Rosemary growled. "No! No, Lori, we were not responsible for those people! You wouldn't even have been responsible for them until you were crowned, and that's years from now! Our only responsibility is to ourselves, and to each other. We deserve to choose our own fate, Lori. Besides, they won't miss us. Mom is already pre-" She stopped, covering her mouth. She wasn't supposed to know that.

Cal chuckled. "These are the two princesses of this kingdom. I have no idea how you don't know what they look like." He said. "I can get a picture for you, if you need it. Both of them are on the flyers for princess Lori's birthday ball."

"You know I don't pay attention to palace stuff. Even the money with there faces don't get a close examination by me." Alex snorted a little. "Why should I care about rich bastards while we barely get by."

Lori stared at her and then moaned. "Oh what have I done?" She pulled her hands threw her hair. "I burdened are little sibling with so much." She stood. "I'm going back. I'll say I was kidnapped." She scowled. "And yes Rose those people are my responsibility."

"Because someday we may be hired to kidnap or kill one of those rich bastards." Cal said reasonably. It didn't really bother him that Alex didn't pay attention- only one of them needed to, and he was on top of it, so it didn't really matter.

Rosemary scrambled up after her. "No, Lori! You can't just give up and walk away the first time something gets unpleasant. It's not fair to expect you to take on all that responsibility and never be happy. Mom and Dad never understood that you might have feelings of your own, that maybe ruling a kingdom wasn't ever going to make you happy. If you go back now, after finally getting so close to freedom, you'll just be even more miserable than before. You'll go through the rest of your life wondering what might have been."

Alex just huffed. "Let's see there pictures then." he held out his hand wondering if the girl would be pretty like every other princess.

Lori stared at her. "You don't think mom understands?" she laughed. "She's probably is the only one who would. You think she wanted to marry dad? Someone who was five years older then her, who can't stay loyal to her even when they where suppose to be getting married, she's not happy unless she's with us."

Cal reached into his pocket and pulled out a colorful flyer. It had pictures of both princesses on it. "That one's Lori, the older one. And at the bottom there is Rosemary, the younger one."

Rosemary laughed bitterly. "With you, you mean. Mother was never happy with me around." She said. "You're right, she didn't want to be married to Dad. She didn't want to have his kids. She never wanted us, Lori!" Her voice was raised to a yell at this point. "She loved you because you would be in the same position as she was. Because she could relate to your life. She was all too happy to see me gone. Did you know..." Her voice broke. "Once, when we were little, she actually told me that she wanted to terminate her pregnancy? She wanted me dead before I was born. She said you were all she needed. Dad told me I was just an extra. The backup child, just in case anything happened to you.They're probably so happy that I'm gone right now...except that I took you with me. They'll use that as an excuse, you know. To hunt me down and have me executed." She sniffled. "But, fine. You go ahead back. You can be just like Mom, marry a man you don't love and spend the rest of your life raising his children while he rules your kingdom. I'm sure you'll be very happy."

"What am I suppose to do let that baby grow up to take care of my responsibilities?" Lori scowled darkly. "I wish I could have it both ways. I wish I could make you happy. I wish I could do what I want when I want to. I wish are the kingdom wasn't about to be struggling threw a war. I wish I would wake up and I would still be a kid." she sighed. "We don't get what we wish for though. I'll give it two weeks if by the time those weeks are over and I don't feel happy I'm going back."

Rosemary slumped backwards, against a tree. "Fine. That's fair enough." She said. She really couldn't ask any more than that. "I just want us both to be happy. You're the only person who's ever really cared about me, Lori. I'm scared...of losing you."

"Even if I become Queen I'll still come find you every day. You would be the invisible Aunt that everyone thought was dead." Lori grinned sounding like she was considering doing it just to see the looks on people's faces. "Let's get some sleep." she hugged her sister and settled back down.

Alex stared at the picture. "Even for royals there hair color is weird." he frowned. "What do you know about them other then there names and ages?"

Rosemary wasn't sure whether to laugh at the idea or cry, so she just smiled and hugged her sister back. "Right. It's late." She agreed, settling back down next to her.

"I don't know much about the older one, actually." Cal said. "People keep quiet about her, like she's some kind of secret. The younger one has a bit more freedom, so I know more about her." He stopped, thinking. "She's a tomboy, hates dresses, loves animals. Well known for her short temper and big mouth. Apparently half the palace staff is in love with her, but she either has no idea or no interest in any of them because nothing's ever happened with them. She's naïve." He paused. That was all he knew.

"Naïve we can work with. It's the older sister we'll have to be careful of. If she's anything like how you get when I'm in trouble we'll be run faster then a wolf." Alex chuckled and sat down. "Well my crow won't come back until tomorrow at least. What should we do until then?"

Cal smirked. Alex was right, if the older princess was anything like him, they'd have to be careful. "We could go out and pick some pockets for dinner money. Or just steal dinner." He suggested.

Alex took a breath and let it out in a sigh. "I think pickpocketing will be safer. We'll have to be extra careful with all the guards looking for the princess's."

Cal shrugged. "Okay. Let's go, then." He said. Honestly, he would have preferred the heightened risk of stealing food right in front of the guards, but he didn't want to risk his brother's safety for his own fun.

Alex followed his brother and then slipped into the crowd to find hsi own victim. By the time he found his brother he had food money and enough for another night at the inn.

Cal slipped away, seeming to disappear into the shadows. He was in his element now. By the time he met back up with Alex, he had enough for the next two meals, travel supplies for their mission and a few nights at any inn they chose. "How's your haul?"

"Never as good as yours." Alex smiled at his brother and showed him how much he had. "Pretty good despite the guards." he held up a royal coin that was far to much to be from anyone but a guard. "Even they don't pay attention."

Cal chuckled. "Not bad at all." He said, feeling a sense of pride that his brother had stolen from a royal guard. "Alright, let's store this somewhere safe and then get something to eat."

Alex put it in one of there bags tucking the keys in his pocket and followed his brother downstairs where the innkeeper started to Fawn over Cal personally getting there food.

Though it made him want to run away and jump off a cliff, Cal managed to act polite towards the innkeeper, even scoring them a less expensive meal. He gave Alex a look that said "kill me please" as the woman bustled off to make the food.

Alex smirked. "Oh don't you think it's sweet? You should ask her out would probably make her day and or make her pass out." he was enjoying teasing his older brother for a change.

Cal nearly choked. "Sweet? She's almost seventy years old, fat, and has no teeth...and she's lusting after a kid a fraction of her age. I'd call it gross." He said. "The only thing it's good for is getting preferential treatment."

Alex laughed and shook his head. "I'm never going to let you forget this though." He smirked and then smiled at the innkeeper. Suddenly his eyes glinted evily and he smirked looking at his brother. At once Cal knew Alex was about to tell the old lady that he liked her.

Cal gave his brother a warning glare. He may have been protective, but he had no trouble hurting Alex if he had to. Physically and emotionally.

Alex chuckled and let the innkeeper walk away after giving them both a pinch on the cheek. "Ow." Alex grumbled a little pouting softly.

Cal smirked, nodding slightly. "Smart choice." He told Alex, after the innkeeper was out of earshot.