Hehehe. Doesn't everyone just love those cliffhangers of mine? Hey I get the idea from reading all ofyour stories. Blame yourselves people. Ok so here we go…..

IMPORTANT ANOUNCEMENT AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER!

Disclaimer: By now you people should know that I don't own Ranger's Apprentice.

Previously: She tugged on the end and let the cloth fall open…..

In the middle, lay everything that she had put in there before. Jay dug through until she found the books and pulled them out, sliding the last few into her lap unsure of where she had landed in the Ranger's Apprentice timeline.

"Halt, remember earlier when I said that you were a story? Well, here are the books that you are from." Jay carefully arranged the books in order facing Halt. Each of the colorfully designed covers looked somehow out of place sitting on the plain, dark, wood table.

Jay knew they didn't belong here. They should not exist in this world and yet they did. She shouldn't exist here either; and yet here she was, a lonely misplaced girl in a foreign world. With each book that she lay down, Halt kept a straight face; a face so empty of emotion and thought that had one not known Halt's personality, one may have thought that he was blind and deaf…or dead. However, when he began to read the titles, he lost his composure.

"How did you get these?"

"Halt, I told you, I come from a different world." Jay noticed Halt's eyes glance to her lap where she had slid the remaining books of which she was unsure.

"I can see you have more books, why have you not put them down?"

"You see Halt; I'm not sure where I landed in the time period of Araluen, and I don't want to give away what the future holds because that could mess up the story, so, would please tell me what your most recent…adventure has been?"

"Ok… well…"

"No wait! This will just make it easier. Is Will married yet?"

"Yes. Has been for almost a year."

"Well in that case, here are the rest of the books" and with that, Jay set the rest of the books on the table in order.

Halt had a look of wonder on his face as he read the titles of all the books. He had never seen book covers that were as detailed and colorful as those that Jay had placed in front of him.' He picked up the first on and thumbed through it.

"Who is this John Flanagan that writes all of these books?"

"Wel, he is the author. He lives in a country in my world called Australia."

"How does he know about us?"

"The problem with that Halt is that…..well…..you guys don't exist in my world. You are all…well…..a fairytale. Mr. Flanagan made up all of you guys."

The rest of the conversation consisted of inquiring questions from Halt followed by awkward explanations from Jay. They discussed what would happen if anyone found out that Jay had a lot of the secrets of the Ranger Corp in writing. Halt suggested burning the books, but Jay promptly refused. She hadn't spent time and money collecting the series just to have them burned. Plus, Jay was afraid that if her books were burned, she would immediately be returned to her world.

Now, don't get her wrong, Jay did want to go back to her world to see her family and stuff, but she had just been thrown into one of her favorite stories and she hadn't even met all of the characters yet. Jay at least wanted to see more of the country. She had been stuck in Gilan's cabin for a month and she was ready to go out and see what else was out there in Araluen.

Halt started to ramble about the responsibilities of knowing everything that she did and Jay began to zone out. She wasn't trying to be disrespectable or anything but she already understood the responsibility she had to take.

Jay's mind wandered to what the other characters in the book would look like. She also wondered if they acted just like they did in the books. So far the other characters she met had mostly acted like they did.

"Girl, are you even listening?" Halt's words broke through Jay's thoughts and she looked up.

"Of course Halt."

"Well then, would you like to answer my last question?" Oh, he had asked a question? Crud, she was busted.

"Um well…"

"You weren't listening." He said stated, knowing she wasn't listening.

Jay looked down. "No I wasn't. What was your last question?"

Halt raised an eye brow and re-asked his question, "Will your parents be wondering where you are?'

That brought up some painful thoughts. Would Jay's parents be wondering where she was? Had she been gone as long as she had in this world?

"Honestly, I don't know. I have no idea if time passes the same way here as it does in my world. Who knows? Maybe in my world it has only passed a few seconds. Maybe it has been years. I have no idea."

Halt leaned his elbows on the table and started to rub his temples. "Let's just get on with the rest of your stuff."

Jay pulled out her cell phone and flashlight and some other stuff she had shoved in the bag.

LINE BREAK!

After trying her hardest to explain what a cell-phone was, and how it worked, Jay placed the last item they hadn't explored onto the table in front of Halt. Picking up what was her sketch book, he began to flip through the pages. After a few tense moments, he looked up.

"What are these pictures of?"

"Well….they're pictures of you; of what I imagined you to look like.

Halt continued to study for a few more minutes before handing the sketch book back to Jay.

"You're pretty good at that."

"Um…..thanks." Jay never thought that the actual Halt would see her pictures.

"Well, we better get Gilan back in here. Would you like to tell him what happened?"

Jay thought for a moment before deciding that the fewer people who knew about what had happened, the easier it would be for her. The people of Araluen did not need to know that there were books about them.

"Actually Halt, I would like to keep it between us, if that's okay with you of course." Jay looked to Halt for his answer but the only thing he did was raise his eye brow.

"That is your decision."

"And Halt?"

"Yes."

"You are going to keep it between us right? You are not going to go tell Crowley or King Duncan right?"

Halt looked thoughtful for a moment, "I guess not. But, I will have to think of something won't I?"

"Thank you, thank you!" Jay went and hugged Halt before thinking about who it was she was hugging and backed off, a blush spreading across her cheeks as she looked down at her she missed was the small smile that crept onto Halt's face as he walked back to the stove to prepare the coffee.

"Why don't you get Gilan. He has been outside for the better part of two hours while we talked."

Jay looked out the window and realized that what Halt had said was true and they had indeed talked for almost two hours and the light was fading fast.

Jay ran out of the door and looked around the cabin for any sign of Gilan. She ran to the archery range and saw that his discarded bow lay near one of the targets. Gilan had obviously been practicing there because arrows were still stuck in the target.

Didn't rangers usually pick up after themselves? Why didn't Gilan have his bow with him? Jay felt that something was off about the whole thing and started to get nervous. Because of her nervousness, Jay let her guard down and didn't hear the footsteps behind her.

An arm wrapped around her waist and a hand covered her mouth, smothering any scream that might escape. Jay panicked and started to struggle but relaxed when she heard a very familiar voice.

"Halt must be losing his touch if I could sneak up on you this easily." Jay heard soft laughter and then the hands holding her in place released their hold. She spun around to a very amused Gilan.

"That wasn't funny Gilan. You nearly scared me to death."

"O did I scare the little girl? Come on Jay, I even gave you hints." Jay could see that Gilan found this whole situation very funny and frankly she didn't like it.

"Hey I just had a very pressing conversation with Halt. Now is not the time to screw around Gilan."

"By the way, how did it go?" She could see the apprehension in his eyes.

"Great, actually. I, personally, thought it went quite well."

"Well that's a relief. Why don't we go in and get a nice relaxing cup of coffee." And with that, Gilan led the way to the house.

"Coolios." Gilan turned around and gave her a weird look.

"What did you just say?"

"Um, nothing. Just...never mind." Gilan gave her one more look and then continued on his way to the cabin.

The two of them arrived at the cabin in time to see Halt setting three cups of coffee on the table. Jay eagerly sat down and started to drink the coffee given to her. It was better than she had imagined it would be!

It was then that she noticed the weird looks coming from both Gilan and Halt.

"What?"

Gilan was the first to speak, "You drink your coffee black?"

"Uh….yea. Is there a problem with that?"

"Well, not many girls that I know drink coffee. Especially not black."

"Well, I guess that I am different than the rest then. Is that ok with you?" Jay took another long sip from her coffee and glared at Gilan daring him to say something.

Gilan just shrugged and continued to drink his coffee as if nothing was ever said, and a few minutes of companionable silence were spent simply drinking coffee. Jay felt like she was in the book. Well technically she was, but then again she wasn't.

Gilan began to get impatient. Jay knew that he wanted to know what had been said during the long period that she and Halt had talked. A few more minutes passed until Gilan had to ask what had been bothering him for the last few minutes.

"So, what happened?"

Halt just raised his eye brow at Gilan. He seemed to like that expression a lot.

"Sorry Halt. It's just you know I was wondering if Jay could become my apprentice, but I know she has to be approved of first." Halt jerked slightly in response to that news before glancing at Jay who gave him an almost imperceptible nod.

"Jay is clear. You know I will have to run it by Crowley first before anything can be said about anyone becoming anyone's apprentice."

Jay beamed at Gilan and he smiled back at her. Things were finally going in the direction she wanted them to.

LINE BREAK!

That night Jay sat at her window and thought about everything that had happened to her since she had fallen into this world more than a month ago. She thought of all the lies she had told and the relief of finally being able to tell someone about it. Jay knew that her adventure wasn't over yet. In fact it had barely started.

The thought of adventures made her think of her little brother back in her world. She remembered his smiling face and how he used to dress up in his cape and run around the house. He would always come to her and ask if she would go fight a dragon or save a princess with him.

Tears started to drip down Jay's face as she thought of her family. She missed them and she wished that she could talk to them about her predicament. Jay just wanted to talk to someone who knew where she was from. She was just a child who was stuck in a big strange world.

Jay wanted to talk to one of her friends who could fangirl with her about seeing characters in a book that they had talked hours on end about. She smiled at that and thought about her best friend Katherine, Katherine, and how they always screamed like little girls when a new book came out.

Jay stared out the window and saw a shooting star. She closed her eyes and began to make a wish.

"I wish that I could talk to someone I know. I wish that I wasn't alone in this world." As Jay whispered her prayer, she had no idea what she had just done.

Ok guys! There you have it. Sorry, I know that I promised a chapter yesterday but I have a new unofficial beta that had to look it over. She had work to do so it just took her a while.

IMPORTANT! Hey everyone! So I got a beta. Drum roll…..my big sis! Yea my sister (who has been writing way longer than I have) has agreed to be my beta! Because I have to pass my stories through her, the updates may be a little slower. Sorry. You guys won't get any more crappy chapters though! She just got onto fanfiction after I introduced her. If you like Harry Potter, than go look up her story under 'Thoughtful Memory' as an author.

Song of the day: Fireflies by Owl City.

I hope that the chapter was a little longer guys!