Hey you! Yeah, you! Have you read "The Royal Ranger" yet? 'Cause if you haven't, this contains spoilers! Don't say I didn't warn you...
In the last book of The Ranger's Apprentice they mentioned that Alyss died in a fire. It gave some details and such, but it didn't say the whole story. I wanted to write this fanfiction to narrate what I think happened, so I'm going to be adding a few details of my own. I hope you enjoy it!
If you already didn't notice for some bizarre reason, I don't own The Ranger's Apprentice or any of its characters, John Flanagan does.
Alyss heaved a huge sigh of relief as she stretched out her sore muscles. She had been riding for almost eight hours today, and could now feel every minute of it. Stiffly, she sat down on a nearby log and tried to relax. These routinely trips to the Celtic court were starting to wear on her.
The relationship between Araluen and Celtica has been somewhat tender ever since the attack on the Celtic mining industry. They, of course, blamed the Araluens for the attack, convinced that they were jealous of their mines. Mining has always had a big part in the Celtic ways.
Nevertheless, Celtica still needed the protection of Araluen, and so the defence agreement was made. It ensured that Araluen would protect Celtica, under the condition that it received 5% of Celtica's mining profit. The defence agreement needed to be renewed once every year to ensure that the alliance was still in place. To guarantee that the agreement renewal went smoothly, Princess Cassandra decided to send one of their best diplomats on the voyage, which of course meant Alyss.
She had left Castle Redmont with no more than three guards, proclaiming that she could fight for herself. Horace and Will had insisted that she should bring more guards along, but being a diplomat, she had easily won the argument. The party of four had taken two days to arrive at Celtica and were grudgingly let in. All Celtics believed in one saying: "One man may be deceit, two can be conspiracy. three is the number I trust." They were a bit deflated to let one more person in than customary, but they let it pass.
Alyss had arrived at the Celtic court three days ago, and the renewal had taken about half that time. Most years it would only take a few signatures and a couple hours to finish the process, but this year was different. The Celtics were having problems gaining a mining profit due to the large rain storm the previous month. It had completely flooded the mines and workers were unable to enter them for weeks. Now the Celtics were about a month short of goods, and were reluctant to give up 5% of what they did have. It had taken almost two days of negotiations and arguments for the agreement renewal to finally be signed.
Alyss, being as diplomatic and kind as she was, worked out a compromise which made both sides relatively happy. The Celtics would pay 3.5% of their normal income on time, and the other 1.5% would be due after another four months. It gave enough time for the Celtics to catch up, and it was soon enough that it wouldn't really matter to the Araluens. The Celtic representatives had thanked her for the postponement and signed the agreement.
The day after the renewal of the defence agreement, Alyss and her three guards left Celtica and headed back to Redmont. The delay that the Celtic court had caused left Alyss impatient to return back home, where she knew Will was waiting. With that thought in mind, she had ridden for hours on end, hoping that she could make up for the lost time in one bout. All she had to show for it now were a lot of sore muscles and four tired horses.
Alyss sighed, angry at herself for pushing the horses so hard. She got up and trudged up to her weary stead, smiling at it affectionately. It had been a gift from Will on their first wedding anniversary. He had known that Alyss had always wanted a horse of her own, so he bought her one. It was a sturdy caramel coloured horse, with four white socks and a snow-like mane and tail. On it's muzzle it had a dagger shaped marking, which had inevitably chosen it's name. Dagger.
Alyss laughed quietly at the memory and stroked her horse. "Well, you're not very sharp now, are you Dagger?" She said playfully. "You know what you need? A long well deserved rest." Then, louder so that her guards could hear her, "We'll stop here for a couple hours. Settle down and take a breather."
One of her guards turned to look at her and frowned. "But it looks like it'll rain soon and it's only a few hours 'til dark. I suggest that we find somewhere to stay for the night."
Alyss glanced at the sky and nodded. "Very well, we'll look for a place to spend the night. Hand me a map and I'll try to look for one nearby," she said. She nodded thanks to the soldier who handed her the map and studied it carefully. She pointed to tiny dot. "There seems to be an inn not too far from here. We should be able to make it there by twilight."
The group of four wearily remounted their horses. Alyss patted Dagger apologetically and sighed. "Sorry boy, I'm afraid that your going to have to keep going for a little while longer. But don't worry, soon enough we'll arrive at the Wyvern Inn."
Aaaaaannd that's the end of chapter 1, I hope you enjoyed it! I'll try to update again soon, but don't hold me to it.
I only have a vague idea of how this story will go, so I'm open to any suggestions or comments. Tell me what you liked and didn't like, I welcome constructive criticism. Also, if I get any of my ranger's apprentice facts wrong, please let me know. I haven't read the books in a while and I'm bound to mess up something.
Don't forget to review! Bye for now!