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

Tears

A/N: Ayyeeeeee good Lord GUYS I'm freaking out! The Battle of Hackham Heath comes out in a week!! 😱😳
Third Person's POV:

Why does it have to keep raining? Kai thought miserably. She was sitting, on Bumper's not-so-dry saddle, thinking about Will's cheery (cozy, and warm) little cabin in the woods. She then wondered how he was doing. It's just a cold. People always recover from those. Oh, if only she knew how much she was wrong.

Maddie's POV:

Will should've been improving. However, a day after Gilan and Kai left, he took a turn for the worse. He had developed a fever, and started tossing and muttering fitfully in his sleep. I gave him willow bark and forced him to drink some beef broth, but nothing seemed to be helping.

I was sitting by Will's bed, watching him sleep, when Sable barked. A friendly bark. So she knew this person. I went to the door with my saxe knife in hand, but quickly lowered it when i opened the door to find Dad standing on the verandah.

"Dad!" I threw my arms around him. A million thoughts raced through my head. Everything would get better now. I mean, he was the king, right? Wasn't he Horace Altman, the legendary and foremost knight in Araluen? He could fix everything...

"Maddie." He held me at arm's length and looked me in the eyes. I had always loved his eyes. They were dark brown, like chocolate, but not as dark as coffee. "How's Will doing?" he asked me.

Tears welled up in my own hazel eyes as I replied in little more than a whisper, "He's not getting better, Dad. I've tried everything. It's all that girl's fault. But now she ran off to get away from it." I knew Gilan had reported to Mom and Dad about Will. I couldn't help it. I started to cry, my body racked with sobs that I was unable to control.

I felt Dad hugging me, and I could feel his tears on my hair as they dripped from his eyes, tears that ruined the beauty of them. I had never, not ever in my 16 years, seen my father cry. Now I was forced to, and it was Kai's fault. I will make you fix this, I vowed silently. I swear on Will's life.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
(Yes, I know that's a Tournament at Gorlan reference 😂)

Gilan's POV:

On the way to Picta, I asked Kai about her life. We had looked through the kingdom's records, and, seeing that the Scotti had created the most problems with demon-worshippers in the past 500 years, we thought it logical to travel to Picta.

There wasn't an opportunity for Will to actually follow up on the mission, since he focused on getting Kai healed up after the parade disaster, then got sick.

"What country are you from?" I asked tentatively, waiting for her reaction. Will had told me that her accent was Magyaran, so her answer surprised me. "Alpina," she said. "But..." I trailed off.

"You thought I was Magyaran? Good guess. The accents are almost identical." Kai answered me. "And," she said, forestalling my next question, "This is dye." She pointed to her brown hair. "It'll wash off in about a day. My real hair is blond."

"Alright," I said, not exactly knowing what to say. This girl sure was a ray of sunshine. We rode in silence for a few minutes, then Kai suddenly decided to talk, throwing me off.

"I'm mostly Alpinian, but my heritage is really mixed up. I have ancestors from Magyara, Teutlandt, Aslava, Picta (a lot of that), even a little Skandian. When I was 9, raiders attacked in the night and burned our village to the ground. I was one of the only ones who escaped."

"I don't know what happened to my family, but when I heard the alarm bells I just got up and ran. They're probably dead or enslaved." Kai looked down. I guessed her thoughts, because I had felt exactly the same way before.

"It's not your fault," I said quietly. She was a little girl. She couldn't have been expected to do anything but run away. I really, really hoped she believed me.

Cassandra/Evanlyn's POV:

Horace was gone longer than I expected him to be. I paced for at least an hour around Dad's study, trying to take my mind off things, but I couldn't. I wondered if Will was alright, for about the millionth time.

Will and warmweed? It had been so long ago since that happened... I couldn't imagine this. My hands started shaking. Stop it, I told them. Don't think about it. But I did.

Kai's POV:

Gilan wanted to talk to me. I knew it. I wasn't trying to be snappy, but I just wasn't in the mood for chatting. I was busy studying the trees, looking for signs of anyone following us.

"My horse will give us a warning signal if anyone threatening is anywhere near us," Gilan said. "You could've told me that earlier, you know," I said. "I know, but that look of concentration on your face is funny."

Now understand, I had come to trust and respect Gilan. He was the best silent mover in the Ranger Corps, and the only one out of the 50 who carried a sword.

The only thing was his steadfast determination to get a reaction out of me. It was quite annoying, but I'd never let him know that, instead replying with a sarcastic comment from time to time.

"There's a badger."
I looked where Gilan was pointing. No badger.
He laughed. I didn't.

A few minutes later he tried again.
"What kind of fruit do you eat at the beach?"
"Which kind?" I replied acidly.
"Watermelon. Get it?"

"Gilan, that is the cheesiest joke in existence. You are not going to get me to laugh."
His face fell. "Not even a chuckle?"
"Not even a chuckle."
"You're as bad as Halt."
"So I've heard. Do you really think I care?"
"No..."
"Bingo. So please stop torturing me with your bad humor."

Kai is me. Like literally her character is modeled after me. That is me. Sarcasm for life, guys. (That was sarcastic.)
- A U D R E Y 🏹 🎯 🐴 🗡