Soli Deo gloria
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Tangled. I have been so busy this week, so, hopefully, I can get the last three chapters up in time for CHRISTMAS!
Pascal knew that this night was going to be great. He could tell from the sights, the smells, the atmosphere of the castle. He knew today was going to be a great day because it was the day before Christmas, the best day of the year.
All the morning, he watched from a water-dripping window the townsfolk going about the village. In their arms were packages of every shape and size wrapped in brown paper and red paper and green paper and tied with big bows. Children's laughter caught his ears as they terrorized each other by running after one another with giant snowballs.
He sat by patiently as the afternoon dragged on, time making that evening come slower. The smells coming from the kitchen were amazing, and the atmosphere of the bustling servants and cheery guards only supplied more cheerfulness.
Rapunzel, it seemed, was fueled by such things. She had started to knit almost immediately and nary took time to put the needles down. Catherine, along with one of her ladies-in-waiting, knitted stockings for the King and Queen to hang over the fireplace, but Rapunzel was the one who took on the challenge of knitting four large stockings for the fireplace.
Late the night before, she had nearly finished Maximus's, (which was a white stocking trimmed with brown and gold). That morning she finished it and made her own, (a purple with golden trimmings) and Pascal's (a green with golden trimmings) and was now nearly finished with Eugene's (dark blue with golden trimmings).
Pascal, on the windowsill, sighed contentedly and turned to Rapunzel. While practically everyone else in the castle ran around like mad men, Rapunzel was as relaxed as could be. She wore a light white dress, with her bare feet on her desk and her body on a chair, and her hands knitted away like there was no tomorrow. She continued knitting for a few more seconds before yelling, "I'm done!"
She eagerly cut the yarn with her teeth and threw it onto the desk. Setting back upright like a normal person, she flattened the four stockings on the desk. With a quick nod of approval, she reached and grabbed a sheet of red and green cloth. She cut out letters with great big sewing scissors and plastered all their names on the top of the stockings with paste.
After a few minutes of adjusting and cleaning, Rapunzel looked up to Pascal with a smile and said, "They're done!"
Pascal smiled excitedly and jumped onto her shoulder, his sitting position precarious. They were very pretty, no loose ends or missed stitches. He was so proud of her.
He had barely given her a nod when they heard a knock on her door.
"Your Highness?" one of the ladies-in-waiting that attended the Queen and Rapunzel, Madeline, called.
"Yes, Madeline?" Rapunzel asked.
"It's nearly five o'clock and you're not dressed yet," she pointed out, her voice full of worry; Pascal just knew that she was wringing her hands.
Rapunzel looked at the pendulum swinging gently from the clock on her wall and looked up to see the hands nearly at the five and twelve mark. "Oh, goodness," she said as she carefully picked off Pascal, "I need to get dressed!"
She quickly looked outside for a moment before she turned to get ready. It was a cloudy day, with no sun or dangerous clouds in sight.
"Please don't let it snow or rain, please don't let it snow or rain," Rapunzel pleaded. Her fingers crossed together as she gave a last little look and turned to the door.
She immediately let Madeline in and together they were able to get Rapunzel ready for the Christmas Eve Banquet. Rapunzel rushed through a quick bath (an extensive amount of time was spent on her hair) and was finally pulled into a tiny corset (princess rules rule supreme, blah) and the most wonderful dress Pascal had ever seen her wear.
It was a silver dress with a small v-neck and golden trimming surrounding all the fabric around the v-neck and the collar and the ends of the sleeves. Rapunzel wore a slip under it so that it wasn't so see-through. After carefully putting on the dress, Rapunzel put on tiny little white socks trimmed with lace. Her shoes (her silver colored ones that sparkled) were pulled on and she slipped on a pair of white gloves, which she actually thought to be very cute and clever.
On came the jewelry (no makeup for Rapunzel. Not only did she not need it, she did not like it). A pearl necklace was tied about her small neck and a sparkling silver ring was put on one of her fingers. She giggled constantly as Madeline tried to poke pearl earrings into the holes in her ears, but kept missing. Pascal managed to put on a silver bow tie (only because Rapunzel wanted him to dress up. That and he thought that it made him look distinguished).
Rapunzel finally stood up and gazed in the mirror as Madeline, smiling, placed a tiara on her head. It settled on her brown locks and Rapunzel let out a little squeal of excitement.
"Perfect, Your Highness," Madeline said, bowing as she stood back.
Rapunzel squealed again and bent down to Pascal and asked, "How do I look, Pascal?"
The little chameleon immediately gave her a thumb's up, making her squeal more and twirl. Her little nimble feet made her spin around the mirror before Madeline quickly said, "Please stop, Your Majesty, you'll get too dizzy!"
Pascal could hear the princess sigh as she slowed to a stop. Standing upright, he lifted his hands high in the air and let out a little squeak and a chirp. Rapunzel giggled and picked him up with both hands and smiled as he rubbed into her cheek.
"Come on, Pascal," Rapunzel smiled as she turned to the door. A knock was rapped before she could take one step closer to it.
"Rapunzel?" a voice called.
"Yes, Eugene?" Rapunzel called back, giggling silently as Pascal crawled onto her shoulder.
"You ready? Can I come in?"
"Yes," Rapunzel smiled as she smoothed her skirts, "yes you may."
The ex-thief slowly opened the door to see Rapunzel beaming right next to him. He wore his black vest with black pants and a poinsettia was in his button pocket. Madeline raised her eyebrows and quietly slipped into the bathroom to busy herself until they went down.
Rapunzel giggled as Pascal waved to him. Eugene smiled and offered her a hand, "Shall we go down?"
Rapunzel's hands were sore for all the knitting she'd done, and normally when someone took her hand like this, it would hurt, but she couldn't help but smile even more as his larger and warm hand melted into hers, like they were like a puzzle that was just completed, cool and not hurting at all. "Yes."
Hand and hand, they went down the hall. As it was Rapunzel's first Christmas as a princess, instead of a large banquet with lords and ladies and other royalty from Corona's surrounding countries, the King and Queen had decided to have a more homey and cozy Christmas Eve dinner.
The three came down the white staircase in the middle of the large foyer and nearly slipped when they walked over to the door leading to the dining room. Apparently, the guards weren't very good at wiping the snow off their boots. Rapunzel giggled and squealed as she clutched Eugene's arm, trying to catch her balance. Eugene put one hand on her small arm to help her keep her balance and opened the door with his other.
Their elbows interlocked, the two lovebirds walked through the door and were greeted by the happy shouts and greetings from the Pub Thugs. Rapunzel giggled and did a little curtsy before taking a seat next to her mother. Eugene took the seat across from hers and Rapunzel let Pascal crawl off her shoulder onto the little chair set up for him on the table.
There were all the Pub Thugs dressed in brown suits and bow ties. Vladimir even wore a top hat. There was the Captain of the Guard (second only to Maximus in rank) and his wife, Mrs. Captain, and their four red-haired daughters, who wore new red and green dresses.
The feast commenced without any more delay. The servants bustled in and all the guests and royals ate through seven courses, including a Christmas pudding and several bottles of sparkling cider. The whole dinner party hummed with laughter, chatter and forks banging against china plates and bowls.
Rapunzel never wanted for the dinner to end, but at eight, Catherine and William stood up, the King with a glass. He gently tapped the wine goblet with a silver fork, causing there to be a ring that captured everyone's attention.
"Now, guests and friends, seeing as supper went over well, I suggest we all gather in the parlor for gifts," William announced. Everyone chatted like little birds in the spring as the King and Queen led them, elbows together, into the parlor.
Once every person had come in, Vladimir shut the door and he and Hook Hand gathered the bags of gifts sitting limply on the ground. Several more chairs had been brought in, and Vladimir took a large armchair to sit in as he passed around the gifts.
With Pascal on her shoulder and an excited grin, Rapunzel tore into the presents from the Thugs and the Captain's family. She received a packet of hair ribbons from the Captain's brood, a package of paintbrushes from Big Nose and Erica, a new and pretty vase from Tor, a lovely painting from Gunther, a beret from Ulf, a much appreciated cookbook from Atilla, a new scarf from Bruiser, a cross-stitch from Killer, a puppet stage from Fang, a pair of unicorns from Vladimir, and many more presents, but there was one she appreciated more than the others: the present from Hook Hand.
Still somewhat nestled in its brown wrapping paper and red bow was the Christmas carol book they'd all sung from. She looked at it for a moment before turning to a smiling Hook Hand, who was settled down quite comfortably in a chair.
"Hook Hand, why did . . ." was all that she could say.
Hook Hand bent down to her and said in his deep voice, "It was my first Christmas song book, and when I saw how you liked it so much, I decided that it would be your first one too."
Rapunzel smiled warmly and stood up. Without a word, she flung her arms around his neck and squeezed him gently. He patted her on the back as she whispered, "Thank you, Hook Hand."
Soon all the presents were unwrapped and all their wrapping material thrown about. Gunther could hardly be recognized because of the hat he wore that Rapunzel had knitted for him (unfortunately for him, she didn't quite get his measurements right).
Rapunzel, leaning against Eugene, smiled as she gazed into the fire. All were quiet for a moment before a knock came at the door.
"Yes?" King William asked, not even bothering to turn toward the noise as he wrapped his arm around his wife's shoulders, who eagerly snuggled into his warm embrace.
"Sir," Rapunzel and Eugene shared a smile when they recognized that voice to be that of a young Conli, "it's time."
Everyone smiled and rose to get up, that is, everyone except Rapunzel. As the rest of the party filed out to get their warm winter things, Rapunzel sat on the rug by the fire, her eyes closed and fingers crossed.
Eugene, with Pascal on his shoulder, looked over the crowd of people and didn't notice Rapunzel, so they turned back into the parlor to see what she was up to.
His hands holding the door, Eugene peeked inside and said, "Rapunzel?"
She opened her eyes and turned to face them. "Yes?"
"What are you doing?"
Rapunzel smiled as she stood up, playing with a lock of hair, "I was wishing that it wouldn't snow tonight, so the best part of Christmas Eve can go on without any delay."
Eugene shared a quick smile with Pascal before saying, "Don't worry. Conli made sure that it's not snowing."
Rapunzel bounced to the door and stood beside him, beaming, as she said, "Then let's go!" and with that, she raced off after everyone, her slippers nearly flying off. Eugene smirked and Pascal held on as the two quickly caught up with everyone else.
After going through the foyer to collect all their cloaks, coats, hats, scarfs, mittens (knitted by Bruiser), boots, mufflers and ear muffs, Catherine walked over to a table and handed everyone their supplies for the evening's main event.
The lights in the foyer dimmed and all the guests shuffled outside to find good spots. Catherine dusted off whatever dust had gotten on her before taking her items. The King, Rapunzel, Eugene, and even Pascal got the items needed.
They could all hear the crowd outside, talking and chatting in the cold. Rapunzel's cheeks were turning pink, and she hoped to go out soon; her outfit was making her rather warm.
"Is it time, dear?" Queen Catherine said in her quiet voice as she turned to King William. He slowly nodded and the two royals linked arms. Eugene and Rapunzel smiled at each other and did likewise.
The guards on either side of the grand doors reached out and each grabbed a knob. As like one person, they swiftly opened the doors at the same time, revealing the cold winter wonderland. The King and Queen both walked out first, letting Rapunzel catch a look of the front balcony. All the floor and railing were covered with snow from this morning, but the clear dark blue sky was rid of any snowflakes.
With an even bigger smile on her face, Rapunzel walked in step with Eugene (with Pascal on his shoulder), onto the balcony. The three royals and ex-thief and chameleon found their spots on the snow covered balcony.
All the people of Corona filled the cold streets, bundled in their winter clothes and holding the required items needed for the event.
King William turned to Conli, who had nervously followed them. Trembling violently, the guard lit a match and managed to light a large white candle. Hastily blowing the match out, he cautiously lit the King's white candle that the royal held in his hand. The King smiled and nodded, which made poor Conli smile in the relief. The guard went to light all the others' candles (those who were on the balcony, at least) while the villagers started to light their own with their own large white candles.
Rapunzel giggled slightly when her wick caught the flame. Flame always amazed her, how a thing supplied with wood could be warm and bright and so beautiful. Pascal had a lit candle as well, and had to be careful not to catch Eugene's hair on fire.
Once everyone's candles were lit, Catherine smiled and turned to Rapunzel. The princess leaned in as the Queen whispered, "Do you want to start us off?"
Rapunzel bit her lip and broke the gaze. She loved singing with people but these were thousands of people! What—what if . . . she saw the Thugs in the corner of the courtyard. She saw the little red-haired girls. She saw the Captain standing with Maximus. They were smiling at her. They knew she would do it and be great.
She turned back to her mother and said, "All right." Letting go of Eugene's elbow, she crossed the balcony to the railing. One hand holding a candle, the other a tall, circular shaped object that she was so very familiar with, she took a deep breath and said, "Silent night, holy night. All is calm, all is bright."
Behind her, she could hear her mother, father, and boyfriend and best friend walk up beside her. Their voices sang along with hers, "Round yon virgin mother and Child, holy infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace."
All the people in the crowd and on the balcony, all those still in the palace and on the waters by the docks of Corona, joined in to sing the second verse. All their voices carried out into the cold winter wind, adding a warmth to the otherwise freezing cold weather.
All together, they sang the last lyric, "Jesus, Lord, at thy birth." Then all together, they slipped their candles through the top of the lanterns they had been holding in their hands. All the lanterns were white with red trimmings; a golden sun was on the royals' lanterns.
The four people and chameleon on the balcony smiled at one another and all at once, let their lanterns rise into the sky. The four large and one small lanterns signaled all the people of Corona to set off their lanterns. The sky immediately started to fill with the white lights.
Rapunzel wrapped her arms around Eugene's arm and sighed contentedly, her head against his shoulder. He smiled and reached over and stroked her hair comfortingly as the lanterns flew higher, and higher into the sky.
After the lanterns had drifted off and all the people returned home to their beds, the royal family, Eugene and Pascal gathered in the parlor. The King was wrapped up in a dark blue bathrobe that covered his night clothes, and Catherine was in a dark purple nightgown under her white robe. Rapunzel wore a white lacy nightgown under her lavender robe and Eugene wore his white shirt and brown pants. Pascal snoozed under a blanket on the floor, tuckered out from the evening's festivities.
Without a word, Rapunzel retrieved the stockings from the coffee table and Eugene grabbed the hammer and nails. The King and Queen watched with smiles as Rapunzel patiently held up the stockings while Eugene hammered them onto the mantle. Once done, he put the tools back on the coffee table and he and Rapunzel sat down on the loveseat, their arms wrapped around one another.
"Do you really think Father Christmas isn't real?" Rapunzel asked.
"You never know for certain, Blondie. I think that it isn't Father Christmas that is important, but what he represents. Giving and being happy around the holidays," he turned to face Rapunzel's pink face, "you know what I mean?"
Rapunzel smiled and whispered, "I'm starting to."
And at that moment, the clock struck twelve.
"Merry Christmas, Eugene," Rapunzel whispered, the clock ringing in the background.
"Merry Christmas, Rapunzel," Eugene whispered back.
The King and Queen would have added their Christmas Day's greetings, but the veil of sleep had fallen upon them, and they could only stay awake long enough to go to bed, ready for the day that was to come.
Sorry that that took forever, I'm using the old being busy excuse. OH MY GOSH, HAVE ANY OF YOU SEEN THE LITTLE SNIPS AND PREVIEWS OF TANGLED EVER AFTER ON YOUTUBE? THEY. ARE. AMAZING. Not the best quality, but WE DON'T CARE! Was the lantern/candle idea nice? Please let me know in your reviews!