Dark Mer

8

"That was...wow." Eugene commented.

Rapunzel walked over and knelt next to him. "Varian?"

He smiled up at her. "I'm okay."

'That wasn't what I was going to ask...' She thought. 'Consume the sunlight's glow? Why does that give me a bad feeling?'

"Thank you." She smiled and took his hand, helping him up. "Let's get you back inside so we can continue on. You have cake to finish!"

Varian smiled and happily returned to his cake. Rapunzel smiled and then went over to sit with Eugene at the front.

"And we're off." Cassandra said as she led them on her own horse.

Eugene looked back at Varian, then at Rapunzel. "So, what was up earlier?"

"He just had a bad dream. Cake cheered him up." Rapunzel nodded. "We all get bad dreams from time to time." She laid her head on his shoulder.

"Yeah." Eugene nodded. "So...any idea who his mysterious mentor is?"

"No..." Rapunzel sighed. "He hasn't told me yet."

"Lance doesn't know, either." Eugene shrugged.

They heard Varian let out a happy little chirrup and looked over to see him holding out his empty plate. Lance went over to take it and refilled it with more cake.

"Still getting used to those sounds." Eugene admitted. "It was interesting on a Mer, but on a human it's...I don't know."

"I think it's cute!" Rapunzel smiled.

Pascal crawled over and climbed up onto Varian's lap before blending in with the color of his shirt. Varian looked at him, intrigued.

"Pascal seems to like him." Rapunzel smiled.

"Well, good, the frog likes him." Eugene shrugged.

"Chameleon." She nudged him with a smile.

Eugene chuckled. "I know, blondie."

--

Their trip was fairly uneventful. Aside from the thugs, which were easily beaten back with all of them working together, and the black rocks, which Varian took care of, they didn't have to deal with any trouble.

Finally, they could see the gates of the Kingdom of Corona standing tall. The guards at the gate opened it up for them and they went through, to much applause and "welcome back"s from the men at the gates.

"First things first, we're going to get the black rocks at Old Corona taken care of." Rapunzel said as they went through the forest. "Varian, how are you feeling?"

"Healthy and ready to undo my mistakes." Varian said confidently.

"Uhm...not the way I would've put it but, yaaaay..." Rapunzel said awkwardly.

They stopped in the damaged town and Varian slowly stepped out, looking around. "All the people got evacuated to Corona, so no one's here but us." Rapunzel assured him.

He walked over and placed his hand on a large spike. "...I did this..." He looked around at the damage. "I...my powers..."

He looked at his hands, then at them. "Alright." He gripped his staff tightly and then started to sing and do motions with his hands and body, making the spikes stand straight before they shrank down into the ground. Rapunzel watched him closely, making sure he wasn't exhausting himself.

After what felt like hours, he finally finished with all of the spikes in the empty town and then collapsed. Rapunzel cried out in alarm and ran over to kneel next to him.