Ok, I know that to this place female OC rangers are really cliché, but I recently heard that the 12th rangers apprentice would have a girl in it, so I decided to go ahead and do one. Don't worry though, I've already planned her to be a rich character, that isn't just based of some friend of mine, but that's chapter 3.

Chapter 2

The forest of Redmont was filled with the all too familiar sound of a repetitive thump, Lena thought, it was, of course, her doing, as she drew her arm back once again. She was practicing, hitting targets, none too close to her, switching angles, all in a random direction.

"Never hit targets in the same order, or you'll start to measure your aim off your last shot, that will never make you an instinctive shot"

that's what will said, she remembered as she walked down the lane to her targets, they were all clustered around the small yellow ring in the middle, but she took her time doing it, she thought, she was never the best at her shots, not the standard that will sought, she knew, bringing up another one of the rangers sayings in her head:

"An archer practices until he gets it right, a ranger practices until he never gets it wrong"

She was practicing archery more then any of the other skills needed to make a Ranger, during the night, the weekends and even in her holidays. Little did she know that she was, apart from Rangers, at a standard of archery that little of Aruluens possess.

Little did she all so know, that there was a cloaked figure rested on the base of a tree, looking like he was dozing. Of course, this was defiantly not the case, the mans eyes where moving, beneath his cowl, constantly studying Lena's technique, any faults, he would tell her about. He knew that Lena was almost embarrassed about the level of skill in her shots; however, she was simply self-conscious, why? Because she was the only female ranger to ever be apart of the corps, she was all too aware of the criticism will received when she was taken as his apprentice. Only was it when the ranger halt stepped in did people quiet down.

The man under the cowl of the cloak was Will, in fact. He grinned as he remembered the first time he showed Lena her weapons, a longbow; a Rangers bread and butter, and two knives. The little crestfallen face of the girl was evident when she saw them, a bow? She thought? How can I ever shoot one of those?

Lena took to the two knives like a duck to water, she had used them most of her life as a kid, as self defense. The first time Will showed her how to throw the knives, she unsheathed them straight away, took a step back and aimed at a log, and threw. Hitting the log a little off center, a little taken aback, Will asked for to do it again, with the same result. She wasn't quite as accurate as any fully-fledged ranger, but she wasn't in need of as much practice as with the bow. Wills smile widened, he showed her the knives first, as he knew she had some experience with them, but with the confidence that comes only with success, she picked up the bow and said "can i fire an arrow?". Will replied with the raising of a single eyebrow and said, straight faced "if you think that's a good idea".

The resulting situation sent a flurry of nostalgia through him as he heard the cry of Lena, "ow, it bit me" she said. He pointed to his wrist, with the traces of a smirk on his face, "see this, on my arm?". Sure enough, an arm guard was there. And so, with plenty of patience lena was taught the skill of archery, and set off to practice.

Short-range fast and accurate archery was commonplace for a ranger, but a ranger also succeeded in ranges that were of an extreme range, in some cases, 400 meters, once Lena saw Will do this, but only Will, and only once. She walked over to the longer-ranged ranges, 150 meters away, were targets. Lena took a breath and drew back and was about to release when she heard a voice " just a tad higher, Lena". She obeyed. And the shot was perfect. The voice was her mentors, Will.

"Ah, I didn't know there where sneaky rangers in the area" said Lena, peevishly. Purposely missing the joke will said "we wouldn't be any good as a ranger if we went around, announcing our selves to the world".

"Anyway, your shots are getting better, you need to start speeding them up though, dinners ready, and Alyss is here" Will said.

The walk back to the cabin was uneventful and short. Will insisted that they would practice moving through the forest from shadowy patch to shadowy patch, blending in with their surroundings. Will moved quickly and silently like a wraith, with apparent ease, blending so well that the indistinct shape of will would blend easily with the surroundings, scaring Lena. "How do you do it?" she said. Will bellowed, "Well for a start, we don't walk around the forest bellowing at the top of our lungs saying, "how do you do it?""

The cabin, if one would call it that, was recently extended, to accommodate three people and a dog. Alyss, who was on missions most of the time, would come and stay for extended periods of time. From the stable, tug and Lena's horse, Florence, nickered their greeting and Alyss her own "I thought I heard a bear in the forest, yelling loud words, oh, and hello Lena, didn't see you there".

"So how was Hibernia?" Lena asked. "I didn't know that my royal, and also secret mission, was common knowledge?" replied Alyss quizzically, nursing her coffee.

"Yes Lena, why were you looking at my documents?" will say.

An eyebrow rose.

"Those certain secret-royal mission documents were laying on the table" Lena said, straight faced. Will quickly looked down at his coffee crestfallen, surveying the contents of his revered drink, though it was near full, Will decided that there was a need for a new boiled jug.

"Coffee anyone?" will said, unsuccessfully changing the conversation. The reply was without words but the meaning was portrayed with the raising of an all too familiar eyebrow.

"I think we need music then."

After a few hours of dinner, coffee, light chit chat and will bringing his mandola out, Lena was finally beckoned to go to sleep, after, of course, she was to clean the resulting mess of dishes and mugs.

Alyss, ever the diplomat, decided that her time to share secrets would start now.

I'm just going to put it out there that I would like some reviews, there easy for you to write, and heavenly for me to receive, also, major things will start to happen maybe chapter 5, but I'm planning on how to have a lot of things for you to figure out. Keep you guessing, so reviewing will make this story a priority for me, cheers