Ranger's Apprentice: The Tantalizing Tales

Rock

In which Halt is very un-Halt-like and yet very Halt-like at the same time.

~~~

It was late. And cold. And dark.

It was late and cold and dark. All the ingredients for a miserable watch were there and yet none of them seemed to be bothering Halt.

Sitting on a small hill near the large campsite, hidden under the official Ranger cloak that he had "borrowed" from Crowley, there was little to distinguish him from a rock. A plain, simple, solid rock.

Crowley had actually called him a rock, once, not too long ago. He had disguised it as a joke, referring to his hard and unmoving personality. But Halt had heard the emotion in the young commandant's voice and had understood the message. He had made eye contact with his friend and had tried to convey the reply that for him too, the other Ranger was like a rock he could lean on. To the world, however, he had feigned annoyance.

Now Halt was sitting on the hill, watching out for potential intruders he knew would never arrive. He had volunteered to take the first watch, knowing full well that even though the small elite Corps had taken him up in its ranks, he had no place in the festivities that were currently going on a few metres away. Morgarath was gone. The threat to the Kingdom had temporarily disappeared. The Rangers wanted to celebrate their freedom and to mourn the friends that they had lost. And they didn't want a grumpy Hibernian there to ruin the mood. So Halt had decided to take watch.

His eyes slowly drifted from the festive Rangers on his left towards the large tents on his right, where the country's other, more official, leaders had a party of their own. Duncan, Arald, David - they were undoubtedly drinking to a battle well-fought, a war practically well-won. Pauline had arrived earlier that day too. Halt had barely gotten the chance to greet her. Though whenever they'd made eye contact in passing, he'd nodded at her and she had smiled that rare smile at him. The courier would be leaving first thing in the morning to send out the signatures she'd been here to gather. She had been carrying the documents Arald and Duncan needed to formally declare a state of peace and safety in the Kingdom, to discharge their men, and to prepare for a return home.

Home. Halt didn't really know where that place was these days. Yet something - perhaps a thought, a gut feeling, an instinct - told him that it wasn't far away. Between the closely-knit Rangers led by Crowley on his left and the new leadership of this strange Kingdom that even included one of the most beautiful and intelligent women Halt had ever met on his right, a sense of homely comfort was washing over him.

To a careful watcher - who Halt knew wasn't there - the rock seemed to move a little when Halt switched positions to turn his back on the celebrations down below.

Rocks didn't smile. Rocks wouldn't be caught dead smiling. And yet Halt allowed a small force to ever so slightly lift the corners of his mouth.