Flynn was trudging though the dark forest of the night. He couldn't stop. Something inside him pushed him to keep going. A lost child needed to be with her parents again. She had to be returned home. Nothing else mattered to him anymore.
He was carrying her now, she had fallen asleep long ago. He had kept going, it scared him deeply how light she was. The cloak she was wearing was the heaviest thing on her.
How many times can his heart be broken? After he got the shackles off of her he noticed that she wasn't even wearing any clothes. It had taken so long to get her into clothes, he was better at getting girls out of their clothes then into them. His emotions had churned during that too. Why did the kidnapper treat the princess like an animal?
It had taken so long to coax her out of the tower and he had been scared of the kidnapper coming back. She had been afraid of the light and the grass. The water of the stream fascinated her as she splashed in it. She had run with him out of the canyon. But had tired quickly. Simple things like leaves and flowers captured her attention. He had had to coax her along sometimes with a new plant to look at.
By the time it got dark she was asleep and so he carried her, he was scared of not offering her something to eat but the Snuggly Duckling was no place for her.
What was worse then the lack of clothes, how did it keep getting worse? Was how skeletally thin she was. Bad enough he could easily see her bones, but the outlines of her organs and veins against her skin.
So he carried her, the palace would have all kinds of food. She had to be able to live that long. She had too. He could not stop.
After ages he was on the road near the island. He could see the torches at the end of the bridge. And then men moving.
"Help! Please, help us!" Flynn Rider called. He saw more movement of men.
"Help us. I found the Lost Princess. Please, she needs help. She's in bad shape." He was begging, tears running down his cheeks. Torches are running toward them. The guards stop as they see them.
"I know, I'm Flynn Rider, I have the crown here in my satchel, I surrender myself, but that doesn't matter, we need to help the princess. Please." he begged, willing to offer them anything to get them to help her.
The princess woke up to his shouts and everything was scaring her and she threw herself around his neck, holding on for dear life.
"Please, she needs a doctor, and the headmistress of the orphanage, and her parents, and food, and please, please, take us to the palace, please." Flynn begged.
The guards looked at each other, they had orders to bring in all claiming to be the Lost Princess but this was Flynn Rider, yet he was begging for help like a hurt child.
A Sergeant arrived.
"Please, sir. I know you want me, take me if you want but we need to get her to a doctor, look at her feet."
The guards look and they see her feet sticking out, the bones are easily seen in the torchlight and the toes look really long as the skin is drawn up for far. The sergeant gasped they looked more like his grandmother's hands then anything else.
The sergeant sends a runner ahead and has half his men surround Flynn Rider, just in case this was some bizarre trick, though one of the men ended up carrying the hair to make the going easier.
They found the seneschal, the Captain of the Guard, and many guards, the royal doctor and even the headmistress of the orphanage in the testing chamber.
"Eugene, you've been a bad boy." said the headmistress, matter-of-factly. And the princess whimpered at the word 'bad.'
"I know, I'm sorry about that, but I'm not anymore." said Flynn looking down at the princess. "Please, she needs help." Eugene wanted to hand the princess off to the headmistress but she wouldn't let go. They move to sofa and he holds her in his lap, and the princess whimpers and moans in fear as they begin to evaluate her.
"It's okay dear, we're trying to help you. It's okay." the headmistress says in gentle comforting tones. Eugene feels her death grip on him loosen a little.
The doctor turns toward the guards, "You better wait outside, this might get rather personal for her soon."
The Captain frowned at Flynn Rider. "The kidnapper lives in a tower that is hidden in a canyon behind a wall of vines." Eugene sketched out where the tower was, and the Captain sent men to investigate, but left the princess alone.
The doctor and the headmistress keep trading looks and quiet comments.
"How is she still alive?" asks Eugene. "She had to lick up her own urine and then was lashed 500 times, but she sang and her hair glowed and she was like this again."
They trade long looks.
"It sounds like some kind of magical effect, the flower her mother ingested had healing properties. She must have inherited something from that." said the royal doctor.
"Can we give her something to eat, please. I have no idea when the last time she ate was, and I'm scared she might not last much longer." The princess is nodding off to sleep again.
They nod and the headmistress said, "Broth, She needs warm broth. Children this bad off... Well, I've never seen anyone this far gone and still alive, but they could only handle broth. It'll take time to build her up to solid food safely."
The doctor gives quiet orders to the maid who runs off.
The seneschal comes in, gets some scissors and sits next to them. "Normally I would ask questions, but under the circumstances it is best to get right to the heart of the test." He picks up an end of the hair and snips off some. The cut off piece turns brown as does a long strand up to the sleeping princess's head. Everyone is looking back and forth, but the seneschal is biting his lip, trying to hold back the tears.
"She is the Lost Princess, the Princess Solara." but there is no joy in his voice, just the sound of tears. How could he explain this to the royals?
Flynn gave them a quiet rundown of everything he knew about the kidnapper, he had gotten a look at her profile as she climbed down the ladder, and the princess. It didn't take long because he just didn't know all that much. The headmistress and doctor gave a general overview of her condition.
The seneschal left to tell the royal couple. Soon he is escorting them in.
The queen is looking so scared to Eugene, but he nods and encourages them to come over. The princess is asleep on his shoulder as he cradles her gently.
Tears fill there eyes as they see the deeply sunken cheeks, the hard outline of her bones under her thin skin.
The queen falls to her knees before them. "Oh my baby, my poor baby, I'm so sorry." she weeps.
The princess rouses from hearing the weeping and turns and looks at her mother.
"My dear Solara, You're home again. You're home. We'll keep you safe."
"Ma-ma?"
"Yes, mama. I'm your mama." A smile blooms through the tears.
The lost princess turns and puts her forehead to her mama's and with a giggle, puts her arms around her mama and holds on tight. With great wracking sobs the queen holds her baby again with her whole soul.
"So, Flynn Rider brings my little girl home." says the king.
"Not anymore. My real name is Eugene Fitzherbert." Eugene takes off the satchel and hands it to the king, "This is yours. I'm sorry for taking it."
"If stealing the crown let you find our daughter, I can forgive that. What happened?"
Eugene tells the story as the maid comes in with a tray.
The maid hands the princess, sitting on her mama's lap, a tea cup of broth, who just holds it, with a puzzled expression. She was fed only rarely, though she did get water to drink. Gothel knew the hair would keep her alive, so why waste perfectly good food on her.
The headmistress, with a very gentle look on her face took the cup, held it in her hands and showed the princess how to take a sip, smiling and making appreciative sounds, then handed it back. The princess took a sip of the rich, protein laden liquid. Her eyes went wide as her tastebuds screamed in need for it and slammed the whole thing into her mouth and swallowing.
After licking the cup and her fingers that had picked up the spills on the sides of her mouth, she shyly looked at the headmistress, who asked gently, "more?" holding out her hand.
"more." Solara said, tentatively holding out the cup. The headmistress took the cup and handed it back to the maid, though the doctor warned, "Slowly, we don't want to make her sick by feeding her too quickly."
So everyone took their time refilling the cup and handing it back to the princess who slurped it down quickly and asked "more?"
Then the guards brought in the prisoner. The kidnapper was strictly shackled, heavy chains went from collar to wrists to waist to ankles. A gag was wedged in her mouth.
The princess whimpered and moaned in fear and climbed onto Eugene for safety. Eugene nodded and said, "That's the kidnapper."
Gothel would have sneered at them, but her contempt was clear. They did not know the secret of the flower, they would gain no advantage from having their child back.
The king nodded and ordered, "Have her secured." and the kidnapper was removed from the room to the prison.
The queen and the headmistress and Eugene were soon able to calm Solara. Who soon had so many cups of broth her stomach was distended. The doctor told the maid to get more but to take her time and have the kitchen make quite a bit for the princess.
"I'm not surprised she's scared of her. She gave her a terrible lashing, but I don't understand, how she survived it, much less how her singing could do anything about it."
At the word sing, Solara began to sing her special song, one of the only good things she had ever heard from her captor. Everyone stared at her in wonder at the glowing hair, and then as the gray left the queen's hair, and the pain left the headmistress' knees and back, the cuts on the doctor's fingers healed and wonder of wonders the princess herself began to fill out. The hair had been keeping Solara alive by sheer dint of magic, but since she went weeks and months between feedings there were limits on what it could do, but finally with access to protein and other molecular building blocks it could finally start doing more.
"The healing power of the flower is still in her and it is activated by that song," said the now much younger looking doctor in an awed voice. The doctor jumped up and ran to the kitchen to override his previous orders. They needed as much broth laced with honey as they could get as soon as possible.
They let the princess drink as much as she could and then asked her to sing.
By the time the sun was rising the princess was looking like a normal 18 year old girl. She was even beginning to speak in complete sentences. Her mind was strong and flexible, and with sufficient energy resources it could finally work. She may have been kept in a dark bedroom her entire life, but she was making huge strides in just hours. The headmistress had never seen anyone make strides like this before. The hair could keep her alive and functional but her body had just not been able to work properly without the needed inputs of nutrition.
Gothel was taken to the prison, heavily guarded. She was not the old woman described by the king and queen, so she was a witch. After taking her from the royals, they took the simple expedient of knocking her out from behind by surprise so she couldn't put a spell on them. There were special instructions for dealing with the Kidnapper of the Lost Princess.
Gothel woke up as they were finishing the final bindings. She found she couldn't move, heavy iron bands secured her chest, waist and hips, more iron bands held each limb and joint, even her fingers and toes were secured. The iron felt warm, she had been unconscious for some time. She was not blindfolded nor did she feel any thing around her neck, not that it mattered, the gag was secured to the large wooden table she was secured too as was the band across her forehead.
She was flattered they were treating her as if she was Maleficent herself. She wasn't much of a witch, she could conjure fog and a light breeze, strong enough to blow out candles and not much more, and a few other little things like that. She was gratified to see Conli blanch as she laughed through her gag.
"She's awake, sir," he called.
"Good. Time for the trial." 6 men picked her up and carried her out of the prison.
The trial was perfunctory, but there was at least a show of fairness. They had a merchant from another kingdom act as judge since the king and all the local judges had to recuse themselves.
She had laughed often at those pathetic wanted posters of her in her aged form.
Flynn Rider and others brought testimony against her. She did not bother denying what she had done or even justifying it, since they had stole her flower. She did not see the girl, though they explained she was in protective custody. Gothel considered she had her revenge, the child would never recover and the royals would never be happy again.
She certainly felt fear then they threw her over the plaza balcony. But she was left hanging just above the ground. She could see the people of the kingdom, all who were watching quietly. It was a little unnerving how quiet it was. She was expecting something else, but wasn't sure what. It was hard to think as all the blood rushed into her head. After a while her toes began to tingle a little as her heart worked to push blood to them.
Then the queen came into view she was dressed all in white and had her crown on. The queen bent slightly and looked right into Gothel's eyes and quietly said, "I am Queen Rebecca. You stole my baby. I am going to drink your blood." Gothel felt the base of her spine quiver as those huge green eyes bore hate into her soul. The queen pulled out a small knife and Gothel felt the cut, but it wasn't very big. She then felt the queens lips on her neck and the sucking. After a while the queen stopped to breathe, she felt fingers on her throat and the queen said again, "I am Queen Rebecca. You stole my baby. I am going to drink your blood." The fear grew in her belly. The queen began to drink again, and the crowd quietly began to chant "die, die, die, die" that matched the thudding of Gothel's heart.
Gothel didn't want to look into those hate filled eyes anymore, but there was no where else to look. She couldn't feel her fingers and toes any more. She was getting cold in the warm sun. The queen was really going to do it. Tears finally came to Gothel's eyes as she felt Death's hands on her hips, pulling her close. But the queen did not stop until every last drop was gone from the body of the kidnapper. Which was taken down and burned and the ashes scattered.
While the princess' body made huge strides as did her mind, there were some terrible snakes in her soul. The wrong look or word would send her into a corner shivering and whimpering and hiding in her hair.
But there were good times too. Playing in the garden with her parents and Eugene. After a few weeks they took her for a walk around the kingdom and everything went fine. She even made friends with some little girls who loved to braid hair. They helped the princess so much, they would take lessons together and the friendship built, they were good to talk to, and became like sisters to the princess.
With the enormous love of her parents, Eugene and the others the princess thrived. While the princess could never rule, the issues of the snakes were too great. But Eugene and the princess married and she became a mother, and was a good mother, and their eldest was good and wise ruler.
There were good days and bad. They loved each other and they were a happy family.
Author's Note: The story won't let me alone until I got the lost princess a happy ending. And one of my readers really wanted this evil gothel dead. It's not as happy as it was in the movie, but happy enough I hope.