Hey everybody and welcome to the newest installment of Ranger's Apprentice: A New Generation!

Disclaimer: Tigre y Lobo is in no way affiliated with John Flannagan and what can be recognized as his is his.

Rangers Apprentice Chapter 18: It Begins
Sarah

I woke up the next morning to an empty room. I frowned and walked over to Tiger's bed. The sheets were cold and it looked like all of her meager possessions were gone. My heart sank, "Tiger...you didn't." I whispered. I sat on her bed with my head in my hands. I looked up at a knock on the door.
"Enter." I said.
Maria popped her head in the room. "Hey, Sarah. We have to get going."
"Ok." I said, standing up. My movements were stiff and measured as I tried not to allow my emotions to be seen.
"Where's Tiger?" Maria asked as we walked to the dining room.
"I don't know." I shrugged.
"Well, I'm sure she'll show up. After all, who would want to miss this?"
I hummed in response. We arrived at our destination and my heart sank even lower as I saw that my counterpart wasn't in the dining room either. I sat down and robotically ate my breakfast. My stomach was in knots and I barely acknowledged the others as they tried to rope me into a conversation. The table eventually fell into silence, and I took the time to assess my fellow wardmates' moods.
Rebecca was looking around arrogantly. She obviously thought that things would go her way today. Lucas had his head in his arms on the table and Maria held her head in her hands. Aarron's head was up and his gaze was sweeping the room. The only thing that betrayed his nervousness was his dark eyes that were slightly wider than usual. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the door opened and the caretaker's voice was instructing us to get in line. I allowed the others to get ahead of me, feeling slightly more secure with the knowledge that I could take in my surroundings better from this position.
Suddenly, a hand snaked out from the shadows and caught my arm in an iron grip. Another had covered my mouth as my attacker pulled me into the alcove that they had been hiding in. I struggled and was pulling my arm back to catch the person in the stomach when his voice stopped me. "Will you stop panicking? Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed. I had hoped that you would be able to handle yourself better against an attack!" The hold on me was loosened and I broke free of it as I rounded on the ranger. "What the hell, Gilan?" I demanded, "What is with you and snatching innocent and unsuspecting girls from the shadows!"
The loose reference was, of course, lost on the man.
Gilan leaned back against the wall and, even though I couldn't see his eyes, I knew he was studying me from under his cowl. "You know, while your self defense leaves something to be desired, you can climb, you are good at stealth and you seem to have a good head for tactics."
"How do you figure that?" I asked, ignoring the ignored question.
"I've seen how you've been. Every single thing that you've done while in the presence of those other than your peers has been measured and calculated. If I hadn't been hidden as well as I was, you would have been able to spot the threat soon enough to act accordingly. Heck, I know for a fact that you can cream just about anyone in the ward at chess." He smirked, "You also seem to be pretty good at gathering intelligence." I balked slightly at what that could imply. He fell silent for a long time. I resisted the temptation to get the conversation rolling and patiently waited for him to continue.
After about ten minutes by my mental count, the ranger nodded to himself. "Sarah, how would you like to be my apprentice?" He asked.
I was shocked to say the least. Severely excited as well. I somehow managed to keep my voice steady as I replied, "I would like that very much, Gilan. I accept."
"Well come on, then." He said and started walking briskly toward the entrance. I followed him.
"My stuff-" I realized.
"-Has already been taken to my cabin." Gilan said.
"Have you seen Tiger?" I asked as we climbed onto Blaze, "She wasn't in our room this morning and her stuff was gone."
"I wouldn't worry about her too much." Gilan replied.
"But-"
"She's fine." He said, his tone suggesting that I should stop talking.
We kept riding, passing the glen that held Will's cabin and coming up to what I assumed belonged to Gilan. "Home sweet home." Gilan said, "Head inside. I'll be along in a moment." I stepped up to the cabin, seeing that it was nearly identical to the one Will lived in. As I crossed the threshold, I had to stop myself from falling as I found my arms full of my best friend. "Tiger!" I gasped in relief, "I was so worried!" She stepped out of my embrace and grinned at me.
"Sarah, we're..."
"I know, pretty awesome, right?" I said, grinning also.
"Understatement of the year." She scoffed.
"Whatever you say." I replied.
"If you two are quite finished, I would like to step into my own house." Gilan said from behind me. We both apologized while moving out of the way.
"Come on, Tiger." Will said, "Now that you've satisfied your curiosity, we need to get back to our cabin." The younger ranger clapped Gilan on the shoulder and walked out. Tiger started after him, but I grabbed her at the last second. "Meet me at the tree." I hissed in her ear, "Midnight." She nodded before hurrying after Will.
Gilan raised an eyebrow and I looked at him innocently, "What?" I asked, "I was telling her not to do anything stupid."
"Ok, but if record shows anything that sure won't happen." is all he said in response.
"I completely agree." I said with a laugh as we headed back into the woods. We arrived at a riverbed and Gilan pointed to two buckets that were lying on the ground
"The water trough needs refilling." He said, "Get that done and then we'll see about training." I stood there gawking at his retreating back before shaking my head and beginning my task. "I should have known." I grumbled.
"Gilan!" I called, walking into the cabin a little over an hour and thirty-two buckets of water later, "It's done!"
"I'm in here!" He called back. I followed his voice to a small bedroom at the back of the cabin. He was standing by the bed, which had a small parcel of clothes on the top along with my bag from the Ward. "These have been tailored to your size. Put them on then meet me out front." He walked out the door, closing it behind him. I opened the parcel and nearly screamed in total excitement and joy. I quickly put on the outfit that was almost an exact copy of the one that belonged to Gilan. I was feeling like a total badass as I walked out of the cabin.
"Took you long enough," Gilan said as I walked toward him. He was holding another package in his hands and I grinned despite his jab. He opened the package and started lecturing in a stern voice, "Now, these are tools, not toys. You will respect these or you will lose them." I nodded in understanding.
"This is the saxe knife." He held up a short knife with a serrated edge identical to the ones that I had seen online, "It is your main knife. It's edge is razor sharp and will cut through just about anything, so mind where you point it." He sheithed the knife and pulled out a smaller and thinner one, "This is the throwing knife. It is just as sharp as the saxe. I think it's obvious what it is used for. Both knives can be used in the same way, but we will get to that later." He then showed me how to put on the double sheath and had me do it a few times in front of him before moving on.
He reached behind him and pulled out a bow and a quiver full of arrows. "I think you have an idea of what these are for." He handed me the bow and showed me how to nock an arrow. I tried to draw the string back, but even my color guard obtained upper body strength didn't help much in the process. Gilan corrected a few things about my stance and arm position, but to my disappointment I could still only draw the bow back about half way. Gilan probably saw the look on my face because he said, "Don't worry, you'll build up the strength soon," He then walked me over to a target, "How about you try to shoot one?" I drew back the bow and was about to let go of the string, but then I saw Gilan's smirk out of the corner of my eye. I mentally slapped myself as I remembered what Tiger almost never took off her arm, and lowered the bow.
"Do you have an arm-guard?" I asked, mentally smiling to myself at Gilan's disappointed look as he handed it over. I strapped it to my arm before raising the bow again. I aimed, breathed in, and shot. My first ever shot on a bow went brilliantly...if you count barely getting the arrow in the outside ring as brilliant.
"Again," Gilan said, "Do it again."
And so my training began. Tiger, the lucky duck, could skip this aspect.