Disclaimer: I do not own Ranger's Apprentice (wish I did though), I only own Old Rock and it's inhabitants.

Something else by the way, the first 4 chapters were written on wordpad, and the spelling may be off. Also, my writing improves the further you get into the story. (this comment was added later)

~Prologue~

As night fell upon a small coastal village, the screams got worse and worse. A worried man paced up and down the small hallway leading to the room the screams were coming from. The door opened , an old woman sticking her head trough the opening. "It's a twin" she said, inviting the newfound father into the room.
He walked up to his wife , holding the two small crying bundles. "What do you want to name them?" "How about Emma and Justin?" she said with a tired smile.

~Chapter 1~

The ranger of Old Rock fief rode down a small dirt track. He was patrolling around the area to make sure he knew about everything going on as there had been rumors of a group of bandits robbing unsuspecting travelers.

His cowl pulled far forward, hiding his face in shadows, concealing his eyes which where scanning his surroundings.

Suddenly his horse let out a short whinny to alert him someone was closing in on his position. His hand reaching for one of the white arrows in the quiver on his back.

Then he saw them, two teens, a boy and a girl, about fifteen years old chasing each other around. The children didn't spot him until they where ten meters away from him. Their laughter fell silent as they saw the figure in the grey green cloak.

He pulled his cowl back and a pair of grey eyes appeared, a small smile on his bearded face.

Suddenly the girl said angrily to the boy "I told you we shouldn't have gone so far away from the village!"

"How is it my fault?! You ran blindly into the forest!"

"You were chasing me!"

"Only because you ran away!" who knows what will happen now, you know rangers are dark magicians, he might turn us into rabbits or something!"

The girl now looked at the ranger with a face full of fear, but unable to move.

"Ho ho, wait a second, I'm not a black magician." The ranger replied. "And I'm not going to hurt you." The two kids now looked less scared, but still weren't totally convinced.

"so, where do you live?" he continued.

"we're from…" the boy started.

"…Chelez." the girl said, finishing his sentence.

"Our parents…"

"…are famers, we actually live…"

"… on the outskirts…"

"…of the village.

The ranger was starting to feel dizzy. "STOP DOING THAT!" he eventually shouted at the kids.

"What are…"

"…we doing?"

"You keep finishing each other's sentences," the ranger replied " it's giving me a head ache."

"Sorry sir, we don't mean to, it just kind of happens sometimes," Our parents say it's because we're twins." The boy said

Then the ranger spotted the similarities between the two, in appearance and body language, the same blonde hair, the same curious glance in their dark blue eyes "Done watching?" the twins said at exactly the same time, apparently over the first shock of seeing the strange man.

He only raised an eyebrow. "How about I escort you back home." he said on a tone that suggested it really meant " I will bring you to your home, if you want it or not."

the girl breathed in, trying to protest. But before she could say anything the boy answered," that would be great, thank you." sending an expression of warning his sisters way.

Ten minutes later the girl suddenly said: "I'm sorry but I didn't quite hear what your name was when we met you."

"That would be because I didn't tell you." He dryly replied. "What is your name?" the boy asked. "Fine, my name is Edward." "And your last name?" the girl asked. A grim expression suddenly appeared on Edward's face and he said nothing in return. "Surely you have a last name, everybody has one." The girl said, unaware of the ranger's change of expression.

They rode on in silence of about five minutes until the bearded man started talking: "I don't know my last name, I was found by a ranger and his apprentice when I was two years old. My parents where killed by Scotti raiders, the raiders sliced their throats and left me to die in the snow. That is when the rangers found me. I was taken to the ward at Norgate fief, that is why I don't have a last name." when the children looked up at the ranger they where shocked to see his eyes watering in the shadow of his cowl.

The boy sent an accusing glare at his sister. Edward sighed, "It's okay, you couldn't have known. What are your names?" "Emma and Justin Metfort." they simultaneously replied. After another hour Edward suddenly looked up "Smoke" he whispered, and galloped away with the two children in front an behind him on the horse.

The next thing they heard were screams. The small horse stormed out from the trees and on the other side of a large wheat field they saw a burning house. a man laid on his back, a crossbow bolt sticking out from his chest.

Three men came out of a small barn, leading a cow towards five other men holding a screaming woman, one of the men hit her and the screaming stopped.

Suddenly the twins saw three of them drop to the ground, white shafted arrows sticking from their chest, none of them knowing what had killed them.

Edward shouted "Queen's Ranger! Throw your weapons on the ground!" they didn't. The bandits started to walk towards the ranger.

Edward shot another arrow but they were already to close. He drew his saxe and throwing knife and looked in astonishment as four of them fell into the dirt, a second later his throwing knife landed in the last bandit's neck. He looked around to see what had killed the other four and spotted Emma and Justin, both holding a slinger.

The two ran towards the two figures laying in the grass and when they reached the man, they cried "DAD!". He wasn't moving. Edward waked over to the woman, bleeding from a wound in her side and blood seeping out of the wound on her temple. He put his fingers in her wrist but couldn't feel a heartbeat. The twins looked at him with tears in their eyes. He shook his head, not able to look them directly in the eyes.

They wheeped silently over their mother and father. Edward stood up, leaving them alone whith their grief for a while.

When he came back a quarter of an hour later they buried the bodies in silence. The devastated children looked at the ranger as to what to do. "I can take you to Old Rock castle, I bet baron Algruff can find you two a place to stay." They nodded slowly. "I will take you to the castle, but after that i will travel to Araluen."

"Why are you going there?" the girl asked.

"Ranger business." he replied, indicating that he would say no more about it.