Dream stuffs:
I opened my eyes and looked all around me. I was in a dark tunnel system with the princess and Varian. "Oh oh! These tunnels depict an ancient technology of pre Corona era-" Varian cut himself off with a scream. In front of him was a skeleton. I giggled and walked up next to him. "It's just a skeleton Sapphires. We all have them inside of us." Varian rolled his eyes. "Because that makes me feel better about it. This way." He said turning to go the other way.
"We've gotta be careful. Herz der Sonne's tunnels may have been long forgotten, but that doesn't mean they're not dangerous. They are lined with deadly booby traps." Varian simply scoffed. "As you can recall, I know a thing or two about booby traps." He said was he stepped on one. I quickly shoved him to the ground as arrows went flying past us. "Well that's one down." Varian said from under me. "I think that was a sign from the universe to stop being such a cocky jerk, Sapphs." I said getting up not even bothering to help him up. White clouded my vision.
I groaned as I rubbed my forehead with only one hand? 'What?' I looked down and saw that one of my hands was cuffed to my bed post? "What the hell?" I rubbed my eyes with my right hand. "What happened?" I looked around me trying to find something to get myself out of the cuffs. "Sunny?!" I yelled out. 'He should be here.'
I heard multiple loud meows. I looked towards one of the open windows to see Sunny jump up and run to me. "Hey bubs!" He rubbed his head against me and continued meowing. "I'm glad you're okay!" I said kissing his forehead. He meowed and rubbed himself right against my chin. "Pluh gross! My mouth was open!" He meowed back and I rolled my eyes. I looked at try bedside table to see a note? I picked it up and opened it.
"Dear (Y/n),
I'm sorry I had to resort to this. I know you can easily get yourself out of that cuff so once you do don't look for me! I'll come back when the time is right. I love you.
Love,
Varian"
I read the note out loud. I scrunched up the note and threw it on the ground. "That dingus!" I ran my hand through my hair and sighed. "Ugh! I'll be mad at him later. Right now I need to figure out how long I've been asleep and how to get out of these." I sighed and rubbed my temple.
Suddenly there was a knock at my door and I let out a small yelp. "(Y/n)?! Are you okay?!" "Rapunzel?" I yelled back. "Yeah it's me! I'm also with Eugene and Cass." I let out a frustrated groan. "I don't know if my door is locked or not. All I ask is that your don't break it!" I yelled to them. There was quiet chatter outside the door and it soon opened revealing the three. "What happened to you kid?" Eugene asked already working on the cuff around my left hand. "I don't want to talk about it."
My hand was free and I rubbed my wrist. "So what are you all doing here?" Rapunzel handed me a familiar letter. "We found this earlier today and it's from Varian. Do you know anything about this?" I nodded. "He was writing it right before..." I trailed off looking at the ground. "Before what?" Cass asked me kneeling down so she was face to face with me.
"I was able to read it before and I asked him about it. He panicked, blew some sort of dust in my face, told me he'd explain everything to me eventually, and then I passed out. I-I just woke up actually." I told them and bit my lip softly. "He left me with though." I said while I handed Rapunzel the note. "Would you like to come with us? We're heading to Varian's lab, and no one knows Varian better than you. We could really use your help." Rapunzel said and I nodded.
I followed them all outside to see a carriage. We all got in and Max started heading to Old Corona. I sat next to Eugene while Rapunzel and Cass sat next to each other. "Old Corona is just over this hill." Rapunzel said looking ahead.
"I can't tell you what a treat it is to be spending so much time with a cold blooded dead eyed bird of pray." Eugene said smirking. I looked down at Sunny in my lap confused. 'Sunny's not a bird.' I thought to myself. "Owls are warm blooded, genius." Cass said gesturing to her owl. Eugene laughed. "I wasn't talking about the owl." I couldn't help but giggle slightly.
"Stop the cart!" The cart stopped and Rapunzel ran out only to stare at one of the black rocks. "What is it?" Cass asked as we got out to follow Rapunzel. "My dad told me that all of the black rocks had been removed." She said staring up at the rock. "Okay so he missed one." Eugene said. "With the logic of miscounting then look how many they missed." I said softly and gestured towards Old Corona. "The rocks have just been getting worse and worse." I said shrugging my shoulders. "They missed hun- they...they did not do a very thorough job counting these rocks." Eugene said.
"Do you think your father lied?" Cass asked Rapunzel. "No! Of course not! I trust my father, but he clearly has no idea how bad things have gotten out here." Rapunzel said defending her father. "Look Punz, I've been coming back and forth through here ever since the rocks started appearing. None of them have left. I get you want to believe your dad, but you have to face the facts." I said gesturing towards all of Old Corona. "Did your father even tell you how he got rid of them?" I said and I could feel my anger rising towards the king, but I calmed myself down.
"Cmon. Let's move on." Rapunzel said choosing to completely ignore what I said. I rolled my eyes and followed the others back into the cart.
We walked through old Corona to be met with a large section of the black rocks. "Well...this is new. Before you could have at least been able to see where you were going." I said touching the rocks. "I've never seen anything like this. So far, everything in my dream has come true there's no question now. These rocks...they hold a secret, and somehow. I'm connected to it. And maybe I'm responsible for it." Rapunzel said and I snapped my attention to her. "I'm sorry but when we're you guys planning on telling me about Rapunzel having future dreams?!" I said slightly glaring at all of them.
I watched as Rapunzel rubbed the back of her neck and I sighed. "Okay I'll get details on your dream later, but please keep me in the loop from now on guys!" I said crossing my arms and they nodded. "And I hate to break it to you Punz, but this might technically be your fault. I do believe that all of this was going to happen in time because rocks were already forming, but I do believe you sped up the process." I said to the group and leaned against the rocks.
Eugene walked up to Rapunzel. "What do you wanna do?" He asked her. 'If she chooses not to help Sapphires then I will whether he wants my help or not.' I thought to myself and I looked down at Sunny. He simply gave me a knowing nod. 'I have to get that key if they decide not to help.' Rapunzel sighing took me out of my thoughts.
"I'm sorry Eugene, but I already let Varian down once. He wants us to get that graphtyc and that's what we're gonna do." I felt a small smile form on my lips. 'She's really going to help.' "Well let's go." Eugene said and they all looked at me.
"(Y/n) you know old Corona well yes?" Rapunzel asked. "Like the back of my hand." She gave me a determined smile. "We need you to get us to Varian's lab." I smiled and nodded. "Varian's house is on the far side of the town. His lab is connected to it." I said as I started to lead them through the rocks.
"Ladies and gentleman please keep your hands, arms, feet, legs, and hair away from the black rocks at all times!" I said gesturing to the rocks and I turned back around to see Rapunzel almost touch a rock. "That warning was mainly for you Punz." I said as I watched Eugene pull her away from the rock. "Little miss witch is right. Remember what happens when you touch those." Cassandra said. "I'll just have to be more careful." Rapunzel said and we all nodded.
We continued walking until there were three different paths we could go down. "How do we know of any of these openings will take us to the other side?" Rapunzel said. I watched as Sunny rolled his eyes and started walking through the middle path. I started following him. Not too long later Cass' owl came through as well. The rest were not far behind him.
We walked out of the rock maze to be faced with sunlight and Varian's home. "We're here." Rapunzel said as she stared at Varian's home. "Well what a convenient easy to navigate path your bird found Cass. That is some owl you've got there." Eugene said to Cass. "Actually he was following Sunny and (Y/n). Oh and by the way. He's an attack owl. I taught him to go for the eyes first." Cass said with her owl on her arm.
"Of course by some owl, I meant very noble, very majestic, very non-eye scratchy, did I mention majestic?" Eugene rambled as he hid behind Rapunzel. "I happen to really like your familiar, Cass. He's wise, smart, cunning, and he definitely calculates everything to perfection. A perfect fit for you!" I said smiling back at them and started walking to Varian's home.
We entered inside and I looked around. "Sapphires? You home?" I yelled out and I watched as Sunny walked off to search the house. "I'll meet you guys in the lab. I'm going to see if Sapphires is here at all." I said and Rapunzel nodded.
I searched everywhere and yet he was no where to be found. I sighed and headed to the lab. "Hey did you guys find-" I walked in just as Rapunzel was taking down the cover to the amber. "Oh no. It's Varian's father." I heard Rapunzel say barely above a whisper. I walked up to all of them and let out a soft sigh. "Blondie are you okay?" Eugene asked. "Maybe you were right. Maybe my dream was trying to tell me to stay in the castle...where I belong." Rapunzel said. I opened my mouth to say something, but Cass beat me to it. "Rapunzel what are you talking about?"
"It's just like what (Y/n) said. I touched those rocks and now this." Rapunzel said and I felt guilt start to eat me alive. "Rapunzel this isn't your fault. I know what I said doesn't help the situation, but you didn't intend for any of this to happen." I said standing next to her while staring up at Quirin. "Please listen when I tell you that your dream doesn't want you to stay inside the castle because that's not who you are. You're a young and adventurous spirit that can't be dulled. I'm positive that your dream was trying to tell you something, but it has nothing to do with staying inside a castle and playing it safe." I said looking up at her. She didn't seem convinced by me and Eugene decided to step in.
"(Y/n) could also be right that this all would've happened no matter what. Okay princess? I know what I said before about forgetting all of this, but this is way, way worse than I or anyone else imagined and one thing has become clear. Fault or no fault people are in danger. A lot of danger, and the Rapunzel I know was never one to run and hide from a fight." Right as Eugene finished the door swung open.
"Hand over the graphtyc." A man with a greatly helmet said. I stared the man down and I felt the orange mist run through my fingers. 'This must be The Who Varian was talking about, but how could this be the royal guard.' I thought to myself. "Who's that?!" Eugene said glaring at the man. "Must be one of Varian's friends." Cass said and I nodded. I watched as Cass charged towards the man. I cracked my knuckles and a soft smirk grazed my lips. 'This will be fun.'