The two continued their journey, mostly in silence, though not that Flynn had expected otherwise. He suspected the princess had a range of emotions going through her—she was probably scared but determined to keep a strong face, while at the same time shaken up by her near-death experience. Really, who just ate random berries that they found in the forest? It was a good thing for her that she had run into him.
On a couple of occasions, however, she did try to make conversation. "So…are you from around here?" she asked at one point.
He raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"I'm just curious."
"Hm. Well, sorry, but I don't do back stories."
"Why not?"
His eyes narrowed. "I just don't, okay?"
She fell silent for a little while after that, and he found himself thinking about the reasoning behind her actions. He supposed some curiosity was natural—but still, why would she care about the most wanted thief in her entire kingdom? Marcus hated him, he knew. Wasn't that enough for her, too?
She interrupted his thoughts with another question. At first, he was annoyed…but then it got through to him that her question wasn't solely about him. "Have you ever run into a bear before?"
He turned back to her. "A bear? Why?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Do you have to know the reasons behind all of my questions?"
"Do you have to ask such strange questions?"
Her eyes narrowed. "Just answer me."
He gestured around them. "Being out here? Sure, a couple of times."
"What have you done?"
"Stayed calm, backed away, made sure I wasn't near its den or its cubs or anything. They're pretty harmless if they don't think you're a threat to themselves or their family, but lethal otherwise."
"Yeah, I know."
"Really? Well, I gotta say, I'm surprised your survival knowledge isn't completely nothing."
"I know some things!"
"But not much."
She folded her arms and didn't respond. "So, why the sudden interest?" Flynn asked. "You hear the bear earlier today or something?"
"Oh, I heard it."
Something in her tone made him raise an eyebrow. "What's that mean?"
"It means I was the one who made it angry."
His eyebrows shot up. "You made a bear angry? Wow, I take back what I said; you know nothing about being out here."
"I didn't do it on purpose!"
"Really? I was working under the assumption that you wanted an angry bear coming at you."
She stomped her foot. "Will you stop being so sarcastic for just one minute?"
"Nope. Comes with the deal. You wanna be traveling with me, you gotta deal with it."
She huffed. "I'm beginning to consider going off on my own."
"Yeah, that would work out well. So, how'd you get the bear angry?"
She eyed him, as if deciding whether to respond. "I found myself—on accident—between her and her cub."
Flynn whistled. "Yeah, that's a recipe for disaster." He frowned at her. "But how'd you get away?"
Her face fell. "My horse."
"Ah, you were on a horse." He blinked. "Wait, where is it now?"
"He drew the bear away from me. He got its attention, and it ran after him." She stopped walking, and he noticed her head bowed, as if she were fighting off tears. "I don't…I don't know if he's okay or not…"
Yeah, those were definitely tears. The princess was now crying. He sighed; this was awkward. "I'm sure he's fine," he said. "Horses can run fast." He paused. "Although, bears can, too…hm. I dunno."
His words didn't really help; she remained bent over, her body trembling. Her chameleon, Pastel or whatever, extended a tiny green forearm and patted her on the side of the head. It then occurred to Flynn that he could probably get the satchel back at that point…but some part of him told him that that would be a low blow, even for him. "Look," he said, "the sooner we get back to the kingdom, the sooner you can find out what happened to your horse. He's probably back there already, wondering where you are."
She glanced up. "You really think he got away?"
"Sure. Palace horses are made of stern stuff."
He was, of course, a lot less confident than he made himself appear to be—in pretty much any situation that involved an angry bear charging a horse, he'd put his money on the bear. But he was no stranger to stretching the truth. The sooner he got the princess going again, the sooner he could get his satchel back.
And it looked like it worked. Rapunzel nodded, straightened up, and wiped her eyes. "Yeah. Maximus is tough. He'll be fine."
Flynn nodded. "Great. So…let's keep going, then?"
"Yeah."
He strode off, his thoughts now going to the bear. He had taken a route that wasn't too close to the roars he had heard earlier, but if a bear was near, it was foolish to not be on the lookout.
Marcus glanced up at the sky and sighed. The sun was getting lower in the sky, and the current forest patrol hadn't returned yet. Of course, they weren't scheduled to until a little later, but the fact that they still hadn't meant that there had been no sign of Rider, which would signify three days without any success. He doubted Rider would make a move at this point, but the longer this went on, the more nervous he got. He was glad to see that people did not seem to hold his failure of the night of Rapunzel's birthday against him too much, but he was afraid that, should he fail here, their perceptions of him would change for the worse.
"Captain Marcus?"
He turned to see King Thomas standing before him. "Your Majesty," he said, bowing. "Do you need anything?"
"Have you seen Rapunzel anywhere?"
Marcus straightened up. "Not since she left this morning." He frowned. "Why?"
"Because we haven't seen her since then either."
Marcus blinked. "Have you asked around?"
"A little. I thought you might have an idea."
Marcus nodded, thinking. "Well, let's head over to the stables. If Maximus is back, then we'll know Rapunzel must be, too, and we just haven't run into her."
"Good thinking," said the king.
The two of them strode along in that direction, though Marcus's mind had become more troubled. It was unlikely that anything had happened to Rapunzel…but it was entirely possible that her curiosity and/or rashness had gotten her in trouble. And if that was true, then things would really get bad. But they couldn't know anything for certain. At least not until they got to the stables.
Which they did, just a few minutes later. Upon seeing the king, the stable boys sunk into bows with a chorus of "Good afternoon, Your Majesty."
The king got down to business immediately. "Have any of you seen Rapunzel come in?"
The stable boys looked at each other, shaking their heads. "What about Maximus?" asked Marcus. "Is Maximus around?"
Again, the stable boys looked around. "I haven't seen him," said one.
"Have you all been here all day?" said the king. "Or, at least, since mid-morning?"
"Um," said one of them. "Well, most of us are only hired for the afternoon, sir…"
"Is there anyone who would have been around earlier?"
Another stable boy spoke up. "Graham would. Would you like me to go get him?"
The king nodded. "Yes, please."
The stable boy left, while the rest stood around awkwardly. Marcus waved to them. "You may resume your duties."
They went back to action at his words, though he did notice one or two of them casting glances at him and the king, and suspected they wondered what was going on.
A minute later, the stable boy returned, with another one following him. The new one, Graham, looked older than the others, and Marcus wondered if he was a supervisor or something. "Good afternoon, Yer Majesty, Cap'n," said Graham, bowing to them both.
Marcus dismissed the other stable boy with a "Thank you," as the king spoke to Graham. "Have you seen Princess Rapunzel or Maximus return to the stables today?"
Graham thought. "Can't say ah have. Ah saw them goin' out, but haven't seem 'em come back."
"And you've been watching closely the entire time?"
"Well…" Graham scratched his head sheepishly. "Ah don't know about closely, but ah think ah would've noticed if a horse had come back, especially Maximus. People would've been movin' around and such, ya know?"
"So you can say with reasonable certainty that neither Rapunzel nor Maximus have returned?"
"Ah think ah can, Yer Majesty. Ah know fer a fact that Maximus isn't back, anyway." He looked from the king to Marcus. "Is there a problem goin' on? Ah'm sorry if it's not ma place ta ask, but if ah can do anythin' to help…"
"You've been a help already, Graham," said Marcus. "Thank you."
Graham bowed again. "Mah pleasure."
Marcus motioned to the king, whose worry was more evident on his face now, and the two of them left the stables. "We still don't know anything for certain," the captain said. "Rapunzel could be taking her time in the woods."
The king didn't look completely reassured. "We asked her to return by this afternoon, and she said she would. It's not like her to go back on her word."
"Maybe she lost track of the time," said Marcus. "I think it's likely that she's just having a good time with Maximus and Pascal, and doesn't realize that it's time for her to return."
The king frowned. "Maybe. But it will be getting dark soon…"
"Thomas!"
The king and Marcus turned to see Queen Primrose walking towards them. "Rose!" the king said. "Did you have any luck?"
She shook her head as she reached the pair. "No one has seen her. I asked the nobles, the kitchen staff, and even that nice girl in the library."
The king's frown deepened. "Well, she hasn't come back yet. We checked the stables, and no one has seen either Maximus or Rapunzel."
The queen glanced nervously out the window, where the sun was beginning to set. "So she's still out there?"
Both looked quite worried. Marcus began to feel so, too, but managed to conceal it as he said, "Don't worry. It's unlikely that anything has happened to her. Knowing her, she's probably lost track of the time."
"But the sun is starting to set," said the queen.
"Then maybe she's just realized how late it is," said Marcus. "And even if she did get lost, my men are out there patrolling the fore—"
The queen suddenly gasped. "What is it, dear?" said the king.
"Those thieves are out there, too," said the queen, going pale.
Both the king and Marcus caught onto her meaning—if Rapunzel ran into one of those criminals…
"We have to get out there and find her," said the king.
The queen nodded, but Marcus spoke up. "Your Majesty, I share your concern, but I don't think we need to really worry just yet."
"We don't need to worry about our daughter running into one of those criminals?" said the king, almost indignantly. "Who knows what they would do to her?"
Marcus quickly continued. "That forest is big. The chances of that are very small." He hesitated. "Besides…if one of them does find Rapunzel, I don't think he'll hurt her."
"Why not?"
"Well…forgive me, but if you think about it, it would be in his best interests to keep her unharmed. She's…again, forgive me, but she's worth a lot more that way."
"You think they would kidnap her?"
"It's the most likely possibility. Of course, there's still a very small chance of anything like that happening."
The king and queen glanced at each other, the fear not gone from their faces. Marcus suspected they were thinking about the same thing—about the last time when Rapunzel had come dangerously close to being kidnapped, eighteen years ago. So as to not make her worried, they had never told their daughter about it, but they hadn't forgotten it, which was one of the reasons they were so protective of her. The same went for Marcus, too; he knew that there were people out there who would want to kidnap the princess, whether or not they were the same person as the one from all those years ago. "Then what can we do?" asked the queen.
Marcus glanced out the window. "My current patrol should be returning soon. If they haven't seen Rapunzel, and if she hasn't returned by then, I will take a group out and we will search."
The sun was beginning to set when Rapunzel heard it: a rustling in the trees. "Do you hear that?"
Rider looked around. "Yeah…" He relaxed. "It's probably nothing, though. All that talk about bears has gotten me—"
He stopped talking as a bear cub bounded out of the trees, running several dozen feet before stopping in front of them, gazing at them.
Rapunzel and Rider looked at each other. Then, they heard a louder crashing in the trees, right where the cub had emerged from. Rider said one word. "Run."
With that, they both turned and bolted, hearing the mother bear's noises behind them. Rapunzel desperately hoped her hair wouldn't get caught—by a stray branch or the bear. Ahead of her, Rider turned back. "Come on, faster!"
Rapunzel forced herself to speed up—though Rider, with his longer legs and more experience running, remained ahead of her. Risking a look back, she did a quick scan of the area…and didn't see any bear. Still, she could hear sounds behind her that suggested its presence, and so she didn't plan on slowing down. Not to mention that Pascal's nervousness hadn't abated, and he was still clutching tightly to her shoulder, eyes wide.
She turned back to look ahead, and noticed several things in succession. First, they were emerging from the trees. Second, Rider was not in front of her anymore. And third, there was no ground beneath her feet.
She let out a scream as she fell, but it was only a second before her fall was broken by a small tree growing out of the side of the cliff. She almost lost her balance, but righted herself—and did the same thing when her hair came tumbling down the cliff and off the side of the tree.
On her shoulder, Pascal shuddered, and she turned to him. "Yeah, that was a close one, Pascal…"
"We're not safe just yet."
She looked up to see Rider, who had also landed on the tree. "What do you mean?" she asked.
He pointed upward. "What about the bear?"
They both turned up. Their tree was a few feet below the edge of the cliff, and there was no way to see what was happening over it. But Rapunzel didn't hear anything. No bear roaring, growling, or even shuffling around. "It…it sounds like it's gone," she said.
Rider folded his arms. "We have no way of knowing for sure."
"So what do you suggest? We just stay here?" Rapunzel narrowed her eyes. "Look, if that bear still wanted to harm us, we'd hear it up there. Or see it looking over at us. I don't think it's there."
Rider frowned, and had a sullen expression on his face that suggested that he saw the sense in her argument, but didn't want to admit it. Finally, he sighed and said, "Fine. We'll wait for a couple more minutes, and if we still hear nothing, then we climb back up."
Rapunzel nodded, and so, for the next minute or so, her attention was diverted between looking up at the cliff and throwing glances at Rider. If he wanted to get rid of her and get the satchel, this was an opportunity right here…but he had already proven that he didn't want her dead. Both the incident with the berries and his calling back to her during the bear chase spoke to that.
Eventually, he nodded. "Right. Sounds like it's gone."
Rapunzel cracked a smile of relief, and Rider mirrored it. They took a step back towards the cliff.
And that was when they heard the creaking sound, and felt the tree sink.
Both of them froze. "Oh, no," said Rider.
Rapunzel inadvertently took a step back, and felt the tree sink a fraction of an inch more. "Don't move!" said Rider. "The tree must not be used to such weight, and whenever we step on it, we make it worse."
The tree creaked again, and he lowered himself down on all fours. "Try spreading out your weight a bit," he said. "And make sure not to drop the satchel."
Carefully, Rapunzel did as he suggested, but even that movement caused the tree to drop some more. "What can we do like this?" she said.
"I don't know? Think?" he responded, his voice almost panicked.
With some difficulty, Rapunzel looked behind herself at the cliff. It didn't offer any easy possibilities for climbing, so even if they jumped for it, there was no guarantee they would make it. And if they moved, they would only hasten their demise. But it seemed to be inevitable either way—even though they weren't moving, she could still feel the tree creaking and sliding downwards.
She looked over at Rider. She knew that she looked terrified, but didn't care. "What now?"
He looked back at her—and he was visibly scared, too. "I…I'm not sure."
Rapunzel clung to the tree as it continued to sink, leading them towards a fall that would certainly be fatal. She began to realize that her life was about to end, and immediately felt tears come to her eyes. Why couldn't she have been content with her life as it was? She had had loving parents, great friends, and a wonderful place in life. But she had taken that one route in the forest…and it had led to this. Now, she would die—and so would Flynn Rider. He was a thief, sure, but he was a human being, and one that she had seen a bit of good in. Not that it mattered anymore. "I'm sorry," she said, still crying. "Mom, Dad, Marcus, everyone…" She looked up. "I'm so sorry, Flynn."
He looked back at her. "Eugene."
"What?"
"My name. It's…it's really Eugene Fitzherbert." He shrugged in a resigned manner. "Just thought someone should know."
She smiled sadly at him. If they went down, then at least they could have this small connection. Before something happened to them that not even her magical hair could fix…
She blinked. The thought had come to her at the same time that she saw another small tree hanging off the edge of the cliff out of the corner of her eye…and an idea came to her. "Wait," she said.
Rider—Eugene—looked up. "What?"
She pointed at the tree. "What if we can reach that? We can climb back up to the cliff."
He raised an eyebrow. "But we can't reach that. We'd need some sort of really long rope or…" His eyes went down to her hair, and they widened as he realized what she had in mind. "Will that work?"
"I think it can."
Moving slowly, Rapunzel stood up, making sure to stand near the thickest part of the tree, where her weight could be best supported. Then, gathering her hair up, she tied a loop in it, and prepared to throw it, like a lasso. "That's still a far shot," said Eugene.
"I can make it," she said confidently. Whirling it a few times, she threw, but the tree dropped a little bit more, and her aim was thrown off. Quickly, she pulled her hair back up and tried again, but again, it just fell short. "Hurry!" said Eugene.
Rapunzel forced her body to stop shaking, gathered all her concentration and her strength, aimed, and threw. And this time, the hair managed to catch on to one of the branches. "Yes!" she said, tugging on it to making sure it was secure. It was, and her smile grew. "We're set now." She turned to Eugene. "Grab on."
He blinked. "You sure?"
"Of course I'm sure! Do you want to get off this tree or not?" As if to drive her point home, the tree sunk even further. "Come on!"
Moving nimbly, the thief got up on his feet, bringing the tree down to an almost 45-degree angle. Crossing the distance between them, he wrapped his arms around the princess's waist, and she jumped off, just as, with one more crack, the tree became completely vertical. "Whoo!" yelled Rapunzel, partially from fear, partially from excitement. Sure, this was dangerous, but thrilling, too. Just so long as her hair didn't slip off.
But it held, as the two of them climbed up like it was a rope, finally reaching the second tree. From there, it was a short jog to solid ground. "We made it!" said Rapunzel, feeling her feet on the grass again. "I'm still alive!"
Pascal sagged in relief, which made him lose his balance and topple off her shoulder onto the grass, where he landed unharmed. Next to them, Eugene was breathing more heavily than usual. "That…that was some good work there," he said.
Rapunzel turned to him. "Thank you, Eugene." He flinched slightly. "What, do you not like your own name?"
He hesitated. "My name…well, there's a lot that goes with it."
"What?"
"Er…" He looked up at the sky. "Look, we can't stand around talking. We need to find a place to settle down for the night."
Rapunzel shrugged. "If you say so." She knew he was trying to divert her attention, but he was right; if they weren't going to get back to the kingdom that day, they would do well to find a safe spot to sleep. But she wasn't done with him. After they had settled down, she was determined to find out about this mysterious thief.
The queen was the first to notice them. Looking out the window, she let out an exclamation, drawing the king and Marcus over to her. Wordlessly, she indicated the group of guards coming back, and the king immediately went down to the stables to meet him, Marcus and the queen quickly following.
The trio reached the stables at about the same time as the returning patrol. "I will get their report," said Marcus, and walked over to William, who had led that group. "William."
William, who had just dismounted his horse, saluted. "Captain Marcus."
"Any sign of Rider?"
"No. I'm sorry, Captain, we still couldn't find him."
Marcus's face darkened briefly before he asked his next question. "What about Princess Rapunzel? Did you see her out there?"
William blinked, evidently not expecting this. "Uh, no, sir. Or at least, I didn't. Were we supposed to be looking for her?"
Marcus shook his head. "I hadn't instructed it. But…" He lowered his voice. "She hasn't returned from her ride this morning."
William's brow furrowed in concern. "That's not good," he said, lowering his voice, too.
"No, it isn't. The king and queen are very worried."
"Do you…do you think something could have happened to her?"
"I can't say anything for certain. But we should get out there and look."
William nodded. "I'll get the men and we'll go back out."
Marcus held up a hand. "Not the same men. Let them rest, and eat, yourself included. But if you could bring me a group of men who aren't as tired, that would be much appreciated."
"I can do that. But, sir, if you think I'm going to stand by while the princess is lost, you're mistaken. I will come with you."
Marcus smiled. "Your dedication is very commendable, William. If you're sure you can go out again, I'd be happy to have you."
William smiled back. "It's my honor, sir."
He left to gather the guards, and Marcus called over the nearest stable boy, who just happened to be Graham, the one from earlier that day. "Get my horse," he said. "I'm going out."
Graham gave a little bow and walked off, as the king and queen came up to the captain. "Any sign of her?" said the king.
Marcus shook his head. "We're going to go out now, and we won't come back without her." He fixed his gaze on both of them. "I know you're worried, and I'll admit, I am a little, too. But right now, the best thing we can do is to have faith that she will be okay."
The king put a hand on his shoulder. "We're trusting you to find her, Captain."
Marcus nodded. "I won't let you down."
Graham led over his new horse, a chestnut named Faustus, and Marcus got on. "Keep an eye out," he said. "If she returns without us, send a sign so we know she's been found."
The king nodded. "We'll send up a floating lantern."
"Sounds good."
A few minutes later, the rest of the guards had arrived and had mounted their own horses. "All right, guys," said Marcus. "The princess is out there somewhere. Look for her and Maximus. If you find her, bring her back here. Any questions?"
The men shook their heads. "Then let's be on our way." Marcus snapped the reins. "Let's go, Faustus!"
And with that, the guards took off into the night.
