A Whole New Mystery To...

Chapter 4

Hullo everyone!! I'm back with the fourth chappie!! Now go enjoy the story and don't forget to review!!!! Btw I have a soccer tournament this weekend so don't expect an update until Monday or Tuesday. Ok, now READ!!!!!!

"Whoa," Sophie said. I didn't say anything. I was too shocked by the abrupt landscape change. What was dense forest turned into wide open plains that stretched as far as the eye could see.

"Welcome to the Solitary Plains." Gilan said in a mock cheery voice, "The dream vacation spot for any traveler." Sophie started giggling and I myself was struggling to contain laughter. It seemed to ease the mood, as we hadn't been speaking, or more accurately asking questions, for hours now. Halt sighed,

"Don't get your hopes up," he said. Gilan eyed him balefully,

"I think they knew I was being sarcastic Halt." Gilan said slowly as though explaining a difficult concept to a small child. Halt just glared at him until he looked away and then looked to the sun for the time. He frowned as if unhappy with the answer and stopped Abelard.

"We'll stop here for the night. It's getting dark and we'll have to stop soon anyway. We might as well have a decent campsite." He explained. Gilan just shrugged, accepting the answer. Will drew breath for another question, but Halt stopped him first,

"Will, we'll explain everything once a fire's started and I'm not answering any questions before then." He said. Will nodded and smiled a little ruefully at me. I just smiled back, and then we were getting off Tug, and he went searching for firewood while I helped Sophie with the tents. Eventually, it was Sophie who broke the silence.

"You know, I wonder how everything's going to turn out. What with there being three Kalkara instead of two because-"She started casually, but I didn't give her a chance to finish.

"What!?" I exclaimed dropping what I was doing and turning to face her, "There are three of them!?" I was beyond shocked, I was terrified. Suddenly this trip got so much scarier and a lot less fun. I remembered from the books that with two Kalkara, the help of Baron Arald and Sir Rodney wasn't even enough. It was only due to Will's quick thinking that the three of them hadn't died. But now, there were three Kalkara and that meant that the story was changing. Sophie and I could no longer predict what might happen to anybody, including ourselves. The scariest part was if things weren't following the order of the books, anything could happen. For all I knew, the Temujai could be marching toward us at this very moment.

"Uh, yeah. Sorry, I didn't want to freak you out earlier so I was going to tell you tonight, but..." She said giving me a pained look and making an ineffectual gesture with her hands.

"Yeah, sorry I sort of exploded right there it's just, there's three of them." I apologized meekly. "How are we supposed to know what's going to happen because these odds are terrible. I mean surely Crowley would have sent more rangers if there are three Kalkara? He can't possibly think that we can beat them with only two qualified rangers and an apprentice with less than a year of training. No offense to Halt, Gilan and Will of course, but seriously. Even if you need you're other rangers for other things it's no use getting the ones you will need most in the coming war killed!" I ranted on, lowering my voice about us having no hope in beating the Kalkara. I didn't want the others to hear that.

"I know, I know, that's what I thought too, but it's happened and we'll just have to deal with it." Sophie said and made a gesture of peace with her hands. "Now, let's get back to setting up the tent before Halt gets back and tells us we're slacking off." We shared a conspirator's smile for a second before getting back to work.

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In the morning I woke up and groaned as my leg muscles protested the movement. I knew I would be sore until my muscles warmed up again. And then they would burn like fire again when they cooled down tonight. But I was no stranger to pain as playing soccer made you have sore legs like no tomorrow. This time I got up before Halt got to the tent with a water bucket. In fact, I had woken up before Sophie and I struggled to get her up.

"Come on, wake up." I muttered under my breath as I shook her awake. She tossed in her sleep and finally opened a drowsy eye when I gave a particularly violent shake.

"What was that for," Sophie complained as she sat up, stretching and groaning because of her sore muscles.

"To get you awake." I said, "Everyone else is already up." Indeed they were, as I had glanced towards the fire before waking Sophie and saw the three rangers sitting around it, each one holding the ever-present coffee mug.

"But they're used to getting up at the crack of dawn each morning and I'm not." She argued and I sighed. Dealing with Sophie when she was stubborn was impossible.

"It isn't the crack of dawn; it's probably no earlier than six o'clock." I said and she conceded.

"Fine." She said, and got busy getting ready as I headed towards the small group around the fire. Gilan and Will looked up as I approached while Halt just sipped coffee.

"Hey." Will said casually, "I think we're going to leave in a half hour." He looked to Gilan for confirmation and he replied easily,

"Yep, just as soon as you and your friend get breakfast." I nodded and then yawned.

"Guess I'm still not used to getting up so early." I commented with a smile. Will laughed,

"I've been apprenticed to Halt for about seven months and I'm still not used to being up really early every morning." Then he conceded, "Well, I'm used to it enough that Halt doesn't dump water on me, but that doesn't mean I have to like it." My smile widened and I replied,

"Halt actually almost drenched me the other day when he couldn't get me up." Will laughed again and Halt grumbled something about waking up early helping build character.

Just then Sophie walked up and received her breakfast, mumbling a good morning tiredly as she did so and, making me remember to get some too. As we ate, Halt filled us in on what we needed to know with Will asking numerous questions about practically everything. All in all a pretty normal meal.

After breakfast, we saddled up and Sophie and I again rode double with Will and Gilan, this time riding out onto the open, dry, desert landscape of the Solitary Plains. I wondered what lay ahead and what it meant for us that there were three Kalkara running about. I involuntarily shuddered at the thought.

Sorry for the short chapter!!! I promise to give you faithful readers a longer one next time!! See you laterz!