Chapter Six

The only sound that could be heard was Merida's heavy breathing. Crouching in an uncomfortable position behind the tiny space between the cabinet and wall, Merida hugged her knees to her chest. Foot steps were audible from the other room and they grew louder as they motioned closer. Darkness surrounded Merida, and the only light that seeped in was the light from under the door.

"Mother, did you get anything for me?" Rapunzel said eagerly, trying to divert her mother's direction.

"Nothing special today my dear," Gothel's overly soothing voice resonated, "Shouldn't you be in your room? You know how dangerous it is to be out."

"But I'm still inside the house!"

"I know dear, but you wouldn't want my mentally ill clients to find you now would you?"

"Mother! You let Jack be my friend!"

"Rapunzel," Gothel's tone dropped threateningly, "You've been seeing Overland's boy?"

"No!"

Rage emitted from Gothel like a violent eruption, "RAPUNZEL!"

Merida listened in horror as the sound of clattering and hasty footsteps accompanied by loud whimpers ended after a violent thud against the bedroom door. There was just quiet after, and the clicking of the doorknob opening. Rapunzel's feeble cry emanated as she was thrown into the room like a ragdoll. A loud bang of the door indicated her imprisonment.

From that moment, Merida crawled out from behind the cabinet. She watched silently while Rapunzel stood staring at the door, her back hunched, her hands cupped her face. With static breathing and shaking shoulders, Rapunzel wallowed in her frustration. On the floor in front of her was the 'Book of Dragons' all tussled and tattered by harsh treatment. Pascal reduced his camouflage, he climbed quickly onto Rapunzel's shoulder and licked her cheek.

"I'm sorry," Rapunzel whispered.

Merida shrugged casually, but struggled to uplift the mood, "It's fine. My mother and I had the same problems. We fought like cat and dog, but what can you do? She's still your mother."

Rapunzel turned to Merida, cheeks stained with tears, "Yeah. But I guess I won't be seeing those lights anytime soon," she murmured almost mutely, Pascal patted her cheek sadly.

With her hands on her hips, Merida gave Rapunzel a disbelieving glance, "You will."

Hopefully, Rapunzel watched as Merida got up from the floor and strolled to the wardrobe. She swung it open and went face first into it. Clothes among clothes were tossed away and Rapunzel could only watch with earnest and curiosity.

"What are you doing?"

Merida popped out from the wardrobe with an undergarment on her head. With a long, flowing, pastel pink gown in one hand and a bottle of brown substance in the other, Merida smirked, "This here will be your disguise," she said confidently. Rapunzel merely stared with wide eyes.

"You do realise how much hair you'll have to dye right?" Rapunzel pointed out.

Stubbornly, Merida pursed her lips, "I do. But it's worth the try."

Sighing, Rapunzel surrendered and caught the towel Merida threw at her. She flung it around herself like it was a cape and sat down on the floor. Merida examined all of Rapunzel's hair and gulped at the sheer length and volume of it all. There was a heap of blonde hair looped like rope on the ground in front of her. Uncapping the bottle, Merida ordered Pascal to fetch some water and a small tub or bucket. Pascal scurried off in camouflage mode under the door.

Merida poured the thick goo from the bottle, rubbed it between her hands and started smearing the stuff onto Rapunzel's scalp and hair. She tugged and pulled through some of the knots in Rapunzel's hair which made her almost screech in pain. However, seeing as Gothel was still present in the other room, they proceeded the task with great caution and silence.

By the first fifteen minutes, Merida had already covered most of Rapunzel's scalp and upper quarter of her hair in brown. As Merida grew more and more impatient with the process, she began lathering the brown dye into the ends of Rapunzel's hair. She tried to conceal the majority of the blonde, but as she routinely tugged and lathered, her arms began to ache after the next fifteen minutes. By then, Rapunzel heard her friend heave a disgruntled sigh.

"I'll do this half, and you'll do the other okay?"

Merida smiled gratefully and proceeded on doing what she was doing before. Rapunzel grimaced at the powerful stench and overall gooey feeling of the dye before she grabbed the tips of her hair and enthusiastically applied the dye, her tongue out over her upper lip in eagerness.
There was a quiet knock on the door that made them pause all action.

"Mother?" Rapunzel breath out, but loud enough to be heard from the other side.

"Darling, I'll be out," Gothel said in a thickly applied honey-like tone, "Pitch has asked for me. I'll be back soon!"

Before Rapunzel could reply, they heard the door clang shut and the unusually loud click of it locking. Merida took this chance to approach the other room to retrieve the bucket of water Pascal left in front of the door. Skimming around, Merida declared the coast was clear, and nodded quickly at Rapunzel, signalling this observation.

Covered in brown dye which stained her pink gown and her parts of her face, Rapunzel came out, carrying a large amount of her hair with her. Dragging the bucket across towards the table, Merida placed it against the table leg while Rapunzel sat down on a chair, allowing her hair to drape into the bucket. Merida began rinsing Rapunzel's ridiculously excessive amount hair and watched as the dye did its magic. Observantly, Pascal constantly scurried off to fetch more buckets of water until Merida was surrounded by a mini mountain of yellow and blue painted wooden buckets.

By the end of it, Merida emptied all of the water onto the ground, and Pascal cleaned up after her with his tiny mop. Merida grabbed a mirror from the desk and placed it in front of Rapunzel who stared with eyes the size of frying pans at her reflection.

"Who…" Rapunzel gasped, her fingers fiddled with a strand of her newly dyed brunette hair.

Merida smirked triumphantly, "I think I did a pretty good job!"

Rapunzel was beaming, but Merida rubbed her chin in thought, "I think you're hair is too long…" searching around, she asked innocently, "Do you have a knife?"

Immediately, Rapunzel retaliated, "You can't cut my hair!" she hugged her hair like it was a teddy bear, "It'll lose its magical properties…"

"Okay…" Merida hummed to herself, "Pascal, fetch me some thread or ribbon, anything!"

Rapunzel gazed in wonder at Merida, "What are you going to do…?"

Merida grinned mischievously, "You'll see."

There was turmoil at the castle. Mathias barged into the empty room where Merida was supposed to be resided. Dread washed over him as his father whipped him hard across the head, causing stings to tingle at the back of his mind. Beside Gallach was the man from earlier. His gold eyes glinted in an enigmatic way and he constantly made light scoffs and grunts. He had introduced himself as Pitch Black, a general from a kingdom Mathias had never heard of.

"I-I don't understand," Mathias exclaimed, "I had her locked up!"

"Yes, but you see, you made one minor flaw," the Pitch stated blandly as he strolled into the room. He wandered to the table where a tray of food that had been left overnight was, "Perhaps she has a sympathetic admirer from the commoners?"

The blood from Mathias's face drained. He began to stumble backwards like a deer facing a predator, but Gallach violently gripped onto his collar and forced him still. Gallach faced his son in skepticism and pulled Mathias into the air in front of him. The veil still over his face, it flapped harshly as saliva spit fired onto Mathias when he yelled.

"I got a note," Pitch started, pulling out a wrinkled sheet of paper from the pocket of his black cloak, "Gothel found one of your servants snooping around. I'm afraid she had heard us conversing."

Abruptly, Mathias wrenched himself out of his father's grip and faced Pitch with a poised stance, "What has the servant got to do with anything?" he said defensively, glaring up at Pitch.

Pitch merely smiled, "Well, prince, my theory is, that she is the one who freed the princess," there was a pause, "Which led to the princess to steal something that belongs to me and, of course, that must be punished am I not correct?"

Lips quivering slightly, Mathias stood his ground, his hands now clenched fists, "What's going to happen to her?"

With devious eyes, Pitch glanced at Gallach, a wide smirk stretched upon his features, "If the item I own does not get returned to me by the beginning of Winter… Poor Miss. Annette will most likely be missing a head."

Eyes widened fully, Mathias made the move to tackle Pitch, but Gallach threw him back, "You, you are a worthless son to me," he hissed, a large, callous hand squeezed around Mathias's neck, "Useless."

When Gallach dropped Mathias onto the floor, the elder men walked out. Mathias, who was wheezing, his hand desperately wrapped around his neck as if to erase the previous event, reached out. Eyes watery and bloodshot, he coughed, "I-I'll find her."

Pitch and Gallach stopped, "I know you son," Gallach laughed like a toad, "You always bargain with me. What do you want in return?"

In a weak whisper, Mathias felt his eyelids droop, "Just… Just don't hurt Annette."

There was a silence before Mathias drifted away from consciousness. Gallach grunted and descended down the stairs to the open air while Pitch glanced back at the unconscious boy behind him, "Fear, child, fear is the only way to save yourself from unnecessary passion," he murmured before walking away, leaving the door open and unlocked.

Plaits. Rapunzel reveled in her newly styled hair and had changed into the pastel pink gown that faded almost to white. Merida pulled off her blanket and draped it over her friend's head. After cleaning off the excess dye that scattered in patches all over them, Merida clenched onto the doorknob, only to find it near impossible to jam open. It just clicked and buckled.

In an irritated exclamation, Merida tugged at the doorknob violently as she raged, "For goodness sake!"

During Merida's anger, Rapunzel had fished out a spare key from under a plant pot. She stood there for a fair few minutes, her arms crossed, the key shining in her hand while Merida turned her attention to her, only to have her mouth open agape in embarrassment. With sass, Rapunzel rolled her eyes, strolled over and unlocked the house.

"Ready?" she was glowing.

Merida nodded eagerly and grabbed Rapunzel's hand, dragging her out under the blinding white rays of the sun. She could hear Rapunzel's breathless gasp and delighted muffled squeals as her liberation had finally dawned upon her. As being in the open for too long was dangerous - just in case Gothel decided it was high time to return home - Merida guided Rapunzel through the woods.

"Oh my god, I can't believe this is really happening!" Rapunzel squeaked happily, pinching herself constantly, only to have her arm morph from skin colour to a raging red patch, "We're going to see the lights right? Right?!"

It was like caring for an overly energetic infant. Luckily, Merida was used to that - having triplet younger brothers finally served her a purpose - and managed to silence Rapunzel by distracting her to a squirrel that sat upon a tree doing some strange aerobics. Unfortunately, there was also a wanted poster on tree that caught Rapunzel's attention.

"Flynn Rider?"

"Urgh, him," Merida scoffed as she pulled a face of disgust, "Remind me to keep you away from that sexual fiend."

Rapunzel blinked innocently, "Um, okay?"

With that, Merida dragged Rapunzel carelessly over the protruding roots and ferns, ignoring the yelps of the other girl as she stumbled and tripped over the plants. In their haste, Rapunzel couldn't remember anything other than the blur of the brown ground she tried to keep an eye on and them reaching the destination. However when they reached the village, Rapunzel inhaled deeply. Never in her life had Rapunzel seen so many people at one place.

In the midst of the crowd of people, Merida forced her way through with Rapunzel tagging along like an overwhelmed child. By the well was yet another bundle of people who sat relaxed on the ground, and watched entertainers do their performance in the most vibrant manner. Rapunzel squeezed Merida's hand a little and sent her the biggest set of puppy eyes Merida had ever witnessed. Hence, Merida gave up protesting and followed Rapunzel as she literally skipped towards the audience.

They sat on the barrels lined up at the back of the miniature crowd. Some people shuffled closer towards them and peered at Rapunzel with wondering eyes. This obviously made her uncomfortable as she raised her eyebrow and lent away from them. On the well was Bunnymund, Tooth and Sandy. It appeared that they were introducing their act. Skimming the area, Merida felt disappointment flick her as she realised Jack couldn't be found.

Their first act was a mime. Typically, Sandy was the main actor and Merida smiled in amusement as the man played the character, 'Sandman' who spread dreams across the world with his magically golden sand. In reality however, Sandy was simply twirling around sprinkling the excited children closest to him with pinches of dirt. Next, they introduced Tooth, who was flaunting her fake wings and vibrant feathers, as the Tooth Fairy - which made sense as Merida recalled the jars of teeth back at the brothel - and the little girls all toddled up to her in excitement as they traded their tiny teeth with a small silver box. Rapunzel squealed with the girls as Tooth waved at her and Merida merely rolled her eyes, but stuck out her tongue at Tooth playfully as the woman tried to ignore them and concentrated on playing her character.

What made Merida lose her self control was when Bunnymund literally hopped onto the stage. His nose twitching like a rabbit's with a pair of grey rabbit ears attached on his head. He played the character of a rabbit who give children painted eggs.

The younger boys all jumped up simultaneously, "IT'S THE BUNNY!"

They all stampeded towards Bunnymund, whose face dropped considerably as he watched helplessly as his younger audience attacked him. Regardless of the fact that Bunnymund could see her, Merida was laughing uncontrollably at the man's torment. This made Bunnymund rile up, but Tooth sent him the 'oh no you don't' stare and he obliged reluctantly, resuming to giving away his prized eggs.

Someone in the audience yelled, "Where's Old Man Winter?"

There, right there, everybody fell quiet, their eyes dug expectantly at them.

Bunnymund laughed awkwardly, but Tooth barged in and saved the day.

"Why he's busy creating Winter!" she chirped with a bright smile on her face that didn't reach her eyes. The children all moaned in disappointment.

One of the little girls crawled cautiously up to them. She fidgeted and squirmed a bit before her quiet voice said, "Will it snow soon?"

Tooth looked at Sandy and smiled, "Doesn't it always snow in Winter?"

"But it came late last time," she protested with a pout.

The girl's mother came up to them with an apologetic expression, "Sorry, she's not usually like this."

All three of them nodded and said nothing. Merida watched as the girl was pulled away. At a decent distance, the girl freed herself from her mother's grasp and sat straight down on the ground beside Merida. It was only then did Merida notice the silver box in the girl's hand, and the big blue eyes behind a mop of straw blonde hair.

"What's that?"

"A penny," she giggled. Looking up, the girl introduced herself, "Sophie."

Merida blinked, "I'm Merida."

"Rapunzel," Rapunzel chimed in.

Sophie's mother returned and joined in. They greeted each other first before the woman began her long biography of her trip from Burgess to the village. Sophie opened her box in the progress and munched on the penny for some unexplained reason, and watched Bunnymund and the Tooth Fairy act out a comedy scene with a frustrated Sandman. The story was mainly about misunderstandings.

While Rapunzel was enchanted by the biography, Merida found it tediously long and she stood up to get a drink. Her leaving didn't even affect Rapunzel the slightest and she remained, her hands under her chin, in deep focus on the mother.

The smithy was the same as the other day. Filled with sweat, smoke and fumes. This time however, there was a soldier who stood like a stick insect, still and almost invisible, as Gobber chatted with him. There was a frown on the Viking's face as he inspected the sword and the unrolled paper. Since the soldier's back was facing Merida, she gently shut the door and tip toed across the room, but Gobber noticed her. Panicking, Merida ducked behind a bench just when the soldier turned around.

"Sorry lad, thought I saw something. Probably a trick of the imagination," Gobber reassured, but the soldier scanned the room anyway and hummed to himself before he nodded in thought.

"So, you haven't seen the princess then?" his gruff voice inquired.

"Princess? We don't have any princesses around here!" Gobber waved his hand in the air absently, "That's absolute nonsense, do we look like a place for girly princesses?"

"Are you certain?" the soldier pushed, the crackling of the paper being folded seemed to echo in Merida's ears, "You have not seen Merida DunBroch, princess of the Gallach Kingdom?"

The one second pause made Merida inhale sharply. Her lungs restricted as her heart escalated wildly. Please, no no no no, she begged, her eyelids sealed shut. Gobber coughed and laughed, "Never heard of her. Dun- Dun, whatever it is, such a strange name!"

Out of fear that the soldier might run into her when he makes his way out, Merida rushed from behind the bench and almost catapulted up the stairs to her room.

"What was that?"

Gobber grabbed the soldier's arm, "That must be the pet dog. Always such an energetic one."

The soldier's eyes narrowed in suspicion, "Very well, but we will be back tomorrow morning. If there is anything seemingly unusual around here…"

There was an audible gulp as Gobber watched the soldier leave. When the soldier was completely gone, he sagged against the wall, sweat induced. Artair slipped from the private work room, pupils the size of needle tips, "Where's Merida?"

"Just returned," Gobber breathed, "Upstairs, with Hiccup."

"Did he see her?"

"No, but I think he doesn't believe me," Gobber choked, "They won't burn this place down like they did in Berk would they?"

Artair sighed, "Honestly, I don't know, but as long as we have Merida, things are still going as planned."

"And if they catch her?" Gobber grew more and more uncertain. Though he prided himself in his assertiveness, his memory of everybody's screams, the giant red flames engulfing Berk as if Loki had decided to play with fire and then condemn them. In his terror, Artair interrupted Gobber's thoughts and scratched his chin.

"They won't," Artair declared confidently. He peered straight into Gobber's eyes, "Only she can see the Wisps here, therefore, only she can lead us to our salvation."

Gobber groaned, "Not this 'salvation' rubbish again. You're wasting your time."

"You won't be saying that when we win this battle," Artair clarified, ending the conversation by walking away up stairs to find Merida and Hiccup.

"You have no idea what you're doing," Gobber sighed under his breath, but resumed his work, "You're going to kill us all."

Hey there, so... late update... Sorry guys, graduated from high school, experiences a quarter-life crisis, awkward university interviews that i can't cope with due to introversion, got sick right after schoolies :P (all could be great excuses), but not good enough excuses for this felony I've committed. So, to make it up to you, I've written 2 chapters instead :D.
If you guys noticed the presence of the almighty 'Loki', I'll have to clarify that no, there's no reference from 'Thor 1 or 2', just the simple fact that Gobber is a Viking, and that is his religion essentially. But feel free to image Tom Hiddleston causing chaos in Berk :P.

Replies and stuff in chapter 7 :).