Ranger's Apprentice; An Emotional Tale

VI: Don't trust the cloak

Will instantly stood still, motionless, but Halt pulled at his jacket to get him running. Without hesitation, he did so, and together they ran towards their horses, a kilometer or so to the south. They ran, their foots kissing the ground. They ran, like the winter breeze colliding into inanimate objects and crashing waves hitting the shore line.

Without looking back Will knew the man was following them, but he wasn't fast enough to keep up with them. He heard him push frozen branches to the side, and one time he almost tripped over a fallen tree trunk.

"Hey! You there! Stop!" he yelled, but of course, without a reply.

When they were halfway, Halt suddenly stopped moving. Will almost bumped in to him. The bearded Ranger raised a hand to keep the question in his apprentice's eyes from being spoken out loud. He shook his head.

Will didn't move, but pricked his ears. Somewhere, a few meters to their right, someone was pushing leaves to the side and cursing if cold snow from the trees fell down and dissolved him.

"Hello?" the unknown voice called, "I know you're here!" But after a few minutes without reply he seemed to give up.

"Damn this weather," the man muttered, as he turned around and a new load of snow fell on his head. Will heard him curse a few more times as he slowly disappeared into the distance. He turned to face Halt, a million questions in his eyes.

"Not now," his mentor hissed, "We first need to get somewhere further away."

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"You always told me to stand still when I thought I'd been seen. Now you told me to do the exact opposite and run! What the hell happened to 'trust the cloak'?" Will exclaimed as he dismounted Tug. He unsaddled his horse and gave him a sweet apple, as he waited for a reply.

You messed up again, didn't you?

Will dismissed his horse and kept looking at Halt.

"I taught you to stand still when you thought you'd been seen, very well. But it wouldn't have helped us this time. That man had either seen or heard us, and knew our position. If we would've stayed, we would've been caught most certainly. He obviously isn't stupid. And besides, our cloaks don't help us to blend in with the background in this damned weather. No, if we would run, we might have a chance of escape. If we're lucky he thinks it was just an animal or something," Halt said, as he treated Abelard the same way Will had Tug.

"We are never that lucky," Will muttered and Halt almost smiled.

"Mostly we're not," he agreed. "But that's another problem. Now, what are we going to do to stop them with this nonsense?"

"Let's discuss that after a good cup of coffee," Will proposed. He got his stuff out of his bag, then turned around to face Halt when he heard him clear his throat.

"You're not going to tell me that it's too dangerous to make fire, are you? Cause I don't care what you say I need some good coffee or I'll freeze to death."

Halt smirked and shook his head. He gestured him to go on, which Will gladly did, looking forward to a nice, warm cup of dark coffee with some sweet honey...

A few minutes later both Rangers sat with a mug of hot coffee around the small fire Will had build. Will was explaining one of his plans to his former mentor, but Halt didn't pay attention. Something about the man that had followed them had seen odd. It had made him think about something of years ago, around the first war with Morgarath... He had seen little of the man just before he had ran off. He didn't look very young - Halt guessed he was around the same age as he was. But where did he know him from?

"Halt?" Will interrupted his thoughts, "Are you even listening? I just explained my plan most comprehensively and to be honest with you, I don't know how well I'll be able to repeat it." Halt looked up, right in his student's face. And he instantly knew.

It was Jerrel.

Will must have seen the shock and astonishment in his eyes, cause he asked worriedly: "Halt? What's wrong?" Halt shook his head. It couldn't be correct. Jerrel was supposed to be dead. Halt himself had killed him, years ago.

After trying to order his thoughts and failing, he sighed deeply and looked at Will.

"It's about that man that followed us," he explained, "I felt like I had seen him before, but I didn't know where and when. I do now."

"Where do you know him of? Who is it?" Will asked curiously. If it was something Halt was worried about, he thought, then it needed to be something very serious. And dangerous.

Halt sighed deeply again and sipped of his coffee. This one time, he didn't mind the fact that Will had asked multiple questions. He knew what he thought. And he was right. But he really did not know how or where to start.

"That man," he finally started, "is called Jerrel. I told you about him, years ago." Will still didn't know what he was talking about. Halt forgave him. It had been years since he'd called that name once.

"He was one of the men who killed your mother."

He wasn't sure what exactly Will's reaction was. Surprise and anger seemed to be fighting with each other as Will struggled to find a reply. Finally, he said one simple word: "How?"

His mentor unknowingly shrugged. "I don't know," he admitted, "Maybe he pretended to be dead - maybe I hadn't hit him as good as I thought I had. Maybe it was't even him, the man who followed us I mean, but someone who just looked like him."

He believed his words as much as his former apprentice did. Barely. Will didn't believe him because he knew Halt was mostly right, and Halt himself didn't believe it because he knew what he had seen, even though it wasn't much.

They stayed dead silent.

Halt saw his apprentice was angry at the way his knuckles turned white of the strong grip around his mug. The grey-beared Ranger laid a calming hand on his arm, and the young Ranger looked up, the anger clearly visible in his brown eyes.

"This doesn't change anything," he said, "It's still a gang of bandits we have to stop from doing what they're good at. The fact that one of them killed your mother doesn't change anything."

But Will shook his head desperately, disagreeing. "It does! It changes everything Halt!" he said, "For years I lived thinking my mother died in childbirth. When I was older, you told me how she had actually died and I was okay with it, because you had revenged her by killing those men! And now you tell me you probably didn't kill one of them, and that that person is still walking around. I'm sorry, but it changes everything."

"It doesn't," Halt protested, but he gave in when he saw Will's disapproving look.

"Okay, maybe it does. But you do have to keep your emotions under control." Will looked at him, unbelievably. Halt smiled. It was the smile of a wolf.

"But I won't stop you from hurting him a little more than you'd otherwise."

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Okay so there you go XD You do have a plottwist but not the one you expected, er? I was actually going to stop after "He was one of the men who killed your mother" but that didn't really fit into my storyline XD I'm still holding onto the 'max 10 chapters with max 2000 words each'.

Anyway. What did you think? Do you like the plottwist? Do you think Will will (I hate those sentences XD) keep his emotions under control? I doubt it...;)

Please vote and comment; thanks!!!

~Rose