Disclaimer: I don't own anything.

Author's Note: Hope you all enjoy. Sorry about Juneston's thoughts...not such a good guy.

The Plan

Juneston stormed out the door and down the hall. This was ridiculous. He had this whole thing planned out for such a long time and now nothing. Everything was falling apart. At first everything was fine. Elizabeth was betrothed; Westerly would be focused on that and nothing else. Then of course there was Sydney. Beautiful, lovely Sydney. He loved her golden hair and blue eyes. She was young, true, but that only made him want her more. He loved how beautiful she was and that she was impressionable. He'd be able to do much with her. He smiled at the thought.

Then he frowned, that cursed bratty Elizabeth had to save her sister. How did she know where she was? And how had she escaped all of his men? That was ridiculous. Now that she wasn't in his possession how was he going to use the rest of his genius plan to get the throne.

King Westerly had grown quite annoying over the years and Juneston wanted to be King. He had gone over many different ideas, thought through them all, looked at the weaknesses and the strengths until he finally had come up with the best plan of all.

Juneston looked down the hall to make sure no one was looking before he went into the next hall and into his private room. Only a few of his closest men knew about this. Even King Westerly had no idea about this set of halls and rooms. The fire was already on and so the room was a bit warmer than he was used to. Sitting down he replayed his plan.

He could raise an army and take over the kingdom, but then he would always be fighting for it. So taking the kingdom by force was out of the question. No, he could marry in, but he knew that the King had already sent up the two Princesses to be married, but he also knew that they were tentative. King Westerly had a weird notion in his mind that his daughters should be happy, as if they should have a say.

Marry. He had to marry them. The choice of the Princess wasn't too hard. He knew immediately it would be Sydney. Both Princesses were strong and determined and had a stubborn streak, but Elizabeth was much worse than Sydney. Elizabeth was the one who got her sister to run away, he remembered seeing them play. If Elizabeth had to be away from Sydney, the little blonde Princess could be seen playing with her dolls or playing something else. He watched her play with her toys enough times. So Elizabeth was out of the question.

It was Sydney.

Then it was a matter of getting her kidnapped, she took off on her own or with Elizabeth so much that it wasn't an issue. He had planned on waiting until Elizabeth was married. And after rescuing Sydney, King Westerly would be so grateful that he would be first in line to either marry Sydney or he would get the Kingdom. It was a brilliant plan.

Then one of his men came with him with news that she had wondered into his private room, as if that didn't say more than she should be with him. She was then put in his own private cottage where he had left men there to guard. And they loose her! He growled in frustration and threw his cup that sat on the table.

He sat and stared at the wall, it was a while before he realized that he was staring at a map of the kingdom. As he stared at the map he realized something so blatantly obvious that he couldn't believe he didn't realize himself; he should find them.

Juneston stood up. If he found the Princesses, King Westerly would definitely be extremely happy, especially if he found them before General Ott. He needed to find them before the good General did otherwise he would bring them back to the King and he would be rewarded.

Looking at the map he quickly found where his cabin was. His men had stopped looking for them when they had crossed the line that brought them to the edge of the Dying Woods. They were heading north. He was going to be heading north. Let General Ott look in his own marshes, he was going to find the Princesses and once he was King he would sentence General Ott for a lifetime in the marshes.

"Z, face it. We. Are. Lost!"

Z heard the frustration and anger in her sisters' voice, stopped and looked at her, "Not completely."

"Oh really? Then where are we? Are we even on our land anymore because last time I checked we didn't have dead trees on our land?"

"Of course we…" Dead trees. They were lost among dead trees. "Syd, I know where we are!"

"Do you? And if you say the woods anymore…I'll…well I'll go off on my own."

The brunette princess rolled her eyes, it was an empty threat, and Syd didn't want to be off on her own. "The cottage that they were keeping you was east of the castle."

She watched her sister pout, "You're going to talk about where the cottage was?"

"Not exactly. Now if you'll listen, maybe I can fully explain."

"Alright."

"As I was saying, it was to the east. The Dying Woods are to the East."

"So?"

Sometimes having a blond sister was not the most fun in the world, "So that means that we're heading towards it. In fact I'm pretty sure this is it." Z looked around and nodded, "Yeah, this has to be it. That means…"

"That we're in a very scary place!" Syd said and then covered her mouth and looked around.

"Don't worry, we're fine."

"Oh, are we?"

"Yes, we are. I mean we just have to figure out which way is west and we go that way."

"Alright, which way is west?"

"I'm working on that one."

Syd became quiet as Z started looking around; there had to be an easy way to figure out which way was west. She knew that if you could figure out about the sun…looking up to the sky she realized that although it being day, she couldn't see anything. It was dark, not night time dark, but still quite dark. The clouds could have been covering the sun, but she thought it was more than just that. There was a reason why travelers had certain locations in which to travel through these woods; there were creatures here. They weren't like regular animals. Surprisingly she and Syd hadn't come across any of them.

Yet.

It was at that moment that Z heard a growl off in the distance. She sincerely hoped that Syd didn't hear it, but looking at her sister's face she could tell that she had.

"What was that?" Her sister whispered.

"I…I don't know."

"Z!"

The growl got louder and this time the horses reacted to it. The two Princesses held onto the horses and nervously looked around. More growls closer by caused the horses to race off to escape being eaten.

Bridge looked off into the setting sun; he once more was by their favorite spot. He hadn't seen Syd for about a week. He had been surprised upon their first meeting, she was just so full of life, and she was really pretty. Then he had gotten to know her and he realized that she was very sweet, and kind and she understood him.

Then he found out that she was a Princess. One of their Princesses, he could hardly believe it. She was so much kinder than one would think of a Princess. And she didn't let it get in their way. But he hadn't seen her in a week. He was worried. What if something had happened to her?

He knew that he couldn't just leave his work, but he desperately wanted to be out there looking for her. What if she had broken a bone? Or an animal…he cleared his head of those horrible pictures. He wouldn't think about those things, not now. He had to hope for the best.

General Ott had his men looking, he would find her. She had to be out there, somewhere. Hopefully she would be safe.

Bridge looked again towards the path that she came on; he needed to believe that he would see her again. The longer he sat there the more he realized that if she wasn't found soon he would go and try to find her on his own. If it wasn't for his work…but what if she needed him? Bridge stood up, his decision had been made.