Author's Note: Hello! Thank you so very much for clicking on this fanfiction! I have spent an absurd amount of time watching Disney's "Tangled" and have picked up on a few details, so I decided to expand upon them! Watch the tale again (with subtitles) and you'll catch Conli's name in the Snuggly Duckling. Research the voice actors' of the guards and you'll see why I chose the names I did. I hope you enjoy this!
I was eight when the queen got sick, very sick.
Two days later, on my ninth birthday, my brother was called to the expedition in search of the Miracle for the queen.
And it was another two days after my non-celebratory day when shouts of "We found it!" rang throughout the kingdom of Corona. I raced outside of the stables I was working in to see the commotion. To my highest degree of honorable pride, I saw my brother leading the pack of weary soldiers and sweaty horses with the golden flower in his capable hands.
He always told me to steer clear of the coming and goings of the soldiers; I might get trampled since I was so small, so I carefully crept behind the near-parade of soldiers to the castle. The crowd stifled me, but I managed to stand on some barrels near a fruit stand to get a better view of my brother passing the flower to some royal official who was nearly sprinting down the steps of the palace's balcony.
The look of sheer gratitude and relief in the receiver's face was ingrained into my memory. It was then I knew I wanted nothing more than to be a soldier like my brother, but also to simply be my brother. He was so strong and sure; my constant of my childhood.
When my brother was finally released from the embrace upon giving the flower to the regally dressed man, his eyes scanned the crowd and immediately found me. I expected a chastising scowl, but a grin filled his worn face. He earned the rest of the day off and took me to our home. There, around a feast of bread, cheese, and meat, he gave me all the details of the adventure in finding the magic golden flower, the Miracle.
"Who found the magic golden flower, Nathan?" I asked, sure my eyes were as bright as the sun on the armor in the kingdom.
"Uh, well," he coughed and I saw a blush creeping over his face. "Me."
"You found it?!" My brother was the hero?
"Yeah, me and Gainey, we found it together," Nathan explained with a humble smile. My awe over my big brother never ceased.
"You're going to be Captain of the Guards someday, Nathan," I declared. He chuckled.
"Yeah, maybe so, Conli," he laughed again, tousling my hair, "maybe so."
"Who was that who you gave the flower to?"
"That was the king," Nathan stated. "Something as important as that, he wanted to transport to his wife personally."
My jaw fell agape.
"Now you're really going to be the Captain of the Guards!" Nathan just laughed.
Hours carried on like this: me begging Nathan for every detail and him obliging to my ridiculously adoring requests. Finally, after I heard his tale a good four times, we settled in the overstuffed chair posed in the comfy corner and read our favorite book together until the wee hours of the morn.
I woke up the next day to Nathan whistling as he scrambled a batch of eggs. He told me he had the day off and Gainey, his best friend and fellow guardsman, did too. The three of us spent the entire day together. Moments of lounging on the rickety back deck, chewing straw, and tossing rotten apples to one another filled the day.
Near the afternoon, shouts of praise reached our ears. The queen was well again and had given birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl named Rapunzel. That night, the king and queen sent off a floating lantern to show their gratitude for their daughter. I sat on Nathan's shoulders pointing and exclaiming to it for nearly an hour before I slumped over his head in sleepy defeat.
I awoke to jostling sometime between the market and our house in Nathan's arms with Gainey talking to him about returning to their stations tomorrow. But I didn't have to focus on Nathan leaving so soon, he would be Captain of the Guards and stay in town to train troops rather than leave.
And for just a moment, everything was perfect.
And then that moment ended.
I woke again, but in my bed this time, and with the morning rays streaming through my dirty window. I bounded down the shaky ladder; barely registering I didn't smell breakfast. I stopped my happy skips when I saw Nathan slumped at the small kitchen table, an important looking letter resting between the same capable hands that tousle my hair and carry miracles.
"N-Nathan?" I hesitantly ask him. My question seems to shake him out of his daze. He rubs his hands over his face as if to wipe away the sleeplessness I knew would mark him. "What'cha got there?"
"Um, well, Conli, something happened last night."
What he had to tell me rattled me so much, I sprinted from our crumbling-in-more-ways-than-one home, and dashed for the town stables.
Nathan set me up with a job scrubbing stalls, shoveling hay (which makes me sneeze), and brushing the horses. It didn't pay much, was a lot of work, but it kept me busy. And it let me bond with the horses. My favorite was Sunlight. She was a beautiful white mare. Gainey always made fun of the names I unofficially gave the horses.
"Well, then, what's a good name for a horse?" I griped at Gainey as he -once again- mocked Sunlight's magnificent name when he and Nathan came to visit me on their town rounds about a year ago.
"Hmmm," he pondered dramatically. "If I ever get my own horse with the Royal Guards, I'll have to name my steed something stoic and majestic like... Titan."
"Titan?" Nathan scoffed slightly.
"Lame," I agreed.
"What title would you bestow your steed, then, oh good future Captain?" Gainey embellished with a good-natured grin. Nathan jokingly shoved Gainey's shoulder at his foreshadowing to Nathan's dream job.
"Hmmm," Nathan mimicked. "A name for the horse I'd ride when we're promoted to the Royal Guard Calvary that's stoic and majestic, eh? I think I'd go with... Maximus."
Many, many other fond memories spent with the horses and Nathan and Gainey were formed at the stables.
Once I finally arrived to my haven, I plopped on the ground beside Sunlight's stall and cried.
I cried because there's absolutely nothing I can do to help this world or my big brother. I cried that it was unfair for Nathan to have to work so hard. I cried because I didn't want him to leave again. And I cried for the reason why he had to go; Nathan told me that the castle had a break-in last night, and the intruder stole the princess. The guards tried their hardest to catch the thief, but failed for the thief was quick as night. But the snatcher didn't completely escape unscathed; the Captain blocked the thief's escape of Corona. The Captain was able to follow the thief a bit into the forest before the thief jabbed the Captain with a dagger.
He died just a few hours ago.
I cried because of how much the Captain meant to Nathan, and would have meant to me when I enlisted as a royal guard.
And I finally cried because of recently shown bravery and consistent dedication to the kingdom, Nathan was promoted to be the new Captain of the Guard. At first, I shouted for joy at his job, but then shrieked in horror when he said that he must leave for the woods to find his Captain's murderer.
I must avenge the Captain who raised me like a son, and return the royal child so she'll never have to grow up without a father like we had to, he had said.
It was then when I ran to the stables. He was leaving me. Again. He was leaving me, again, and for what? A man who wasn't our dad and for a baby.
Eventually, I returned home and we ate lunch in silence.
Gainey came by shortly after, only stopping by to get Nathan so they could join the search in the woods for the princess and thief/murderer.
"Hey, everything'll be okay, Conli," Nathan reassured as I stood on the uneven doorstep; him on his horse, I barefoot and feeling lower than dirt to not be helping him. "I have to do this. Please understand." I sniffed and focused my eyes on my toes. "I'll be home in a few days, do your studies and continue working at the stables."
"But you know how the hay makes me sneeze," my first words to him since he told me the news he was leaving.
"Just don't catch a fever, then, 'kay? And work hard so you'll rank out of the stables and into the guard with Gainey and I," Nathan said in such confidence I nearly doubted his belief in me. Nearly.
When I couldn't hear their trotting horses, I finally glanced up at their retreating figures way in the distance near the woods where I play with other kids. Then, an idea struck me. Every day, Nathan and Gainey are in the palace, or at the training field, or in battle, but I'm the one who explores the town and woods. I know the first few miles like the back of my hand. I could easily help them find the person who took the baby and killed Nathan's friend. Then, Nathan won't have to leave me ever again and we can be together as he promised.
My idea was brilliant, and I wanted to start soon, so I was dashing down the cobblestones and halfway over the bridge before I realized I still had no shoes on my feet. But on I ran.
Revised on 1-3-15 with one word change I had missed in previous editing sessions.