"The woods are dark today," whispered Alexander, my twin brother.
"All the better for sneaking out this evening," I replied, also whispering.
"Is the sleeping potion ready?" he whispered, growing quieter as a towns lady

passed under our chosen perches in a tree.

Keeping an eye on the woman below, I answered," It changed color last night."

"Did you test it?" Alex asked as the lady left the woods.

"Now Alex, would I ever test a new potion on anyone but myself?" I asked in my favorite "innocent" voice.

"When will Kate be waking up?" Alex smirked, shaking his head and sighing.

"In a few hours," I answered, jumping down from my branch.

"What are you doing?" Alex half shouted, half whispered.

"What does it look like?" I replied, balancing on a tree root. "I'm walking."

Alex then swung on his branch so that he hang upside-down. As soon as I looked away, he grabbed me under the arms, and hoisted me onto a branch.

"What'd you do that for?" I snapped, righting myself on my new branch.

"Because, how would I be able to sneak out without your potion? I can't get your potion if you're locked in our room." He started deeper into the woods.

"Last one to the river's a drunken raccoon!" I yelled as I sped past my brother the sloth.

He was still ten feet behind me when I reached the river. I got ready for my ambush on the overgrown sloth.

When he finally reached the river, he took a quick glance around, and shouted," I finally beat Leaf-Head!"

I then decided to launch my attack. "Wrong again!" I shouted in his ear, jumping onto his back. Together we tumbled back into the river.  Sitting up, Alex pulled a strand of green hair from his face.

"You're shedding, Leaf-Head," he taunted.

Just then, two people broke through the trees and started running towards us. I groaned.

The nearest, a redheaded girl named Maria, started yelling at us. "Princess, Prince, where have you two been?" She paused to curtsy to my brother and I. Then she stared up again. "There are seven search parties looking for you two! Your tutors were frantic when you didn't show up at lessons. And, you are not even supposed to be out here!"

"Why are there so many people searching for us. The town might notice," I said, the perfect model of a princess.

Maria seemed to have calmed down. She now spoke quietly, as a lady was supposed to, " There is a group of children exploring the woods off the hiking trail."

"Which direction are they heading?" Alex asked.

"Due north, your highness," said Jacob, the young man who had arrived with Maria. "If they aren't stopped, they will reach the North Gateway."

"Then we will simply stop them, won't we," I said.

"But Princess! It's not proper for you to be running around scaring town’s people. Especially in pants," Maria insisted. "You need to get back to the castle and change into decent apparel!"

"I'll do it later," I insisted, turning towards the North Gate. "Come on Alex."

Ignoring the two's orders to come back, we headed to the gate, breaking into a run once we were out of site.

"So, do you have a plan?" Alex shouted as we raced through the woods.

"Yeah! Remember the masks we used on All Hollows Eve last year?" I asked him, taking a few more leaps before jumping down to the ground. Alex followed suit.

"Yeah, I remember those things. What about them?" he inquired, growing quieter as we got closer to the gate.