Soli Deo gloria
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Tangled.
After that disturbing encounter with Gothel, the rest of the evening passed fairly quickly. When the flames ceased to exist, Rapunzel laid down next to the large log and wrapped herself in her hair. Eugene rested his head against a rock on the opposite side of the fire pit. I quickly jumped down from the tree and circled around in her hair trying to find a comfortable position. Once I had found one, I snuggled my chin into the golden locks and sighed. I was perfectly content.
Rapunzel sat up suddenly and called, "Hey, Eugene?"
He sat up and turned to her. He smiled slightly and asked, "Yeah?"
She gave a small giggle and said, "Good night."
His smile widened a bit as he answered, "Good night, Blondie." Both fell back into sleeping positions and Rapunzel traced my little scales as she grinned to herself.
"Good night, Pascal," she said quietly.
I chirped in response as I rubbed against her chin. "Good night," I told her.
It was a calm and peaceful night from what I could tell. Frankly I was surprised at how well I slept out in the elements. Of course the restful night was rudely interrupted when a scream filled my ears. Rapunzel sat up abruptly and I leaped to my feet in alert. Rapunzel and I were astonished to see Eugene, who had probably been as rudely awakened as we had, being dragged on the hard ground away from the campsite by his boot! My ears widened as I recognized his captor.
It was the white horse. Water dripped down its panting sides as it worked hard at kidnapping the thief, who was frantically grabbing at the ground in an effort to stop the beast. I quickly ran up Rapunzel's hair as she jumped up and ran after them. She grabbed Eugene's hands and pulled as hard as she could.
"Stop, stop, let go! Put me down!" Eugene screamed at his captor.
I held on for dear life as Rapunzel pulled harder and grunted. "Give. Me. HIM!" she almost yelled. She somehow managed to pull Eugene out of the horse's mouth. The two fell on the ground, panting in exhaustion, and I realized that she had not rescued everything.
The horse still had Eugene's boot in his mouth. Enraged, he charged at us with angry eyes directed at Rapunzel. Eugene scrambled away in panic. She quickly resumed standing and leaped in front of the horse, exclaiming, "Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, steady!" I quickly covered my eyes in horror. I didn't know what horses could do but I knew enough that that was suicide! But, as usual, I parted my fingers and was relieved to see that Rapunzel had somewhat calmed down the beast.
As I eased myself up to the top of her head, she earnestly said, "Easy, easy. Whoa, whoa, easy! That's it!" The horse relented and calmed down a bit. "Now, sit!" she quickly told him. The horse's eyes diverted toward me, and I gave him the old 'be cool' sign. Whenever Rapunzel needed a major amount of calming-down-ness, I'd scrunch my fingers together and move them up and down, indicating she just had to relax.
Apparently it worked on more than Rapunzel, for the horse got my message and relaxed enough to sit down.
"Now, drop the boot," Rapunzel urged the horse further. I smirked when the horse shook his head hastily. "Drop it," she said firmly. He'd better listen to her, I thought with a smile. He sighed and reluctantly let the sticky boot fall from his mouth.
"Aw, you are such a good boy! Yes, you are! Are you all tired from chasing this bad man all over the place?" Rapunzel said sympathetically. She stuck out her lower lip in a pout as she petted the animal soothingly.
The horse nodded sadly as an irritated voice from the background called, "Excuse me?" Ssh, Eugene!
"Nobody appreciates you, do they? Do they?" she continued as she gave the horse a little hug. He leaned his neck against her side and I hugged Rapunzel's head in response to their little impromptu hug.
"Oh, come on!" Eugene called over to us in an annoyed tone. "He's a bad horse!"
I laughed at him as I crawled down Rapunzel's shoulder when she released the horse from the hug. Rapunzel turned to Eugene and said, "Oh, he's nothing but a big sweetheart!" Man, you've got to love Rapunzel. She finds good in everyone. The horse neighed happily as he rubbed his head against Rapunzel's. "Isn't that right?" she smiled. When she scratched his under snout/thingie, we both noticed a little golden badge in the shape of a sun. Under the sun was a name—Maximus. Simple, yet elegant. "Maximus?" she grinned.
"You've got to be kidding me," Eugene said disgustedly. Rapunzel had Maximus sitting on his two hind legs like a dog, panting happily as could be, and she scratched his blonde mane. I think Eugene was jealous of a horse!
At his voice, Maximus instantly stopped panting and narrowed his eyes at Eugene in annoyance. It was very clear that the two were at odds with each other.
Rapunzel quickly came to the rescue before the two boys could battle it out. "Look, today is kinda the biggest day of my life, and the thing is—" she said as she crossed the campsite, still looking into Maximus's eyes. She grabbed Eugene's arm and brought him to his feet. "—I need you not to get him arrested."
At her realistic request, Maximus snarled. I rolled my eyes at him as Rapunzel quickly answered, "Just for twenty-four hours, and then you can chase each other to your heart's content. Okay?" She folded her arms behind her back innocently as Eugene held out his hand in defeat—though, now that I think about it, I think he was actually willing to do it—not for the sake of not being arrested, but, I think, for Rapunzel's sake. Maximus snarled and turned away in protest.
Rapunzel clenched her teeth and with the sweet smile still on her face, made out, "Andddddd, it's also my birthday. Just to let you know." Maximus gave a little sigh when she said that. He looked up at Eugene's poker face and Rapunzel's and my hopeful faces. He reluctantly held out his hoof and the horse and man shook hands. Rapunzel and I gave a little smile when a noise came from the distance. Rapunzel pushed past the two's hand/hoof deal-merger-thingie and walked on to the sound.
The sound was wonderful, ringing with a firm GONG! Rapunzel was very mesmerized by the sound and I was too until the goofballs started fighting again.
We were crossing the massive bridge; Rapunzel was all giddy and dancing I turned around and frowned; Eugene and Max were fighting over a white paper, probably a wanted poster, and they were irking me. I squawked loudly and got their attention. They stopped long enough for me to tell them to stop or they'd answer to me. Max stopped biting Eugene's leg and Eugene stopped looking like he was about to punch the giant horse.
Once we reached the entrance to the village, Rapunzel and I were ecstatic. There was purple flags with bright yellow suns on them, and they were streamed together across the streets and connected to the high windows of the little townhouses built right next to each other. Flowers adorned many green hedges full of life and the people—oh, the people!
There was so many of them! Tall people, short people, girls, boys, old, young, all enjoying themselves on this merry day.
There was so much to do, so much to see! There was only one problem. The hair. Multiple people walked all over it and were nearly tripping over it. Rapunzel moved to get out of the way only to upset a flock of geese and almost knock over a man with a book.
Eugene came running over from the bridge (he was either really slow or we were really fast), and helped Rapunzel gather the hair. Maximus had followed him and now the four of us must have looked really, really odd: the two humans with seventy feet of long hair and us the animals looking around curiously for a solution. Eugene looked around and caught the attention of four little girls. They were sitting on the edge of a stone statue that had water spewing out of it. They squealed with joy when he whistled for their attention.
They came over in complete and utter awe. They grabbed Rapunzel's hand and had her sit down. "Now, sit here and we'll make your hair nice and pretty," one of the older ones said.
"And out of the way," another quickly said.
"Okay," Rapunzel answered excitedly.
Eugene noticed some of those guards and, quick as a wink, slid under the edge of the statue. Maximus walked over to him with an 'I'm-watching-you' look on his face. I managed to crawl off Rapunzel's hair, which the four little girls were squealing over, and over to the goof-offs of our party.
The four little girls huddled for a moment and then went to work. They giggled as one by one, they twisted and turned the hair each way and that. One of the little girls brought over a little brown basket full of assorted flowers and they carefully attached it onto the intricate hairdo.
We men, as I now like to call my comrades, managed to avoid the guards that kept coming our way. When Rapunzel's hair was finished, she danced about in glee. Her laugh caught Eugene's attention, and when he noticed her with her newly decorated hair, a smile actually came across his face. Maximus laughed at his sudden interest and made his eyebrows go up and down in amusement. I laughed as Eugene shoved him off.
Rapunzel exclaimed, "Thank you soooo much!" and skipped over to us. She winked at Eugene, and I suddenly had a little feeling in the pit of my stomach. What was she implying to him?
Anyway, she scooped me up and nodded to Maximus. She carefully held me out as she walked me to the little girls.
"Lauren, Laura, Lucy, Lydia, I want you to meet Pascal," she pointed to me, "and Maximus."
"Oh, they're so cute!"
"And sweet!"
"Can I hold him?" the one named Lauren, who was the tallest, asked boldly. Rapunzel eagerly nodded and set me into her hands. Lauren's hands were soft and small, like Rapunzel's, only a bit smaller. Laura, the second tallest, bounded over to a flowerpot and picked up a little basket that was sitting next to it. She skipped over to us and pulled out a little grape, like the one Eugene smooshed.
"Grape?" she offered. Lucy, the youngest, giggled as Lydia, the third oldest, petted Maximus. They both turned to see my reaction, which was an enthusiastic nod. Lydia giggled as I stuck out my long pink tongue and Laura carefully plopped a purple grape on it. Quick as a wink, I zipped my tongue back in. Since the girls were still watching, I decided to make them giggle even more. I winked at Maximus and instantly turned purple. The girls cried in delight and their sweet giggle was infectious. Maximus laughed with them as I chuckled and swallowed.
I stuck out my tongue for more and received an orange slice. I instantly closed my mouth and turned bright orange. They screamed with delight at my antics.
I grinned my grin and spun around for all to see, including Rapunzel and Eugene, but they weren't there. I gulped in worry as I searched and nearly choked on the orange. Maximus gave me a pat on the back as softly as he could as I explained to him that they were gone.
Maximus pointed with his head out into the market and I was barely able to see the two running out of sight, Rapunzel dragging the hand of the thief.
Why, the little scoundrels! I breathed heavily as I hopped onto Maximus's shoulder and was about to say goodbye to the little girls when—
"Lauren, Laura, Lydia, Lucy, come!" a stern voice called. The girls turned and waved at the caller. Lucy bounded after him and gave him a hug, which he returned.
"Daddy!" squealed the girls as they sped across the square to their father. Maximus and I turned and gulped. As quick as I could, I grabbed the blonde mane of Maximus and pulled back. He understood and bolted. We managed to escape into an alley where we could catch our breath.
"The Captain!" I breathed in my chameleon way as I wiped my little brow and stood up carefully on the back of the horse. The Captain was the girls' father!
Maximus neighed and gestured and I was able to make out, "If he finds me, he'll take me back to the stables!" I nodded and looked around. Since I didn't see the Captain, I sighed in relief and thought of the two runaways. I sighed and caught Maximus's attention. I turned purple and imitated Rapunzel by petting the air. When Maximus understood, I turned blue and chuckled evilly. Maximus laughed as he nodded in agreement.
We carefully ran out of the alley into the kingdom. We had to find Rapunzel and Eugene.
Thanks for reading! Review?
