Regal flats plunged themselves downstream. Hacked breaths and sobs rustled through the wood. Laced fabrics of abbey caught onto snapped branches. Wildlife scurried away at the weeping that zoomed across the highest noon of summer. Once leagues away from the demanding wedding bells, the fleeing disturbance stumbled upon a clearing. One all too familiar.
From the shadows of the wood emerged a young woman, wiping off tears. Tears of panic and guilt. She barefooted the familiar path to the familiar sight of a tower. One that harbored illusions of a happy childhood. The reality was more of isolation; caged potential. The petit warbler looked back to the distant kingdom. Exchanging one prison for another, she thought to herself. Immediately despising the person it deemed her to be. Selfish. Ungrateful. Lost.
Before her clouded mind could drown her mood evermore, a crack in the sky startled her off-balance. It was nothing like she had ever witnessed, even on her magical adventures. The clouds washed away like a strong ripple in a pond. Only, instead of a stone, what surfaced was a ship of some kind. An air ship caught in a turbulence of icy lighting and flares of violet.
She gathered herself and raced up the tower for a clearer view, slamming the window open. The bruised sapphire of crackling light dissipated as the floating vessel fully birthed through. That was when she noticed the fire. Ariel flames reflected on her shocked eyes of green. A growing forest fire. Wherever this ship had come from, it was not surviving the voyage. An explosion rocked it off course, plummeting towards her like a shooting star. Before taking cover, she witnessed one last crack of lightning streaking off the coming metal comet. This one was different than before. It pulsed a more neon pink as it disappeared into the nearby foliage.
The woman screamed as a hunk of the roof tore off above her. In that split moment, she wished for her old hair back; as long as the tower itself. With it she could have leapt out the open window to safety, but now she was at the mercy of the vintage furniture shielding her from the raining chips of debris. The final impact out on grass field shook the earth.
When the roaring settled, she exited the tower. Flames licked the surrounding rubble. What pieces of machinery she was able to examine were utterly alien to her. She tried to think of what kingdoms had this capability as she pulled on a giant tarp. It was used to help lift the craft like that of a lantern. Whatever fire that fueled it must have raged out of control during its sudden arrival. She tugged on it again, revealing paintings. The most notable she could identify appeared to resemble a smiling monkey.
"Stupid piece of shit!"
A groan of frustration summoned her attention. Relieved to hear a survivor, she followed the bangs of boot striking metal on the other side of the crater. She found another young woman, same frame as herself, stuffing items into a large sack. She was dressed bizarrely in slim, revealing rags. Slender arms exposed colorful markings smudged in the mess of soot. Her most defining feature was that of her hair. Slightly longer than her own and cut in sharp strands and as vibrantly blue as the ruptures she witnessed in the sky. The mystery woman continued to curse to herself as she salvaged what she could.
"Um," The lady in white approached with caution. "Hello?"
Her hands shot up to the air with a yelp as the barrel of a pistol met her face. Pink eyes blurred into focus as the blue-haired stranger peered over her iron aim. Head tilted a few more times as she eyed her from top to bottom. The words pretty and prissy came to mind, but the ruined wedding dress was the most blaring indicator that she was of no threat.
"Awful place to hold a reception." She thumbed the safety on as she spun the weapon back into its holster.
"What-" The presumed bride looked onto her gown, forgetting all about it after the dire spectacle. "Oh, right!" She patted down some wrinkles, nervously. "No, I'm not—well, you see I was, but-" Upon correction, she began to replay the recent events in her head. Worry began to worm its way within. Others could have noticed the loud and colorful eruption in the sky. Others from her home kingdom. Scouts.
"I didn't crash into him, did I?" She pretended to look under the crash site without a true care.
"No. I was the only one here, thankfully." She clarified, rubbing her arm to calm her spreading nerves. "No one comes here anymore." She uttered with a glance to her old tower. "But you—are you alright?" The query was of genuine concern, but more so an excuse to change the subject. The stranger seemed perfectly fine and capable.
"Please, I've survived much worse."
"Really? I mean, you literally fell from the sky."
"How do you know I did? Maybe I stumbled across this blimp, same as you."
So that's what this was. A 'blimp' . Her wandering eyes shifted back from the wreckage. "Well, you don't exactly look like you're from around here." She remarked on her odd attire. It was a collection unlike anything from her time.
"Fair point." She salvaged the last of her gear, making sure her glowing gemstones were secured. "Where is here , exactly. This the breathtaking Demacia I heard so much about." The lush greenery coated in summer's rays caught her lasting gaze. Her undercity or origin was never graced with such ethereal beauty. "Figured the highlands would be a bit, you know, higher . But still nice."
"No, never heard of it, sorry. This is just the woods outside of Corona."
The blue foreigner repeated the word, drawling out every vowel. "Never heard of that either."
The reminder of her kingdom alerted her concern of possible incoming scouts. "We should probably get going. It isn't safe."
The traveler thought she was worried about the fallen airship. "Nah, the worst is over, I just miscalculated the-" Another mini explosion slapped her long side bangs across her face. "Fair point again, missus ...?" She lingered for a response to her newfound acquaintance.
"Please, just Rapunzel. I'm not even married yet. Yet... " Her anxious fingers scratched at the back of her umber waves. "Any who, let's get a move on." She skipped over to gracefully wrap her arms around her bicep, leading her away from the fiery scene.
The readings were obvious. The nervous tics and constant avoidance. The twigs stuck in her hair and dress. The bare feet, dried of mud from hours of running. The soft reddened after-touches of crying on her fair face. This Rapunzel had either been left at the altar and fled in a weeping mess, or the groom had indeed shown but she did not. "Yeah, feels like there's a lot to unpack there. Maybe with someone who you haven't just barely met."
"Don't mind me. It's nothing. Really. Anyway, we should focus on getting you home."
"Lady, home is the last place I wanna be." She pulled away from her gentle grasp as they reached the dense trees.
"Okay, well then what about Demacia ? Is that where you were heading?"
"Sort of. Didn't really have a set destination in mind." She answered grazing her hand over every trunk, every bush.
"So, you just left without a plan?"
"I'm just trying to start over, okay." Her tone spiked a bit. "And to do that, you gotta leave everything behind." Then settled into a mournful sigh as she remembered her friends and family left behind.
As sad as it sounded, Rapunzel related to the sentiment. Perhaps what she needed was to start over. Softness seeped out of her as well. "I sort of get what you mean, but still!" Followed by a cheerful resolution. "I can help you find your way. I know these woods. I know the realm. Our neighboring kingdoms."
"Thanks, but no offense, Punz. I don't exactly think I took a small wrong turn. I was trying to," Recalling her failed experiment, she thought it best to not unload the long complexities of her tale. To prove as such, she asked already predicting the answer. "How familiar are you with hexcores and interdimensional displacement fields?"
Her clueless green eyes blinked with adorable perplexity. "Huh?"
"Yeah, think I'm a long ways from where I meant to go." The mysterious woman hung her sack over her shoulder, smiling at the irony. She had wanted a drastic change of scenery. She had wanted an escape. Now, she had accidentally achieved her wish without a means of undoing it.
"Well," Rapunzel quickly gathered a possible solution. "If it's hexes you're looking for, we can maybe seek out a local witch."
"A witch?" Her eyes rolled up. "Shit, how far back did I go?" She cursed to herself. This native spoke of realms and kingdoms and witches. Her dress was even old-fashioned, predating any vintage style from her world. The colorful wanderer may have found herself stranded for the foreseeable future.
"Townsfolk mentioned one might have set up shop deep within the woods."
Townsfolk . "Oh sister..." Her palm slid down her groaning face, worrying she might truly be stuck in whatever medieval time she shot herself to. She worried she may never see her loved ones again. Then she rebutted herself. Isn't this what I wanted?
"Look, how's about you just point me to the nearest gin joint, so I can think."
"A where now?"
"You know, like where I can get a drink."
"Oh, a tavern!" She leapt ahead onto a mossy rock, unable to pick up the traveler's continued curses.
"I'm so fu-"
"We're not too far from the Snuggly Duckling, actually."
The Snuggly Duckling . "Should've let the crash kill me."
"If anything, that's the perfect place to find a lead on the witch." She balanced her way down a protruding log.
She failed to see how such an innocently named establishment would hold any vital, mystical information. To her, it seemed as though she had landed in a world of nonsensical make-believe. Without much else of an alternative, she reluctantly followed along. "Lead the way, princess ."
Rapunzel looked back, skittishly pressing her index fingers together. "How did you know?"
"What?"
"Nothing." She shot forward again, avoiding the subject entirely. This entire quest she so persisted on was an excuse to avoid the dilemmas that awaited her in Corona.
The pair, united by a split in time and space, journeyed deeper into the shadows of the wood.
"Um, you never gave me your name."
"Buy me a drink first and I might."