Hey guys, so here is Chapter 16 which is actually done! Wow right? I may come back and edit it soon so if there is an update where it looks like nothing happened that's what it was. A shout out to qqwweerrtty119 who is now following this story and my instagram account! Please Read and Review! Enjoy!
Today was just…wow, ya, just wow. Eugene stood beside me panting slightly, I felt somewhat guilty about dragging him everywhere insisting we look at everything, it wasn't part of our deal and he was probably exhausted.
I smiled up at him shyly tucking a stray piece of hair behind my ear, Eugene returned the smile and once again I saw him as the sweet easy going man who had replaced the slick and selfish Flynn Ryder, my heart beat picked up for reasons that at the time I couldn't understand.
Eugene glanced over to me and grinned as we walked out of the square and into yet another long narrow street with more vendors on each side.
We passed by a short and chubby little boy, with a fedora hat and a canister strapped to his back, the canister was filled with purple flags that had golden suns printed onto them. Eugene bent down in front of him and got his attention, the boy handed him the scrap of purple cloth and Eugene gave it to me with a small smile.
I gasped excitedly bringing it up to compare with the flags that hung above us. They were identical; purple with golden suns in the center, bright and gorgeous, just like today was.
I looked back at Eugene who was standing beside me, his hand on my back looking up with me. I smiled at him enjoying the moment. The scent of something delicious distracted me and I looked around trying to identify its source.
"Mmmm" I said not realizing I was talking out loud, "what s that smell?' Eugene laughed lightly, "You mean the chocolate cake?" he asked me.
"Umm.." I said unsure, Eugene laughed grabbing my hand and pulling me towards an unoccupied stand that had a display of cakes and what appeared to be smaller cakes in paper wrappers. The mysterious smell was wafting up from the counter.
"These things." Eugene said gesturing at the desserts. "Mm hm" I said closing my eyes.
Eugene looked around us worry flitting over his features, "I don't see a shop keeper." He said looking from me to the cakes. "Just leave money and take them." I told him.
"Uh huh." He said, "Ya ok one sec." Eugene glanced down at the price and he froze, I followed his gaze, the little sign read 'twenty pennies each' my jaw dropped. "What?!" he exclaimed in shock.
I glared down at the cakes, obviously this shop keeper wasn't nearly as kind as the apple seller we had met before, I thought of the man who had thanked us and been so nice when Eugene had given him that much money for twelve apples, this person wanted that much for one tiny little cake, I glared at them angrily.
Suddenly a devious little thought popped into my mind and I looked up at Eugene biting my cheek a small smile playing at the corners of my lips.
Eugene looked down at me worriedly as he counted through the coins in his hand trying to find a way to make forty pennies magically appear.
I smiled at him and closed my hand over his, he looked at me worriedly.
"Eugene," I said lightly drawing his attention to me, "this baker, he's obviously greedy right?" he swallowed and then nodded, "well then we can just-" a rustling behind the stall brought my attention away from Eugene and a lanky young man covered in flour burst out of the bakery behind the stall. He stumbled out into view as shrieks of anger and annoyance were screamed at him.
The young man swallowed and looked at us smiling. "How can I help you?" he asked us kindly. My thoughts of stealing died on my lips as I saw how nice this man actually was, guilt pressed down on my shoulders.
"Oh," I said softly looking at my feet, "we were going to buy some of the cakes but…" my voice trailed off.
The young man sighed, "Ya, my boss is kinda greedy," he told us with a sad laugh, "those cakes aren't worth half that." I looked up at him surprised, my guess had been right, yet, somehow, that didn't make me feel much better, I sighed looking down again. "Ya," I mumbled quietly.
Eugene grabbed my hand and gave it a soft squeeze, luckily, he somehow forgot to let go.
The young man covered in flour scratched at his chin glancing behind him. "Tell you what," he said quietly leaning towards us, I glanced up from the paving stones, "these cakes haven't been selling, we have so many, my boss is so busy he won't notice if two just happen to go missing somehow. So I'm going to just turn around for twenty seconds and if their happen to be two less cakes when I turn back I probably won't notice, good bye." And with that he turned about and started humming to himself softly.
I looked up at Eugene who was grinning softly, "thanks." He said towards the back of the young man before grabbing a pink and a yellow miniature cake and pulling me away.
I gasped as I realized what had just happened. I suddenly started laughing like a mad woman as we sprinted across the street to a small alley, Eugene looked at me and laughed quietly before pulling me into the alley where he found a small alcove in the wall. I squeezed in in front of him and he passed me the tiny cake with pink icing.
I looked down at it before inhaling the sweet smell. "Mmm," I sighed happily, I took a small nibble of the cake before taking a large bite. The flavour was rich and tart with a hint of- "chocolate." I sighed closing my eyes to enjoy the taste.
I looked up to see Eugene licking his fingers his tiny cake completely gone. I laughed lightly and he smiled guiltily, "Cupcakes; tiny but delicious."
I finished mine off very soon after he told me this. I licked my fingers greedily like he had before looking down at the empty paper cup in my hands, Eugene had called them cupcakes. "Eugene," I asked him, "what are cupcakes?" He laughed shaking his head lightly, "Those were cupcakes Blondie, some old lady made them a couple years ago because she only had muffin tins, suddenly they were all the rage and Corona was known for the 'cupcake' which is kind of pathetic, but oh well" he said with a shrug.
I looked up at him shy to ask another question but I wanted to know, "Corona?" I asked tentatively. "Ya Corona as in our kingdom." I blinked looking up at him confused.
Eugene scratched the side of his head, he obviously didn't know how to explain it better.
Suddenly he straightened and grabbed my hand, I dropped my wrapper as he pulled me behind him towards a tall domed building.
We were back in the square we had walked through before. The building was at the edge of the square; it had a large wooden door and was very tall compared to the other buildings.
"C'mon, it will be empty and you can learn about whatever you want." We stepped through the door into a room with high ceilings. I froze in my place, the walls were covered with books. Green books, purple books, all kinds of books.
"Oh wow." I said running from shelf to shelf just touching the different books. They were all different sizes and colours, it was marvelous.
"I used to come here all the time when I was little." Eugene told me while I picked up different books and flipped through them excitedly before putting the back down on the ground. "There were all these different stories I could escape to… it was amazing and the librarian was always nice to me…" he laughed softly trailing his fingers on the spines of the books before pulling out a certain one. By then the floor was littered with all different books that I had yanked out to look at.
Eugene laughed at my exuberance and sudden book craze, "I was gonna tell you not to call me a book nerd but it looks like you're just as nerdy as I am."
I laughed lightly before plopping down beside him to look at the book he had in his lap. It was a huge black one and was titled 'Atlas'.
"Ya," I said softly as I opened up the book and placed it in front of us, "Flynn Ryder a nerd, that should be known worldwide, maybe I'll go tell all your buddies, hm?" Eugene laughed and shoved me lightly before looking down at the book with me.
I flipped through the pages my brows scrunching together in confusion. On each page there were black and whiye blobs all different shapes and labeled. I looked up at Eugene, "What is this?" I asked him. "They're maps," he told me, "of the world." I looked back at them in awe, Eugene reached down and flipped past some pages to a big oval picture with lots of the squiggly shapes and labels. "This is the whole world," he said pointing to the pages. "here are the oceans, anything that is coloured in like this," he said pointing to the shaded regions, "is water." I nodded slowly starting to understand, "and this," he said pointing to the non-shaded areas, "is land." "Where are we?" I asked him in confusion. "We are in this region, that's Corona our kingdom, you can't see this village it would be too tiny." Eugen was pointing to a tiny little dot on the map, you could barely see it but I could make out the tiny letters labeling it 'Corona'. "It's so small." I breathed in shock, "Actually," Eugene said with a laugh, "The world is just really really big." I flipped through the pages looking at the different close ups of different regions, Eugene sat beside me quietly answering any questions I had. "Mother… she never told me about any of this, I knew the world was bigger than my tower but I never imagined it was this…" "Vast?" Eugene finished for me. "Ya." I said softly. Eugene paused for a moment as I stared at a map of Corona, the village we were in was tiny even on this close up, even though it felt so huge to me. "Rapunzel," he said catching my attention by using my full name, "maybe she never told you, because she never intended…" Eugene trailed off but I knew what he was implying, he was saying that she never showed me the world… because she was never going to let me see it.
I looked down at the map a tear falling out of the corner of my eye. "Hey Blondie," Eugene whispered catching attentions, I wiped away the traitorous tear, "Ya?" I asked, Eugene opened his arms and pulled me close into a hug, "Don't let her get to you." Eugene whispered into my mounds of blonde hair. I swallowed the lump in my throat and nodded into his chest. Eugene pushed me back slightly and tilted his head as if appraising something.
"What?" I asked rubbing my eyes, "Do you want me to read you something?" he asked me. I furrowed my eyebrows surprised by his spontaneous want to read a story book but nodded yes none the less.
Eugene stood up and walked over to the book shelf, he searched for a little while before he found the one he was looking for. Sitting down in front of me he opened the book up to the first page.
He began "There once was a charming and brilliant man by the name of Flynn Ryder," I laughed lightly realization dawning on me, Eugene shushed me, "Ryder was the son of a duke and he had everything he could dream of, this being said he still wanted to leave his castle to explore the world…"
We left the domed building which Eugene had told me was a library both laughing, Eugene had started the book talking normally but he had soon started to do very distinct and hilarious voices for each of the characters. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and we had both ended up laughing so hard our stomachs ached.
I looked around the square and noticed several children sitting on the paving stones with colourful sticks in their hands drawing on the ground, I had never seen paints like them before but they colours came out bold and pretty on the road. I gasped pulling Eugene behind me running straight for the children. They glanced up at me while I stood over them looking down at their art excitedly bouncing on the balls of my feet. The little boy smiled up at me revealing he was missing his two front teeth, "You wanna join us miss?" he asked curiously with a bit of a lisp. "Oh can i?" I Squealed excitedly, the children all laughed and a little girl pointed to a bucket, "The chalks in there, you're welcome to use it." I looked at Eugene confused, "Chalk?" I asked him, he laughed and pointed at the strange paint sticks, "those things." I nodded with understanding before rushing towards the bucket. I grabbed every shade of yellow I could find and then got to work with drawing out a giant version of the yellow Corona sun. I was soon covered in the yellow chalk. And the sun was slightly lower but still I kept working adding on designs of purple flowers and dancing people all around the sun, people came and went watching me work. After about an hour I stood up brushing the chalk from my hands to look down at my work. It was perfect, I smiled contentedly while wiping my chalk covered hands on my dress. I looked over to see Eugene waiting patiently. I was amazed to see him still standing there, he gazed at me work and shook his head slowly amazed. He had been so good to me today, showing me around being patient, answering all my questions, when really all our deal entailed was him showing me the lanterns.
"Hey um, Eugene," I said catching his full attention, "Ya Punzie," he said trying out yet another nickname. "Thanks." I told him, thanking him for, well everything he had done for me so far and was going to do. "For what?" he asked slightly confused, I sighed looking down at my feet suddenly shy, "for putting up with me, I mean, the festival wasn't part of our deal and I've been running around looking at while, everything you must be-" Eugene cut me off by pulling my chin up with two of his finger s so I was looking up at him, "hey," he said smiling at me, "this isn't me doing you a favor ok? This is just- just us having some fun ok? You don't owe me for this or anything alright?"
I glanced up at him and then back down at my feet not sure how to respond to something so heartfelt and kind, "hey Rapunzel," my head darted up, he had to be serious, he never used my full name, we stared into each other's eyes for a few moments and I felt my heart miss a beat, Eugene looked away and cleared his throat an expression I didn't recognize flitting across his face. "Let's uh… let's grab some lunch, you must be hungry, c'mon."
I smiled slightly as he pulled me towards a stall that was selling bread and cheese.
The line for the stall was exceedingly long and even after I had gone and washed my hands and skirts we still hadn't reached the front of the line. I stood behind Eugene silently as he counted money out in his hands. He was lost in thought and I decided to look around me instead of disturb him. A mosaic on the wall of the palace gates caught my eye for reasons I couldn't fathom. It was beautiful and very life like the picture towering over everyone's heads. The image was of a happy family, a mother and a father holding a brown haired baby. They were somehow familiar, the man and woman, I couldn't place where I had seen them before. And the woman's eyes, they were strangely familiar but they comforted me somehow. I hadn't noticed I had started walking forward until I overheard a little girl who was now within hearing range of me, she was sitting at the base of the mosaic with a flower clutched in her little hand.
"It's for the lost princess," she told her little brother who was sitting on the lap of their mother.
There were many other flowers at the base of the stone art, all presumably for this "lost princess" I realized that the man and woman were the king and queen. Confusion swirled through me, how could I recognize the king and Queen of this kingdom if I had never left my tower before, mother never even told us we had a king and queen, uneasiness swirled through my stomach.
I looked again to the mosaic and this time my gaze focused on the little blond haired girl, the so called lost princess, she seemed familiar, eerily familiar, I couldn't put my finger on it but she reminded me of someone.
Before I could think too much into the matter a small band of musicians passing beside me playing a cheery tune distracted me from my thoughts.
I followed them curiously, I had wondered where the music had been coming from, and here it was, my answer.
The tune seemed to pick me up off my feet and I was soon dancing in the middle of the square throwing y hands up laughing happily.
When I noticed no one else was dancing or enjoying the music I was slightly disappointed, looking around me I saw one little boy bouncing on the balls of his feet to the tune of the music, I realized he had been the one who asked me if I wanted to draw with him with the chalk, the boy with the missing front teeth. I twirled over to him grabbing his tiny hands and pulling him into the dance.
As he danced to the music I found others and encouraged them to join as well. I pulled a young man in a large brimmed hat who looked bored in, leaving his friend chuckling. I then went and grabbed another young man into the fray and he dragged a whole line of people in with him. I pulled them all behind me as we danced around the circle, people began to congregate around us nodding their heads to the music or clapping, the people started to direct the dance as more people joined, we started to twirl in partners linking arms and spinning around.
I broke away from my current partner to wave towards Eugene beckoning him in, he shook his head while leaning against Max two loaves of bread tucked and some cheese tucked in his elbow. I started to turn away but Max pushed Eugene away into the dance, and the bread went flying, I giggled before rejoining the dance spinning in a circle with the rest of the people in the square. I had never danced with others before and I mimicked[gb1] their movements jumping and twirling in time with the beat. The pace of the song picked up subtly and soon we were moving faster and faster, I reached out to Eugene but was pulled away to spin with someone else.
People laughed and the music flourished, I leaped into the air twirling ever whilst making my way over to Eugene. I twirled closing my eyes as the music reached its climax.
A pair of strong arms encircled me and I opened my eyes as the music ended on a strong final note. I breathed heavily staring up into Eugene's eyes, my heart racing wildly. Everyone was cheering around me but my attention was focused on him as we stared into each other's eyes.
A man's cry of "To the boats!" broke us out of our reverie and we both glanced away from each other as if we had been under some kind of spell. I looked back at Eugene and realized we were still in the stance of dancing, I hopped backwards dropping his hands smiling nervously, e looked at me brushing his hands through his hair awkwardly.
Eugene cleared his throat and then spun around looking to Max. "Eugene?" I asked him nervously, he had been acting strange ever since I had thanked him for taking me around. "Oh yes um," he looked back at me grabbing my hand, "C'mon." I blinked confused as he pulled me away from the square and back towards the bridge.
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