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

A Dream and a Flashback

A/N: You know what sucks? I was wrong. The Battle of Hackham Heath doesn't come out till the 28th 😭... I'll just watch a lot of Supernatural and be sad. At least I've got Doctor Strange, Fantastic Beasts, and The Librarians S3 premiere to look forward to this month...

🚨 ❗️❕WARNING -THE SECOND PART OF THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A BRIEF BUT GRAPHIC DEATH SCENE. IF YOU DON'T LIKE READING ABOUT THAT SORT OF THING, THEN I WILL LET YOU KNOW IT ISN'T VITAL THAT YOU READ THAT PART, AS IT DOESN'T REALLY PERTAIN TO THE REST OF THE BOOK, JUST PROVIDES KAI'S BACKSTORY.
Maddie's POV:

Kai's shot went wide. She started towards the woods, but Will stopped her and told her he would get it, that she keep practicing. Then after Will didn't appear for a few minutes, I started to worry.

"Help!" I suddenly heard him yell weakly. I ran to get the warmweed salve and then dashed off into the trees after Kai, who had gone after him even though he told her not to.

I found him lying there, in a rapidly growing puddle of blood, with a huge, monstrous cut on his leg. "Will?" I whispered.

"That girl..." he croaked, almost too far gone to hear me. "Kai... It was her." Then I noticed Kai, standing over him with her missing knife. And she was smiling. Not a good smile. An evil one. I whipped out my throwing knife and sent it spinning on a clear path to her heart in a burning moment of hatred.

However, when I turned to glance at Will then back to where Kai had been standing, she was gone and my knife was laying on the dead leaves, without a trace of blood. "I'm sorry, I'll get her later," I told Will, and hung my head. Where had Kai gone? He didn't answer.

Then I remembered. Will. My head snapped up and I quickly took off the lid and started rubbing salve all over his leg, not caring that it got on my face and hands. When I was done, I sat back on my heels in satisfaction. Will would be all right until I could get professional help.

"See, you're all right! I fixed you up nicely." He still didn't answer. My expression changed to one of horror as I realized Will wasn't moving. I had been too busy putting on the healing salve that I hadn't noticed his condition.

"Will... Please wake up," I begged, but I knew it was no use. His face was pale from he loss of too much blood. I hovered my shaking hand above his mouth, hoping against hope to feel air coming out. None came.

I closed my eyes, feeling tears coming, because it all had happened so fast. Kai had killed Will. He was dead. Gone. The tears slid silently down my face, and I didn't try to stop them. Then I felt a piercing pain in my back.

When I finally opened my eyes, my surroundings were different. I was in a church. Hundreds of silent mourners dressed in black stood around me. Mourners. This was a funeral. For Will. But why were there two caskets?

I blinked. Now I was in Jenny's restaurant, watching a conversation between her and Gilan. Gil was crying, and so was Jenny. "I can't believe they're both gone," Jenny said in a broken voice. Both?

Then I realized. The pain in my back. Kai must've killed me, too.
I felt dizzy. What was happening? How did I get to this church?
Everything started spinning and I was falling through darkness...

"Maddie! Wake up! It's alright!"

My eyes snapped open. "What?" I could fell tears on my face, tears that I don't remember shedding. I took in Dad standing over me, a worried look on his face, and Will sleeping in a chair by the fire.