Today you were going outside the walls of Corona. You wanted to pick some flowers and make a bouquet for your mom. You wanted to find some lavender, some bellflowers, and some lily of the valley. She loved purple and white they were her favorite flowers. You slipped on some clothes that would be more comfortable to walk around in. Some high-waisted, skinny, slacks and a white collared blouse.
Since you were going outside the walls you were a bit suspicious of what was out there so you grabbed the knife that Cassandra had given you for your birthday and strapped its holster to your leg with a leather strap. You needed to have a way to protect yourself, just in case you got into any trouble. You didn't want the guards to go with you so you had to be subtle when leaving the castle. You didn't need to sneak out or anything, you just needed to not draw attention to yourself.
You grabbed a cloak and threw it over your shoulders, clipping the front in front of your neck. You pulled your hood on and walked out of your room, shutting it behind you. You made your way down the halls, staying close to the walls. Luckily the halls were fairly empty and you went unnoticed. You walked out the front gates and walked through the town, still gaining looks from people. You shook it off and kept heading on.
It didn't take you long to cross the bridge and make your way down the dirt trail. Soon the homes of the people in Old Corona came into view. You walked through the town. Earning more sad looks from the people.
One shorter woman stopped you, "My lady, please don't be too hard on Varian." She said, "He's a kind boy with good intentions, he was just broken-hearted." You saw a few people around giving the woman looks of disgust.
You smiled kindly to the woman before placing a hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry, miss. He's in good hands."
"Thank you, you are too kind." She bowed her head, a relieved look on her face before turning and going back to her work. You continued down the path, this time you were earning angry looks. The houses started thinking out and you found yourself in front of Varian's house. You looked around before heading up the stairs, flowers could wait.
You had something you needed to check. The door was cracked open slightly, you continued inside. You walked into Varian's lab and looked at the amber that encased his father. You placed your hand on the stone so you could lean forward and get a closer look. Clutched in Quirin's hand was a letter, you could make out a few words.
Dear Varian.
Proud.
Dark Kingdom.
Brotherhood.
Mother.
Eternal Library.
Seven Kingdoms.
You frowned. Those words didn't make any sense to you. You shook your head before turning around. As you made your way to the door something dropped down from the ceiling. You stumbled backward, shocked, and fell to the ground. You looked up to see what it was and spotted Ruddiger on the ground. You let out a sigh.
"Ruddiger! You scared me!" You said, sitting up and brushing yourself off. The raccoon climbed up on your shoulder as you stood up, "What, they don't allow raccoons in jail?" Ruddiger shook his head and nuzzled into your neck. You chuckled and left the house, "Come with me to pick flowers?" You asked, not expecting a response.
The raccoon nodded, placing his paw or hand on your face and poking it slightly. You walked past the house and outside the walls, without Cassandra or Rapunzel this place was much more threatening. You took in a breath, freedom felt good. You turned to your right and noticed a field. A whole bunch of flowers lay in the field.
You smiled and walked over, the raccoon crawled down you and bounded through the field. You smiled and followed the raccoon, finding a whole bunch of different flowers. There was one flower that stood out to you though. A small blue flower lay in the middle of the field. It seemed to be the only one of its kind too. You carefully plucked the small flower. Turning to Ruddiger you called him over.
"Ruddiger, can you give this to Varian, please? Tell him it's from me." The raccoon nodded before grabbing the flower in his mouth and running off. You turned and walked further into the field picking more flowers as you went. Soon you made it to the edge of the field and found the beginning of a forest.
The forest was large and dark, not an inch of light flowed through the leaves. You frowned, you had never been this far out before. You felt unwelcome, something about the woods in front of you felt... wrong. You decided to turn around and leave before hearing a rustling in the woods. You spun around, squinting your eyes to try and see what was in the woods. You stepped forwards not paying much attention to the ground. You felt a tugging at your leg and fell backward, being pulled into the woods. You tried to grab onto the ground and pull away from the rope but you were being pulled too fast.
You found yourself dangling in the air upside-down. In front of you were four people, two men, and two women. They looked up at you shocked why you had the same expression.
"It-- it actually worked?" The dark-skinned woman said, "And here I thought it was a stupid idea, sorry Juniper." She looked over apologetically at a man with a grey beard and a top hat.
The man shrugged, "It's alright, Maisie. I forgive you."
"Uh, excuse me." You brought attention to yourself, "Mind letting me down from here?" You demanded, more than asked.
The four looked over at you before sharing a look. A large man nodded and cut the rope that was hooked on your leg.
"No, you idiot, tie her up first!" Maisie said. You quickly got up before trying to run off. A hand grabbed the back of your shirt and suspended you in the air. You were pulled back towards the group. Wow, this guy was tall.
A shorter white-haired woman walked up to you and tied up your wrists. She then tied up your legs and you were thrown over the large man's shoulder. This is what you get for going out without the guards, good going (Y/N). The group then started walking, Maisie started walking behind the man who was carrying you.
"So princess, I'm sure you are wondering what's going on, and who we are." She said.
You chuckled to yourself, "Well, I assume I'm getting kidnapped, and you... are a load of idiots." You said, hearing a scoff from someone in the group.
"Well, that was mean... and I assure you we are no idiots." Said the small white-haired woman.
Maisie waved her off, "Don't listen to her Clementine." She said before directing her attention back up to you, "Yeah, you're getting kidnapped. And no we aren't idiots. If we were you wouldn't have been caught." She crossed her arms, "Anyways, what group we are a part of is not important. I'm Maisie, "She pointed to herself and then pointed to the short woman, "That's Clementine, that's Juniper..." She pointed to the man with the top hat, "And the guy carrying you is Kai."
"You really decided to kidnap a child instead of anyone else that was in the castle?" You growled, suddenly noticing a pin that was clipped to Maisie's shirt. The symbol on it looked like a flower, with a bunch of twisting lines.
Maisie rolled her eyes, "Man, you really are a brat." She said.
"Only for you." You retorted.
"Whatever, kid." She redirected the conversation, "We learned something about you. You see, we have an informant inside the castle. We learned about your powers."
You went silent, how would their informant know that? The only people who knew were Rapunzel, your parents, and... Varian. You frowned to yourself. He must have told the person about your powers.
Maisie smirked, "There we go. Things will be much smoother if you just go along peacefully." She pointed towards you, "Tell us about your powers, like what they do and how you use them. And things will be much more-- simple."
You stayed silent, not sure how you should go about this.
"Oh don't worry, Princess. We'll give you some time to think about it." Juniper, who was standing next to Maisie, said.
The rest of the trip was filled with silence, you were thinking through the pros and cons of telling these people your power. Cons they could exploit your power, they could tell others about your powers and put you in more danger than you already were. Pros it could make them let you go quicker. But the odds of that were slim to zero, so you decided that it wasn't worth telling them about your powers.
They entered a cave, you were carefully placed down on the ground against a wall, "So, have you decided yet?" Maisie said, standing in front of you.
You looked up at her and then spit at her feet.
She recoiled, throwing herself away from you, "Why you little-" The sound of a bird tweeting cut her off, she spun around to see a bird flying towards her. She raised her arm and the bird landed on it, with a note clenched in its talons, "Why hello there, Kenneth."
"You named the bird Kenneth?" You chuckled.
Maisie scoffed, "Shut up." She then took the note from the bird's talons and opened it, quickly scanning over each letter, "Looks like we don't need you to tell us your power anyways. Our informant says that you can heal people." She looked down and smirked, "Look's like we need to test it out too."
"No." You said, crossing your arms.
Maisie took her knife from her holster and brought it up to her hand, slicing through the skin, "Heal me. Or else."
"Or else what?" You asked, "If you haven't already noticed, I'm not exactly afraid to die." You turned away and looked at anything besides the woman.
A wicked smile grew on Maisie's face, "Oh, I know you aren't. But are you afraid for his safety?" Your eyes widened, you hoped she wasn't talking about Varian.
"Him who?" You asked, looking up at the woman.
She smirked, "Oh, you know exactly who I'm talking about." The woman kneeled down in front of you, "Heal me, or the boy gets it."
You clenched your teeth, "I swear if any of you lay so much as a finger on him... I'll kill you."
"Wow, really? You must really like him... don't you?" Maisie mocked.
Your eyes widened, suddenly realizing what you had said, "No, I- he's just. We're just friends." You quickly turned away from her, not realizing how red your face was.
"Ah yes, friends that would kill for each other." She held out her hand over your lap, the blood dripping down, "Heal me now and he'll be fine."
You glared up at the woman before grabbing her hand, making sure to put pressure on her wound, "Flower gleam and glow.
Let your power shine,
Make the clock reverse,
Bring back what once was mine."
You spoke the incantation with gritted teeth. This was for Varian. You frowned to yourself, it was all your fault, if you had been able to help Varian then none of this would have happened. If only you had been faster. If only Rapunzel was able to help. If you had stayed behind and Rapunzel went with Varian then maybe this whole situation wouldn't have happened.
"Ow!" Maisie exclaimed, pulling away from you. You glanced up quickly, you had been so deep in thought that you hadn't noticed what happened. Maisie's arm was glowing a light yellow before it faded away, "I thought you healed people, not hurt them." She said before looking down at her hand. Her eyes widened as she looked at the place where her wound was, "Woah." She turned to look down at you, "That's a pretty neat party trick kid."
Juniper peeked his head out from behind on a rock, "Does it work on yourself?" He asked.
"Uh, I dunno. I've never tried." You shrugged, leaning back against the rocks behind you.
Maisie and the others shared a look, "Well, I guess we should find out. Right guys?" The others nodded. The woman started walking towards you, her knife in hand, "Don't worry, Princess. This will only hurt a little bit. Man, I've been waiting for this since we caught you." She grabbed your arm and pulled it out, she violently slid her knife down your arm, leaving a large gash.
You winced in pain, biting your lip.
"Do the thing." She said, leaning back.
Taking in a breath you directed your attention to the gash on your arm. You pressed your opposite hand on it and spoke the incantation. Nothing happened, the streams of light were nowhere to be seen.
"Maybe the wound just has to be somewhere else?" She asked herself before making another slice, this time across your thigh, "Try it now."
You shook your head, "If it didn't work in one place it won't work in the others."
"Just try."
After a few trials and errors, you were now covered in gashes. Maisie stepped back, "Well if that didn't work then I guess I don't need to try anymore." She walked over to a couple of boxes and sat down, pulling out a cloth to clean her knife.
"Should we patch her up?" Clementine asked, looking at you concerned.
Maisie shook her head, "Nah, all we need to do is exploit. She'll be fine." The woman smiled before standing up and sitting behind the boxes, "I'm gonna get some sleep. Y'all better do the same." She waved her hand over the boxes. The others shared a look before heading off in other directions.
After a few minutes, snoring filled the cave. You looked around, trying to find anything that was at your disposal. You could try to reach the knife that was strapped to your thigh, but unfortunately, your hands were tied behind your back. You tried to lean down to grab it with your mouth, it was too far down. You leaned back, was it worth it? Going back there would only get you locked in the castle. Was trying really worth it? You could join this group and then be free. You shook your head, no. They would only exploit you.
You looked around once more time and spotted a rock sticking out of the wall, but it wasn't just any rock. It was one of the black rocks. You scooted closer to it and reached your hands out, getting the rope hooked on the rock. You were shocked for a second, realizing that you didn't feel sick when you were around the rock. You wondered if it has something to do with when Rapunzel grabbed them. You sliced the rope on the rock. Quickly you grabbed your knife from its holster and cut your feet free. Getting up, you quickly but quietly, ran out of the cave.
You ran as fast as you could, which wasn't very fast due to the fact that you were currently bleeding out. You found yourself in the field once more. You let out a sigh of relief. The leaves behind you here rustling loudly. You didn't want to risk it so you kept running, as soon as you entered the Corona walls you turned around. You walked backward and saw the group of four standing outside the walls, glares on their faces.
You smirked before turning around and slowly making your way back to the palace. They wouldn't dare to kidnap you on Corona territory.
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