Halt - The Ruins of Gorlan

Chapter 1

It had been a very long and tiring week for Halt, the Ranger of Redmont fief. Six days ago, he'd gotten an urgent note from Hugh, the Ranger from the fief next door that a large gang of dangerous bandits who had burned and looted two villages, had entered his fief. Hugh hadn't seen them since, and it took a day for the letter to arrive at Halt's cabin, giving the bandits plenty of time to run or hide. Halt had to ride to the border where they'd last been seen and look for tracks, to follow.

Unfortunately for Halt, these bandits weren't unskilled, and they knew how to decently hide their tracks. They weren't good enough to escape the notice of a skilled tracker such as a Ranger, but they were good enough so that Halt kept losing their trail as they doubled back or crossed a river multiple times, at one point wading up a river so there would be no footprints in the mud – though they forgot that there was mud in the river to leave tracks for Halt to follow.

Still, Halt had only been tracking them for an hour when dusk came, and he had to set up camp.

He barely slept that night, worried that the bandits might turn around to ambush any pursuers, as the footprints were rather fresh, showing they weren't far ahead. The night was moonless, and the wind blew more than normal, making Halt uneasy, because Abelard wouldn't smell them coming as easily as he could on a normal night, and if they had any sense, they'd come from downwind to catch Halt off guard.

The unease kept him awake most of that night. Some would pass it off as nervousness – or scold themselves for being so untrained as to feel so nervous, but Halt knew not to doubt his instincts, finely tuned over many years of practice and danger. He only dozed for short periods of time, waking up nearly every fifteen minutes to check the surroundings.

It was nearly dawn when the bandits struck.

Halt was awake at that point, still curled up at the foot of a tree, as if he was still asleep, Abelard grazing peacefully, blissfully unaware of impending danger. His instincts were warning him more than ever, but he hadn't noticed anything, and was slipping off to sleep when three figures sprung out from behind trees into the clearing, bows at the ready, with five more shadowy figures outlined behind him, farther from the fire.

Instantly, Halt was wide awake, springing up from the ground, his bow already in one hand with his quiver in the other. Three arrows were loosed at him, and he spun behind the tree, shouting to Abelard to run as he nocked an arrow in his bow, two more already in his lower fingers waiting.

Here, the bandits made their first mistake, charging forwards, drawing clubs and cudgels as more bandits ran towards the fire from where they had waited, out of sight and earshot of the Ranger, while the quietest had slipped closer to attack.

Halt stood there, heart beating quickly and tense, waiting for them to come into his view around the side of the old tree, and as the foremost three came into view, the three of them fell in the span of two seconds, making the others instantly hesitate to come around the edge of the tree. Halt took the opportunity to turn and flit to the next tree, deeper into the forest, as he ducked down at the roots of the tree, cloak camouflaging him in the dim firelight. He quickly curled up into a ball, bow and quiver clenched tightly under his cloak as he covered every inch of himself in cloak, freezing as soon as this was accomplished.

As Halt expected, the bandits thought he'd fled farther into the forest, not that he'd stopped at the very next tree, and ran right past him, holding torches they'd lit at Halt's fire aloft, not looking closely at the trees they passed as they fanned out to find him.

It took nearly half an hour for all Halt not to hear or see anything of a bandit for any longer than three minutes, as soon as he reached one hundred and eighty, he leapt up, swinging his quiver onto his shoulder in its normal place as he placed his hand on his knife hilt, not wanting to draw it in case it glinted in the light of the fire.