Hello, all! I started working on this as soon as I felt up to it, which was surprisingly fast, actually, but I don't know how good it turned out and it's kind of on the shorter side, so…. I'm still not sure how many chapters this is going to have, but I'm thinking somewhere in the twenties or mid-twenties. Hope that isn't too long for ya'll. This is chapter ten, Decisions.

Disclaimer: Do you honestly still think I own Tangled? There would be plans for a sequel by now, just sayin'.

Chapter Ten

Decisions

It had been almost twenty-four hours since he had escaped, and he had managed to get to the outskirts in record time for himself, having been able to get from the dungeons at the castle all the way across the bridge in a mere ten minutes. He had then managed to find a weeping willow, placed close enough to a neighboring tree that he could easily hide in one of the trees branches and be covered up by the leaves from the weeping willow. He had kept a close guard for an hour or so before giving up the seemingly pointless watch and falling into a careful slumber.

He awoke early the next morning, stealthily swinging from the tree limb and landing on the ground nimbly. After a quick search of the surrounding area and a glance down each side of the main dirt path to and from Corona, he started on a search of some kind of cave or abandoned house where he could hide and sort through his plan to capture the princess.

He began to walk, never in a straight line, always zigzagging and going slightly off the path, so as to leave a harder trail to follow, should the guards come after him. And surely they would, he had escaped, firstly, and secondly, he had left a man dead in his wake. A warning to the other guards and to anyone else who should see it that he meant business and was not afraid to go to extremes to get what he wanted. Yes, they most certainly would be after him. Most likely every guard in the force. And that would only make his job easier.

With every guard on his tail, that would leave minimum amount of staff at the castle and surrounding grounds, making it that much easier to get into the castle and leaving minimum protection in regards of the royals, particularly the one he was after, the princess.

Or perhaps, his little escape would cause for the need of more guards, leaving a large amount to follow him, and a larger still amount protecting the royal family. Then he would have to rethink his plan about getting the princess away from the castle and that cursed Rider.

After a half hour of walking, he came across a pub named the Snuggly Duckling. He walked past the horses, grabbing a cloak out of a bag on one of the saddles, draping the cloak around him to hide his face from people who possibly knew him. He took a deep breath, collected his thoughts somewhat, and then walked into the pub, headed straight to the bar and ordered a drink. He sat there for who knows how long, ordering another drink every so often, downing them just as quickly as they came. It was a rather bad habit that he had, and it certainly wasn't making thinking any easier to do, but it brought him a small comfort.

He managed to stumble to a table, keeping the cloak's hood down over his face just enough to hide him, but not seem too suspicious. As he sat down, he picked up on a conversation between some of the tougher looking thugs that were seated around a table within hearing distance of his.

"Did you hear about Rapunzel and Rider?" said a man with a hook instead of hand.

"You mean that they're engaged? It's so romantic." This time a man with a large nose spoke.

The cloaked man almost choked on his mug of ale. Engaged? This complicated things a bit. So they were engaged, as it were. This bit of news was interesting. Very interesting. He cleared his throat and continued eavesdropping.

"Not that," replied the first man, knocking the second one over the head. "They were attacked, walking home from the lanterns on the lake. The little princess got hurt pretty bad, and they weren't sure she would make it, but she's doing better now, and they think that she should be okay once she's all healed up."

Again, he almost choked on his ale. That had been the princess he had swiped at with his sword? He had almost killed the object of his new endeavour? He hadn't even been able to see who he had attacked in that dark alleyway, he had just assumed it was someone sticking their nose where it didn't belong, but it had been the bloody princess! Curses, this changed things a bit, but it seemed that she was going to recover. This would set him back a little, though, presuming that there would be someone constantly with the injured princess, most likely Rider or her parents.

He shook his head slightly, trying to get rid of the growing buzz in his ears. He needed to find someplace where he could think things through without being interrupted, so he very quietly slid from his seat, fading in to the shadows, making sure no eyes were on him as he left the pub and the drinks he never even paid for. As he walked out into the noon heat, he saw a group of guard horses, complete with riders, heading towards the pub. One of them had a paper in his hand, and he could only guess that it was a wanted poster or drawing of himself. He quickly tried to hide, but one of the guards had already spotted him and alerted the other guards, and they were quickly on his trail.

He took off at a run, pushing his somewhat tired muscles to go faster and faster and trying to ignore the pounding headache from the alcohol. He had to get away from them, or otherwise he was right back where he started, and his plan would be a complete and utter failure. He left the dirt path and began to run through the forest, dodging trees and leaping over roots and boulders. He glanced over his shoulder, and quickened his pace when he saw that they were gaining on him, fast.

He could hear the horses' hooves pounding the dirt and clip-clopping as they landed after jumping obstacles. They were getting dangerously close, and he needed to lose them quickly. He came across a slight clearing, and took the time to scope out his surroundings. To one side, there was a steep rock cliff that hung over him, and to the other sides were trees and, on the last side, a curtain of ivy that hung over a rock face. His gaze landed on a large boulder and he ran to it. He circled it and was glad to find that there was a crevice that was just big enough for him to hide in and in which he could not be seen, so he quickly tucked himself inside of it. He held his breath as he heard the sound of the guards coming nearer and then stop, presumably looking for directions in which he could have gone.

"Which way did he go?" asked a muffled voice.

"I don't know, let's split up. Some of you this way, the rest the other way. Maybe we can flush him out and catch him that way." That one sounded like the captain. Acted like him, too. There was a sound like muffled thundering of hooves, and then it was quiet.

He carefully poked his head out of the crevice, watching silently as he watched the dust settle behind the two groups of guards. He quietly slid out from the rock and took a moment to catch his breath. He walked a bit and made to lean against the rock face covered with ivy. He caught himself as he began to fall sideways. There wasn't rock behind the ivy, there was nothing at all. He peeked his head through the curtain and saw what looked like a tunnel, complete with a faint light at the other side. He pulled back out to make sure that he was still alone, then slipped into the tunnel. He was blinded by darkness for a few seconds, but quickly adjusted and began to walk to the other end of the dark stretch. He exited the tunnel and allowed his eyes to adjust to the rays of the sun.

As his vision evened out, he was struck breathless at the sight before him. It was an old, abandoned tower. It looked like it had been years since anyone had been even remotely close to this place. He ventured closer, staring in wonder at the tall building. This could work. This could be his hideout. There had to be a way to get inside, but how? He circled the building, getting halfway before he found what looked to be a doorway, slightly overgrown with vines and flowers that had creeped and crawled all over the tower's exterior. He pulled them away enough so that he could enter the tunnel.

He carefully entered and saw that there were stairs. Lots and lots of stairs. He sighed and began to climb up them. At least he would have time to get ready should anyone decide to climb up into his hideout. After a good few minutes, he reached the top of the stairs and found a little ladder leading up to what he presumed was the main room of the tower. He climbed up it and examined his surroundings.

It was beautiful, really. Paintings of every size, shape, and color covered every inch of reachable wall, even the ceiling. He figured whoever had lived here had obviously had some artistic talent. He glanced to the floor and did a double take. Was that hair? Brown hair? He knelt down and touched the brown loop spiraling over the floor. By the feel of it, it was hair, but it had been here for at least a year, by the dryness of it. He looked around and found another interesting item. Or rather, stain. It was rust colored and rather large, and it was next to a large chain that ended in handcuffs. There was no doubt in his mind that it was blood, having seen his fair share of the said substance. What had happened here? He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to know.

After he explored the rest of the tower, and found nothing of interest other than what had possibly been a child's room, he sat down in a chair that he found and began to collect his thoughts, desperately wishing he had opted against drinking so much alcohol.

He wasn't in jail. That was a start and obviously very essential to his plan, whatever he came up with. The guards were on his trail, or, at least, searching for him, and that was potentially good and bad. Good, because they could be leaving few people at the actual castle in Corona. Bad, because they could have possibly trained more guards and now have even more guards on the job, both following him and protecting the castle. He had a cloak with him, that provided little to no protection should anyone come too close, but from afar, it was enough to hide who he was to wandering eyes. He would have to lay low as much as possible, only leaving the tower when he absolutely needed to. He could go for a few days without food, his stomach was more than used to the absence of nutrition, so that cut down on the need for trips, as well.

As for the princess, things were a bit more complicated. For starters, she lived in the castle, and finding a way in would no doubt be a hard thing to do. Then there was the fact that she had been injured, by his own stupid hand, as well. He would have to allow time for her to heal, simply to make his plan easier, and he couldn't have her leaving behind some kind of bloody trail or whatnot for someone to follow them by. No, waiting would be necessary. And then there was the fact that she was to be married to that stupid thief, well, ex-thief now. Would it be easier to kidnap her before that happened, or would it do more damage after they were married? He racked his brain, trying to come up with something in his slightly-drunken stupor. If he waited until after the wedding, it would no doubt mean that much more to Rider if he carried out his plan after that, and that was the plan, to make Rider as mad as humanly possible and to make him come looking for his wife's captor. But, waiting for the wedding could and probably would take months! Could he afford to wait that long?

Decisions, decisions…

More bad guy for ya! I think I'm getting better at writing from a more evil perspective. *evil laugh that equals fail*

Anyway, ., tell me what you think. Speaking of which… you guys! One hundred and three reviews? Ya'll are awesome! Thank you so much. And thanks to Nicole Billings for having the hundredth review! Your feedback means the world to me! Thanks for listening to me rant, now go ahead and click that lovely little review button!

EugeneLoverRapunzel