The Ranger's Apprentice - A New Story ON HOLD

Chapter 9-Improvement with Practice

Anna's arm stung as she threw the last knife in to the target. Her breathing was hard and her knees and elbows were sore. She had been rolling around on the ground throwing knives at Will's command for the last two hours. She smiled at her success. Three weeks of training was finally beginning to pay off. She had hit the center of the target twice in a run. She would have liked to get more, but at least she was not throwing them off the end of the cliff anymore.

Will nodded as she stood, brushing the dirt, and what she could of the grass stains off of her clothes. She pulled the knives out of the target and handed them to Will. In return he handed her the recurve bow. She sighed as she grabbed the bow and the quiver. Archery was her least favorite of her training. She was never good at it. She did not know if it was natural, or because the weapon still haunted her memories. Nevertheless, she loaded her first arrow and took her stance. Will studied her position, adjusted a few things, and told her to fire at will. She fired the first arrow, which landed about a half an inch from the center. She sighed, and fired another arrow. Although it was not bad, she still hoped to be doing better.

She fired a set of ten arrow and set down her bow. Her grouping had gotten better, but still no hits on the center of the target. She slumped in discouragement, and looked to Will for criticizim. 

"Your grouping has gotten better," was all he said.

"Is that a good thing?" Anna asked.

"It depends. You are getting better though. Once you overcome your fear and first impressions of this weapon, you should get much better." Anna nodded in responce. Will told her to fire her arrows again.

Anna's arm felt like it was on fire as she fired her last arrow. She set down the bow and rubbed her arm. She had been practicing for an hour and had made more progress. Will told her that she would be able to start practicing while moving tomorrow. She paused as the noon sun warmed the air from the cooling wind from the sea. She had not noticed how cold the wind was until she had to stand still for an hour. 

"Good job. Let's go inside and make lunch," Anna agreed and went inside the cabin.

Anna and Will sat down at the table and ate. They ate in silence until Will broke it with a statement.

"Harvest Day is coming up soon in Redmont," Will stated. Anna froze. She had completely forgotten about Harvest Day. Being so far away from Redmont, she forgot about those things. She hated Harvest Day. While it was a celebration to most people, to Anna it was the one day where she could never avoid persecuting eyes, no matter where she went. It was always a chance for people to call her mean names, to insult her, and to remind her of how her family had betrayed the kingdom. For some reason, people would not let go of that. A question came upon Anna though.

"We are still going to that? We are not in Redmont anymore," asked Anna. Will held up a piece of paper.

"I recieved a message from Baron Arald that we would be welcome to join for the harvest. Before I apprenticed you, I used to be the Ranger for both Redmont and SeaCliff interchangibly. I was mainly in Redmont before then." Will said.

"Why are you staying in SeaCliff now?"

"Because I know that you were persecuted at Redmont and I thought that it would help if you were away from all of that. The ranger who is in this fief when I am not here is currently in another position," he responded. Anna was facinated. It seems like Will knows more about her than she does herself. It annoyed her a little. She realized though, that it was nice not to be persecuted, not to have blaming glares or untrusting guards. To walk through town normally, well, as normal as it gets for a ranger. She appreciated what Will did.

"Do you want to go?" asked Will. Anna thought carefully.

"I don't know. I never really liked Harvest Day, but it would be nice to go back..." she rambled. Anna was mostly talking to herself, but the other ranger listened intently.

"If you want to go back, we can disguise you as a boy and maybe you can go without persecution," Will suggested. Anna opened her mouth to protest, then shut it, seeing the reason in it. She looked at her long hair. She knew it would have to be cut. As she debated, Will stood and told his apprentice to meet him outside. Anna stood up quickly and followed him outside. She continued her training in stealth and riding until long after dark and Anna was exausted. She did not even bother to eat supper, she just collapsed in her bed, and dreamed about her parents for the first time in a month.