As much as I'd love to say it I do not own Ranger's Apprentice. All rights go to John Flanagan

The Ruins of Gorlan: Prologue

Will Treaty, Halt O'Carrick, and Gilan Davidson were riding to Castle Araluen. The rangers weren't the only ones going to see the king, Horace Altman, Princess Cassandra (or Evelyn as her close friends knew her) were already there but, Jenny Dalby, Sir Rodney, Baron Arald, Lady Pauline, and Alyss Mainwaring were all heading down. Crowley the Ranger commandment was already down in the Fief as well.

"I wonder what Duncan wants" Gilan asked Halt. The older ranger shrugged.

When the three rangers reached the castle they bedded their horses down and Will noticed there were lots of horses in the stables. The three friends then made their way up to the keep.

"Hello there my friends" Duncan called as they walked into the room. The others in the room gave out their greetings as well.

"The pleasure is all ours, but could you kindly tell me sorry us what we are doing here?" Halt asked.

"This is why, I received these ten books and there is a note attached asking to read them" Duncan explained.

"Who left them?" Gilan asked the obvious question.

"Not sure but I thought why not" Duncan said. "Sit down why don't you guys".

The group took their seats, Halt sat beside Pauline, Will sat on the other side of him with Alyss, Gilan and Jenny snagged a spot together and the others snagged their respective spots.

"Who shall read first?" Duncan asked picking up the first book titled "Ranger's Apprentice: Book 1: The Ruins of Gorlan".

"I will read first" Cassandra said.

"Alright then here" Duncan said handing her the first book.

MORGARATH, LORD OF THE MOUNTIANS OF RAIN AND NIGHT, former Baron of Gorlan in the Kingdom of Araluen, looked over his bleak, rainswept domain, and for perhaps the thousandth time, cursed. Halt, Will, and Horace shivered slightly all three of them remembering the man for one reason or another, their wives squeezed their hands.

This was all that was left to him now-a jumble of rugged granite cliffs, tumbled boulders and icy mountains. Of sheer gorges and steep narrow passes. Of gravel and rock, with never a tree or sign of green to break the monotony.

"Oh cry to your mother you ass you caused this" Crowley said his voice loaded with sarcasm. Those present laughed slightly save Halt who still looked uncomfortable.

Even though it had been fifteen years since he had been driven back into the forbidding realm that had become his prison, but he could still remember the pleasant green glades and the thickly forested hills of his former fief. The streams filled with fish and the fields rich with crops and game. Gorlan had been a beautiful, living place. The Mountains of Rain and Night were dead and desolate.

"Are we really supposed to find sympathy for you?!" Crowley exclaimed. "I mean good grief you only tried to be a backstabbing greedy bastard! This isn't really our fault."

"Crowley language" Pauline reprimanded him.

"Sorry Pauline I am just saying" Crowley said meekly. Cassandra was smiling.

"Sorry Cassandra please continue" Pauline said.

A platoon of Wargals Cassandra shivered slightly when she read this as did Will and Horace was drilling in the castle yard bellow him. Morgarath watched them for a few seconds, listening to the guttural, rhythmic that accompanied their movements. They were stocky, misshapen beings, with features that were halfway human, but with a long, brutish muzzle and fangs like a bear or a large dog. "Oh goodness this sounds like something that came out of a how to scare people book" Jenny said her face had turned pale during this.

"Don't worry Jen, Will, Halt, and Horace killed most of them they are gone now" Gilan said squeezing her shoulder to let her know it was all right.

Avoiding all contact with humans -"Thank God" Cassandra muttered before she moved on- , the Wargals had lived and bred in these remote mountains since ancient times. No one in living memory had ever set eyes upon one, but rumors and legends had persisted of a savage tribe of semi-intelligent beasts in the mountains. Morgarath, planning a revolt against the kingdom of Araluen, had left Gorlan fief to seek them out. If such creatures existed they would give him an edge in the war to come.

It took him months, but he eventually found them. Aside from their wordless chant, Wargals had no spoken language, relying on a primitive form of thought awareness for communication. But their minds were simple and their intellects basic. As a result, they had been totally susceptible to domination by a superior intelligence and willpower. "Quite the ego he has isn't it" Rodney and Halt said with disgust. No one felt cruel enough to admit that both Rodney and Halt had an ego of their own the difference was that theirs was well deserved. Morgarath bent them to his will and they became the perfect army for him- ugly beyond nightmares, utterly pitiless, and bound totally to his mental orders.

Now, looking at them, he remembered the brightly dressed knights in glittering armor who used to compete in the tourneys at Castle Gorlan, their silk-gowned ladies cheering them on and applauding their skills.

"Oh someone please gag me" Halt grumbled. Pauline turned to look at her husband.

"You know you are the most unromantic person I have ever met" she said.

"Hey you married me" Halt replied.

"Yea you could have married me instead I am romantic" Crowley said bowing slightly in his seat. Pauline struggled not to laugh while Halt glared daggers into him.

"I personally like the tournaments they have a certain appeal" Horace said. Halt snorted "figures"

Mentally comparing them to these black-furred, misshapen creatures, he cursed again.

The Wargals, attuned to his thoughts, sensed his disturbance and stirred uncomfortably, pausing in what they were doing. Angrily, he directed them back to their drill and the chanting resumed. Morgarath moved away from the unglazed window, closer to the fire that seemed utterly incapable of dispelling the damp and chill from this gloomy castle. Fifteen years, he thought to himself again. Fifteen years since he rebelled against the newly crowned King Duncan, a youth in his twenties. He had planed it all carefully as the old king's sickness had progressed, banking on the confusion and indecision that would follow his death to split the other barons and give Morgarath his opportunity to seize the throne.

"Brilliant plan Morgarath did it ever occur to you that someone somewhere might know what the hell you were doing" Will said sarcastically.

Secretly, he had trained his army of Wargals, massing them up in the mountains, ready for the moment to strike. Then, in the days of confusion and grief following the king's death, when the barons traveled to Castle Araluen for funeral rites, leaving their armies leaderless, he had attacked, overrunning the southeastern quarter of the kingdom in a matter of days, routing the confused, leaderless forces that tried to oppose him.

Duncan, young and inexperienced Cassandra stopped when she read this description and frowned, Halt scowled deeply. Duncan noticed this and hid a smile could never had stood against him. The kingdom was his for the taking. The throne was his for the asking. "Confident little bugger wasn't he" Arald said. Halt snorted again. "Why couldn't I have just shot the ass with an arrow ages ago" Halt grumbled.

"Halt that isn't chivalrous" Rodney said. Again Halt snorted. Rodney sighed trying to explain this to Halt was impossible.

Then Lord Northolt, the old king's supreme commander, had rallied some of the younger barons into a loyal confederation, giving strength to Duncan's resolve and stiffing the wavering courage of others. The armies had met at Hackham Heath, Everyone in the room glanced at Halt who had a pained almost distant look on his face close to the Slipsunder River, and the battle swayed in the balance for five hours, with attack and counterattack and massive loss of life. The Slipsunder was a shallow river, but its treacherous reaches of quick-sand and mud formed an impassable barrier, protecting Morgarath's right flank.

But then one of those gray-cloaked meddlers known as rangers lead a force of heavy cavalry across a secret ford ten kilometers upstream. The armored horseman appeared at the crucial moment of the battle and fell upon the rear of Morgarath's army.

"Way to go Halt" Gilan said with a smile. Halt snapped out of whatever trance he was in "I am sorry what" he asked.

"I said way to go Halt" Gilan repeated.

"Oh um thanks" Halt said. Pauline squeezed his hand "it wasn't your fault Halt" she said quietly. The others in the room turned to look at each other. Will thought he knew what Halt was thinking about Alys was as confused as Duncan and Cassandra but did a better job hiding it. Horace seemed to sense Halt didn't want to talk about. Arald and Rodney had a look of confusion then it cleared as they worked through it. Jenny and Gilan decided it was none of their business even Crowley looked dumbfounded.

"I am lost" Crowley said. Pauline looked at him "I am sure it will come up later in this story Cassandra please keep reading" she said. "Sure Pauline" Cassandra replied.

The Wargals, trained in the tumbled rocks of the mountains, had one weakness. They feared horses and could never stand against such a surprise cavalry attack. They broke retreating to the narrow confines of Three Step Pass, and back to the Mountains of Rain and Night. Morgarath, his rebellion defeated, went with them.

And here he had been exiled these fifteen years. Waiting, plotting, hating the men who had done this to him.

"You could have just not done this in the first place and saved us the trouble or been executed" Crowley said. The men of the group nodded in agreement the woman not so much.

Now, he thought, it was time for his revenge. His spies told him the kingdom had grown slack and complacent his presence here all but forgotten. The name Morgarath was a name of legend nowadays, a name mothers used to hush fractious children, threatening that if they did not behave, the black lord Morgarath would come for them.

The time was ripe. Once again, he would lead his Wargals into an attack. But this time, he would have allies. And this time, he would sow the ground with uncertainty and confusion beforehand. This time, none of those who had conspired against him previously would be left alive to aid King Duncan.

Pauline closed her eyes for a moment as if to remind herself Halt was still here.

For the Wargals were not the only ancient, terrifying creatures in these somber mountains. He had two other allies, even more fearsome- the dreadful beasts known as the Kalkara.

The time was ripe to unleash them.

At the mention of the Kalkara Halt shivered and touched his leg even after all this time it still hurt him. Rodney, Arald and Will looked at each other remembering the battle. Not very many things still scared Halt but the Kalkara was one of them.

"This is going to get intense" Gilan said with a shake of his head.

Well what you think? I have read a few of these RA reacts and I don't think people do a lot of them. I love reading them so I wanted to try my own. I hope you like it.