Thank You to all who read and reviewed! I appreciated it so much! And thanks for the tips. :) Here is Chapter 3, sorry it took so long, hopefully the length and plot points make up for it a bit. As always, favorite and review please! And comment's are always appreciated. :) Thank You!
Rapunzel laughed, spinning around her room. She fell laughing onto her bed, but she was too excited to sleep at all. I have just kissed Jack Frost. She thought. She laughed into her hand again. The whole thing seemed so… unreal. Jack Frost wasn't supposed to exist. He just wasn't. And yet… He so obviously did. He seemed so happy when she could see him. So happy he had kissed her. And the thought that people could outgrow you…what a horrible feeling! Rapunzel thought of living like that. Having a few friends, having them all leave. Just one day, waking up and having nothing. Maybe he didn't make friends anymore, maybe he just gave up on it all.
Then why her?
Rapunzel thought. Why me? What had she ever done to make the Spirit of Winter pay more attention to her than the others? "I'm nothing special…" She said a loud. She rolled over on her stomach. "I get chubby in winter, I never wear shoes, I'm clumsy, I don't work hard enough…" She said, counting on her fingers. "I'm nothing special." She said, lowering her head into her crossed arms. She sighed. I can't do this tonight…She though. Tomorrow. Just think about tomorrow. She smiled again, thinking of her day tomorrow while mother was out, she would be making friends with the Spirit of Winter.
"Rapunzel!"
Rapunzel shot up from her bed, her head spinning from getting up to fast. She groaned and threw her legs over the side of the bed. Her feet made hollow sounds on the wooden floorboards as she approached her door. As she reached for the handle, the door swung open smacking her straight in the face. Rapunzel yelped and fell to the floor, clutching the space just above her right eye. She saw the swish of her mother's skirts as she walked in the door, turning to look at her on the floor. "Oh Rapunzel." He mother said with an exasperated sigh. "How can you be so clumsy? Watch where your going child!" Rapunzel moaned and clutched her head. It was already throbbing and hot.
"Sorry mother, I guess i didn't get to the door in time." She said. She looked up to see Gothel standing above her, hands on her hips.
"Well don't just sit there, get up!" She said. Rapunzel scrambled to her feet, apparently it wasn't fast enough. Gothel grabbed a hold of her upper arm and hauled her up to her feet. "We haven't got all day Rapunzel! If I don't leave now, I won't make it to town and back before nightfall!" She huffed. Rapunzel followed her out of the room, rubbing her eyes. She felt the heavy pull on her head as her hair filtered out the door, down the stairs and out on the living room floor. Gothel opened the window and stepped on the ledge. She beckoned with her hand as Rapunzel gathered up the hair closest to her head and offered it to her mother, who hung it over a hook. Rapunzel gathered up the rest of her hair and threw it out the window. She wrapped her hands firmly around the upper length of her hair, it was a lot of weight. If it just fell out the window and she didn't try to hang on to it, she could fly out of the living room.
Gothel grabbed a hold of Rapunzle's, hair and turned to look at her. Her smile beamed. "I'll see you in a bit my flower. Be good while I'm gone!" She said. Her sing-songish voice so different from the bitter one before. Gothel lowered herself out the window. "Love you!" She said as she neared the ground. Rapunzel felt the weight on her head lessen and she looked out the window, waving at her mother as she disappeared through the cave.
"So that's how she leaves hu?" Rapunzel whipped around and saw him, Jack, sitting up in one of the rafters, high above her. She folded her arms.
"Don't scare me like that!" She said, looking up at him. He didn't seem to hear her. His eyes went wide and he flew down to stand nose to nose with her. "What?"
"What happened to your head?" Jack said, his eyes filled with concern, his eyes searched her forehead.
"Oh, is it bad?" Rapunzel asked. She walked past Jack toward the mirror that stood in the living room. She leaned forward and touched her head, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Yup. There it was. A giant bruise forming on her forehead above her right eyebrow.
"How did that happen?" Jack asked, hovering closer.
"It was an accident." Rapunzel said, maybe a bit quicker than she should have. "Mother opened the door, I was behind it." She said.
"Here, turn this way." Jack said, she obeyed, and he opened his palm, revealing swirling snowflakes. He blew into his hand, sending the flakes her way. They settled over her bruise, goosebumps rose up on her arms as the cold settled in. "That will bring down the swelling."
"Thanks." She said, not sure what to say next.
"Have you ever left?" Jack asked her suddenly, twirling his staff in his fingers.
"Left where?"
"Here." She sighed.
"We already discussed this. No, I haven't." She said, the last word ending with a slightly bitter tone. He held up his hands.
"Sorry Punz." He said.
"Punz?" She asked. He shrugged.
"Rapunzel's a long name to say. I had to come up with something." He said. "Haven't you ever wanted to leave?"
Rapunzel sighed. "Sometimes. But I never actually go through with it."
"Why not?" She shrugged and looked at the ground.
"I don't know, I just don't. What if someone tried to hurt me? What if I got lost? Mother would never allow it anyway, and if I couldn't find my way back…" She trailed off, still not looking at him. A pause followed. "Alright, my turn." She said, putting her hands on her hips and looking at him.
"Turn for what?" He asked cautiously.
"Questions. You know about my deep dark secrets, now its your turn!" She said, smiling. He rolled his eyes.
"Oh I doubt I know all of your deep dark secrets, Punz." He said.
"Avoiding my questions before I've even begun." She teased, pushing him in the shoulder. She walked to the other side of the living room and grabbed a hold of one of the strands of hair closest to her face. Using it, she flung it over one of the rafters and used it to haul herself up.
"You must have incredible arm strength to do that, how often are you up here?" Jack asked, coming to sit next to her. She was standing now, hauling the rest of her hair up with her so it wouldn't pull on her head while she sat.
"Whenever I feel like it." Was the response she gave. Once Rapunzel was satisfied with her hair, she sat and leaned up against one of the adjoining rafters. "So. Your turn." Jack sighed. Rapunzel grinned. She knew she had won.
"What do you want to know?" He muttered, this time, it was his turn to not look at her.
"Were you born Jack Frost?"
"What do you mean?"
"Like…Were you always the Winter Spirit I guess."
"Oh." He said. "That. Well, I don't really…remember."
She cocked her head to one side. "You don't remember?"
"Well, no." He said, resting one arm on a raised knee. "I remember it being dark, and cold. I was lifted out of a frozen lake, by the moon." He said, realizing how insane it must sound to a regular person.
"The moon." Rapunzel said flatly.
Jack rubbed the back of his neck and sighed. "Ya, the moon. Apparently, the moon can choose you for specific tasks, just like it chose each of the Guardians, it chose me as the Winter Spirit."
"Guardians." Rapunzel said, in the same flat tone as before. Obviously not understanding. Jack sighed.
"Ya, Guardians. You know, the Sandman, Toothfairy. They're all real. But not in the way you think, they are the Guardians of specific aspects of childhood…"
And off he went. It was a difficult concept for her to grasp, Rapunzel just sat in silence most of the time, asking the occasional question while Jack tried to explain it all. When he was done, she just sat there on the rafters. Jack's eyes flitted from one side of the tower to the other. "Well…say something!" He said. She shook her head.
"Oh, sorry its just a lot, you know? It's all very-um, well, big." She said, looking down at her hands.
"Big?"
"Ya big."
"Why big?" Rapunzel sighed and fell backwards off the rafter. Jack was about to fly and grab her when she snatched one of her hair strands and used it to swing herself to the middle of the room.
"Look." Rapunzel said, holding her arms out wide and gesturing to the room.
"Look at what?"
"This. Look at all of this. This is all I have, this is all I have ever known. I've never seen the other side of the world, I've never seen a lake or an ocean, heck I've never even seen the town!" She said, laying on the floor and putting her hands behind her head. "You're so lucky Jack Frost." She said. "You get to go anywhere." Jack sat on the rafter for a moment, looking at her.
"You could, you know." He said. She looked at him, and he hopped off the rafter and alighted down beside her. "See the world." She rolled her eyes. "I'm serious!" He said.
"Jack, I have no idea what people would do to me out there. If they tried to take my hair before, who's to say they won't try and take it now? I don't think it would be safe, and I can't exactly hide it you know." She said, turning to curl on her side. "I have to stay in here." She said quietly into the floorboards.
Jack looked at her, curled up in a sad ball on the floor in a heap of hair. He knelt next to her. "Well in here can't be so bad, and now you have me." Jack said. Rapunzel looked at him.
"What do you mean?"
Jack twirled his staff and sent arcs of snow into the air. "I mean that I happen to be an expert in fun, and I think I can help you with your problem."
*****************
And from that day forward, Jack visited Rapunzel every day. The day's flew by for the both of them, and things got better. Rapunzel hardly noticed her mothers stinging remarks, and Jack's loneliness subsided. The two had a balance. There was equal give and take. Rapunzel and Jack grew closer as the days went on, and Rapunzel found herself putting a new meaning to the very context of the word friend. The fact she finally had one was a start. Jack's aches and pains over his undiscovered existence became bearable. As long as he had one, just this one person believing in him, it was enough to keep the loneliness at bay. They became friends, just friends. Jack hadn't initiated anything other than that since their kiss so many months ago, and that, they supposed later, was why they liked it. There was no relationships involved, no tense moments. It was just them, Rapunzel and Jack. Two people who just needed one another, just needed a friend and someone in their life. They came to know a lot about each other, and became close confidants.
Until the day winter ended.
"Do you have to leave?" Rapunzel asked, sitting on her bed, the moonlight streaming through the window.
"You know I do, Punz." Jack said, leaning up against her wall, crossing his arms.
"But I thought you said you could send out the winds to bring winter?" Rapunzel said, trying to find a reason for him to stay. "What am I going to do all by myself?"
Jack twirled snowflakes between his fingers. "I can send the winds, but they only go so far, they can't reach far off places. And Punz, as much as you love winter, others don't. Summer has to come here, it can't be cold like this all the time. I've already stayed longer than I should have." Rapunzel looked at him, he hadn't told her this.
"You have?"
He nodded. "Just the fact I'm even here makes it colder, it's who I am, I can't help it. With me being here, spring and summer can't come, I'm too much of a barrier. And there are other places where I need to bring winter, other palaces where summer has stayed too long. It's out of balance." Rapunzel groaned and flopped on her back.
"But what am I gonna do?" She said, dragging out the last word. "Who will I talk to?" Jack laughed.
"Well you've hardly painted since I came, or read any books, or music, or anything. I'm sure you'll find something to do."
"And the talking?"
"Your own voice is pretty good company."
"What if I can't get anymore books?"
"Write your own story."
"What if I slip off the rafters and face plant into the floor?"
"Then I guess you'll have to be more of an acrobat."
"What it-" Rapunzel bit heir lip. Jack looked at her, he was sitting on his staff now, looking at her from the air. "What if I don't want to be alone?" She said quietly. Jacks face fell. Rapunzel knew it was a low blow, and regretted it as soon as it left her mouth. It wasn't fair to him, for her to guilt trip him like this. Rapunzel sat up and swung her legs over the side of the bed and came to stand by his staff, she looked up at him.
"I"m sorry Jack I shouldn't have said that. I know it's not your fault you have to leave." She said.
"Thanks Punz." Jack said, looking down at her with a small half-smile that still looked sad.
"I'm just worried if I fall in my paint I'll ruin my dress permanently." She said, giving him a small laugh. He smiled genuinely at her this time.
"Well you're out of luck then young lady because I'm not paying for more paint." He said, hopping off his staff and resting it on the window sill. "Well…bye Punz." He said. Rapunzel stepped toward the window and he welcomed her with open arms. She leaned into him and he hugged her tighter. Rapunzel inhaled deeply, letting his scent be burned into her mind, and filling her lungs with ice crystals. Jack put his hand on her head. "I'll see you soon okay? It won't be long, promise." He said. Rapunzel nodded and stepped away. Jack put his hands on her shoulders and gave her a half-smile. "See ya Punz."
And he was gone, and she was watching him fly out the window, away from the tower.
The very next day, Gothel said, "You know dear I think spring my finally be moving in." Rapunzel just nodded.
Somewhere far away, in a cave of the darkest kind, a monster waited. Pitch Black was a character Jack had neglected to mention to Rapunzel in his tale of the Guardians. Maybe he just didn't see the need to worry her, maybe he just decided that it was unnecessary. Either way, Pitch still existed, and he still thrived. The dark, stick figure of a man stood, watching his back sands from the scene that had taken place not moments before. He watched as Jack put a hand on Rapunzel's head, he watched as she stood at the windowsill, watching him leave for the summer. He had watched the pair for quite some time now, scowling as the friendship grew. "Oh." He sighed, with a voice that sounded like it whispered all your nightmares at once. When, in fact, it could. "Oh how sweet, Jack you've found a friend." He said. "Pity, the little lost princess can't leave with you. But now, we can't have that can we?" He paced his cave home, and tapped one of the small cages that hung from the ceiling like sick lanterns. A squeak emanated from the cage, and Pitch looked in to where one of Tooth's pathetic little fairies sat, curled up in a ball. "Wouldn't it be fun?" He asked, making the sands dance around the little thing, making it shiver with cold. "To mess with the story? Oh that would be glorious!" He said. The little fairies eyes went dark, and it gave him a quizzical expression. "You belong to me now." He said. The little thing smiled, its eyes black as Pitch himself, all the color drained from her tinny frame, replaced with black and white. When it smiled, rows of sharp, pointed teeth snapped, stringy hair sprouted from its head. "See little one? Cold and Dark, they just go together, don't you think?" The fairy tilted its head and smiled its menacing smile. "Someday, Jack won't be able to resist taking his prize out for show, you know. What will his little favorite do? Do you know? Do you?" He said, shouting the last line and shaking the cage violently, the little fairy smashed against the bars, when it rose up again, it's face was cut and starting to bleed, but all it did was give an empty laugh.
Pitch laughed to. "Why, she'll find herself of course!" He shouted, spinning around and spreading his arms out wide in a grand theatrical gesture. "Rapunzel is the lost princess of that kingdom, don't you think, little fairy, that she will find out who she is? What will she do then?" He grabbed the cage again. "Who knows, but I have an idea of what she might do. And that, is something truly fearful."
Rapunzel was bored. Just as she knew she would be. Her mother had gone out, and she simply didn't have the inspiration to paint, or the focus to read a book, nor the motivation to write one. She tried to sleep more, but all that did was make her more agitated. Jack had been gone for months now, and she was running out of things to do. She could already feel the crispness in the air that signaled fall, and the trees were starting to turn color. But it wasn't fast enough.
"Why isn't it evening yet?!" She groaned to herself. Rapunzel hopped all around the house, dancing on her toes in the warm sun streaming through the window at the top of the tower. She was excited.
Tonight.
Tonight was the night.
The floating lights came back into the sky.
Every year, these little floating lights came into the sky, only once a year, and only on her birthday. Rapunzel wasn't even sure what they were, all she knew was that somehow, somehow, they were meant for her.
"Rapunzel! Let down your hair!" Came her mother's sing-song voice through the window. Rapunzel shot up and ran to the window.
"Coming!" She shouted, attaching her hair to the hook and tossing it out the window. She winced as Gothel took hold and she pulled her up. "Hello mother." Rapunzel said, taking deep breaths.
"Hello dear, how was your day?" Gothel said, turning to put the food she had bought into the kitchen.
"Oh, same as any other." Rapunzel said, following. "So mother, I just thought I'd ask, because you know, you're so smart and all and I really think that you would like it and-"
"Rapunzel, stop mumbling, you know how I feel about the mumbling."
"Yes mother. Anyway, I just wanted to ask, do you know what the floating lights are?" Gothel immediately stilled and went tense. Rapunzel winced. She gave a little laugh and went back to taking things out of her basket.
"What lights, dear?" She asked.
"Oh, I don't know," Rapunzel said, shrugging her shoulders, "the ones that appear every year on my birthday? Have you ever seen them?"
"Oh, you mean the stars, pet." She said, her voice making an attempt to sound normal. "That's all they are."
"See, mother, that's the thing. I've charted stars with the books you gave me, and these aren't like the others. They only appear once a year, on my birthday. Isn't that odd?" Rapunzel said.
"Well, I don't know sweetheart, lets just forget about it, alright?" Gothel said, her voice becoming more tense, trying to dismiss the subject.
"But, well, I was hoping mother, that maybe you would take me to see them? I decided that's what I want for my birthday."
"Rapunzel, I'm not taking you out and risking your life to see a bunch of strange stars, its ridiculous!" Gothel said, her tone becoming shrill at the end. Rapunzel should have picked up on the ques in her voice, but she was too excited.
"Mother, I really, really want this. I promise I'll behave! I can wear a cloak to cover my hair, and I won't make a sound I-"
"Enough Rapunzel!"
"But I-"
"I said no!"
"Mother I just-"
"NO!" Gothel's smack rang out across the small kitchen. Rapunzel clutched her face and looked at her mother with shock. In all her years of enduring Gothel's taunts, all the jabs, all the insults, Gothel had never laid a hand on her. Until now. Gothel was breathing hard and looking at Rapunzel with anger, then she seemed to come back to herself.
"Great." She said, sinking into a chair. "Look what you've made me do." Rapunzel just stood there, clutching her stinging right cheek, fighting back tears.
"I, I'm sorry mother." She said quietly. Gothel looked at her and rose from the chair and stepped toward her and put her hands on her shoulders.
"It's alright dear." She said. "Oh look at your face, pet." She said, taking Rapunzel's hand away. "I do love you very much, Rapunzel, all I want is to keep you safe."
"I know." Rapunzel said, nodding. She looked down at the floor. "I'm sorry mother."
"I love you very much."
"I love you more."
"I love you most." Gothel finished. "But Rapunzel." She said, her tone dropping.
Rapunzel looked up. "Yes, mother?"
"Don't ever ask to leave this tower, ever again."
"I, I promise." Rapunzel said with a heavy heart.
Gothel smiled. "Good. Now, wash up for dinner, I'm making Hazelnut soup for your birthday." She said, moving Rapunzel around the wall and toward her room across the living room.
"Yes, mother." She said quietly." And she went across the living room and up the stairs to her room, she stopped and smiled back at Gothel and closed the door. Once the door was closed, she sank to the floor and cried, tears stinging the raw flesh on her cheek.
Gothel went to her bedroom at the opposite side of the house and slammed the door after dinner. She huffed and stomped over to her dresser and sat down in front of the mirror and inspected her appearance. What am I going to do with that child!? She thought. For years, she had kept Rapunzel her secret after stealing her from the palace. Her everlasting youth hung on the fact that Rapunzel needed to stay here. In the tower. Forever.
"But how will you hold that influence, Gothel?" Came a dark voice. Gothel whipped out of her chair, knocking it to the ground.
"Who's there?!" She said. "I'm warning you, I'll give you something you won't soon forget!" She said, eyes whipping around the room.
"Oh but Gothel, you indeed have something I want, but I think you will like my offer as well." The voice said.
"Then show yourself! Coward!" Gothel said, curling her fists. Slowly, to of the corner of her room, a shadow emerged, at least two heads taller than her, and slowly formed into the body of a man. His skin was gray and everything else about him was jet-black. When Gothel looked into his eyes, she saw every nightmare she had ever had reflected there. She stood up straighter. This was no time to go weak.
"And who are you?"
"My name, is Pitch. Pitch Black." He said, his voice echoing in a strange way off the stone walls.
"And I'll ask again, who are you?" Gothel said, putting her hands on her hips. "Names mean nothing."
"On the contrary." Pitch said, flaring his hand for dramatics and pacing. "Names have great power. But, I can see mine does not have the same effect on you as it does others. I am the Nightmare King, you could say. The Essence of Fear, the blackest night." He flashed closer to Gothel so they were nose to nose. "I make people relive there worst nightmares. I make people feel things they thought they had buried away long ago, I can make you feel so dark you will want nothing more than death itself." He said, eyes flashing. Gothel tried to look unfazed.
"Can you now." She stated.
"Yes, Lady Gothel. And I have some information for you."
"Really. I doubt its anything useful?"
"Oh I think it is. Concerning your daughter?" Pitch asked, cocking his head, enjoying the little flash of fear in Gothel's eyes. "Or should I really even call her that? No, no I don't think I should…" He said, backing away from her and gazing out the window, hands folded behind his back.
"How do you know about that?" Gothel said, her tone low and dangerous. "What do you want with her? If you even try to take her I-"
"Oh calm yourself." Pitch said, turning around and waving his hand. "Your seventeen year old daughters magic hair is of little interest to me. I am, intact, already immortal. I have no need of her."
"Then why bring her into this, maggot." Gothel said. Pitch shook his head.
"Temper temper Gothel, easy or I won't tell you why I'm here." He said, walking slowly around the room. "Are you familiar with Jack Frost, Gothel?"
Gothel huffed and crossed her arms. "A child's tail."
"What if I told you it wasn't?"
"I'd say you were the biggest liar I had ever met." Gothel said.
"Well, Gothel. I am the child's tail of the boogeyman, and here I am. You have a girl with magic, life-giving hair sleeping in the next room. Tell me you have a more open mind than that!" Pitch said mockingly. Gothel folded her arms.
"You have a point. Continue." She said curtly.
"Right, so Jack Frost. He brings winter, as we both know. What you don't know is that currently, no one believes he exists. He is just, as you say, a child's tale, to most people. Occasionally, there will be one who believes in him, but they are far between."
"Where are you going with this, Pitch?" Gothel asked, getting impatient.
"Well, my dear Lady Gothel, our Jack Frost has found someone who believes in him. Right here, right now, in this very house." Pitch lowered his voice and stepped nearer to Gothel with each word.
Gothel's eyes went wide and she gasped. "Rapunzel…" Pitch smiled and nodded.
"It would seem so."
"But, but how? How did he get in? How do you even know for sure!" Gothel said, her voice reaching higher.
"Well, the boy can fly, and my sands show me many things." He said, spinning some in his hand for effect.
"So what do you want then?" Gothel said, spitting out the words. "I can take care of it myself, I don't need you!" She said, stomping towards the door.
"For how long, Gothel?" Pitch said, his voice raising and dropping lower at her name. Gothel's hand was on the doorknob, she stood. "How long do you think you will be able to keep her here? As your little life-giving pet?" He said, hovering towards her and putting his face close to hers and whispering. "It can't last forever."
"Yes it can!" Gothel said, whipping around. Pitch stood up to his full height.
"You really believe that?" He asked. "You really think that now she actually has one friend, she won't be curious? That she won't ask more and more about the world, about getting out? Won't she get jealous, Gothel, that you get to go out into the world and she can't? If you can get down the tower with her hair, why shouldn't she try?" Gothel shook her head and walked away, becoming unceasingly agitated.
"No, no that won't happen. I won't let it. Those ideas will never even enter her tinny little brain. I'll make sure of it." Gothel said, pacing her room now. Pitch stood calmly, knowing her inner fears was perfect.
"But now, she has Jack. Jack Frost who flies across the world on the wind and snow! Jack Frost who can carry her across the stars!" Pitch said, flaring his arms. "Don't you think, Gothel, he has already asked why she had never considered leaving? What will she find, when she goes out into the world, monuments dedicated in her honor, as the lost princess, Gothel. She will find out her true parentage. Leaving you to wither and die. They have been friends since the beginning of last winter, but the thoughts are still there. She asked you to leave today!"
"And I put a stop to it!" Gothel shouted.
"For how long!" Pitch and Gothel were nose to nose. His last shouted words hung in the air. "Soon, a slap won't be able to fix everything, Gothel."
Gothel looked away. She sat down at her dresser. He was right, she knew he was right. "This boy." She said. "How do I get rid of this boy?"
Pitch smiled. "I will tell you."
"Why?" Gothel asked. "What's in it for you."
"Jack has…angered me for a long time now. He refuses to accept that cold and dark just go together, and I am determined to make him pay."
Gothel looked at Pitch, sizing him up. She couldn't defeat Jack without Pitch, she knew. She had never dealt with a Winter Spirit before. She had no idea how. I will kill him if he crosses me. She thought. I will learn his ways and kill him if he crosses me in any way. "Alright." She said. "Tell me, tell me about this Jack Frost who must die."
*Dun dun duuuuuu...
Whelp, there it is! Again, I apologize for taking so long, please review! More coming soon, I will try and be more prompt with it I promise. :)