A/N: Hello to all the people out there! Before you start reading, I want to point a few things out:
1) This fan fiction does not perfectly follow any specific plotline or book from the Ranger's Apprentice series. I'm making it up as I go along.
2) I have no idea where some of the places (such as Meric Fief) are located, so bear with me since I'm going to place them wherever I like. I may even add a couple things on a whim.
3) I'm completely open to ideas. If you think I should do this or that, tell me so and I'll see about it.
That's all of that. Enjoy the read.
~H~
DISCLAIMER: I wonder if anyone actually reads these things. . . I could yammer on and on about llamas and flamingos dancing the tango and I bet nobody would care. In any case, the characters (besides Rowan, anyway) and all that legal stuff belong to the amazing John Flanagan.
Chapter 1
The Traveling Girl
The springtime had always seemed the best time to travel for anyone in Araluen. The weather is mild, the air is usually warm and comfortable, and hunting and gathering are easy in the plentiful season.
Those may not be the reason for my sudden departure from the village nestled in front of Castle Caraway, but those are the reasons that one would assume, seeing a young woman traveling on foot towards the heart of the kingdom. I'd be seen as a poor woman looking for work, but that was fine; it was correct. In my current state, I had nothing but the things I carried with me: the clothes on my back, the dark gray cloak around my shoulders, the small pack of supplies draped over one shoulder, the hunting bow and it's quiver on the other shoulder, and the two twin daggers in my boots. So far, I hadn't needed anything more than that.
The real reason I left Caraway was the simple fact that it had been time to move on. I'd lived in many places before, getting work and boarding until my mental alarm told me to go somewhere new. I was only twenty-two years old, so I still had plenty of time to find a place where my alarm never rang and I could finally settle. But, for now, I was on my way once again, waiting for that same alarm to tell me when to stop.
I frowned to myself under the bright green canopy of the forest. In front of me, the path forked into the north and the south. I stood still a few moments, trying to think where each would lead. The northern path would take me on to Norgate, but that didn't sound too pleasing. The southern path would take me past Meric Fief and onto Castle Araluen.
Nodding to myself as I made up my mind, I took the southern path at an easy jog I knew I could keep up for a few hours. At this pace, I could reach Meric just before nightfall and maybe find a bed to sleep in for the first time in weeks.
The moon had begun to show in the later part of the day before I neared Meric Fief. The night creatures had started to call back and forth in the woods as I trotted along the well-worn path that, eventually, would take me into the town.
Or, it would have, had that pair of bandits not jumped out of the shadows and onto the path in front of me and thrown me to the ground before I could blink.