Chapter 10
Moonlight


"Your Majesty, please..."
"I understand, but..."
"Princess Rapunzel!"
Nigel, the royal advisor for Princess Rapunzel of the Kingdom of Corona, snapped.

Rapunzel frowned and didn't speak, it reminded her of when Gothel snapped at her for trying to talk about the lanterns with her. Nigel ran his fingers through his black hair nervously, "Princess... You must understand where I'm coming from. Cassandra, your lady-in-waiting, has even said this herself, children thieves or not, a thief is a thief and thieves must be punished! Whether it be by locking them up or sentencing them to death-" Nigel was once again interrupted;

"You can't sentence children to death, Nigel!" Rapunzel shouted, which was abnormal of her.

Nigel stared, mouth open and speechless. "But-"
"No." Rapunzel said without batting an eye.

"It's one thing, locking them up, but sentencing them to death for their crimes is too much. These thieves have no choice but to steal to survive. It would be better off for my dad to sign a contract to have a place to help these children, and even adults, to be built in the Kingdom, so we can eliminate these thefts all across the streets. Do you understand, Nigel?" She raised her brow.

Nigel still was speechless, but he couldn't just stand there with his mouth half-open with a bewildered expression on his face, after all; he was being told important words from the princess.

"Yes, of course... We will...run it by His Highness..." Nigel bowed.

Rapunzel glared, watching Nigel quickly walk away and close the door behind him, before she faded her angry expression into a sad, almost guilty, expression. "That was so mean, but I... couldn't just let that happen." Rapunzel said to herself, until Pascal crawled up her arm, then she realized she wasn't alone and it made her feel a little bit better about talking to herself, because she was actually talking to Pascal. Pascal let out a tiny squeak before nuzzling her cheek.

"Thank you Pascal... I love you too..." Rapunzel pet Pascal's head softly.


Varian wandered through the rain, covering himself and Ruddiger, who was laying on his shoulder, with his jacket. Thunder echoed through the night skies and Varian walked.

"We should find shelter, the rain's too much for us at this time, Ruddiger." Varian shivered, "That building is nearby, we should go back there." He added. Ruddiger shook his head and hid further into the jacket, "I know you think it's creepy, or... whatever... but I'm drawn to it in a way, maybe curiosity? Either way, we have no choice unless we want to get a cold out here." Varian replied.

Ruddiger didn't protest anymore. Varian and Ruddiger headed to the building, climbed through the window and closed the window. There was a puddle right below the windowsill, due to the fact Varian left the window open in-case he ever wanted to go back to this place.

Varian tracked mud and water through the building until eventually his boots no longer were wet; Varian searched the building, hoping to find more portraits or something cool to sell or even just keep for himself. Ruddiger laid on a barrel and slept, because he was tired from the hard day he had, which was in-fact, just him stealing a white horse's apples and getting chased after for it.

Varian caught a glimpse of something shining in the moonlight, so he walked over to take a look at it. "Huh." He picked it up; is it an opal, he wondered. He rolled it around in his hand gently, it fascinated him, but it seemed long forgotten and it was grey with no colors at all.

He shrugged and shoved it in his bag for safe keeping.

Varian kept looking around and found a wall that had portraits of many people. The ones that stuck out to him the most was; a older man with long, brown hair and a brown beard, the same man from the portrait, just in different clothing, a silver-haired woman with a split-faced painting over her tan skin and the last one, a man with a black beard, black dreadlocks and yellow eyes.

The portraits were dirty, but he could make out their faces. It was something about the man from the other portrait that also appeared here... He couldn't pinpoint it, but... It just seemed to wash relief and comfort over him, his eyes... Did he know this man somehow?

Varian decided to join Ruddiger for a nap and waited until the storm passed to leave, going back to his rooftop, where he'd contemplate on why he felt that man was so familiar to him.