Six: The Glowing Hair
As we'd fallen from the cave, I'd grabbed onto Rapunzel to keep us relatively together. The current took us not too far before I pushed her up next to land and jumped up from the water onto the grass. For a few moments all that could be heard was gasping, coughing, and spluttering.
"We made it. We're alive." Rapunzel said, sounding relieved and relaxed as if we hadn't just almost died.
"Her hair glows." I said out loud by accident.
"We're alive." Rapunzel said next to me, ignoring my outburst. "We're alive!" She scrambled to her feet and went to go fish her hair out of the water.
"I didn't see that coming." I said out loud, moving my hair out of my face. "Her hair actually glows." I said, looking at her pet reptile who sat on the grass next to me. "Why does her hair glow?!" I asked, leaning toward the small reptilian creature.
"Eugene!" Rapunzel said for the third time.
"What?!" I asked, moving my gaze from her pet to her face.
"It doesn't just glow." She smiled, holding up some of her golden hair.
It took a few minutes but I got up and helped drag the rest of her hair out of the water before we hauled it into the forest. I was apprehensive about touching magical hair but she wasn't singing so we should be fine.
"What did you mean by that?" I asked, looking over at her.
"By what?"
"The 'it doesn't just glow' bit?" I held up her hair in illustration as she had when she'd said it. She let out a small nervous laugh.
"Remember when you were naming the things you weren't allowed to ask about?" She asked, throwing me a cute smile.
"The hair, the mother, the chameleon." I listed.
"There you go." She smiled.
"Here?" Rapunzel asked for maybe the seventh time in twenty minutes. The sun was going down finally so I agreed. I spilled my armful of hair into her arms.
"I'm going to grab some things to make a fire." I said, walking away and cradling my hand.
"Eugene?" Rapunzel asked before I was too far. I stopped and turned around. "Can you promise to stay a little close?" She asked, looking around at where the forest had already gone dark. I nodded and went back to it.
As i picked up stones and sticks I would look up and see her carefully setting her hair out to dry the rest of it. She would comb her fingers through the golden locks and set it down carefully before moving on. I walked back and started making the firepit out of the stones I'd grabbed.
When the fire was finally going at a steady pace, I looked over at Rapunzel who was sitting on the tree patiently. "Please sit." She nodded to the pace next to her. I walked over and sat down. "Can you give me your hurt hand?" She asked, her eyes darting to my hand that was now aching and undoubtedly going to become infected and fall off. She held out her hands for mine.
"Why?" I asked as I put my injured hand in her two delicate hands.
"You'll find out." She answered vaguely. She grabbed the end of her hair and started to wrap it around my injury.
"So, you're being strangely cryptic as you wrap your magic hair around my injured hand." I said after a few moments of intense wrapping. She looked up as I was talking and pulled a little hard. I winced.
"Sorry." She said, wincing in empathy. "Just. Don't. Don't freak out." She said, looking guilty. My eyes darted between her guilty eyes and my golden wrapped hand and back up to her face before she sighed.
She closed her eyes and her face relaxed as she started to sing slowly and clearly. "Flower, gleam and glow. Let your power shine." As she sang, her hair lit up again and the light moved toward the tips of her hair as it had in the cave. I watched it as she sang. "Make the clock reverse. Bring back what once was mine. Heal what has been hurt." I watched as the glow moved to the hair that was wrapped around my hand. "Change the fate's design. Save what has been lost, bring back what once was mine. What once was mine." I didn't know where to look. Was she a witch? What was happening. AS she finished singing I realized my hand didn't hurt anymore. She opened her eyes and looked up at me as if guilty of a horrible secret.
I felt anxiety creeping up in me as I looked from her shame covered face to my hand. I lifted it and pulled the hair gently away. The angry red gash in my hand was missing. The pain was gone. My hand looked like nothing had ever happened to it. The fear rose in my throat and started to come out as a strangled yell.
"Please don't freak out!" Rapunzel said hastily, putting her hands up.
Small noises escaped my throat before I knew what to say as I sat frozen in fear. "I'mnotfreakingout. Areyoufreakingout?" I didn't know what to do with my newly healed hand and put it on my face before rethinking it and shoving it under my other arm and hugging myself. "NoI'mjustveryinterestedinyourhairandthemagicalqualitiesthatitpossesses. How long has it been doing that exactly?"
"Uh." Rapunzel's guilt melted away and she smiled. "Forever, I guess?" She shrugged, holding the smile for only a moment before it fell away. Her shoulders slid back down and she looked away. "Mother said that when I was a baby someone tried to cut it." She looked back up at me as I relaxed, listening to her. "They wanted to take it for themselves. But once it's cut…" She moved her hair away from her neck revealing a short brown lock of hair. "...it turns brown and loses it's power. A gift like that… it has to be protected. That's why mother never let me-" She cut herself off looking sad. " That's why I never left and…" She trailed off, looking away from me.
"You never left that tower." I finished for her, the truth dawning on me. She'd never been to see her lanterns because she'd never left. She needed a guide because she'd never been anywhere. She was so afraid because she was outside of the only place she'd ever known. She turned and looked at me with sad green eyes. "And you're still going to go back?"
"No!" Rapunzel said immediately. "Yes?" She shrugged her shoulders up and looked as if she were in pain thinking about the possibility of ever going back. "It's complicated." She buried her face in her hands. My chest felt tight and I wanted to reach out to her but something was stopping me.
She peeked up at me through her fingers and caught me looking at her. She smoothed her hair back and sat up straight again with a sigh, letting the tension out from the conversation. "So, Eugene Fitzherbert, huh?" She asked with a small mischievous gleam in her eye.
"Ah, yeah, well." I looked away from her, my composure rebuilding itself. "I'll spare you the sob story of poor orphan Eugene Fitzherbert." I said, looking back over at her with minor humor. "It's a…. It's a little bit of a downer." My eyes slid down to the fire as the memories of my childhood crept into my mind. Rapunzel scooted closer to me with her big green eyes intent and full of wanting for the story about… me?
"There was this book." I began one of my favorite memories from the orphanage. "A book I used to read every night to all the younger kids: The Tales of Flynnigan Ryder. Swashbuckling rogue, richest man alive… Not bad with the ladies either." I added the last bit with a look over at Rapunzel who looked entranced. "Not that he ever bragged about it of course."
"Was he a thief, too?" She asked innocently.
"Uhh… Well, no." I said, deflating a little, the memory graying. I conjured up the stories in my mind. "Actually, he had enough money to do anything he wanted to do. He could go anywhere that he wanted to go. And to a kid… with nothing… I don't know. It just seemed like the better option." I recounted in my mind how I so wanted to be like him. Rapunzel let out a small half laugh half sigh that brought be back. "You can't tell anyone about this. Okay?" I said, leaning toward her. "It could ruin my whole reputation."
"Ah. We wouldn't want that." She joked, leaning toward me with a tilt of her head.
"Well, a fake reputation is all a man has." I smiled. She laughed that laugh that made me want to close the distance between us and kiss her. I cleared my throat and looked away from her beautiful eyes that were locked on me.
"Well. I should… uhm. I. I. I should get some more firewood." I stammered, getting up quickly. I kept looking back at her as I stuttered and finally willed myself to stop, turning my whole body away from her and toward the forest.
"Hey." She said gently. Her voice halted me in my tracks. I looked over my shoulder at her. "For the record, I like Eugene Fitzherbert much better than Flynn Ryder." She said with a genuine smile.
"Well," I shrugged and looked down at my hand that she'd fixed. "Then you'd be the first." I looked back over at her beautiful smile. "I thank you." I let go of my hand and turned back to walk into the forest, my heart feeling light and fluttery. I looked at my hand as I walked away. My hand had healed completely. There was no more pain and there was no scar left on my skin.
When I was safely out of sight from Rapunzel I leaned against a tree while my eyes adjusted to the darkness that now surrounded me. No no no. I pleaded with myself. I groaned outwardly. You can't go falling for her. I pushed myself off the tree and grabbed a few sticks off the ground, silently fighting with myself.
"So!" I called when I'd brushed off my vulnerability in the darkness and could see the fire that Rapunzel was standing near. "Hey, uh! Can I ask you something? Is there any chance that I'm gunna get super strength in my hand, 'cause I'm not gunna lie. That would be stupendous." I'd gotten close enough to see she was facing away from the fire, standing stock still. She hadn't answered or moved since I'd approached. "Hey. You alright?"
She suddenly turned as if she hadn't heard me before. Her face was drained of all color and she brushed some hair away from her face absently and shrugged. "Oh! Sorry. Yes. Uhm. Lost in thought I guess." She smiled sadly.
I tried to shrug it off. "I mean but here's the thing… Superhuman good looks- I've had 'em. Born with it! But superhuman strength! Can you imagine the possibilities?" I asked as I started building the fire back up.
"Yeah." She said absently.
"Tired?" I asked, looking up at her. She shrugged before nodding reluctantly.
"That must be it." She sat down near the base of the neighbor tree and pulled her hair around herself to make a blanket. "Could you…?" She trailed off.
"I'll make sure no monsters come to get you." I said quietly, sitting up straighter and playing with the last stick in my hand. She didn't seem to hear me as she leaned against the tree and closed her eyes.