Disclaimer: I do not own the Ranger's Apprentice series nor any of John Flanagan's original characters. However, I do own the Beings of Darkness, Jessica, Lillian, Cindy, and Andrea.

Anyway, this is my first, actual, ever-"published" Ranger's Apprentice fan-fiction. Keeping that in mind, please enjoy Chapter One! :)

Jessica Primrose Dawson stared out at her bleak, inhospitable terrain and grimly determined that she'd get her revenge on them. On all of them! All she had to do was finish what her hero, Morgarath, former Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, had started, and slowly destroy her enemies...

...one by one.

And she knew exactly how she would do it. She smirked and rubbed her hands in anticipation. She might not ever be truly able to return to the land of the living, but here where she lived out her days, there were other nasty spirits, grotesque objects, that would gladly torment her enemies for her.

Like the Beings of Darkness.

Lillian sat up in the middle of the night, breathing hard and mind still burning with the memory of her livid, hate-filled eyes. It wouldn't do to wake Crowley by all her tossing and turning. So she quietly got out of bed and tip-toed out of the small cabin.

Once she reached the forest, she relaxed. This was her true home, here in the simplistic beauty of nature. Not back where she'd come from, in a corrupt world filled with greed and hatred and immorality.

She reached her Quiet Spot, a tall, flat boulder set in the center of a clearing in the surrounding forest and sat down, contemplating her latest dream and its meaning. For all her dreams before had served a purpose. And it was her ability to understand those purposes that had saved her life, more than once.

The next morning, Will was running as fast as his legs could carry him back to the cabin, the cabin he shared with Halt at Redmont Fief.

"Halt!" he was shouting before he even reached the door. "Halt! Urgent news from Crowley!"

Halt glanced quizzically up at his former apprentice as he barged in the cabin, brandishing a leaflet embossed with the seal of Castle Araluen's mail-carriers.

"What's up?" he asked, his voice betraying no hint of the excitement and interest that had flared up inside of him the instant he'd heard Will's shouts.

"New--enemy--spotted--around--many--major--fiefs'--boundaries," Will replied between gasps of breath. "Seem to--be--exact--copies--of people--from--fiefs."

Halt frowned. "How is that possible? What other information do we have of this mysterious new enemy?"

Will, having regained his breath now, shrugged and held out the leaflet. "I just read the first paragraph. Figured you'd want to know the rest before I could."

Halt had to smile at that. "I suppose you're right." He took the leaflet and began reading. As his eyes moved further down the page, his eyebrows angled more and more downward and furrowed closer and closer together. Not a good sign.

After a long, awkward silence, Will had to ask: "What does it say?"

Halt gestured towards the paper.

Read it yourself, he seemed to be saying.

Will grinned. Halt actually wasn't going to torture him before letting him know the news!

But then the grin faded, his eyes widened, then hardened, and a frown lurking at the corners of his mouth grew more pronounced as he read more and more of the news from Crowley.

As he violently threw the leaflet to the floor in his anger, the door banged open yet again.

This time, though, no friend was standing at the threshold.

Cindy paced in front of her mentor worriedly, brow furrowed in fierce concentration as she thought of her best friend's predicament.

Finally she could bear it no longer.

"Whatever are we going to do about Lillian, Lady Pauline? Surely we can help her somehow!" she burst out.

Her mentor sighed; she felt the same way, but there was no chance that they, members of the Diplomatic Service, could possibly do anything to help the poor Ranger now. The only people who could help Lillian now were....

Will, Halt, Gilan, Horace, Evanlyn, and Andrea gathered in front of the King. Crowley remained to one side, furious that he could not take part in the special mission to save his former apprentice, but reluctantly agreeing with the King's decision. He was the Ranger Corps Commandant. Personal matters, for him, should come last.

Now he knew what Halt had felt like, all those years ago when Will had been taken captive by the Skandians....

The King's voice jerked him back to the present.

"Will, Halt, Gilan--Crowley will let some of the other senior Rangers, or those Rangers with more advanced apprentices, guard your fiefs from danger while you go ahead on your task," the King was saying as Crowley dragged himself, with much difficulty, away from his reminiscing moments of his apprentice.

Strangely, he thought he could feel a whisper of wind blowing past his ears. A very familiar voice said softly into one:

"I'm all right, Crowley. Don't worry about me; I'll be home soon. Thank you for worrying, but I'll be fi--"

Suddenly Lillian's voice was cut off and Crowley shuddered as he imagined what could possibly have interrupted her.

"Crowley."

Halt's voice seemed to come from a long distance, through a black tunnel whose entrance shrouded in darkness grew constantly bigger....

Crowley shook himself and pushed the tunnel away for the moment.

"Are you all right, Crowley?" Will's shock of brown hair came into view as he pushed back the cowl of his cloak.

"Yes. Sorry about that, everyone." The Corps Commandant paused, then asked, "Heard that you guys had to fight a few of these Dark Forces. You all right, Halt, Will?"

The others exchanged worried glances.

"Um, sir, the King already asked them that, over half-an-hour ago," Andrea pointed out awkwardly.

Crowley gave himself a little shake. "Of course, of course. Forgive me. Getting a bit long in the tooth. But anyway, let's continue with the briefing, shall we?"

Another worried glance told Crowley that they'd already finished. He sighed irritably.

"Oh, go on then. I know you'll bring her back safe and sound; I trust you all," he stated simply, then walked out of the meeting hall back to his quarters.

Lillian raised her shackled hands helplessly to defend herself from the staggering blows rained over and over again on her, but to no avail. After her captors cruelly enjoyed beating her up, they slammed her against the dungeon wall, laughing at the small cry of pain that escaped from her lips and her shock at the sudden impact.

She gasped in pain and fell in a heap at their feet. They grinned and began the process all over again.

It's going to be a very long, hard night, Lillian thought grimly as they now retrieved their whips from their spike-studded belts.

Halt's keen eagle eyes scanned the trail in front of them, looking for faint signs of a presumably small party that had come this way before them. If anyone had been here, they certainly knew how to conceal their tracks. But then, after over five minutes of searching for any hint, he found something and called to the others. They came rushing over and he explained to them his findings.

"As you can see, the grass over here on this road is remarkably trampled down. But here, at the very edge of the path," he said, pointing, "you can see distinct heel marks that look faded, but are simply incomplete, meaning that most likely that Lillian and her captor or captors came by recently, and the criminals went to great extent so as not to be discovered."

"Good old Lillian," Will remarked fondly, "she found a way to fool those bandits after all."

Then a shout came from further up ahead, deep in the undergrowth. Gilan had heard Halt's call, but had been busy investigating a trail of his own.

Everyone rushed up to the younger Ranger and followed the trail of torn-off leaves on the forest floor to a prickly bush about thirty meters in front of them. They ran over to it and saw the easily-recognized Ranger cloak pattern, parts of the cloak having been torn off by the thorns and which now hung on the branches.

But Andrea still wasn't entirely convinced. "How do we know that these trails aren't false?"

Horace turned towards her. "It's the best hope we've got right now. What we hope to do next is--"

"Find more, hard-to-spot signs of a hopefully real trail," Evanlyn interrupted, looking at the three Rangers gathered together, separate from the others, talking over what they'd just found.

"All right, it's been decided," Halt said abruptly, breaking up their little Rangers' circle as he walked towards the others, "that Will, Gilan, and Horace will look for more signs of other trails elsewhere, while I take Andrea and Evanlyn with me to keep on trying to follow these two trails near that path. Right! Get to it, everyone."

So, how'd you like it? I'd appreciate some constructive criticism as I'm not a very good writer, but no flames, please. :D Thank you, and please read and review!

By the way, look for Chapter Two coming up in less than a week or so....