Twitter

Twitter is the royal secretary of the Jewel Palace. In the 2020 reprint, his name is changed to Pip.

## Biography

### The Ruby Princess Runs Away

Shortly before the coronation of the Jewel Princesses is about to take place, Twitter frantically looks everywhere for Princess Roxanne. He eventually finds her hiding in a royalberry tree and tells her that the ceremony is about to begin, but she begs him not to tell her parents where she is. The little red bird starts to list off everyone who has come to the palace to see the coronation, but he only succeeds in making Roxanne even more nervous. She explains that she doesn't feel like a princess; she feels like an ordinary girl who is not ready to face the responsibilities of being a leader. Although disgruntled with this revelation, Twitter insists that she join her sisters so that they may be crowned on time. Suddenly, the heralds announce the arrival of the great wizard Gallivant. Just as suddenly, Roxanne races through the palace gates as everyone is distracted. Twitter chases after her, begging the princess to stop and go back to the palace, but she ignores him. He points out that she doesn't know where she's going since she's only been outside the palace gates twice in her life, but she keeps running. Twitter refuses to be left behind, however, and warns her to stay away from the Mysterious Forest, a dark tangle of trees that is said to conceal a secret passage straight to Castle Dread where the evil Lord Bleak and his Darkling followers were sent. Roxanne has heard stories of the terrible Lord Bleak and decides to head west, towards the bridge that crosses the Rushing River. But once they arrive, they are almost immediately greeted by two suspicious figures in dark cloaks. They recognize Twitter's plume as the colors of the Jewel Palace and grab him as he tries to stammer out that the strangers may be Darklings. Before things can get any worse, Roxanne is snatched off the ground by a great green dragon.

Twitter makes his escape when the cloaked strangers scatter from the dragon's fire and follows after Roxanne, slightly singed from the flames. At first, Twitter is scared that the princess has been kidnapped, but she asserts that she is safe and introduces him to the dragon Hapgood. He solemnly apologizes for scorching some of Twitter's feathers by saying he was aiming for the Darklings, confirming the bird's fears. They soon hear hoof beats and Roxanne recognizes Armoral, the captain of the palace guards, riding towards them. Knowing that he'll surely recognize her as the ruby princess, Roxanne begs Hapgood to hide her, much to his puzzlement until Twitter quickly explains that she stole a banner from the palace courtyard as a souvenir from the coronation. Hapgood produces a silver and ruby shield and instructs the princess that it will magically turn her and anyone she touches invisible for a short time when she says the incantation. The shield keeps Roxanne and Twitter hidden as Hapgood suggests to the captain that he look for the runaway ruby princess near the stone bridge, thinking that Armoral may come across the Darklings and report them to the king. Roxanne thanks her new friend for lending her the shield, but he lets her keep it in case she needs it again.

No sooner has she strapped the shield to her arm than two gnomes from the Red Mountains stumble across them, one of them limping. Roxanne is shocked to see a deep gash in the leg of one of the gnomes and instantly tears a strip of cotton from her petticoat, ordering Twitter to dip it in the waters of the Rushing River as the woman, Marigold, tearfully explains that she and her husband were attacked by Darklings. Her husband, Applesap, is a goldsmith and had been tasked with forging the crown for the ruby princess, but the Darklings stole it from them as they were making their way to the Jewel Palace. Roxanne tries to console them as she tends to Applesap's wound, certain that he can make another crown just as fine as the first one, but the little gnome insists that he cannot go to the palace empty-handed and disappoint the princess. Twitter mentions that he needn't worry because the princess has run away, but Marigold shakes her head and informs them that she and Applesap saw the princess crossing the meadow in a glass coach. Roxanne is understandably shocked and declares the princess they saw an imposter. Although she demands that they go to the palace immediately, her companions merely stare at her, wondering how Roxanne of the Rushing River could know such a thing. Twitter thinks fast and says that she is a very good friend of the princess, who told her that she feels like she doesn't know how to rule the Red Mountains and so decided to run away. Hapgood offers to fly them all to the palace so they can prevent the false princess from being crowned, but there really isn't room for all three of them on his back. Roxanne insists that he take the gnomes and promises that she'll meet them at the palace. Twitter loyally stays with her, even when Hapgood suggests that she take a shortcut through the Mysterious Forest.

Twitter perches on Roxanne's shoulder as she fights her way through thorny brambles, but she suddenly halts to a standstill, thinking that she hears voices up ahead. Twitter hops forward to investigate and comes back trembling, reporting that there are Darklings camped just ahead. He begs Roxanne to turn back, but she is determined to get to the palace before the false princess is crowned and declares that the Darklings won't be able to see them with the help of her new shield. As they sneak invisibly past the cloaked huddle, they overhear their gloating. The Darklings brag to each other that their plan is working even better than they expected: they were supposed to kidnap the ruby princess so they could replace her with Lord Bleak's daughter, Rudgrin, but she saved them the trouble by running away, leaving Rudgrin free to put on a magical shape-changing mask that allows her to look just like Roxanne. A horrified Roxanne hurriedly ties their mounts (two roothogs and a large bird known as a Gorax) together so that she may have time to run to the palace for help. All is going well until she overhears the Darklings say that all they need to do now is kidnap the real ruby princess and take her back to Castle Dread. Roxanne accidentally blurts out that she'll never be taken there just as the shield's magic fades, leaving her and Twitter completely exposed. The Darklings lunge for Roxanne but she manages to dodge their grasp and leap onto the Gorax. Despite the extra weight of Roxanne and the roothogs, the bird is strong and begins to slowly fly upward. The Darklings desperately try to stop her escape by jumping onto their roothogs, but they, too, are dragged up into the treetops. Once they are thoroughly tangled in the upper branches, Twitter uses his beak to snip them loose from the Gorax, allowing it to fly above the twisted trees towards the Jewel Palace. When they draw near the palace grounds, they spot Applesap and Marigold frantically waving them down. The gnomes had tried to delay the coronation, but no one would listen to them. Twitter perched on her shoulder, Roxanne throws open the doors to the throne room and commands the ceremony to stop.

The court can only stare in bewilderment at the two Roxannes, unsure of who is the real one. Fortunately, the great wizard Gallivant steps forth and announces that there is a way to determine who is the true Roxanne: each princess is born with a mark in the shape of her jewel, so whichever girl bears the mark must be the real princess. Roxanne smiles confidently and raises her right arm, showing everyone the teardrop mark on her wrist. Twitter then darts out from behind Roxanne and peels off Rudgrin's shape-changing mask himself, revealing her twisted, ugly face to everyone. She is immediately taken away by the palace guards as Roxanne apologizes to her family for running away. Twitter happily watches as Roxanne is crowned the rightful Ruby Princess at last.

## Trivia

* In the movie, Twitter is changed from a bird to an elf.