A/N: The links to the fanart on my profile were not working earlier, but they should be fixed now. You just have to remove the spaces in the URL.
Chapter 16
They stay at the cabin for another two days after that.
As stubborn as Cassandra may be, it doesn't take much convincing for her to agree that she needs to rest before they resume their journey on the road, because she won't be able to walk well if she doesn't. She regains her footing somewhat after the fight that had resulted in a bruised face and a minor concussion, mostly to Rapunzel's encouragement. The extra days also allow her to hunt what she can and stock up on whatever food and supplies they may need.
Unlike the first time Cassandra had suggested they leave, Rapunzel doesn't argue against it, because she knows that Cassandra is right – what happened with those bandits is sure to draw more of them to the cabin any day now.
So, they pack up what little belongings they have, loading most of it into Maximus' saddlebags. In the morning, they continue on the path to Fairview, and leave what they have called home for the past three months behind.
They walk in silence through the endless abyss of frozen birch trees, with snow clinging to each branch and painting the forest floor in a cloud of white. The sky is a murky and pale gray, with thin snowflakes lightly floating towards the ground.
Cassandra holds Maximus' reigns in her hand as she walks alongside him, her palm still wrapped in the bandage Rapunzel had given her two days ago. The princess follows closely behind, hugging her own arms for warmth as she forces herself to step one foot in front of the other.
There's a familiar uncertainty between them now, knowing that they're back to where they had been before – with no where to call home, and nothing to do but walk, just as it had been when all of this first started. If Rapunzel's silence has anything to do with that, she doesn't mention it, and neither does Cass.
There's a cold bite to the air. Nothing can be heard but the crunching of snow beneath their boots, along with the horse's saddle rattling as he trots at a slow and steady pace.
Eventually, they reach a stone bridge nestled within the woods, stretching between two cliffs, and lengthening high above a flowing river far below. There are stone railings on either side, sheltering Rapunzel from the unsettling sight of how high up they are. Water can be heard running beneath them, occasionally crashing against rocks along the cliffside as they begin to make their way across.
When they're halfway along the bridge, Maximus' ear twitches. His head perks up for a moment, his steady pace momentarily coming to a halt.
Cassandra notices it immediately.
She stops, causing Rapunzel to do the same. But Cassandra doesn't hear anything. Following the horse's gaze and whatever may have gotten him so spooked, she warily stares ahead of them toward the opposite end of the bridge.
Beyond it, she notices nothing but the empty path ahead, weaving between trunks of trees and continuing on into the forest. Then a low, rhythmic pounding begins to reach her ears, somewhere far in the distance.
It doesn't take her long to recognize it to be the sound of horse hooves, becoming louder by the second. Then Cassandra notices it at the same time Rapunzel does – the moving shadows of two black horses galloping along the path ahead of them, looking straight at them, and heading directly toward the bridge.
There are four masked bandits galloping closer, two on each horse. One of them calls out something unintelligible from a distance. They've been spotted.
With one glance, Cassandra immediately springs into action. "Get on Max." She whips around to face Rapunzel, her demanding tone masking an underlying panic.
Rapunzel's eyes are wide with fear, seeing the exact same thing that Cassandra is. Wasting no time, she turns and scrambles to climb onto Maximus' saddle. She feels Cassandra somewhere behind her, urging Rapunzel upward as she hauls one leg over his back. Her heart is racing as she settles into the saddle, gripping onto the front of it to steady herself.
Then she peers down at Cassandra still standing there, expecting her to begin climbing up on the horse too. Instead, she draws her sword from her hip holster.
"Aren't you coming?!" Rapunzel shouts down at her, her stomach dropping with worry.
"I'll hold them off. Get as far away from here as possible," Cassandra pulls on Maximus' reigns, urging him to turn around.
They're outnumbered. The bandits will catch up to them in no time, even with Max. If Cassandra can stall them, even for a minute, it might give Rapunzel enough time to get away without being followed.
"No, not without you!" Rapunzel protests, suddenly realizing what Cassandra means to do.
The pounding hooves are becoming louder. The quickly approaching bandits are shouting angrily in the distance, though Rapunzel is so flustered that she can't comprehend their words.
"I'm not asking you!" insists Cassandra. She hastily loops the reigns over the horse's head and reaches up to hand them to Rapunzel.
But Rapunzel refuses to take them, because suddenly she is reminded of what had happened the last time Cassandra had told her to do something, and Rapunzel didn't listen. She remembers how angry Cassandra had been with her for not following her instructions, but Rapunzel refuses to let a similar thing happen again. She can't let Cassandra stay behind this time. Not again.
"Cass," Rapunzel's eyes are glistening with tears as she desperately clutches onto Cassandra's hand, as if begging her to never let go, "Don't do this."
Cassandra freezes at Rapunzel's touch. There's a brief moment where she creases her brows and presses her lips together, and from the deep regret in her eyes alone, Rapunzel knows that Cass hates this as much as she does. She doesn't want to do this. For a moment, Rapunzel hopes it may be enough for her to change her mind.
Then Cassandra says with a forced wave of determination, "I'll find you. Trust me." She squeezes Rapunzel's hand in her own. Then she shoves the reigns up toward Rapunzel once more, who finds no choice but to finally take them from her.
With that, Cassandra steps away. "Go, Max!" She smacks her palm against the horse's rear, who immediately bolts back the way they came.
Just like that, Maximus gallops off into the forest along with Rapunzel, leaving nothing but snow kicking up behind them.
For a moment, Cassandra watches them run into the distance, getting further away from her as the pair of galloping hooves approach her from behind.
Just as she turns around again, the black horses slow to a stop a short distance away from her on the bridge. Then the riders begin to hop down from their saddles, one by one.
Cassandra raises her sword, readying her stance. A darkness flashes across her eyes as she angrily glares at them from beneath her brows. She counts two of them with swords in their hands, though the others are sure to have hidden weapons on them.
The first man begins to slowly saunter across the bridge toward Cassandra, eyeing her with a devilish snarl. The others follow a few paces behind him.
Unlike the previous bandit she'd encountered two days ago, this one doesn't look at her with amusement, as if he finds her presence to be a sort of twisted entertainment. Rather, there's a bloodthirsty anger in his eyes as he growls at her pointedly, "You…" He raises his sword. "You killed our own… and you're gonna pay. And then we're gonna take what's ours."
The images of her previous fight in the cabin flash across her mind, and how determined those men had been to find the princess. But Rapunzel is getting further and further away from here as they speak, and that fact alone is enough to assure Cassandra.
She won't let them get what they want, if it's the last thing she does.
With a rageful scream, the bandit lunges forward. He raises his arm, swinging his sword down toward her.
Cassandra dodges it instantly, side-stepping away and ducking her head. She straightens, and with a sudden lurch, she slashes her sword across his abdomen, the blade slicing audibly through his flesh.
He clutches his stomach. As his body collapses to the ground, she senses another sword swinging toward her in her peripheral vision. She whips around. Raising her weapon at the last moment, she finds her blade colliding against that of another bandit. Metal rings out as she counters his next strike. He stumbles away.
Cassandra lunges forward, grabbing him by the shoulder and jamming her sword directly through his torso with the opposite hand. The forceful jerk of her movement reflects her sheer anger toward them as she yanks her sword out of his body with a grunt.
His lifeless figure seizes as she releases him, before falling forward onto his knees.
Feeling another one of them behind her, Cassandra whips around once more. Just as she does, she sees the blurred shadow of a figure appearing directly in front of her, but her movement is halted by a sudden, excruciating pain in her side.
A strangled grunt escapes Cassandra's lips as her entire body freezes up against him.
Suddenly, she is choking on air. It's as if a sharp bolt of electricity has struck her just below the ribs, along with a boiling heat pulsing through her muscles like fire. Completely stunned, it takes her a disorienting moment to even realize what has happened.
Her knees have given in beneath her. She can no longer breathe. Her sword slips out of her grasp, clattering to the ground. He pushes the knife further into her stomach, and Cassandra whimpers in pain at the torturous feeling of it twisting into her flesh. She releases all of her weight until she's practically leaning against him, with nothing but the knife being forced into her side keeping her upright.
She finds herself paralyzed, unable to do anything but stare over his shoulder as he snarls next to her ear, "I wouldn't worry myself… We'll take good care of her for you."
Cassandra grunts as he suddenly yanks the knife out of her.
She lurches forward, falling onto her hands and knees as he releases her. She sees his boots just inches away from her face, the sight of them becoming blurry as they step out of view.
Her hand comes up to clutch the side of her lower abdomen, warm with blood. She hears his footsteps crunching in the snow, running further away from her as Cassandra collapses to the ground completely.
As she lays there motionless on her side, she hears the distant shouts of the bandits faded in her ears, "Go after the girl! Don't let her get away!"
Through hazy vision, she sees the shadowed figures of two dark horses galloping away from her. They fade further and further into the distance, before everything goes black.
Rapunzel clutches onto Maximus' reigns as they race together through a maze of snowy trees.
He gallops as fast as he can, hooves pounding loudly against the forest floor and kicking up snow. He swerves around the trunks of trees that appear in their path, his speed never faltering for a moment.
Rapunzel leans forward in the saddle as she ducks her head beneath various tree branches that hang above her. She's panting so hard that her breath appears in white clouds of cold air before her lips. Her hair blows behind her shoulders, with the freezing air numbing her face and her ears from the speed they are running at.
But all she thinks about is Cassandra, and the fact that she'd stayed behind to protect Rapunzel. It had all happened so fast. The princess wasn't even able to protest before Cass had basically forced her to run in the opposite direction.
Why? Why did she have to do that? Rapunzel had assumed that Cassandra would come with her. She would have never gotten on the horse in the first place if she knew Cass was going to do that. But she should have known Cassandra would trick her. Of course, she would stay behind to fight, in the hopes of letting Rapunzel get away. And now Cass is all alone back there, with four men that want to kill her.
Rapunzel wants to turn back. Everything in her gut is telling her that none of this was a good idea, and that Cassandra is going to get herself killed back there, but she's so flustered with everything that just happened that all she can do is hold onto Max's reigns with her limbs quivering in fear, letting him take her further and further away from Cassandra.
Beneath the sound of Max's galloping hooves, she hears another pair of them fading into her ears, gradually becoming louder. Through the blur of various tree trunks whizzing past them, she sees the black figure of another horse appearing next to them, catching up to them and matching their speed.
Rapunzel pulls on the reigns, veering Maximus away, only for a second horse to gallop into view from the opposite side. They're completely closing in on Maximus from either direction, leaving him no where to run but forward.
One of the bandits holds a rope in his hand, tied into a noose at the end. He raises it above his head and tosses it toward Maximus, looping the rope around Max's head.
The bandit pulls back on his own reigns. The black horse slides to a sudden stop, causing Maximus to do the same.
He whinnies loudly from the rope suddenly lassoed around his neck, tightening as he finds himself being pulled back. Max kicks up his front hooves and neighs in fright, throwing Rapunzel off the saddle.
She falls roughly into the snow, grunting as she lands hard on her back.
She writhes in pain for a moment, processing how she had ended up on the ground so quickly. All the while, Maximus is stomping and squealing frantically just a few feet away from her, struggling to break free.
Rapunzel begins to prop herself up onto her side, then she feels the weight of the second bandit suddenly lunging on top of her, pinning her down.
"Not so fast, princess," he says, grabbing her by the wrists.
She whimpers as she thrashes her arms and kicks her feet as hard as she can, but his strength is no match for her own.
"There's no use struggling," he pants, "Your little friend won't be coming to your rescue... You wanna know why?" There's a glint of satisfaction in his eyes as he sneers in her face, "I killed her."
Rapunzel's chest tightens with dread, and she finds herself paralyzed upon being faced with her greatest fear. But she's so overwhelmed and terrified that she isn't sure if what she's hearing anymore is real, or if his proclamation is merely a twisted scare tactic. Then she realizes – the only explanation as to why the bandits are here and not back on the bridge, is that Cassandra wasn't able to stop them.
A newfound determination flashes across Rapunzel's face, and she continues to fight against him with more fire and rage than she had before.
"No… No!" She grunts between panting breaths.
His grip on her wrists only tightens painfully the more she struggles, and he pins them both down above her head easily.
Rapunzel's muscles ache with exhaustion until tears form at the corners of her eyes, and she squeezes them shut. This is not happening. This is not real! She refuses to believe that Cassandra is dead.
Maximus thrashes away from the rope that holds him captive, neighing in fear. He kicks up his front legs. The bandit loses his grip on the lasso, and Maximus bolts off into the woods in fright.
Rapunzel's wrists are pushed further into the snow, the other bandit hardly phased by her pathetic attempts to break free. "I gotta admit… she put up quite the fight," he continues.
Rapunzel rams her knee into his groin. His grip on her falters for just a moment. Her arm breaks free, and she scratches her nails across his face.
The bandit cries out in pain, clutching a hand to his cheek.
Rapunzel begins to scurry out from underneath him, only to feel herself being grabbed again. There's a new fire in his eyes as he holds her down, pressing a knee into her arm this time.
The next thing she knows, there's a cloth being pressed against her mouth and she can no longer breathe. She tries to scream.
Everything becomes hazy. Her head feels dizzy, her limbs are weak, her vision starts to turn blurry. Suddenly, she can no longer find the strength in her to move.
She relaxes completely. Her body becomes weightless until all she sees anymore is the pale sky, and the branches of trees arching high above her.
As Rapunzel's eyes fall closed, slowly succumbing to sleep, she hears a voice faded in her ears, "Well done, boys. You've done your part… Now leave her to me."
A/N: We are approaching the final chapters of this story! I'm guessing there will be 5 or 6 left. Thank you to everyone that has commented and read so far!