Once in a Dream
It was a joyous night at the castle of Corona. The kingdom was celebrating the return of princess Rapunzel after 18 long years of waiting. Rapunzel was busy greeting and conversing with guests with Eugene tagging along with her every now and then. Even the "ruffians" and "thugs" from the Snuggly Duckling were invited to come thanks to much persuasion from Rapunzel. Cassandra, on the other hand, was assigned guard duty at the party due to an acute illness breaking out amongst the guards. Despite her having to watch and listen to some of the ridiculous things guests were doing and talking about, she was quite happy to get the chance to do this.
"Wooowww…," Cassandra heard a nearby voice say. She turned in the direction of the unknown voice to see a young teenage boy with dark brown hair and a single blue streak in his bangs, looking around the age of 14 or 15, just staring at her.
"Umm…can I help you?" Cassandra asked in a confused yet slightly annoyed tone.
"Oh uh-no! It's just um….you look so…cool I guess?" the boy said. He cleared his throat and then nervously laughed.
"Oh…thank you..?" Cassandra said in a confused tone.
"Sorry," the boy said, looking away and nervously rubbing the sleeve of his shirt, "It's just…I really don't have the right way to say this, but uh I just think that a girl being a guard is pretty cool…"
Cassandra warmly smiled at him and patted his shoulder. "It's okay I get it. You don't have to hurt yourself coming up with the right words. Thanks for the compliment."
The boy looked up at her and smiled back. "Thank you…uhh…what's your name?" the boy asked.
"Cassandra," Cassandra said.
"Cassandra…that's a perfect shame- I mean name! Name! Heheh," Varian chuckled nervously and Cassandra laughed along with him to make him feel better. "My name is-"
"Son!" A voice called out. Both of them turned in the direction of an older gentleman with dark brown hair. He bore an unreadable expression but was gesturing for the boy to come over to him.
"Oop, well that's my dad, I'd…better go see what he wants. Uh, see ya!" the boy waved and then ran over in the direction of his father.
"What a strange kid," Cassandra said to herself. She then resumed watching the rest of the ballroom.
About an hour past and king Fred was about to make a toast to Rapunzel and Eugene. Queen Ariana rang a small bell to grab the guests' attention.
"Thank you all for coming here today to celebrate Rapunzel's return back home," King Fred said. "Now this time I'll spare you most of the details that you have most likely heard, but-"
A huge rumbling sound was heard in the distance and the palace began to shake. Guests gasped and began huddling together in groups in surprise and fear.
Suddenly a single, pointed, black rock sprouted in the middle of the ballroom, causing the guests to back away. The ground began to shake again and more black rocks appeared with increasing speed and numbers. The guests panicked and the king instructed for all the guests to evacuate. Cassandra helped guide the guests to the front of the staircase of the palace along with the other guards.
"Hey, we meet again!" the previous boy said as he passed by Cassandra.
"Uh kid, now's not the time for greetings," Cassandra said in a serious tone. "I'm kinda busy here."
"I know I know, I was just thinking I could possibly help you?" the boy asked.
"No, the guests' safety is our top priority. Now get out of-"Cassandra was cut off by the ground shaking violently underneath her. The staircase was beginning to crumble into pieces! Thinking fast, Cassandra pushed the boy in the direction of the staircase, yelling at him to book it out of here. The boy made it halfway down the staircase but when he turned around to look back, he saw that the top of the staircase was completely destroyed! A dust cloud collected in its place. He panicked.
"Hey Cassandra! Are you okay?" he called out. The boy heard coughing in the distance as the dust cloud began to slowly fade. He saw Cassandra at the entrance to the palace, still standing at the where the staircase used to begin.
"Yeah kid, I'm fine!" Cassandra yelled. "Now go join the rest of the guests and finish evacuating!"
"But what about you?" the boy asked, worriedly. "You need to leave too!"
"Don't worry about me," Cassandra said, "I can find another exit out of here." She began to slowly walk back in towards the palace.
"Hey uh wait a sec!" the boy called out. Cassandra turned her head back to look at him. "You know, if you jump from there I'll catch you!"
Cassandra laughed and said, "Come on, a kid like you? You know that's not gonna happen."
The boy smiled and rubbed the back of his head. Cassandra turned away from him and continued walking in towards the palace. As she re-entered the ballroom area, three dark knights appeared out of nowhere, almost like magic. Cassandra drew her sword, ready to fight them.
"Who are these guys, and what is going on with this weirdness today?" Cassandra thought.
The knights then began to charge at her. Cassandra fought them hard, almost gaining the upper edge, when another knight appeared and threw a mysterious object near her feet. Cassandra jumped away from the object just as it blew up, causing the ground to crack. The cracking began to progress towards her at an unbelievable speed and the ground crumbled beneath her, dropping her deep down underneath the palace. Cassandra blacked out.
When she awoke, she found herself to be in the underground catacombs of Corona. Eerily, the tunnels were lite up with these strange, glowing crystals set on pillars. Cassandra began to follow the crystals down the tunnels.
As she progressed towards what she assumed was the end of the tunnel, she saw a sign that said, "Glimpses of the Impending," written on it.
"Ok…that's random. And creepy," Cassandra thought.
As she walked further in she saw a portrait of a man and a woman hanging on a wall. The young man had dark brown hair with blue eyes and was looking down at young woman with almost jet-black, short wavy hair and grey-green eyes. The young man had his right hand cupping the young woman's left cheek and appeared to be looking at her with adoration in his eyes. Cassandra narrowed her eyes, further contemplating on the painting, and then she gasped.
"Wait…that's…supposed to be me and the kid?!"
"Cassandra! Cassandra!"
Cassandra heard a loud knocking sound. She turned over in her bed, wanting to ignore the annoying noise.
"Cass, are you okay? You're already late for your duties! I've tried to cover for some of them, but I need to know if you're okay."
Cassandra recognized the voice as Rapunzel's. She snapped herself out of her supposed nightmare and groggy state and got up to answer the door.
"Yes I'm okay Raps," she said as she opened the door, "I just had a nightmare keeping me busy, that's all."
Rapunzel breathed a sigh of relief. She studied her face and said, "Are you sure you're okay? You looked kind of depressed. Do you want to talk about it?"
"There's no need for that. I swear I'm fine Raps," Cassandra said, smiling and waving it off.
"Okay, if you're sure," Rapunzel said. "Anyway, you told me yesterday there was something you needed to tell me? Something about…" she lowered the tone of her voice, "…my hair issue?"
"Ah yes, but uh…we need to go someplace more private for that…" Cassandra said. "Let's go into the garden."
After Cassandra explained to Rapunzel about the rumor she heard about Varian the "wizard", the two of them headed out to pay him a visit in Old Corona. At the entrance of this "wizard's house," the door mysteriously opened, revealing a large room with a glowing, eerie light and dense fog. The two girls cautiously entered the house and took only a few steps when suddenly a pink ball was thrown in their direction, exploding into a strange, jelly like substance, encasing their feet. They then looked up to see a stranger with glowing green eyes and a mask covering his or her face standing across from them.
"WHAT. DO. YOU. WANT?" a distorted deep voice asked them.
Cassandra took on a fighting stance while Rapunzel put on a brave face.
"Um…hi!" Rapunzel said with a smile, waving at the stranger. "So sorry to bother you sir, but I wanted to ask you about my hair, because you're such a…magic exper-"
"MAGIC! I DO NOT WORK WITH MAGIC!" the stranger yelled. He then took off the mask to reveal the face of a young teenage boy with dark-brown hair and a single blue streak in his bangs and blue eyes. "I mean technically it's not magic, it's alchemy, but yeah d-don't sweat it!"
Cassandra internally gasped but kept her poker face on.
"Crap…this nerdy boy is supposed to be the same boy from my dream?" Cass thought.
This was going to be a long adventure…
-THE END
I got the idea for this one-shot from a dream I had that was pretty similar to this several years ago. I just thought it sounded a lot like a Cassandra x Varian short fanfic so I finally got the time to write it out on my birthday lol. Hope you enjoyed it!