CHAPTER 15-The Spirit of Spring
They couldn't see each other through the new pitch black setting, which made them nervous on end. Elsa managed to find her sister's hand and held onto it tightly, as the beat of her heart speeds along with her nerve. "It's alright Elsa," comforted Anna, "the darkness is only temporarily remember?"
"I do," Elsa replied, her arm finding its way to wrap around Anna's own arm. "But this is still nerve-racking."
"No arguments there," and Anna laughs hesitantly.
About a minute or two later, the symbols of the young Guardians glowed faintly from their original position. Each emanating their own light with blue for Jack, gold for Rapunzel, red for Merida, and green for Hiccup.
Once the symbols were fully formed, the sisters heard a synchronized tap from the young Guardians again. The first tap made them visible to the sisters; the second tap, created a link from each of their symbol that trailed towards the sisters, encircling them in their own ring. Next, only one tap was produce, and it came from behind the sisters. Jack, Hiccup, and Merida, vanished, their symbols still visible.
Turning around, the sisters found Rapunzel have moved closer towards them. "Ready?" she asked with contain excitement. They smiled at her. She slowly begins to vanish but they can still hear her voice. As she speaks, their black surrounding came alive with colors and scenery, helping to tell Rapunzel's story.
"It all started with the sun; a tiny drop of sunlight fell from the Heaven, and from it, grew a magic golden flower. This magical flower is like none the world has ever seen, it has the ability to heal both the sick and injured, and it's the only one of its kind as for as I've known. Centuries passed since the drop of sunlight fell, and there grew a kingdom not so far away from the flower's location, it was Corona. This kingdom as you know is ruled by a beloved King and Queen. For years they wanted to have a baby, and the Queen was close to having one but, she fell dangerously ill—life threatening to both her and her unborn child.
"With so little time to waste, the people started to look for a miracle, the miracle of the magical flower. I'm happy to say they found it and it did the trick, the magic of the flower healed the Queen, and a healthy princess was born with beautiful golden hair…That baby was me." The image of Rapunzel as a baby appeared, resulting in both Anna and Elsa awing over their cute cousin. Meanwhile on the side, Rapunzel was embarrassed at her baby version self, certain that Jack and the others are joking about her for having such hair even as a baby.
"For that one moment everything was perfect…But one night, an old woman broke into the castle and kidnapped me, and just like that, we were gone…The woman's name was Gothel, known to me as Mother Gothel during my eighteen-years of life with her. Long ago she had found the magic flower and kept it all to herself, keeping herself young with its magic, by singing a little song." In the distance, the sisters could see the elderly woman, waving her aged brittle hands around the flower. Singing the song Rapunzel mentioned in a hunting manner, though the lyrics were unclear.
"The kingdom searched and searched but they couldn't find me. For deep within a forest, in a hidden tower, Mother Gothel raised me like I was her own. I was her new magic flower, and she was determined to keep me hidden. But I was determined to get out one day."
The surrounding rapidly changed to several scenes within Rapunzel's daily routine while living in the tower, along with her life changing adventure with Eugene. "I tricked Mother Gothel into taking a long trip, and she wouldn't be back for a while. Call it fate, destiny, or a horse," noting how Maximus had chased Eugene to take back the stolen crown, "Eugene was brought to me. Though I had forced him to be my temporary guide, I finally got out of the tower…I saw the outside world, felt the touch of nature, socialized with people, I even made some good friends, some who will be with me for a long, long time." Three special scenes were showed to the sisters, taking a little extra time to help them see the development of Rapunzel's friendship with the young Guardians.
First was Merida, then both Hiccup and Jack. The Beings each came upon the traveling pair and decided to follow and observe the party, finding them to be a funny lot. Though at the time, they were still invisible to the two humans, and their animal friends. Rapunzel only started seeing them when she and her companions were brought into the realm of Beings by Sandy.
Before the sisters' eyes, they watched how fierce their cousin fought in the last fight against Pitch and his nightmares. The challenges she had face not only when fighting Pitch, but Mother Gothel as well. Over many years Gothel had been in league with Pitch in some of his schemes. In Rapunzel's memory, Gothel partnered with Pitch in order to get her precious flower back.
"When I came to realize that I was the lost princess, and that I was also meant to be a Guardian, I made the choice to take the Guardian Oath. In the end, the fight was won but barely. Mother Gothel had managed to capture me, but she met her doom when Eugene cut my hair, insuring Gothel could never use me ever again. So she withered into dust as she fell from our tower, the tower that was once my whole world, and my home…As for Pitch, he managed to escape leaving no traces of him. But I knew that it was not to be the last time that I would see him."
There was a tap and the surrounding retuned to nothingness, with Rapunzel once again materialized before the sisters, her hair glowing with magic. "My name is Rapunzel Fitzherbert, Princess of Corona, and not to be mistaken as Mother Nature I am the Spirit of Spring, as well as the Guardian of Life. I can't give life like Mother Nature herself can, however, I can enhance what makes one feels alive, as well as protect life through my healing magic and other abilities. To you, Elsa, Anna, I promise you both the aid of my healing magic, to preserve and to protect as many lives within my capability. I will fight to protect the two of you as well as your kingdom and of the Southern Isle."
With that, she faded away and the black scenery changed to that of wintery mountains, followed by an evergreen forest that was split by a grand river, to the high rocky hills, to return back to the low cut bottom lands. These were ancient lands, testified by the old carvings on stones scattered about… Merida's voice was heard. Now it was time for her story.