Will's Peril and Gilan's Apprentice || A Ranger's Apprentice Fall Fanfiction

No!

A/N: Sorry I haven't been updating. Writer's block this week...
Will's POV
I'm not sure why Maddie hated Kai so much, but I think I had an idea. One day after training, I drew Kai aside. She looked angry. "Kai," I said, "Don't let Maddie get you down. She's might be a Ranger's Apprentice, but she is the royal princess. She doesn't like getting beat. At anything."

The flush of anger left Kai's face and she sighed.

The idea for this part of the story I give credit to RedRose-Arrow .They gave me permission to use their idea. Thanks!
One day later...
I don't know why I got so scared. I should've set a better example to Maddie and Kai to not hold on to past horrors. The day started out just fine. I was teaching Kai how to throw the long, lethal, knives she wore. She was catching on pretty quickly, but one of her shots had went wide and disappeared into the woods.

"I'll get it, you keep practicing," I told her. She grabbed her other knife and balanced it in her hand while I jogged off into the dark trees. From a distance I found the knife, laying among the pine needles.

Stalking through the darkness, I was almost to the knife when I stumbled on a log in the middle of the path. I cursed as I fell and cut my leg on the blade itself, opening a gash that bled profusely. I wanted to panic when I saw the amount of blood, but I forced myself to breathe steadily.

"Maddie!" I called out. "Bring the salve!" I hated the warmweed salve, but I had to use it sometimes. Besides, I had left my pack back at the cabin. Both Maddie and Kai came running, Maddie with the pot of salve in her hand. She gasped when she saw my leg, and immediately stooped down to clean the wound.

Then she stopped and turned to Kai. "Maybe you should do it since you're so special," Maddie said acidly. "Okay." Kai appeared unfazed, but I could see the anger boiling beneath the surface as Maddie stalked around to the other side of me.

She opened the container and scooped some salve onto her fingers, and reached toward my leg. Then everything went wrong. Kai unthinkingly reached up to scratch her mouth. "NO!" I yelled. In just a few seconds my breathing had become faster, and I could see dark spots at the edge of my vision.

Calm down, I told myself, but I couldn't. I started to scream and cry over and over again, hyperventilating, thinking about how Kai almost got the stuff in her mouth, and how she could've... It could've happened to her too.

"No!" I gasped, over and over again. Maddie and Kai tried to comfort me, but I was beyond madness. All I could see in my mind's eye was Kai becoming a mindless slave with no feelings, no heart, as Evanlyn had told me I had become.

Finally Maddie had an idea. "Ride to Redmont and ask for Halt. He'll know what to do. Hurry!" she shouted these last words to Kai through her tears, but Kai was already up and running. I was having trouble staying conscious now, and everything swam in front of me. Then the blackness that I knew was coming seeped in.

Kai's POV
Bumper pounded along the flat track to Castle Redmont. Gorlog knew who Halt was, but I vaguely remembered hearing his name somewhere. Oh. Duh! He was Halt, defeater of Morgarath and Master to the famous Will Treaty.

Will. What had happened? I knew the drug warmweed was sadly very effective in many addicts' cases, as well as being a healing compound. Maybe Will had had a run-in with the wrong side of it in the past. I shook myself back to the present as Bumper approached the castle gates.

"I live with Ranger Will in his cabin, and something happened to him. I need to see Ranger Halt. Now," I added forcefully as the guards stoutly refused to move.

"Oh, for Gorlog's sake, let me in! Or you could let the Ranger could die... the Baron might not be to happy with you then." I didn't expect that to convince them, but they reluctantly stepped aside.

I dismounted Bumper, dropped his reins into the hands of one of the guards, and rushed inside. I didn't know where I was going, but ran up every flight of stairs, thinking the Baron's office would be at the top. I went in the biggest door I came to. Knock, knock, knock, knock.

A middle-aged man with a graying (and receding!) hairline opened the door. Baron Arald was an impressive figure, but that's all I noticed before confronting him. "I need Halt. I live in Will's cabin with him and he had a... I don't know what it was, but he broke down. Maddie said Halt could help him." I explained rapidly.

Baron Arald paled. "But.. Will... Surely not." "Surely so!" I said irritably, forgetting proper form of address. "I. Need. Halt." "Down the hall, third door to the left," Baron Arald mumbled. He was obviously still very confused and had forgotten I was there.

I tore down the hall, not pausing when I knocked a pile of dirty laundry out of a startled maid's arms. Finding the correct door, I burst inside. Apparently I was interrupting a serious conversation between Halt and his wife, the Head of the Diplomatic Corps, Lady Pauline.

"Halt..." I said breathlessly. "Will... needs your help. Now." "What? Who are you?" Halt said sharply, whipping around to face me. "I'm Kai. Will and Maddie picked me up at Harvest Day." Lady Pauline stepped in. "She said Will needs your help, dear," she said gently.

"Right." Halt seemed to recognize my earlier statement for the first time. Then he turned the same shade as Baron Arald. "He's okay, isn't he?"

"I don't know... He had a panic attack. I was using warmweed salve on a leg cut of his, then I almost got it in my mouth by accident. He started hyperventilating and all he did was cry and he started choking and-" my voice broke, but I didn't cry.

Halt regained his composure only to lose it again. "Warmweed salve, you say? Oh no... Let's go. Hurry up!" He barked at me. We rushed down to the the castle gates. Halt ran to the stables and saddled his horse in record time, while I took Bumper's reins from the dumbfounded guard.

We clattered off down the road to Will's cabin.

RedRose-Arrow Did I do that part credit? I'm not sure... Thanks soooo much for the idea, by the way. BTW guys, give me some writing prompts for my book!
-Audrey❤️❤️❤️❤️