It was when a third deer showed up in the clearing that Flynn began to express his distaste for Rapunzel's… attraction to nature. The only attraction she should be feeling is towards me! Nevertheless, he kept quiet as all the furry woodland animals swooned as she talked to them, patted each of their heads.
"Can we get back to the meal?" Rapunzel giggled and looked back towards him with a glint in her eyes.
"Of course you can, Eugene. I'm just going to go play with my new friends. The food will not spoil if I don't consume it right away, will it?" He debated lying straight to her face, but there was already so much she didn't know- better not start feeding her false information from the get-go. Being the forgiving ex-convict he was, Flynn shook his head in response to her question and watched as she floated away with all of the bushy-tailed creatures, leaving him to fend for himself all alone on the picnic blanket. As an act of revenge, he immediately devoured all of the strawberries, knowing they were her favorite- and wallowed in his petulance. Stupid squirrels, stupid rabbits, stupid forest. Flynn popped another strawberry in his mouth as an afterthought. Stupid me.

"Pascal, you're being rather rash." The chameleon's eyes bugged out in shock as the tiny reptile shook his head furiously. "Well, I'm sorry that you don't enjoy his company sometimes, but Eugene will be staying at the palace. Besides, would you rather have some other prince taking up your spot?" There was a momentary pause while the chameleon feigned consideration, but ultimately shrugged in a nonchalant manner. "That's what I thought." Rapunzel continued discussing an array of topics, only now Pascal wasn't paying any attention to the subject of them. His dark eyes were latched to the small loaf of bread in her hands, which she kept picking at and tossing the pieces behind her on the trail.

Eagerly waiting for her attention to lapse, Pascal couldn't help but be overjoyed when one of the deer lightly butted its antlers against Rapunzel's dress. "Oh, you're just the cutest thing, aren't you?" With her mind on the deer, Pascal leaned on the edge of her shoulder and darted his tongue out. The bread was so close, the fresh scent of it assaulting his tiny nostrils. The bread was there, right there… and then it wasn't. Confused and a tad annoyed, the chameleon focused his gaze on the food, watching it travel over to the mouth of the deer. Through narrowed eyes, Pascal wished the creature a thousand deaths as it nibbled at the loaf.

Severely put off, he skittered down Rapunzel's form and to the forest floor. "You're a hungry little guy." Making as close to a pfft sound as a chameleon could, Pascal headed back the way they'd come, munching on the trail of bread crumbs she had scattered throughout the trek.

By the time the little reptile made it to the meadow, nearly thirty minutes had gone by.

"Where's the rest of you?" Flynn questioned, surprised to see one without the other. "Is everything okay?" Just as he was about to give the man a shrug, Pascal was interrupted by a distant shriek. In a sudden, jarring movement, Flynn slapped the creature onto his vest-covered shoulder. "Come on, we gotta go! Blondie's in trouble."

"Oh my, oh my, oh my. What a beautiful young lady that has stopped by! Do you see, do you see? Look at the way her supple skin gleams." Awoken by the cryptic voice, the young princess found herself tied to a… candy cane. Candy cane? Am I hallucinating? Eugene warned me of those mushrooms in the meadow… "Hello, hello, hello!" The voice's owner appeared out of the darkness, an elderly woman with a rather massive nose that featured an equally massive wart. "How are you, my dearie?"
"Um… confused." Her eyes roamed around the interior of the room, seeing nothing but sweets and junk food plastered to every inch of visible area. Lollipops and a slice of taffy formed a four-poster bed in the corner, while the cushions on the tiny sofa appeared to be gumdrops.
"And why," The woman paused to pull a stool, made from pretzel sticks, into the center of the room, "would that be?"

"Am I dreaming? How did I get here? And… why am I tied up with licorice?" A creepy cackle arose from deep within the witch.

"You're not dreaming, that's for sure. All I had to do was call out to you and offer up a warm cup of tea and bam you were lured! Still, too many questions. You don't want me to cover up that pretty little mouth of yours, do you?" In one leap, the old woman moved to press her mouth against Rapunzel's ear. "No worries, no worries. In just a few moments you'll be ready." The princess shuddered at the words as the stench of the witch's breath rolled down her neck. One last cackle and the old woman sprinted to a boiling cauldron near the front of the candy cottage.

"Ready?" Fear lacing her question, Rapunzel could only swallow and struggle against the licorice ropes when the witch spun around and grinned.

"Silly girl, don't you see? You're the main ingredient for tonight's curry." Eugene… where you are you?

"I'm comin', Blondie!" Flynn dashed madly through the thick underbrush, barely wincing as his fingers met a particularly sharp thorn bush. Past the nearest thicket of trees, he could see smoke rising into the canopy- a sure sign of humankind. Hopefully, Rapunzel had stumbled across a group of traveling pilgrims, instead of the evil entities that were said to inhabit the forest. Flynn could only hope, when the brightly-colored cottage came into view, that this was not one of those entities.

As if answering his question, he detected a creepy burst of laughter coming from inside the house. The abrupt sound echoed around the vicinity and tempted Flynn to glance back, to make sure someone hadn't followed Pascal and him. Swallowing the feeling, he crept closer to the tiny house, eyeing the outdoor décor curiously.

"Is that… candy?" Reaching out, he gripped the fencing and broke off a piece, popping it into his mouth. "Oh, my God, is that peppermint?" Okay, so maybe evil entity wasn't the correct assumption. Is there such a thing as an evil candy-maker? "That's definitely peppermint." Pascal, annoyed with his transportation, bounded from Flynn's shoulder to the grass. The movement caught the man's attention and he grinned sheepishly at the reptile. "Sorry. Guess I got a little carried away with the…" Pascal narrowed his eyes in distaste, "…right. Well, let's get a move on, shall we?" The two followed a dirt path- which Flynn was positive consisted of brown sugar- that wound to the cottage's backyard. Spotting a window, Pascal leapt onto the windowsill as Flynn peeked inside.

"Silly girl, don't you see? You're the main ingredient for tonight's curry." The two shared a look of alarm before returning to the window. Tied to a beam near the back of the cottage was Rapunzel, eyes wide with the same emotion, as the old woman- evil cannibal candy-maker- padded to an unseen area, restricted from view.

Quickly, Flynn dropped to the ground and assessed his battle plan.

"Frog?" The chameleon, situated on the edge of the sill, grumbled and turned his head away. "Sorry. Pascal?" An eye slid in Flynn's direction. "It's been an honor." Taking one look at the man's outstretched hand, and then at the man himself, Pascal gave into the sarcasm and shook. "Awesome! Now let's go kick some cannibal ass!"

Tap. Tap tap. Rapunzel glared at the fire, blazing underneath the pot the witch was stirring.

"If my hair was still long, I could just strangle the old hag and this whole mess would be over," She muttered to herself. Tap tap tap. Tap. Now curious of the recurring sound, the princess caught sight of the familiar flash of brilliant green.

"Pascal!" She mouthed in delight. Her beloved pet smiled through the glass. Although the sight of him livened her spirits, she knew that there was only so much a tiny chameleon could do. Taking down witches was probably not one of those things. Yet, the look Pascal was giving her must've meant something.

A knock at the front door of the cottage became her answer.

"Go away, go away! Mother has no time to play." The knocking persisted. "Oh, fine, fine. Just give me a little time!" And with each step the woman took closer to the door, Pascal's grin widened. Finally making the connection, Rapunzel bit back a surprised gasp, clenching her bottom lip in between her teeth. Eugene!

The door swung open to reveal the future prince, standing on the front stoop in all of his handsome glory. Pascal rolled his eyes while Rapunzel beamed.

"Good day, madam. My name is... Mr. Stabbington and I was wondering if you-"

"Not interested, lad." His stomach dropped slightly as she made to close the door. Desperate, he slapped a hand on the frosting-coated wood, rudely barging his head in to take a big whiff- and to hastily wink at his wife.

"My, my, my, the aroma from your cooking is simply marvelous."
"Well, thank you-"
"-can I interest you in experiencing the finest cookware to recently hit the market?" The witch panicked, pressing her entire self between the door jamb and Flynn to prevent him from seeing her awaiting meal.
"Sure, but let me just-" The cast-iron frying pan came down on her head, leaving the old witch unresponsive on the floor.

"Blondie!"

"Eugene!" Leaping over the unconscious cannibal, he sprinted to where the princess was tied and immediately began undoing the licorice knots. Once free, Rapunzel wasted no time in throwing her arms around him and crushing his lips to her own. Pascal, ignoring the affection, quickly regained his normal spot and nestled in her hair, happy to have her back.

"Hello to you, too," Flynn replied in his usual smug manner that quickly changed to a serious one, "Are you okay? Did she hurt you?"

"Oh, I'm fine now that I know she isn't going to be boiling me in her pot."

"Good. That's… definitely good, but we should skedaddle out of here before she wakes up, just to ensure that doesn't happen." Rapunzel nodded eagerly and followed Flynn out of the cottage, pausing only to deliver another blow to the hag.

"You know," She started as they continued down the path that led back to the kingdom, "if all else fails, you could be one convincing salesman."
"Yeah, I dunno. I'm not sure if I could follow through with the sale if I kept bludgeoning them to unconsciousness." They shared a laugh and allowed the silence to fall down around them yet again.

Until Rapunzel broke it once more: "How did you know how to find me?"

"That was mostly Pascal, actually. He took me to the last spot he'd seen you and then I tracked you down to the cottage," Flynn cleared his throat before continuing, "A word of advice, though: next time, could you leave me a trail? If I had been any later, I might have had to throw the old woman into the boiling pot if she'd done anything to you." Her face clearly expressed the confusion coursing through her mind.

"But- but I did leave a trail!"

"Wait- what? Where?"

"I left a trail of bread crumbs." A small burp echoed the statement. The reptile winced before another burp interrupted the sheepish smile adorning his green cheeks. The couple exchanged a similar look of realization before turning to the chameleon on Rapunzel's shoulder.

"Pascal!"

AN: In the original tale, Gretel pushed the witch into her own oven, but I don't think Rapunzel could actually murder someone, so I switched it up for her character's sake.

Bonus points if you can spot a line I snuck in from a popular crime-drama show, which just happens to be my favorite.

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone!