Once Leila's father had left, Eugene turned to Leila.
"See that girl that was with me with long blond hair?" Eugene asked.
"Yeah, she has really long hair." Leila answered.
"Well, her hair is kind of in the way. Do you think you and your friends could braid it so it isn't in the way?" Eugene asked. Leila's face lit up.
"Yeah we can do that. I bet she would love flowers in her hair, we can braid them in."
"Flowers would be great. Thanks Leila. Let's go tell her. Come on." Eugene turned around and headed back to Rapunzel. Leila headed to her friends.
"Hey, see that girl with that super long blonde hair? The guy that saved me from the fire wants us to braid it for her, so it's not in the way." Leila announced, in lieu of a greeting. "Think we can do it? I offered to braid some flowers into it. Anyone want to help?" It didn't take long for Leila's small group of friends to all volunteer. A couple of them headed to get flowers while Leila led the rest to Eugene.
"Everybody, this is Eugene. He's the one that saved me from the fire." Leila introduced him.
"Thanks again Leila. This is Rapunzel, Flynn and Arabelle. Today is a special day for Rapunzel, so I thought it would be easier if we didn't have to keep gathering up her hair."
"This is gonna be fun," Leila responded. Gathering around Rapunzel, the girls went to work braiding. The girls returned with the flowers and there was no hesitation in adding them to the braid. After what seemed forever for Eugene and Flynn, the girls stepped back to let them see their handiwork. Rapunzel spun around realizing that her hair was all out of the way. The braid ended just above her ankles with flowers threaded throughout.
"Wow!" Eugene exclaimed. "You look great. Thanks again ladies," he stated. "But now I think we need to get started exploring."
"Ok," Leila said before turning back to her friends. The group of girls waved goodbye and headed back to the fountain where they had been playing.
"Ok, Rapunzel. Where do you want to go first?"
Rapunzel looked around with wide eyes, unsure of where to start. "Ummm, let's just wander around. I don't know where to go."
"Would you like me to pick somewhere to go for you?" Eugene asked her.
"I'd like that," Rapunzel answered almost shyly.
"Ok," Eugene said. "Let's just start with the vendors over there. We can go from there."
Eugene led Rapunzel to the first vendor but it wasn't long before Rapunzel was flitting from vendor to vendor dragging Eugene with her, Flynn and Arabelle close behind. After a couple hours of wandering, the foursome stopped at a street cart for a quick snack. While waiting in line, Rapunzel is gazing around, taking in her surroundings. She spots a mural of the entire royal family before the princess had been kidnapped.
She studied the mural for a bit but was soon distracted by a mother with 2 small children. The older child, a girl, held up a flower. "It's for the lost princess," she explained. "That's why we leave them here."
"Oh," her brother responded. "I want to leave one too, Mama. Can I please?" he asked.
"Of course you can," his mother answered. "Rachel, can you go get another flower from the flower shop?" she asked her daughter. "Here's some money. Bring it back here so your brother can leave a flower as well."
Arabelle watched this exchange, suppressing a snort at the reminder of her missing sister. Geez, even on my birthday she gets all the attention. Arabelle thought to herself. I mean it's not like she was the only one. I lost my twin, a part of me, but no one thinks of that. I'm so tired of hearing about the lost princess and how it's so sad and tragic that she was kidnapped. What about me? I'm right here and it feels like I'm the 'forgotten princess' cause no one thinks about me. It's all about HER.
Rapunzel had also overheard the exchange. Just as she begins to notice small similarities between herself and the mural painted on the wall, not to mention Arabelle, she is distracted again, this time by a group of street musicians playing a lively tune.
At this point, Eugene has finally made his way to the front of the line and pays for the snacks. Turning around to offer Rapunzel a bit, he realizes that Rapunzel was no longer behind him. She is now dancing in the middle of the street to the music the musicians were playing. Rapunzel, never considering someone wouldn't want to dance, starts grabbing people to dance with her. It didn't matter who they were, she pulled everyone, young and old, men, women and children were all pulled while the musicians continued to play.
Soon, the villagers Rapunzel had dragged into dancing with her were now pulling even more people into the dancing. Before long, they were all dancing around the village square. Looking down, Rapunzel realized that there was a sun design inlaid in the cobblestone street - which seemed to her to be a symbol of the kingdom. Continuing to dance, Rapunzel led the majority of the dancers around the inner circle of the sun drawn on the cobblestone street. The villagers not following Rapunzel continued to dance around the outside of the flames.
Watching the dancing, Eugene, Flynn and Arabelle stood back with Max and Luc watching the group from the sidelines. Rapunzel danced her way to Eugene and beckoned him to join. Eugene shook his head. "No way," he told her. Before Rapunzel could say anything, Max nudged him into her. Flynn and Arabelle began laughing at Eugene's attempt to get out of dancing. Eugene attempted to pull them out into the street with no success. Unfortunately, they didn't have too much time to gloat before Luc decided to motivate them to dance as well, nudging them both towards Eugene and into the middle of the dancing crowd.
While dancing, Eugene sees a small boy selling flags of the kingdom. Eugene stopped and headed to the boy. Looking at the flags, he realized that the flags were beautiful, with a royal purple background and a bright yellow sun in the center. He purchased one of the small flags and turned around, only to realize that Rapunzel had once again danced her way to him. Taking the flag from Eugene, Rapunzel held it up and inspected the design. After a moment, Rapunzel lowered the flag. She looked around, realizing that there were flags everywhere. There were banners hanging between buildings above the streets, large flags hanging on the front of some of the larger buildings, even individual flags hanging on small flagpoles in front of the smaller shops.
The sight caused Rapunzel to stop dancing. She heads over to join some of the children drawing chalk murals on the cobblestone streets. Taking a piece of chalk from a bucket on the sidewalk, she began working on her own design. After a while, she stood up and wiped her brow. Eugene was behind her and both of them stopped to look at the mural she had drawn. As she looked at it, she realized she had drawn the flag of Corona, but instead of a solid purple background, she had drawn some of the villagers she had encountered. Not thinking much about it, she went back to dancing.
After another long bout of dancing, Flynn and Eugene decided that they were hungry for a small snack. Stopping at a small bakery, they purchased 4 cupcakes, one for each of them. Flynn led them to a small alcove to eat them when he noticed the guards. He didn't say anything but pulled them all back to hide behind the wall, so they did not draw attention to themselves. Sighing in relief once the guards had passed, Flynn took a deep breath, only to realize that Rapunzel once again joined the villagers who were still dancing.
It didn't take long before Rapunzel was distracted by something else. This time, she had seen a book shop. Dragging Eugene with her, she entered the book shop and began looking around. Finding a book with maps of the world in it, Eugene was able to get Rapunzel to stop running around and sit down. Together they looked at the maps inside with Rapunzel awed by the size and scope of the world outside of her lone tower. After studying the maps in detail, Rapunzel was once again drawn to the dancing. Eugene was also drawn in, but the two always had different partners.
Meanwhile, Arabelle had decided she was tired of the celebration for the lost princess and just wanted to be alone. Unfortunately, Flynn refused to leave her alone, insisting that he did not want her to get hurt. Flynn decided to reach out to his brother and let him know that he was going to follow Arabelle.
She doesn't want to celebrate anymore, Eugene. I am going to follow her. God knows she will get into trouble and probably get hurt since she ran away from her guards.
Ok, Flynn. Do what you need to do. Are we still going to meet up near the boats before the lantern ceremony?
Yeah. We can each get a boat and row them out to watch it. Be careful, Eugene. The Stabbingtons are around here somewhere. Can't be too careful.
Their conversation was cut short when one of the villagers yelled "To the boats!" This resulted in a mad stampede to the far side of the lake where several boats were anchored. Eugene quickly located the owner of a small rowboat and paid for the rental of the boat.
"Come on Rapunzel. Let's get this boat on the water before it gets even busier." Eugene ushered Rapunzel to the hired boat and helped her in.