Rangers Apprentice: Something Missing

Chapter 34

As night came upon them, the rangers started off. Nicolas and his wife waved them off, hoping that they would be able to save those kids. It was completely dark when they got to the spot they were going to stake out. Halt and Crowley climbed up into the trees and waited for the colt to arrive. They had decided, that if the colt didn't show up one of then would go sneak around to find them. They were going to do everything they could to get those kids back. They didn't have to wait long though. After being there for about an hour the colt showed up. Halt looked around to see if he could find any sign of the kids. Soon his eyes landed on two men who were holding the two children. Halt looked over to were Crowley was. He could not see him, but he new the Crowley had seen then to. They started bringing wood over to build a fire. The young boy squirmed in the mans grip, while his sister started to cry. Halt quickly counted how many men there were. He scanned the clearing, counting about twenty men. That was only the ones he could see, Halt knew there was probable more hiding in the dark out of view. One man walked over to the wood and lit in on fire. Both the kids started squirming even more. The man holding the kids started walking forward. Halt knew he had to act fast. Halt slung his bow off his shoulder and nocked an arrow. He aimed it at the head of the man holding the girl, and he released. As he released and nocked another arrow and released it right after the other at the man holding the boy. Both arrows hit both the men in their heads, and they fell down dead. The children were dropped when the arrows hit the men. The boy crawled over to the girl and got her to stand up. Halt knew he would have to create a diversion for the kids to escape. Halt nodded arrow after arrow, which killed every time an arrow hit. Halt wasn't going easy on them, he was going to kill as many as he could. To Halts relief, the kids went in the direction of Crowley. out of the corner of his eye, he saw Crowley jump down from the tree and grab the kids. Crowley then ran with them back to the village. Halt saw that no one notice that the kids were gone. Halt kept shooting until he was out of arrows. As he looked at his work he saw that every arrow was a kill shot. Twenty four dead. Then Halt realized that that meant that he was right about there being more hiding in the darkness. To Halts dismay there were a lot of men that were hiding in the shadows. Halt counted at least fifteen men standing around the dead colt members. They were all looking up into the tree Halt was in. One of the men came forward, the one who lit the fire, Halt realized.

"Come down ranger, we know your there!" The an yelled. Halt caught his breath. How did they know he was a ranger. Halt was sure they had never seen him before, but maybe he was wrong. The man made a hand gesture. And before Halt could react an arrow lodged itself into Halts shoulder. Halt cred out in pain and fell out of the tree, hitting branches as he fell on his back with a thud. Halt stared up into the treetops as the colt members surrounded him. The last thing he remembered was a sharp pain as the arrow was pulled out of his shoulder.

Crowley ran as fast as he could back to the village. Both the kids had stopped screaming and kicking once the saw the village and realized that the clocked man was helping them. A women in the village screamed, which made people rush out of their homes. Crowley looked and saw Nicolas run out of his house sword in hand. When Nicolas saw Crowley he ran over to him.

"Crowley, your back. You have the kids!" He yelled. Crowley stopped running when he made it to Nicolas. Crowley nodded as he caught his breath. Crowley looked up when he heard a women cry out. A man and women ran over to the two kids and hugged then crying.

"My Children, you saved them!" The women cried as she rocked her kids back and forth.

"Thank you, thank you so much!" The man said. Crowley nodded at the man.

"Where's Halt?" Nicolas asked. Crowley's head shot up at the menschen of his best friends name. Crowley looked at Nicolas, worry on his face.

"Halt caused a distraction, so I could get the kids out." Crowley said. Nicolas looked at him in concern.

"Did he make it out?" Nicolas asked. Crowley shook his head.

"I don't know." He said. The father of the two kids then spoke.

"This man you are talking about, if he got caught helping save my kids lives, then I will help you rescue him." Crowley looked shocked at the mans worlds.

"I will help as well." Nicolas said. Crowley nodded at then both.

"Thank you." He said. The man went and grabbed his sword. Then all three of them went into the woods to rescue Halt.