Rangers Apprentice: Something Missing

Chapter 9

Damian crested over a hill, and in the distance was castle Araluen. Damian had been traveling for many days before reaching the castle, yet he dreaded what would come next. Damian rode to the castle and put his horse in the stable. He walked up the steps and went in. He walked to the door that led into the throne room and was stopped by two guards.
"What is your business here?" One of the guards asked as he looked Damian up and down. Damian knew that the guard was aware he was also a guard. He may not be a very high-ranking guard, but being one had its privileges.
"I have an urgent message from James Willington." Both the guards knew who James was, most people did. James Willington is probably the best healer in all of Araluen, and probably beyond. The guards nodded their ascent and they led Damian into the throne room. When Damian followed the guards in he saw that there was some sort of meeting going on. He didn't recognize all of them, but he knew of most of them. He saw three Rangers one he knew as the Ranger commandant Crawly, the other he knew was the famous Will Treaty, but the third he didn't recognize, he was a very tall Ranger who strangely carried a sword. He saw three people he knew from the time he had escorted James here. They were Baron Arald, Sir Rodney, and Lady Pauline. They stopped talking when the doors opened and looked to see who it was.
"Your Majesty, one of the guards said bowing respectfully, this man has an argent message from James Willington." The king nodded in Damien's direction and he stepped forwards and bowed.
"Thank you for letting me speak your majesty." King Duncan nodded and Damian continued.
" A couple of days ago there was a violent earthquake, it lasted a couple of hours and destroyed many homes, fell many trees, destroyed crops, and cost many people their lives. We need supplies and food." When Damian stopped Ranger Crawly spoke.
"How many people do you think were killed?" Damian looked at him sadness in his eyes.
" We can only guess at this time, but we believe the death toll is in the hundreds." No one spoke for a couple of moments, then Damian knew he had to get this over with, the part he was dreading to tell.
"During the earthquake, a tower of the castle was about to fall. In the tower was a young girl that Ranger Halt had saved on his way to meet James." Damian posed for a moment and went on.
"Halt ran up to the tower to get the little girl out, but when he was in there the earthquake started to get worse to where it was hard to stand. James and his wife Julia were standing in a window that faced the tower, so Halt decided to toss the girl to them. James was able to catch the girl, but after he did the earthquake got so bad that no one could stand. I was in the town watching all of this. After that, the earthquake lasted about an hour before it stopped. When I and another guard were able to stand again we saw James by the tower which had fallen over and was destroyed. He was digging in the rubble for something, when we got closer we realized he was digging for someone. Halt had never made it out of the tower." As he finished this there were already tears flowing from everyone even the king.
"He kept digging, but there were so many hurt people we told him that it was no use. He consented and we turned away from the destroyed tower, but before we could leave we heard a noise. Then we realized it sounded like someone saying James from under the tower, we turned around and started digging while yelling Halts name to see if he would answer back. We dug for a couple of minutes before we found him." Damian breathed in and then kept going.
"We pulled him out and I- I will never forget that. he was pail weight, many of his bones were broken, he was barely breathing, and he was covered in blood. We rushed him into the castle and James started tending to him. A couple of hours later he told Julia and me that-that he didn't think he was going to live for much longer." As Damian ended his story there was no dry eye watching, he knew they were all heartbroken.