Disclaimer: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters

This started out as a one-shot but ended up turning into a chaptersome story.

Halt's Favorite

The group was sitting around a fire they had set up in front of the cabin for the night. It was nice to have a little camping experience for the fun of it and not for a mission. The fire blazed tall and proud illuminating the groups features. Halt sat on the right of Pauline on a sideways log. He had his arm draped around her shoulders. Gilan was sitting in a similar position with Jenny on a log to Halt's right. Will and Alyss shared their log. Horace sat on the ground alone, watching with a smile.

"Hey Halt, I've been meaning to ask you something." Gilan said. He released Jenny and leaned forward with his elbows on his knees.

"When aren't you asking me something?" Halt said in an exasperated sigh.

"Actually, I'm the one who asks the questions. Gilan is the one who gave you the gray hairs." Will smiled at his mentor. He got a scowl in return.

"If I remember correctly, you gave me as many gray hairs as Gilan. Only you did it differently. Gilan wore me out; you scared the death out of me with your many little adventures." Halt grimaced. "I don't have that many gray hairs anyways."

"I won't answer that Halt," Gilan said. "Now back to my question."

"Go on." Halt rolled his eyes and Pauline smiled.

"Who was the better apprentice? Will or me?" Will looked at Gilan and mouthed the word 'me'.

"Well, you both were annoying little twits that never let me have any peace." Halt pretended to think but Will stopped him.

"Annoying, we were. Twits, we were. But small, we were not. We were just… Halt sized." Will grinned at his comparison.

"This is why I can't choose which of you were better. You both seem to enjoy using me as the butt of your poor jokes." Halt shook his head.

"I think that you were always more worried when Will disappeared. That seems to me like you cared for him more," Pauline said. She shifted her head so it was lying on Halt's shoulder and she was looking up at him.

"That's because I always knew Gilan would come back. He's like a rash, you think you finally get rid of it and it comes back more irritating than ever. Even if somebody kidnapped him, they'd bring him back. With Will, you never knew." Halt looked at his apprentices. He was beginning to hate this conversation.

"But who did you like the most?" Horace looked up at Halt with a wild smile.

"Well, Gilan burnt my coffee. And then they both inhaled it faster than I could. If I thought about it, I would have traded them both for a pot of coffee." Pauline lightly slapped Halt on the arm.

The apprentices faked hurt expressions. Alyss decided to speak up. "Oh come on Halt. You couldn't survive a month without these two at least seeing you once. You've been surviving without coffee for around six months." Alyss covered her mouth with her hand. But it was too late; Halt had heard what she had said.

"What do you mean I've been surviving without coffee? I drink it every day, all day." Halt looked at Pauline suspiciously. He suspected something. "Does this have anything to do with why it's tasted different? I thought you said it was just how they made it now! Why would you switch it to decaf?" Halt let go of Pauline and stared at her with icy eyes.

"It was for your own good. You were drinking that stuff like it was going to save your life!" Pauline tried to snuggle back with Halt but he scooted away.

"So! Back to the question. Who do you like best?" Alyss said trying to cover her mistake.

"Well, let's put it like this, at some points I wished they would both just disappear. Sometimes, I wanted to throw them into a moat or make them climb a tree. And most the time I did do that. But sometimes I wished that I had Gilan instead of Will and sometimes I wished I had anybody but Gilan. However, most the time I just slapped myself and asked why I ever chose an apprentice." Halt turned back to Pauline. "And right now I would praise the one who gave me coffee."

Gilan and Will immediately jumped up and started wrestling to get to the cabin first to get the coffee they had brought. Will squirmed free and raced to the house with Gilan in hot pursuit. On the way back, Gilan tackled Will and grabbed the coffee. He raced to the fire and handed it to Halt.

"There you go!" He turned to Will. "I am Halt's favorite." He sneered.

Will jumped up and tackled Gilan. Gilan broke free. "Stop!" Halt yelled.

Will stood up panting and looked at Gilan with amusement in his eyes. "I declare that we have a competition to see who Halt's favorite is." He stuck out his hand for Gilan to shake it. Gilan shook it.

"What will we do to decide?" Gilan released Will's hand and smiled wickedly.

"At the next Gathering, we'll see who annoys him the most. Whoever he threatens the most will be his least favorite." Will thought the idea was weak but it just might work. After all, Halt did tend to threaten people a lot.

"Deal," Gilan said and sat back down next to Jenny and Will sat back down next to Alyss.

"What have I done?" Halt shook his head. Pauline slid next to him and patted his back.

"Maybe I should let you have that coffee. You'll need it next week." She smiled and contained her laughter.

"It's that close! I don't even get a month of freedom from these two?" Halt groaned.

Everybody but Halt burst into laughter. They only laughed harder when Gilan stood and yelled, "Let the Halt War begin!"

Halt just cursed his apprentices under his breath.