#and future apprentice

I'm finally moving over my old FFN works to AO3. Here is one of my old favorites.

Summary: Will and Gilan met each other before Will's first Gathering, but neither of them realized it.

Meeting by Chance

Gilan was going to be spending the next month doing extra chores and, on top of that, he was quite possibly going to lose his day off at the upcoming harvest festival; Halt hadn't decided yet. All the grizzled Ranger was certain of was that the boy was going to be in serious trouble. His frown deepened. He urged Abelard forward to keep pace with the servant in castle livery as they made their way along the shadowed road to Castle Redmont.

Halt had suspected that something was amiss when Gilan hadn't come back before dark. But he hadn't guessed that what had held the boy up was anything like what, he had just been told, had happened. Halt had sent his apprentice to get some meat from the butcher for their supper—and he had been almost two hours late in coming back. Gilan did have a bit of a penchant for getting himself distracted sometimes, but even he wouldn't have gotten distracted for nearly two hours.

In fact, when he hadn't shown up, Halt's first reaction had been worry. Gilan hadn't taken his bow or his sword with him when he left. It was just meant to be a quick trip to Wensley Village, after all. But if he had run into trouble, Halt had known that he wouldn't have anything but his two knives with which to defend himself. Not even that, Halt had realized when he'd seen the two knives in question sitting on the table next to Gilan's whetstone. It appeared that his young apprentice had left in such a hurry that he had forgotten his knives as well.

Halt had then tried to tell himself that running into danger in Wensley Village wasn't all that likely. It was more likely that Gilan had simply gotten himself volunteered into helping one of the villagers—that was what had kept him the only other time he had been late after all. But the grim Ranger had been unable to shake the feeling that something was off. So thinking, he had grabbed his bow and his cloak, which was hanging next to Gilan's—the boy had yet to finish mending it from where he'd torn it on a branch during unseen movement practice earlier in the day—and had headed to the door of his cabin.

He had just reached for the knob when he'd heard Abelard's warning call that someone was approaching. Shortly after, he'd heard rapid hoofbeats approaching the cabin. At the sound of a knock on the door, Halt had looked through the spy-hole to see the servant in livery — a man who had been almost incoherent with nerves and excitement. It had taken Halt a while to make any sort of cohesive sense out of him.

Long story short, he'd been informed by that servant that his apprentice had gotten into a fistfight with the sons of a visiting nobleman and was currently in the castle infirmary. The nobleman was furious. Baron Arald had requested Halt's presence immediately.

Halt shook his head and cursed softly as he continued following after the servant. This was Gilan's second year as a Ranger's apprentice, he really knew better…