Vengeance

Chp. 1: In the shadows

Disclaimer: I do not own Rangers Apprentice or any of thecharacters/places in it

Summary: It has been three months since Ranger Will Treaty has returned to seacliff fief after the events at Castle Macindaw, and Will and Alyss have finally expressed their love for each other, but trouble is brewing that could mean the end Araluen.

Notes: This is only my second story so the story might not be the best, but in any case, please review and tell me how I can get better. Thanks to the people who reviewed, and thanks to SwordDance for the advice. Also this story was written by Frodo.

Ranger Will was in his little house in the woods in Seacliff fief. He was cleaning the house to get ready for the arrival of Alyss, who was delivering a very important letter to Will. Alyss sent a messenger pigeon ahead of her to let Will know she was coming, with a very important letter from Erak, Oberjarl of Skandia. Will had just barely finished dusting, when he heard a knock on the door, Will had no doubt it was Alyss.

Will hurried to the door, opened it, and just as Will had expected, Alyss strode in wearing her couriers robe. She looked very serious, and Will realized she was here on business only, nothing else. Their personal lives would have to wait.

Alyss handed Will the letter and said, "I have to get back to Lady Pauline but hopefully we can see each other again, when I'm not so busy."

Alyss left Will standing in the middle of his little house, frowning as he read the letter. It was a jumbled heap of words, and it had none of the formalities of a normal letter. It was obviously written in a hurry.

Will, its Erak, the guardhouse was attacked last week. One of the guards is missing, and a couple days after, several veteran Skandian warriors' houses were burned down at midnight. There have been no attacks since then, and we're growing anxious. We need you to come down and help us out.

A lone rider rode through the forest towards the beach. He would meet up with a Skandian selling ships, there, using the money given to him by the general, he would buy as many ships as he could. He would ride back and report, then bring back the amount of men he would need to sail the newly bought ships back to his homeland.

He rode out of the trees and rode down to the beach. There was a small amount of people gathered around bidding for ships. The rider drew his bow and knocked an arrow.

The rider called out "Leave now and no harm will befall you."

The small crowd stared at him, as if they were assessing the man. Then they scattered walking off in different directions.

"What the hell is wrong with you! " The Skandian yelled, "You're driving my customers away!"

"I'll be your last customer for today," the man said slinging his bow over his shoulder, "I'd like to buy all the ships I can get with this," he said throwing a large sack of money at the Skandian.

"This can get you all three ships." the Skandian said inside of the bag of money, "Do whatever you want with em'."

"I have to go for a while," the rider said, "watch the ships until I return."

The Skandian tried to look as if he was thinking over some sort of schedule he had for the day, "Fine I'll watch the ships, I live near here anyway," he said, still staring at the money bag.

After the rider was well out of sight the Skandian said, "If only he knew how much he overpaid," The Skandian let out a huge laugh and walked towards his house, where he would wait for the riders return.

What an idiot, the rider thought as he rode off into the forest, but these ships are necessary for the defeat of Araluen and the death those stupid rangers who stopped us before.

The rider made his way through the forest back towards his homeland. He went over their plan in his head.

Step 1. Kill all but one of the Skandians at the guard house. Capture and bring back surviving Skandian.

Step 2. Buy ships to bring back to homeland.

Step 3. Transport troops to Araluen until the army is assembled there.

Step 3. Take over Araluen one bit at a time.

Step 4. Send the remaining army to take over Skandia while there are no rangers to help them.

The plan was ingenious, the rider thought, they can't stop us.

The rider rode the rest of the way thinking about how surprised the Araluens will be, and they'll soon be under their control. The Temujai will not be stopped this time.