It's dark..... oh? What's that? A light? No, fire! There's more so much more! They illiuminate such ghastly faces!! NOOOOOO!!!!!!
Shooting awake, Rapunzel knots her hair in a golden web. She wakes from the scare and pain of a dream.
"Its not real. It's a dream.... Just a dream."
She gets up, long hair trailing, and sits at her vanity. Hair a mess, she picks through it with a jeweled bone comb, shaking from the unconsious scare. Before long her hair is straight and smooth then she makes herself up, yet for no one in her world.
She is primed and ready for a short promanade to her window to over look the courtyard of forest. When she arrives at the window, she greets nothing but hunger and the silence of trees.
"My Subjects!!!!-", she starts to shout, forgetting momentarily about the broken kingdom. Then she whispers, "I shall die here in this tower...."
She then starts to hang her too long hair out of the window, like a royal flag, to try and draw attention. But unknown to the usurp queen, the hanging flame of hair is swallowed up by the sea of perpetual green.
That is her ritual everyday now. Awake, Make-up, sit and sulk out her little window hoping for the rescue by a fair knight in shining armor. She has been that way for a fortnight and for a fortnight like that she has stayed. She knows by now that she has little chance of surviving the ordeal bestoyed upon her. Or so she thought.
The villiager of her kingdom all left, for she could not offer them adaquate protection from the beast of the wood. It was said the beast liked to snatch children from their beds and rip the skin off their bones and to capture maidens and tear them into parts like fodder of war. Anyone who stood in the beast's way was slautered beyond pray tell. All the Queen's horses and all the Queen's men couldn't put Humphry together again and neither could the chorus of angels that await him.
The only description of the beast was sharp claws, fur like ice and eyes like the pits that hell hath known. And because of the terrifying beast, the villagers sought to take control themselvers.
"Kill the Queen!!!!"
"Off with 'er head!!!"
"She be just the golden froot ta da beast!!!! Sacrifice 'er!!!"
So with self-perservation in mind, she barred her door and used her mystical magic to destroy the steps leading up to the tower. Now you'd think that with her being magical that she might of killed the beast. No she caused all the famine all the sickness and occasionally blew up the festivals. She wasn't in the least skilled and almost all her spells backfired until she needed it the most.
Queen Rapunzel learned to look out at the midless kingdom. Just waiting to be saved. But unknown to her, Beast not fully gone from the kingdom.....
Meanwhile, in the Kingdom of Damasca, the crown prince was being told to deliver the magic tomb of Nox to the kingdom of Afar. The Prince had to go through the forest of perpetua to get to the kingdom. He had a map, however, it got wet in the river and ran like a bruise. He was in the forest now and the forest rarely let anyone free without penitence.
"Afar can't be too far away... At best I should follow the river, but which way to go...?""
Instead of getting more haplessly lost, as if he already wasn't, he decided to camp out and wait for a sign. He built his fire and stared at it intensely 'till his eyes grew dry and pained.
"This is complete madness. Why should I go and deliver this bloody trinket. I'd rather be home, in my furs, with the maids. But instead I'm cold, tired and BED-LESS!!!!!!" he shouted.
His fury was answered by a ferocious howl that ripped through the night and with that, he considered it a sign.
"Finally! God be praised!!! to the howl I go!"
Prince mounted his horse and trotted up stream, deeper into the mountain, towards dangers hidden.
Meanwhile, Rapunzel washed her face away in a barrel of rainwater that was in her room. It was murky of age and frankly had a certain smell to it too. She dried her face and patted it with flowers so she could smell somewhat appeasing. In her night skirts, she sat on her eternal perch. As she looked out, she sighed. With heavy shoulders, she turned in. As the howl of Beast ripped through the night, it delivered her into her dreams.
Her dreams were anything but wild. They were shades of rainbows and shards of feelings and sensations. One inparticular reoccured to her. It was the softness of velveteen felt coupled with silvery reds. On the edges of her dreams, she felt that it was real as air but, she couldn't be sure.
In all reality, a passerby would have seen Beast claw his way up the side of the tower to cuddle with the Queen. His silver-white fur gleamed in the night while splashes of red wagged and worked to climb and pant. He arrived at her chambers and hunkered to her, content and using Charm to make her stay asleep. Rapunzel simply slept like a babe to a mothers bosom and Beast could not be more fixated. He had claimed her as his and now that the pesky villagers were away, he could not be stopped from having her. His thoughts were that of gratitude.
"It's lovely.... to finally feel your skin.... so warm... so fragile.... I know you'll forever be mine."
Beast always visited her nightly, like a guardian angel of sorts. An apothocists that marvels over her charge or a knight over his fair lady, he coddles her when he can. But with the approach of dawn he dislodges himself from the Queen and nuzzles her forehead in a kiss-like gesture. And with that, he leaps from the window, his whine accompanying her whimper of a lost touch.
He lands with a light thump and takes off into the forest on powerful legs.
"But Piper, what happened to Rapunzel after he left?"
"Shush child it's all in good time."
Now where was I? Oh yes....
As soon as Beast left, Rapunzel awoke to start her morning routine. Today she dresses in a tulip pink and adorns her crown. She is especially depress because today is her birthday. Gathering her long hair she hangs it out of the window. Today, the wind is a breeze and blows her hair lightly. Her frame has grown stickly, and with no food in two weeks, she can barely stand. Her energy is sapped so she sleeps at her bench.
Meanwhile the Prince has channeled upstream for three leagues. He traveled all night and is thinking about stopping to take a rest. He dismounts from his steed and lays on a covered mound...
"Ah mon Dieu... How long does it take to reach Afar? Some rest is in order."
As he lies his weary head, he notics the mound is harder then regular dirt.
"My what dirt..... 'tis stiffer then death!"
Prince looked down and sees he is lying on a moss covered road. Stupor takes over as he groggily follows it.
"My, my... what curious things.... Wait! Maybe this is the road that leads to Afar!"
He bridles his horse, saddle up an trots on to the path. He passes shrubs and tress at first but slowly he begins to spot a moss and ivy covered object her and there along the path. Soon the object start to grow in size and number. After a while he stops and looks around and sees that he is on a street. But a street that is covered and broken with age.
"What happened here? Is this Afar?"
At the same time, Rapunzel sleeps on her boundary of release. Her dreams with out Beast are nightmareish. A hooded figure delivers her unto her place of unconsciousness and with that e disappears into a puff of smoke. Then as if on cue everything dims and the voices of the angry villagers rummage around in the air above her head. Their faces, angry shadows of them, hover around her.
"Witch!"
"Tormentor!"
"Feed her to the beast!!!"
"Kill her!! Kill her!!!"
Then they stop and vanish like the hooded figure and in their places, pop ravens that fall like heavy snow. They are dead, massacred, and bludgeoned like Alouette. Their beaks are torn from their heads and feather are askewed. Their ruby red entrails are ripped from their bellies as it reveals their ribs and lightly boned spines. The Queen runs from the place of torture but she finds the road slowly becomes hands that grip and grasp for her ankles. Then she trips and looks back at her feet. She trips on a bloodied corpse. The head is maimed and the arm is destroyed. The ribs are exposed and the heart is still beating. Soon all Rapunzel sees, shatters and blows away like petals in the wind. They blow by her face and there appears Beast. He saunters foward and gently licks her face. She screams awake and hacks a cough up. Blood splatters on her silken sheets as Beast roars in the forest from her pain.
Trouble was looming for the trio soon enough. Beast howled, he could hear the human male reach the square of the town. He growled in frustration for the health of her loved one and the impending intruder. He knew that the stray splinter would try and take his beloved Rapunzel from him.
"Must.... rid....my...... mine... my mate."
Beast's eyes glowed an eerie red as he retreated into the forest to wait for the dark of the night.
The prince clomped through the square and looked for the castle, all out of desperation to sleep. He was exhausted and growing tired with his cumbersome task. All the while, Rapunzel started her day like normal. But she could feel it all drain her. She tried to manipulate her clothing to wash themselves in the murky bathwater, however all that shot form her finger tips was sparks in a monochromatic view. She sighed and just threw on the dress that was least soiled and she sat on her perch. The dream had tired her out and she was very wary that soon she would be nothing more then a pile of skin and bones in the middle of her tower room.
The sun shone heavily that day and she was growing weaker and weaker then, like a mirage, she heard a voice:
"Fair Maiden, Pray tell, where is the castle of Afar? I need to bring to the King a book of sorts. This zest of the forest has grown off and rubbed me raw. I wish for a cotton wooly bed and a castle of hearth that sounds most appealing."
She replied;
"Sorry dear apparition, this is the kingdom of Afar and the King is that of Legend. The Queen is the ruler and that is what you see here. I ,nothing more than a hag-fish, is left of my kingdom."
"Maiden! do not toy with me!", frustrated, he tromps into the entrance of the tower. He opens the door and sees the crumbled rocks from the staircase. He looks up to where they begin again and he cries out in frustration.
"That is odd... this dream... seems so loud." She flicks her hand like swatting a fly, causing the tower to rumble and quake. Beneath her, the stones were falling out of their places, causing Prince to flee from the building of false haven.
"That t'weren't nice!!!!"
She opens her eyes and gasps...
" You are hardly an apparition..."
"Of coursen't Now Maiden, whom tried to kill me, tell me your history and grant me a boon."
"i.... I am...", She straightens up at best and takes in a fleeting breath, " I am Queen Rapunzel of Afar!!!" She projects, then coughs up sweet blood into her handkerchief.
" Dear Queen, You hardly look well. What happened to yonder kingdom? It looks as if it as been ruined for ages now."
"My kingdom was plagued by a very torturous beast. He murdered many of the townspeople..... It got to the point that I had to intervene....but.... I blew up the festival and the people thought I was collaberating with Beast.... So when they tried to get me, I blew up my stairs to avoid capture.... I can't get down and I've been this way for a fortnight and a half...."
~So I updated everything and condensed it all into one chapter!!!!