Rapunzel wearily sighed into her bed sheets. Eugene was sleeping in the room next door and the fact that there were at least two guards separating them depressed her more than it should have.
She frowned. These feelings she was feeling now were foreign to her and she couldn't put a name on them. She had hoped that there would be a book in the huge palace library about these emotions she had been experiencing lately, but there was nothing. Nothing except a book on reproduction, but Eugene had yanked that book out of her hands the second she picked it out.
She rolled onto her back and turned her head to gaze at Pascal, who was peacefully sleeping on the pillow next to her, his sides expanding and deflating with every breath he took. She gave a half-hearted smile in the dimness of the night, remembering the good times she had had with her old friend. She turned her head again, this time, the opposite direction and looked out the balcony at the stars. The more she looked at the stars, the more they beckoned to her, pulling her in, begging her to look at them from a better vantage point.
Slowly, trying not to disturb the pillow and wake up Pascal, she sat up in door, swung her legs over the edge of the mattress and set her feet on the cool, marble floor. Pascal didn't move a muscle and kept his steady rhythm of breathing.
Rapunzel let out a sigh of relief and stood up, slowly adjusting to the floor touching her small bare feet. She tiptoed to the balcony door and rested her hand on the golden, decorated handle. She looked back at Pascal again, making sure he was in the same position that he was before. He was.
She eased the door open and slipped outside. The warm summer breeze rustled her short brown hair and tickled her nose. She quickly rubbed the back of her hand on her nose and walked to the edge of the balcony. She looked down at the shadows of passing guards, the fading lights of the town finally going to sleep, and the moonlight reflecting off the ocean waves, distorting the image of the moon so much that you could hardly tell it was round.
Rapunzel loved everything about her view. She breathed in the faint smell of roses growing on her balcony, a gift from Queen Belle. She turned and looked around her balcony. There was a statue of woodland animals from Queen Snow White, a carriage-shaped flower pot from Princess Cinderella, a bench engraved with 'Rapunzel' engraved on it from Princess Aurora (Rapunzel loved to take naps on it), a small wishing pool from Queen Ariel, a stone lamp from Princess Jasmine, a small oak sapling from Pocahontas, a dragon fan from Fa Mulan, and finally a stone frog from Princess Tiana. All these things kept her company when she was up here sketching or napping of gazing at the stars, like she was doing now.
She sat on her bench and looked up at the stars. There was one, twinkling brighter than the rest of them. She stood up and bowed her head, ready to repeat the wishing rhyme that she learned from Eugene.
"Star light, star bright…" She whispered softly to the summer star. She paused for a second and continued the next line. "First star I see to-."
A small whizzing interrupted her incantation. Rapunzel looked up for the source of the sound. From nowhere, a tiny dot of light flashed in the sky and hit the balcony in front of her feet.
"What the-?" She knelt down to inspect the light. It lay innocently at her feet, like it belonged there and didn't just come from nowhere. She cautiously poked it with her finger and watched as the light went from the ground to her finger. Rapunzel gasped and shook her hand rigorously. It didn't emerge and travelled up her arm, emitting a glow where ever it went.
Another whizzing sounded and landed on Rapunzel's foot, absorbing into her big toe and also travelling up the foot. More tiny balls of light landed on the balcony with some landing on her and some landing on the various plants, soaking into the soil. Her left shoulder, head, right arm and right foot were now glowing intensely. She could hear the guards on patrol shouting about the princess's balcony.
"Uh oh!" Rapunzel squeaked. She turned around and started sprinting to the balcony door, when a giant flash of light caught her attention. Ignoring the fact that every part of her body screamed at her to not turn around, she did anyway.
A huge flare of light was coming down from the sky, right where her wishing star used to be. It came hurtling at her, faster than anything she had seen before. She gasped and quickly ran towards the doors, realizing that she would absorb whatever this flare of light was. There were shouts and commands screamed from the guards below.
She quickly turned and tripped over her statue of woodland creatures, stubbing her toe and shooting pain up her foot. "Ow!" She exclaimed and she looked back up. The flare of golden light was even closer than before.
She ignored the pain she had in her foot and hobbled over to the door. The air around her had picked up speed and was whipping her hair in front of her eyes, not letting her see anything. She yanked on the door handle, but the air pushed against it immediately, slamming it shut.
She looked up and saw the ball of light almost near by. Pascal was banging on the door, having woken up to the sight of Rapunzel standing against the door. She caught her reflection in the glass door and saw that she was completely pulled with all her might on the door again and with another failed attempt, she quickly turned and put her arms up and over her face, trying to defend herself. She had one more chance.
"EUGENE!" She screamed. "EUGENE! EUGENE!"
The last thing she saw was the flare of light engulfing her, covering her in a bright light, forcing her to close her eyes.