Three: The Forest

"We have to go." She said mostly to herself as she righted the chair and me again. I didn't answer. "Okay. We're going." She said after a few minutes. "I'm going to untie you."

"How are we leaving? I don't see the door." She was unwinding her hair from the chair.

"There." She pointed to the window that I climbed through. When I was free of her hair I walked to the window and looked down.

"You're sure?" She ignored me and waited for me to step out of the window.

I climbed over the edge of the sill and stabbed my arrows into the stone again, just as I had coming up. I was getting lower and lower and she still wasn't here.

"You coming, Blondie?" I called up, annoyed. Was she going to break the deal? A few moments later a rush of golden hair fell past me. I looked up and pressed myself against the wall as she jumped out of the window, laughing. When I looked down after her she was stopped dead above the ground, holding onto her hair for dear life. I kept climbing down. When I got to the bottom she was running full force toward the rock with the hanging vines that I had come through to get here. When I caught up to her she was repeating "I can't believe I did this." Over and over.

"Mother will be so furious." Rapunzel's eyes grew wide. I waited for more to come but she was frozen like that.

"We should get going." I said after a moment or two. She followed silently, a distant look on her face. I walked ahead of her, toward the kingdom. I had just passed a small pond when I heard a giggle behind me and a small splash. I turned and saw her sitting on a rock with her feet in the water.

"Well, that's okay. I mean what she doesn't know won't kill her, right?" She asked as she picked up a water lily. She was smiling again and put the flower back on a lily pad before getting up and following me into a cave.

"Just through here," I said, not knowing what else I was supposed to be saying to her while she talked to herself. I looked behind me again when we were almost out of the cave and she was curled up on the floor rocking back in forth.

"Oh my gosh, this would kill her."

"We really need to go." I said, looking around, hoping to get out of this cave before spiders or bats or gross things like that found me.

She got up, looking horrified at herself. The second we got out of the cave though, a smile broke out on her face. "This is so fun!" She screamed as she ran past me in circles, kicking leaves into the air and racing around. This lady is crazy. I need to get out of this deal. When I looked around again she was climbing a tree with vigor. Once on a sturdy branch, she leaned into the trunk. "I am a horrible daughter. I'm going back." She shrugged, looking defeated.

"Come on." I urged. It didn't take more than that. She climbed back down without a word. We walked in silence again until we came to a small hill. She acted like she'd never seen any of these things in her life. She was suddenly all energy again.

"I am never going back!" She yelled as she threw herself down and rolled down the hill. Her crazy amounts of hair wound around her, giving her a golden cocoon.

"Need help?" I asked when she didn't move.

"Yes, please." She smiled a little guiltily. I sat down next to her and unwound her hair from her. She turned over, face down in the flowers and grass. "I am a despicable human being." She groaned into the Earth.

"Okay, let's go." I said after she didn't say anything more for a few minutes. She got up and spotted another tree. She ran to it and threw her hair up onto a high branch. I leaned against the tree, thinking she was going to climb it again. I was wrong. She finished what she was doing and giggled as she jumped off of the ground and swung around the tree using her hair.

"Best! Day! Ever!" She yelled every time she came around. I decided I was going to wait for her to finish this before moving on. Maybe she'd back out. She stopped soon enough and walked to some rocks near the tree. She plopped down and buried her face in her hands and began to cry.

I'd dealt with her almost giving up, so happy she was never going to go back home, and angry enough to tie me up and force me to take her out here, but she hadn't cried. I pushed myself off of the tree I'd been leaning against and walked over to her, clearing my throat to announce myself.

"You know, I can't help but notice...you seem a little at war with yourself, here." I said, crouching down next to her.

She sniffed and wiped a tear away with one finger. "What?" She looked over at me with big watery eyes.

"Now, I'm just picking up bits and pieces here." I had to work fast to try to get out of this deal. I stood up again and her eyes followed me. "Overprotective mother, forbidden road trip… This is serious stuff. But let me ease your conscience. This is part of growing up. A little rebellion, a little adventure… That's good. Healthy even." What would I know about a healthy growing up? I thought back to running away from the orphanage when I was a teenager.

"You think?" Rapunzel sniffed and wiped her hand across her nose.

"I know!" I lied. "You're way overthinking this, trust me. Does your mother deserve it?" She shook her head softly as I said no. "Would this break her heart and crush her soul? Of course! But you've just got to do it!" She cringed away from me a little.

"Break her heart?" She asked as I picked a small cherry tomato from a stray vine.

"In half." I knew this was cruel by the look on her face, but I needed to get out of this.

"Crush her soul?"

"Like a grape." I squished the cherry tomato between my fingers.

"She would be heartbroken, you're right!" I helped her up as her eyes went distant again.

"I am, aren't I? Oh bother. Alright, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm letting you out of the deal." I walked over to where her frying pan was leaning against a rock.

"What?"

"That's right!" Her lizard climbed up on the rock next to the pan and I grabbed it too. "But don't thank me. Let's just turn around and get you home. Here's your pan. Here's your frog." I gave her both and put my arm around her, pulling her back the way we came. "I get back my satchel. You get back a mother daughter relationship based on mutual trust and voilà, we part ways as unlikely friends."

Suddenly, she pushed me away from her. "No! I am seeing those lanterns!"

"Oh come on!" Anger boiled inside of me. "What is it going to take for me to get my satchel back!?" She pointed her frying pan at me and I stopped, putting my hands up.

"I will use this." She threatened.

Before Rapunzel had lowered her weapon, a bush near us rustled. It was probably just some forest creature. Before I knew what was happening, she had leaped onto my back, her arms around my neck and shoulders, her legs wound around my middle. My arm went up instinctively to keep her leg up.

"Is it ruffians? Thugs? Have they come for me?!" She squeaked in fear from my back. One of her arms pointed outward with her frying pan. I watched the bush without fear while Rapunzel started to shake. A gray rabbit hopped out of the bush.

"Stay calm, it can probably smell fear." I deadpanned as the rabbit bolted away from us.

"Oh." She started to disentangle herself from me. "Sorry. Guess I'm a little bit jumpy." She looked bashful as she gripped the edges of her frying pan.

I straightened my vest. "It would probably be best if we avoided ruffians and thugs, though." I almost laughed.

"Yeah… That'd probably be best." She smiled. It suddenly occurred to me that taking her to a place filled with bar thugs would probably make her back out of ever wanting to go to the kingdom.

"Are you hungry? I know a great place for lunch!" I remembered going to The Snuggly Duckling many times and none of those men were friendly in the least.

"Where?" She asked, lowering her pan.

"Oh, don't you worry. You'll know it when you smell it." I said, grabbing the other end of her frying pan to lead her.