Chapter 19: Varian panicking

"What was he doing with that creature? It was his fault that father had to leave. Him and that hopeless cousin of mine. I hate him! I hate them both! This has most definitely been the worst day of my life in a long time!"

Arianna was certain Annabelle's voice could be heard far through the corridors, and hoped no one would pass the room for a while. All the way, her niece had been complaining about being scowled at for no reason, and that this was a horrible way of treating your closest family.

The Queen had led her to her room, and had quickly decided that Violet's choice of suite had been perfect. It was one of the biggest, and had a large salon, a toilet by itself and a huge bedroom, with a dressing room included. Her luggage had been placed there, but not unpacked yet. The white painted salon with pale blue pillows, and light lilac wall paintings on white panel and lovely pale blue curtains gave a peaceful atmosphere. The bedroom were of a similar design, with a huge canopy bed with the same curtains as the windows, only with pattern, and the bed had more lovely pillows than necessary.

Right now, Annabelle had placed herself on the bed, half lying in the huge pile of pillows. Arianna sat beside her and tried to calm her down by stroking her hand in hers. "Now now, I'm certain they'll find him soon. You don't have to worry about him."

"Worry? About that little beast? I hope uncle locks him up, he should be kept in a leach."

"I am... certain his father will speak to him once he finds him."

Annabelle gave a short 'Hmph' before looking at her. "Believe me when I say it, auntie, it's hopeless to speak to him. When Helga was alive, she spoiled him, and uncle has no control over him at all. And father let's him do whatever he wants. And he lets me suffer with him. I mean it, he's a little demon!"

"Oh believe me; I have seen worse..." Arianna gave a chucked chuckle when recalling Varian during lunch, but her own laughter died on her tongue when thinking of the alchemist himself. "But... try not to think about this now. It's good to have you back here at last, and we'll make sure to do whatever it takes to make you feel at home. I'll see to that you get whatever you need."

"Good!" she said and sounded all worn out. "What about a lady-in-waiting? "

"We have made sure one of the maids will attend to you, so you don't have to worry about that."

The look she sent her could remind of one of those you send someone who has just blurted out the most idiotic thing in the world. "A maid? Auntie, are you serious,?"

"Or... I could lend you my own Friedborg, if you prefer that. I'm certain that if my daughter were here, she would gladly have let you borrow Cassandra, but..."

"Aaah, that horrible being! I prefer a migraine over her!" Annabelle moaned and leaned back on the pillows, closing her eyes and led her hand to her forehead. "Alright, I'll give that maid of yours a try."

"Eh... good..." Arianna blinked of her reaction at the Captain's daughter. "But dear..." she placed herself closer to her. "Don't tell me you're still holding a grudge on Cassandra? I mean, it was such a long time ago, and it was just an accident."

"It was most certainly NOT an accident!" Annabelle snarled and rose from the pillows, giving her a glare that reminded of Varian when he had been to lunch and threw that turkey slice. "She did that on pure purpose. She humiliated me for fun! Why did you have to remind me of that? Like this day wasn't ruined enough..."

"I'm sorry, dear. I had no idea it still bothered you. But you can't expect us to be ready with everything on such short notice! Remember, we didn't expect you all to arrive today. So I don't understand why you didn't bring any on your own?"

"How can I bring with me any when they quit on short notice?" She laid back again, this time on her side, looking out through the window. "Can you believe it? They're lucky to raise to the highest level of a job a female servant can get, to one of the noble ones, and then they throw their opportunity away and just quit? Like it was me that wasn't good enough for them?! It happens all the time!" She hit her fist into the pillow and sobbed. "Why can't things go my way for once?"

Arianna didn't know what to do at the moment and found herself watching as the temperamental girl started crying into the pillow. She felt a little lost and not the least shocked over how difficult her niece had grown up to be. It was as far from Rapunzel as it could possibly appear. The kind and friendly Rapunzel, who were so eager to make people like her, would have done absolutely everything to please her cousin. She would even had gone as far as posing as a lady-in-waiting herself if it could have made her feel better.

But in the end, Arianna had a feeling that even her sweet lovable daughter would have enough and change her nature to confront her. Sooner or later, one just had enough, like she herself had with her very own sister that last birthday of hers. Nothing or no one could make Arianna loose her normally calm and controlled self like Willow did. Despite her desperate attempt to make the best out of it, she had given in to her wounded emotions and gotten angry, causing the whole Kingdom to get endangered.

Just like Varian had!

The thought slipped into her mind so quickly that Arianna felt how her heart skipped a beat. He just seemed to stick on her mind, and she couldn't help but coming back to him either. He was a puzzle that trigged one's mind, but weren't able to solve, but somehow you had to keep trying.

According to Rapunzel, the Varian that had kidnapped her had been far from the Varian she had first met about half a year ago when she had come to him for help with her hair. She had described him as someone who would go miles and miles for the satisfaction of others and not asking for anything in return but that. A more selfish person would have asked for an expensive price for such service, but Varian has simply just thrown his service over them. That a person could change so...

The sudden thought of the alchemist made her worried again, and recalled that they had yet to find Daniel. She knew it was important to distract Annabelle, but her concern of how things were going with the search of the boys made her anxious.

Although the crying girl in the bed made it horribly difficult to do anything at the moment. All Arianna could do was to sit and pray that she managed to cry herself into sleep.

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In the reception room, Phineas had begun to help his friend place his luggage, but when the lid fell off one of them, Xavier had become curious on what it was there, so the physician had taken the liberty of showing it to him.

"It's remarkable! How did you even come across that?"

"Chances goes one's way of you're paying attention." the physician replied.

"Indeed..." the blacksmith said. "But what is it for?"

Before Phineas was able to reply, they heard Varian's voice in the sick room. When they heard him cry 'DAD!' rather loudly, the physician put the instrument down in the box again, and they both stormed through the door to see what the commotion was about.

As soon as they came into the room, they saw Varian all panicked and Lars desperately trying to hold him down. He heard the doors get up and turned to face them, looking worried.

"I'm sorry, I... I forgot myself." he said excusing and shameful.

"Alright son, why all this noise?" Phineas said determinant, but tried not to sound angry.

"I wanna know that's going on!" Varian said as he tried to climb over Lars's shoulders. "My dad! My dad, I gotta go see him!"

Xavier saw the situation and ran up on the other side of the bed, where he grabbed the teen with a steady grip by both upper arms. "Now now, laddie. You won't help your daddy by shaking up yourself like this!"

"No, let go of me, please!"

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The King, Jonas and Karen with Ruddiger on her shoulders stood and listened to Millicent shouting from war away, lashing out at someone. From the voices they heard it seemed it was the Captain and Nigel, somehow making an attempt of defending themselves verbally, to no use.

"Everyone seems to be at eachother today." Jonas said curious.

"Oh, she sounds angry..." Karen whispered anxious. "She's probably looking for me." She felt a hand on her shoulder at sudden, and looked up at Jonas, who were smiling at her.

"Then maybe it would be an idea to hide out a moment." He looked around and found a pair of double doors half open. "There might be good!"

"That's the medic's apartment!" Fredric said, all of a sudden feeling his chest tighten up inside.

"Well, then we get to deliver this guy off, and hide a moment at the same time." Jonas declared and pushed Karen inside into the reception room. "It doesn't sound like we wanna meet her right now."

"Eh... agreed, indeed." Fredric said and hurried after them. Meeting an angry servant girl like this wasn't fitting right now, especially not with Ruddiger along. Besides, he himself had reached his destination anyhow. Well inside, Jonas closed the door after them right before they heard them all three pass the corner, Millicent leading on.

"I see no reason why a nasty critter should be more important than Karen at this moment!"

Jonas chuckled. "She sounds even worse than Annabelle."

Karen too, chuckled. "And she had been appointed to tend to her."

Jonas was about to laugh back when all of a sudden they heard other voices, from other hold. From the sick room, several voices spoke loudly over eachother. One squeaking voice crying loudly and other male voices sounding rather desperate as well. Jonas immediately recognized a pair of them and arched an eyebrow.

"Sounds like my brother has found Daniel after all."

The King didn't reply, as another familiar voice made him freeze with his ice blue eyes wide open. "Varian..." he whispered to himself.

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"You don't understand! I've got to go!" Varian's squeaky voice were almost shaking as he cried out.

"Don't be ridiculous, laddy. You are in no shape to go anywhere!" Xavier would have had no trouble keeping the skinny body under control hadn't he been kicking so wildly, and he wondered to himself where the lanky boy got his strength from.

"Varian, you're supposed to..." Daniel begun, but was interrupted by his father, who were busy trying to hold Varian's right side in bed while trying to get his right leg down.

"Stay out of this, Daniel!" Then he turned back to the sprawling teenager. "Varian, you mustn't wind yourself up like this! It's not good for you."

"Lars, you have to understand. Please please, he needs me. I know he does!" Varian's voice were at the edge of crying now and he ended up whimpering the last words. "Dad... Daddy..."

"If you can hold him, I will find something to calm him down." Phineas said. " I think I have some poppy milk somewhere in my laboratory..."

"Whatever you have, hurry, before he hurts himself!" Lars said struggling. "And I thought my son were a challenge..."

Phineas were already on his way towards the door, but as he opened them both wide, he stopped himself and gasped. "Oh... Your Majesty?!"

The sudden mentioning of His Majesty put a stuck in both the others. Xavier froze and hesitated to look up, like he had been caught red handed. Lars slightly turned around, finding both his Majesty and his brother, along with the maid from earlier, holding the raccoon in her arms. The latter immediately caught the sight of his boy, and struggled himself free from Karen's grip, and ran towards him.

Varian quickly noticed that the grown up's grip on him loosened, and he would have tried to wriggle himself free hadn't the critter jumped right up on his belly. If Varian weren't confused already, he definitely got now, when his trusty furry companion nudged itself to his chest and crooned of delight and relief and couldn't express his happiness enough.

"Ruddiger?" Varian got his arms free and lifted him up so he stared right at him. "What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here!"

The critter just stared at him with a questioning look, happy to see him, but confused at his sudden change of behavior.

"So he was yours!" Daniel said out loud and pointed at Ruddiger. "I knew it!"

"Yes, but..." Varian didn't get time to respond properly when the sound of the deep, loud and demanding voice cut through the room with grand force.

"Will somebody tell me what is going on here?!"

Varian turned around to face what he least expected; His Majesty the King himself, only about fifteen feet away from himself. The appearance of the ruler made Varian feel like he wanted himself far away, not only because the King looked furious, but because he was far too well aware of the fact that he was far from proper dressed to face nobility itself. He had a slight hope he would not discover him in the bungle of men around him trying to hold him down, but King Fredric's gaze fell for some reason directly on him, and the look on his face were difficult to read. Either way, Varian felt he became terrified.

Phineas folded his hands into the sleeves of his robe before giving a deep quick bow. "My King, if I can just explain..."

"Everyone; out!"

Lars rose from his position and stood up straight to face him. "King Fredric, I must..."

"OUT NOW!"

The sudden outburst made them all widen their eyes and let their mouths fall open in shock of his outrageous behavior.

"Daniel, come here! Now!"

Poor Daniel had lost his sassy confidence and got frightened by the sudden changed atmosphere. He was normally used to object with a frown, but now he didn't dare to oppose in any way. But as his father gently took a hold of his shoulder, the boy turned back to face Varian one last time. Young brown eyes met young blue eyes, both equally confused and one a bit more frightened than the other, before the young prince was led out of the sick room.

Xavier, loyal to his ruler as he was, didn't put up any resistance, but as he followed his friend the physician out the door, he cast a look at Varian and gave him an encouraging smile before he closed the door behind him.

"And you, boy!" he pointed at Varian, who immediately curled himself up as close to the back of the bed as he could, his huge eyes threatening to pop out of his head as he stared at the King. "You're not moving one inch from that spot, do you hear me?!"

The young teen froze and all he could do was to nod quickly while he clenched his teeth with a frightened look on his face. Ruddiger too got frightened by the King's loud voice and hid in his master's arms.

Then the doors were closed.

Varian was left alone in the room, except from the critter in his arms. He heard Lars yell, and the King as well, but the door was closed so he didn't hear what they said as they were all speaking in eachother's mouths. Besides, his heart was beating so loud that he failed to hear anything. After taking a few deep breaths, that ended up as sniffles as he was in the edge of bursting into tears, he tried to gather himself, but found himself more frightened than he had been before. Ruddiger noticed his fear and shaking body and reached up to touch his face with both paws to stroke his cheeks as if to calm him down and say 'there there, it's gonna be alright', like he had done when the guards let them away after he was arrested, a memory that was gone from his master's mind for the moment.

Nevertheless, Varian became aware of him again, and clinched the raccoon tighter to his body as he flicked his eyes at his surroundings. "Oh Ruddiger..." he said leaning back in the bed. "I don't know what's going on here, but..." he wiped his nose with the hand still gloved. "I have a feeling I've reeeally done it this time!"

I must confess, I found this information after I finished writing this part, but I feel a need to share it so bear over with me. I have already mentioned this on my tumbler page, but the Tangle Series has gotten the impression of the Lady-in-waiting completely wrong. I have been doing some research on the title, and did I get myself a surprise.

A lady-in-waiting were not like a personal maid that did your laundry, or other's laundry or household duties like cleaning and preparing guestrooms Cassandra is seen doing in both 'Great Expotations' and 'Challange of the Brave'. A lady-in-waiting were actually a companion and a friend for the Princess/Queen/Lady that helped you pick out today's outfit, kept track on the day's activities, almost like a personal secretary, and joined the Princess, or the lady, in whatever activities. They were to follow the Princess/Queen/Lady wherever she went, and how in earth could they expect them to do laundry and clean the Castle while during this? And they were actually from noble families, picked out personally by the Princess, Queen or the male relative/husband of this one. They weren't allowed marriage unless the Princess/Queen/Lady agreed. But they were generally higher ranked than Cassandra appears to be. So this is it, my share of knowledge. So what Cassandra said in season 3 'Beginnings' that there were one chance in a million that a Princess and a lady-in-waiting would become friends were wrong, because a lady-in-waiting were supposed to be a friend for her. They were her closest confidant.

I suspect that the Disney-universe has given the ladies-in-waiting such duties because they wanted Cassandra to feel even more miserable than she would have been else. Just a theory, but it makes sense. The whole series is a buildup to her frustration, so I take it they haven't gone all historically correct. But then again, it's just fiction.