Dark Mer

1

"Wither and decay.
End this destiny.
Break these earthly chains,
And set the spirit free.
Take what has been hurt,
Grant them no mercy.
Bend and break the reins,
And set the spirit free.
The spirit free..."

--

The Kingdom of Corona had received some distressing news. Their trade ships had all gone down, and people were afraid to go out on the sea around a certain area. King Fredric looked over the reports with a heavy heart, wondering what to do about this.

"Hi, dad!" As if somehow sensing his distress, or possibly just good timing, his beloved daughter Rapunzel came bounding into the room in her usual high spirits, tailed by her exasperated handmaiden Cassandra as usual.

"Why, hello, Rapunzel." Fredric chuckled, folding up the report and putting it in his desk. "What can I do for you?"

"I was thinking..." She leaned on his desk. "Why don't we go out to sea? Just us as a family. Oh, and Eugene. And Max. And Pascal of course. And also Cassandra."

"When did I say I wanted to go?" Cassandra asked with a groan.

"Hm..." Fredric looked thoughtful. On the one hand, he could go and check out the situation. If it turned out to be nothing he could actually do anything about, such as nature just being very aggressive, he could then move on to have a nice vacation with his family.

On the other, he really didn't want to put Rapunzel in danger. He'd only just gotten her back so recently after she was stolen from him 18 years ago.

But, he hated to let her down. And he did need to investigate what was going on there.

"Alright." He smiled at her hopeful expression as it turned to a cry of joy. "We'll go out to sea."

"Ugh!" Casandra threw her hands up. "I guess I better pack something a little more suited for sea travel to wear, then!" She stormed off.

"She's so excited!" Rapunzel said, gleefully oblivious to the handmaiden's annoyance.

--

"We're gonna what?" Eugene Fitzherbert, her ex-criminal boyfriend, looked up from admiring himself in a mirror.

"We're going out to sea!" Rapunzel bounced on her bare feet. "Isn't it exciting?!"

"Uh...but, Rapunzel, you know that sea air is bad for my hair." He said nervously.

"How do you know? We've never been at sea!" She spun in a circle and stumbled, falling into his arms. "Whoof!"

"Okay, save the falling over and stuff for when we're on the boat." Eugene laughed and helped her stand. "Ah, I can never tell you 'no', sweetheart."

--

That was how they ended up sailing out to sea. Rapunzel didn't care where they went, as long as it was out to sea, so her father took the lead.

His wife, Queen Arianna, walked up to where he was looking over a map. "Where are we going?" She asked with a knowing gaze.

He sighed. "To the Fallen Kingdom. Or where it was." He tapped the spot on his map. "You've read the reports, right?"

"I have." She nodded. "Are you going to tell them?" She looked towards the group of young adults that were interacting on-deck.

Cassandra had changed to an outfit that was more suited to a man to wear and was carrying a sword, a point of interest to Rapunzel who didn't see any need for weapons on this trip – but had brought her trusty frying-pan, anyway.