The Life of a Ranger, Ranger's Apprentice Fanfiction

Chapter 1

   Errol leans back on the trunk. What now? He has been traveling for a week now, with no food, and only water from scattered streams.
   He isn't heading to any place in particular, he just needs to get away. (Get away from what you ask? If you care, you'll keep reading and find out.)
   He's lost a bit of weight from no food, but he doesn't care. Food just makes him sick.
   Errol suddenly sits up. Someone is nearby, he can feel it. He quietly gets up and starts to move behind a bush.
   He gasps. A man seemingly materializes out of thin air right in front of him. "Stop right there."

  Halt has been following this young boy for a while, not getting much sleep.
  He found the boy running through the forest in his fief in the middle of the night.
   The boy barely gets much sleep each night, not letting Halt know when he might move on. Every time, the poor kid only rests when he cries himself to sleep. He was usually up by the time Halt wakes up. Then he's off again. No breakfast or anything.
  The boy has crossed over two borders and is in Ranger Gilan's fief. The boy is so skinny and almost looks ill.
   Finally, Halt can't take it any more. The next time the boy takes a rest, he plans how to show himself. The opportunity introduces itself as the boy looks around and slowly stands up to leave.
   Halt steps in front of him, and says, "Stop right there."
   The boy stops immediately and gasps. With pale olive skin and short brown hair with blonde highlights, as well as dark circles under his eyes, he looks a bit out of place in Araluen.
   "Who are you, and where are you going?" Asks Halt. The surprise in the kids eyes fade to nothing. "Who I am is not important and neither is where I come from. What do you want with me, Ranger?" Halt's eyebrows raise at his words that are said with a strange foreign accent. Most people are terrified at even the sight of a ranger. This one obviously wasn't, yet he knows what a ranger is. 
  "You are pretty young to be out here alone. Where is your family and why are you here?" Instead of answering, the kid looks Halt up and down. "You have been following me for a while haven't you?" Halt frowns. He seems to be avoiding his questions and Halt finds that extremely annoying. "You haven't answered my questions yet." Growls Halt. "Really? Well, you haven't answered mine yet, either. I will answer yours if you answer mine." Halt unsheaths his saxe knife and holds it at the boys throat in one quick motion.
  "I don't have to answer to your questions, until I know more about you. If not, I can easily run this knife through your throat in less than a second." Halt says in a dangerously low voice.
   The boy firms his jaw. "Go right ahead." Halt nearly falls back. This boy must have a death wish. "You must think I won't run you through. You mustn't know who you're dealing with." The boy looks at him, expressionless. "I know who I'm dealing with, and that you can kill me in less than a heartbeat. I don't care if I live or die. I'll die eventually anyway. And you'll be doing me a favour." Halt pulls back the knife. "Your words intrigue me. But that won't excuse you from my questions." "Fair enough. I am Errol, and I am from different places. I am merely a traveler who is making his way across the country." Halts eyebrows scrunch together. Errol is rather strange and mysterious, and he carries himself with confidence. Yet there was something in his eyes. Halt can't quite identify it. Is it heartbreak?
  Halt starts to tell him to sit down, when a arrow suddenly thuds into the tree between them.