Modern Ranger

Chapter 8

Horace was confused.

He'd been told in his letter from Halt to ride to Caraway to meet up with a Skandian crew, but they were nowhere to be seen.

Horace couldn't even find their ship.

He'd checked the docks, but the closest he could find to a Skandian wolfship was a strange small ship with weird triangular sails.

So Horace decided to duck into an inn for a coffee to calm himself down.

He sat at a table, nursing his cup of coffee with great dollops of honey in it. He got a few weird looks from the other customers, but he pretended not to notice them.

Horace frowned and took out the letter from Halt again.

Horace,
Crowley has issued yet another mission for us. We're going to deal with the Scrato problem- you know what I mean.
A group of young Skandians are taking us there. Meet them at Caraway Fief. Will and I won't be far behind you.
If you can't find the Skandians, you're blind. They're Skandians for goodness sake.
~Halt

It was just like Halt, Horace thought. Brief, straight to the point and, surprise surprise, it had a jibe towards him.

Horace just shook his head and drank a sip of his coffee.

**

The Herons didn't try very hard to look for the young knight.

Hal decided that it would be easier for this Horace to find them than for the Herons to find him.

Hal decided to take his crew for a look around. For some reason he let the twins Ulf and Wulf (he couldn't tell who was who) lead them.

The twins froze at the door of an inm that they were passing and grinned evilly at each other.

Uh oh, Hal thought.

"We found Horace," said one of the twins. "Wait out here while we fetch him," said the other.

Hal sighed but gestured for them to go ahead.

Once inside, Wulf grinned at Ulf. "You go that side," he muttered. Ulf nodded.

The twins snuck out on different sides of the inn towards Horace. They met each other behind Horace's back (literally) and proceeded to casually read the letter from Halt over the young knight's shoulder.

"So," Ulf whispered into Horace's ear, "That means-"
"-that you must be blind," Wulf finished.

Horace scrambled out of his chair, almost knocking it over in surprise. He whirled around to face the twins, his hand automatically straying the sword at his hip.

Horace studied them wearily. After a short pause, his face cleared.

"Oh! You guys must be some of the Skandians," Horace said.

"Nope," the twins said sarcastically, "We're Genovesan assassins. We're gonna kill you."

Horace grinned. He couldn't think of anyone less like Genovesan assassins than the two who stood before him.

Then the rest of the Herons walked in, led by Hal.

Horace measured them up, taking in their appearances. Most of them looked about his age, except for one, who only had one hand.

Hal, the young skirl, stepped forward.

"I'm Hal," he said, offering a hand, "And you must be Horace."

Horace took his hand and shook it. "Yes," Horace said, "But where has Halt and Will gotten to?"

Hal didn't have the time to reply because a tall female Ranger stepped out of the shadows nearby.

Horace and the Herons stared at her, puzzled. Horace knew most of the female Rangers (as there weren't many), but he hasn't seen one as tall as the one standing before him.

"Er... hello?" Horace said to her.

"Let me introduce myself," she said. Horace thought that her voice was awfully familiar...

"My name is Bree. I'm... friends... with Halt and Will. I will be helping you with your mission," the Ranger told him.

Horace would have queried her, but he wanted to know where his friends were.

"Where's Halt and Will?" Horace asked Bree.

"Standing right next to you."

He looked to his left to see his oldest comrades looking at him, both of them with one eyebrow raised.