Ranger's Apprentice One Shots

I'm Not Being His Slave!

Okay , so I was reading the first book over, and I have scavenged so many more fanfic ideas, but really short. So like, headcanons. Or long headcanons, I suppose. Whatever. BUt I was gleefully and maybe a little crazily giggling to myself. So I just needed to share them with you. The first one is called: What if Will kept a diary for the entire length of the first book? It's probably go like this:

October 10th, 643 (CE)

Dear diary,

So, I feel a bit like Jenny, keeping a diary — basically, I feel like a girl. And Horace would never let me live it down if he found out. But I just had to. I have way too many thoughts to keep them all jumbled up inside. So, I'm going to write them down.

Today was Choosing day. And God above, I nearly lost it. I mean it. It was so embarrassing! How come I can't go to battleschool because of my size? That's so stupid! I mean, if we relied on warriors for their size, Baron Arald wouldn't be one, because he's so fat.

Whoa. That came out wrong. God above, if someone sees that... dear person reading that: THAT WAS NOT MEANT AS TREASON.

Note to self: never show this journal to anyone.

But seriously! Why can't I go to battleschool? I know I sound like a whining child, and maybe I am one, but my father is probably groaning and moaning up wherever he is, shaking his head disappointed!. Ooooh, I want to hit something.

I just did.

I tried to reason with each master, and no one wanted me! I've never felt so... I don't even know the word. Dumb? Childish? Lonely? Foolish? Maybe all of the above. Then Halt — the scary Ranger I never want anything to do with — really ostentatiously gave the Baron a slip of paper that was very obviously about me. I have to know what it says! I just have to!

...Okay, how's this? I sneak down to the Baron's tower tonight — outside it, of course. I wait there, like a shadow, hiding in the trees nearby. Then, once the moon shifts over, the guards are sleepy and ready to get a drink at the tavern, I slip down, scale the walls, and slither inside the Baron's room. Quick and quiet, i'll read the paper — i'm assuming it'll just be out, i guess, i dunno — then sneak back down. That's it. No way this could go wrong.

October 11th (technically), 643

Dear diary,

Everything went so wrong. I shouldn't really even be up now, it's so late, but well, everything went really wrong.

My plan went perfectly — the climbing part. I slipped inside the Barons' rooms and then who pops out, but HALT, scarring the living daylights out of me. Long story short, I got in huge trouble. Halt made fun of the Baron's weight — how is that not treason for him??? — and then the Baron told me I was accepted by Halt to be his apprentice. Then he muttered something about me not getting his jokes. I'm still really confused.

I guess I'll be Halt's apprentice now, but... well, I can't stop thinking of it as a punishment. Horace once said that Rangers clip your ears off if you say the wrong things — and if you're their apprentice, it's all really tough and harsh training.

Do you think it will be? I mean, it has to be more exciting than being a farm hand, but on the other side of things... Well, I really like simple stuff like milking cows and mucking out the stables.

Oh God, well, I'll be going to sleep. It's past one in the morning. And I have to get up at like, fourth hour, because I don't have a horse and Halt wants me at sixth hour (that's very early and we're off to a rough start!) so i'm gonna get like, three hours of sleep.

Signing off,

Will

October 11th (daytime), 643

Dear Diary,