Sorry this took so long, I was at Summer Leadership learning to be an Officer Elect for FCCLA in my state. I don't own Rangers Apprentice; we can all thank John Flanagan for that! Oh and by the way, if you haven't read the Brotherband Chronicles then sorry, you can still read this, it's not like I'm giving anything away…I think. Anyway just for the record I really want Lydia to end up with Stig and not Hal.

-Angelica

Isabel walked around Hallasholm looking for something to do. Every time she offered help to someone they either said no or rejected her. She ended back up at the suit siting on the floor by the fire. Everything was quiet till someone knocked on the door. Isabel got up and answered it.

At first she was unsure of who it was. Since many Skandian's have blonde hair and blue eyes, but it was the way that he looked at Isabel that she knew that they knew each other. Stig towered over her in the doorway.

"Good afternoon Isabel," Stig greeted her.

"Afternoon, is there something you needed?" She asked him.

"Actually you can," he said. "Erak wanted me to come and get you; we might have a job for you."

"We want you to head down south with Hal and his crew," Erak told her.

Isabel gave him a look. "I'm sure you probably heard my dad before you left, he doesn't want me leaving."

"No," Erak said. "He didn't want to you to go with him. He never said anything about you not helping us, and I think I heard Halt say that you should help out."

"And if my dad comes back, and I'm not here?"

"He can blame me," Erak said. "Plus you'll be with nine grown men and one woman. You'll be fine."

"I don't know," she told him.

"You want to be helpful and so something," Erak said. "This is your time."

Isabel thought over every possible outcome. Will and Halt could come back early and she wouldn't be here. Will wouldn't let do anything ever again, he'd made sure that she ever left his side. But if she did go, then she might learn a thing or two, and she would be out doing something and not sitting, waiting around for an attack to happen.

"Okay."

"Welcome aboard Isabel," Stig said. They walked onto the Heron, where all the other members of the Heron brotherband were preparing to set sail. Erak had told Isabel that it might be a good idea to drop the Ranger cloak, but she still brought it with her. Along with the other cloaks she has and her bag of tricks Malcolm gave her, and all her weapons. She walked up onto the ship to be greeted by warm smiles. "So let me introduce you to the crew. You know Hal," he said point at Hal who was behind the helm.

"That's Ulf and Wulf," he said pointing towards the twins that still looked identical after all these years. "Stefan," he said to the man that was directly in front of them. "I hope you have no valuables on you. That's Jesper, the best lock picked you'll ever met. And that's Ingvar," he said pointing towards the biggest one on the ship, and when we apply big we mean muscular."

"And I'm Edvin," said the last one. "And this is for you," he said holding out a black had, Isabel took it and looked at the front, it had a white heron on it.

"Thanks," she said.

"It means you're part of the crew now," Edvin said.

"Hopefully she lives up to it," came a deep voice from behind. Thorn stood there watching the exchange and introductions. "I'm Thorn."

"It's nice to meet you," Isabel told him.

"It'll be nice to not be the only girl." Isabel turned around again and was greeted by Ashlen's mom, Lydia.

"Who's watching your kids?" Thorn asked Lydia and Stig.

"They can watch over themselves," Stig said. "We left Ashlen in charge of the younger three."

Isabel looked around and noticed that she had entered a family, one that was excepting her, even though they didn't know her.

"At least she's wearing good boats," Thorn said. Isabel looked down at what she was wearing, without her cloak she felt lost, but at least she wasn't in a dress. She was in her normal black long sleeved shirt and pants with her boats that she traded out for leather sea boats instead of her normal leather that she wore in the woods.

"Well let's get going," Hal told everyone.

"Your best bet is to stay with Lydia," Stig told her. Lydia came over and brought Isabel over to a spot where she could put her belongings. They sat down on one of the benches, and Isabel put her hat on her head, folding up the brim to fit her little head.

"Don't worry," Lydia said. "Your father will understand when we get back."

"I hope he does," Isabel said.

"You know after thinking about it, I think we should have brought Isabel," Halt said to Will.

"She's safe where she is," Will said.

"Yeah, but if we have information that we need to get back to Erak, one of us will after to go, if Isabel was here, we could have sent her."

Will looked at his old mentor and thought about Isabel, she was his daughter, and he didn't want anything to happen to her. "But back in Hallasholm she'll be surrounded by sea wolves, here it would just be the three of us, and if we let her go back with information then she might get captured."

"She usually finds a way out of it," Halt reminded him.

"Still," Will said.

"You need to stop acting like her father and more like her mentor," Halt told him. "When we're out like this, on a mission, you can't keep her in a room hidden away. She needs to learn, and being here with us would really help."

"When one of us goes back with information, then we'll get her," Will said.