A/N: Ugh. I cannot describe how little inspiration I have these days. Perhaps working on my long-neglected song prompts will help.

By the way, I don't know if you will be interested, but for my dedicated fans (if I even have such a thing) feel free to check out my tumblr blog at .com. Just earlier today, I posted the first in a series of video blogs for a video challenge, so you can actually see me in the flesh and not behind some penname. I also have lots of cool miscellaneous stuff on my blog, so go check it out. There is a severe lack of Ranger's Apprentice on tumblr. I plan to change that.

Anyway, let's see if I can't get my creative juices flowing, shall we?

And yes, I am working within time limits this time around.

1. Take you Back – Jeremy Camp – 3:59

He hadn't realized that he'd let it overcome him. It was a slow process, unknown to him, that grew and grew until it covered him in a heavy blanket of fear that he didn't notice until he couldn't carry it anymore.

He was terrified that they'd never accept him again. He wasn't the same. He was different. He was skinnier than before. Weaker, more scared, and in a sense that went beyond the year he'd been gone, he was much older as well. But the things that he'd been through weren't the kind forgotten overnight. Slavery, addiction, war. They weighed heavily on his sixteen year old mind, isolating him from his peers and distancing him from those he loved the most. He hadn't realized how far he'd drifted until they'd found him. And then he thought that he'd never be able to go back.

But then, Halt had given him that one, solid nod, and suddenly, he knew.

It may take a while. He may be different. He may not ever be the same again. But some how, some way, at the end of it all, everything would be all right.

He'd be Will. He'd be loved. He'd accepted. He'd be back home, after it all.

2. The Long Road Back – Hans Zimmer – 7:11

Journeys were curious things, Horace thought. The destination was the ultimate goal, but sometimes it was the trip in between that stuck with you the most. Sometimes it was the laughter shared between friends, sometimes the maddening droll of a boring ride, sometimes the ache of homesickness and anxiety. But nothing, he thought, could compare with this journey.

It was a long journey. Through snow, forests, and fields, across the entire country. But the five-day ride was made infinitely longer by their company. Even as he rode weary-faced at the front, Horace could hear the soft moans from the litters that so many horses drug behind them, and could feel the weight of grief and guilt left behind by the men who'd left their saddles empty. It had been a hard campaign. There had been so many lost, so many dead. All of the soldiers took it hard, but perhaps none harder than Horace. He had a lot to think about on their way back.

"Horace, it's not your fault," a young knight told his officer kindly.

"That doesn't make it any easier," Horace replied sadly.

Richard began to say something, but instead simply shook his head and sank back.

When they got home, Horace's first duty was to go to the families of the fallen. Each and every one of them, to tell them that the boy, the man that they had bid farewell so many months ago was never coming home. And with every mother robbed of her son, every widow left alone, every child cheated of their father, Horace's heart grew heavier and heavier.

That night, he stumbled into his chambers after seven months at war. Quietly, he stepped inside a small bedroom. He laid his hand on the crib railing and gazed down at his sleeping son, now so much bigger than he remembered, and wept. Eventually, he had to fall to the ground. He put his face in his hands, sobbing silently, trying not to wake little Liam.

When Cassandra found him there, she didn't say anything, but knelt down beside him and held him while he cried for all those who had lost so much that day, for the orphans who would now grow up as he did, for the wives left alone, and most of all for the parents, whose pain he could not even bear to imagine.

"It's long road to Araluen," he told his wife at length, "a long, long road. A road I don't want to travel ever again."

A/N: Wow. Both angsty things, aren't they? Let's try to cheer things up a bit.

3.Run –Paul Colman Trio – 3:54

"Run." Was all he said.

"What?" Will gave Gilan his best puzzled expression.

"Run. Just run."

"Run? But-"

"Curse it, Will, just run!"

Now that he bothered to look, the stampede of battlehorses was getting rather close.

"What did you do?"

"It's not my fault!" Gilan said.

"Then whose is it?"

"It's all Crowley, I swear! I was just following his instructions!"

"Instructions for what?"

"No time to explain! Now RUN!"

A/N: Aw, out of time. What is the story behind this? I have absolutely no idea. But the beginning sequence struck me as funny, and I just kind of went from there.

4. Coronation – Andy Brown – 2:32

If someone had told him that one day he'd wear a royal crown, he would have laughed in their faces.

He hadn't laughed when King Duncan had told him, but he was pretty sure he went white in the face.

The formal coronation was actually held a few months before the wedding – by ancient Araluan law, a princess couldn't properly wed a man who wasn't a prince, and since he'd end up a prince one way or other, Horace and his soon to be father-in-law, King Duncan, had decided to get it out of the way ahead of time. In comparison to the upcoming wedding, it was a relatively unimportant affair.

But 'unimportant' wasn't exactly the word that came to mind when Horace stepped out onto the dais and found himself standing above the largest gathering of people he'd ever seen. He watched nervously as Duncan himself took the gold circlet from its cushion. Anxiously, he made sure he was maintaining just the right posture, as he'd been told. But then, just as crown was placed ceremoniously on his head, a sudden urge overcome him.

Years ago, if someone had told that he'd one day wear a royal crown, he would have laughed in their faces. And now, as it was actually happening, he felt the need to do just that.

Who would have thought; the orphan son of two commoners, crown Prince of Araluan.

Come to think of it, it was rather funny.

So perhaps it was perfectly reasonable for Araluen's new Prince to burst out laughing at his own coronation.

5. Beautiful Ending – BarlowGirl – 4:18

He'd never really thought about it too much, how lucky they all were. He'd never considered just how many odds they'd beaten in simply meeting each other, much less in all they'd accomplished. There was Will, who had perhaps grown the most of them all. Orphaned at birth, raised without an identity, trained by a legend, brought into a family, and turned into a hero. There was Alyss, graceful, patient Alyss, who had held them all together like glue through the years, both the easy and the hard. Then there was himself, who had changed so much that he hardly recognized the memory of his childhood self. But he had changed for the better, he knew, and he could smile now at the distant memory. And finally, there was Cassandra, who was the latest comer to their entourage, hardest to fit in, but none less loved for the fact. She gave them structure and ambition, zeal and consideration. They were a funny, hodgepodge bunch, with a history so rich it would take an entire book to tell. Perhaps a few books.

It was such a funny story, with twists and turns, rises and falls, and so many intricate little connections throughout its middle that Horace really couldn't figure out where it began and where it would end. Perhaps that was the way it was meant to be.

In truth, he thought, their story never had a real beginning. It was a slow process of time, introductions, trials, and perhaps the hand of God. However, if he were to define one single moment as the place where it all started, it would have be that moment when four insecure teenagers looked at each other and, for the first time, saw not the faces of enemies, nor of friends, but of family.

And perhaps this beginning was an ongoing one, and perhaps there wasn't a real end in sight, but looking at where they'd been and where they would surely go, Horace had decided one thing about that distant end to which he and his friends were headed: it would be beautiful.

He looked to his left and to his right, and to each side he found himself surrounded by family.

Yes, he thought, a beautiful ending indeed.

A/N: Aimless random mush. I came up with the quotation for the third paragraph quite a while ago, and was looking for an excuse to incorporate it into something. This isn't the most well done excuse, but hey, it got in there.

Thanks for reading!

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