A Ranger's Apprentice for life. (A Ranger's Apprentice FanFic) Book 1

~Chapter 22~ Lost Hopes and Dreams

Hope that you enjoy Chapter 22! Thanks for reading this far guys, it means a lot once again. Please feel free to leave a comment below telling me if I did good or not. Thanks! XD

Random Quote of the Week:

"If you live among wolves you have to act like a wolf." 

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     The next morning I awoke to the noise of tents being taken down, and was suprised to find myself lying under the tree, nothing above me. "What happened to my tent?" I yelled, trying to get everyone's attention. Will grinned and held up the folded tent.

     "Halt decided that it would do you some good to sleep in the open air, considering what you have gone through these past few days." I nodded, rubbing my face and looking around for Halt. He was sitting on a log over near the fire, a cup of coffee clutched in his hand. I grabbed my clothes and went into the woods to change. I was surprised to find a dead deer, it had a knife stuck in it's neck. Getting nervous of this situation, I call out to my mentor.

     "Halt, come here, I think that something's up." I scanned the area around me, checking for any sign of another human being that had been here. Certainly if someone was here, the horses would have warned us... Halt came over and looked at the deer.

     "Now what could have done this without the horses knowing..." It was then that I saw the sign, left on a bush, a notice on paper, just hanging there. Halt seemed to notice it as well. "What is this?" he mumbled, going over to examine the piece of paper. I walked over to where Halt stood and read the note over his shoulder. It read:

     Dear Rangers, we know that you are after us, and the only way that you will catch us is to challenge us to a race. Meet us by Morganian Village, under a tall oak tree that is nearby. We will be waiting.

                                                                                                         Sincerely, The Midnighters

     I heard Halt chuckle and turn around, facing me. " Well, that was interesting..." I nodded, and walked over to Will, Anna, Cobi, and Gilan, who sat gathered around the fire, completely unaware of what was going on. "Will," Halt said, holding the note out to him. "I need you and Tug to race again." He nodded, while reading the piece of paper that had been handed to him. After Will had read the paper, he passed it on to Gilan.

     "I could race Tug again, but I also think that this would be a time for a little bit of training for our apprentices." Will said, looking at Halt and Gilan. I quickly glanced at Anna and Cobi, who were whispering near the fire. I glanced back at Halt and walked over to Fury. Fury nickered when she saw me and I smiled.

     "Hey girl," I whispered. "Want to go for a ride?" Fury threw her head up and down, nickering while doing so. I tightened the girth strap and put my foot in the stirrup. I pushed off the ground and swung up over Fury's side. I trotted over next to Halt, telling him where I was going to be. "Halt, I'm going to ride around a bit, get to know the area." He nodded and turned back to Will, who was telling the story of his first race with Tug. I smiled and trotted Fury towards the opening in the tree line, not wanting to look back at my friends and family gathered in a group together. A slight pang of regret went through my body. I should be there with them, but it seems like we just keep moving farther and farther away from each other. I trotted into the forest surrounding our camp site, looking for a good tree to climb. When ever I need to think about something, I climb a tree, and just sit in it's branches. It took me roughly around half an hour to find the perfect tree, and when I did, I wasted no time climbing to the top. From the top of this tree, I could see when the forest ended and started. I could also see the clearing, but not inside of it. I could hear voices on the slight breeze.

     "What are we going to get her?" One voice asked, waiting for another to reply. "See, we don't know. We need to have something planned. This is her first birthday away from home." I realized that the voice was right, this was my first birthday away from home, and it was soon approaching the next day. I tuned back in on the voices, trying to catch a few more words of their conversation, but I heard nothing. Feeling slightly cheerful, I climbed down and lead Fury through the forest back to camp. I could hear Abelard, Blaze, Tug, Storm, and Ping nicker, and Fury replied. I walked in, loosening the girth strap while walking, and letting Fury trot over to her friends. 

     "Hey everyone," I said casually, walking over to my packs. "Are we going to leave now, or later?" I hefted several of the packs over my shoulder, and walked over to Fury.

     "Looks like you answered that." Gilan sighed, picking up his packs and walking over ot Blaze. In about ten minutes, all signs of us ever being here had been erased and we were on the trail again. This is how the chain of riders went: Myself, Anna, Cobi, Halt, Will, and taking up the rear Gilan. It was fun leading everyone, but when it stared to pour rain and all of the tracks started to slowly dissapear, I decided to hand the baton off to some one else.

     "Halt, could you take lead? All of the tracks are disappearing..." He nodded and started towards me when Cobi trotted to the front.

     "I want a try at it." Cobi said, pride in her voice. I heard a sigh from Gilan as I followed her, Halt going back behind Anna. We rode in circles for the next hour, and when we passed the same tree twice, Halt blew up. (Now remember, think figurative, not literal.^-^)

     "That's it, we are wasting daylight following her around. I'm leading. Now." Halt trotted Abelard to the front and headed off towards the cliff side village known as Morganian, where we were to meet with the Midnighters. By the time we had reached our camping spot for the night, it was well past six o'clock, and everyone seemed to be starving. Gilan quickly cooked up a small meal of beef and put out the fire when he finished.

     "It's going to have to be chilly tonight. We don't want the  Midnighters knowing we are here yet." Gilan said, brushing dirt and leaves over the spot where the fire had once stood. I sighed, and pulled my sleeping roll off of Fury's saddle. I laid it down and set about removing all of my gear from Fury. When I finished, she nickered and pawed the ground. I loosened her saddle and signed free to her. Gilan helped me move everything over by my bed roll.

     "Thanks," I muttered. "Hey Gilan, do you really think that they just want a race?" He shook his head no, and sat pulled up a log.

     "I think that they will cheat, and have some weird set of rules. I also believe that they will do something bad to the loser." I nodded, agreeing with his logic.He stood up and wished me good night. "Good night, you will take third watch." I nodded once again, and curled up on my sleeping roll, and drifted away.

************************************************FOUR HOURS LATER*********************************************

     I was shaken away by Halt, who always took shift before I did. "Come on, time for your watch." I nodded, rubbing my eyes to get the drowsiness out of them. I grabbed my bow and swung my quiver on my back, making my way to the vantage point that had been found earlier. I climbed up the tree and sat in the branches, senses alert and open to signs of trouble. I notched an arrow and pulled up my cowl. Now to wait for an two hours... We had decided to take Will off of watch because he needed his energy for horse racing tomorrow,so everyone took double watches to cover for him. I heard a slight noise of branches swaying, and looked down, and noticed a shade of grey moving, and it wasn't a cloak either. I heard another noise and pulled back my arrow, when suddenly, a rock was shot at me. It hit me in the head, and the world quickly went black.

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Hope you enjoyed. I have decided to do one chapter a week because school is staring soon and I won't have as much time to write. I might not be able to keep that promise, but I'll update as fast as I can. Sorry this one took forever to post, I was doing many things to get ready for school. Next one will be posted probably next Wednesday, but I can't be sure. Please read, comment, vote, and I do say fan! :D <3