Rangers Apprentice

•[11] Salt Peter and the Porker

                                   ➶
Y/n POV

It's been six weeks since Harvest Day, and we had been training non-stop in the forest. And if we weren't training, we were graphing, and if we weren't graphing, we were either cleaning or tracking.

The first snowfall of winter lay thick on the ground as Will, Halt and I ride slowly home from the forest. The confrontation between Will and Horace has still remained unsolved. There's been little chance to finish the fight anyway, they were always at distance.

"Will, what is this?" Halt asked, pointing to the obvious bunny tracks in the snow.
Will was looking at his saddle, a small smile resting on his lips. Boys.

Halt starts to get agitated, "Could we possibly continue with our tracking or did you have something more important to do?"
I see Will's head snap up and look frantically around the snow. Halts eyes raises to the heavens and he shook his head,
"There," Halt told Will, his tone leaving no doubt that he didn't expect to have to repeat such things, as he pointed to the left.

"Rabbit," Will said promptly. Halt took a side long glance as him.

"Rabbit?" He asked.

"Rabbits," I correct, which earned and sarcastic smile from Will. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Children, children," Halt mocked, rolling his eyes. "Yes, rabbits, I should think so." Halt muttered. "After all, if they were Skandian tracks there, you'd need to be sure you knew how many there were."

Will and I remained silent.

"So... rabbits... is that all," Halt continued.

Will and I looked again, and I saw another pair of tracks.
"A-"

"-Stoat!" Will cut me off, giving me a smug grin. I rolled my eyes and itch my eyebrow with my middle finger.

"A stoat," Halt agreed. "But you would've known there was something else there, Will. Look at how deep the Rabbit tracks are. Obviously, something had frightened them. When you see a sign like this, it's a hint for something extra."

"I see," Will said, but Halt shook his head.

"No. All too often, you don't see, because you don't maintain your concentration. You will have to work on that. As do you, Y/n."
Will and I remained silent. Halts criticism means everything to us, it's how we learn.

We rode on in silence. Will and I strained our eyes for tracks of any kind, there's sort of an unspoken competition going on. After a kilometre or so without any signs, we are getting close to our cottage. Suddenly, I saw something.
"Look!" I point to a tumbled section of snow just off the path. "What's that?" I ask Halt.

He turned and looked.  The tracks, if they were tracks, are nothing that Will or I have seen so far.
Halt hummed in thought, "That's one I haven't shown you two yet. Don't see too many of them these days, so take a good look, youngsters."
Will looked over at me and rolled his eyes before swinging easily from his saddle, I do the same. We walk through the knee-deep snow towards the disturbance.

"What is it?" I asked again.

"Wild boar," Halt said briefly. "And a big one."

I clenched my fists nervously and look around. I can see Will inch closer to me. I may have not known the tracks , but I know enough about the wild creatures to understand that they are very, very dangerous.
Halt must've noticed.
"Relax," He said. "He's no where near us."

"Can you tell that from the tracks?" Will asked. We both stared at the tracks, fascinated.

"No," he replied evenly. "I can tell it from our horses. If a boat that size were anywhere in the district, those two would be snuffing and pawing and whinnying so hard we wouldn't be able to hear ourselves think."