Rangers Apprentice: Something Missing

Chapter 23

Will and Gilan joined Crawly and Arold at Halts cabin. They were shocked to see that Halts cabin was completely destroyed.

"What Happened?" Will asked, as he and Gilan got off their horses and walked over to were Crawly and Arold were standing in front of Halts cabin.

"Good, your hear." Arold said as Gilan and Will stood next to them.

"Halts cabin was struck by lightning." Emma said as she walked up behind them. Will hadn't heard her and almost flinched was she startled him.

"We were lucky to escape with our lives." Emma said.

"Is that how Halt got wounded?" Gilan asked, Emma just shook her head.

"No, I believe before Halt was stabbed when he went into the woods behind his cabin." Emma said, and Crawly looked at him puzzled.

"Why would he go back there in the middle of the night?" Crawly asked. Emma didn't want to lye to them, but she new Halt didn't want them to know about Nyx.

"We heard a little girl screaming, so Halt went into the woods to try and find the little girl. He was in there for a long time so I walked over to go look for him, when I found the little girl crying at the edge of the woods. I believe that Halt found someone trying to take the little girl and they fought and the girl got away and Halt was stabbed." Emma said and they all nodded. They all walked over to the woods and split up to see if they could find anything, even though the rain would have washed anything away. There was a lot of fallen trees and every thing was really wet, but no one wanted to give up, not with the person who wounded Halt on the loose.

"There's no way that whoever attacked Halt could have gotten far in that storm." Emma said to herself. Then as she thought about going in another direction she spotted something that made her heart leap. Halts dagger was lying next to a fallen tree. Emma leaned down and picked it up. To her surprise there was still a little dried blood on it. Emma called the others over and showed them the dagger. They all agreed that it was halt and that this my have been were he was attacked. They all started walked a little farther from Halts cabin, or what was left of it. If Halt was attacked around hear whoever attacked him would want to run as far away from Halts cabin as possible. As they got farther and farth away from the cabin, Emma thought they would never find anything. They as they were about to turn back Will saw some thing. As they all ran over to see if it was what they thought it was they had to cover their noses from the smell.

"Well, I think we found who attacked Halt." Gilan said. There was a man who had been crushed under a tree, the smell was horrible. There was no way for then to find out who it was he was now unrecognizable. As Emma looked closer she saw that the man was clutching something. Emma leaned down and pried the mans fist open and there she found Halts silver oke leaf. She picked it up and held it up so the other could see it. It wad some dried blood on it, but other wise it was fine.

"It looks like the man pulled this off Halt when they were fighting." Emma said as she put it in her pocked, promising herself that she would give it back to Halt when he gets better.

"Well, at least this man got what he deserved." Crawly said anger in his voice. They all walked back to the what was once Halts cabin, and stood there for a moment thinking about what to do next.

"We should probable get back." Arold said, and everyone nodded, except for Emma.

"You go on, there's something I want to check." Emma said. They stared at her for a moment, then they got on their horses and rode back to Castle Redmont leaving Emma alone with her thoughts.