"Alex? Where are you? Tea is going to be served in the main hall in a minute. Would you join me?" Vincent asked his friend and soon-to-be-fiancé as she giggled and dashed behind a hedge.

"I want to keep playing! We never get to play anymore." She stomped her foot and crossed her arms like a petulant child instead of the young adult she was.

"I am sorry my dearest, you know I would love to but..." He hesitated.

"But we have certain obligations that we must keep as royals and as the future rulers of the Two Kingdoms." She parroted as if by rote. It had been repeated so many times to the both of them that they could quote it in their sleep.

"Oh all right. One more chase through the gardens, but then we must attend the tea." He relented and she smiled so bright that he was momentarily blinded as his chest filled with warmth. Next thing he knew, she had a head start and he was going to lose if he didn't get going. He took off at a sprint, going up a side path and down a main path in their usual race to the fountain.

He could hear her mad giggles as she slid in the pebbles near the roses and he took a short cut through the bush into the clearing with statuary. He jumped through the bushes on the other side and a loud squeal came from the princess as she ran for the clearing ahead.

"No fair! No fair! You cheated!" She called out behind her as he came up with a laugh. He grabbed her around the waist to lift her in a spin and dash ahead of her. He collapsed in a heap of gasping and laughter as she stomped over to him and roundly smacked his shoulder. He grabbed her in a hug and tickled the sour look off her face. They settled against each other, just looking into each others' eyes and wondering at how lucky they were.

"Well now, isn't that just adorable." The dark voice mocked from across the clearing.

The two adolescents turned in shock to see a sorcerer leaned against a nearby statue of a cherub with disdainful look on his face. His sallow skin and black robes looked out of place in the bright cheerful garden, seeming to cast a gloom in the place he stood. The prince and princess rose from the fountain and backed away as the sorcerer moved towards them across the grass with sinister intent.

"What do you want? You are not welcome here." Prince Vincent tried bravely to shield the princess from the eyes of the malevolent man, pushing her in behind his body.

"Brave words boy, I'll give you credit for that. You think you can save your princess and your kingdoms from my wrath? What a naïve little boy you are. I would kill you right here and now if I chose to. That, however, would be too easy. I want you to suffer as I have suffered. I want you to watch as all you love is poisoned and taken from you. I want to take your hope and love from you and stomp on it." His eyes glowed an eerie green and black smoke began to billow around his body as he constructed the curse he wanted to aim at the two love birds.

"Why? What have we done to you? Nothing, that's what. It wasn't our fault that our people destroyed your home. We weren't even born yet!" The Princess Alexandra argued from behind her prince's shoulder. The sorcerer growled at them both.

"The only way to hurt your people is through you two, my pets. Sorry, but there is no escape from me." He raised his hands and the smoke shot out across the short distance to wrap around their bodies. It tore them apart and engulfed them in the thick, black billows which choked them so they could barely hear his words over their coughs.

"Two alike, too alike,
All you do is fight and kill
Destroy that which is not yours to take
And who now foots the bill?

Forever together, forever divided,
Two kings for one throne.
That which was once a pair be now rivals,
Two kingdoms, forever alone."

An outcry came from the castle as soldiers rushed to the children's aid, but too late. The sorcerer disappeared with a cackle and a crack of electricity. The thick smoke began to clear and let go of the two royals, and Prince Vincent rushed over to see his princess as soon as he was released.

The place was quiet even with the guards as they gathered into the clearing and then the worried parents of the two as they waited to see what the sorcerer had done. The Princess Alexandra lay in a heap on the ground, sobbing into the grass as Vincent reached down to hug her. She turned into his arms and shuddered as he tried to calm her down.

Even Vincent did not notice at first what was different about the person in his arms. But Alexandra felt the change and cowered into the shoulder of her prince. It was minutes or seconds, but finally it dawned on Vincent that the body he held was different than the one he remembered.

He leaned back far enough that Alexandra was before him, her dress no longer fitted as it was but hanging off her slimmer frame awkwardly. Her face no longer curved delicately, but had a sharper tilt. Her figure was no longer curved with the bud of a womanly silhouette, but was a body made slim and masculine.

Alex was no longer a princess but a prince the same as Vincent. The words of the sorcerer now made sense, for now there were two princes vying for the throne of the Two Kingdoms instead of a prince and princess set to wed. The sorcerer had changed her into a him!

"Vincent, say something. What are we going to do? I... I am a boy! He is going to ruin the peace we have all worked so hard for. I love you, Vincent, but how can I marry you if I am a boy?" Alex wailed as she, no he flung himself into the prince's arms once again. Vincent held Alex tightly in his arms and shushed the distraught boy that he had grown up with and loved all his life.

"Your majesties, what can we do? Is there no one who might help us?" He turned to their parents in fear and begged for their guidance. The Queen Anne snapped her fingers and nodded slowly.

"There might be a chance, I can take you to my old Fae healer. She may have the power to undo this, we can only stand to hope."