A/N Hi there! This was my first serious fanfiction, started when I was quite a bit younger than I am now, so writing quality should go up as I get further in. I am currently working on trying to update my writing style and edit stuff in general, so any reviews you may have on the topic is greatly appreciated. I don't own Ranger's Apprentice, etc. etc. etc. Sorry about the length of this Chapter, it's more of an intro than anything else, so I hope it'll get longer as time goes on.

Also, I originally wrote this HTML style, so little glitchy stuff about that may occur. My appologies.

Also, if you are looking for plot line and would like to skip the kind of prolougish stuff, you can jump to the end of Chapter 8 and the beginning of Chapter 9 (once they're posted) because that's where the plot line starts in earnest. So, yeah. enjoy!

'"But you didn't, don't you see?" she said and took his hand."And I know you never will."'
Sarah and I both leaned back from the book we had been huddling over for the last couple of hours. We had been waiting for the ninth book of The Ranger's Apprentice series for months, and now, only hours after we had recieved it, it was finished. We looked at each other.
"Now we have to wait another six months for the next one, don't we."Sarah said, but it was more a statement than a question.
"Unless you want to fly over to Australia," I said, before heaving myself to my feet with a groan.
"Uhhh!" Sarah moaned, tipping over onto the couch, " I don't wanna wait!"
"Me neither." I replied before plopping back down beside her. Together we stared blankly ahead of us towards the mirror that hung on the otherwise blank wall.
"I really wish we were in that world." Sarah said glumly,"Our lives here are so boring."
"Yeah," I replied, "Me too."
A sharp ringing noise snapped us out of our reverie. I hopped up and stumbled over to the phone. After quickly checking the caller I.D., I picked up. "Hello?"
"Hi Kathryn, it's Sarah's mom. I was hoping you could drop Sarah back off soon."
" Sure." I replied, reluctantly, "We'll be right over."
"Great! See you then!" Then there was a click, and the line went dead.
"That was my mom, wasn't it." came Sarah's voice from the living room.
"Yup."

"Urgh!" she groaned. "But I don't wanna go home!"

"Get up you lazy bum!" I cajoled, poking her in the stomach. She swatted me away, but stood, stretching. After collecting our coats and gloves, we stepped out into the cold December air. As we walked back to her house, we talked excitedly about the book we had just read, and cheerfully predicted what would happen in the next ones. We chatted for several minutes after we actually reached her house, unwilling to finish our conversation. Finally, her mom leaned out the door and called her in, forcing us to part ways. I trudged back home, feeling worn out without Sarah there to talk to. We had been friends for so long that our names had become virtually synonomous at school, along with our friend Shayna. She too, had been waiting eagerly for the book, but had gotten it long before us on her nook, and so had not been exicted to come over and watch us read it for a couple of hours. However, I passed the time on the way home in my head by watching like a movie as adventures with Will and Halt unfolded.

I reached home just as my mother did, burdened with armfulls of groceries. I hurried to help her, but heard none of what she said to me. I was still learning skills with a bow and my knives, and moving unseen through a dense wood. I only responded when my mom gave my shoulder a little shake. "Huh?"

"Did you and Sarah have fun?"

"Oh. Yeah." I replied, rubbing my eyes.

"Good. Come on, I'm making diner, set the table."

With a sigh, I resigned myself to yet another evening of my completely and totally average life.

If only I'd known what was about to happen.

'"Promise we'll be friends? No matter what?"

"Of course." said the other. "No matter what."'

Sal and Katie leaned back from the book they had been huddled over for the last couple of hours, peering carefully around. As the first and only female Ranger Apprentices, they were supposed to be doing things exactly the way the other apprentices were, despite the gender difference - this did not include reading in their spare time. However, they couldn't help themselves - they loved reading, especially books like the ones they had just finished. It was a tale set far in the future, where technologies that would probably never exist were common place. Despite the fact that they doubted moving pictures would ever be a reality, they enjoyed reading of it none the less, and would regularly get in trouble for daydreaming about it.
"Wouldn't that be amazing?" Sal said wistfully.
"What?" Katie asked.
"What do you think? Living in that world of course!"
"I guess it would," Katie replied. Together, the stared at the window, the frosty glass reflecting them clearly. "Being able to talk to people halfway across the world, being able to get from place to place so fast - wouldn't it be neat to go there?"
Sal simply nodded. Then, hearing footsteps outside, they leaped up and tried to look busy doing somthing. As Halt and Will walked in, Katie was determinedly examining one of her knives, and Sal was very focused on tying her shoe.
"Wish you could go where?" Halt asked, and Katie winced at her carelessness.
"Um, to..." Her mind came up blank, but Sal saved her.
"To Castle Araluen." Sal interrupted,"We've never been."
"I see," Halt replied dryly, clearly not convinced, but he let it pass.
"Well for now, we're going up to Castle Redmont to meet with the Baron, so go make yourselves presentable," Will said, gesturing at their clothes, which were wrinkled and dirtied from a day of training.
Grateful for any excuse to excuse to escape from their mentors, who were still clearly skeptical of their explanation, the two scampered out of the room. As they did so, Halt strode over to the chair in which the girls had been sitting, and lifted the discarded book from the seat.
"Will, we need to get rid of these books. I know how much you like to read them too, but it's taking time away from their training." He said, holding it up for the younger ranger to examine.
Will sighed, then said,"Alright Halt, we can move them someplace else."
Halt nodded his approval, then placed the book back down as the girls re-entered, looking slightly more presentable than before.
"I guess it will have to do." Halt murmured, before leading them out into the snow, where their horses waited.

Hours later, the two girls stumbled back into the cabin, not even stopping to pull off their cloaks before collapsing onto their beds. They were asleep before Will and Halt even had time to take off their knife belts.

The spirit of the mirror stirred. It looked on both of it's sides, thinking how very convenient it was that both of the pairs had asked for the same thing in reverse. Then it chuckled. It didn't matter what world they had wished for. It had access to them all. Not convenient, really, just, humorous.
It stretched, then silently divided it's self into five pieces. After a moment, it sent two of the pieces to one side of the mirror, and two to the other. The fifth piece remained, controlling the operation.
On one side of the mirror, the spirit pieces had to part ways, one having to go much further to find his designated sleeping girl. The other one had simply to climb a ladder into the suspended bed and lift the girl gently from the covers. Not that it mattered. The girl could not wake anyways. Nobody could, unless the spirit wanted them to. It had that effect on people.
The other had to travel across the snow to a house multiple blocks away. There, it climbed the stairs, lifted the other girl from her covers, and brought her back to the house in which the mirror was stationed. Then, both spirit fragments waited patiently before the glinting surface of the mirror.
On the other side, things were much more simple. Both spirits had only to move down a short corridor, and then go into opposite doors to find the two girls sleeping. Then, they carried the duo to the mirror window, and stood before it as well.
The spirit grinned, at least as much as a spirit can grin. They were almost exactly the same. The only differences were tiny scars that one had gotten, and the other had not, and those corrections were easy to fix. The rest of them was completely identical. Good thing none of them had had an arm or a leg chopped off,' the spirit thought, 'those are always harder to do.' Then, he directed the fragments of it's self to switch the girls through the mirror's surface.
As the two pairs of girls slid through the liquid silver surface, the mirror switched the things that were not the same about the girls. Add a scar here, erase a scar there, a blemish, and slight bend and... voila! The girls were switched. Except for one thing...
The spirit sighed. It couldn't switch their memories, even slightly. He had tried before, with varying degrees of failure, none of them good. They would just have to figure those things out for themselves.
Then, the spirit fragments walked back and replaced the now switched pairs back where they belonged, looking just the way they should. Then, they returned and melded back with the main section of the spirit. With a ripple, the mirror/window slowly solidified, and time once again began to tick by.

A/N: Okay guys, seriously. I see that you're reading this chapter, but then not reading the next ones. Tell me why! ((Imagine a GIF of Loki yelling that from Thor)) I really, really do want to hear what you guys have to say. I want to know how I can improve my writing so that you would want to keep reading. So please please pretty please review or PM me or something, anonomous or not!