The plot has advanced since the last time we talked. Right now, Alyss and Evalyn are on their way to get reinforcements. They have been lowered to the shore and are currently being helped by a Kikori. He's helping the girls into the kayak, which is holding very well with the water. They denied his help at first, but then he says, "You have to do yourselves. You can do tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. I do today." Implying that he wants to help them, which he did. Before the girls were even allowed to go on the trip, the men had to discuss it. They had to convince each other to let them go. In the end, Will let Alyss go, promising that they will miss each other a lot, and Evalyn convinced Horace to let her go through charm. Now they are on their way across the lake to get reinforcements. Thank you for reading.

It took me long enough to actually do this part of the book. I've done this topic a little in my other reading logs, but never dedicated one specifically to explaining each character, so here you go. Will and Halt are advanced Ranger from Castle Araluen. They are both courageous and daring, seeing as they go on life threatening missions. Then there is Lady Pauline, whom I haven't had a time to introduce, and Alyss. They are not only Araluen Couriers, but also are the love of Halt and Will's lives. Halt and Lady Pauline are husband and wife and Will and Alyss are madly in love young adults, but adults nevertheless. They are both courageous, as the rangers, and loving and caring. Then there's Horace, the most important knight at Castle Araluen. He and Evalyn, or Princess Casandra, have crushes on each other, and make it obvious too. They are both full of adventure and love going on missions with Will, Halt, and Alyss. Now that the love birds are out of the way, let's talk about the remaining characters in this book. There is Selethen, from a desert town that saved Will's life in another book. He is fearless, unless it comes to someone he loves, and adventurous. Finally, there is Emperor Shigeru, who is an amazing leader who wants to give equal wealth to the poor as the rich. He is a risk-taker and an excellent leader. He leads the Kikori men, woodcutters, as an army to fight against another leader who apposes his ideas and wants to kill him to take his position. I'm getting too much into a plot discussion instead of a character discussion, so I'm going to stop here. Thank you for listening. 

Our heroes in "Ranger's Apprentice: The Emperor of Nihon-Ja" are in the middle of a war in Japan in medieval times. The battle is in between two emperors, one with a giant army that is crushing everything in its path to get to the other emperor, and the other with a few friends who have immense strategical battle tactics and some loyalists. Emperor Shigeru wants to break the social class by giving people like the lumber workers known as Kikori some power and land, but Arisaka is greatly apposed to this. Right now, Arisaka is hunting down Shigeru to kill him and gain the title of emperor so that the social class will never be broken. Right now, our heroes are with Shigeru hiding from Arisaka in a mountain fortress that they will reside in all winter, having the heavy snowfalls as protection. They will be training the 200 Kikori they picked up on their way to the fortress, along with some abandoned, hurt troops that are itching to get their revenge on Arisaka. They will have archers, swordsmen, and much more by combining the fighting strategy of our heroes' land, Arulean, and the emperor's land, Nihon-Ja. They will also be expecting reinforcements from Castle Redmont, as stated in reading log 1. That is all for now, I will put up an update soon. Goodbye!