Everyone knew Halt wasn't going to show up to the special Gathering held on December 25th that year. It was pretty obvious, since no one expected a man with a broken leg to make the long trek towards the sea in the dead of winter.
He may not have shown up anyways, broken leg or no, due to his being quite notorious for keeping to himself. There was no official business being conducted at this particular Gathering, which was being set aside for feasting, dangerous sports, music, competition, and coffee. So much coffee. It would have been easy for him to find an excuse for not coming. For all anyone knew, this whole broken leg business was his excuse, albeit a very elaborate, overkill excuse that would put him out of action for a long time. Longer than he would have been patient enough to wait out.
It was generally believed that Halt had not broken his leg on purpose.
Nobody could put their finger on it, but somehow, they knew the Gathering wouldn't feel right with only forty-nine Rangers present. Crowley and his small band of whistlers were especially disappointed, since they had practiced a particularly shrill ditty just for the purpose of flash mobbing Halt when he was eating. It wouldn't be the same.
Not with a laugh missing from the crowd.
Not with a bare spot on the Gathering ground where a one-man tent should have been.
The fate of the December Gathering teetered in the balance, on the brink of falling through. Could one man truly make all the difference?
For days, a small fleet of Corp pigeons criss-crossed through the clear, winter Araluen skies, as Ranger after Ranger sent in their voice. Crowley pushed aside mountains of paperwork to spread out forty-eight scraps on his desk, weeding out the negatives and the affirmatives to see which way the vote of the Corp swayed. After days of waiting for all the votes to come in, Crowley finally had his answer.
Forty-eight Rangers wished to go through with the Gathering.
"Forty-nine," Crowley had sighed, pantomiming placing his own scrap into the pile.
So that was it then. The Gathering would proceed as planned.
