Well, I'm not sure how to do this… It's soooo much easier to write for after the series ends, because you don't have to worry about radical changes. So, forgive my problems as I try to make things fun and still stick to the things hinted at in the series.

I've always liked Halt better than any other character (though I daresay I'm turning into a Gilan-lover after reading Dodo.123's work, even though he's a blonde *ignores fact that I'm a blonde, albeit my hair being a dark ash blonde that looks like a mousy brown*)

I give you… HALT AS AN APPRENTICE! (with a side of Crowley)

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I'd always loved Hibernia. It was my home. But when I left that day a whole week previously, I left my whole life and now I had to get over it or suffer the consequences.

Now I was wandering a foreign country, Araluen, with nothing but the clothes on my back and one silver coin. I'd worked under a hard sea captain to earn my keep on his ship while it crossed the sea from Hibernia to Araluen.

"Come on, Halt, you never wanted to be King anyways." I muttered. I was in the peculiar habit of talking to myself. But I still couldn't shake the feeling I'd been cheated of my birthright and life.

I was trudging up the hill and thinking of my little sister, Caitlyn, when I heard a woman screaming. The sound led me into a small wooded area where a group of men armed with daggers surrounding a carriage. There were two footmen and the driver, but they were not fighting men.

The source of the screaming was a noblewoman with way too much face-paint, but it was her servant that made me stop and stare instead of leaving them. She was standing between her mistress and the bandits, utterly silent and composed.

The leader of the bandits—the best armed, with a leather vest to protect from minor blows—waved his knife under the girl's nose. "Stand down, miss. We just want yer money."

One of the men sniggered. "Fo' now." He said.

"Okay, that's more than enough." I said, stepping into the clearing. "Let them go."

All of the people involved stared at me—except for the girl, who I now could see was my age and extremely pretty. (What was the reward for saving a damsel in distress these days?) She dove for the leader, knocking him right off his feet and into the leaves below. He was stunned by the fall, and she managed to pry his hands away from the weapon.

Breathing heavily, she stood over him.

Showing a total lack of training, they all rushed to help their leader up instead of dispatching the girl. I rushed over to the women. "Are you alright?"

"We're fine, thanks to you." The noblewoman gushed, clinging to me. Ew, even with face-paints I could tell she was old enough to be my—never mind. The thought was too painful.

I looked over her shoulder at the girl, who rolled her eyes. Don't bother, the look said. She'll never admit I saved her.

I grabbed one of the bandits by the collar and heaved him to his feet, relieving him of his knife as I did.

"Jus' who d'ya think ya are—"

He fell silent when I rammed his head into the side of the carriage. "Where'd you learn to use weapons?" I asked the girl as his comrades circled us.

She shrugged, stabbing randomly into the eight or so bandits. "I didn't. I'm improvising."

"So you have no idea what you're doing?" I asked incredulously. "How did you…"

The girl shrugged once again as I dispatched the leader of the bandits—he fell lifeless to the ground. The first person I'd ever killed.

And, I reflected as another man took his place, likely not the last.

"I'm Pauline, by the way."

"Halt." I replied, grinning at her.

Her fighting faltered. "Why should I stop—wait, you mean your name is Halt?"

"Yes. Halt O'Carrick."

"It's weird, if you don't mind me saying."

"It's better than Ferris."

"Ferris?"

"My brother."

The last man fell. I'd gotten six of them, but the two who'd gotten too close to Pauline's mistress were clutching wounds as they stumbled away.

I moved to pursue them, but before I could a man literally stepped out of a tree, pulling back a cowled hood.

"Stop right there." He said, unnecessarily. The remaining three froze in their places, looking like they'd seen a ghost.

Which, as far as I could tell, they had.

"Good morning, sir." Pauline said calmly. "Always a good entrance."

The man didn't smile. "Hmm. An interesting outcome, don't you think, Crowley?" He asked the tree beside him.

A guy my age stepped away from the tree. "If you say so, father. Morning, Pauline!"

He sounded suspiciously cheerful as he greeted her. Looked like my damsel in distress was already taken, by what appeared to be—surely not—a sorcerer.

"Good morning, Crowley." She replied, cool as ever.

Maybe she wasn't taken.

Crowley, for his part, was glaring at me resentfully. I got the feeling he hated me even though we'd only just met.

"Forgive my asking, but who the devil are you all?"

"I'm Pauline, as I said. This is my mother Lady Lindsey, my father's old friend Ranger William, and his son Crowley."

Mother? I wasn't expecting that. Pauline's dress was simple—elegant, but simple—and more like that of a servant than a Lady.

"Halt O'Carrick, what brings you to Araluen?"

I turned my attention back to Ranger—Ranger, why did that title sound familiar…?—William as he spoke.

"Just passing through."

"Where's your family?" Ranger William asked. "Why aren't they with you?"

I weighed the options of telling them who exactly I was, but it was likely they'd want to contact Ferris or, if I told them, restore me to my place as heir to the throne. My parents didn't want me, and they'd be even more unhappy if I took Ferris from them with the help of foreign troops. "They're in Hibernia. I left home."

"Are you in need of employment, Halt?"

I did need a source of income if I was going to survive. "Yes, sir." I said politely.

"Would you like to be a Ranger?"

What the devil was a Ranger? Surely I'd heard the name in one of my lessons about—oh! He was referring to the Araluen spies that used bows and could turn invisible using special cloaks.

Now the question was, did I want to be a Ranger?

I didn't have much of a choice.

"Yes, sir."

Fwah! (That's like tada, my bestie Peridot says it all the time and I wanted to try it out. It just doesn't work for me…) There we go, my first chapter. What do you think? Review. Now. That's an order.

PS Visit Theodora Helena Miller's RA story, because she gave me all sorts of recommendations for this.

PPS If you read my profile, please note that I am not crazy, I am simply in character.