Sick Day, Rangers apprentice by Elfpen (Fanfiction )

hapter 2: A Dangerous Game

A/N: Thanks, everyone, for the reviews! They really do mean a lot to me. So, Will is quite sick, so now let's see if he can convince his dear craftmaster Halt otherwise... Anyone want to place bets? :P

Halt sipped at his coffee with partial interest as he packed up a small pouch of dried fruit, cold meat, and bread for their trek to the gathering grounds. To the casual observer, the grizzled ranger would have appeared as gruff and hard as ever, but in all actuality, Halt was in a rather uplifted mood. This would be Will's second time to the gathering since his becoming Halt's apprentice, though it would be the first time the apprentice was actually evaluated by his elders. With the events of the Kalkara assassins during the Gathering two years ago, there was hardly time for Halt's new apprentice to be assessed by the other rangers. The year after that, Will had been imprisoned and Halt had been exiled - hardly the circumstances to attend the Gathering properly, Halt reflected. Now, however, both Will and Halt were safe and sound at Redmont fief, there was no immediate war to attend to, and, as Halt observed, the spring weather was immaculate for travel. And Halt was quite looking forward to seeing how well his protégé would do at his first evaluation.

Even as he pondered his apprentice's abilities as a ranger, Halt flicked his head around to face what sounded to be a loud crash coming from Will's bedroom. The ranger's brows came together ever so slightly. He watched Will's door for a moment, before looking away. He could have sworn he heard whispering coming from the room in question, and briefly, Halt wondered why on earth the boy would be talking to himself. But, dismissively, Halt accounted it to the mysteries of youth, and carried on with his task of packing provisions for their traveling. He had already fed, watered, and saddled Abelard and Tug, and had packed up his own bedroll. Now, all that was left for the Ranger to do was to get the food packed, get another cup of coffee into his system, and once Will woke up, they would be on their way.

Speak of the Devil, Halt thought wryly as he heard the latch on Will's door rise.

"Morning, Will." He said, not looking up from his work. He heard footfalls coming up from behind.

"Mornig, Hald." Came the mispronounced response. Halt's eyebrows twitched together in a confused look for a fraction of a second, before he regained his normal composure. He turned around to look at Will, who sniffled.

"How are you feeling this morning?" Halt asked conversationally. Will gave a little cough, looked up at Halt and said, in a matter-of-fact, happy manner,

"I'm good. How about you, Halt?" Will said. Somehow, his words didn't match his appearance, Halt thought. The previous nasally tone that had greeted him was gone, masked by a large amount of hard determination on Will's part to speak normally, despite his clogged sinuses. His riding clothes were hastily and sloppily put on, and his hair was a mess. The dark circles under his eyes and fever-flushed complexion belied his mock energetic mood, and Halt thought he saw the boy shivering underneath the warm folds of his ranger cloak. He could tell how hard Will was trying to keep his body under control, but as clear as he could see the daylight outside, Halt could see the illness coming through in the dark-haired boy who stood before him. For a moment, Halt felt for his apprentice, mulling silently for a moment on the horrible timing of it all. Then, partly out of amusement, partly to see where Will planned to take this, Halt decided to play along with Will's little game.

"That's good. I was just packing up some provisions for our journey. You should pack up your bedroll and put it out on Tug's saddle. We'll be going, soon enough." After he said this, Halt moved away to put the food with the other things that they'd be bringing along. As he passed, he caught the glimmer of triumph, however unfounded as it was, that flickered through Will's eyes. He thought he had fooled his master, Halt thought. Oh, how much this boy had to learn. Halt indulged in a sly grin as Will went back to his room to gather his bedroll and fetch his weapons. Picking up a small pile of supplies, Halt calmly strode out the front door of their humble abode and went over to Abelard.