The Moon Calls

60

"Rise and shine, Sunshine." Eugene said, knocking on the door. "Airship's here."

Rapunzel smiled and nodded, then looked at Varian. "Come on, let's go home."

He nodded, climbing off the bed with a sigh. "Yeah. I'm...I want my dad."

"You'll have him back soon." she assured hm. "You have that spell you learned in the Great Tree, remember? The one Gothel didn't want you to know?"

"The scary life-draining one?" Varian shivered.

Rapunzel gently pulled him into her arms. "It's okay. We'll make sure no one else is there when you use it. Well...besides me and, uhm, maybe Lucas? Since he was able to snap you out of it before."

"Literally." Varian said, thinking of the sharp snap against his back by the vine Lucas controlled.

Rapunzel smiled and kissed his head, then got up. "Come on, the others are waiting. I bet Hugo is worried about you."

He nodded, getting up. "Yeah. I guess I've been kind of withdrawn, huh?"

"I'm sure he understands." She assured him as they walked out to join Eugene in the hall.

"You ready to go home?" Eugene asked gently.

Varian nodded and walked down the hall. Eugene smiled and took Rapunzel's hand, following him out to the dining hall, where everyone had gathered.

"Hey, Stripes." Hugo walked over and pulled Varian into his arms. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He nodded. "I mean, technically no, but I'll have to adjust. Did anyone see Cassandra?" He looked around and they all sadly shook their heads.

"I'm gonna stick around with the hot-air balloon and see if I can find her." Juniper said firmly. "Andrew, I'm entrusting you to handle things in Corona."

"Oh, that should be fun. Maybe someone that didn't spend some time in their prison should do it. Clementine, how about you?" He looked at her.

She sighed heavily. "I will smooth things over with the King, but you are the Crown Prince. You should be the one to talk diplomacy."

"Yeah, that's gonna be a lot of smoothing." Varian remarked. "Considering he not only stole the book using me as a hostage, but he also kidnapped me after escaping prison."

Clementine sighed heavily. "Yes. I suppose there is a lot of smoothing over to do."

"I'll help." Rapunzel giggled.

"Me too." Donella nodded.

Varian grinned, then sighed. "...But, before that, I want my dad back. So, we'll stop by Old Corona and then head for the Capital from there."

"Of course." Eugene assured him.

"You ready to go back to Corona?" Hugo asked, taking Varian's hand.

Varian nodded. "Let's go."

They all headed out to the airship, but Eugene stopped at the bottom of the ramp and turned to his...father? "So, uh...you wanna come back with us?"

"I'm going to join the search here. I will visit Corona another time, soon." He assured him.

"Right, okay." Eugene nodded. "See you around, then." He walked up the ramp.

"Adira, you're not coming?" Lance asked.

"I need to find the Moon." She said grimly. "Keep my nephew safe."

Lance nodded, his expression grim.