A.N written for the August JoGeNuNaRo challenge the prompt is Try Again

Disclaimer: I don't own TP or any of her characters in any way. If I did Bloodhound would not exist.

How to sneak past your guardian and fail miserably

Alanna grinned widely at her twin. Thom was staring at her with disbelief. "You can't actually think you can get away with sneaking past Coram, Alanna. While I will never say it to their faces, he and Maude know us almost as well as we know ourselves. You don't have a chance of getting past him."

Alanna stuck her tongue out at her twin. "We may only be five, Thom, but we're smarter than half the servants here and it's not like Father is suddenly going to care about what we do. If I want to sneak out of the castle in the middle of the night then I can."

Thom shook his head, glaring at his twin, whose purple eyes were dancing with fire and excitement at the idea of sneaking out. "Fine, but don't expect to drag me into this plan of yours. I actually know better. The chances of Coram or Maude catching you are very high. I won't tell on you but you know this has to be one of your most foolish ideas yet and you've had a lot of them. One of these days you're going to get into some type of trouble that you can't get out of very easily," he told her with a superior tone.

Alanna glared back at her twin and promptly tackled him to the floor of their nursery. "Don't take that high and mighty tone with me, Thom. I can still wipe that smug look off your face very easily. After all you spend all your time with books while I actually pay attention to what Coram teaches us – or tries to teach us in your case."

Thom scowled. "I get it, 'Lanna, now let me up will you? Do you know how embarrassing it is to be pinned down by your twin sister who's smaller than you?"

Alanna smiled sweetly at him as she pushed her long red hair out of her face. "That's what you get for acting high and mighty with me. You won't tell anyone about my plans because you'd get in trouble for even keeping it a secret for more than five minutes and you hate being punished."

Thom grumbled under his breath as Alanna climbed off of him but didn't bother trying to correct her. The only people who would even care about them sneaking out would be Coram and Maude. If any of the servants saw Alanna sneaking out and reported it to their father he would just be annoyed that he was interrupted from his scrolls. He didn't care about his children. Coram was more of a father to them than anyone else was. Maude was the closest thing they had to a mother. Alanna was the only person Thom loved because she was his twin and would never abandon him.

Alanna smirked slightly. "Relax. I'm not planning to leave until after midnight. It would be easier if you came with me you know. Then no one could catch us and we could do it as often as we wanted."

Thom shook his head. "There is no point to waking up in the middle of the night just to sneak out of the castle because you feel like going outside and you don't want to ask permission. Why don't you just use your own magic?"

Alanna shook her head quickly. She didn't want to get into that debate again. Thom knew she hated using her magic, which was why she left all of that up to him. He had won that round but she was still going to sneak out.

Thom gave his sister a victorious grin before they both promptly turned to watch the door as it began to open. Maude poked her head through the open door and then shook it at the twins. It was very obvious they'd been tussling again. "Can't ye two go a day without getting into a fight and trying to pin each other to the ground?" she demanded, rolling her eyes at them.

Alanna smiled in the darkness as she pulled Thom's cloak around her shoulders and pulled the hood up. It was a little after midnight and most of the castle had gone to bed and those that hadn't wouldn't even pay attention to her walking the halls because they were drunk, weren't paying attention, or simply didn't care. As long as she didn't run into Coram she would be able to sneak out into the gardens easily and then if she was able to get back into the castle easily she would repeat the plan, going a bit further each night and exploring a bit more of Trebond by darkness.

Alanna had just reached one of the side doors that would lead out to the gardens of Trebond when a heavy hand clamped down on her shoulder. "And just where do ye think ye're going?"

Coram had found her. Not good. Not good at all. Alanna gulped a little as she looked up and gave him her most innocent smile. "I'm going for a midnight walk?" she questioned.

Coram shook his head and pulled the hood of her cloak down. "Try again, Lass."