Burned

"Hey buddy." said Eugene to the scarecrow standing watch over the field. "I think I'll take a second or two to get rid of you. You are just literally fuel for the fire, and I would prefer not to go down with you." He disassembled the scarecrow as best as he could, scattering the hay where he guessed the underground well was located. Then the water from that well would hopefully water it down enough, where the straw would be too wet to catch.

'Underground well.' Thought Eugene. Couldn't Varian just have a regular well? One of those cutesy things with stone and a draw bucket? It would have been much easier to access this situation! Did he really have to have cutting edge everything? He really didn't have time to complain. When he got back out here two more rows of wheat were being eaten up by the consuming force. He could feel the heat sucking up more of the air. He took the spade and dug it into the dirt, feeling around with his fingers of his other hand, remembering what Varian said about not hitting the pipe. He went on that way, digging as gently and efficiently as he could, feeling around for anything metal and cylindrical. He tried not to look every two seconds at how close the fire was getting to lapping him up. Looking too much would waste precious time. Before long, maybe two or three turns he found it.

Water spurted out of it a little bit already, but it wasn't enough. It must have been from the singular pump that routinely pushed water out of the pipe. Varian must have not diverted all of the water here yet. He hung onto hope. For now, Eugene took some of the piping and looked at the ends. He hadn't even asked Varian how to assemble it. He didn't want to start the kid on another lengthy explanation. He noticed that the edges of the pipes had spiral rims. Above that they had what looked like a round metal button on the side of one end. When he pressed on it, it pushed down, but then when he removed his finger, it immediately popped back up, as if there were a tiny spring mechanism inside. Out of the corner of his eye, Eugene saw that the fire had jumped another row. He had to hurry.

There was a small hole the precise size of the button Eugene had pushed at the other end of each pipe. He thought he might know what he should do. He took one pipe, putting its end with the button upward and he took another pipe, putting its end with the hole downward. He wanted to match the hole with the button on the two pipes. As he twisted them together the button at first squished down under the other pipe's metal, but then snapped into the hole of the other pipe with a clang! "Yes!" Eugene triumphed.

It only took a few seconds. "Alright!" No wonder the kid was able to make machines so quickly. Where did he get this stuff? Eugene guessed it was the left overs. Not every pipe was straight, a lot of them bent at an odd angles. He hooked the piping to the metal pump and continued assembling. If it seemed like each link of pipes he put together was a victory, it was only diminished by the sight of the fire creeping closer. It burned, cracked and blackened, eating wheat stalks as if they were nothing. Stray sparks wildly flew up, burning out into cinders or igniting into a life of their own.

He felt every four links he would put together, the fire would leap another row, almost as if it was stretching to reach him before he could put it out. It took twenty seconds for him to put four links together and each link was about two feet long. By the time he was finished, he had assembled about twenty feet of piping in around a minute. Varian was right. "Whew!" He let out as he assembled the last link, but he looked up disheartened. The fire was only about twenty feet away from him now. The heat at his front contrasted sharply with the cool autumn air at his back. He leaned back as the frontal heat was rapidly increasing in strength. He heard his own labored breath underneath the welding mask and gobs of sweat were starting to drip off of him. He pulled up his sleeves.

The nearing flames looked like fiery sprites attempting to delude and entice him with their ritualistic dance, seeking to engulf him into their demented obsession. Despite the heat a chill went up his spine. There wasn't any water coming out of all the piping. The trail of water he had initially seen coming from the well must have been too weak to travel all the way through. He looked up at the storm clouds. They were directly above him and gave him a little hope, but for now they just looked ominous, gathering, without producing any rain. Something was going to have to happen soon or waiting here meant he would never see Rapunzel again. And he would never get to meet their unborn child.

Rapunzel looked up at the man who had just offered his hand to her. Pascal squeaked at her in warning. She had told the chameleon all about him. It was Egbert Lundar. 'Oh no.' She inwardly groaned. If he was going pull something like he did at the wedding, she didn't have time for this. The headache and nausea that had just started could only be intensified by dealing with his ploys right now. She took his hand and let him help her up only to not cause a scene, even though it was the last thing she wanted to do. "Thank you." She managed to get out without sounding false. She felt herself soften a little. He had helped her up. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt that he was only trying to be cordial. "I am going to help my parents hand out food to the stranded guests. Would you like to help?" Instead of answering, he asked her a question. "Should you really be on your feet in your condition princess?" He asked with his over-polished tenor, sounding absolutely patronizing. Her back stiffened.

'Ok maybe, he is genuinely trying to be nice, but the gall of that man!' thought Rapunzel. 'Trying to imply what she should or should not do!'

"It's better than sitting around!" Rapunzel finally answered not able to totally get the edge out of her voice. Egbert thought she had gorgeous green eyes, but right now they looked like they held fire. "If you'd like to help me with the food, that's wonderful, but if not, maybe you'd like to go back to your family and figure out a way to be helpful for when my husband returns. Thank you for your offer of help Egbert." The words she used conveyed he was welcome to follow her to help her with her parents' task, but her tone and way she left did not. He watched her practically stalk off.

Egbert shook his head. He didn't know what she saw in his second cousin. The man had left her here, in her condition, to direct his own guards, after he hastily barked out orders of his own and galloped away on a horse. If it were him he would see to it that she was more tended to. After the princess left, Egbert had nothing to do but to go back to his family. He wouldn't say anything however about trying to help Eugene when he returned. He was starting to form a vague hope that his second cousin would never return, and Rapunzel would then be free to see Egbert for the kind of man was.

"C'mon hurry!" Varian told himself. Eugene had made him promise to run if he couldn't get the water redirected in 10 minutes and it was approaching 12. He couldn't just leave him out there though. He was so close! When he first got down to his lab beneath the ground floor he turned on the irrigation system, it was a slow drip and not a lot of water, but maybe it would help a little! He also turned off the heating element to not just his personal hot water machine, but all the water machines. He didn't know how proficient hot water would be in putting out a fire. That would make a good experiment someday.

He forced himself to focus. His own hot water machine was in the center of his lab. It resembled a giant metal bolted cauldron. The rest of the hot water machines were scattered throughout a series of tunnels that led naturally out from his lab, long ago built by an ancient king of Corona. He had connected them all to one main line further out in the tunnels. He couldn't be sure but he felt the walk to the main line was a similar length of time that Eugene would take through the fields. If he timed it well enough, he could turn the pressure to the water on right when Eugene was finishing the piping.

He travelled through them, running as quickly as he could. He hadn't built the underpass, only extended upon it. He remembered when he first discovered these tunnels under his cottage and the stone house. The property was pretty ancient. He knew they were both built originally for an escape route and, at least for his property, catacombs. The thought that dead bodies could be buried under here, hidden in the walls freaked him out a little, but he hadn't found any yet.

The main line was coming up soon. He arrived at the conjunction. First there was a large main spigot that connected to piping that led to wells throughout the town. It was easier to connect his hot water machines to already existing water sources, he had just done some creative piping to separate the hot water from the-

"Varian focus." He told himself again. He turned this large main spigot off. "Sorry Corona." He said. "You'll have to do without hot water for a bit." Then he went to a twin spigot off to the left that had been only for his wells when he was first trying the hot water system out. All he had to do was twist it back on. He had not used it in so long it looked like it was rusted over. His heart skittered a bit, as he dearly hoped it wouldn't be too hard to turn. He couldn't think that way. Rolling up his sleeves, he turned the spigot with all his might. It wouldn't budge. "No! No!" He couldn't give up just yet. Varian knew he had a bunch of chemicals in his lab that would clean up the rust, but going back for them would take too long. It was exactly twelve minutes now. He just needed some more elbow grease.

He bit down on his tongue and pulled, but it wasn't going anywhere. He let out grunt and fell back. So much for elbow grease. 'Grease. Grease!' That was it! Maybe something like grease would work. Well, not really grease, but a liquid, like natural acid! Varian was good at mixing chemicals together, but he was a terrible cook. His growth spurt left him perpetually hungry, so whenever his father wasn't here to cook for him he grabbed onto whatever food he could find. He had picked up an orange from the baby shower and put it inside one of his apron pockets. He had forgotten it was there until now. When he was a lot younger his dad tried to teach him how to cook, but all he became interested in was isolating the natural acids and chemicals found in food, seeing what they did and how they reacted to various processes. That blossomed into scientific interests.

He knew oranges had a lot of acid called citric acid. Citric acid ate at rust! He ripped the orange open and squeezed the juice as straightforward as he could on the rust. It seemed to corrode it away a little bit. He tried twisting the spigot again. With a long groan and squeal, it turned. It turned! He turned it more and more, to the fullest capacity he could without bursting the pipes. Eugene would need as much water as he could get. He only hoped it wasn't too late.

Back at the palace, as Egbert walked reluctantly back to his family, he did not notice a thin man with a pointed nose watching him. Phineas Humphert, one of the guests of the crowd that stayed behind, had watched the whole exchange between Rapunzel and Egbert. Seeing with keen interest Egbert moon after Rapunzel and glower when her husband was mentioned. He had been introduced to Egbert Lundar briefly at the party. After witnessing that exchange, Phineas thought, it may be time to further his acquaintance with the Duke of Craterron. Something told him that the Duke, potential heir to the Dark Kingdom, didn't necessarily like his long lost cousin. He thought he might have a proposition for him, but he'd have to wait and see how the events of the fire played out.

Eugene knew it had to be over 10 minutes by now. He knew he had made Varian promise to run, but he didn't know if the boy genius had managed to turn the water pressure on, how long it would take to travel through the pipes. He wondered how long he should wait. He knew the guards were coming and he thought about giving up and distancing himself, but every time he thought about it, he remembered how important these fields were to Corona's food source. How elemental they were to Rapunzel's plan.

Loosing even a little more would make an increase in a dent they didn't need. Loosing even a little would cause so much angst in his wife's heart. She still hadn't figured out how to solve the food travel problem from incoming crops from the Dark Kingdom. "Serving her is serving Corona." King Frederick's words echoed in his thoughts. Or it was something like that. He was probably paraphrasing it in his head. He clenched his jaw and stubbornly stayed, digging in the heels of his boots in the ground. Then he thought he heard another choking, gurgling sound, barely discernable above the sound of the blaze. The gurgling turned into a gush.

Water streamed out of his piping with such high pressure that it nearly pulled his boots back out of the ground. The pump was so powerful that a little water leaked out of the joints of the pipes' links, but it wasn't enough to slow the pressure down. Varian had come through! Eugene tried to laugh in victory, but all that came out was a deep guttural cough.

The smoke inhalation was getting to him. The welding mask was helping a little with that, but the intensity of heat building up underneath was getting to be too much. He was going to have to take it off soon. He looked down at his arms. There was soot all over his body. The fire was close enough now that cinders were starting to stray over to him. Thankfully the bit of water leaking from the pipes was enough to dampen him so none of the stray cinders caught.

He watched the water he poured out onto the impending flames gust up into clouds of angry white steam, mixing with the black smoke caused by the fire. Scorched earth began to replace where the nearest flames had been. His eyes teared, and he wasn't sure if it was the elements or the relief that the contraption was working. He still had a long way to go though. He tried to move back and forth to spray down the line of it, breathing faster and faster in the carbon dioxide heavy air. Finally the heat got so intense that he had to take his mask off, throwing it on the ground. After that, the flames hadn't reached him yet, but the burning sensation was so powerful that he felt he would pass out.

Two of the first guards loaded up on a wagon finally arrived at Varian's farm. They could hear the burning and the blaze, smell the smoke and see the devastation. They reached the same clearing Eugene and Varian had earlier, but saw no sign of either one of them. They rushed to see if they could find the stopping point of the fire to be able to have some leverage there to pour water over it with the vats. As they travelled much of the same route Eugene and Varian did, they finally came to the end of the flames. There they saw a lone figure of a dark specter seemingly engulfed by the hazardous light, carrying some sort of strange mechanism. They finally made out who it was. "Captain!" He was going to burn up!

"Captain!" Right as he thought he was about to collapse, he thought he heard someone call. It gave him strength to move. He tenderly turned his neck to look over. Two guards were waving at him. At the angle of their view, it had looked like his figure was already in the midst of roaring flame. They rushed a heavy vat over and spilled it out over the flames. They hissed wickedly as they went out. It was enough that the heat protracted in intensity and the fainting feeling dulled. "Move back Captain. We thought we were going to loose you." One of the guards spoke. Eugene smiled assuredly. "Don't worry, I get that a lot!" He laughed again, but again the sound was replaced by guttural wheezes.

The guard pushed him back a little and took over with the piping. The piping had heated a bit, but his standard guard gloves looked like they protected his hands just enough. He looked a little in question at the contraption but it was obvious what it was doing. And there were always strange things at Varian's. Guards, two by two on various horses and wagons began filing in one after another, arriving at each other's heels, pouring water and causing hissing steam.

Eugene did his best to direct them with his scratchy voice. Between the vats and taking turns passing around the piping, they were making progress, but the fire was so strong, Eugene wasn't sure if they were only keeping it at bay. "Eugene! Eugene!" Eugene heard another voice call. Why was a guard calling him by his first name? He didn't mind, but it was a little strange. He turned and saw, "Lance? Lance! What are you doing here?" His friend was coming from the untouched portion of the fields. Trailing behind him were almost all the regulars of the Snuggly Duckling carting the establishments wooden barrels. Lance saw Eugene's eyes light up in worry at the sight of the wooden containers and told him, "Don't worry! They're filled with water! Your girlfriend sent us out to save you!" Lance teased, referring to Rapunzel. "Girlfriend?" Eugene shot back. "Have I met her?"

"Fine! Wife!" Lance gave in. "If you insist on being a hopelessly settled married man."

"I do! Happily!" He grinned.

"Well it's lucky she's stuck with you! You look and sound like the crypt keeper man." Eugene looked down at himself. He was even more sooty than before. "Aw you're just jealous, because nothing can diminish these devilishly handsome looks. By the way, I'm fine, thanks for asking!" He smiled at his own joke.

Lance gave Eugene a clap on the back as a reply, as they had dispelled the distance between them now. Eugene winced a little. He guessed heat exposure had made everything sore. And the sturdy pat had jostled his lungs. He couldn't help leaning over and coughing, resting his hands on his knees.

"Hey man, are you alright?" Lance asked in earnest.

"Yeah." He said. He swallowed. "Hey Lance, I know you said those barrels are filled with water, but I rather not have those wooden kegs near the fire. That could be like kindling. There are sparks flying around. I think I have a better idea."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah, but first, Lance?"

"What?"

"Can I borrow your voice?"

Using Lance's voice, Eugene directed their Snuggly Duckling friends to use the water from the kegs to refill the stone vats that had already been emptied into the fire. He had the guards pour the refilled vats back onto the fire. He was really glad Max hammered into him the importance of assembly lines. He owed a lot to that horse. Where was he anyway? They had left him at the edge of the field and he hadn't seen him since. Looking around, Eugene saw the bright horse nuzzling a barrel for purpose of rolling towards a vat.

Now that the other horses and wagons were here, it gave Maximus back his bravery to face the fire to do his part. Varian had come out too. Eugene made sure a guard had Varian stand well enough away from the fire. The kid had already done enough. When Varian had entered his house, his fields had been vacant and burning with uncontrollable fire. Now they were crawling with men. The tough roughshod men of the Snuggly Duckling and the trimmed appearance of the guards, cooperating without precedent.

The fire, on the other hand, was finally scaling back. A few sparks every once a while would still get ahead of them, however, and cause another pocket of flames. Every time that happened they would try to pounce on it to put it out, but that paired with making sure the main fire didn't roar back to life was getting exhausting. When the water from the vats and the kegs ran out, they started to use the water from the pipes to fill a vat, but what they really needed was another main source of water. Eugene thought. Something like a pond, or a lake, or rain!

It was raining! He couldn't believe it and didn't even mind getting soaked by the cold raindrops. The downpour made the sweetest sound. The storm clouds finally came through. It was as if they were waiting for the smoke to clear a little bit. It was torrents of rain. Its droplets, shimmering, shushing the last whimpers of the fire with merciless continuation. There were cries of jubilation. Some of the men, even some of the guards danced around cheerfully, hooking arm and arm, kicking their feet up. It was over!

"Idiot!" Thought Phineas Humphert. Whoops and hollers came from dispersing crowd. The last of the stranded guests moving up and out, headed home now that the threat was over. Rain poured around them and the ever minimizing puff of smoke that they saw out on the horizon vanished to nothing. Hadn't his son seen that there were rain clouds coming in when he went to start the fire? Why hadn't he just done what he was told and damaged the hot water machines? It was a question for another time. He needed a back-up plan.

He caught a glimpse of Egbert Lundar still woefully walking back towards his family. With the rain coming down, the rest of the Lundars were practically scampering back towards castle as they were staying with the royals. The rain matted down Egbert Lundar's spiky white hair and stuck it to his face, but he still walked in slow measured steps. Phineas guessed that he had more than one reason not to be overly eager to stay in the palace right now. Phineas had seen the way he looked after the princess. With Fitzherbert now likely to return, he'd likely have to jealously watch her give him a hero's welcome. He might have an alternative choice for him.

"Father are you coming?" His daughter asked him. She had just seen to it that the servants hitched their horse back up to their carriage, and gotten her mother inside of it, outside of the rain. Rain poured down on her strawberry blond hair, her new blue hat drenched, but deepened in color, thanks to the wet. It brought out her blue eyes. The same blue eyes, for which his wife Sapphias had gotten her name. "Come here with me daughter." He told her, taking her under his arm. "I have someone I want to re-introduce you to." Rebekah looked at him in curiosity. Phineas steeled himself. This was going to be the biggest risk he would take, but the meek didn't inherit the earth. "My dear Duke!" Phineas said loudly enough to catch the man's attention. "It is unfortunate that Corona's salvation to this recent fiery threat has come in the form of this ungainly weather is it not?" He gestured to the rain. "I wondered if you perhaps tired of your company at the palace, if you might like to get out of this stormy blight and have some tea over at our manor? I think you may remember my daughter Rebekah?" Phineas moved to present her in greater visibility.

'So that is what this was about.' Thought Egbert. Lord Humphert was trying to find his daughter a match. Egbert looked at Rebekah. She had beautiful strawberry blond hair, though it was mussed by the rain, and piercing blue eyes, but her round face looked like it belonged to a warm and soft personality. He liked a tougher woman, like the pioneer type women he grew up with, who were able to survive the harsh realities of the desolate Dark Kingdom on unadulterated grit. Rapunzel had that ire.

He didn't wish to be rude however, and he didn't exactly want to go to the castle, so he agreed to the invitation. "Excellent!" said Lord Humphert. "Please feel free to take our carriage to the house."

"Thank you, but I'll take my own." Egbert relayed. He'd have tea but he didn't want to be stuck there forever. "Very well, you can follow our carriage back to the house." They both parted ways to get in their respective carriages. "Father what about Wolfgang?" Rebekah asked. Her father tightened his jaw. "He can find his own way home." He declared.

Treacherous Times

Right before, the rain started Wolfgang had finished doing the rest of what he could with Vrott. The first lieutenant had stayed behind for a little, to talk to the men who had listened in on the idea of an alternative captain. Vrott found that he had a little support. Most of the men were long time veterans like he was, and had chased and failed to apprehend Eugene when he was a thief. Now they were working for a man they had been formerly instructed to execute. Vrott couldn't linger too long however.

He couldn't afford to appear lax in his duties. He got up on the last wagon out preparing to go to the fields. Wolfgang stood alone. "Would you like to come with us Wolfgang?" Vrott asked. "Get a piece of the action? Once a guard always a guard?" Wolfgang looked back towards the courtyard where his family must be. Clouds were covering not only the fields, but the whole palace now, looking like any second they would burst. If it rained, helping put out the fire, he didn't want to face his father. He knew the man would even likely have the impossible expectation of Wolfgang being able to predict nature! "Umm, sure." Wolfgang replied. He hopped on the wagon.

About 15 minutes later into their way it rained. Not just rained, poured. When Wolfgang thought things couldn't get any worse, he saw his father's carriage pass by a little whiles a way, followed by a strange looking caravan led by huge black stallions. He didn't want to know what that was about, but he was not going to stick around for it. He wasn't up for performing for guests in what he thought was undoubtedly his father's next scheme. He didn't know if anybody in either carriage had seen him on Vrott's wagon.

Vrott recognized his family's insignia on the sides of the horse-drawn carriage though. "Hey man, is that your family's wagon?" He asked. "Yeah." Wolfgang responded. "I better go catch it." He lied. The fire had to be out by now anyway. There was nothing he could do anymore with the guards He hopped off and said his good-byes. He'd walk back home and stay away until the guests had left.

Thank heavens! After a few minutes of celebration, Eugene hated to be the one who cut it short, but they needed to get back. He needed to get back! His body was killing him. The rain refreshed him a little, but his lungs burned. He had to take an asthmatic breath to prepare to project loudly again, "Lap it up boys as long as you can! We're going to have to bring everything back." The effort to shout scratched his throat and made him cough again. There were a few groans of protest, as the sore men were loathe to load and drive the wagons back to the courtyard storage. That reminded Eugene that he needed to see if everyone was alright. Rapunzel would have already been on that and nursing anyone in need. He didn't think he could shout again, so he asked Lance to ask after everyone.

Everyone seemed fine. A few minor burns here and there, but nothing that wouldn't heal. Eugene exposed to the fire the longest, seemed to have the worst of it. He caught sight of Vrott at the edge of the blackened field. He hadn't seen the lieutenant previously. "Nice for you to join us Vrott!" He egged the man on. He supposed he wasn't being fair. Vrott could've been there before the rain and he just hadn't noticed.

Besides as lieutenant, he probably stayed behind for a while, grouping men into their assignments. Vrott was trying to stammer out a response. Eugene let him off the hook. "Vrott, Vrott, relax, I'm just kidding." Vrott looked like he was doing his best to relax. Eugene wasn't sure if he knew how to do it. "Let's all head back!" He attempted to shout to the rest.

"What sir?"

The men were having trouble understanding him. "Lance?" He said aside to his friend. "Can you tell them what I said?"

The guards complied. Eugene was about to walk over to Maximus when heard a boy shout, "Eugene hold on!"

He turned back to look at Varian. After making sure the boy was alright, he had almost forgotten he was there. Varian rushed over to him, "Hey Varian! We did it huh?" Varian had something else on his mind.

"Eugene I need you to help me assess the damage."

"The damage." Eugene repeated.

"Right there's that." He answered. He sighed. "Is this really a two person job?" He couldn't help asking. His bones groaned, and he still couldn't breathe all that well. "It would help." said Varian. "We could walk on opposite ends and meet in the middle to see how many spans the destroyed wheat expands."

'More walking.' thought Eugene. "Alright." He decided regardless. He walked back over to Vrott in order to be heard. "Vrott take the men back to put everything back. I have to stay here to help Varian see how much everything is damaged." He was tempted to have one of the other trusted men stay behind and do that for him, but as prince-consort he knew Rapunzel would want to know, and plus, as he looked around at the men, as much as they had improved with training, they weren't the pillars of discretion. He knew guards Pete and Stan couldn't keep a secret for example.

If he learned anything from Rapunzel's pregnancy, it was that word spread fast. He didn't want wild rumors to start about how damaged the fields were. And there was the fact that most of the men couldn't measure. He'd have to work on that with them. "Of course Captain!" Vrott replied happily to his request. In Vrott's mind, it was more of a chance to convince the men of his competency compared to Fitzherbert. Eugene didn't notice. "Great! Thanks!" He said, but his muscles ached. He couldn't wait to get back to Rapunzel.

As Egbert's carriage pulled into the Humpherts ivy-less manor, he was impressed. It was a huge estate, obviously coming from old money. As he walked into the household, they sat down at the table for tea. Phineas dismissed the servants to their cottage, and ordered Rebekah to serve the tea. Rebekah looked at her father in protest, but quietly obeyed. Egbert thought that was a little strange, but assumed her father did that, to increase Rebekah's proximity towards him. They had some small talk until it was plain Lord Humphert had something to say. "Well Egbert Lundar, Duke of Craterron," Lord Humphert began. "I have to admit I asked you here under false pretenses." That drew a red flag, but Egbert kept calm. He sipped his tea. "Oh?" He asked.

"Yes," Lord Humphert carried on, "I believe we have mutual interests that might align."

'Like your daughter.' Egbert thought the man meant. Except Egbert wasn't interested. He still settled back down to humor the man.

"What interests? Enlighten me."

"Well," Phineas cleared his throat, stirring his tea. "As you might know, family is complicated. We Humpherts are cousins of the king. I am a first cousin, and Rapunzel and my children are second cousins. Before Rapunzel was recovered from her tower, we were direct heirs to the throne. As I understand, you are also second cousin to the prince-consort of Corona, and since he is staying here, you are also the heir to the Dark Kingdom."

Egbert almost cackled in amusement. He peeked at Rebekah curious at what her reaction would be, but she was inscrutable. Her father was establishing that he and his daughter were on equal footing. Although Egbert was not quite the heir apparent to the Dark Kingdom yet. It still depended on what the princess decided about her children. They frustratingly had delayed giving him an answer. Lord Humphert went on. "I do not know you Duke Lundar, but I feel from my brief observations of you that you are a man with ambitions that match my own. I will therefore confide in you that we have no confidence in the abilities of prince-consort, a former rogue that came into Corona's royal family, only with a fairy tale of a story."

Egbert agreed with him, but didn't know where he was going with this now. The rain pattered outside as the only sound between them as the suspense lengthened for what Phineas was going to say. "Therefore, we have no confidence in Corona's royal family as well." Egbert almost stood up. This was nothing to do about pairing him with his daughter and dangerously close to treason! What was this man suggesting?

"Hold! Hear me out!" Phineas pleaded seeing Egbert's consternation. "The royal family, King Frederick directly, is responsible for the loss of our farmlands. They are trying haphazard efforts to hastily repair them, but now with this fire, all Corona will likely suffer as a result of their gross incompetence." Phineas stood up, trying to underscore what he hoped looked like righteous conviction. "I imagine a better Corona and a better Dark Kingdom. One where we can align our two countries and replace the existing leadership. From what I hear, there is a chance that Prince-consort Fitzherbert and Princess Rapunzel's children, might be in line to take the throne instead of you." Phineas had recently gotten that information about the Dark Kingdom's possible line of succession from his palace spy.

"How dare you!" Egbert shouted. He didn't know how this charlatan knew that. He slammed down his hand and knocked over his cup. His tea and humor were completely forgotten now.

"I only speak the truth, Duke of Cratteron. And the truth is, neither one of our countries benefit from having Rapunzel's family rule either one of countries, much less both. We don't want a repeat of all their past mistakes that led to this point. We ask only that you ally with us in an endeavor to offer ourselves as humble servants in leading Corona. Something you must already know is a better alternative than the current reality."

Egbert thought of all the black spikes that had almost literally and metaphorically driven a stake through the heart of his homeland, before they disappeared. They were trying to fix the destruction they caused, but could he really trust one of Rapunzel's children to rule the country? Complete strangers to their ways? Not unless he tutored them. Never mind that King Edmund also promised to tutor them.

Really Egbert would compel any child, grown or not, to rule as he would, with an iron fist. The self-sacrifices King Edmund made had led the country nowhere. But this, what Phineas was proposing, was treason in the highest order. For him it would be treason against both kingdoms. He would not risk his potential throne for that. "For the sake of your family and your daughter," Egbert seethed, glancing at Rebekah, "I will not speak a word of what was said here. But I will take my leave. I hope to never lay eyes on you again, you treacherous snake." He spat out.

Phineas was taken back but knew better than to push it. He watched the duke storm out. With the fields likely halfway saved, Egbert was his last chance to salvage his plans of overtaking the throne. He felt a storm brew in his heart against his son and his mistakes.

Rapunzel wondered where Eugene was. Half the guard was already back, and the other half looked like they were following, but her husband hadn't returned. No one seemed to know. They had seen the Captain out there they said. He was sooty and matted due to the fire, but he was ok. Eugene had only told Vrott why he was staying behind and Vrott hadn't told anyone else. So Rapunzel was stuck without answers.

Well the fire was over with on all accounts and despite the rain, she needed to know her husband was alright. She carefully avoided getting within sight of her parents, especially her father. She didn't think what she was about to do was too strenuous, especially if she were careful, but she knew they would disagree. She got to the castle's stables and picked out a light brown horse named Nella, a sturdy Clydesdale that would support her weight easily.

She hadn't tried to ride since horseback since that last ride with Eugene to the Snuggly Duckling when she was only a few weeks pregnant. The doctor had strongly discouraged it since then. These days she took the royal carriage, but she knew if she did now she would be caught going out to the fields, and she was done waiting. Her husband had been gone too long. She felt that something was probably wrong.

It took her three efforts to mount the horse, and even when she got on though, she knew it was a mistake. She thought riding side saddle would help her balance, but boy was she wrong. Nausea took hold of her, in her imbalanced position and she had to climb off again. "Sorry Nella." She apologized to the horse. "Maybe another day, after I am able to have you meet my baby." It nickered softly. She came up with another plan. Running back into the courtyard, well, as much as she could run, she caught sight of two guards she knew on their return trip. "Stan! Pete!" She called. Skinny Pete and Stan with his handlebar mustache, waved to her. "Princess! The fire is out!"

"I've heard! Have you seen Eugene?" She was familiar enough with the guards to call her husband by his first name to them. "No, not since we left princess. But he was alright when we last saw him. He's the one who ordered us to get these wagons and vats back to the courtyard."

"Oh no, you're not going anywhere near the courtyard." Rapunzel said. She wanted to use Pete and Stan's wagon to go find Eugene and she couldn't risk running into her parents. They might command her to stay. "What? We're not?" asked Pete. "No." She answered.

"We are going back to Varian's." She commanded. The guards looked at each other. "We?"

"Yes! You are going to take me back there until we find him."

"Princess," they looked at her uncomfortably. They weren't sure what her parents would think of that. Stan started to say, "I don't think-"

"That's by order of the princess." Rapunzel declared, leaving no room for argument. Stan and Pete looked at each other, but knew they had no choice. Pete got down from the driver's seat of the wagon to make room for Rapunzel. Stan offered his hand to Rapunzel to help her take a seat in the front next to him, and Pete decided to sit cross-legged in the bed of the wagon in between the vats to steady them. They were mostly empty except for a little rainwater that collected at the bottom. He felt a little like a giant toddler in an oversized wagon. They set to go. "You know princess," he called over his shoulder, "He'll probably be back any minute."

"And the minute I see him Pete," she said in response. "You will be relieved of duty." She assured.

"And I will be relieved too." She said to herself.

Forty percent was the number they came up with. The fields were forty percent damaged. Forty wasn't fifty, or sixty and thank goodness it wasn't one hundred, but it was still a bigger number than either one of them would have liked. Varian wondered what Rapunzel was going to do with that number. It had been possible to carefully ration things before, but now that looked impossible. He knew they could travel with some of the crops from the Dark Kingdom over here, but as the seasons changed with time and travel, in addition to the rain the Dark Kingdom was giving, he knew they would spoil before the next harvest.

He and Rapunzel had been trying to wrack their brains about how to get them to keep longer, but they hadn't come up with anything viable. Maybe they could give out as much food as they were going to beforehand, it would last a few months, just to buy them time to think of a way to have the Dark Kingdom's crops keep. That would be better than the alternative. He was sure they would think of something. They had to.

Eugene had taken the percentage Varian had relayed to him with a grim face. When he got back home, he'd have to tell Rapunzel the truth. He mounted Maximus, but when he got ready to tell Varian his good-byes, Varian surprised him by mounting the horse as well. "Varian, you don't have to go with me." He croaked. "You can stay home and tend to things. I could see how you'd want to do that especially now."

"My horse is still back at the castle stables." Varian told him. Eugene looked at him in surprise.

"Your horse? I thought all your horses were with your dad over at the Dark Kingdom now."

Varian explained how, after he had to race into town with Maximus following Rapunzel's earlier snafu with heat exhaustion, the king saw a need for Varian and Quirin to have another horse to keep in Corona while Quirin took his travels to the Dark Kingdom. So the king gifted him with another horse.

"That is what I was trying to tell you earlier, right before we spotted the fire." Varian smiled. "Huh, makes sense." Eugene croaked again. "It would be nice if the king would let us in on these details! Not sure why it seems to be on a need to know basis! Well sorry, Varian thought you needed a ride when I yanked you up on Maximus."

"It's ok. I do need one now!" He smiled. "Oh wait!" He snapped his fingers. "I forgot to turn everything back to what it was! Corona will want its hot water back!" He grinned. He ran back to the house and Eugene could swear he heard some loud pings and clangs, before Varian emerged again looking victorious. Eugene shook his head. What an odd, but great kid. "Yeah, team awesome!" Varian said this time, as he mounted on his own.

He felt he was getting a little better at horseback riding. As they rode back together and Varian started to get a little concerned for Eugene. He seemed like he was having trouble staying on the horse. Several times, it looked like he caught himself, right before he slipped off. Varian hadn't known how long or how close to the fire Eugene had gotten. Sometimes he noticed microbes better than people, but it was easily perceived here that something was wrong. Varian was about to say something when they saw two guards and a wagon headed back towards the direction of his house. Did they not know the fire was out? Varian recognized the guard Pete sitting on the bed like a large child getting a ride. "Hey Pete, Stan and Rapunzel, what are you doing going back to the site?" Eugene called out. Wait a minute, Rapunzel? "Rapunzel!" She came into view next to Stan. "Eugene!"

It wasn't the most graceful or picturesque reunion. Eugene nearly fell off Maximus instead of dismounting, and Rapunzel, very pregnant, had to lumber off the driver's seat of the wagon with Stan's help. But when they embraced, the passionate kiss they shared made up for it. Pascal turned a bright pink hue. Varian supposed that was the lizard's way of blushing. "See what did I tell you? I told you we'd see him any minute." Pete reminded.

Rapunzel gave him a smirk. "Are you alright?" She asked Eugene. He didn't look alright. His usual well-groomed appearance was darkened by cinder and ash. Trails of it lined down his face and clothes now that he was soaking from the rain. He addressed her in a frog or lizard-like voice, as if he and Pascal had temporarily switched voices. She knew she should be worried, and she was, but she also found it endearing in the moment. "I'm fine. Now." He answered, looking at her, his inflection unmistakable in what he meant. It made a warm feeling radiate through her from her toes. The nausea and headache she had felt earlier faded into the background. "I just need to get back." He said. It finally stopped raining. The last drops of it sliding peacefully off the leaves of the forest around them. The sun rays even seemed to be trying to peek through a bit. "Wow look at that!" Eugene observed. "Did you do that sunshine?"

"Oh stop!" Rapunzel laughed at Eugene. "Let's get you back."