Halt's Ranger Apprentices- John Flanagan Ranger Apprentice fan-fiction

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE:

Weeks had passed since Will and Belle’s first date and the good thing about both of them being apprenticed together was that they did almost everything together giving them more bonding time. Will and Belle hadn’t had time for another date, but they didn’t really have to since, they saw each other every hour of every day.

It was an hour before dawn, when Belle was woken up by Halt. Belle looked outside her window with the curtains back, since she forgot to do it the night before and it was still pitch black. Belle furrowed her eye brows and gave a questioning look to him.

“What?” she asked. Halt sighed, his hair ruffled from sleep.

“Pauline has requested that you help in the Diplomatic service today, there is a court case today between a farmer who possibly killed Mr Wood the merchant and Pauline needs you for it.” Belle groaned

“Can’t she get one of her apprentices? Surely they can do it?” Belle was a very skilled diplomat when it came to convincing, persuading, comebacks or finding out the truth about people, but Belle was not even the least bit interested in becoming one. She is always the favourite among all the Diplomats, but to be honest, Belle couldn’t care less but people always request for her in strong court cases like these.

“This is a big case Belle and she needs you” Halt said firmly. Belle sighed knowing that there was no way out of this situation and nodded

“Fine, I’ll come” She said in a defeated tone. Halt nodded in satisfaction

“Good, now be ready in 10 minutes the case starts in an hour” Halt said like it wasn’t a big deal at all.

“An hour!” Belle shouted in shock. “Who does Pauline think I am? A miracle worker? I can’t possibly read through all the documents of everything they know within an hour!” Halt shook his head.

“Belle, you have no idea how highly skilled you are. You’re only 15 and you are more skilled than an adult diplomat. Plus…They have  no documents, the farmer isn’t saying anything, all they know is that Mr Wood was found in his home dead with the farmer sitting next to him with blood on his hands” Belle shrugged

“So, the farmer could have come around after his murder for something and found him and tried to save him. Or, he could have been at the murder scene but the murderer ran off before he killed the farmer. Halt there are a hundred different explanations for this” Halt nodded

“I know, but Pauline was the one who found the people first and just before the farmer realised that Pauline was there, he was smiling.” Belle took this in. That explained why Pauline couldn’t do the court case herself because she was a witness with no evidence except for her useless words. Belle sighed and rubbed her head, realising what a busy day Belle was going to have ahead.

“Ok, I can work with that, now get out so I can get dressed” Halt smiled and kissed Belle on the forehead.

“Thank you, this means a lot to Pauline” Halt said and left. Belle sighed once again and started getting dressed.

<-------<<<-

It was noon when Belle finally finished doing the court case. It turned out that the farmer was guilty of the murder and was sentenced. As Belle walked out of the double doors and outside, she took a nice, big breath of fresh air.  Belle sighed in relief and started to make her way to the cottage when she saw the battle school trainees working hard. Belle came to a decision to go visit Horace. She hadn’t seen him for 3 weeks now and it was time to catch up. Since Belle got out of doing more ranger duties she had the rest of the day free, and if she went back to the cottage with plenty of sun left, she would probably have to do the obstacle course, which Belle hated the most. Belle found Horace easy enough. Everyone else were making their way back to their dormitory but, Horace was staying back to do extra training by himself.

“Horace!” belle called out, and as Horace looked toward the voice he heard, his face red and sweaty lightened up to see his friend.

“Annabelle!” Horace called back. Once Belle reached Horace they hugged each other and started talking for a little bit.

“Don’t work yourself to hard” Belle said. Horace shook his head

“You know me Annabelle, just can’t get enough of whacking innocent wooden poles. They both laughed when they heard voices behind.

“Oh look! It’s baby and Mrs baby!” Belle scowled at the kids. It was Alda, Brynn and Jerome. Alda making the first comment.

“Bugger off will you?” Belle said, standing straighter trying to look more frightening. The three kids noticing all started screaming in fear sarcastically.

“Did you hear that? She wants us to bugger off!” Jerome said. Belle sighed and took a step closer to them. Horace grabbed Belle’s arm to stop her from getting any closer. Belle had only just noticed the each of the boys had a can and a sack over their shoulder. Belle eyed the weapons suspiciously. “If I were you girl, I wouldn’t come any closer. You made a mistake fighting the boar Horace, you made us battle school apprentices look weak. You had to be saved by a girl and a boy who are filthy rangers who use dark magic! You should be ashamed and now you both will pay.” Brynn said in a deep and evil tone. Belle automatically reached for her Saxe Knife, but realised that it wasn’t there. From all the excitement of waking up early this morning, made Belle forget about putting on her double scabbard. Belle swore under her breath mentally kicking herself then suddenly it all went back. Belle, caught off guard got a sack pulled over her head. Horace yelled in fear, but they were muffled as he had a sack over his head as well. Belle suddenly felt a pain in her ribs and heard Horace yelling in pain. Then, Belle remembered the canes the kids were carrying and realised that they were hitting Horace and herself with them while they were blinded by the sacks. Belle felt another jolt of pain on her left arm and she screamed out in pain. Then another hit her head almost knocking her out. Everything went fuzzy and Belle knew that she would get concussion. Then, another to more hits in her ribs and stomach and another behind her knees, making her fall to the ground. Belle could hear the three kids laughing as they were bashing herself and Horace. Belle had never felt so useless in her life and suddenly light flashed into Belle’s eyes. Alda had taken the sack off Belle’s head and the three kids left. Belle found that it was hard to breath and and her consciousness kept going in and out. Belle turned her head around to find Horace almost unconscious as well. Belle made an attempt to say his name but all that came out of her mouth was a croak. Belle hadn’t realised until now that her mouth had gone dry and she no matter how many times she swallowed, the dryness wouldn’t go away. Suddenly she heard voices from behind and realised that Alda, Brynn and Jerome were still there.

‘Now let’s go and teach the ranger boy a lesson as well!” Belle didn’t know who said that this time, but as soon as the words hit Belle’s ears, Belle immediately tried to get up. They were talking about Will and they were going to hurt him. Belle felt pain surge through her whole body and she fell back to the ground. Then she saw movement in the corner of her eye and turned to see Horace getting up. Horace managed to regain balance and helped Belle get up. Horace had a black eye and knew that there would be lots of bruises all over his body, just like there would be on herself. Belle felt the pain screaming at her but she ignored it. She had to save Will.

“We have to help Will…” Belle managed to croak out. Horace nodded weakly. He couldn’t get to the armoury now, it would be locked up, but there was still the wooden swords that his class were out. He grabbed one and handed it to Belle and grabbed another for himself. The two kids started to run but after less than 2 minutes of running Belle couldn’t handle it anymore. Horace seemed to be handling th pain much better and he told Belle to go back and rest. Belle refused at first but after encouragement headed back. Horace disappeared out of sight and after several minutes after that, Belle had a perfect idea. Belle drew breath, ignoring the immense pain in her ribs and out her fingers to her mouth. She  let out a big loud whistle and after waiting for less than a minute saw her horse Beauty running after Belle who she had left in front of the court house building. Belle smiled at her horse who she could always rely on. It took several attempts to get on Beauty wasting precious time but eventually got into the saddle. Belle could hardly blance properly but she knew that Will’s health hung in the balance. Belle dug her heels in to Beauty and and raced off to the cottage.