Rangers Apprentice

•[15] Karma

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3rd POV

Will was in the open meadow behind Halt's cottage, practising with Y/n.
He had four targets set up at different ranges and was alternating his shots at random between the four of them, never firing at the same one twice in a row. Y/n observed him, correcting some of his stances or when his elbow dropped.

Halt had set the exercise for them before he had gone to the Baron's office to discuss a despatch that had come in from the King. "If you fire twice at the same target," he had said, "you'll begin to rely on the first shot to determine your direction and elevation. That way, you'll never learn to shoot instinctively. You'll always need to fire a sighting shot first."

Will knew his teacher was right. But that didn't make the exercise any easier. To add to the difficulty, Halt had stipulated that he should let no more than five seconds elapse between each shot, and if he exceeded that, Y/n got to choose the punishment. And Will learnt that she is ruthless.

Frowning in concentration, he let the last five arrows of a set go. One after the other, in rapid succession, they flashed across the meadow, thudding into the targets. Will, his quiver empty for the tenth time that morning, stopped to survey the results.
"Very well done," Y/n praised, grim faced.
He nodded in satisfaction. Every arrow had hit a target, and most of them were clustered in the inner ring or the bullseye itself.
It was shooting of an exceptionally high quality and it proved to him the value of constant practice. He wasn't to know it, of course, but there were already few archers in the Kingdom, outside of the Ranger Corps, who could have matched him. Besides Y/n, of course.

Even the archers in the King's army weren't trained to shoot with such individual speed and accuracy. They were trained to fire as a group, sending a mass of arrows against an attacking force. As a result, their training concentrated more on co-ordinated actions, so that all arrows were fired simultaneously.

He had just set the bow down, preparatory to recovering his arrows, when the sound of a footstep behind him made him turn and Y/n turn.

They was a little surprised to see three Battleschool apprentices watching him, their red surcoats marking them as second year trainees.
He didn't recognise any of them, but he nodded a friendly greeting. Y/n, however, frowned and gritted her teeth.

"Good morning," he said. "What brings you down here?"
Y/n stayed silent, her arms crossed and she gave them a silent warning.

It was unusual to find Battleschool apprentices this far from the castle. Will and she noted the thick canes that they all carried. Will decided they must have set out for a walk.

The closest of them, a handsome, blond-haired boy, smiled and said: "We're looking for the Ranger's apprentices."
Will couldn't help smiling in return. After all, the Ranger cloak that he wore marked him unmistakably as an apprentice Ranger. Y/n lifted her chin.
"You've found them. What's your business here?"

"We've brought a message from the Battleschool for you two," the boy replied. Like all Battleschool trainees, he was tall and well muscled, as were his companions.
"Stop before you do anything you regret," Y/n ordered.

They moved closer to them now and Will instinctively backed off a pace.
They were a little too close, he felt. Closer than they needed to be to pass on a message. Y/n moved to the side, not cowering but further away so they couldn't do a close attack.

"It's about what happened at the boar hunt," said one of the others. This one was red-haired, with a heavy dusting of freckles, and a nose that showed distinct signs of having been broken – probably in one of the training combats that Battleschool students were always practising.
Will shrugged uncomfortably. There was something in the air he didn't like. The blond boy was smiling still. But neither the redhead nor their third companion, an olive-skinned boy who was the tallest of the three, looked as if they thought there was anything to smile about.