Yay, update! No replies to make today...

Just letting you know... We're jumping back in time again! I seem to have fun screwing up timelines, if this and my OS on FP_net is anything to go by... Hopefully it all make sense eventually!

Also, a brief warning. I didn't know I was capable of writing something scary. However, it is brief, and not extremely descriptive. Probably not even that scary, but I don't watch scary movies of any kind, so... I seriously wasn't even planning it to happen. It just... happened

Chapter 3

They'd spent a lot longer than three days away. She completely understood why her mother had been angry... but not why she had been that angry. At least she had decided to come back at all! She had been tempted—oh, so tempted—to stay with Eugene and never come back.

But Mother had been so furious.

The tower was completely dark when they arrived. "That's strange, Mother said she'd be home by now..."

"Hello, dear." Eugene made a weird, strangled noise deep in his throat when her mother stepped into view.

"Mother?" Gothel had aged. Rapunzel had never realized how much her mother depended on her magic. "What happened to you?"

"Oh, I'm fine, flower. This is only one of the consequences of your... betrayal..." Gothel replied in a sickly-sweet voice.

She could feel Eugene tense beside her. She was feeling nervous, too. Mother had never been this bad before. She didn't know why she was acting so weird. Her hair was gray and the skin of her face appeared... almost see-through, it was so paper-thin. She was bone-thin and looked really worn out. But she also looked calm—a vicious, hateful calm—that Rapunzel knew would give way to a storm that would blow every other rant of Gothel's out of the water.

She needed to get Eugene out of there as soon as possible.

She was pushing him back towards the window, hoping he would take the hint when Gothel moved quickly towards them. Rapunzel barely caught the glint o the blade before it had slashed through Eugene's side. "How dare you take my flower from me! You're no better than those awful guards that took it away the first time! I will not lose my flower again!" her mother screamed.

Rapunzel wasn't sure what Gothel was talking about, but she knew she needed to save Eugene, and fast. There was already a lot of blood in his shirt.

She reached up and pushed Gothel has hard as she could an turned to Eugene, not realizing her mother was reeling back towards the window until Eugene let out a startled cry. She turned and watched her mother fall, her eyes wide, and her arms reaching out on their own to save the only person who she was completely sure loved her.

She turned back to the man who had opened her eyes to the world, and immediately tended to his side.

When they'd finally left the tower behind, they knew they had to keep moving. Max had given them the allotted twenty-four hours, and no more. He'd already been working on finding Eugene again. Last they'd seen, he'd been racing back to the palace.

They were walking away, her hair trailing behind her, when something caught it, and she was forced to stop. She turned, seeing the decaying form of Gothel gripping her hair, jaw moving, trying to sing a song despite it's lack of breathing. Rapunzel screamed. Eugene moved quickly, grabbing her hair and using a small knife to saw at it, desperately trying to stop the corpse from hurting her. It was all she could do to not start singing, just so that Gothel would stop trying to, just so that she wouldn't have to look on the horrifying—

Suddenly, Eugene was pulling her away. The yards of blonde hair were quickly turning brown, and her mother's body was turning to dust. She turned, and ran with her savior to the entrance of the little valley.

They burst out of the cavern, and took off, away from Corona. They ran and ran, until Rapunzel's lungs were burning and her knees were shaking. She stopped, collapsing to the ground, choking on the sobs that suddenly overcame her. "Eu-Eugene! I n-need t-t-to sto-op. I c-can't b-b-breathe!"

Eugene slowed and came to her side. He held her while she cried over her mother's death. Eventually, he pulled her to her feet, and told her they needed to find somewhere to rest for the night.

Captain Harris was absolutely bewildered. His horse had disappeared the day of the Lantern Festival, only to return the next day seeming antsy and hyper. Max had actually tried dragging him out of the stables by his sleeve. Thomas finally managed to mount Maximus, only for the horse to take off at a reckless gallop, heading into the forest. He could only hope that his horse had somehow managed to locate the still-at-large Rider.

Max continued into the forest, never losing speed. He whipped around tree and over obstacles like a champion. That's my horse, Captain Harris thought, a smug smile appearing on his face.

Suddenly, Maximus stopped, glanced around, and began sniffing the ground. Obviously, this was the last place he had seen Rider. Harris glanced around the little clearing. There were some small signs—footprints, broken twigs on bushes, and cleared area that had been dug up and packed down again—that suggested there had been someone camping out here recently. Possibly the night before.

Max's ears perked up, and he immediately took off again, following the scent trail of the infamous thief.

Eventually, they stopped at a rock wall, covered in large vines. Max stared at the vines, tipped his head to one side, picked up one foot, and kicked out at the wall. Harris almost fell out of his saddle in shock, suddenly recognizing where they were. They had tracked the Lost Princess's kidnapper to this exact spot, but had lost the trail. It was evident now that she had known of the concealed tunnel that the Captain and his horse were now passing through. They had given up searching this area, convinced there was nothing there, because none of them had had the brains to double-check that the vines actually did cover a wall.

When they reached the other end of the tunnel, Thomas gasped at the nearly-picturesque sight before him.

Okay, so sort of a cliffie, but not really, because we all know (or should know) what he sees.

So, you only had to wait... what? Six weeks? That's, like, record time for me, babe.

I am now in my last semester of high school. I AM GRADUATING IN LESS THAN 5 MONTHS! :)

Then it's off to college (hopefully my dream school...)!

See you when I find the time and motivation to write another chapter!

P.S.-Reviews help. No, really! They do! :)

**I have a Twitter solely for telling you where the heck I am and why I haven't updated! Follow me: _mecaka **

-Check out my profile. I have a running list of possible story ideas, and I will start any of them if one of you lovely readers (especially if you are a lovely reviewer) asks me too. I'm also willing to accept one-shot prompts, provided I have already written for that category!-