So, yeah. This is the prologue to my new story. It's my first story, please review and tell me if I'm any good or just crap. I will continue for a few chapters, then I'll stop if you all think it's very bad. Just R & R. PLEASE.

Disclaimer: I don't own ranger's apprentice. However, I do own Raven. Lucky me.

Prologue

"Will?" called Alyss, as she searched around for her husband. This was the problem with being married to a ranger, they can just slip off without you noticing and you get worried, thinking something's happened to them. "Will!" she called again, a little more urgently this time.

"Here I am, sorry about that!" Will said as he dropped down from the tree he'd been in, seemingly looking for something. "I could have sworn we were being watched, we're on a secret mission here!"

"Do you really think those idiotic wargals would be stealthily following us and then watching us without charging in and trying to kill us?"

"Well no, but..."

"Why on Earth were you giving me such a fright then?"

"You never know, one of Zyron's lieutenants could have been following us!" Alyss then sighed.

"I still can't believe you rangers didn't know Morgarath had a son, and now he's an even bigger threat than Morgarath! He's gathered together all of the remaining wargals, and he's even managed to find a group of five more kalkara in those damn mountains of rain & night!"

This news came as a shock to Alyss and Will's 12 year old daughter, Raven, who had been eavesdropping in the trees, unknown to either of her parents. Ever since she was 4 she'd watched her father train his ranger skills, so watching him she could pick up a few things. Also she watched her father train his apprentice, James, who left just a year ago. She'd picked up a few things about moving silently and staying unseen from James and her father, and had eavesdropped on him before. She wasn't anywhere near as good as a ranger like her father or James, or even Halt, a legendary ranger who had taught her father, but she had only seen him a few times in her life. She had picked up news of a possible new war breaking out but she had never dreamed Morgarath had a son and was gathering the wargals up for war. The kalkara was the worst bit though. She had heard tales of her father's little 'adventure' with the last two kalkara. Raven got really scared when she heard there were five.

All Raven had ever wanted to be was a ranger, like her father, but she was facing the rather large problem that there'd never been a female ranger before. That doesn't mean there can't be one, there's a first time for everything,she thought desperately. One day, she would become a ranger and live up to her father's skill, and even his mentor Halt's. She hadn't told her parents yet, she thought her mother might want for her to be a courier. Fat chance, she thought. She'd never have the grace or diplomatic skill to be a courier. She searched around for a while and found her father's old recurve bow that he kept to remind him of his training. She'd been stealing it to train herself since she was 8, and she was glad to think that she had some of her father's natural talent. She was better than any of the royal children, who she had seen many times and befriended well, because of her parents' friendship with the crown prince and princess of Araluen, Horace and Cassandra. She shot one of her self-made arrows into the tree stump, directly where she'd aimed, as she thought miserably about her probable future life as a courier. She'd have to speak up about her dreams to her parents in the next few years, she just had to.