"show me your face,
let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
and your face is lovely.
Catch for us the foxes,
the little foxes
that ruin the vineyards,
our vineyards that are in bloom."
Rapunzel's thirteen years old. It's a young night. The moon's awake, and the sky, dark and incandescent, shines small light into her tower. There's a small drizzle of rain that makes pitter-patter noises against the stone walls. "Oh, Pascal," she whispers. He's a green, lively lizard, sleeping comfortably on a miniature bed fixated next to her own plush bed. He opens an eye, shoots her a distasteful look, and then falls back to sleep.
But she can't sleep. Because come morning, it'll be her birthday. She'll be thirteen years old. Perhaps her life will finally begin.
Restless, she quickly rises from her bed and moves toward the open window. She stands in front of it, letting the light mist spray over her face. It pushes her long, long hair to flow lightly in the vast space of the room. She rests her hands on the window ledge and dreamily leans forward, head out of the window. A rush of wind brushes past her. She smiles, gazes out at the distance, and is totally allured by the beautiful, black landscape in the distance.
That is, until something special catches her eye.
Confused, she tilts her head, jaw slanted in confusion. In the forest, probably a full mile away, there's a blurring splash of color.
"What is that beautiful color?"
And it's the color red. A burning, bright color. Redder than any color she'd ever painted with.
And it's gone sooner than she had hoped.
"A wee bit faster, Angus," Merida calls behind the neck of her horse. Angus is moving at turbulent speeds; his legs pump and thrust against the floor of the forest, sending bits of dirt and gravel sailing across the moor. Her red hair, fluvial and abundant, flows in a languished stream behind her back.
She's running. Running away. Been on the run for the past two days.
Her blue eyes become misty at the thought of her family. The triplets and her soft-hearted father. Only her mother is spared from her laments. Her cruel, unrelenting mother. She snarls at the mere thought of that ghastly woman. Glad she's running away.
And then, "That's enough for tonight," Merida says to Angus. She slows him down into a slow trot and hops off the saddle, leading him by the rope. She looks around for a place to sleep. It's been raining, and now, everything is sloppy and wet. "We need to find someplace dry," she says, remembering the way wet clothes have killed off hundreds from her kingdom. Angus buckles his head in agreement.
"Och. What's this?" she notices a wall of long, green vines. It seems promising. Perhaps a patch of dry ground lies behind its concealed entanglement. Thinking it to be a cave of some sort, she turns back to Angus and gives him the signal to have a seat. Then, she enters the vines.
Oh, it's a cave. Excellent. She's pleased with herself. She plops herself down immediately, exhausted from a two day's travel. She reaches into her satchel and opens it up, retrieving a slice of bread and a hunk of milkberry cheese. She notices with a pang of despair that it's the last of her food. From this moment on she'd have to hunt the rest of her meals. The bow is slung on her shoulder, ready for tomorrow, then.
She turns to her left side, feeling the milkberry cheese melt over her tongue, and is surprised to see that the cave doesn't end. There's a faint light at the end, a circle. She finishes off the bread and cheese and bravely charges down the cave.
She's closer and closer, and now, she's at the end of the cave. The opening is huge; it's too dark to see beyond, so she brings her bow and arrow in front of herself, defensive as always. She moves forward into the clearing.
She's not prepared for what she sees.
It's a tower. An utterly fantastic, inconceivable work of architecture. The moonlight illuminates its details.
"Good god," she whispers in blissful astonishment. Her neck is craned back, looking up to see its highest point. The tower can be seen in the reflection of her water-blue eyes. She runs a hand through her hair and begins to laugh. It's perfect. A perfect place to spend the rest of her life. Nobody from the kingdom would ever find her.
And now, she's climbing up the tower with the assistance of two handy pickaxes, while her bow and arrow is slung upon her shoulder. Nearing the very top, she glances down and gulps. It's deathly high, and she was never one for heights.
There's a window. Shuddering from the physical workload, she breathes a sigh of relief and throws herself into the window.
Now she's in a room. She blinks, eyes adjusting to the light.
And then everything fades to black.
She opens a weary eye. It's hard to breathe; there's something wrapped around her chest, around her arms, too. She glances down. She's tied up in a chair with a silky, blonde type of substance entwining her.
"Wait a minute," she mutters, confused as she follows the trail of the blonde silk. "Is... this... hair!?" She begins to panic, and shakes herself in the chair, trying to escape its clutches.
"Struggling is pointless."
The voice. It was feminine, and soft, and it came from the shadows of the room. Merida blinks, squinting around.
"Och, who's there?" Merida questions. Feeling nervous and vulnerable, she glances the vicinity of the room. Too dark to see anything. But then an actual goddess steps from the shadows.
She's blonde, stunning, and alluring. Her green eyes, emerald jades, are the first jewels that shoot Merida's heart like a bullet; and then there's the way her head is tilted down ever so slightly, highlighting the slim features of her body.
"Who are you," the blonde, Rapunzel, says. "And how did you find me?" There's not really any fear in her voice; rather, there's a layer of curiosity, and a bit of bravery. A frying pan is wielded near her hip. Her eyes are illuminated, and they almost make Merida feel rather... peculiar.
"Hi there," Merida utters, unsure of what to say. She notices the unbearable amount of blonde hair strewn across the floor, and how it's connected to her own body. "I'm a bit tied up, as you can see." She shoots a smile.
Rapunzel's eyes only squint harder. "I asked you a question." She lifts the frying pan higher up, but she's still not exactly posing a threat.
"I'm just a wee girl," the Scottish rebel laughs nervously. "Honestly, I don't mean an ounce of harm. And who are you?"
"You know who I am," Rapunzel retorts smoothly. "Who told you about my hair? Who else knows my location?" She dares to come closer to the chair, bringing the frying pan up close to the redhead's face.
Merida squirms under her tangled circumstances. "Honestly, blondie. I know nothing of your hair. If you'd just let me go..."
Rapunzel gasps suddenly, turns toward the door of her room, and then frantically turns back to Merida, bringing a finger to her own lips to signal silence. She tiptoes to the door and presses her ear against the wood.
"I think my mother is awake," Rapunzel whispers, horrified. Her eyes are wide and scanning all around the room. "I'll have to hide you..."
'"You could just let me go," Merida interjects, but then, Rapunzel is in front of her, untangling the hair from her body. Every few moments, as Rapunzel's hands unwind Merida, her small fingers brush up against the redhead's body, which Rapunzel doesn't seem to notice, but Merida takes note with a deep blush. Rapunzel, whose face is frantic and focused and inches away from the redhead's, looks briefly into Merida's eyes.
Merida quickly glances away. There's an awkward tension in the air as Rapunzel's hands freeze, and then continue their job.
"Rapunzel?" a raspy, middle-aged woman's voice sounds from outside the door.
"Ah!" Rapunzel silently gasps. By now, the last of her hair is off Merida, and Merida steps from the chair, freed. Before she can take a moment to appreciate this newfound freedom, she is nearly shocked when she feels Rapunzel's warm hand grab her own and quietly lead her behind a large human-scaled mirror on the other side of the room.
"Don't come out from behind," Rapunzel whispers urgently, staring briefly into Merida's eyes. Merida only nods and squeezes herself as tightly as she can behind the concealment of the old mirror.
Merida hears Rapunzel yell, "Come in, mother,", and then there's a thump of a body jumping on the bed.
She hears the door open.
"Is everything okay in here?" the woman's voice asks, entering the room.
"Everything is fine, mother," the blonde's voice replies. It contains a hint of feigned exhaustion. "I just had a nightmare, that's all."
"You had me worried sick, darling," the woman says. "Go back to bed. Honestly, I work way too hard to deserve this." The sound of her voice causes Merida to grimace because it's quite annoying. After a few moments, the woman leaves the room.
Merida comes out from behind the mirror. She immediately looks at Rapunzel, who is running her hands down a strand of her hair, looking rather downcast and sitting on the edge of her bed.
"Want to talk about it?" Merida asks, taking light steps across the room.
Rapunzel glances at Merida sheepishly and forces a smile. "Oh, it's nothing," she remarks softly. She shrugs and raises an eyebrow. "So, you're not going to take advantage of my hair, right?"
Merida snorts. "Of course not! Why on earth would I take advantage of your hair?"
Rapunzel shrugs once again and turns her gaze down to her feet swinging off the bed. Merida takes this as an opportunity to sit down next to the blonde.
"So," Merida muses. She shyly watches Rapunzel and feels a blush creep into her cheeks when she realizes how beautiful the girl looks. I shouldn't be realizing those kinds of things, though, she thinks to herself, abruptly shaking her head. "So, I didn't get your name?"
The blonde meets Merida's gaze and makes an actual smile. "Rapunzel," she says softly. "And you'rs?"
"Me name's Merida," Merida announces proudly. "Nice to make your acquaintance."
Rapunzel chuckles and her eyes fall on Merida's heaping curls of red hair. "I noticed your hair from a mile away," she says, amused. She scoots closer to Merida and reluctantly takes a piece of red hair in her trembling fingers. "It's soft."
Merida blushes. "Oh, thank you," she says. "It isn't much special compared to your's. It's so long."
Rapunzel takes this as a compliment. She grins from ear to ear and replies, "Thanks!"
There's a long pause as the girls are gazing at each other. They both quickly look away, blushing and clearing their throats.
"Well," Rapunzel says, looking around. "You can live here if you want. It's too lonely."
Merida cocks her head. "Your mom's too annoying. I couldn't live with a woman like that. Speaking of her... did you notice, that um, your mother's quite harsh?"
"Harsh?"
Merida nods. "She disregarded everything you said earlier."
Rapunzel shrugs. "She's just trying to protect me. She loves me, you know."
Merida glances at the window. "Well... I wouldn't be able to live with your mother. I just escaped my own intolerable mom. So instead of me living here, how about you run away with me?"
Rapunzel sighs heavily and falls back on her bed. "If only..."
Hours pass by and the two girls get to know each other. By dawn, Merida must leave. She hugs Rapunzel and is taken down the tower by a long whisp of the blonde beauty's hair.
"Don't forget," Rapunzel calls from the top of the tower as Merida begins to walk away. "Don't forget to look at the sky tonight! You won't regret it!"
Merida grins and gives her a thumbs up from down below. "I'll be back eventually! One day!"
Rapunzel looks so stunning even from a distance like that.