"I don't believe it." Seymore groaned. "It's midnight and Princess Molly wants apples!"

"It's your fault we're in this mess anyway, so stop complaining!" Brianna growled.

"Why did they inherit their father's green eyes?" Seymore wondered wistfully. "Why couldn't they have brown eyes, or blue eyes? Why green?"

"You inherited your father's blue eyes," Brianna reminded him.

"Well, at least people don't want to sacrifice me for it!" Seymore moved to a new apple tree to find better apples, but stopped when the ground beneath his feet began to shake. He moved to a different place to get better balance and the motion stopped. Brianna experimentally walked over to the tree Seymore had been walking toward, using exactly the same route. Nothing happened.

Seymore, thinking it was just coincidence, started over to Brianna. As soon as he stepped on that patch of land, the ground began to shake again.

"Look!" Brianna cried, pointing to a different tree. A portion of it's bard was moving, revealing a secret entrance to a cave. The shaking stopped, and Seymore carefully left that patch of land, wary of the door closing. Fortunately, it stayed open. He entered, and it closed behind him. Looking back once he was inside, he was grateful to notice a handle on this side of the door.

"Seymore..." Brianna called from the other side of the door. Seymore was too busy looking at the paintings on the wall to notice.

"Seymore?" she called again, a little stronger this time. Still no answer from the other side of the door.

"SEEYYMMOORREE!" she screeched, finally getting his attention. He opened the door for her.

"Look at this!" he exclaimed as soon as she was in. He indicated the walls, which were covered in some form of writing. She moved to one in particular.

"This can't be more than a day old!" she cried. "It says, 'Sacrifice Prince and Princess of Plenty at the full moon.' " She gasped. "That's tonight!"

"Oh. I thought it said 'Tribe worth lots of cash.' " Brianna groaned at Seymore's statement.

"Seymore, these people probably don't even know what cash is!" She rolled her eyes. "Anyway, that wasn't all of it." She went back to the writing, translating it almost automatically.

"The nearest English translation is, 'Sacrifice companions with Prince and Princess of Plenty by burning at stake.' That's all it says." She sighed, crumpling to her knees.

"What about this one?" Seymore asked, pointing to another, older one. "I think it says, 'Watch for evil ones in- I think the closest English equivalent is 'striped'- 'cloth from the west,' but I'm probably wrong again." Brianna pushed herself up and walked over to the one he was pointing at. "No, you're right," she murmured, "but who could the 'evil ones in striped cloth' be?"

"It doesn't matter," Seymore declared. "We've got to get Molly and Thomas and get out of here!"

"Do you see them, Klaus?" the woman asked.

"No, not yet, Claudia," the man, Klaus, told her, staring through a pair of binoculars. "Wait- there they are!" He looked closer through the binoculars. "That can't be them!" he murmured a few moments later. "They're too young!"

"Never mind that, Klaus," Claudia told the man. "We will get them." They laughed evilly together, both of them still wearing the striped jail uniform from having broken out of jail.

"Are you sure there's an extra room in here, Brianna?" Seymore asked uncomfortably. They had looked all over the room together, but had found no secret passages, hidden doors, or even a trapdoor.

"Wait..." Brianna thought. "When I walked over that patch of land, nothing happened, yet when you walked over it, the secret tunnel opened. Maybe you should search alone."

"I'll try it, but I can't say I'm very happy about this..." Seymore felt along the wall, searching for something, anything.

"There!" He felt a small protrusion, one that Brianna must have missed, and pulled it. Certainly enough, a door opened on the opposite side of the room, revealing Molly and Thomas.

"Molly! Thomas! You have to come with us! They're going to-" Seymore started breathlessly.

"Who cares?" Thomas asked, rolling his eyes. "You were the one who got us into this in the first place, Seymore. If it weren't for you, I'd be enjoying a nice, home-cooked supper! I'm not going with you to get myself into deeper trouble. At least these people don't expect me to run on crazy, certain-death adventures!"

"But, Thomas," Seymore cried, "if you stay here, they'll sacrifice you! We've got to go!"

Upon hearing this, the chipmunk reluctantly got up with Molly and followed Brianna and Seymore to their balloon, which they soon started the fire for and were on their way.

Little did the know that they were being followed. Closely.

Sorry about not letting anyone come in to help, but if I had, I wouldn't be able to use my idea. Besides, I'm saving that idea for later!