Ten minutes later

Using a cloth, Eugene dipped it into a bowl of water and held it up, the water trickling down off it and splashing loudly back into the bowl as if it did not want to leave it. He ringed it out and wiped it over his wet face, which was covered with juice from the grapes and the watermelons that had been in the cart when he had fallen into it earlier. Some of the juice stains were still visible on his clothes and after using the cloth on his face, he began to wipe them off his top and trousers.

A sad sounding sigh caused him to look up. Next to the bowl was Pascal, who looked sadly out of the window on the wall next to them, which overlooked the city and the bay. To see the mainland, he would have had to stick his head out and look right and right now, he really wanted to do that to see if one of his best friends would come running back across the bridge, safe and sound. At the same time, though, he did not want to look at the mainland because it still painfully hurt him that they had failed to save her and now she was missing and having…only God knows what done to her by this hooded man.

Eugene sighed and looked down at the ground, the feeling of failure and defeat still weighing heavily down upon him like a bag of weights that had been wrapped around his neck. He felt terrible as well for failing to save his lover, someone who he really cared about, some who he respected, someone he loved! For her to be taken away from him was like losing a personal item, except that Rapunzel was more than an item and he would give anything to get her back, just like he would have done before.

"Don't worry, Pascal," he said to the chameleon in a reassuring voice, though it sounded unsure itself as he spoke. "We'll…we'll get her back. Don't worry,"

Pascal gave him a look as if to say: "How do you know?" and Eugene could not help but agree with him. How could he know that they would save Rapunzel? How could they even know where she was? This man was on a horse. For all they knew, they could be half-way to Venice or in the mountains or somewhere by now. It just really looked like it was it for her, to which Eugene cursed himself mentally for thinking something like that, but his mind would just now stop going to the worst possible scenario of this predicament. Was it really it for her now? Last time when she had been kidnapped by Gothel and taken back to the tower, Eugene still had a chance to rescue her and that was only because the thugs and Maximus helped him. This time, though, all of them had failed to stop this man and get Rapunzel back and look what had happened as a result of their failure. He just could not cope with it. He just wanted to break down and pray for her to come back safely.

The door to the room burst open and Eugene and Pascal, after recovering from the shock, looked over to see the king and queen enter, both with shocked and worried looks on their faces. Behind them was the captain of the Corona guards. He said something to another guard that had accompanied them and he nodded and closed the door.

"Eugene," the king said. "Are you okay?" he asked.

He nodded lowly. "Yeah, I'm fine," he replied in a low tone.

"Please," the queen said in a desperate voice, walking up to him, her eyes almost on the point of tears. "Eugene, please tell me you saw where they went! D-did they go left or right on the mainland?"

For a moment, he paused, unable to bring himself to tell her that they had disappeared and, quite frankly, could be anywhere by now. She was a desperate mother and the worst thing to tell a mother was that their child was missing and nowhere to be found, especially when it involved kidnapping. Unfortunately, he could not bring himself to lie to her and, heavily, he shook his head.

"I'm sorry, your majesty," he replied lowly. "They just…disappeared into the trees. We don't know where they went or even where they could be,"

Upon hearing those words, the queen broke into sobs and almost fell over if Eugene and her husband had not grabbed her. The king held her against his chest as she buried her face into it, sobbing hysterically. He looked at Eugene with sad eyes, but had also come to face the truth. Their daughter was missing again, something they really, really did not want to happen, but this time there was a chance that she might not come back at all. Oh, it was like the night of her birth all those eighteen years ago all over again.

The captain stepped forward. "Did you…uh, get a look at this man, Ri-I mean…Fitzherbert?" he asked.

Eugene nodded. "Yeah, he was wearing a white uniform, l-like that of the Crusaders,"

Upon hearing that last word, the king and queen looked up, both shocked to the core. "T-the Crusaders?" the king repeated, breath-taken with what he had just heard.

Eugene nodded. "Yeah, your majesty. He was wearing a white uniform like what the Crusaders were wearing, but…but he had a hood on that was covering his face. Apparently, Rapunzel told me this earlier, that she had met him yesterday and directed him to some guy's carpentry,"

The king looked at his wife with wide, but hopeful eyes. Even though there were several carpentries scattered about the kingdom, they could ask each one if they had been talking with this man. Perhaps then they might be able to get a lead on who this man was and possibly even where he was going.

Eugene looked at the captain, who was staring out the window with slightly wide eyes as if in a trance.

"You okay, captain?" he asked him.

The captain turned his head back around to face Eugene and shook it slightly, blinking his eyes several times as if trying to wake up out of his trance.

"Yes, yes, I'm fine," he replied. "Just lost it for a minute there," he added. He cleared his throat. "So, you said that this man had a white hood?" he repeated and Eugene nodded. "Then it won't be a Crusader," he muttered.

Eugene looked at the king and queen, a little surprised at how the captain knew this. "How d'you know?" he asked.

"Oh they…came through here a few days ago to let us know they were going to be camping on the other side of the bay on the mainland," he answered. "Plus, I know that Crusaders don't wear hoods unless It's raining and obviously as you can see, It's not really winter weather now,"

"Look, this still does not help us in getting Rapunzel back," the queen said, breaking free of her husband and walking over to the two. "We have to find her. I mean, she…she could be hurt for all we know or been taken away to some prison or some cellar!"

"Your majesty, I assure you, we'll find her," the captain told her. He turned to Eugene. "Get dressed into new clothes and meet me down in the courtyard later," he said to him.

"Why, what are you doing?" Eugene asked.

"I'm going to gather together a search party and quickly sort out some other matters," the captain answered. "We're going to go looking for Rapunzel,"

The king and queen looked hopefully at each other, as did Eugene and Pascal. Finally, they were going something! All was not lost!

"When are you going to go searching for her, captain?" the king asked the captain.

"Tonight, sire," he replied.