Clbaez

Birthday Disaster

Don't you hate it when the name of a chapter gives away what's going to happen? Anyways, I hope you like the story, I plan on it being long. Enjoy!

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I woke up the next morning, later than usual. I looked I snuck into the main room in our three room house, one was my room as well as my sibling's, one was my parent's, and the other was the main room, the living room/kitchen. I walked in and there my parents, my little brother and my little sister jump out and each of them has a box. "Surprise!" They yell out simultaneously. "Wow, thanks!" I say in reply. My little sister who was six gives me her present first. I open it, and inside was a ring. "Where'd you get this?" I ask after hugging her. "I found it," she said. "It's great," I say, not completely meaning it. A ring? Seriously? I put it on and act happy for her. She seemed satisfied. Next my 11 year old brother gave me his present. It was medium sized, and I wondered what could be inside. A cloak was inside, and I gasped. "It's one of those fancy ranger cloaks," he said. "Do you like it?" "I love it," I reply and give him a hug. I put it on, but wasn't sure how I could blend in with it. "Why don't you take that off, your blending in already," my dad said and smiled. I took it off, then took my mom's present. It was smaller, and when I opened it, a silver dagger was inside. It had a strange glow to it, but it was barely noticeable. There was a sheath also in the box, and I put the dagger on in the sheath. "This dagger is amazing!" I said to her. "It's enchanted, too," she said as I have her a hug. "How did you get it enchanted?" I asked. "It came like that, it's twice as strong as regular silver," she replied and smiled at me. I turned to my dad and he gave me the final present. I opened it and inside was a bow. It was nothing special, just a typical bow, but it was better than any I had ever carved. There was a quiver inside too, made of strong leather."Thanks dad, this is great!" "Your welcome, now go look for an apprenticeship and make us proud," he said. After eating breakfast, I set out to look for an apprenticeship. I didn't want it to be at the blacksmith, it would be a step down from being payed since I would just get knowledge, and I could already forge pretty well. I didn't want it to be at the woodcarver's, that would just bore me. Maybe I could try the head of the guards, I thought, and then bumped into someone with a cloak just like my own, or more like mine was like his. He was a full fledged ranger, with one of their huge longbows, and he actually knew how to blend, I hadn't seen him at all until I bumped into him. He wasn't particularly tall, or extremely beefy, but I could tell it would be a bad idea for anyone to mess with him. He turned to look at me, and a look of recognition flashed on his face, but was gone in an instant. He looked me over and said, "you look more like me than when I last saw you". "What do you mean, when you last saw me? I've never seen you before," I said confused. "I saw you shooting your handmade bow, which I must say wasn't bad, and you have a natural skill for archery. You're also quite strong, so you could use a bigger bow if you wanted to, your not large, and your light on your feet, so you could sneak around with ease. Of course, you could do better, but isn't that what practice is for?" He said. "What are you getting at, you seem to know quite a bit about me, but I know nothing about you except for that your a ranger," I said, still confused. "What I'm saying is that you would be the perfect candidate for my new apprentice," he clarified. "Would you like to become a ranger's apprentice?" I thought about it, and then made my decision. "Yes, I would," I answered him. "Well then you can test your skill Ina real situation against the forest creatures coming to attack," he said. Right after he finished talking, the emergency bell began to ring, and all guards ran to their posts at the gates and on the walls. "Forest creatures heading straight for the gates!" I heard a guard yell. "Take them out, don't let them into the village!" The head guard yelled back. "You there, guard, have all the citizens fall back into the castle!" I ran over and climbed the ladder onto the wall. "Didn't you hear, fall back into the castle," a guard said. "No, I can help," I replied. "Well, it's your funeral," he muttered. I took out my bow and reached back into my quiver, and realized that I didn't have any arrows. Real smart, I thought. I spun around to tell the ranger and before I could say anything he threw a quiver to me. I switched quivers and took an arrow out. The creatures were getting on top of the wall now and the guards on top were fighting them off as they tried to get over. I nocked an arrow, pulled back, and let it fly into a giant lizard that was about to overtake one of the guards. It wasn't a fatal wound but it provided the guard with an opportunity and he stabbed it through the mouth when it was distracted. He nodded quickly at me and went back to fighting off the creatures. A spider as big as me climbed over the wall and jumped on top of another guard, trying to bite his neck. I pulled back an arrow and shot it in the side of the head, killing it. He threw the body over the edge and kept fighting. I turned away to look for another opportunity when a huge snake slithered over the wall I front of me. It put my bow on my back but before I could get out my knife it lunged at me. I dove and rolled to the side, almost falling off the wall. I unsheathed my dagger as it lunged at me again I rolled to the side and stabbed it in the back when it landed. It started writhing in pain and curling up, and I stabbed it again and again until it died. I threw its body over the edge where the rest of the creatures were, and saw a bull charging straight for the gate. It was bigger than normal, but not by much. I sheathed my dagger and took my bow off my back. I drew an arrow back and shot it in the shoulder. It kept going, so I shot it again, this time hitting its front left leg. It leaned in that direction but didn't slow down, and when it hit it missed the gate by a few inches. It hit the wall headfirst, killing itself and breaking off its horns. It shook the wall a little but not much. Creatures stopped coming and the ones attacking fled into the forest. I managed to shoot a fleeing panther in its side as it was about to go into the forest. I shot it again, killing it. I climbed down the wall and walked over to where the ranger was standing. "Why didn't you help?" I asked him. "You didn't need any," he replied simply. "I could've died!" I said loudly. "If you were in any real danger, I would have helped," he said. "I think you have what it takes to become a ranger".