Chapter Two

Will’s cabin was a lot like Gilan’s and Kisha’s. Small and wooden, with small stable beside it. When they were still over a hundred feet away, Kisha heard Cheshire whinny to her. She dropped out of Blaze’s saddle and started running towards the stable.

“Race you,” Gilan said, easily pulling ahead. Kisha ran faster, but then tripped and fell over something. She looked around for the offending object and spotted a glint of polished metal. She picked it up, brushing off the dirt.

It was an emerald cut in the shape of an oval. Wrapping around the emerald was a silver dragon, whose eyes seemed to gleam in the dull forest light. She turned it over and found that it was a pin, like the kind meant to fasten two pieces of cloth together, like a brooch. She put in her pocket to look at it later.

She hurried the rest of the way to Will’s cabin. Inside, there was Tug, of course, a strange small black horse, and then Cheshire. Kisha ignored the other horse, overjoyed at seeing hers again.

“Cheshire!!” she buried her face in his mane. When she pulled back, his face seemed to say, Where were you? “Oh, you crazy horse. Why’d you leave with Will?” Cheshire’s guilty eyes strayed to an empty bad that reeked of mushrooms.

“Nice to know that my horse can be bribed with fungus,” she said, glaring at Cheshire. He looked at her meekly and nuzzled his head into her side. “Alright, fine, I forgive you, you big pussycat.” Cheshire brought his head back to glare at her.

I am not a pussycat. Kisha just smiled and led him out to where Gilan, Will, and a strange dark-haired girl were waiting. Kisha walked up to Will and started yelling at him.

“Why in the world would you take Cheshire?!! I mean, it’s not as if he means everything in the world to me- sorry Gil- and is pretty much my best friend!! How would you like it if I had stolen Tug? Huh? Would it be so funny then??” Will just stood there with a small grin on his face.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know you were so attached-”

“Yes, you did,” Kisha interrupted.

“Well, I was trying to think of a clever way to get you guys to come here-”

“You couldn’t have just sent a pigeon?”

“-Get you guys to come here to meet my new apprentice, Jay.”

“Nice to meet you,” Kisha said, turning to her. Jay was just a little younger than Kisha but shorter. She was wearing the average green Ranger’s cloak, but it seemed a little worn out for how young she was. She had all of the regular Ranger gear, albeit a recurve bow instead of a longbow. “When did you start?”

“Last month,” Jay looks nervously at Will. “You didn’t say we were having visitors.”

“Surprise?” Will said, grinning sheepishly.

“So, what has Will taught you?” Gilan asked Jay.

“Basically everything, knife throwing, archery, combat, sneaking. I think… I need to work on my knife throwing though.” She shrugged. “Will says I’m really good at silent moving or whatever.”

“ ‘Whatever’ ?” Gilan arched an eyebrow.

“Anyway, can we get to training? I was going to show Gil up on archery today,” I told them.

“Oh, yeah?” Gilan and Will asked at the same time. Jay laughed.

“How about a tournament?” Will suggests.

“Sure,” Jay says, lifting her small recurve bow from her shoulders and testing the string experimentally. Kisha raised her eyebrows.

“Then it isn’t going to be a fair competition,” she commented, gesturing to Jay’s bow, much smaller in comparison to the massive longbows the Rangers wore. Kisha, having known Gilan all her life, had practically idolized him as a child and persuaded him into letting her train with a recurve bow long before she was an apprentice. As a result, she already used the massive longbow that wasn’t normally issued until much farther into their training.

“We’ll do different kinds of shots,” Will said. “We’ll make it work.” Kisha looked unconvinced but didn’t say anything.

“Besides, she might surprise you. Anyway, let’s get going. What should the different kinds of shots be?” Gilan asked.

“Long distance, precision, spontaneity, rapidness, and shooting with distractions,” Will answered quickly with a smile.

“Sounds good,” Gilan agreed.

“Alrighty then. Jay, please do the honors of setting up the targets,” Will said to his apprentice.

“What about shots made from horseback?” Kisha asked. Cheshire butted her arm with the top of his head.

Good idea, the horse seemed to say. Now I can embarrass you in front of everybody. If horses could smirk deviously, Cheshire was now.

“Don’t forget, you’re still not off the hook for earlier,” Kisha scolded him.

But you said you’d forgiven me?

“Maybe. But I’m still going to punish you for it.”

“Kisha, could you stop talking to your horse and help Jay with the targets?” Gilan smiled. Kisha gasped a little and looked around. Everyone had been staring at her.

“Don’t worry, we all do it, even Halt,” Will told her. Kisha laughed.

“Halt talks to his horse?!”

“His horse’s name is Abelard, and yes, they talk, just when they think nobody is around.”

“I talk to Onyx all the time,” Jay supplied.

“Let’s get to the tournament,” Gilan directed them back to the task at hand.

“The tournament that I’m going to beat you at?” Kisha asked.

“Big talk for a small lady,” Gilan shot back.

“We’re the same size,” Kisha laughed. It was true. They were about the same height and around the same build.

“Just... just get going on those targets,” Gilan told her, unable to think of a worthy comeback. Kisha saluted and laughed a bit, then went off to help Jay with the targets.