Will (the main character) has been chosen by the kingdoms 'Ranger' (Halt) and is training to become one. Halt has decided that Will is ready to learn how to ride a Ranger Horse. When Will and Halt arrive at the horse-keepers house, Will gets a big surprise. He is allocated by Old Bob (the horse-keeper) an old, short, shaggy pony called Tug, that looks slower than a snail, while Halts horse is big and looks fast unlike the pony. Old Bob and Halt are obviously good friends because they were talking to each other ever since Will and Halt arrived. Will thought that a small shaggy pony would be no challenge to mount so Bob and Halt tell Will to let go of Tugs reins. The second Will let go he tried to capture the reins, but Tug had other ideas and dodged every move Will made and whinnied mockingly. After a while Will got tired of chasing and jumping and lunging and decided to try thinking strategically for a moment, he noticed a barrel of apples by the fence, grabbed one and bribed Tug toward him and grabbed hold of  the reins. Bob says that for Tug to trust Will and obey him, he had to whisper something in the Tugs ear to use as a greeting word between the two of them.

While in Wills horse training Halt took his horse, Will and Tug for a ride through the forest and they come across a skinny man saying that he saw a giant wild boar and that it tried to kill him. Halt and Will followed the boar tracks to its home and rode off to tell one of the BattleMasters (Sir Rodney) at Battle School that they had come across a wild boar. Sir Rodney jumped at the chance to go on a boar hunt and decided to bring some of the senior battle students and 1 junior, one of Wills old friends from the Ward (something like an orphanage), Horace.

Sir Rodney and another BattleMaster killed the wild boar but another one came out of the boar home and Horace killed it, a spear straight through the heart.

AND THAT CONCLUDES MY