The next day Squirt woke up tow hours before sunrise to get to Castle Redmont early but first she had to do her morning practise of her throwing knife and bow and arrow skills. She hit the target occasionally in her bow and arrow skills practise, she got two arrows on the red circle in the middle, but the rest missed or just hit the edge, but it wasn't bad from 2 days practise. Her throwing knife skills practise wasn't all bad either, she hit the red circle once and the rest of her 19 throws usually hit around the red circle. Halt approved it and she made her way in to the village, Her practise with Halt took and hour and a half, since once you get talking to Halt about Bow and arrow techniques you can't stop him. The sun was just starting to rise and already people were rushing around, there were waiters and waitresses rushing around the streets carrying pots and pans for the baron, and there were some kids playing ball. As the walked past them they stopped and stared at her. Just before Halt left to go to the village, Halt gave her the famous ranger grey and green mottled cloak. She dicided to wear it to show herself off as the first girl ranger. She smiled at the kids but they didn't return it. She shrugged mentally, I better get used to it, she thought. On her way to the castle where she had to do some paper work, she decided to see how the young battle school apprentices were going. She loved seeing the kids that volunteered to be in battle school being pushed their hardest while she got to relax and watch them. When she got there she saw all of them in lined up, then suddenly she heard a low but loud voice yell
"GO!" there was at least hundred of them lined up and after hearing that single word, they all started running. She soon realised that the voice was battle school master Sir Rodney. He saw her watching and walked over.
"Well hello young lady" he said "Surprised to see you here, thought Halt would be making you work flat out on your ranger skills" everyone that knew Squirt knew how much she loved rangers and knew how much she longed to be one. Everyone knew she was going to be picked by Halt as a ranger apprentice. Squirt smiled, ignoring the you lady bit.
"I have to do some paper work over here this morning and I'll be back in time for Halt to take me and Will to meet our new horses which I'm really excited about" she said. Rodney nodded
"Fair enough, but if your doing paperwork why are you here?" Rodney asked. He knew how much Squirt hated being cooped up inside on a desk all day and preferred to be outside.
"You know me Rodney, I can never get enough of the outdoors and watching innocent kids being totured by battle master Sir Rodney" she said with a broad smile. Rodney laughed
"Well you've come at the right time, they've just started their cross country training." Squirt laughed
"Well I have come at the right time!" she said cheerfully. Cross country is an exercise to keep all apprentices fit and ready for whatever comes at them. The cross country went from the starting line in the battle school training ground, around the castle, then swim across Tarbus river, run to the local inn, then the dock of Tarbus river, swim across again, then three laps around the battle school grounds, then cross the starting line and you're finished. Squirt looked off into the distance and saw small figures running. They were about the size of ants and they soon disappeared behind the castle. About 3 minutes later Horace came in first. Rodney shocked by his speed, patted him on the back making Horace wince from the strong hand slap him painfully.
"Well done Horace!" he said proud of his first year student. Horace, red faced and exhausted saw Squirt standing at the fence. As he saw her another battle school trainee crossed the finish line. Rodney went over to congratulate the student. Horace made his way to the fence, towards Squirt. Once Horace got there he leaned on the fence feeling his legs nearly give way from the run. They stood silent for a while until Squirt broke the silent tension growing between them.
"Good job" she said, Horace nodded acknowledgment at her, too drained to speak. They stood in silence for a little while longer until Squirt spoke again, "How's that jaw of yours?" she asked, Horace still panting for breath managed to speak again
"Alright, no thanks to you" he said
"Look, I'm sorry for that day, I guess I don't like getting insulted in public" Squirt said "And thank you, by the way, for keeping quiet at the choosing, it meant a lot to me and I promise I'll make it up to you" Horace nodded, then once his breathing was back to normal he started talking again,
"Look, I'm happy to put this behind us if you are" Horace said " I think I was a bit out of line that day and I was being a complete moron, and you didn't deserve to be insulted like that. You did nothing, it was just a unfinished fight between me and Will" Squirt nodded
"Well I'm happy to put it behind us" she said and they both smiled at each other. They stood in silence once again but it involved no tension, then Horace notice the ranger cloak on her.
"Are you a ranger?" he asked, Squirt smiled
"Well actually I'm apprentice by Halt who is my guardian" she said, Horace went wide eyed
"Halt your guardian? You a ranger apprentice?" Squirt nodded "But how did I not know that Halt was looking after a kid and since when were girls allowed to become rangers?" Horace blurted out, Squirt sighed, sick of explaining herself to everyone who asked very much the same thing to her
"Well, Halt didn't like the idea of people knowing about him raising a kid since he knew it would be hard on me if people knew a girl had a ranger as a guardian because it was pretty unnatural so he kept quiet about me" Horace nodded
"Fair enough, but a girl being a ranger?" Horace asked in disbelief. Squirt raised an eyebrow.
"Have you got a problem with that?" she said doing her best to give him a cold, grim look that she picked up from Halt. Horace dropped from her steady gaze giving her confirmation that her facial expression was successful to get Horace scared
"No" he mumbled nervously, and to Horace's surprise heard Squirt laugh, he looked up and saw her cheerful and happy looked back
"Good" she said, Horace eager to change the subject spoke again,
"So what does Will do these days?" he asked. He hadn't seen Will since Horace left to go to battle school. Having no idea what-so-ever of what had happened. Squirt smiled at the mention of Will
"He's actually apprenticed by Halt as well as me" she said cheerfully. Horace shook his head in shock
"Ranger? Will? Are you sure?" Squirt resumed her cold, grim look and again Horace dropped from her gaze almost immediately
"Have you got a problem with that?" she asked knowing what Horace's answer was going to be
"No" he mumbled once again and Squirt's eyes instantly lit up with happiness once more
"Good!" she said in a happy tone to match her facial expression. Horace looked up from his nervous position and they both met each other's eyes. Horace noticed that her eyes were a dark brown that made his whole body straighten up realising how beautiful they were. They both smiled at each other and Squirts eyes gleamed in the sunlight filled with happiness which made Horace's grin broaden. Then Horace heard Rodney's voice and turned to see him signalling for Horace to come to the group of trainees that had past the line while him and Squirt were talking. Horace let a slight groan out annoyed that he would have to put an end to this interesting conversation with the pretty eyed girl.
"Looks like I have to go" Horace said "But I'd like to meet up again and officially meet each other" Squirt's smile broadened at the suggestion and nodded
"I'd like that" Squirt said. They both smiled at each other once more as a sign of saying goodbye and Horace turned to leave as well as Squirt. Then from the sound of Horace's voice, Squirt turned to see Horace facing her
"Hey um...What do I call you?" he asked. He knew that she didn't have a name as he had found out the day before the choosing, Squirt smiled once more feeling her cheeks starting to ache from the constant smiling.
"People call me Squirt" she said
"Squirt" Horace echoed and smile "Well bye Squirt" he said and they both waved good bye to each other and walked away.
*THANKS GUYS FOR READY UPDATE TOMORROW HOPE YOU'RE ENJOYING IT. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO VOTE AND COMMENT. <3 THANKS GUYS!!!!(:*
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Halt's Ranger Apprentices- John Flanagan Ranger Apprentice fan-fiction
FanfictionA fifteen-year-old girl, meets fifteen-year-old Will. Two apprentices, one Halt. The life of this girl was out of the ordinary, secretive, very few knew that the grim, dark and cunning Halt had been raising a girl for fifteen years. There's someth...
