{Ranger's Apprentice} "A Mission to Skandia"

Chapter 6: Flashes

"We're arriving soon to Skorghijl," Will announced quietly as a small blot of land appeared vaguely in the horizon. It was quite a few days since they had set out from the port at Araluen, and Halt had long put his sickness behind him.

Noting the melancholic tone in Will's voice, Halt said, "Would you like for us to not land there?"

Will only shrugged. "We haven't got much choice. The supplies need to be replenished. And besides, that was a long time ago now. I don't really have much of a problem with this place. I mean, technically, this is not the place that left the most trauma for me. That, I think, would be Hallasholm itself."

Unsurprisingly, Halt kept quiet. No matter how many times Will has told him that he had put the past behind him, Halt would still feel a deep guilt for what had happened those years ago in Skandia. But out of necessity, they must now return to that place, and therefore Halt thought that he may as well just keep quiet.

>>>———>

"Oberjarl!" The doors of the great hall of Hallasholm burst open, letting in a gust of cold wind—it was only early autumn, but Skandia was almost perpetually cold. A man, with the looks of an experienced old sailor, wearing the traditional horned helmet of the Skandians, strode in, holding two bulging pouches of money. "Here's the taxes."

Erak, the current Oberjarl, waved vaguely at his hilfmann, Borsa, to take care of the matter, as he usually was not one to care much for the small details of the lack of a penny. By this time Borsa was already pretty old, but was still strong enough to take care of these matters.

"Gundar," Erak said to the jarl who had come in with the taxes. "Were you the one assigned to collect from the northeastern borders?"

"Aye." Gundar quite casually sat down on one of the chairs of the massive table, and reached for a tankard of ale. As a senior jarl, he had the rights to sit at the Oberjarl's table and drink whatever he wanted. Skandian politics were relatively simple. Especially after Erak became Oberjarl.

Erak leaned forward. "And what have you seen there? The troubles that the last tax collector reported, are they still there?"

Gundar settled himself into a more comfortable position and began stroking his rough beard. "Now, there's something that he didn't even report, which I have seen."

Erak nodded, prompting him to go on.

"I have seen several riders from the East."

At this, the Oberjarl furrowed his brows. "Riders from the East? I don't suppose you mean the Temujai?"

"I mean precisely the Temujai."

Slowly, Erak leaned back and downed another tankard of ale himself. "And, are they causing much trouble at this point? And what about those Araluan archers? Last report, they were the ones causing trouble."

"The riders aren't doing much yet. I suspect they're just doing some scouting work. After all, they are known to be rather stealthy. As for the Araluans, somehow I think that the unrest that we were last reported about was only due to the fact that they might have somehow known that the Temujai are around."

"That is most peculiar. And yet, in that case, it could also be a problem. Because if they knew that the riders were coming but did not report to me, then that could not bode well."

"Aye," Gundar agreed. "But at least when I was up there, I didn't see any sign of direct trouble or skirmish, so I presume that in the near future nothing will happen just yet."

Erak nodded. "I suppose we'll just have to wait for those Rangers that Duncan promised to send to us. They should straighten things up a bit."

Borsa grinned a bit from his position on the other side of the table, where he was counting money. "Has he told you which ones it would be?"

"Which what?"

"Rangers."

"Oh. I've been told we'll know them," Erak said, with a strangely mischievous grin on his face.

>>>———>

"Lord Ka'zhak." A lowly Temujai soldier bowed as he entered the tent of one of the most skilled Kaijin in many of Ulans. The Kaijin, during war, were marksmen specially trained to target and remove the leaders of the enemy, and each Ulan, which was a unit of sixty men, had only one such Kaijin. In the present situation though, Ka'zhak had merely been sent here as the leader of the scouting party.

"What news?" He said in an imperious voice.

"Lord, all has been made ready with the Araluans."

"And the Skandians?"

"The taxing ship has left shortly, now the only ones left here are the country folk, the weaker, older, or very young. And the warriors will not return until this time next year."

"We will not need that much time." Ka'zhak mused.

"We will not, indeed, my lord."

"Send a message to the General Bin'zak. Tell him, all is ready for us to move out."

"Aye, my lord."

The soldier bowed once more and then left the tent. 

A/N: Quick note, the title "Flashes" was kind of unclear. Basically I named it that because this chapter flashed between several different perspectives.

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