Chapter Text
The letter arrived by Falcon in the evening hours. Carefully threaded, beautifully inscribed and sealed with wax and a red ribbon. On the outside, Will could read the writing, “For the eyes of Halt the Ranger, and his apprentice Will.”
Will couldn’t help the thrill of excitement. He tried to act nonchalant as he took it to Halt, who was sitting on the couch by the fire, skimming over something that apprentices need not worry about.
“Halt, a letter came for us.” Though he tried not to, Will couldn’t help but linger on the ‘us’ and that made Halt raise an eyebrow.
“Did it now?” said the Ranger, and he reached out his hand. Will gave him the letter and waited, but Halt did nothing. He just put the letter on the table and continued his reading.
After a minute, Will cleared his throat. Halt looked up. Will eyeballed the letter and raised both eyebrows.
“Need something, boy?” said Halt.
“I was just wondering-” Quick as a flash, Halt dropped his letters.
“Wondering what to do next?” Said the Ranger, “Well, the rug needs dusting, the pots need scrubbing and the firewood needs restocking.”
When Will didn’t move straight away, Halt made a shooing motion to spur him into action.
Will tried very hard not to look disappointed as he left.
Once everything had been dusted, scrubbed, cleaned and restocked, Will returned to see Halt still sitting on the couch. He gestured for Will to join him and then Halt picked up the letter, broke the wax seal and began reading silently.
Will waited, expecting Halt to speak, but of course, the ranger just frowned and kept reading. Will was itching to hear what it would be but Halt was giving nothing away.
“Hm. Interesting.” said the Ranger.
“What’s interesting?” Will burst out.
“We’re going on a mission.”
I know that. Will almost said. He held his tongue, only just.
Halt had a glint in his eye, “And it’ll be exciting.”
“Exciting?”
“Yes,” said Halt. “We’ll be hunting vampires.”
Will’s face fell. All the excitement suddenly drained away. “Vampires?” he repeated, and Halt grumbled something about apprentices. But surely Will had misheard.
“Two victims.” Halt went on, “Both were found with bite marks on their necks, and it looks like someone has tampered with a grave…”
Tampered with… or crawled out of? Thought Will, feeling his skin prickle and his hair stand on end.
He glanced out the window into the darkening night. All of a sudden it felt so much colder. The wind felt so much stronger. And was it just his imagination or was something out there moving? Just beyond the shadows, deep in the trees.
Halt stopped for a second and looked Will up and down, then sighed loudly, and refolded the letter.
“It’s not a real vampire.” He said firmly.
Will looked back around. “How can you be so sure, I mean-”
“Vampires aren’t real, Will.”
“But-”
“It’s best that we Rangers,” Halt gave Will a meaningful expression, “Leave superstitions to the uninformed and rely only on facts. The facts are a few people are dead and they don’t know who’s behind it. We’re going to clear that up.”
Halt took off his glasses and dropped them on the table with the letter, then he went to the kitchen to put on some coffee, clearly unbothered by the situation. Will, however, was suddenly noticing every creak in the old wood cabin and every owl hooting in the woods. And it felt like every wolf had come out tonight to howl. The wind picked up and the moon went behind a cloud, plunging the nightscape into darkness. He shuddered and fought back the urge to close the curtains. As if closed curtains could protect him from a vampire.
“When do we leave?” He asked as Halt returned with a cup of coffee for both of them.
“Tomorrow, just before the dawn. That’s when they like to hunt.” Halt winked at Will.
That night, Will lay awake for hours, and when sleep came, it was fitful and restless and he found himself almost grateful for Halt's gentle knocking.