Halt's Ranger Apprentices- John Flanagan Ranger Apprentice fan-fiction

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

They finally came to a small clearing,

"Time you two learnt how to use your weapons" he said, he grabbed a sack and put it upside down so that the jumble of things in there came pouring out their was two Saxe knives, two throwing knives, two quivers with 24 shafts in it and two recurve bows. Will looked at them curiously , he hadn't seen any of these before so he had no idea what they were. Squirt on the other hand knew exactly what they were she grabbed one of each smiling at them, testing their weight and size. She nodded satisfied. Then Halt grabbed the remaining weapons and handed them to Will. He explained each and every one to him explaining how they got the name and what their use's were for. Squirt could see that Will had his eye on the recurve bow when it was first poured out of the sack. When he spoke again his question confirmed his eagerness.

"Can I have a go?" He asked, Halt thought about this for a few seconds then said

" if you feel that's a good idea go ahead" he said, Will smiled, he had never used a bow before. He had longed to use a long sword his whole life and he still did long for one but seeing that wasn't going to happen any time soon he may as we'll make the best of what he's got. He chose an arrow from the quiver and picked up the recurve bow that he had laid in front of him when Halt was explaining to him about the knives. He picked it up, knocked the arrow to the string. He slowly drew back, and let go. While this was happening Squirt was squinting her eyes not being able to watch what was about to happen. When Halt said that he could do it Squirt was about to give him the arm guards but Halt stopped her now she was standing helplessly watching Will knowing that he was going to feel pain at any time. When she heard the crack of elastic meeting skin she knew what had happened

"Ow!" She heard Will cry in pain of the impact, he groaned as he saw a bright pinkish,reddish welt on his arm.

"Your cruel Halt!" Squirt yelled and quickly came to Will's aid dabbing the wound with a cloth she took out of her backpack she brought with her, he groaned some more until the stinging began to ware off.

"That should teach you to be patient next time," Halt said, "Here wear these they protect your arm to get hit like you did just then."

"Why didn't you tell me this before?" He said while taking the leather arm guards from him

"Will I'm sorry" Squirt said "I was going to give them to you, but mr grim-face over there wanted to teach you a lesson." She said not daring to look at Halt while she said it. Halt raised an eyebrow

"Hmmmm..... Mr grim-face hey?" He said "Well when we get back you can polish Mr grim-face's muddy boots until you can see your reflection in them, then we'll see who's Mr grim-face" Halt gave her a smile that didn't reach his eyes. He heard a groan from Squirt then began to talk to Will once again

"Now young one did that teach you a lesson?" Halt asked Will and he nodded

"Yes sir" Will said and sighed still feeling a little bit of sting in his wound

"Now shall we try again?" Halt said and handed Will the recurve bow that he threw from his grip after he got whipped. Once again Will got an arrow mocked it to the string and as he started to draw he heard Halt speak again "now Will try and aim at that tree with the sap. The tree was easy to spot. The forest was very green and lots of green fungi and mould grew on the trees. So there wasn't much other colour than green. But there was one tree that had red sap smudged in splotches all over it. Will sighted the best he could and released this time feeling no pain he watched to see the arrow just miss the tree.

"Hmmm...." Halt said "You need to practise" he said thoughtfully. Then Halt gestured for Squirt to have a go

"Now let's give Squirt a turn, come on show us what you've got girly" he said Squirt stood at the point where Will stood to aim at the tree. As she got into positing she glared at Halt. He knew how much she hated to be called girly and Squirt knew he only said it to annoy her, then her glare soon turned into a smile.

"That's another penny in the jar" she said. Halt frowned

"Damn it!" Halt yelled frustrated at himself. Will looked at them curiously

"What do you mean by another penny in the jar?" He asked, Squirt smiled at him. It's a thing I made up. Every time Halt calls me girly he has to put a penny in my jar of savings. He only says girly to annoy me and one day he said it about 19 times so I made the rule up that he had to put a penny in my savings jar every time he said it." Will smiled

"Why don't you want to be called girly?" He asked, Squirt shrugged

"Because it sounds to girly" Will and Squirt both laughed at the way she put it

"Can you two stop your yapping?" And they both stopped laughing

"Oi!" Squirt said, and stretched out her hand and gestured for him to come over "give me the penny" she said simply, Halt groaned and pulled a penny out of his back pack he brought with him and passed it to her

"Thank you" she said smiling broadly then put it in her back pack. Then to Halt's frustration she gestured to Will "And another one for Will for letting him severely hurt himself." Will smiled at her for having enough guts to confront Halt like this. Halt sighed

"It wasn't severe" he said

"Ha!" Will blurted out unable to control himself. It actually was quite severe and Halt saying that it wasn't shocked him. Halt eyed Will, Halt gave Will his famous cold grim glare. Will was about to drop his gaze when he heard Squirt whisper in his ear

"Don't drop your gaze otherwise he'll know your weakness" she said, Will gave her a mere nod, the concentrated on keeping his gaze. After each second, he felt those cold eyes leach inside him and rap around his throat. They both kept their gaze and while this went on Will realised that he was holding his breath. Then he saw something new in Halt's eyes, it was a threatening look and it was making Will very uncomfortable. Will couldn't handle it anymore and dropped from his gaze. Will kept his eyes on the ground too scared to look at Halt ever again. Then he saw a hand with a penny on the palm he looked up to meet Halt's eyes again but they weren't scary anymore, they were soft and caring

"Take it" Halt said "You earned it" he said and Will took the penny. Halt took a step back and sighed and said in a loud voice "you two are costing me too much." Will and Squirt laughed again.

"Now back to business Squirt go and have a go" Squirt smiled and regained her concentrated hard on her sight aiming for the sap tree. She released and the arrow chipped the side of the tree. "Well done" Halt said but you two still need a lot of practise.

After Halt gave them a few tips on aim with the bow and throwing nice they began to head back.

"Now you guys have to do now is keep the tips that I gave you and you should get it, but of course you won't get it the first time, and you'll need to....?" Halt let the sentence trail off waiting for Will or Squirt to answer. Will and Squirt looked at each other and said at the same time

"Practise"