The shortest yet. But I have to get it up tonight for various, personal reasons.

Jack belongs to DreamWorks and William Joyce, Rapunzel to Disney.

Day 5: Vestige

Rapunzel took a deep breath and hesitated.

She had told herself she would comeback. The need for closure had always drawn her back.

Still, three summers had come and gone. Whenever she thought of it, she had always found some excuse to put it off. "Just a little longer."

Now, she faced the vines that had been the gate that locked her in, and kept the world out.

Yet they were brushed aside so easily, it was hard to believe they had ever been enough to guard any secret.

Forget-me-nots sprung up from the places where she stepped, and all the plants grew and blossomed as she walked by. Her very presence brought the spring.

Rapunzel looked at the grass, the wild flowers, the stream that flowed from the base of the waterfall, and murmured over the mossy rocks.

Slowly, so slowly, she lifted her eyes.

In the center of the cove, covered in vines, as though it had grown out of the rocks, was the tower. The circular house at the tope was rather cute, she observed. While and brown, with the pointed purple roof.

It didn't look like a prison.

She climbed the vines, now three years thicker, all but hiding the stem of the tower.

She hesitated again at the windowsill.

But she had come this far. She wasn't going to back down.

Part of her wished she had waited for Jack, as Bunnymund had suggested.

But she knew it had to be now.

She pulled herself up onto the windowsill, then into the small cottage.

It really was just that: a cottage set on top of a tower.

Once so immaculate, dusted and polished by her tireless cleaning, filled with the scent of baking cookies and good food.

Rapunzel's eyes began to sting as tears threatened to overflow.

Dust had settled everywhere. Her paintings, years of work, had already begun to fade. The air was stale and dead.

Dead. The word still echoed in her mind.

Pieces of the shattered mirror still lay on the stone floor. Her few plants had long since died. Even as she was, she couldn't revive them. Only a few dry leaves now lay on the floor.

The summer breeze turned cold, and grew to a wind.

She looked back just as Jack Frost landed on the windowsill, shepherd's crook in hand. She tried to greet him, but the words didn't make it to her throat.

Jack jumped down to the floor, a small cloud of dust billowing around his bare feet.

"Bunny said you were here."

Rapunzel nodded. I – I had to see it," she said, looking around.

She turned to Jack again.

"I love the Warren. I just..."

Jack leaned on his staff. "You need closure."

"Is that strange?" she asked.

Jack shook his head. He stepped closer, resting a hand on her arm.

"Why do you think I went back to Burgess for three hundred years?" Jack asked softly.

Rapunzel nodded her understanding. Crouching down, she picked up a piece from the mirror.

"Vestiges," she murmured. She ran her fingers over the cool, reflective surface. "Pieces. That's all that's left."

This was the place where she had died, falling from her tower... only to wake up again, as a spirit of spring, finger painting blossoms, and summoning sunrays.

"I thought there was something left here," she admitted. "But there's not."

Jack touched her arm again. "Of course not."

With a gentle touch, he turned her to face him.

"You're here, Rapunzel," he said. "If there are pieces hidden, you don't have to go looking for them."

He touched her chest with a fingertip, over her heart. "It's right here.

Rapunzel looked up at him for a moment, then threw her arms around his neck.

They stood there, holding each other, Winter and Spring.

Outside, all the plants and flowers were in full bloom... even as a soft snow began to fall.

Like I said, sadder than the others, but hopefully sweet.

Until next time...