Awkward Moments, Rangers Apprentice by Cookieninja450

Chapter 4

Will watched in fascination as Halt had his freakish mood swings. On minute Halt was on his knees, begging for cookies, the next, he was crying and sucking his thumb. Will was utterly perplexed. He tried to help Halt, but all he did was make the mood swings worse.

Right now, Halt was rolling on the ground hysterically. He was laughing maniacally, staring at his hands in fascination. Will opened his mouth to say something, but Halt had another mood swing just then.

Halt's face was red. Tears were streaming down his face, and he was at his knees, crying into Will's foot. "WHY ARE YOU SO MEAN?" Halt cried hysterically, which made Will think he was paranoid. Something was wrong with Halt. And Will was sure of who had caused it-Arnold. Will patted the crying Halt's back, and then he had another mood swing. Halt's eyes grew big and he was on the brink of tears. His eyes watered and he sat down childishly, and smiled creepily at Will.

"Can you give me a hug?" Halt said in a sweet, girly voice. He smiled widely at Will, who was frozen with shock.

"You're insane," Will said unconcernedly.

Halt's eyes grew even more watery. "You're so mean!" he cried babyishly, and started bawling. "I've never said anything mean to you, yet you have the strength to torture me like this!"
Will rolled his eyes. He was getting used to Halt's stupid mood swings. It was in his daily routine now: wake up, deal with Halt's mood swings, eat breakfast, deal with Halt's mood swings, practice archery, deal with Halt's mood swings, make more Awkward Moment cards, deal with Halt's mood swings, watch Arnold creep Halt out, deal with Halt's mood swings...

There was a knock at the door. Halt, who was in the middle of a hilarious fitness exercise, froze. Will opened the door and standing outside...was Arnold. Halt yelped and said something like, "Dirty old rat, comes to torture me every day!" and took off. Will grinned at Arnold and began to make up a third verse for his song:

"Halt is really, really fat, he calls Arnold a dirty old rat-"

"HEY!" Halt called, "I'm not fat!"

Will shrugged. "I couldn't find anything else that rhymed with 'rat', so I-" But he was cut short by a couple of yelps, screams, and crashes. And then everything was silent. Will whipped around. Arnold was gone! Worried, Will raced around the house to see where Halt and Arnold had gone. But they were nowhere to be seen. Now Will was really worried.

"Halt?" Will shouted, peering through every door. "HALT? If you can hear me, say something!" But there was no reply. Will sighed desperately. "Arnold? Can you hear me? If you're not dead, say something, please!" Still, no reply came. The house was absolutely still. That left two options. Either both Halt and Arnold were dead, or they were playing a hide-and-seek game.

"Oh, so now you're playing hide-and-seek, are you?" Will said angrily. "Well, I'll find you, wherever you are..." Will searched the house again. He couldn't find anything. "Guys...this isn't funny! Please come out!" Will said desperately. There was no reply whatsoever. Finally, he was convinced that neither Arnold nor Halt was in the house. That made him more nervous. How could they just...disappear? Just like that?

Will called Halt's name one more time, and, getting no reply, he strode out into the morning sunshine. He'd ride to Redmont, get Horace, and ask him for help. He was just saddling Tug up when he saw a rustle of movement behind him. Will whipped around, and his eyes narrowed to the exact spot where he'd seen the movement. Though the person who had moved was carefully camouflaged, Will could make out a thin outline of a green-gray cloak. Will gasped. "Halt? Is that you?" Will said loudly.

The cloaked figure moved so that Will could see him clearly. It was, indeed, Halt. Halt put on a pained expression. "Shhh..." he whispered. "I'm hiding from Arnold." But just as he said that, there was a second movement. And out of nowhere, Arnold popped up.

"You were hiding from me? What in the name of Araluen would you do that for?" Arnold said, surprised.

Halt groaned, abandoned his old hiding spot, and raced off. Arnold followed. That left Will alone with Tug and Abelard. "Umm..." Will said to Tug, "I just came to see if you needed anything. Bye!" Will rushed off to follow Halt and Arnold. Tug was left looked extremely disappointed.

Will ran after Arnold, and caught up with Halt. When Halt saw Will, he muttered something under his breath. It sounded something like, "Will, we've got to get rid of Arnold. Once and for all."
5mins ago