A/N: Hello, my beautiful flowers. Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, to whoever is reading. And please, leave me some reviews or PM me with new ideas. Without your opinions, I feel like I'm writing this story just for myself, and I want to know that I'm writing it for others as well. Thanks for reading. Give me some feedback. And have a nice a day!
Rapunzel was growing tired, and huffed out the last bit of laughter she had within her. Flynn tackled her to the ground, sinking both of them to the warm forest grass. He hovered above her, his chest heaving in and out with the exerted running they had just been engulfed in. Rapunzel smiled goofily up at him, giggling silently inside while her heart beat fast.
Eugene rested on his elbows above Rapunzel, staring down at her, his brown eyes on green. "I think Flynn Rider is much more care-free than Eugene is." Rapunzel stated with humor cleanly twisted into her words. She crookedly smiled and raised her one thin eyebrow. "Don't you think so?"
"When we're married, it's not Flynn Rider that I want you to be married to." Eugene said this, his lips, twitching up in a quirky smile that he hid expertly. Rapunzel wanted her lips on his. And so she did just that.
"I love you." She told him simply.
"Love you too, blondie." Rapunzel's heart stopped at his words. She still enjoyed when he called her that.
A crack of a twig and some arguing voices were coming their way. Eugene was on his feet, the old Flynn Rider in Rapunzel's opinion, as he pulled out the pocket knife he had in his boot. "Who's there?" Rapunzel yelled out as footsteps quickly approached.
Two women emerged. One with sleek black hair that was braided down her very slim back, and the other with golden locks that fell around her shoulders in beautiful waves of blonde streaks. "Hello," The black-haired one, who seemed to be dressed plainly just as the blonde one was, spoke in a raspy and spunky voice. "I am Catherina. And this is my good friend, Madilyn."
"You can call me Mary." The blonde one spoke.
"Put the knife away, crazy." Catherina spoke to Eugene with a slither of her tongue across her lips. "I'm only escorting my dear friend here, to Arendelle."
"Arendelle?" Rapunzel was interested now.
"Yes, you got a problem with that?" Catherina snapped back at the short brunette girl. Eugene instantly felt he should defend her.
"She only questioned you because it's only been a short 5 months since the Great Thaw." Eugene growled back at Catherina.
"The…Great Thaw?" Mary asked innocently; too frightened to speak to Eugene, but edging farther from her friend, and closer to Rapunzel.
"Yes!" Rapunzel answered enthusiastically, happy to see that there were still people around this part of the world that remained clueless to Queen Elsa's gifts. It only gave her more reasons than one to tell the story once more. She loved the tale that she heard through the grapevine, and was more than honored by the fact her and Eugene had attended her coronation. Rapunzel silently hoped that Elsa, along with her sister would attend her and Eugene's wedding.
After Rapunzel was through with her story of the Ice Queen and how all of Arendelle was covered in frozen ice and snow, to where she ultimately understood her powers then, and was able to thaw all of her palace and those around her, she then asked confusingly. "Didn't you notice the snow flurries in July? I mean, call me crazy, but that's not very common."
"I'm coming from Switzerland."
"I see." Rapunzel regarded Mary warmly. "Your accent is barely noticeable. You speak lovely English."
"Thank you." Mary blushed and looked down to her feet.
Rapunzel thought of that one word that described this mysterious woman, and she couldn't help but think that one word to be anything other than lovely. No other word seemed to distinguish her quite as well as that. Her eyes were of light brown, and her hair oh so beautiful. She had a small thin nose, and was petite with miniature hands. Rapunzel guessed she had to be at least in her early thirties. And what a beauty she was!
"What made you come this way? Why come to Arendale?" Eugene questioned both Catherina and Mary.
Catherina's eyes turned soft then, and her sleek blue gaze glided to her short and fragile looking friend. "Personal reasons." Mary barely got out in her terrified whisper. "And I'm afraid that your journey ends here, Catherina."
"No, no." Catherina disagreed with Mary once more. And Eugene had the irking feeling that this was the argument they had been in when they were approaching both he and Rapunzel.
"You promised to get me to Frankfurt, Catherina, and you've done more than that. I thank you so much. And I love you. I want you to go back to those children of yours. In Switzerland. I can make it on my own from here. We're in Germany after all, and you know as well as I do that Arendelle is no more than a week or two of traveling away. Please…" Mary begged her friend, her small hands closed over Catherina's larger ones who seemed to be debating.
"We'll take care of her!" Rapunzel blurted out, getting the cost of three pairs of eyes falling on her. "I mean…we can take her to Arendelle. I am the Princess of Corona. Eugene and I…" She was going to say that they were perfectly capable of receiving the blessing from the King and Queen to travel with this woman, but she stopped herself in fear of Eugene muttering something about he not being prince and getting that blessing not being as easy as Rapunzel was making it. And so she refrained.
"Of course!" Catherina scoffed at herself in disapproval. "You are Rapunzel! The lost Princess that has returned. I've heard of you. You were the talk of our town not but a year ago. It's good to see you in this fine of condition. Quite honestly, we weren't sure what to expect of a girl being locked away in a tower for 18 years. You look well, I gotta say."
"Thank you." Rapunzel took Eugene's hand into her own, getting a shy smile from him in return. "Eugene and I would be more than happy to escort Mary to Arendelle. It will be much cheaper as well. We'll have to go by ship. But being a Princess does have its perks! And free ship rides are one of them!"
"I couldn't impose…" Mary said shyly.
Eugene smiled at her kindly. "You wouldn't be imposing. Rapunzel and I have been trying for the past few months to come up with an excuse to go to Arendelle. It's a trip we were going to take anyhow, and so why not now? Let me take your bag."
Rapunzel watched as Eugene took the bag of the beautiful young woman, and slung it over his own shoulder.
Mary seemed taken aback by their kindness, not sure of what to make of it. They seemed trustworthy enough, and she was thrilled with the knowledge of traveling with the Princess of Corona! A princess, she thought. She would be traveling with the Returned Princess!
"Please, send word if you find him." Catherina whispered to Mary silently, but not quite silently enough for Rapunzel's perky ears not to pick up.
"Chances are I won't. But I will send word if a miracle were to happen." Mary told her friend sadly and then embraced her into a hug.
Catherina was then on her way in the opposite direction in the forest. Rapunzel waved to her, getting a sly wave in return.
Rapunzel watched as Mary ran her thin fingers through the thickness of her full hair. She watched as she braided it to one side, and then pinned it up expertly atop her head with small loose strings of it still hanging loose. She did this all while walking towards the Kingdom, Rapunzel thought jealously.
"So…" Rapunzel began in the awkward silence that the three of them endured for the past 10 minutes.
"Have you two been to Arendelle often?" Mary asked in her sleek, soft voice that reminded Rapunzel of white feathers.
"No," Eugene answered her, and in the same instance pushing back some brush to make an opening for the women, and then letting them pass through before he followed. "Just the once."
"For her coronation." Rapunzel finished and then smiled fondly at the memory. "She looked beautiful. As did her sister, Anna."
"Elsa is her name, yes?" Mary asked.
"Yes. Anna and Elsa. Their parents died a while back. Elsa is now running the kingdom with Anna as the Princess. Anna and I got along just splendidly. I will have to write to her and tell her of our coming there. I'm sure they would be more than happy to help you with your reasoning for going to Arendelle. Is there someone specific that you might be looking for?" The last question was that of a mistake that Rapunzel had let slip off her tongue. She realized that it was still unsaid of what she was going to Arendelle for, and all Rapunzel had been the evidence of Catherina saying, "Send word if you find him." But, who?
Eugene nudged Rapunzel, giving her a look that stated blandly that she had asked too much.
I'm trying to help her, Rapunzel mouthed to him before turning back to Mary who sadly looked ahead of her, observing the bright kingdom of Corona with darkness and desperation as they were not approaching it. "I left-…I know how terrible this sounds and I know we've just met. I wouldn't' be telling you this if I thought you couldn't help me." Mary stopped and her trembling fingers then ran through the braids on her head once more. She looked around frantically, tears stinging her eyes.
"Mary…you don't have to tell us. Listen to me; we will get you the best trackers that our kingdom has to offer. They will help you with whomever it is that you are looking for." Rapunzel approached her with cautious hands held in front of her.
"No…I only want to admit of my wrongdoing once. And you seem like you can help me...I-" Mary sighed a painful breath, scanning her eyes between Rapunzel and Eugene, and then back to Rapunzel and then to her hands. She closed her eyes at the memory. The horrid memory. "I…used to live in Arendelle. I was in a planned marriage with a man much older than I. I was only 15 when I became with child. My husband, you see, he wasn't a supporting man. He was worried more on what money we had left over for him to drink away at the saloon. And one day, he left and never returned. I was forced to begin working, but at only 15, and having no one else to help me, I quickly became weak, especially with the pregnancy.
I lived in the poverty part of town. The part in darkness that no one talks about. The King and Queen, Elsa's parents, did what they could to help the famine and thirsty people of their Kingdom. But there's only so much two people can do.
I knew a family that was wealthy. They had all but one child, and I knew…I thought they would be able to support my baby…and so I…"
"You left your baby with them." Eugene whispered with wide eyes.
"I had no other choice!" Mary said, completely distraught and upset. "I wanted a future for my son. I wanted him to be somebody someday and not become his father. I didn't want him to become anything like me. And so I left him with the Berliner family. I then fled in fear that someone would tell them who had left a child on their porch, and then return him to me. I know running away wasn't the right thing to do… but I had no other choice. I returned to my homeland in Switzerland. My parents rejected me for what I had done, and so I have been living with Catherina and her family."
"Didn't your father realize what kind of man he was forcing you to marry?" Rapunzel asked quietly, in a state of shock to hear this young woman's tale.
"He knew. But he had no other choice. My father had 7 daughters, and the task of marrying them all off was a difficult one. He and my mother didn't have the money to keep me under their roof any longer and I was the oldest that was still left at home. I had 4 younger sisters that cried when I was shipped away to Arendelle to marry Hugo."
"You didn't even get to meet Hugo before you married him?" Eugene said this in disgust.
"No. It was business, not love." Mary answered.
"And so you're returning to Arendelle to find your son." Rapunzel clarified.
"That is correct. But…who knows. As I've told Catherina many times on the way here, the chances of him staying in Arendelle are slim. He's probably moved on to somewhere else."
"But you don't know that for sure." Rapunzel gently persuaded her. "We will come to Arendelle with you and we will help you find your son, Mary. It is now our quest just as much as it is yours."
Mary smiled and went to Rapunzel's open arms. "Thank you. To the both of you."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Eugene rolled his eyes and slung her bag over his shoulder once more. Rapunzel put a delicate arm around Mary and tugged her along towards the Kingdom. "Do you know his name?" Rapunzel asked.
Mary smiled sadly and then crossed her thin arms, leaning into Rapunzel as though she needed the support to continue in walking. "I left a note in the basket, with some money that was probably nothing to them, but it was all that I had. In the note I told them that I was sorry, and that I couldn't afford to have him any longer. I then wrote at the bottom of the note, that his name shall be Kristoff. After his great-grandfather."
"Kristoff…" Rapunzel said to herself and then continued dragging Mary along towards the kingdom.