Seven: The Kingdom

The sounds of a horse snorting and hot air on my face made me wake up. I looked up to see the guard's horse who had pursued me through the woods standing over me. This has to be a dream.

"Well, I hope you're here to apologize." I said flippantly before closing my eyes again. The horse bit my boot and started running. I let out a scream, trying to dig my hands into the grass and dirt to stop being pulled. "No! No! Put me down! Stop it!" Rapunzel sprang awake and immediately ran after me, diving for my hands. I grabbed onto her arms as she pulled.

"Let. Me. Go!" I yelled as Rapunzel pulled as hard as she could.

"Give me him!" She yelled through gritted teeth. The horse shook its head freeing some of the boot enough that with one final pull, the boot came flying off. I scrambled away from the horse and into a tree. The horse started charging and Rapunzel stood up, putting herself between me and the horse.

After not being able to get around her to get to me, the horse's eyes landed on Rapunzel. "Easy." She said gently. "That's it." She said in a soothing voice. "You're such a good boy." She reached out and pet it's nose and face. "Yes you are." She said as it nuzzled her. "Are you tired from chasing this bad man all over the place?"

"Excuse me?" I asked indignantly even though I wanted to laugh.

"Nobody appreciates you, do they?" She continued as she pet the horse.

"Oh come on! He's a bad horse!" I said from my seat against the tree trunk.

"Oh he's nothing but a big sweetheart." She smiled before looking down at it's royal harness which bore the name Maximus. "Isn't that right, Maximus?"

"You've got to be kidding me."

"Look. This is kind of the biggest day of my life." Rapunzel said, looking between the horse and I. She helped me up and brought me over to the horse. "And it's also my birthday." She muttered as if to herself. "Just so you know." She added in a small voice to no one in particular as she went to grab her frying pan and walked away.

I followed her without a word and the horse stayed next to me, following her as if it were loyal to her after only five minutes. Rapunzel had spotted the bridge that led to the kingdom. She picked up her pace excitedly. When she reached the bridge she turned back to face me for a brief moment. Her whole face was alight with joy as she mouthed "Wow!"

It was hard not to feel the excitement that was radiating off of her. I followed her over the bridge at a small distance. She walked into the kingdom forgetting her trail of hair behind her. She was too busy looking at everything around her. She was seeing everything for the first time.

People, rushing about to get the town ready for the festival, didn't notice her golden hair and stepped on it as they passed. Rapunzel almost walked straight into- well almost everything. She gasped as she jumped away from the people and carts that she kept running into and gave a yelp of pain when her hair was pulled. I picked up her hair, rushing to get it off the floor.

She looked at me pleadingly as I looked around for a solution. Sitting at the fountain were four little girls all braiding each other's hair. "Hey!" I called. They looked over and I held up the armful of hair. Their faces lit up.

"Sit down here." The oldest one instructed Rapunzel as the other two girls laid her hair out in sections behind her. Rapunzel sat patiently and I sat with my back to a wall, watching out for guards and sneaking looks over at Rapunzel with the three girls who were braiding and sticking flowers into the braids.

I looked over the wall for a moment and ducked as guards passed. My eyes immediately fell on Rapunzel who's hair was now in a braid that reached to her ankles. I felt the goofy grin slip onto my lips as I looked at how beautiful she looked.

"Oh! Thank you!" Rapunzel said as she twirled, her eyes on the bottom of the braid.

"I'm starving." Rapunzel said after we paid the girls a small sum of money. I realized that neither of us had eaten anything yesterday besides what we'd had before our adventure. Before I could respond she had pulled me over to a fruit stand and grabbed a few oranges and handed them to me before something else caught her eye. She grabbed my hand and pulled me, trailing me behind her. I tossed the oranges back to the vendor as I ran with her.

She had brought me to a sweets stand where they were selling cupcakes. I dug in my pocket for money. I wasn't going to thieve and ruin her day. She was bouncing on her bare feet, her eyes alight with excitement.

"I want the pink one." She said, pointing.

"Do you even want to know what that flavor is or do you just want it because it's pink?" I asked, smiling. She didn't answer, but smiled back a goofy little grin. I got us one vanilla cupcake and one strawberry but only because it was pink. I gave her the pink one and she walked over to a shady little alcove. I looked behind us as we hid, watching the guards walk by. When I looked back she was beaming.

"Where are we in the world right now?" Rapunzel asked after a few small bites of her pink cupcake. "Spain? Britain? Russia?" I nearly choked on my food and swallowed.

"We're in Germany." I smiled.

"Where do I live?" She asked, licking icing from her thumb.

"In Germany." I had to remind myself silently that she had never left the tower in the woods. "That way." I pointed from where we had come.

"Oh. Have you been anywhere besides Germany?" She seemed disappointed that a half day's walk yesterday hadn't brought her to a new country.

"Finish eating and I'll show you in an atlas where I've been."

She practically scarfed down the rest of her breakfast without another word and grinned. I took her hand and led her into the massive library. I brought down an atlas and set it on the floor where she had sat. She opened it and ran her fingers over the intricately painted pictures of the world. She would point to certain spots and ask, "Here?"

"Yes." I didn't have time to tell her any of the stories from any of the places I'd been because her excitement over my traveling experience radiated and she kept pointing. When we had gotten to the back cover of the atlas she sighed before looking up at the window.

"Look!" She pointed. Little purple banners had been put up, strung from the building tops. On all the banners was the very familiar (to me) emblem of the kingdom: a bright yellow sun.

"Would you like one?" I asked. She turned to me, her whole face saying yes before the word could form on her lips. "They sell them in the street. Come on." I helped her up and led her out of the library by the hand and into the street. When I found the kid selling the small flags I paid him the coin and handed Rapunzel the flag. She held it up, comparing it to the banners that hung above us. She had leaned backward into me as I put my arm around her shoulders and looked to see what she was seeing. Above the flag she held were the identical banners and below it I saw a drawing contest.

"Look." I pointed. Her eyes lit up and she ran over.

"I need purple and light purple and yellow." She told me, looking at the floor as if it were a canvas. I walked over to where the colored chalk was waiting and grabbed the three colors that she's demanded. She set to work, handing me the flag to hold as a reference. As I watched her draw I realized that all of the art in the tower had been done by her and her alone. She looked at the floor as a natural canvas because her canvas had always been the walls and floors of her own home. She stood up and wiped her sweating forehead with the back of her arm, admiring her artwork.

"How about we wash up and have lunch?" I asked. She beamed at me and followed me to a wash area where she rubbed the purple chalk from her hands, instantly turning the water a murky purple.

We got in line at a baker's stand where they were selling meats, cheeses, and fresh loaves of bread. She stood next to me while we were in line. She stepped away from me and I looked up to see her looking at the mural of the royal family. I stayed in line counting the money in the palm of my hand.

"What'll it be, dearie?" The vendor asked when I got up there. I made the few selections and paid them. When I turned around Rapunzel was dancing in the center of the town. A fiddler saw and started to play. I watched as she pulled more and more people in. The townspeople started to dance, easily persuaded by her impromptu dance.

I was leaning against a wall with the food I'd just bought and our two pets, the lizard and the horse, next to me on one side and an older man on my other side. Rapunzel, still dancing, looked to me and waved her hand to try to get me to dance with her. I shook my head to decline. The old man next to me gave me a shove. I dropped the food at the horse's feet and glared back at him from the dance as he threw his head back and laughed.

As the entire town joined in to dance, my hopes were that I would end up dancing with the blonde beauty with flowers in her hair. We locked eyes and reached toward each other but were taken by two other people with the rhythm of the dance. I watched her being twirled away from me and her eyes stayed locked on mine as we both spun. Eventually there were too many people between us and I focused on the dancing. As I spun, she was suddenly in my arms. We were chest to chest and the whole world seemed to dim around us as she smiled, breathless, up at me. Her small delicately soft hands were in mine.

"To the boats!" A voice shouted. Rapunzel seemed to suddenly become embarrassed, taking her hands out of mine and taking a shy step away. We both glanced around as others began to depart.