Title: Blazing a Trail to Find My Way Home

Author: Elfpen

Summary: Margaret Elizabeth Hale is a decidedly adventurous soul born into a decidedly unadventurous world – Caraway's court of nobles - a world that never truly felt like home. Given the chance of a lifetime, she might just find what she's been looking for, but first she'll have to blaze her own trail through the controversy and speculation of a skeptical world.

First off, a huge huge huge huge HUGE thank-you to Gun toten Girly, who, in our long conversations together over this idea, gave me the incentive I needed to get in gear and start this story. She's been a big help in developing the character and situation and all the stuff that makes this story. So, hats off to you, Gun toten Girly!

Second: Yes, I know what you're thinking: "Oh, great. Not another 'girl ranger' fic. Ugh, these things are always SO Mary-Sue…"

Please give me a chance to explain first:

You see, normally, I'd have to agree with the above statement. But after I heard a rumor (not sure if it's true or not, so don't ask) that John Flanagan may or may not be introducing a female Ranger in upcoming books, it got me thinking: What kind of girl would it take to really make it in the Ranger Corps? What kind of life would she lead? What would her social life look like because of her status as a girl in the Ranger Corps? And so, Margaret (my OC) was born.

Normally, I try to keep my published OCs to a minimum, because I tend to be OC-adverse in my reading, and so I try not to afflict the rest of the fanfiction community with that which I normally dislike. Now, that is not to say I have no OCs – far from it, in fact. I have a small army of them running about in my head, all with their own stories, histories, character and life. However, I do not publish too many of them. So, at first, I was very reluctant to write this story much less publish it, but then Gun toten Girly and I got to talking, and she pretty much gave me the most enthusiastic 'thumbs-up' I could hope for. She helped me immensely to flesh-out Margaret and such (She was a big help in coming up with her name) and I decided that I should give this story a shot.

So, as an experiment to see if it is actually possible within the realms of fanfiction and the English language to write a decent Ranger's Apprentice 'female ranger' story:

Read on.