Daughter of a Ranger

Chapter 12

"Bye mum!" Jemma yelled, as she and Will left the cabin the following week to go to Young Bob to get Jemma a Ranger horse.

Jemma was on the back of Tug, memorising the scenery around her. She wanted to know as much about the land around her as possible, knowing that she had never seen anything outside of Oracle's castle before.

She definitely had never seen so much greenery.

Every now and again, Will pulled Tug to a halt and would teach her a new track for an animal, or tested her on one he taught her before. Will was pleased with the rate she learned things. She seemed to absorb information and store it in her brain.

At one point, she stopped and pointed out a trio of rabbit tracks and Will was infinitely pleased he didn't need to point them out first.

...

They stopped outside Young Bob's farm. The owner in question created the, at the gates with a smile. He opened the gate and lead the two on Tug in.

Will hopped out of the saddle, helping Jemma in turn. Will then lead Tug away to give him an apple.

"Well, miss, it seems you managed to find your way after you visited?" Young Bob asked Jemma.

"Yes. Thank you so much for the help." She replied.

"So you managed to find your father. Good. So, may I ask, who is your father?" He's asked.

"Him." She said, pointing at Will, who was unsaddling Tug.

"What? Really?"

She nodded as she grinned.

He called Will over. Will came walking over casually and said quietly to Jemma, "This shall be fun."

Jemma giggled quietly. Young Bob looked at the the two people in front of him, studying their features, seeing the similarities. He then slapped Will on the arm heartily, "Hey, my boy, I didn't know you had a daughter! She's a fine girl, she is!"

"Thank you. And I am incredibly pleased to say that Alyss is home, alive and well."

"Eh? I thought she was dead?"

"We all did. But, in some miracle, she was taken by a man, who made her his servant. She was already pregnant with Jemma at the time, and, fourteen years later, Jemma came to find me and we went and rescued Alyss. So, long story short, Alyss is back home with Sable and a little wolf that Jemma found and she named Sapphire."

"You'll have to tell me the whole story over dinner," he chuckled, "Now! Let's get you a Ranger horse."

Young Bob went into his stable and slowly shuffled out again, leading a shaggy, grey-haired pony that looked similar to Tug. The only real complete different was that the pony had white fur at the end of three of it's legs and black around the last one.

Kinda of like socks.

"This one here we call Socks, because of the feet you see. Now, I'm gonna let her loose in the pen, and we are going to see if you can catch her, before saddling and riding."

Jemma smirked at Will and Will looked down.

She jumped over the fence and landed lightly on her feet. She slowly stepped forward. Socks ran away, but Jemma knew that she wouldn't be able to resist food.

She brought an apple from her pocket which she had snuck out of the food bowl early that morning. She heard a muttered, "That's where the apple went!" from Will and chuckled quietly.

She held the apple put on her flat palm and Socks trotted up to her. She sniffed it, smelling the oats that Jemma had placed inside after she cut the apple open earlier. Socks ate it and looked up her with admiration.

"You know how to make a horse happy." she seemed to say.

Jemma led Socks up to Young Bob, who had his mouth hanging open.

"No horse has warmed up to someone that quickly before." He said, shaking his head slowly.

...

The afternoon was spent fitting a saddle over Socks that suited Jemma's shape and form.

After, Young Bob grinned and said, "Why don't you go and ride her now, eh?"

Jemma smiled easily at him, and Will smirked underneath his cowl.

"Can I please have the password?" she asked sweetly. Young Bob just gaped and spluttered, "How did you know that you needed a password?"

Will burst out laughing and answered for her, "It seems she already knew. She already played a joke on Halt when she snuck underneath his horse and strapped herself to Abelard's belly. Halt didn't notice for hours!" He laughed and laughed, wiping fake tears from his eyes.

Young Bob laughed at that, slapping his legs.

"Well that makes up for her knowing she needed a password. I would have liked to see that!" He chuckled, "Well then, your password is 'How do you do?' and make sure to tell everyone about Halt. That's hilarious!"

Jemma giggled. She whispered, "How do you do?" in Socks' ear, before climbing in the saddle. She signalled for the horse to go, and Socks raced off, Jemma laughing all the way.

The two men watched as the two zoomed off, seeing how easily Jemma sat and how quickly the two had bonded.

"I think the two are already talking. They are going to be a handful together. They both seem to be a bit rebellious." Will said, although the beaming at how proud he was of his daughter.

"Yeah, good luck with that." Young Bob chuckled, "She's a smart lass, that one."