17 November 2022
Well, here it is. We’re finally caught up, or at least as caught up as I’m going to get. I want to keep that one week buffer to give myself time to type everything in after I’ve written it.
At some point, I realized that after Maleficent’s discussion with Isaac on the dangers of fate-spinning, and considering his own stubbornness, there’s no way he’d agree to help Aurora figure it out. He would, however, be likely to send Phillip instead, and Phillip’s in so far over his head that he’s pretty much willing to roll with whatever.
Phillip smiled. “Aurora it is, then.” He scrunched his eyebrows together. “You do have a plan, though, right? To make sure you don’t vanish everyone?”
[skipping how she convinces him for now]
“Alright, then.” Phillip leaned back. “What do you need me to do?”
Aurora stared up at him in shock.
“Oi, don’t give me that look. You’re my friend, and Isaac sent me to keep an eye on you. Least I could do is help you try, right?”
Tears welled up in Aurora’s eyes, and she laughed. “Come on, then. Let’s go.”
The trip there went a lot faster than the trip back had been. Part of that was because it was just the two of them but part of it also had to do with the fact they better understood Aurora’s limits. Soon they arrived at the forest where the Tower was hidden away, and then the tower itself.
“Would it be better if I waited out here?” Phillip asked.
Aurora nodded. “I’ll try to be quick. The Tower will let you know if something goes wrong.” She moved to the base of the Tower, which opened up to let her in.
Gothel had shut herself in her room ever since that witch had blinded her. She’d barely been able to eat, though the Tower provided plenty of food for her, and sleep evaded her. Her daughter, her Rapunzel, was like them. Like that woman. The one who’d taken her sisters away.
Gothel could have used the boy’s sight to at least partially heal herself, but she did not. She wanted nothing of his. It must be his fault. He’d changed Rapunzel somehow. Gothel snarled, then forced herself to calm back down.
Rapunzel’s words dug at her heart, but Gothel couldn’t understand them. So she stayed in her room, cycling through all the negative thoughts, until she caught a whiff of something familiar.
Rapunzel had returned to the Tower.
Edited bits to get the following:
“Can I leave the kingdom in your hands for a few days?”
“That would be unwise.” Maleficent shook her head. “Even were I well-regarded in the kingdom, which I am not, this is a critical time in your young reign. You need to prove that you are not a puppet, whether to me or anyone else.”
Isaac grimaced, and clenched his fist as he looked out over the parapet. Was there anyone else he could send?
A moment of inspiration struck him, and he gestured to one of his guards. “Please fetch my my friend, Phillip Charmande.”
Phillip didn’t really understand what Isaac had been talking about. Something about cobwebs, and fate, and his sister. All Phillip knew was that Rapunzel had gotten herself in over her head somehow, and Isaac wanted him to watch out for her.
He’d barely traveled two or three hours when he ran into Rapunzel off the side of the road. She was breathing heavily, and Phillip figured the ache in her chest was back. Her horse had been tethered beside her.
“You know, your brother was worried enough before he thought of how weak you get,” Phillip said. “Wouldn’t it have been better to let him know what you were doing?”
Rapunzel started and looked up at him. “Phillip?”
Phillip grinned at her. “In the flesh!”
“But… How? Why? I didn’t think anyone would notice–”
“That you left?” Phillip looked at her askance. “You do know that you’re a princess right? Even if you don’t want to be. And where you were gone for so long… People notice you now.”
Rapunzel scowled and looked away. Phillip dismounted and walked up to her. “Why didn’t you ask someone to go with you? You collapsed a couple times on the trip back, didn’t you? What if that happened again?”
“I, just… I don’t know.”
“Uh huh. And what’s all this about people disappearing from existence and fate and cobwebs and things?”
Rapunzel sighed. “It’s complicated.”
“Yeah, I got that much.” When she didn’t say anything, Phillip said, “Look, Rapunzel–”
“It’s Aurora.”
Phillip blinked. “Huh?”
Rapunzel - Aurora - looked away and rubbed her arms. “You can call me Aurora. It seemed rude not to use the name my parents gave me after they… well.”
Phillip smiled. “Aurora it is, then.” He scrunched his eyebrows together. “You do have a plan, though, right? To make sure you don’t vanish everyone?”
“Not…exactly.” She looked down the road. “I know Moth - Gothel had some books about fate-spinning in her hidden library. So I was going to find them and see if I could figure anything out.”
“Alright, then.” Phillip leaned back. “What are we waiting for?”
Aurora stared up at him in shock.
“Oi, don’t give me that look…
Back to new stuff
Aurora crept through the Tower. She didn’t know where Gothel was, or if she was even still in the Tower, and she didn’t particularly want to find out. Even in the best-case scenario, Aurora didn’t think that encounter was going to be pleasant. It still felt weird, though, coming back like this. Kind of like coming home from a long vacation, only to discover you weren’t welcome anymore.
She made her way up the stairs to the meadow, and was surprised to find the animals still there. She was pleased to see they were well fed, and Fenrir was far more energetic now that Gothel wasn’t stealing his health to cover Aurora’s.
“Say, Tower,” Aurora said. “Would it be possible to let them out? When I leave, I mean. I don’t want them to stay here alone, and definitely not alone with her.”
The ground rippled in a way Aurora knew meant yes. She smiled and said, “Thank you.”
From there, she made her way through the Tower to the library. She went to a very specific bookshelf in the back left, pushed the switch, and [magical thing to open the door]. The bookshelf swung free, and she entered Gothel’s hidden library.
Aurora looked around at the piles of books and scattered documents everywhere. That was the downside to this place; nothing was organized the way it was in the main library.
Fortunately, Aurora had an idea of where to look. Soon, she was skimming through documents, looking for anything that might be useful. In particular, she looked for any references to fate-spinning or lifting curses.
Whenever she found something that looked promising, she grinned and stuffed it in her satchel. After an hour or so, it was already full to bursting, but Aurora wanted to look for a bit longer, just in case there was anything else she could use.
Then the Tower banged the door open and closed to warn her about something. Aurora jumped, then snuck into the main library and peered around the main bookshelves to the main entrance.
There, Gothel was sniffing the air, turning her head this way and that. Her eyes were milky white, and she kept one hand on a wall or bookshelf as she walked. “Somewhere, somewhere, here,” she said, her voice almost sing-song. “My Rapunzel is here somewhere. The nose knows, and I can smell her.”
Aurora’s breath caught in her throat. Had she ever seen Gothel this bad? She took a deep breath and began to stealth through towards the doors.
Then Gothel paused, and turned straight toward Aurora. If Aurora hadn’t known better, she would have sworn Gothel could see her. Gothel moved to block Aurora’s path to the door. With a snap of her fingers, the bookshelves joined together to keep Aurora from slipping through them and past Gothel.
A horrid grin spread on Gothel’s face, and she began walking down the aisle in Aurora’s direction. “My darling Rapunzel has finally come home! But she’s been a naughty, naughty girl. For she’s gone and become a witch, and even stolen my eyesight away!”
Aurora backed away, slowly at first and then more an more frantically. Soon, she’d backed herself up against the wall, while Gothel slowly advanced on her.
“So what will we do with this naughty girl? What should be done now she’s become a witch?”
Gothel reached a hand out as if to stroke Aurora’s cheek. Aurora barely held back a scream, and desperately reached behind her, hoping for a way out to appear. The Tower obliged, and Aurora turned the new doorknob and practically fell back into the hallway. She slammed the door in Gothel’s face, then raced down the stairs.
Stone clattered on stone when Gothel forced the Tower to open the way for her. “Dear Rapunzel, is my dear Rapunzel trying to run away? Where do you think you can go?” She whistled a tune, and a few steps ahead of Aurora, the floor slammed up into the ceiling, cutting her off.
Aurora scowled and shouted, “Tower!” To her right, a door appeared, and she rushed through it into the lake room. She began sprinting along the shore; it was only moments, however, before she started to wheeze, and the pain in her chest returned.
Behind her, Gothel slowly pursued her, walking at the same even gait. “Dearest Rapunzel, such a sick little thing. All I wanted was to nurse her and make it better. And yet she blinded me.”
Aurora glanced back and yelped. Gothel’s face had transformed into a bestial snarl, and leathery wings sprouted from her back. The nails on her hands lengthened into claws. “Yet she blinded me! Why, Rapunzel? WHY!?”
She leaped into the air and dove at Aurora. Aurora rolled to the side, narrowly escaping her claws, and kept running. The Tower created a door in the wall closest to her and stretched the room to make it even easier to reach.
Most recently updated draft of Rapunzel, the Sleeping Beauty (potentially including unposted content)