Chapter 15

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It took the two bare seconds to run through the long halls of the next room. It was the place that Alanna obviously had seen the last time that she had been in this building. They quickly ran along the rows of stalls that had wooden panels going up all the way to the ceiling. They could see in the distance that there had been one stall that had the top of the stall open. In a final dash they got to the open door, Alanna a few paces before Thom.

What they saw when they got to the door astounded them. In the room was a beast the likes neither of them had seen before. It seemed to be a mix of many different animals, mostly feline. But what made the twins immediately jump into action was the man it seemed to be attacking. They would have time to investigate the animal later.

Alanna quickly drew out the dagger that she had concealed in her belt. She wasn't sure exactly what she could do to help the man against the massive beast. The animal had not acknowledged that the two had come into the stall yet. She tried to throw the dagger at the beast as hard as she could but it just bounced off of the monsters hard pelt not doing any harm.

Thom looked uncertain whether to run in the other direction as fast as he could or to stay and help. Once he saw his sister pull the knife out of her pants he knew what her plans were. He ran different plans of action through his head at lightning speed trying to find the best. The only option seemed to be to use his gift to try to immobilize the creature. He stepped up next to his sister and thought of the spell he wanted to use. The only one that popped into his mind as useful at the moment was the only spell that their father had knowingly permitted the two to be taught, the one that would do snow shoveling for them.

Alanna was confused at what her brother was trying to do, but when he muttered the familiar words she knew that it would be best for her to help him. They both sent out the great gusts of wind simultaneously at the monster. The annoying small jets of air had made the monster mad enough to turn around at the tow and forget the man that it seemed determined to eat. This gave the dark skinned Carthaki time to get away from the monster and to the door where the twins had moved to make room for him. Once the man was out and to safety he pushed the door shut and locked the animal inside.

All three of them took their time to catch their breath observing one another silently.

Finally the unknown man broke the silence. "Who are you two and what are you doing in here? It is not that I am not grateful or anything."

"Um…uh… Well, we heard someone scream and then came to see what happened," Thom tried to cover. "By the way, what exactly was that thing?" His scholarly side was kicking in again. "I have never seen anything quite like that."

"Do you have any idea who I am?" the man asked his two nearly identical rescuers.

They both opened their mouths to say something, and then they thought the better of it. The twins looked to each other trying to see which one of them was going to speak.

Grabbing the bull by the horns Alanna let out a blunt, "No."

Thom took a second look at the stranger and enlightenment dawned. His eyes all of a sudden got very big and then he said, "Oh gods, your Ozorne

"Yes that I am. And I guess you have saved me. I need to know who you are," Ozorne said. The twins shared guilty looks for a second. "It's nothing bad. I will have to repay, I practically owe you my life. If you wouldn't have come… well I don't know what would have happened. My father will want to reward you."

"We are working as servants at the University," Thom started the story. "As I said we where walking by when we heard a scream, then we came running to investigate what was happening. That's when we found you."

"Servants, yes, I don't think that I have ever seen you around. What is it that you do at the University?" Ozorne questioned.

Alanna picked up the next part of the story. "We work for Prince Gregory. We also do other chores around the place if we are not needed."

Ozorne thought about this answer for a second. "Well as my rescuers you can not work as a servant for the crown. It wouldn't be right."

"Really, you would help us to get out of here?" Thom asked.

Ozorne looked at the boy as if he was crazy. "Of course. Do you think that the Emperor of Carthak doesn't have enough honor to do something for people that rescued the heir to his throne?"

"He wasn't insinuating that you had no honor Highness, he is just so happy to be freed that he did not think about what he was saying," Alanna covered for her brother. "I am Alanna and this is Thom."

"Well, follow me I will have to go to my father. He will want to give a reward. Just come along," the prince said making sure one last time that the door to the stall containing he monster was safely shut.

"Just one thing." Thom asked Ozorne. "What is that thing in there?"

"Myself and another University student are conducting an experiment on creating different types of animals. That is one of our creations. We don't know what to do with the thing now that we made it," Ozorne explained. "Whoops, here I will have take the spells off of your slave collars later. For now we will find you a place to stay for the night. Tomorrow morning we will go to the palace."

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A/N: Hi all. I guess this took a little more time than I expected to get out. For a while I was really into writing on this story. Now I am going through a little block, although I kind of know what I want to happen. Right now is the changing point in the story.

I am sorry to say I don't have the next chapter even close to finished, but it is started. I would really appreciate a review this chapter. Please send me comments on the last few chapters, for I haven't gotten reviewed in a long while. It will brighten my day and help to fuel my writing.

I will have the next chapter out as soon as possible.

ColossalSky