*deep breath* Okay. So I have entered a challenge. The '100 Themes' challenge on spookisapuppy's profile. This is going to be interesting, as well as (hopefully) my longest story on here. I AM working on my other stories, so don't fret...especially everybody I actually kinda promised stories to. I will get to them, I'm just facing a general block about them. I look at them, and my mind just blanks. It seriously isn't fair.

Anyway, read on, and I hope you enjoy these drabbles, most of which will probably be about Gilan.

1. Introduction

Halt's throat was dry. His palms were sweating. His heart was racing. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to get the right amount of air into his lungs.

"Are you alright, Halt?"

"Yes. I'm completely fine."

No, he wasn't. And the boy that had just spoken was the source of his problems.

In short, Halt had just acquired an apprentice. This action, of course, was premeditated, but by Halt and the boy's father alone. Not by Crowley in any way. This particular fact was making his heart race, his palms sweat, his throat dry and his breathing irregular. He was terrified of losing his friend's trust. Since he had come to Arulen, every major action was discussed, to some extent with Crowley.

His own introduction to Crowley wasn't easy. Why on earth did he think that this one would be?

"Crowley,"

The head Ranger looked up, noticing Halt and the blonde boy beside him. "Yes?" He raised a sandy coloured eyebrow, implying a completely different question. Who's this?

Halt took a silent breath, steadying himself. "This is Gilan, my apprentice." He beat Crowley to his next question. "It has occurred to me that we can't just keep recruiting men our age, since they tend to be a bit set in their ways. If we want the Ranger Corps to continue, we have to recruit the young, and train them, so that we can constantly have new perspective, yet retain the original purpose. He'll be staying at my cabin, and I'll be training him, so the only thing that you'll have to do is access him after a year or so."

Crowley shrugged. "Alright. How old is he?"

"Fifteen."

The head Ranger nodded decisively. "Good. Gilan, was it?"

The aforementioned teen nodded, shyly, uncertainly.

"Go to the man who's close to all of the horses, and tell him that you'll need a uniform."

The boy nodded again, but looked at Halt, as if asking him to come with him. Halt arched an eyebrow. "Well? Go!"

His new apprentice left the tent quickly, and Halt looked back at his best friend and exhaled a giant breath, sitting across from him at the makeshift table. Crowley half smirked.

"What are you so relieved about?"

"For a second, I thought that was going to be hard."

Crowley took a sip of his honey-free coffee, then poured Halt a mug. "Why would you say that?"

"Because you punched me in the face the first time we met!"

"...I thought you were your brother. I heard that he was an ass, and that one of you was missing from Hibernia, and so I figured he'd be that bad at introductions."

There was a pause, then, "...Shut up."

Did you like it? Because this is where I kinda need help. I need all of you reader/reviewers/people who favourite my stories to bother me. Or encourage me, however you wish to phrase it. I pretty much need you guys to remind me to work on this. I'm trying to implement a steady writing schedule, which means that with this story, I will submit at least three themes (one per chapter) every two days. If this goes two days without being updated, review this or PM me, alright? I will reply to every PM and review. Trust me. I will.