Disclaimer: I do not Ranger's Apprentice or Fairy Tail.

It was about an hour later when the girl started to wake up. Halt had left to get her some decent clothes, leaving Crowley to watch her while he read the papers, which turned out to be a rather interesting and entertaining story. He was engrossed in his reading when he heard a sleepy groan, causing him to look up.

The girl was slowly sitting up. One hand came up to gingerly rub the side of her head. The confusion was evident in her warm, chocolate brown, eyes as she took in her surroundings. Then her gaze fell onto him.

"Good to see you're awake." Crowley greeted.

The girl's eyes widened in panic and fear. "Who are you?! Where am I!? What is this place!? Where are my friends!?" she said, her hand going to the keys to her belt.

'Odd, wouldn't going for the whip be a better idea if she felt threatened?' thought Crowley. "Okay, okay. It's alright. You have every reason to be concerned, just calm down a bit. Alright, let's start from the beginning. I'm Crowley, you're in my tent. This place is where the Rangers, which I'm the head of, are having our annual meeting, and I have no idea where your friends are." He took a deep breath. "There, does that answer all your questions?"

The girl relaxed a bit. "How . . . did I get here?"

"I'll take that as a no. Let's see, apparently you're from another dimension and you were dropped off here by a spirit. Are you still following me?"

The girl didn't seem surprised. "Yeah." Noticing Crowley's confusion at her lack of surprise, she elaborated. "I've been to another dimension before. A parallel one actually. Hmm, I wonder if there's another version of me here?" the girl said thoughtfully.

"So, you mind telling me your name?"

"Eh? Oh, it's Lucy, Lucy Heartfilia." Her gaze fell on the papers in Crowley's hands and her eyes widened in recognition, and then in horror.

Faster than should have been possible, Lucy had gone from the cot to right in front of Crowley and snatched the papers from him. Crowley stared at her stunned as she hugged the papers to her chest, panting and blushing furiously.

"Why were you reading this?!" she said, her voice haven risen a few octaves.

"It was just something that was dropped off with you. Why? It's actually not a bad story." said Crowley, confused at her actions.

Lucy's blush deepened. "You idiot! It's not even finished! And I promised Levy she'd be the first one to read it!"

Now it started to make sense. Needless to say, he was pleasantly surprised at the realization. "You wrote that?" he asked, indicating the papers still being held tightly to her chest.

Again, Lucy's blush deepened. "S-so what if I did."

Crowley shrugged in response. "Just a little surprised. Also, I feel you should know, the spirit that brought you here wanted you to be apprentice to our best Ranger, and he has agreed to train you."

Lucy seemed startled. "The best? Why would anyone request the best to teach me anything?"

Crowley saw it now. Lucy seemed to have an issue with self-confidence. Then he remembered something the spirit had said. "Maybe because you deserve a chance to prove you strength."

She thought about that for a few moments. "What do Rangers do?" she asked.

Crowley chuckled. "You're inquisitive. That's a good trait for a Ranger. What Ranger's do, is watch over the going's on in our respective fiefs. Make sure the knights are trained properly, make sure the barons aren't doing anything nefarious, and take care of troublemakers, bandits and the like."

Lucy brightened. "That doesn't sound so bad. I supposed it's not too different from what I was doing before."

Interested, Crowley leaned forward. "Really? You were doing this sort of thing before?"

"Well, at least the bandit part." said Lucy. "I'm in a mage guild called Fairy Tail, my team and I would pick jobs to go on to get reward money."

At that moment Halt returned. "Good, you're up." He tossed some clothes to her, which she caught. "Put some proper clothes on, you look like a harlot." he said, abandoning tact.

Lucy's eyes narrowed and a chill ran down Crowley's spine at her expression. "I'm sorry, but what did you just say?"

Halt sighed. "Oh good, it appears my new apprentice is hard of hearing. I said—," Halt cut off as he turned around and saw Lucy's expression. He wisely amended the sentence he had almost said. He gulped nervously. "Eh heh, what I actually said was, you should change your clothes because . . . your current ones are torn!"

She looked down. "Huh, I guess they are."

The two men let out sighs of relief. They hear Lucy tapping her foot. They turned to see her impatient expression. "Well? Go on, out! I'm not changing with you two in here!"

Realizing their blunder, they rushed out of the tent. Crowley turned to his old friend. "I don't envy you for having to deal with her."

"No kidding. Did you tell her?"

"Yes."

"How'd she take the news?"

"Quite well actually. Apparently, this isn't the first time she's been in another dimension."

"Oh, good to know." said Halt.

"Hey Halt!" Gilan greeted as he approached the two. "Has our sleeping beauty woken up?"

"Unfortunately. Crowley, what were those papers?" asked Halt.

"Nothing really. It was quite an interesting story. But that's all it was. It's a book she's writing. She was quite upset that I had read it. Apparently she's promised a friend of hers that she's be the first to read it." said Crowley with some amusement.

"So she's an author?" asked Halt.

"Of sorts, I suppose. The book's not finished." Crowley replied.

"Does she have name?" asked Gilan.

"Her name's Lucy Heartfilia." he said. "And I have some good news for you Halt. The girl's inquisitive. Not only that, put she's also used to fighting. She seems quite pleased with idea of being a Ranger."

Halt sighed. "Well at least there's that."

"Yeah, but weren't you going to take Will an apprentice?" asked Gilan.

"Yes, and I still am." said Halt.

Behind them, the men heard the tent flaps rustle and Lucy stepped out, wearing a simple dark green dress with slightly trailing sleeves and a brown cloak fastened around her shoulders. She had her belt fastened loosely at her hips. "You know, I can hear you three pretty well. Tents aren't exactly the most sound-proof of structures." She turned to Halt. "So . . . I guess you're going to be my mentor?"

"Unfortunately for both of us, yes." Halt replied.

Lucy frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Gilan laughed, "Don't worry, you'll see soon enough

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