DISCLAIMER; I don't own anything except my OCs.

Chapter 04; A Stroll

"Speech"

/"Out of Frame Speech"/

"Thoughts"

The next day is a beautiful day in the kingdom and the people are going about their daily routine, though they can't wait for Rapunzel's coronation. Then, the sound of a trumpet catches the villagers' attention as they instantly notice the princess, the champion and his girlfriend along with half a dozen guards flanking the trio as the royal announcer, well, announces, "Princess Rapunzel will spend her day about town!"

Rapunzel is prepared to stroll right through the village only to be squished in by two of the guards before she could take the 1st step. However, that doesn't last long.

"Ok, guys, back up!" Jonah declares as he steps in and puts some reasonable distance between Rapunzel and the guards flanking her. "I know you're just doing your jobs, gentlemen, but give the princess some room to breathe."

"Thank you, Jonah." Rapunzel says with genuine gratitude, which is responded to with a supportive smile and a nod.

"Shall we?" Jonah as rhetorically before they go about town, with the guards still flanking the trio while Jonah remains at Rapunzel's right and Helena has her left arm wrapped around her boyfriend's right arm happily.

During their walk, Rapunzel sees the butcher working in his shop before waving to him. He waves back, but with a meat cleaver in his hand, resulting in him getting tackled by a guard who assumed the butcher was going to assassinate the princess.

"Ok, halt!" Jonah commands the flanking guards, who do as the biker ordered, before he, Helena and Rapunzel go to check on the butcher.

As soon as they get into the shop, Jonah pulls the arresting guard off the butcher before Rapunzel and Helena help the latter back to his feet.

"Are you alright, sir?" Helena asks with concern.

"Oh, yes. I'm fine, miss." The butcher reassures.

"Forgive me, sir." The guard that attacked the butcher apologizes with genuine remorse. "For the moment, I thought you were about to assassinate the princess."

"It's alright, sir." The butcher accepts the guard's apology. "Clearly, I need to think twice before waving to anyone, let alone the princess, with a sharp metal object in my hand[1]."

After that little misunderstanding with the butcher, and the issue of the villagers' hands getting needlessly swatted away was resolved, the trio come across a flame juggler.

They, along with the people, enjoy the juggler's skills as he blows a flammable liquid forward with a torch in front of his face, creating a moderate stream of flame(though, his pyro techniques have nothing on Jonah). One of the guards is about to put an end to the fun with a bucket of water before Jonah stops him.

"He's clean." Jonah says, much to the guard's surprise and Rapunzel's joy before the biker hands the cupcake to the princess.

They continue their walk as the come across the fountain where the little braiding girls usually do their thing, as usual, when one of the girls notices Rapunzel and greets the princess with a wave, to which she responds with her own wave.

Rapunzel gets an idea before glancing with a knowing smirk over her shoulder at Jonah and Helena's direction. To the American couple's confusion, their royal friend runs toward the girls and whispers to them for a moment or two before the princess walks up to Helena.

"Come on, Helena." Rapunzel requests, gently grabbing the redhead's right arm and pulling her toward the fountain much to Helena's surprise and confusion.

After 10 minutes of waiting, just as Dante joins him, Jonah's attention is caught by Helena's new hairstyle, which is now braided into a dirndl braid that hangs over her right shoulder and a couple flowers on the left side, as the woman he loves examines the braid with astonishment.

"Thank you so much!" Helena says to the little girls genuinely.

Still slightly stricken with awe, Jonah's barely ajar mouth twitches in the left corner into a half smile. This earns him a nudge from Dante as he gives the champion a knowing smirk.

After the braiding, they come across a local baking shop when the shop's baker offers a cupcake to Rapunzel, only for one of the guards to stop her in her tracks. He takes the cupcake to inspect it, only for Jonah to stop him before he can do anything.

"Okay, how about you let me inspect this cupcake before you dig your finger into something the princess is about to put in her mouth." Jonah suggests as he takes the cupcake from the mustached guard.

As promised, he inspects the cupcake in the most sanitary manner possible, smelling the pastry for anything that can compromise Rapunzel's health, cutting a relatively thin piece of it to taste it for poison or crushed glass. He even made direct eye contact with the baker to check for ill intent.

"He's clean." Jonah says, much to the guard's surprise and Rapunzel's joy before the biker hands the cupcake to the princess.

After her morning out in town, Rapunzel is back in her room with Cassandra. As the lady-in-waiting helps Rapunzel get ready for the banquet, she can tell that the princess is not exactly pleased with how it turned out despite Jonah's interferences.

"Let me guess; Big day on the town wasn't all you hoped it'd be?" Cassandra induced.

"It was... interesting." Rapunzel answers hesitantly. Pascal translates by using one of his front feet to make a "so-so" gesture.

"Uh-huh, I bet." Cass responds sarcastically. "I'm guessing Jonah had to keep the guards from being too hard on the people."

"Yes" Rapunzel answers. "That made this morning at least a little more bearable to go through. I just wish my dad would let me get out and see the real world."

"You know, if you really wanted, I could get you in and out of here before anyone even knew that we were gone." Cassandra offers coyly, catching the princess's interest.

"Uh, you mean sneak me out?" Rapunzel asks with excitement.

"Exactly. What you do when no one's looking is your business." Cass confirms before somebody knocks on Rapunzel's bedroom door.

/"The royal banquet is ready to receive the Princess now."/

"Cheer up, raps. Hey, maybe your dad got someone to chew your food for you." Cass teases, much to Rapunzel's annoyance as the princess deadpans at her lady-in-waiting's dry joke.

AUTHOR'S NOTES;

1; Let me start by saying I'm sorry for how long it took for you guys to wait for this story to be updated. A lot of things have happened since the previous chapter was posted, and some of that time, if not most of it, was wasted on other things like me getting a ps5 for Christmas last year (along with some ps5 games like Mortal Kombat 1) and my newfound addiction to God of War 4 and GoW; Ragnarok.Also, though I haven't seen the movie in it's entirety (and how poorly I heard it did in the box office), I've been working on a Marvel Rising crossover with Disney's Wish. And not getting the right grammar in is especially irritating.

2; I'm sorry if this chapter seems a bit disappointingly short. I was originally planning on adding the Royal Banquet scene from the movie, but then I lost patience and decided to cut that out and save it for the next chapter. But I promise, it'll be in there, all the same. And I'm gonna make sure Jonah gives Eugene a stern talking-to.

3; I'm sure you've noticed that I've decided to have Jonah dial down the guards' overdoing their job in what I hope to be a reasonable level. I know they were just doing their jobs, but the measures they took in doing it? Some of those are reasons why some people don't trust law enforcement. I understand if this is all supposed to be comedic, and the king just wants to protect his daughter by any means necessary, but this is just unreasonable.

Anyway, I'm sorry I kept you waiting, and I hope you'll favorite, follow, review and, maybe, share this with your friends.

2-12-24