Okay folks, part two is here! I am very, very sad that not a soul reviewed the last chapter. But I am a forgiving sort, so if I get reviews on this chapter, I shall forgive you all! Disclaimer: Tangled belongs to Disney.
Teresa nursed a secret.
Andrew and Sylva grew closer every day. She started to smile and laugh again, and he glowed with her warmth. Every time he stroked her hair, or looked at her with tender eyes, or whispered in her ear, a knife twisted in Teresa's heart. For how could she help but fall for the stranger with eyes like the sea, the boy whose heart already belonged to Sylva? She grew insanely jealous, letting out her anger and heartbreak only when she thought herself to be alone.
Summa nursed a secret.
Her flower stayed with her wherever she went, tucked in the pocket of her dress, her fingers resting on the petals. The flower had grown from a drop of moonlight, and possessed powers beyond imagination. Any wish, any secret desire, the bloom could grant it. It was more powerful than its twin, which was born from sunlight. And Summa, well, she longed to live forever, frozen at sixteen, an unchanging beauty. All she had done was sing a special song, and the flower had granted her wish. Only when the flower was destroyed would her years catch up to her.
Flower know my dreams
Cure my broken heart
Salvage dearest hopes
Before they fall apart
Tame the burning pain
Quench the longing fire
Twist the threads of fate
To grant my one desire
My one desire
Summa had always had always been gifted with plants, and she liked to think that this was why she had discovered the flower first, and that it served her and only her.
But secrets can never stay hidden forever.
On the day of the Summer Solstice, Summa tripped on a loose stone while hurrying past the bar. Her flower flew out of her pocket, the milk bottle smashed and earth flew everywhere. And her flower, her precious flower lay exposed for all to see. It wasn't any ordinary flower. Its petals glowed silver as the moon, dusted with flecks of bronze pollen. The people in the pub were dazzled by its beauty. Summa scrambled to sweep it up, trying to hide it, but it was no use. They'd seen it.
"The moonshine flower," a woman breathed, putting a mug of beer down with a jerk, so that it spilled all over her table, "legend has it that it has the power to grant any wish, any desire. Give it here, so it may be in safe hands." Her pinprick eyes shone with greed. Summa tried to run away, but a small man grabbed onto her cloak.
"I always knew there was something suspicious about you. From the day you came here to work for the innkeeper, I always knew you were shifty. Look at her! She doesn't change! She doesn't get older! Her hair doesn't even grow! She's been keeping the flower for herself, and she's already used it to turn herself young forever." An angry murmur rushed through the room. Summa went white. She pressed her flower against her chest, careful not to crush it. She needed to protect it. They couldn't take it away from her, they just couldn't. The inn keeper pushed through the crowd. He was a vast man, and with one swift movement he pulled her hands away from her chest, plucked the flower from her grasp, and pushed her towards the door.
"You witch. You can forget the job and you are not welcome back here!" He slammed the door in her face. Teresa watched on. Once, she would have helped her friend, but the jealousy in her heart had made her bitter and cruel. She listened to the chatter of the people in the inn when suddenly it dawned on her. An all-powerful, wish granting flower! With such a flower, she could steal Andrew's heart. With such a flower, she too could live forever. The idea somehow appealed to her. She ran outside to find Summa sobbing on the steps.
"Summa!" Teresa crouched down beside her.
"Will you steal it back for me?" Summa asked her eyes wild. "Please, you don't understand, I need that flower, it's mine, and I need-"
"Hush, Summa. It's alright. I'll get it for you, on one condition."
"Yes?"
"You let it grant me two wishes. Two, that's all I want,"
"Very well. I should at least tell you the song. You need to sing to the flower before it grants you what you want." She sung softly in Teresa's ear. "You got that?"
"I think so. You may want to wait in that place across the road overnight. I'll steal it while the innkeeper sleeps and have it for you by morning."
"Promise on a faerie's life?" it was an old saying, one that traced back to the imaginary games at the orphanage. Teresa gave Summa a weak smile.
"I Promise."
Teresa stole the flower in the dead of night, and took it to the overgrown garden out the back. Stroking the petals, she summoned up all the pain and love and heartbreak and everything she felt for Andrew, opened her mouth, and poured it into the song.
Andrew tossed and turned in his bed. He smiled softly at the thought of Sylva's meek friend. He couldn't exactly remember her name, but he knew that he loved her, more than he had ever loved anything or anyone before.
Teresa's heart thumped and she leaned against the wall.
Does he love me? He must.
Her heart still racing, she thought of her desire to live forever young. For the second time, she started to sing.
Flower know my dreams…
Sylva awoke with a start. She knew immediately that something was wrong. She stumbled out of her makeshift bed behind the bar, and saw a soft glow coming through the window. She crept towards the courtyard. Sylva, of course, had seen the ordeal with Summa and the flower. She suddenly knew what was happening.
Someone was using the flower's power.
They could be using it for a whole manner of terrible things!
Sylva's heart was good, and she knew that she should try and stop whatever was happening. She rushed toward the door, pushing it open. She leapt towards the hunched figure and the flower. Her fingers made contact with the petals as Teresa sung the last line
My heart's desire…
Power rushed through the both of them. Teresa gasped. Somehow, the flower had granted both of them eternal youth.
"Sylva! You… I…" the full realisation of what had happened hit her, hard. She got to her feet, gave Sylva a last, scared, almost pitying glance, and ran back inside. She bolted up the stairs as fast as she could, and burst into Andrew's room. He gave her a dreamy glance.
"Andrew, do you love me?" It was a bizarre statement, but he nodded. His eyes were tender. His gaze was clouded with affection.
"If you truly love me, come with me, run with me. We've got to get away from here." He leapt out of bed. She grabbed his hand, and started to run, and he blindly followed. Out of the inn, into the night, her fingers wrapped around the stem of the moonshine flower.
Summa waited in the inn across the road. She got a room and paced all through the night. At the crack of dawn she stepped outside, staring across the road, waiting.
But Teresa never came. Summa had been deceived.
50 years after that Summer Solstice
"Andrew!" Teresa crouched over the old man, who shook and heaved, his heartbeat dangerously weak, "Andrew stay with me. Please, I love you. I know I used deception, I know I used the flower. Don't die on me now, godammit." But he died in her arms, and she screamed and cried and threw herself against the wall, wishing and wishing she could destroy the flower and die. But it had been stolen from her long ago, and was presumably still safe. She was stuck at seventeen, and all she could do was weep.
370 years after that Summer Solstice
The three immortal girls, on sixteen, one seventeen, one eighteen, were in very different places in life. Sylva lived with a family of gypsies in their painted caravan, Summa danced in the streets, and Teresa was a servant in the palace. In a sudden moment, all three felt a terrible, terrible pain, as if something had struck them all in the heart. Then it was over.
The moonshine flower was being burned in the heart of a fire.
And then, the ageing process began.
It was very different for each of them.
For Summa, it was dangerously quick. She'd age a year in a day, her beautiful face slowly sagging, her skin wrinkling.
For Sylva, it was jumpy. She'd go for a week at eighteen, nothing happening, and then suddenly be seventy five, then forty, then eighteen again, all in a matter of minutes.
But for Teresa, it went slowly, so very slowly. She aged at the rate of one year every ten years.
Summa grew desperate. Then one day, she discovered another flower. A twin, born from sunlight. It was weaker than the moonshine flower, and only had the power to heal instead of grant wishes. But she worked around it. Every night, she'd creep out, sing to the flower, and it would restore her youth so that she appeared to be thirty years old. It wasn't exactly ideal, but it was all Summa had.
Sylva amazingly managed to hide her ageing from her makeshift family. They were slowly teaching her to talk, read and write. She had grown to love them, and wanted to stay with them, no matter what. The family of gypsies was also exceptionally good at thieving. At the age of ten, all the children went out and learned the art.
Teresa fell for yet another boy. This time he was a prince, Prince Thomas. He loved her back, despite her shabby heritage, and when he inherited the throne, he made her his queen. She changed her name to Primrose, sliced off her hair, and became an incredible ruler.
400 years after that Summer Solstice
A boy named Flynn and a girl named Rapunzel were born to Sylva and Teresa
The rest you know
Was that way too complex? I have a feeling I made that too complex. Anyways review! I need your feedback.