"Bullseye!" Rapunzel cheered as another one of her arrows hit its mark dead centre of the archery board in.
Currently, she was in the midst of practising her archery skills in the middle of the castle's open courtyard, and Cassandra who was watching her from nearby as her archery teacher, nodded her head with impression, "Well, well. Looks like you're getting better at this, Raps."
Striding over to the Princess of Corona, she coached, "But you have to remember to keep your posture firm and straight. Else if you come across… say a very HUGE thug, and you were aiming your bow and arrow at him with a sloppy stance, it will throw your aiming off-balance and you will miss your target."
Rapunzel shrugged with a small grin of sheepishness, "I guess… but it's a start, right?"
Cassandra smirked back, "Not quite. In order to be a good archer, you must have an acute sense of alertness, and fast and swift reflexes that prompts you shoot first before an enemy shoots at you."
Her hand extended out to Rapunzel, "May I?"
Rapunzel gave her a quizzical look, but then trailed her eyes down in the direction of which her hand was outstretched towards.
"Oh! Sure, here you go," she said and handed over her bow.
Cassandra then walked over to the quiver full of arrows and picked a pair of them.
Walking over to an archery board that was right next to Rapunzel's, and got in her usual aiming stance.
"Observe, Raps," she said to the Princess as she locked onto the centre red dot of the board, with her right eye closed, and other one wide open.
As Rapunzel watched, Cassandra shot her first arrow at the board, and then shot the second one just a second after. The first arrow founded its mark at the very centre of the board, and the second arrow went right through it, causing it to split open in half, and shot out through the back.
Satisfied with her work, Cassandra looked back to Rapunzel, who was staring at her speechless with her mouth wide open.
Giggling, she playfully taunted her as she returned to the Princess's side, "Close your mouth, Raps, or it's going to become a new home for flies and mosquitoes."
Rapunzel quickly closed her mouth shut, yet she remained silent as she struggled to comprehend what had just took place.
Reaching her side, Cassandra's smile faltered, her concern overtaking her thoughts. "Uh, Rapunzel? You alright?" she asked worriedly.
As she watched, Rapunzel slowly opened her mouth, and then closed it, before opening it again.
"I-I… I don't… b-b-believe it…" she stuttered softly as she blinked a few times.
Cassandra placed a firm hand on her shoulder and smiled, "That is why nothing is impossible."
Slow clapping came from behind her, and Cassandra turned around to see Rapunzel's soon-to-be husband, sauntering over to them with his usual mischievous smile.
"My, my, Cass. I never knew you were THAT great in archery!" Eugene commented with a grin, "I always thought that your skills in this profession were only limited to one arrow each."
Cassandra frowned darkly, "Do you know that I could lose three arrows at your brain, your heart, and your grapefruits in one shot, and leave thou choking and garbling in thy own blood and white foam, in just three seconds?"
"And do you know I could easily disarm thee and leave thyself crying on the floor in defeat in just one second?" Eugene wittily taunted back.
"Hah! Oh please, do you remember what happened the last time we sparred?" Cassandra scoffed with folded arms.
Eugene laughed, "That was just a manly way of admitting defeat!"
"And by that account, I suppose it's YOUR manly way of being defeated," Cassandra stated with a smirk, "Moaning and complaining on the floor and throwing a tantrum like a baby."
"Hey! Maybe you'll be the one crying the next time we fight!" Eugene snapped.
"And maybe next time – oh, who am I kidding? I'll still be leaving you whimpering like a baby by the time I'm through with you!" Cassandra sneered.
"Oh ho! Them's fighting words, woman!" Eugene declared dramatically and began stomping over to her.
"My thoughts exactly!" Cassandra growled.
Cassandra began marching towards him as well, a tightened grip on the bow in her hand. But before the two of them could get in each other's faces, and glare daggers at one another, Rapunzel quickly stepped in between them and shouted, "Guys, guys! This is no way to settle –"
"Tell that to this pea brained fiancé of yours!" Cassandra growled, her glare still transfixed on Eugene.
Eugene feigned a look of hurt at her words, "Oh ouch… How thy words hath hurt my complexion… NOT!"
Both frenemies took another step forward, one as eager to move in for the kill as the other.
Rapunzel did her best to keep both her friends at bay from ripping each other to bits, but it was a struggle. She may be slender, but she did not have the muscle strength that Eugene or Cassandra had. But then a welcoming intervention came to her rescue, in the form of a castle guard approaching them at a brisked pace.
"Your Highness, pardon me for the intrusion," he said with a small bow before the Princess.
Rapunzel managed a small wave as she tried to push Cassandra further away from her fiancé, "No, no! Everything fine! What's is it?"
The guard looked back up, "The Captain of the Guard is requesting the presence of his daughter immediately."
Hearing the title of her father, Cassandra halted in her struggle and slowly turned to the guard.
"Whatever for?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"He was mum on that," the guard responded briefly, "All that he said was that he is waiting for you in the Throne Room."
Cassandra frowned, and her eyes turned towards the castle.
Her father would not normally disturb her, especially on her off days. Why would he want to call for her all of a sudden? That, and so many other questions ran through her mind, but she could worry about it later.
Turning back to Eugene, she glared daggers into his eyes and grunted, "This is not over."
As she began walking off, she added in, "Not by a long shot."
Quiet footsteps echoed through the almost-empty hall that made up the Throne Room as the Captain paced back and forth with his hands behind his back, anxiously waiting for the arrival of his daughter – or rather, his adopted one.
If there was one thing that was bothering him, it was most certainly the one that involved getting kidnapped by the Stabbington Brothers.
Truly, it was one of the most shocking of incidents that he was most unprepared for, and one that he planned to ensure would not happen again. Ever.
Ever since he first came across her as an abandoned infant, the Captain charged himself with raising up his daughter in the best environment that he could provide her.
And while Cassandra had been doing well as a handmaiden, there was also the times when he saw her practising with weapons. WEAPONS! And while this raised the Captain's eyebrows at this unnerving behaviour, he decided to let her be, as long as she didn't hurt herself or get into trouble.
But with the Stabbington Brothers? Now that put the Captain on edge!
It felt like a sign that he needed to draw a line in the sand somewhere, before his beloved daughter got herself into more serious danger.
It would tear at Cassandra's soul he knew, but he knew that for his daughter's own good, he had to perform his duty as a father.
He was cut off from his thoughts by the sounds of the main doors opening.
Glancing slightly, the Captain could make out his daughter, donned in her fighting gear, as she walked at a brisked pace towards him.
Breathing deeply for the inevitability, he turned towards her and put on his best stoic stature.
"Dad, you wanted to see me?" Cassandra asked as she stopped just a few steps from the Captain.
The Captain nodded, "Yes Cassandra… there is something I need to discuss with you."
Cassandra took note of the tone of dread ebbing at his usually serious voice, and she knew that this was not a good sign.
"Do you remember the first time I saw you wielding a sword on your own?" the Captain asked his daughter.
Cassandra winced a little at the memory. She can still recall her father's angry glare boring down into her frightened six-year-old soul, and his yells that she swore was still ringing her eardrums.
"You were… the very opposite of happy," she replied, and glanced downwards at the floor.
"And why was I unhappy on that day?" the Captain questioned further.
Cassandra let out an exasperated sigh, "You were worried for my safety."
"Exactly," the Captain said with a small frown.
He started pacing back and forth in front of her, "I understand if I am repeating myself too much, but you must understand Cassandra; fighting is not typically a popular career path that a proper young lady pursues, and if not treaded carefully, it will land her in terrible danger someday."
"But we agreed that I could do it for self-defence," Cassandra pointed out, "That, and protecting Rapunzel."
It was the Captain's turn to sigh. "Yes… that was our agreement…"
Cassandra raised an eyebrow, "W-Was?"
The Captain ceased his pacing and looked to his daughter, "Ever since your kidnapping by the Stabbington Brothers, I have… been doing a lot of thinking."
He closed his eyes, "Cassandra… when I first founded you alone at the abandoned orphanage… I took it upon myself to try and raise you in the best way I could, and in the best life that you deserved. But… recent circumstances have made it abundantly clear that…"
The Captain stopped himself at that moment to calm his nerves, and keep his emotions in check.
Anger, Fear, and Guilt were the three main emotions that crossed his features for the next forty seconds.
He knew that neither Cassandra nor himself could forgive him for it, but it had to be done.
Letting out a shallow breath, the Captain softly finished his sentence, "… I must draw the line."
Cassandra's heart was pounding hard against her chest, and her breathing tightened. She felt scared and confused at the same time.
"Dad… w-what are you saying?"
The Captain's fist clenched tightly and trembled, as he solemnly clarified, "What I am saying… is…"
He looked away and closed his eyes, "I am banning you from using weapons, from this moment on."
Cassandra almost felt her heart sink, and her mouth was agape with shock.
"And effective immediately… I am also relieving you of your duties as Confidant to the Princess of Corona," the Captain continued.
That statement felt like a hard slap to Cassandra's face.
She began shaking her head vigorously, "N-No… there's no way…"
"This must be some sort of joke… right? Did Eugene put you up to this?" she asked with a nervous chuckle, and then she turned around and yelled, "Come on out, you two-headed scum! You suck at pranking me!"
"Cassandra…" her father's voice called her, with a hint of regret.
She turned around to him, and from the look in his eyes, she knew that this was no joke.
"It can't be…" Cassandra muttered softly, and she ran over and gripped her father's arms tightly, "You can't be…"
"But I am," the Captain told her curtly.
Cassandra continued to shake her head in denial, even as her father's statement began to sink in.
Did he not forget that it was HE that inspired her to take up fighting in the first place? For as much as she could remember, her father had always spoken about her real father, about how he was heroic, brave, skilful and respected. It was because of that that she had her end goal set at becoming Captain of the Guards.
"I understand how much you wanted to become just like your father... and like me..." the Captain said softly, "But you have to understand, neither I nor your real father would have wanted you to follow in his footsteps. And I will honour his wish if I must."
"His wish?!" Cassandra suddenly snapped back, which startled the Captain, "How dare you to say that that was what he wanted?! H-He could've just… accidentally LEFT me!"
"But he did – an abandoned orphanage," the Captain pointed out, not even inclined to raise his voice.
Cassandra with her arms still gripped at his shoulders, forcefully pushed him backwards. "I DON'T CARE!" she hollered in rage, as the Captain stumbled backwards at the steps leading towards the thrones of the King and Queen.
"All this time… you told me that my father loved me, that he would protect me at any cost…" she growled darkly as she towered over her father who was looking up at her from his seat at the steps, "But he… abandoned ME! So that makes you a LIAR!"
"I never lied, Cassandra!" the Captain implored, his expression now filled with dread and fear, "You just don't understand!"
A loud 'SLAP!' filled the Throne Room, as Cassandra delivered a hard slap of a hand at her adoptive father.
"SHUT UP!" she cried out, "You are always telling me that I don't understand this, I don't understand that!"
She leaned even closer, allowing the Captain to see the tortured little girl within those pained hazel eyes.
"If you want to ban me from using weapons, then so freaking be it! If you want to relieve me as Rapunzel's confidant, then so freaking be it! It just goes to show how horrible of an adoptive father you've turned out to be! I HATE YOU!"
Without another word, Cassandra turned heel and began racing out of the Throne Room, as she tried to fight back the tears and emotions that were spilling out.
The Captain looked on with silence at his daughter's departure, and then he began thinking back on his daughter's hurtful words.
Rapunzel was concerned when she did not see Cassandra for the rest of the day.
She had hoped that she could have been attending to something urgent, but it was dashed when the servants told her that they had not seen her all day.
Even Eugene was starting to act a little more serious than usual.
They tried every place in the castle where they think Cassandra could have gone too.
The Dining Hall, the Armoury, and even her own bedroom.
Cassandra had seemingly vanished into thin air, as though she had never existed in the first place.
The worry still lingered up until the point that Rapunzel decided to voice it out to her parents.
"I haven't seen Cassandra for five hours now," Rapunzel told her parents in their bedroom.
"Is that so?" King Frederic muttered and stroked his chin.
"Where the last time you saw her?" Queen Arianna asked her.
"In the courtyard," Rapunzel explained (while leaving out the bit with her practise at archery), "Her father wanted to talk to her at the Throne Room."
"The Captain…" Frederic muttered, and his eyebrows furrowed in deep thinking, "Does that mean that…"
Arianna looked to her husband, "Dear, what are you thinking about?"
Frederic walked over to the window and stared out into the distant horizon.
"I had overheard bits of rumours circulating through the palace guard in recent days," he explained, "Apparently it had something to do with the Captain relieving Cassandra of her duties."
At this, Rapunzel's eyes went wide as saucers. Did she just hear that right?
"What…?" she muttered out.
Frederic turned to his daughter, "I'm sorry, Rapunzel. If my suspicions are true and the Captain follows through on his choice, then this means that Cassandra… is no longer your confidant."
The news struck her like a lightning bolt. So Cassandra's greatest fear had come to pass.
"B-But… why would he do that to her?" she questioned with frustrated confusion, "I-I mean, she hasn't done anything wrong!"
"It's not because of that," Frederic stated, "More on the lines of the Captain's worry of his own daughter getting kidnapped by the Stabbington Brothers."
Once more, that startling revelation stung her all the way down to her very core. Rapunzel suddenly started to feel sick to her stomach.
Noticing this, Arianna quietly asked, "Rapunzel, is there anything the matter?"
The response she got was Rapunzel suddenly retreating out of the bedroom at top speed.
Rapunzel did not care about the thousand pairs of eyes that stared after her as she continued running through the halls.
Her mind was in a stormy haze, a haze that was filled with strong emotions.
If Cassandra was relieved of her duties because of the Stabbington Brothers incident, then that would logically mean that this was all on them.
At least, that was what Rapunzel initially thought. But when she started looking deeper into that accusation, she knew that those two thieves weren't entirely to blame. In fact, there was one other person that had to claim responsibility for inadvertently giving them the opportunity to escape.
The person was herself.
As guilt continued to reign supreme over her other emotions, Rapunzel slowed in her stride, and she soon reached the doors of her bedroom.
She quietly opened the doors, and she slowly trudged inside, her feet not making a single sound against the floor.
She took a seat at her bed, and she started to think over her part in the whole incident.
If she had not orchestrated that whole scavenger hunt thing in the dungeons, then Cassandra and Eugene wouldn't have constructed that device that inadvertently helped the Stabbington Brothers to escape.
If only Rapunzel had thought her plan through a little more carefully, then Cassandra would not be going through this predicament.
"I did this…" she mumbled softly to her, and her emotions began to spill out in the form of newly fresh tears that were dripping at the bed side.
It tore her apart to realise that this was her fault as well.
And Cassandra would probably not forgive her for it. Not now. Not ever. She may have lost a friend this day. While Cassandra had her negative traits, she still stood by Rapunzel more than just her confidant – she stood by her as a close friend.
And how did Rapunzel repay her for that?
Eventually, Rapunzel gave into her sorrow, and she fell back on her bed.
As the tears continued to flow, Rapunzel grabbed at one of her pillows and she planted against her face.
The cries were muffled and the sobs were barely heard, as Rapunzel was left alone to wallow in her guilt.
Eugene was unaware of what happened to Rapunzel, as his mind was focused on the task at hand. While Rapunzel went to converse with her parents, Eugene decided to look for Cassandra's father. And thankfully, the Captain was not a hard person to find.
With the help of the Lieutenant pointing him in the right direction, Eugene ended up in the training courtyard, where he could see the said-leader of the Guards swinging his sword at a straw dummy.
He noticed that the swings were untimed and wild, which indicated that the Captain was unfocused.
"Something must have gone wrong when Cassandra spoke with her Dad," Eugene thought as he slowly approached the Captain.
The Captain who was unaware of the former thief arriving, was still attacking the dummy with every bit of his unchecked rage.
He was so angry at himself for having to do what he did to Cassandra, but his conscience told him that it had to be done.
For once, he wanted his conscience to go to hell.
He pictured himself in the dummy, and he continued taking strikes. Essentially, he was at war with himself.
"Uh, Captain?" Eugene called to him, and instinctively the Captain thrusted his sword at the former thief. But thankfully, his attack was wild and slow.
Eugene dodged out of the way and raised his hands. "Whoa geez! It's just me!" he exclaimed in a high-pitched voice, "Your good ol' former thief!"
The Captain's glaring eyes locked on Eugene's terrified ones, before he lowered his sword.
His momentary flash of rage melted into one of tiredness, something that Eugene had not seen before.
"What do you want?" the Captain asked, his voice hoarse and wear. He must have been screaming for a while.
Eugene rubbed his neck, "Um… I heard that Cassandra went to see you earlier."
Hearing the name of his daughter, the Captain looked away, "What about her?"
"Rapunzel and I hadn't seen since she went to talk to you," Eugene continued, "And um… I was wondering if you knew where she went."
The Captain lightly tossed his sword at the base of the dummy, and he let out a weary sigh.
"I'm sorry, son," he muttered softly, "I'm afraid I do not know."
Eugene could plainly see the guilt look that had crossed the older man's features, and he knew there was more than he was letting on.
"I thought something was not right when Cassandra seemingly disappeared just now," he pressed, "Especially since she went to see you. So with that being said… did something happen between you two?"
The Captain made a brief flash of anger before looking back to Eugene.
"Yes… something did happen…" the Captain stated, "And it's because of me." And for the first time, he removed his helmet.
"Ever since the incident with the Stabbington Brothers…" he started explaining solemnly, "I've had a lot to think about how much her training in weaponry and her position as Rapunzel's confidant puts her in serious danger."
He frowned at his helmet, "And while I know that she can take care of herself… I just felt that the risks were just too high for me to bear, especially since it's at the expense of Princess Rapunzel's safety."
He closed his eyes, "With that being said, I did the one thing I had to do: ban Cassandra from weaponry, and remove her as Princess Rapunzel's confidant."
Eugene was taken aback by this. Now this was news that he never expected to hear, especially from the Captain.
"B-But… why would you do that?" he asked the emotional older man.
The Captain let out a deep sigh, "Because… I knew that her father – her REAL father, would not have wanted her to follow in his footsteps."
"Yeah, Cassandra confided with me about that several times," Eugene said with a nod.
Ever since he became Rapunzel's fiancé, Cassandra would always talk about the Captain's stories with regards to her biological father, about how he was heroic, courageous, and respected. She even stated that she wanted to take over the Captain's position, just to be like him.
"Yet, isn't it wrong to just deny a daughter a chance to make her real father proud?" he questioned even further.
"That is the problem, Eugene," the Captain stated, "I only told her about her father, but it was all down to her to imagining who he was like."
The Captain put back on his helmet and went over to pick up his sword.
"I've seen her father before," he said as he sheathed his sword, "And he isn't exactly the type of hero in shining armor that Cassandra imagines him by his appearance and reputation."
Eugene looked confused. What was the Captain talking about?
The Captain stared hard at the dummy for a brief moment of time, before he turned back to Eugene.
And what he said next would not permit Eugene any sleep for the night.
"Cassandra's father…" the Captain said, "He's not what she thinks him to be. He is a pirate."