Morning came with a pale glow that lazily streamed through the trees, it was yet to gain its strength and did little to usher away the chill of the night. Rapunzel stirred, she didn't dare move out of the small cocoon of warmth she had made around herself, she hadn't slept well at all as she was continually woken by the noises in the forest or when her body had shivered so much it had woken her. Pascal was huddled against her gently snoring; it appeared he had slept much better than she had. She wanted to get up and stretch but the chains wouldn't let her get far and it was much too cold anyway. She went over her plan for the day in her mind, she had her squares of petit coat ready to go, she had already tucked one into the corner of the rock nearby, which she was fairly sure Gothel wouldn't see. She had enough to drop about twelve today assuming that it took Eugene another three days to find her, but she hoped he found her sooner, she wished he would come striding up the riverbank towards her right now, wrap her in a warm blanket and take her home, wherever that was now. She let herself imagine that for a minute, she wondered if she willed it to happen hard enough it would, she closed her eyes and pictured him so clearly in her mind then opened them but alas, he was not there.

An hour later the sun had risen a little more but was still struggling to warm the day, Gothel had been leading them north into the highlands; it seemed it was quite a bit cooler up here. Rapunzel finally braved the cold and unravelled her cocoon, it felt good to stretch her aching muscles, they were all fatigued from shivering half the night. She pointed her toes as she stretched and was unpleasantly surprised by the jab of pain that shot through her foot as she did.

"Ouch" She said, waking Pascal, he looked at her with an alarmed expression. "It's ok, it's just my foot." She reassured him pulling her foot towards her for a closer inspection. It was the cut she had gotten yesterday on that sharp stick, it was red and inflamed, she cleaned it off as best she could and tore a little more of her petit coat. "Can you wet this is the river Pascal?" He hurried over to the river with the fabric in his mouth and dipped it in the river; he then carefully carried it back to her. "Thank you Pascal, I'm so glad you're with me." She smiled and he smiled back. Rapunzel cleaned off her foot some more then wrapped another strip of her petit coat around the wound. "There, that should do it." She said aloud, a little more confidently than she felt, her body was not used to all the germs out in the real world and given that she was exhausted, hungry and cold her body must have been having trouble healing, her foot didn't look good.

"Rapunzel, there you are, I knew I left you around here somewhere." Gothel cackled as she meandered down the pathway to the river. "Did you sleep well? I'm just kidding, of course you didn't. I, on the other hand slept very well, such a warm bed with lovely feather pillows."

"Good Morning Gothel." Rapunzel said through gritted teeth.

"Ready for the next part of our journey dear? Oh, I'll be needing that back; it's a little chilly this morning." She pulled the cape from Rapunzel's shoulders. "Well get up then, we can't sit around all day." She unlocked the chains and gave them a tug.

Rapunzel got to her feet, ignoring the pain in her foot as best as she could, it was time to start making her trail for Eugene to find, she knew he would find it and that gave her hope. They continued down the river and then took a fork in the road to the right; Rapunzel pushed a square of fabric onto a twig to indicate the way they went. That's number two, she said under her breath, wondering how long it would take Eugene to find it, knowing that soon his hands would touch the same piece of fabric built the warm feeling of hope in the pit of her stomach. She knew he would come for her.

Further down that same river Eugene and Max were rising as well, the campfire had helped to keep them a bit warmer through the night and they had slept reasonably well. Max had used his unique sniffing abilities to sniff out an apple tree not far from their camp site and both had filled their stomachs with the sweet juicy apples and were feeling refreshed.

"Ready to go Max?" Eugene asked, stuffing a few more apples into the saddle bags and filling his canteen with water. Max whinnied his response and stood to attention, and in a moment the two of them were splashing across a low point in the river to begin the hunt to pick up the lost trail. Max was able to pick up Rapunzel's scent again along the river bank, but it was weak as it had been many hours since they had passed by this way and he struggled to find their exact path. A few hours later they were still moving slowly along the river when suddenly Max began wildly chasing back and forth with his nose to the ground. Eugene dismounted as he was starting to feel dizzy from the crazy pattern that Max was going in.

"What is it?" He asked. Max ignored him and continued to pace around with his nose almost glued to the ground. "Fine, I'll just wait." Eugene said to himself as clearly Max was ignoring him. A few moments later Max stopped dead and whinnied loudly in Eugene's directions. "So you are talking to me now, what is it buddy?" He hurried over to Max.

Max was pointing to the ground with his hoof. Eugene looked at the ground; it looked the same as the rest of the ground they had been crossing for the last few hours.

"I don't see anything." Max pointed again and waited for Eugene to understand. He did not. Max rolled his eyes at Eugene then lowered his head and delicately picked up a stick between his teeth.

"Well, this is hardly the time for a game of fetch." Eugene commented in his cheeky sarcastic manner, but held out his hand as Max placed the stick in it. "Ok, it's a stick, why are you showing me a stick?" he said in thought. He examined it looking for a clue, eventually he found it.

"There is blood on this stick!"

Max nodded in confirmation.

"Rapunzel's blood?" Eugene asked his voice getting higher in panic.

Max nodded again.

"What happened to her Max, we've got to do something!"

Max nodded again and indicated for Eugene to hop back into the saddle, which he did with great speed.

For a while the trail was easy for Max to follow as the cut of Rapunzel's foot had left a steady trail for a few miles but eventually the blood from the cut had dried and it became harder to follow. Their pace slowed and frustration returned, they got to a clearing along the river and they stopped to have a drink and eat a few more apples. Eugene dismounted and splashed some water over his face to try and keep his calm. Rapunzel was hurt and being dragged through the country side by a crazed witch, he felt helpless again. He paced around the clearing, trying to think of what else he could be doing to help her, he couldn't think of anything. He looked around in frustration, where was she taking her? Something caught his eye on one of the rocks he was pacing next too. It was a tiny scrap of fabric, squeezed in between two rocks, but it was clean and white and had not weathered at all, it must not have been there long.

A burst of hope went through him, was it a clue left by Rapunzel?

"Hey Max, come here quick!" he shouted. The horse cantered over to him. "Can you tell if this was Rapunzel's?" He pointed to the fabric. The horse quickly sniffed the small square and let out an affirmative whinny.

"She's leaving us clues Max!" He shouted in delight. "That's my girl!" He danced around on the spot. Max joined him and pranced in a circle. "Ok, let's go find the next one!" The two hurried off down the river their hopes renewed and confidence restored.