Daughter of a Ranger

Chapter 1

Jemma groaned. All of her muscles ached. She had been hard at work, doing all the jobs necessary around the dreaded castle. She hated Oracle, with a passion. He had taken her mother thirteen years ago and they were still here.

The bell rang, meaning duties were over for the day. Jemma raced to Ranger Liam's room. Ranger Liam couldn't remember how he was taken, but Alyss said he came about a year after her, when Jemma was just a little baby.

Apparently, Liam had told her that everyone thought that Alyss was dead, after she saved a girl in a fire.

Everyday Jemma would go to Liam after duties were finished, and train to be a Ranger. She always wanted to be a Ranger, like her father and she was able to train this way. She was now thirteen, so she had been training for six years, more then the average training time. She had more years because some of the time, they didn't have the resources to train.

She trained with a bow and arrows, then with Liam's saxe knife and throwing knife. She practised with Liam's cloak, although it was too long for her.

Though, Alyss and Liam didn't know that Jemma also practised with the sword. She was pretty good at it, but she didn't think she was nearly as good as Horace or Gilan, her mother's friends. What she didn't know, however, was that she was already a natural and not many people would be able to beat her.

She raced up the tower steps and grabbed her bow and quiver, before racing to Liam's room. Her mother would be cooking dinner now.

Jemma had an idea, and she wanted to run it by Liam first before talking to her mother.

Jemma wanted to escape. She wanted to get out of this place. She had been having ideas about it for months, and now she felt she had a solid plan.

Jemma wanted to find her father, the famous Will Treaty.

...

Liam loved the plan and they both went to speak to Alyss after dinner.

Alyss was unsure about the idea at first, but then warmed up to it.

The plan:

Jemma and Liam would escape by night with the Ranger skills. They would travel to Araluen for the annual Ranger Gathering, then speak to Will, Gilan and Halt. They would gather a group of friends to come back and get Alyss out, before destroying the castle and Oracle once and for all.

For Rangers, this would be simple.

They all knew their parts to play.

...

Jemma was ready to go, but she was extremely nervous. What if it it didn't work?

Ranger Liam quietly knocked on the door and Jemma stood up with a start. Alyss looked at her young daughter. She knew that the trip would be dangerous, but Liam was there to guard her.

Alyss hugged Jemma nervously. She knew that the plan might not work, and she wanted to savour the last moments with her daughter.

Alyss had been a good mother. She always looked after Jemma, and watched out for her. She made sure that Jemma didn't have to do the gruesome jobs, even if she insisted. Alyss also taught Jemma everything she knew, apart from the Ranger skills.

She said goodbye one last time before they left.

As soon as Alyss knew she was gone, for the first time in many, many years, she cried.

...

Liam helped Jemma over the last wall. It had taken them an hour to get where they were, without being seen or heard.

They quietly jumped down and ran, silently for the trees near. When they had reached the brim, they turned South, to start heading down to the coast of Gallica.

It was going to be a long night, they both knew.

Before they had left, Jemma had quickly stolen a sword and bow and quiver with arrows to take on the road. For the past couple of days, they had been storing food, stolen from the kitchens, to take with them.

They were in their servant clothes, because they didn't want their good clothes to get ruined. Liam was wearing his cloak and Ranger weapons though.

They trudged along, slowly at first to conserve their strength, but as daylight started to stream across the land, they increased their pace to a steady jog. As they were both fit, they could keep the pace all day.

...

Towards noon, they started to hear hoof beats behind them. They knew that they would be slower walking then on horseback, but they didn't know that Oracle's men were going to catch up this quick!

Liam shoved Jemma toward the trees. They looked for a good place to hide, then quickly and quietly, dived into the cover of a bush. Oracle's men went by, slowly but surely and Jemma and Liam didn't move. They knew the consequences of being found.

They waited and waited, but the people didn't move, as if they knew that Liam and Jemma were waiting there.

Then all hell broke loose.

Spears went everywhere and arrows flew millimetres from their faces. They knew they had been found.

Liam jumped up suddenly, dragging Jemma up in the process and they ran for cover
The only cover available was a weirdly shaped tree. Liam then saw something glimmer in the trees, heading for Jemma. He knew that Jemma had to survive, so he jumped in front of the racing spear, to save Jemma's life.

The spear went heavily into his gut. It didn't kill him instantly, but instead let him live for a few minutes.

The men who speared him thought he was dead, as well as Jemma, but couldn't be bothered to go check and turned their horses to go back home.

Meanwhile, Jemma wriggled her way from behind Liam and settled next to him. With his last breaths, he told Jemma to take his Ranger gear and where the Ranger Gathering was, as it is a closely guarded secret.

His last words said, he slumped back, dead.

Jemma cried and cried. She had cared a great deal for the Ranger. He had taken care of her along with her mother, and had taught her as many Ranger skills as possible, skills that had helped her time and time again.

Jemma decided to stay the night and dug a hole to bury him. She had taken his belt and cloak as well as weapons and pack, like he told her to, then left him in his normal Ranger clothing.

She put him as gently as she could into the hole, then covered him with the dug up dirt. She found a large rock, then with the saxe knife she carved the following words:

Here lies Liam,
A King's Ranger of Araluen,
Ranger of Trelleth fief,
A brave man who saved my life.
He will always be remembered.

As she buried him, she smelt a faint smell, but couldn't place it. Maybe it was a poison? The men might have put it on the spear. As a servant, Jemma had to smell or taste each food as it was set on the table to make sure it wasn't poisoned. If it was, she would die. Luckily nobody poisoned the food. Because of this, she had an extensive knowledge of poisons. She decided to leave the smell, because she was too sad and worried about how she was going to get to Araluen by herself.

In the morning, Jemma took one last glance of Liam's grave, before departing, slowly making her way back to Araluen, to her father.