Author's Note: Happy December! Whew, I am DONE with finals and am FREE unit mid-January. Well, free from school. I still have work, church, and ministry stuff, but no school makes me a happy student! Thank you for continuing this way-too-detailed-story-of-a-guard-who-sneezes FanFic. You are great.
DoomgirlForever: I honestly wish I could hug you for being SO faithful in reading and reviewing. And I wish I could give you constant internet, too, but maybe then you'd get distracted as I know I do, hehe!
17headlines: NO. Don't allow them to take you back! ;) Thank you for reading/reviewing! And yay for candy! I adore Lindor chocolate if you're looking for something new to try.
SharKohen: Thank you SO MUCH for your comments! I'm glad that you think it makes sense the way I have it. It means a lot.
IceQueenandIceFire: Golly, you're too gracious with your faithfulness in reviewing. Yeah, Tangled timeline and my scenes hopefully will match as seamlessly as possibly, but naturally, there'll be a few times where I'll have to dig out the old artistic/author license and trim it so it fits my vision without it dragging on for you readers. Thanks for your thoughts!
Banci Taman Lawang: Okay, first off, YOU are amazing. And secondly, your suggestion TOTALLY inspired me/spurred me on to dabble with ideas, annnnnd I have the bones of said reunion! With your permission, may I add that into either this story ("Hay Fever") or a one-shot after "Hay Fever" is completed? You'll get full rights of idea, of course. But I also completely understand if you'd rather not let me do that. Feel free to PM me as well (I don't know how to do that, however, hence why I'm contacting you via here).
Gretchie: Thank you so much! I'm so glad you decided to join me on this "Hay Fever" journey!
And thank you to those who favorite/follow this story! I do my best to thank the reviewers, but forget to give you a shout out, so thanks!
Obviously, Tangled and the characters belong to Disney. I take ownership of the character's personalities, some names, and the "Hay Fever" storyline. Happy reading!
"Rider? Where?" Gainey demanded, our conversation immediately forgotten as his defenses shot back up and his captain-mode fell back into place.
"At the Snuggly Duckling," Greno repeated. "My friends and I caught him and want the reward."
"You'll get the reward when I get my thief," Gainey all but growled as he marched forward from where the messenger came. "Let's move out!" We obeyed his orders and grabbed the horses' reigns but walked along side. I leaned a bit on my stead since hitting my ankle on a tree root or something when pouncing Ron triggered a slight ache.
"Everything all right, Conli?" Bryon asked as he matched my gait and went on along beside me.
"The Captain and I didn't get to chat much before we were interrupted," I answered.
"And that?" he indicated my slight limp to favor my sore leg.
"Side affect of letting the past interfere with the now."
"Deep," Bryon commentated to my response. I rolled my eyes and picked up a faster pace despite the rebellion my leg begged to enact. "Should you ride instead of being on your feet?"
"You know regulation," I murmured to Bryon. "'When Corona guards are in possession of a prisoner, they must be on foot to make the guards more alert and help wordlessly alert others who they come in contact with.'"
"'For less time messing around on the horses should a convict escape," he quoted in a mocking tone. I nodded and rolled my eyes simultaneously. "Better hid that limp, then, Conli." Bryon's advice was obvious, but noted as I straightened up and proceeded in a more confident march.
"You guys would not believe what this reminds me of," Tim beamed from slightly ahead. "Just this past Monday –or was it Tuesday… well, it was when the day was bright and the wind just right. Ah, I do believe it was truly Wednesday now that I say that… But any who, Delaney and Lil'Thomas were playing with a buddle of baby bunnies. Wait, did I tell you how I found the bunnies?"
This began an excruciatingly detailed story of Delaney capturing the bunnies when they escaped from a handmade Eastern Corona Islands basket. All the while, Kiel muttered random facts about the subjects and objects Tim described amidst the tale from Kiel's own previous hearings of the stories many times prior. Tim may not be on night duty anymore, but he and Kiel are still often assigned guard shifts together. I pity poor Kiel, but I think he secretly doesn't mind dealing with Tim's exorbitant, and sometimes obnoxious, tales. Kiel's kids and wife are on the far side of Corona, so he doesn't see them as often. Tim and Sophia Anne both made him the unofficial uncle to Delaney and Thomas since Kiel. Thus, he was able to reproduce almost all of Tim's stories, nailing nearly every fact.
I released a groan as Tim dove deeper into the meaningless details of his tale, this, of course, caused him to abruptly stop and stare at me expectantly in question.
"Ah, my leg aches, you know, the jump and all," I lamely muttered in explanation. Tim surged on through his story as if I never interrupted him and I could've sworn I saw Ron snicker.
"What about your leg?" Gainey inquired. I stifled this groan.
"Nothing, sir," I snapped back in hopes he'd drop it.
"Will this deficiency inhibit our mission today?" demanded the captain. I replied back no and, thankfully, he let the conversation go. "Prove it. Now, let's go hunt us a thief," he stated in a determined manner that reminded me of his officer's status. Say what you want with Gainey being awful at touchy moments, or emotionally impacting others only in pain, or lacking overall talents in empathy, he was a heck of a captain. Especially when his mind was set to a mission such as this.
We hastened our march and made it to the Snuggly Duckling in what felt like record time. Once we saw the tavern, Gainey full on ran. I quickly jogged as best as possible to quickly tie up my horse to a post. I paused for a second as I completed the knot. Was that lively music and singing coming from the Snuggly Duckling? Do the Snuggly Duckling attendees sing jolly tunes on a normal basis? I mused. Could our sources on the ugliness and brutality of these thugs be misleading?
When I whipped around to join Gainey who was nearing the entrance, I suddenly froze like a statue. There, next to a window of the run-down tavern, was the precise hooded figure with flashes of red near the hem that has haunted my dreams for years. This has to be a vision. I'm in the same forest where I last saw the figure and Nathan; thus, I'm emotionally pumped, and with the adrenaline from this morning, and add in catching Ron, I can't be seeing straight, right?
"Conli, c'mon," Kiel uttered quietly through his thick beard as he and the others neared the Snuggly Duckling, towing in the heavy luggage of two thugs that needed a good bath. I glanced again at the window and thought I saw the figure's cape snap around the structure's corner, but I couldn't be sure. If Gainey or Kiel didn't comment on it, maybe it wasn't there, but then again, Gainey has eyes only for a certain thief. I doubt he's even noticed the odor of the tavern.
"I've found the guards!" I heard Greno announce to the people in the main room of the place. Ugh, I could smell it from the horse posts.
"Where's Rider? Where is he?!" demanded Gainey. He was in his mission mode again. He'll only think of this until we achieve it. Meaning we'll have Rider in handcuffs and on death row in 24 hours if Gainey has a say in it. Especially with how Gainey worded this mission: hunt. I didn't want to comprehend what all he wanted to achieve by catching this thief, but I wasn't sure if quietly backing out of the mission now was an option either. Plus, I have something to prove, I guess. I haven't fully processed Bryon, Tim, and Kiel's accusations and proclamations about me desiring to feel worthy of being Nathan's brother, but I can't think on that at the moment. Now was not the time to be having visions of my brother's murderer or wondering what I'm trying to achieve in the realm of brotherhood.
I gulped and braved my way across the stingy lawn to the tavern's door.
"I know he's in here somewhere. Find him," Gainey barked. "Turn the place upside down if you have to!" A thunk sound from inside lead me to believe that the captain either tossed a chair or hit something to help drive his point home of the importance in finding the thief.
Once I entered through the cramped doorframe, I now could survey the whole area. The Snuggly Duckling did not match the name of the establishment, but it did, however, live up to the expectations of the stench it omitted. The room was sated with huge, muscly, hairy, and brutish thugs adorned in earthy colors or animal hides. They made the Stabbington Brothers look dainty, and me resemble a doll. I tried not to shrink at their size and amount of weaponry that lounged in their hands. Some of the scratches on the walls look like they were freshly engraved. And a shivering musician chained in the corner verified that I have every right to assume the knives sprawled about the room were not merely for decoration.
"I believe this is the man you're looking for," a thug with a helmet and beefy arms said as he held up a wanted poster of Rider and then a pudgy, cupid-dressed man.
"You got me," deliriously, the old man announced.
Ugh, drunks, I concluded. That explained the singing. Thugs were meant to be bullies and waste away at crummy restaurants like this, not bond and sing and whatever other imaginative things I conjured up earlier.
"Sir, there's no sign of Rider," Bryon reported from a creaky wooden staircase that lead to a dark second floor of the tavern. Gainey's fumes were shortening, I could tell. Then, a familiar neighing brought our attention to the Snuggling Duckling's entrance. A white horse –with sunray's beaming behind him, no less- burst through the door in a determined mindset.
"Maximus," Gainey remarked in disbelief and hope. The near-worship adoration Gainey's eyes took on in that moment reminded me of how upset the captain was at losing the satchel and Rider with Maximus earlier in the woods today. Did I misinterpret the captain's statements at losing something valuable? Did he not mean the crown, rather this beloved stallion that was currently sniffing the ground like a hound dog.
Purposefully, Maximus reared on his hind legs, but instead of a neigh, he used his strong front legs to part the gaggle of guards and thugs like Moses and the Red Sea.
"What's he doing?" confused, Tim asked. Gainey whipped a hand up to cover his mouth –I wish he'd done that six stories earlier in the woods, to be honest- and watched the steed's every action.
Maximus marched on sniffing the dusty floorboards as he went when he concluded at the levers on the counter. He neighed insistently, but Gainey just shook his head, puzzled. Maximus huffed out as if tired of trying to slow down for us to keep up –it sure felt that way sometimes- and pressed the lever with a duckling painted on it. The floor gave way in a specified area to reveal a man-made hole from the ramp the floor created.
"A passage!" exclaimed Gainey. "Come on, men, let's go," the captain commanded, faith in the mission restored in his voice now that Maximus was back. Fearlessly, he trekked through the Snuggly Duckling. Bryon leaped over to the secret door's entrance, Tim scurried past the brutes to the passage, and Kiel was already right behind the captain who snatched a torch before descending to the darkness of wherever that place lead to. I guess we can continue to babysit Ron and his brother even in a sketchy passageway that Rider supposedly escaped through. "Conli," Gainey boomed, "make sure those boys don't get away."
I understood what he was doing: giving me a chance to prove myself. Guarding two of the three most wanted criminals in Corona was no small task. And Gainey was honoring my injured leg knowing chasing after a thief could not be in my future in my current state. With pride and purpose, I recoiled into a defense position with my spear pointed at Ron and his cohort. I won't let my captain down, I decided. This was my chance to prove my worth; show that I didn't mess everything up.
But I didn't get my chance as the next thing I knew Ron's brother thrust his massive upper body head first upon my much-smaller being, knocking me to the ground. As wooziness took control of my legs and black entered my vision, I registered Ron smirking and grunting something about playing it safe or… or… I welcomed unconsciousness before his last words perpetrated my brain.
