NOTICE! Please read. I have decided to do a little remodeling of this story. The first few chapters I will rewrite and correct all of my mistakes in. I will still be updating the story regularly. Hopefully I will have the reworking done by the middle of July. The story has not changed drastically so you won't have to reread it, but there will be little details added that might help to clear up any confusion that you may have. I also might add a few details that will play small parts in the future plot. Not all of the chapters will be done at once, so I will add a date to the chapter if I have already done all of the corrections. Thank you for your attention, now read on.

Chapter 1

Alanna and Thom of Trebond scrambled out of the room as their Father slammed the door behind them.

"Arggg," Alanna of Trebond yelled at the door were her father had been standing just seconds before. "He just doesn't care about us. What did we ever do?"

"You know Father, he is a conservative. With you disguising as me and trying to be a knight he was bound to be mad," Thom remarked. "We're lucky he doesn't disown us."

"Thom, you know as well as I that father could never do such a thing. There is no one to inherit the fief if he disowns you," Alanna answered.

"I guess that your right. It's just that I got so excited about not having to be a knight, now all my dreams are ruined in just a few seconds," Thom said this mournfully.

"If he wouldn't have come in when Maude was cutting my hair I would be on my way to the palace to become a knight," said Alanna.

"Well, do you think that I wanted to be a sorcerer any less than you wanted to be a knight. I guess we will just have to suck it up and go through our lives the way that Father sees fit," Thom started to walk down the corridor away from his sister.

Alanna set off after him saying, "Thom, maybe if we just think about it we can find another way to do things-,"

"Stop it Alanna. It's no use. Father sent the letters to the palace and the convent to prevent any further mistakes already. Just give it up," Thom interrupted.

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Three days later the castle fiefs servants gathered around to see off the mischievous twins on their way. They had been waiting for this day since the two violet eyed redheads had learned to walk. They were forever underfoot and causing havoc.

Lord Alan had even come out to make sure that the two were on the right ponies with the right guardian. He would not have this mistake happen once again.

The twins were visibly not happy about this. They went on their ponies behind Maude and Coram pouting. Every other minute they would shoot a poisonous glance at Lord Alan.

The servants watched to two ride off until they rounded the bend and were out of sight. Then they all started back to their duties, and Lord Alan went again to immerse himself in his libraries hoping that he would not have to deal with anymore problems concerning his children until it was time for them to be married.

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The journey seemed to go forever, although both of the twins were not looking forward to the end of the trip. They rode along in silence that seemed to stretch on forever. Even the woods creatures had decided to be quiet for the twins march to their fates.

After riding in the foreboding silence for three hours the group heard the sounds of someone or something crashing through the brush. As whatever it was got closer, they could hear that it was very big or there was a lot of whatever it was.

The guardians of the two looked around nervously for what had to be coming. Maude settled herself and her mount in front of the two nobles, but behind Coram.

Coram unhooked his large sword out of its sheath and readied himself to defend his charges from whatever was coming out of the dense tree cover towards them.

Alanna, who had been forced to wear riding skirts and had all of her weapons confiscated and left at, cursed herself in her mind for being so unprepared for a skirmish. She could have at least defended herself with the little bit of fighting knowledge that she had picked up from Coram and the huntsmen back at Trebond.

Thom had gone deathly pale for even though he had knives and a bow he couldn't throw or shoot on with enough accuracy to hit the backside of a barn if he was under any pressure at all. The only thing that he could think to do was take his small dagger out of his sheath and hold it how Coram had told him the best he could. On second thought he took out a second dagger, got Alanna's attention, and threw it to her. At least she would have a better idea of what to do than him.

As the road weary group looked through the dense forest to see what was coming at them. The first warning on what was coming was the black arrow that flew swiftly missing the travelers but imbedding itself deeply into a tree directly behind them. The second thing they saw was the group of raiders riding quickly towards the virtually undefended travelers. They had all of their swords raised and ready to fight the noble children and their guards.

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Thank you for reading,

ColossalSky