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as mirian rides away she can feel culpepers eyes on her. 'i look forward to our time together. i like when we hit the forest together, my hunting, his collecting herbs, spices and other good stuff. he has been teaching me how to collect' as she rides along she keeps her eyes and senses open to her surroundings. like hillman said earlier, you never know what your going to come across on the forest road. about an hour into the trip home she notices that the woods around her are getting quiter as she goes. 'well bigor,' she mutters, 'lets tuck you away into the trees and see whats going on.' she turns bigor into the trees, into a open area she knows of. dismounting, she gives bigor the hand signal for wait. she checks the the two daggers at the top of her boots. checks her bow, makes sure her quiver of arrows is easily accessible, then draws her sword a short way. she squats down touching the earth, muttering a minor location spell. "nomar, please help me find any who hides in your forest today." she feels a tingle, starting where her hand touches the earth, traveling up her arm until it reaches her head. the spell gives her the general area where someone is trying to hide. "thank you nomar" she says to her diety. she now moves in the direction that her spell tells her to go. she moves quickly, making no noise to give away her approach. soon, she can hear what sounds like three men talking amongst themselves. "that bitch ranger will hopefully be coming soon, i would like to get back to the city,"says one of the men. another replies, "yeah, that bounty on her head will come in handy." the third man adds, "it would help if we knew where she lives. everyone i spoke to said she lives in this forest, but they didn't know where." mirian stays hidden for a while longer, hoping to find out why they wanted her. she has many enemies that would like to see her dead. the life of a ranger...the three men continue to talk but dont say anything useful. mirian waits unti all three men are looking away from her general direction, then steps out, with her bow drawn. "good evening gentlemen, i hear you are looking for me. well...here i am." all three men turn in her direction, gasping. all three men start talking at the same time, making it impossible to understand them. mirian lets them go on for a moment before shouting, "SHUT UP!" they shut up. she looks around seeing the men have horses tied up a short distance away. "you" she gestures towards the shortest man, "untie the horses and let them go. you will be waking back to the city" the man she gestured towards moves to the horses and unties them as ordered. "the three of you are going to walk out to the road, then wait." two of the men start to comply, the third one continues to stand there looking at her. "look bitch, there are three of us. do you really think you can control all three of us back to the city?" she looks at him for a moment before replying, "well, you can cooperate, or i can shoot you. considering that there is a bounty on my head, that might not be a bad idea." the big man starts to laugh, "you cant bluff me ranger, it is against the law for a lawman to kill someone unless neccesary. right now, i am not being a threat to you. so now what are you going to do?" mirian gives him a wicked look, that has no humor in it. "you are right, i cant kill you unless you are a threat, i can however, shoot you in the leg. you would still have to walk back. i promise you that is something you dont want to do." the big man continues to stand there looking at her, coming to the decision that she really would shoot him in the leg then make him walk back, with a shake of his head the big man starts walking towards the road. once on the road mirian lets out a shrill whistle. a minute later they can hear the sound of a trotting horse. bigor trots right up to mirian. she points at the big man "watch!" bigor steps towards the big man sniffing him. bigor looks at him flattening his ears to his head. looking at the big man she says, "this is my friend bigor. i have asked him to keep an eye on you, just in case you get any idea's" the big man looks at her and the horse, "i understand," he mumbles. she gestures for them to walk in the direction of her cabin and the city. mirian and bigor walk several paces behind the three men. bigor keeps his eyes on the big man as instructed by mirian. mirian walks beside bigor, her bow in hand, an arrow knocked but not drawn. mirian thinks to herself, 'its going to take days to get these three back to the city. i was looking forward to spending some down time with culpeper...oh, well, duty calls.' after walking silently for over an hour, the big man looks over his shoulder to speak to mirian, with a sneer, "well ranger, its starting to get dark. what are you planning to do with the three of us? i gotta pee and i am getting hungry" mirian looks at bigor for a moment then says in reply, "well...we have a couple of options. one, we can keep walking until we get to the city, it should only take us a couple of days, i can shoot the three of you in the leg and then keep walking to the city. which would you prefer?" the other two men look over at the big man, mumbling, "shut up luken! we dont want to get shot." looking over their shoulders at her the other man adds, "yeah luken, shut up! she already looks like she wants to shoot us, lets not give her an actual reason to." luken looks back at the other two men, then over his should, "i really do need to pee and i am getting hungry, are we going to stop for the nigt anytime soon?" Mirian calls for the group to stop. "one at a time, starting with Luken, go to the side of the road and do your business" mirian had bigor watch luken move to the side of the road. as luken reaches down to undo his pants mirian says in a quite, serous voice, "i am pretty good with this bow, just in case you have anything down there besides you" Luken stops, looks over his shoulder, "nothing but myself ranger, want to see?" he replies. with a look of disgust, "no thank you, i dont think bigor has ever seen anything so ugly, wouldn't want to scare him. now! do your business!" luken does his business and returns to the other two men. mirian gets bigors attention and tells him, "watch!" pointing at luken. the next man went without incident. when the third man got to the side of the road, he just stood there doing nothing. "well?" inquires mirian. "i am shy about relieving myself in front of others. is it possible for me to step behind the bushes?" the the other two men burst out laughing, getting a dirty look from mirian. mirian looks back to the man on the side of the road. "i dont think that is going to work." turning to the other two men she barks, "turn around, face that way" she points to the opposite side of the road from where the man stands. "'fraid thats the best i can do for you" he looks at the two men, then takes a long look at mirian. he makes a sshhhing gesture towards mirian. hesitatingly he reaches down and undoes his pants, pushing them down, squatting to do her business. mirian almost shouts out "YOU ARE A WOMAN! but catches herself in time. when she is done, she quickly puts herself back together. the woman prisoner looks at mirian for a moment who looks back at her. finally mirian gestures for her to return to where the other prisinors are. there is an unspoken agreement between the two women, that mirian will not tell the other woman's secret, 'it's not my place to tell her secrets' out loud she says, "alright move it out, we got a long march ahead of us." after a few more hours of marching bigor stops in place, looking ahead and to the right of the road, pulling her bow all the way back. 'great' mirian thinks to herself, 'just what i need, more trouble.' out loud she says, "whoever is hiding in the bushes, you might as well come out and join the party." after a moment a familiar figure joins them on the road, "ranger mirian! it is me, hillman! remember? we met earlier today, only you were going the other way." shaking her head, releasing the tension of her bow, "hillman, thats twice now, bigor has caught you trying to hide. you are really going to need to work on that." taking a pause to inspect him she continues, "you haven't made it very far, did something happen?" hillman looks the men over, turns back to mirian, "small groups of men on horseback have been riding up down the road like they are looking for something," hillman gestures towards the three men, "including these three." with a scowl mirian looks to the three me and asks, "just how much is this bounty on my head?" the three men look at each other before luken answers, " 100 gold crowns alive, 75 dead. it was nothing personal ranger, its a lot of money." mirian looks the man in the eyes replying, "it might not be personal for you but i hope you will understand where it is very personal for me." mirian stands there quitely for a moment, the look in her eyes tells everyone she is thinking something thru. "hillman, can you tie a good knot with rope?" hillman replies, "oh yes ranger, my family for generations have been rivermen. we tie all kinds of knots on our boats. i didn't want to be a riverman so i trained to be a scrivener instead." mirian takes that information in replying, "how about a horse? can you ride?" with obvious trepidation hillman looks over at bigor and replies, "not very well ma'am. not much chance for either a riverman or scrivener to ride horses. i have only been on one a few times in my life" mirian gives him a mischievous grin telling him, "you are about to get another chance. i am going to have you tie these three beauties to a couple of trees then ride bigor to the ranger guild hall in jaffa city." all four men look at her with their mouths hanging open. all four start talking and protesting at the same time. mirian sticks two fingers in her mouth and lets out a loud, shrill whistle. looking to the three bounty hunters she states, with a stern voice, "i really dont care about the thoughts of three would be bounty hunters who wanted to kill me." she glares at the three men until they settle down. turning towards hillman she asks with some amusement, "do you have a concern here hillman?" hillman looks at the men, swallows nervously, looks at bigor, "well, ranger, as i said, i dont really have much experience riding horses, " still looking nervously at bigor he continues, " ...and, well, you know what they say about rangers and their horses!?!" with even more amusement mirian asks, "no, hillman, i dont know what they say about rangers and their hores, tell me, please" she looks at him with a wicked, amused look. hillman looks a little embarrassed now, realizing that might not of been the best thing to say to a ranger..."well they say that your horses are special trained to kill anyone but their owner for trying to ride them. that facing a ranger horse is almost like facing a ranger. i am sorry ranger mirian but i am scared of your horse." mirian is no longer smiling or being amused." i promise you hillman, that if i tell bigor to let you ride him he will. you will ride him straight to the ranger guild hall and report what has happened here. they will likely ask you to ride back here with them. i and the ranger guild will be very apprciative of your help" mirian looks at him while he thinks it thru. hillman weighs gaining the approval of the ranger guild versus his fear of the ranger horse. with reluctance hillman nods his head replying, "very well ranger mirian, i will ride your scary horse to the city and bring back help. to be clear, i am not happy about this" "good man hillman", she pats him on the arm saying, "thats the spirit!" mirian looks towards the three men, commanding them to "kneel, now! move a few feet apart, i do not want you talking amongst yourselves. hillman and i will be moving a little ways down the road so you cannot hear us talk. i am going to set biogor behind and give him a command. i will let you geuss about that command." as mirian positions bigor behind them, she has the horse smell each of the men, then places him about ten feet behind them. she gets bigors attention, points at all three of them, "watch!" she moved between the two smaller men, looking at the one who is actually a woman. mirian walks hillman a short ways down the road, keeping a wary eye on the three of them. mirian places hillman so his back is to the bounty hunters, speaking softly she says to him, "one of those men is actually a woman," hillman almost turns around to look at them but mirian stops him, "dont look! i dont know why she is pretending to be a man it is not our business. i will attempt to find out when she is in ranger custody. when you tie her up, tie her so she is difficult to be seen by the other two. dont let the rope show her breasts and hips. do you understand?" hillman looks at her for a moment then asks, "why are you helping someone who tried to kill you? sorry ranger mirian, but that makes no sense to me." mirian contemplates hillmans question for several heart beats before answering, "life is very different for a woman than a man hillman. normally the kinds of work we can get is very limited. if she is pretending to be a man to get a better job to take care of her family, then it is her business." she takes a moment to make sure she has his attention before concluding, "it is not our business to expose her, do you understand?" hillman looks back at her for a moment, "you are a bigger person than i am ranger. somebody tried to kill me i probally wouldn't care about protecting their secrets." when he turns to look at the bounty hunters, mirian lets him. starting back towards the three men mirian comments loud enough for everyone to hear, "alright hillman, lets get them tied up, i know the perfect place." mirian directs everyone to walk a little further down the road, until she finds what she is looking for. a game trail leading into the forest. "alright, in this order i want you to enter the trail, bigor first, he knows where we are going, then big man luken, then you," pointing at another man, then gestures at the woman pretending to be a man "hillman, you walk behind me." hillman nods acknowledement of his instructions. mirian gives bigor a command and he enters the trail. mirian gestures for the men to enter the forest followed by herself then hillman. even with all this danger going on around him, he cant help but take a moment to admire her backside as he follows her. 'if only....' he thinks to himself as he follows her down the trail. after walking for what feels like a very long time, they finally come to a large opening in the trees. "hillman, lets get them tied, then you and bigor on your way." she goes to bigor to get some rope and several leather thongs. she walks around the clearing, looking at the trees for the best place to tie up the bounty hunters. she picks two trees to tie them to, shows hillman what she has in mind then steps back to let him do it. once hillman is done the three have their hands and feet bound with the thongs and tied to the trees with the rope. "alright ranger mirian, they are as secured as i can make them." with obvious discomfort he looks at bigor and says, "i suppose the scary ranger horse and i should get going" mirian tells hillman to walk bigor back out to the road before mounting. mirian stands in front of bigor stroking his muzzle, points at hillman saying in a commanding voice, "RIDER!" bigor turns his head to look at hillman, extends his kneck and smells him. bigor looks back at mirian, hillman will swear for the rest of his days that the look that the horse gave his owner said 'why are you making me put up with him?!?' mirian walks them to the entrance of the trail leading back to the road, whispers into hillmans ear, "once you mount him say 'guild home' he will take you straight to the guild hall in the city." with that, she hands him the reigns, gesturing towards the trail. as hillman leads bigor away, she follows them a short way down the trail to the first bend. the bounty hunters keep an eye on her starting to wonder if she plans to leave them. keeping an eye on the bounty hunters she takes a few items from the pouch at her waist. she takes one more good look at the bounty hunters then quickly steps around the bend. she spreads spell components across the trail, kneels down quitely saying a warding spell "nomar, please gaurd this place from intruders". she can see a slight shimmer covering about a 15 foot area where the spell is in affect. 'there', she thinks to herself, 'anybody comes down the trail, an alarm will sound...now, let me get back to the bad guys. we probably wont see help until close to night fall tomorrow.' with that she returns to the clearing. she removes her quiver of arrows, setting them close to a tree. next she draws her sword and sticks it point first into the ground. she then settles back against one of the trees on the opposite side of the clearing from the three men. as she sits, she draws four arrows from the quiver. she tucks three of them into her right boot. "i am going to get some rest, i would suggest you do the same. oh, just in case you get any bad ideas, i am going to shoot this arrow about two inches above lukens head as a demonstration." before the men can react mirian knocks the arrow, pulls back and releases the arrow. as she said, the arrow plants itself into the tree about two inches above lukens head. luken screams like a scared little girl. once lukens realizes he has not been hit stops screaming, but continues to breathe heavy for a moment. without another word she leans back, getting as comfortable as she can. late the next morning hillman and bigor approach the port city of jaffa. as they exit the forest, hillman notices that the road leading from the city splits in two different directions. south to and from the forest road. north east inland to other places he hopes to one day visit. as bigor carries him into the city, people start to notice him and stare. they recoginize the ranger emblem emblazoned on the saddle. they know by the lack of grace of the rider that this is no ranger, riding the ranger horse. soon bigor stops right in front of a building with the ranger emblem on its front. their are some words by the emblem that read, 'Jaffa ranger guild'. hillman sees a woman walking by and ask's, "pardon me ma'am? this is the ranger guild hall?" the woman stops and looks at him with a cross of concern and amusement, "yes sir, that is indeed the ranger guild," she replies and starts to move on. hillman asks her in a, almost, pleading tone, "ma'am this is not my horse. i am scared to get off of it. would you please ask someone to come outside and help me?!?" the woman looks at him again, this time with pure amusement. the lady turns and opens the guild hall door. she stands at the open door for a moment. hillman can hear her say, "pardon me, ranger. there is something out here you should see" hillman can hear a voice speaking back to the woman bit cannot understand the words, then the woman speaks again, "oh no ranger, i think you need to see this for yourself." she replies with amusement. after a moment she steps back, pushing the door open a little more letting a man come thru. as the man steps onto the walkway he immediately recoginizes bigor, but not hillman. without looking at the woman he tells her she can go. she goes about ten steps down the walkway. far enough to be out of the way, close enough to watch and hear whats about to happen. "who are you and why are you on a ranger horse? where is the ranger that owns that horse?" he is careful not to use mirians name so that he can find out what this stranger knows. "ranger, sir, my name is hillman. i am a journyman scivener, i was on my way to jaffa to work with master scivener manta. i briefly met ranger mirian when she was traveling east. we spoke for a short time then we both went about our way. then a few hours later traveling west i see her again only this time she has three prisinors with her that she and bigor are gaurding. we went off the road into a clearing. ranger mirian asked me to tie up the prisoners for her and then ride this horse to jaffa and the ranger guild hall. ... please sir, may i get of this horse? i prefer being on my own feet." the ranger looks at bigor and hillman for a moment, then says, "yes you may get off bigor. i can see by both of your behaviors you are telling the truth. you dont normally ride a horse and bigor is not protesting you being on his back. " the ranger steps forward to help hillman off bigors back. the ranger gives bigor the "WAIT!" hand signal, then turns to hillman. "come in, we will give you something to eat and drink. we will be heading out to give mirian aid in about an hour. do you think you will be able to remember where you seperated from mirian?" as hillman walks into the ranger guild hall, the ranger surpresses a smile as he notes how stiff and sore, bow legged, hillman is walking. "oh yes sir, its right after a big curve in the road." the ranger signals a couple of young men who are walking thru the area to come to him, to one he says, "advise the guild leader that we have a rescue mission. we have a ranger holed up with three prisoner. her horse has returned with a citizen with a message. got that?" the young man nods then moves to do as he was told. the ranger turns to the other man, instructing him to, "take this man to the canteen. stay with him, make sure he gets his fill, then bring him back here in one hour. got that?" the young man assures the ranger that he understands. the ranger walks off in the same direction as the first man. "i am apprentice rodnick, please come with me." the man walks back in the direction he came from, checking to make sure hillman is following him. as soon as he enters the canteen he notices three men sitting behind a long table who immediately stand up in greeting, hillman notices that all three of the men are missing limbs, but says nothing about it, "what can we get you and your friend rodnick?" rodnick explains to the three men whats happening and that they need to be back in an hour. one of the men turns to hillman, "anyone who helps a ranger in need is a friend of ours. it is almost time for the noon meal so it is ready, have a seat, we will bring it to you" hillman and rodnick go to one of the tables. hillman takes off his cloak and pack, placing them on a chair, then sits. shortly, one of the men, with a missing leg, brings a tray over for hillman. on the tray is an apple, pear, a bowl with a thick looking stew, a piece of bread, with a cheese slice and a tankard of ale. hillman looks at the meal for a moments and says, "this certainly better than the travel rations i have been eating the last few days on the road. thank you sir, but i dont know if i will be able to eat it all" the one legged man looks at the tray and agrees that it is a lot, suggesting, "eat the stew and and drink the ale first, anything left over after that, we can put into a travel bag for you." with that, the one legged man returns to the kitchen. hillman and rodnick chat while hillman eats his meal. rodnick shares his experiances as a apprentice ranger while hillman tells him about being a scivener. hillman tells him how after taking special training from the master scivener, here in jaffa, he would like to be a traveling scivener. while he has never heard of a traveling scivener, he has heard of other traveling tradesmen and wants to try that lfe. after what seems to be a very short time the peg legged man pokes his head out of the kitchen, "rodnick, i think its about time," and returns to the kitchen. hillman and his new friend rodnick return to the front foyer. upon entering the foyer they both notice that no one is there. rodnick goes straight to the front door andd opens it, sticking his head out. in front of the guild hall are four mounted rangers and three unmounted horses. he opens the door and signals hillman forward. once outside hillman also notices four mounted horsemen and three unmounted horses, one of them being bigor. the ranger that hillman met earlier gestures towards one of the horses with no rider. "i think you will find this horse to be a little better for you. while trained, he is not quite a ranger horse." he watches as hillman clumsily mounts up the horse and again suppresses a grin. he looks over at rodnick, pauses. then asks, "rodnick, would you like to join us on this trip?" rodnick stands up straight showing his eagerness replies," "yes sir, i would, very much," jasper almost smiles at the young mans enthusiasm before replying,"i want to be clear on this point, your primary job on this assignment is to assist and gaurd hillman. you see, while the two of you were eating we sent word out asking about any word on ranger mirian. we heard a couple rumors about there being a bounty on her head from an unknown source. their might be more bounty hunters lurking about the forest looking for her. you are an exceptional horseman and swordsman. your sole job will be to make sure he gets back to his master scivener, do you understand?" the young man, rodnick, looks at hillman, then back to the senior ranger, "yes senior ranger, i understand. i am ready to do what i can to assist with this mission" hillman notices that the other rangers are looking around the town in a way that sugested they were trying not to show amusement with the apprentice ranger. once rodnick is saddled up, the senior ranger looks each man in the eye to verify they are ready. once he sees everyone is ready, he turns his horse towards the gate leading towards the forest road and mirian. the rangers are now looking very serous, one of their own was in danger and needed help, they were on the way.

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a few hours before dark hillman signals rodnick that the place they are looking for is around the next bend. rodnick kicks his horse to the front of the group and gives the signal to stop. all the rangers gather around hillman so that he can share what to expect around the bend. after he is done the senior ranger points at two of the others and gestures down the road around the bend. the three rangers take a moment to check the readiness of their weapons, say a prayer to their deity, turn, and ride forward. the rest wait a few minutes, then ride forward behind their seniors. when the senior group reaches the trail to mirians clearing, they dismount and spread out. both the men and the horses make sure the trail is well covered in case of unfriendlies. bigor is conveying that this is where his master is and he wants to return to her. the senior ranger gives the "WAIT!" command again. bigor stops, it is obvious that he wants to go down the trail. the senior ranger wants to do it right, proper and as safely as possible. the last of the group comes slowly around the bend. the senior ranger signals for them to wait over by bigor. after everyone is set, two of the senior ranger enter the trail, bows knocked, while the third one moves a little further down the road, looking into the trees. soon, the single ranger steps into the trees and disappears. nobody but hillman appears to be surprised by the man disappearing. the two rangers on the trail crouch walk slowly forward. the one in front watching the ground around them looking for traps. the other man also watches for traps but at would normally be the head and chest level. about 15 minutes into the trail they start around a bend in the trail when all of a sudden it sounds like a hundred birds suddenly took flight. both men stand straight, look at each other and smile as they recoginize mirians warding spell. the senior ranger takes a deep breath and lets out three long whistle and two short. after a moment they hear two long whistles and three short whistles in return. the two men look at each other again then continue walking down the trail, still on alert. as they round the bend they see the opening where mirian and her prisoners are holed up. mirian takes a quick glance towards the ranger on the trail, then back to her prisoners. as they enter the opening, "senior ranger jasper swiftbow, i am very glad to see you." as she says this a third ranger enters the clearing from the forest. "greetings mirian," says the man with a big grin, "i see you are out finding trouble for yourself again." he concludes with a tone of voice suggesting amusement. "jonny leafwalker?" she trots over to him and gives him a big hug. "last i heard, you were on assignment to the middle cities? delivering treaties for king langdor?" "i was," he replied, "i just got back a couple of days ago, i still need to travel to king langdor and give my report. i stopped at the jaffa guild hall to get provisions and rest my horse. then i heard you were in trouble, and had to come. i will be heading out to ravenstone castle tomorrow, after we get you and your friends back to jaffa" jasper turns to the third ranger, alvina, telling him to go back to the road and bring the rest of the party in. the man looks around the clearing, doing his own check on the situation, turns and jogs down the trail. while the man is gone mirian looks to the other two rangers asking, "can you two keep an eye on these three? i really need to visit a bush" without waiting for a response, she steps into the forest with a sense of urgency and disappears. the two men laugh as they watch her walk away. when she returns she discreetly advises the other rangers about the woman disguised as a man so as not to give her away. soon, bigor bursts into the clearing and trots right up to mirian rubbing his muzzle against her. after a moment bigor goes over to luken, sniffs him, flattens his ears to his head and stomps his front hoove in a menacing way. luken cries out, "get this horse away from me, i aint doing nothing!" mirian calls bigor back to her just as the rest of the party, led by ranger wybert, enters the clearing, leading the horses. the senior ranger addresses the group, "alright everybody, we will be staying the night here, it will be dark soon." pointing to two of the rangers he says, "lets give these three a chance to relieve themselves." turning to mirian he asks, "do we have a water source around here?" "yes we do, there is a lake not far from here." she replies. "good, please go get some." turning to hillman he asks, "can you build a fire?" "oh yes, Mr. ranger, sir. i sure can." he replies. "good. please do so." turning to rodnick, "you take care of the horses. once the privy gaurds are done one of them will help you" turning to the last ranger he says "you are on gaurd duty" looking around the group, he sees everyone has a job except him. "me, i am going to go into the forest and hope that we didnt scare all the game away, otherwise its field rations for us tonight." he looks around the group saying, "if anyone needs a refill for their water skins, give them to mirian before she heads out...alright people, lets get to it. it will be dark in about an hour." everyone gives a few water skins to mirian to fill. some for personal use, some for camp use. the rest go about their assigned chores. mirian leads bigor down the trail back to the forest road. once mounted she orders bigor, "Home!" bigor immediately sets out in a smooth, easy lope. about ten minutes down the road bigor slows down to a walk, then exits the road, down the trail to home. after several minutes at a fast walk they arrive at her cabin. they continue past it going straight to the lake. she immediately jumps off grabbing all the waterskins and starts filling them. once they are all filled, she walks bigor back to the front of her cabin and goes inside. she quickly finds a piece of parchent and a quill, writing culpeper quick note, 'culpeper, something came up. i might be a couple more days than planned. please wait for me.' she goes to the pantry grabs several potatoes and carrots and one onion. she puts some seasoning and spices in a container, thinking to herself, 'this will be a pleasnt surprise for the boys.' with that she goes out to return to the rest of the rangers and the prisoners. both mirian and jasper retuned to the clearing at about the same time. bigor loaded down with waterskins, jasper with six rabbits tied to his belt. by now all the other camp chores are completed. jasper moves towards where the fire pit is, dropping the rabbits. mirian drops the waterskins, vegetables and spices by the rabbits. "jonny, would you and our apprentice please make a roasting spit for us? then skin our rabbits?" requests jasper. jonny looks over at jasper getting that he wants him to teach rodnick how to built the roasting spit and skin the rabbits. jonny signals for rodnick to join him as heads into the forest. rodnick gets up to follow jonny. hillman also stands up looking like he would like to join them. jonny smiles, saying "come along hillman, you to." shortly they have found the wood they need and have built a very simple roasting spit to cook the rabbits. hillman steps back looking at what they made, thinking to himself, 'as a traveling scrivener that will be a useful skill. some kind of hunting also' jonny signals rodnick and hillman to the fire with the rabbits, vegetables and seasoning. he whistles up to the sky. shortly his horse is nudging him in the back. jonny takes a water skin from the saddle, dropping it to the ground. he then removes three medium sized pieces of metal. the two young men with him have no idea what they are, look quizzzical at him. with the two young men watching closely he snaps them together, forming a cooking pot. "alright gentlemen, i am going to show you how to make a simple field stew. " jonny informs them. he asks them if they know how to skin a rabbit. rodnick replies yes, hillman replies no. "alright rodnick, you teach hillman to skin the rabbits and i will collect water for the stew." jonny goes off to collect the water. wanting to give the youngsters a little time to get the skinning done, he takes his time. rodnick turns to hillman, "do you have a knife or dagger?" hillman says he has a knife and retrieves it from his pack. rodnick has hillman kneel down next to him so that he can see what his hands are doing. rodnick looks to hillman asking, "ready?" hillman looks a little green over skinning and cleaning the rabbit. rodnick inserts his dagger into the rabbit, explaining everything, every step of the way. he does this for the next three rabbits as well. with the fifth rabbit rodnick has hillman do it. as expected hillman was no where near as graceful as rodnick but eventually got it done. rodnick smiles and laughs saying, "well...that gives a whole knew meaning to butchering. not bad for a first attempt though. alright you do that last one alone with no help." by this time jonny has returned, pulled out the vegetables and started chopping them up, inspecting the seasoning, putting everything in the pot with the water. hillman has the last rabbit skinned and cleaned. rodnick looks at it and smiles again, "well, this one only looks like it lost the fight. much better this time. i think you have the idea, like any skill it takes practice." jonny has the the two dig a small hole in the ground by the fire then place all the rabbit skins and guts in the hole then fill it in. jonny advises them on how to make the stew from here, believing they can handle it from here. the camp will be eating rather later than they would want, but telling jonny not to teach would be like telling another man not to breath.... after being taught to build a spit, skin rabbits and cook a stew hillman realizes he has a lot to learn if he wants to be a traveling scrivener. the two young men chat while making and watching over the stew. even though they have only known each other for a day, having not much in common they are becoming good friends already. they talk about many things including their training for their chosen professionals. jonny soon finds mirian and jasper sitting in the farthest position away from the prisoners. they appear to be in serous discussion about something. as he approaches he informs jasper that the youngsters are overseeing they stew and the other two rangers are keeping an eye on the prisoners. he sits to join them, asking, "whats going on mirian? there is a rather large bounty on your head." mirian shakes her head, looking at the other two rangers. "thats what we were just talking about. i believe it must be my last mission. short version, baron drolark had me working a mission on the far side of the province. people were trafficking in some kind drug. very addictive. it would drive people to exterme violence under the influence, but made them feel like they were in paradise. like jaffa, everport is a port city. i was incredibly shocked by the people involved. ship captains, city gaurd, the port master. there were even elves and drawves involved in this ugliness. drolark is in hot water with king langdor. langdor believes about half the people employed by the city were involved. once we busted up the operation, the king brought a troop to everport and is flying his personl flag over the city. he has ordered martial law over the city. he is not completely confident that drolark is faultless in this mess." she stops to look at the two men. the two men look at her for a moment before jonny says, "mirian, you are in danger. i know this is your home province, but you might want to think about moving to a knew province for a while." jasper informs jonny, "that is what we were talking about when you joined us. as you can imagine, she is resisting the idea." mirian interrupts, in a very agitated voice, "you guys know me, i will never back down from a fight. you boys dont want me thinking you are trying to treat me like a girl do you?" while she said it in a playful fashion, the two men knew she ws serous. "no, mirian, we are not trying to treat you like a girl. we are treating you like a fellow ranger and friend," replies jasper. jonny adds, "thats right mirian, you and i have been friends since we started our apprenticeships. i know what you are capable of. it doesn't mean i dont worry about you. you are my friend." mirian looks at the two men for a moment before finally replying. "maybe i am due a vacation. jonny, you said you were traveling to castle ravenstone. it takes about a week to get there. how about i join you? my official reports have not been delivered to the king yet either. we can deliver our reports together. one thing though, culpeper, my boyfriend is suposed to be at my cabin tomorrow. we were supposed to take some time together. let me invite him to travel with us. we might need to wait an extra day for him to prepare to travel." jasper shiffts his gaze between them, he can tell by looking at jonny he was not opposed to the idea. jonny looks at jasper looking at him and sees he also is not opposed to the idea. jonny looks long and hard at the other two before replying, "mirian, i would like you gone as soon as possible. here is what i would like to suggest." he stops long enogh to make sure the other two are paying attention, "when we leave in the morning, you two go straight to mirians cabin and wait for the boyfriend. then head out as soon as possible. we will take hillman back to jaffa with us and make sure he gets to the master scrivener, i know exactly where his shop is. i suspect he will get there a day late from what i over heard on the road here. i will smooth it over the best i can by having rodnick tell the master wheewright that hillman has earned the appreciation of the ranger guild. if asked why the official appreciation, the answer will be that he made himself late to meet the master scrivener to aid a ranger in distress. any questions?" mirian and jonny look at each then back at jasper, shaking their heads. Jasper smiles, stands up, saying "good it looks like dinner is ready. shall we get some?"as the three approach the cooking pit, prisoner luken calls out, "are we going to get some also? you have to feed prisoners!" alvina replies before anyone else can, "of course you will be fed, as rangers we are lawmen. however the law doesnt say we have to feed you the good stuff. you, you hunters of rangers get field rations. eat them and be happy. the ranger you chose to hunt is well known and thought well of." the rest of the men in the camp growl their agreement. luken shuts up. everybody serves themselves some of the stew and picks a spot to sit down. the rangers chat amongst themselves while they ate. rodnick and hillman off to the side by themselves. it is well past full dark by the time everyone finishes eating. jasper assigns rotating gaurd duty for the night then sends everyone to their bed rolls. the next morning at sun break jasper wakes the camp to get everyone on their way. everyone gets a helping of the left over stew. the prisoners are allowed to relieve themselves, eat rations, then have their hands tied behind themselves. some of the rangers ask about the spices and seasonings used in the stew. mirian replies that her boyfriend is a healer and herbalist, that he makes them for her. once the camp site is cleaned as best as they can the majority, including hillman, return to jaffa, while mirian and jonny head out to find culpeper.