Araluen's Peril

Chapter 3 The Master Plan

Chapter 3 The Master Plan

Turns out, the waiting switches to them waiting for Horace and Cassandra. Both of them are out doing a patrol round with the royal party. At this point, Will decides to take advantage to assess the skills of Jack. He had seen some skills and some potential of a ranger in him, but he is only half trained. Halt, Will and Commandant Gilan stands at an archery field, with targets set up variously around with some even only showing a part of the target. Jack stands on a thin but think piece of wood, fixed 1 meter off the ground, roughly. The 3 master rangers stand silently assessing every single movement he makes. Jack shrugs off their scrutiny; it's only a practice range. He draws his longbow and fires at the targets with rapid succession. The speed was admirable, only what is expected of an apprentice ranger, but in order to be the best of best, he will need to be faster. All 25 targets were hit dead center with one slightly off.

Halt lowly comments, "He has a good aim, probably better than you did when you first started your training."

Will turns his head and looks at his former mentor skeptically. "Well, I wasn't being burned on a stake at that time."

Halt raises an eyebrow. Will elaborates "He told me that he was almost being burned on a stake when he was younger"

Halt just grimly smiles and turns his attention to Gilan,

"Don't look at me, you two have better shots than I am, don't you forget Halt, I am one of those "head bashers", which reminds me, Will, I saw him carrying a sword in his weaponry. Does he have that around or can he actually fight with it?"

Will looks at Jack who went to retrieve his arrows, "Well, I haven't seen him use the sword but like the bow, I wouldn't be surprised if he was able to use the sword anyways"

Gilan looks thoughtfully at Jack, "Alright then, maybe we should get him to duel me as an assessment... next."

Jack finished retrieving the arrows and runs up to them "So? How did I do? I suppose I passed?"

Before Will or Gilan was able to reply,

Halt says "Well, one of the targets you hit was slightly off, and the slightly off wasn't dead on center, if you were to aim at the heart of the enemy, the "slightly" off can kill you indefinitely"

Jack was at loss for words, he noticed Gilan and Will nod in agreement, and at the same time stifling some amusement, because they'd heard that more than once, more so themselves repeating it.

Gilan takes the silence and said, "Alright, you can work on your shooting and speed a bit more, I saw you with a sword earlier, I take it you can use it?"

Jackbrightens up "Yes! So who do I duel with in this assessment? The supreme battle commander? Oakleaf knight?"

Gilan shakes his head "No, me"

ooo

Jack started to walk to retrieve his sword, with some disappointment. Gilan? He thinks. Rangers don't use swords not many do anyways. They use Saxes and strikers. Pritchard once told him that, there wasn't enough time for them to be taught swordsmanship to an excellent level. He walks back to the dueling ground where he sees Gilan brandishing his sword. Gilan sees Jack and notices his disappointment. He calls out, "I see you're a bit disappointed, why is that?"

Jack looks at Gilan and opens his mouth then closes it, how can he say it without really offending the commandant?

"It's just that most rangers aren't trained with sword fighting." Jack said matter-of-factly.

Halt gives a heavy grumble of laughter. Gilan stares at Halt for a minute and turns back to Jack "Alright then, if you think so, attack"

Jack uncertainly draws his sword in an offensive stance. Then he gives a semi light strike and Gilan easily glances off the strike. Gilan scoffs "Come on, you can certainly hit harder than that"