Rangers glanced at each other. "Are these..." Will started. "Kalkara tracks? Yes." Halt finished. The all looked at each other nervously. Emily had been taken by a Kalkara, or worse, killed.