Soli Deo gloria

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Tangled.

I gasped in horror. Running like a herd of horses, stampeding towards us were the men we had hidden from in the Snuggly Duckling. We stood in shock a moment before Rider found his voice and yelled, "Run!" With a gasp, Rapunzel ran, grasping a load of hair behind her. Rider grabbed the ends and ran and I held on for dear life at the back of her neck.

We soon found the light at the end of the tunnel, approaching feet urging us on. Turns out that the tunnel had been incorporated into the design of a large dam! Next to us on the cliff was a wheel, turning by the power of water while some of the water dripped off the sides. The three of us examined the land hurriedly. Ahead of us were two tunnels; we instantly all turned to the one on the right. It looked nice and safe, but the tunnel next to us filled our hearts with fear.

It had been boarded up but the wooden boards instantly broke as out popped two burly men with swords. They both were large and had red hair; one of them had sideburns coming in and the other had an eye patch over his eye. They both glared at us with a look filled with revenge that made the three of us gulp.

"Who's that?" Rapunzel nervously questioned Rider. I was covering my mouth in anticipation. "I don't want to die," I groaned to myself miserably.

"They don't like me," Rider quickly answered. Thank you for stating the obvious.

Rapunzel, Rider, and I turned to where we had exited. In the entrance of the tunnel were the men in red with their swords in their sheaths. Their helmets gleamed evilly in the sunlight as they approached us.

"Who's that?" Rapunzel repeated. I held onto her for dear life. "Please don't let us die, please don't let us die," I prayed hopefully.

"They don't like me either," Rider repeated.

Out from behind the scary men came forth a large animal. He was extremely white with brown straps attached to him. Sweat poured down him as he glared at Rider with annoyance in his eyes.

"Who's that?" Rapunzel asked again.

Oh, they don't like him, please accept that!

Rider looked at her straight in the eye, annoyed. "Let's just assume that at the moment everyone here doesn't like me!" He waved his arms in emphasis.

Rapunzel wasn't used to being treated like that, so she on purpose flung the frying pan at Rider and gathered up her blonde locks. "Here!" she yelled as she threw a twisted bit of hair around a branch. Rider gave her a look as she tightened her grip and launched herself from the cliff onto another cliff several feet away. I gulped as she landed gently on the cliff.

"Huh!" she sighed to herself in relief. She gave me a smile before she looked back at Rider; we both let out a gasp. Rider had knocked out the entire group of 'guards', as they are apparently called, and was now fighting the beast with Rapunzel's frying pan.

Rapunzel and I watched in awe as the two fought, a kitchen tool versus a sharp steel blade. Wonderful, they were so very evenly matched. The horse grunted and with one swift motion, knocked the pan out of Rider's surprised hands, launching it into the air. We all paused for a moment until we heard the faint CLANK! of it hitting the bottom. The horse grunted again and went at Rider's throat. Rider held up his hands in defeat and asked weakly, "How 'bout two outta three?" The horse was too annoyed for a rematch.

Rapunzel sensed danger (well, more than there had been two minutes ago), and without hesitation, grabbed a handful of hair and threw it out to the man.

"Flynn!" she called desperately. I slumped in relief when he caught it and swung out under the cliff we were currently standing on. Rapunzel had the tension on an old board sticking out and groaned at the weight. My eyes widened as she yelled, "Flynn, look out!"

The two menacing men with red hair were running toward the swinging Rider with swords in hand, ready to attack. I covered my eyes but peeked through the green digits to see Rider narrowly avoid them.

"Ha!" Rider gloated victoriously. "You should have seen your faces, because you look—" His boastful speech was abruptly interrupted when he slammed into an open board. "Ridiculous."

Rapunzel and I shuddered. That had to hurt—I mean, you just got knocked into a large, sharp board extending out of a dirt, um, thingie, and that just added to the stress of the situation.

Oh no, I heard a noise behind us. Rapunzel and I carefully turned to see what had made that loud racket. The vengeful horse had butted his large noggin into a loosened board and managed to knock it down. With stealthy precision, he crossed it without nary taking the time to watch where he was going. No, his eyes were, *gulp,* pointed at us.

"Blondie!" a voice called. We turned to see that Rider had managed to climb up the board and was holding the rope of hair determinedly. "Jump!" he urged.

Rapunzel and I needed no encouragement. With one leap, we floated down the edge of the cliff. The horse had reached where we had just been and reached out desperately for her hair, only for his chances to be ripped away as the last golden hairs fell out of reach. I could see the whites of his teeth as he clenched them in rage.

I turned my attention to the matter at hand—the free-falling with the only thing keeping me from dying being seventy feet of hair matter. I wrapped my paws in Rapunzel's puffy sleeve as the cool wind rushed past us. She landed lightly on some water that had dripped from the pipe above us. She and I turned to see the red-haired men charging at us with no signs of stopping. We started racing away as Rider slid neatly down from the pipe. He and Rapunzel gathered up several yards of hair as we started running.

I turned and gasped in horror. Oh no. That—that stupid horse had knocked out an important beam that was supporting the dam. With it gone, the dam slowly but surely busted through, causing hundreds of thousands of gallons of water to burst forth. The guards had awakened and were standing with the horse when the water washed over them. The rushing waves engulfed the running figures of the evil men chasing us and was about to eat us up!

My friend and nemesis just happened to notice the giant flood coming towards us; they raced on. The water crashed against a large dirty rock thing, causing it to fall from the weight of the pushing and shoving waves.

The two gave one last burst of energy and dashed into the nearest tunnel. Rapunzel and I bolted to the side of the tunnel as Rider rescued the floating-towards-us frying pan—to lose such a companion would be a terrible blow.

The falling island thing had crashed right in front of the entrance of the tunnel, cutting off the exit. Water seeped through the corners that were not filled in with rock, causing the level of the liquid to rise. We all gave a look of freaking out as we reached higher ground in the cave; to our horror, it was only a few feet taller. The water reached the tops of Rider and Rapunzel's knees in just a few seconds.

I carefully crawled off Rapunzel's shoulder and surveyed the mess we were in. Rider dove into the deep water to try to search for an exit while Rapunzel tried to chip at the rocks with her frying pan. Oh my gosh. The water was closing in fast, rushing in at life-engulfing speeds. I looked about worriedly. How were we supposed to get out?

Rider came up, gasping for air, and knocked about the walls, looking for any cracks. The guy must not have been looking where his hand was because the palm had scratched against a rock, causing a large gash to appear on his hand. Rapunzel and I cringed at the sight. Blood. Gulp.

Rider dove in again and quickly rose up again.

"It's no use; I can't see anything," he said, defeated. Rapunzel got a determined look on her face and before I could stop her, she went and dived into the swirling depths. I could have hugged Rider, for he immediately brought her back up.

"Hey," he said quietly. "There's no point. It's pitch black down there." He tucked a bit of her stray soaked hair behind her eye and she looked at him in shock. I gasped in horror. No words needed to be spoken.

We were going to die.

Rapunzel and I would never see the lanterns, never fulfill our dream. No more life in the secluded tower that looked so enchanting right now. We would never see the light of day, never say goodbye to that Gothel, whose voice saying, "You. Are. Not. Leaving. This. Tower. Ever!" resounded guiltily in my ears. I hung my head in shame. We should never have done this.

"She was right, I never should have done this," echoed Rapunzel tearfully. She sighed and started sobbing. "I'm so, so sorry, Flynn." I sighed in defeat. I was sorry too, to have come along with these people, two people who just wanted the world. While Rapunzel had just wanted to explore, Rider actually wanted the world, the thief. Those guards probably wanted to kill him; this death cave would be doing their job. That's probably what they'd call this place after this—Death Cave, when they found two human skeletons and a mini skeleton, wondering who had died here.

Rider sighed, feeling guilty, and uttered one word.

"Eugene."

I gulped in surprise. What was he talking about? I crawled over towards him in plain curiosity.

"What?" Rapunzel asked curiously. What was he talking about?

He sighed, beat, and repeated quietly, "My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert. Someone might as well know." He chuckled as he cradled his cut hand. Wait, Flynn Rider wasn't your real name? Well, I felt a tad sheepish; thieves probably changed their names all the time. To have been deceived like that made me feel a bit mad at the man.

Rapunzel gave a little laugh and I stifled a little chuckle. True, it was a funny name!

Rapunzel wiped her nose and smiled sadly, "I have magic hair that glows when I sing!" Wait, she just told him about the hair! But, wait, why do I care? We're all going to die, sadly, so, heck, she might as well.

"What?" Rider asked in alarm.

Rapunzel thought a second before she replied excitedly, "I have . . . magic hair . . . that glows when I sing!" The water level increased at an alarming rate. I frantically crawled closer to the ceiling. Rapunzel nodded at Rider, er, Fitzherbert, to stick out his neck for just one more second as she rapidly sang, "Flower, gleam and glow, let your power shine!" She and Fitzherbert gulped in panic as the air was finally pushed out of the cave. I took a deep breath as the water filled the space.

We floated in darkness for a second until Rapunzel's weak attempt at a second chance at life broke into action. Her swirling hair broke out into golden shiny light, illuminating the cave to the point where I could make out a freaked out expression from Fitzherbert. Our eyes looked about and noticed a little hole that water was slowly dripping out of. Rapunzel and Fitzherbert gave a shrug and we swam towards it.

Fitzherbert was able to pull out several rocks before the light died down, leaving us in pure blackness. He finally pulled out an important rock and the wall of stones broke, causing us all to be thrown violently into a river.

The three of us crawled safely out of the river onto the bank. We coughed and choked as I released ounces and ounces of water out of my small throat. I smiled weakly. We. Were. Alive!

Rapunzel wiped some hair out of her face as she said loudly, "We're alive."

Fitzherbert had been resting his head in his hands and now removed his hands to reveal a face that portrayed pure shock. "Her hair glows!" he gasped to himself.

Rapunzel stretched and stood up excitedly, rushing to gather the large amount of her hair that was lying on the bank. "I'm alive!" she squealed excitedly.

"I didn't see that coming," he sighed as he pushed the hair out of his face.

"Eugene," Rapunzel said gently. Oh, great, now she was calling him Eugene; great. Well, I will keep calling him Fitzherbert; oh, dang! Fitzherbert sounded so weird! I'll have to ask Rapunzel if I can just keep calling him Rider; it sounded way better.

"Her hair actually glows," he exclaimed. I just noticed that he was talking to me, and he wasn't even trying to swat me or anything. I nodded in reply. Yes, yes it did.

"Eugene," Rapunzel repeated urgently.

"Why does her hair glow?" he yelled at me. I shrank back in panic and shrugged. I really didn't have a clue as to the fact of why her hair glows!

"Eugene!" Rapunzel shouted at him as she wrung out a load of locks.

"WHAT!?" he asked hurriedly. He was sooooo panicking; I didn't even know why he was panicking.

Rapunzel smiled kindly as she looked on at his injured hand. He was holding it with his other hand, protecting it. "It doesn't just glow," she said.

Those four words made me smile broadly. This guy hadn't seen anything yet. I turned to see his horrified face. He glanced at me and whispered to Rapunzel worriedly, "Why is he smiling at me?"

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