Ranger Legend

Chapter 4

The four girls followed Alex into the forest. She took a look at their cloth then made Nicole put away some of her long sleeved lacy and frilly shirts before taking them outside. Now enveloped in the fresh air, the four girls took a look around the archery targets, knife targets and logs and stones lying around the place for unseen movement practise.

"From today on," Alex cleared her throat and said, catching the girls attention. "You will wake at six thirty, eat your breakfast at seven. You'll run two laps of the two kilometre track I'm going to show you. A five minute break, then archery from eight to ten, a ten minutes break, knife throwing from ten to eleven thirty, five minutes break, do some stretches, run the lap once more. Some rest, then lunch.

"After lunch ends at one it'll be unseen movement and silent movements in the forest. Then at three you'll have an hours rest. Don't get too lazy, you'll have a saxe knife session and a obstacle course to do. Then it's dinner, and after dinner you can do whatever. Those times are just approximate. Clear?"

"Can you say that again...?" Nicole asked timidly.

"I'll give you time tables." Alex said and opened her leather pouch strapped to her belt, from inside she pulled out a piece of paper with the training sessions written on them. "Feel free to ask questions or chat and act freely. Although if they are directed at me I might not answer."
With that, she waved her hand and led the girls into the forest surrounding half of the cabin.

The girls were fascinated by the forest, the small animals, bird calls, movement in the trees and Alex's silent steps. "How can you walk like that?" Rachel has been staring at Alex's feet for quite a while now.

"Practise." Alex threw the word grimly over her shoulder.

"Excuse me Will, can I ask you a question?" Karen said glancing at the forest surrounding them, her back hair swaying in the light breeze.

"You already did."

"But can I ask you another..." the girl trailed off as she realised she'll just leave herself open to another answer like the last one. "I mean, do you ride horses in the Ranger Corps or do you just use cars and stuff to get around?"

"We have horses."

"Really? Linda perked up at that. "What's your horse called?"

"..."

"Will? What's your horse called? Please tell us!" Nicole begged speeding up her pace so she drew level with her mentor.

"Tug."

"Not seriously?" Linda gasped. "Really? He's called Tug?"

"Yeah."

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"Are we there yet?" Karen whined.
Alex kept silent and turned a abrupt corner, fading into the trees using her cloak.

"Will?" Karen called, looking around for Alex. "Will?!"

"Where's Will?" Linda asked, the four girls huddled into a tight group in the middle of the dirt road, uncertain of what to do next. "I thought he turned left and then..." Linda trailed off, unable to remember what Alex did.

"Vanished." Rachel said in wonderment. "He turned left into the trees and, and, and vanished!"

"It must have been the Ranger cloak. It really does work!" Linda exclaimed.

"But what are we supposed to do now?" Nicole asked, jumping at every rustle of the leaves and sound. The brown haired girl was clearly frightened, her blue eyes darting from one side of the road to the other.