Tangled Junior Novel Page 4

  Flynn was becoming more and more interested. What was up with this young woman, anyway? He watched as the tavern thugs turned to mush, weeping and sweetly telling Rapunzel about their dreams. They confessed to wanting to become everything from florists to ballet dancers. And all the while, her faithful chameleon, Pascal, sat on her shoulder, protectively looking out for her. Everyone seemed to adore her!

  Unfortunately, something terribly serious was happening outside.

  Mother Gothel had tracked Rapunzel and Flynn to the Snuggly Duckling. When she looked through the window, she was stunned. Rapunzel was happily mingling with those thugs! Mother Gothel felt her world crumbling around her. Without Rapunzel locked away in that tower—without the girl’s magical hair—Mother Gothel’s life would come to an abrupt end as she quickly aged. She had to do something to stop the naïve girl!

  Inside, the crowd finally turned to Flynn Rider. “What about you?” the man with the hook for a hand asked. “What’s your dream?”

  Desperately hoping his answer would be enough, Flynn told them about his dream of living on his own island. The thugs roared their approval and tossed Flynn in the air.

  “I have one, too!” Rapunzel shouted. She knew she could trust these men with her dream. “I want to see the floating lanterns more than anything in the world!” She described how wonderful it felt—to her surprise—to be outside the tower. She was learning more and more with each passing minute, and she loved the sights she was seeing, the sounds she was hearing, and the people she was meeting.

  The thugs cheered.

  Outside, spying through the window, Mother Gothel controlled herself. She had to focus her energies on formulating a plan to get Rapunzel back to the tower.

  Hearing a noise behind her, she swiftly ducked into the shadows. A group of angry palace guards raced past her and burst into the Snuggly Duckling.

  “Where’s Rider?” the captain of the guards barked. “Where is he? I know he’s in here somewhere.” The captain surveyed the mangy crowd in the tavern. “Find him,” he said to the other guards. “Turn this place upside down if you have to!”

  Flynn grabbed Rapunzel, with Pascal still clinging to her hair, and ducked behind the counter. Peeking over the top, Flynn saw the palace guards bring in the Stabbington brothers. Their hands were in shackles. Then he saw Maximus clomp into the tavern and begin sniffing around. That horse! How does that horse keep finding me? Flynn wondered.

  Someone reached down and grabbed Flynn and Rapunzel. Flynn cringed, thinking he was done for. But the thug lifted a hidden door in the floor, revealing a secret passageway.

  “Go live your dream,” the thug said sweetly.

  “I will,” Flynn told him, finding this turn of events bizarre but good. Really good!

  “Your dream stinks,” the thug bluntly told Flynn. Then he nodded at Rapunzel. “I was talking to her.” Rapunzel smiled at the thug as Flynn entered the secret passageway.

  “Are you coming, Blondie?” Flynn asked her.

  Rapunzel looked into the dank tunnel and, after an encouraging smile from Pascal, followed Flynn. The door closed behind them, and Flynn and Rapunzel were suddenly gazing into a long, dimly lit passageway.

  Inside the tavern, the royal guards continued their search.

  Nobody paid attention to Maximus. The horse was used to it. But Maximus had picked up that scoundrel’s scent, and he followed it until he saw a slight irregularity in the floorboards. He also saw Flynn’s puny footprint. Maximus knocked his hoof against the floor, and a door swung open. Aha!

  “A passage?” the captain said, coming up behind Maximus. “Come on, men. Let’s go!” The horse charged into the passage, followed by the palace guards.

  Before the captain entered the tunnel, he turned toward the Stabbington brothers.

  “Conli, make sure those boys don’t get away,” the captain said to one of his guards. The guard nodded, and the captain disappeared into the tunnel.

  “Does that hurt?” one of the Stabbingtons asked the man guarding them. The brothers were a full foot taller than he was. And they looked mean—meaner than any other prisoner that guard had seen.

  “Does what hurt?” the guard replied nervously.

  BAM! The brothers head-butted the guard so hard that he was slammed to the floor, unconscious. Grabbing a spear, the brothers used their brute strength to break their shackles.

  “Play it safe?” one brother asked, pointing to the tavern door. “Or go get the crown?” Smiling evilly, they headed toward the tunnel.

  They didn’t care about safety. They wanted the precious crown.

  Outside the tavern, Mother Gothel was still watching. If there was one thing Mother Gothel did well, it was watch. She knew that patience would always bring her the greatest reward. So she watched…and waited.

  When she finally saw a thug stumble out the door of the Snuggly Duckling alone, Mother Gothel stepped from the shadows. “Excuse me, sir,” she said, using her most caring voice. “I am desperately trying to find my daughter. Where does that tunnel let out?”

  Inside the tunnel and happy to be making his escape, Flynn led the way. “You know,” he said to Rapunzel awkwardly, embarrassed to have been rescued by a girl, “for the record, I had everything very under control.”

  “Oh.” Rapunzel felt confused. “Okay.”

  “It was good of you to step in. So…thank you for that.”

  The tunnel was dark and cool. Flynn found a lantern that cast a warm globe of light around them. They were moving swiftly now, but they still had a long way to go together.

  “So, Flynn, where are you from?” Rapunzel asked.

  But Flynn balked at the subject. After his humiliation in the tavern, he refused to reveal any personal information.

  “So here is my question,” he said. “If you want to see the lanterns so badly, why haven’t you gone before?”

  Rapunzel’s eyes grew wide with fear. She faltered, “Uh…heh. Well…”

  “No,” Flynn insisted. “Seriously.”

  But even as he spoke, the cavern began to shake. Debris sifted down on their heads.

  Rapunzel turned and saw Maximus charging down the tunnel toward them. The guardsmen were right behind him.

  “Flynn!” she cried out.

  One of the guards spotted them and shouted, “Rider!”

  Flynn chose to respond to Rapunzel: “Run!”

  Flynn and Rapunzel dashed down the tunnel to the end of the passageway. Suddenly it opened out onto a vast cavern, which was dotted with huge stone pillars rising from the earth far below. Nearby was a rickety wooden dam holding back a vast amount of water. Flynn took one look behind him at the stampeding horse and guardsmen. He glanced down at the Stabbington brothers waiting for him at the base of the crevice.

  Suddenly, he saw Rapunzel throw her hair across a large divide, lassoing a sturdy piece of stone. Tossing Flynn her frying pan, she swung across the crevice, landing safely on the outcrop.

  Then the guardsmen were upon him.

  “Ha!” Flynn shouted as he hit one sword after another out of the guards’ hands and knocked them unconscious. Rapunzel’s pan was quite a weapon.

  Then Flynn saw him: Maximus. The horse grasped a sword in his teeth. CLANG! Pan clashed against sword until Maximus knocked the pan right out of Flynn’s hand. Just in the nick of time, Flynn heard Rapunzel call out to him. She tossed her long hair toward Flynn, and he grasped it. A fierce determination welled up inside her. She had done this before, many times, in the tower. It was like jumping from the rafters. Deftly, she looped her hair around an outcropping on her pillar and watched Flynn swing out over the canyon. She was aiming for him to glide all the way down to the bottom and make a soft landing.

  As for Flynn, he felt as if he were flying! He had once again escaped Maximus and now was ready to make a landing! Then he saw the Stabbingtons. He had forgotten about them. They were standing there, right in his path, waiting with swords drawn. Flynn felt himself pulled upward as Rapunze
l yanked on her hair.

  He soared right over the Stabbingtons’ heads! Flynn yelled, delighted—and then crashed right into a long water drain. The wooden contraption served as a funnel for excess water to leak out of the dam and wind its way to the base of the canyon. Flynn scrambled atop the wooden chute as Rapunzel prepared to swing down to the ground.

  But a furious Maximus refused to give up. Rearing up on his hind legs, he knocked a large board from the dam above. It fell exactly as Maximus planned—making a bridge for him and the guards to run to the next pillar down, a bit closer to Flynn.

  But the broken board had another effect: the rickety wooden dam loosened and cracked. Water began spurting through the dam’s increasing number of crevices, threatening an explosive flood at any moment!

  Flynn was terrified. The gigantic dam was about to burst, but he couldn’t get to Rapunzel. And the Stabbingtons were right there, ready to attack both of them. Quickly, Rapunzel threw her hair again, watching it twirl and wrap perfectly around a sturdy rock. With her hair firmly anchored, she swung down toward the ground, slipping to a landing. She was unharmed, but the Stabbingtons were racing straight toward her!

  Flynn jumped into the wooden drainage chute and slid down toward Rapunzel.

  Dashing forward, Flynn tried to gauge where she might come to a stop. Then he saw it: she was on a collision course with the rocky floor of the cavern.

  Flynn raced and dove. At the last possible moment, he caught her!

  The crash of the dam bursting was earthshaking. Water roared into the cavern.

  The powerful moving wall of water knocked down a pillar as Flynn ran. Dashing at top speed, he caught up with Rapunzel and Pascal. Flynn grabbed an armload of Rapunzel’s hair as the two ran for cover. The Stabbingtons were washed away in a flood of water. An enormous pillar cracked and began to topple under the power of the rushing water. Rapunzel and Flynn had ten feet to get to the safety of a small shelter, a sort of cave—but the pillar was falling right toward them. Their legs pumping, Flynn and Rapunzel took one last mighty leap. The pillar crashed down just behind them as they ducked into the cave. They covered their heads as an avalanche of broken rocks showered down and blocked the entrance.

  The palace guardsmen and Maximus were swept away in the rushing water outside.

  Flynn and Rapunzel were safe for now, but the tunnel’s entrance was blocked by the rubble from the fallen pillar. Flynn, Rapunzel, and little Pascal were now sealed inside a rocky cavern.

  The sealed cavern did not protect them from the rushing water. Within minutes, Flynn and Rapunzel were waist deep in water—water that was rising quickly. Flynn dove down, searching for an exit. He hardly noticed the huge gash on his hand as he grasped for any opening among the jagged rocks.

  “It’s no use,” he said, gasping, as he emerged from the dark water. “I can’t see anything.”

  Rapunzel took a deep breath. She was about to dive underwater when Flynn took her wrist. “Hey, look,” he said, “there’s no point, Blondie. It’s pitch-black down there.”

  Flynn and Rapunzel looked at each other helplessly. Having come so far together, they would die together in this little cave.

  “This is all my fault,” Rapunzel said. “Mother Gothel was right. I never should have done this. I’m so sorry, Flynn.” Rapunzel couldn’t help thinking of Mother Gothel’s warnings about the world outside the tower, and yet…Mother Gothel had been wrong about some things. She had told Rapunzel that the tavern thugs and Flynn were evil, but the thugs had become her friends, and Flynn—

  “Eugene,” he said as he grasped Rapunzel’s hand. It was a dying man’s confession. “My real name’s Eugene Fitzherbert. Someone might as well know.”

  After a moment of silence, Rapunzel blurted out her own secret: “I have magic hair that glows when I sing.” She couldn’t believe it—she had broken one of Mother Gothel’s rules by telling Flynn about her hair!

  “What?” Flynn wasn’t sure he’d heard her correctly.

  “I have magic hair that glows when I sing!” As she spoke, Rapunzel realized that her hair might help them find a way out of the cave.

  Flynn stared at her speechlessly as she began to sing. Within moments, her hair started to glow, lighting up the cave.

  Rapunzel took a deep breath and dove underwater, lighting their way. Following her, Flynn saw a small opening in the corner of the cave. He took her hand and they swam to it. Yanking at stones with all his energy, Flynn broke through at last.

  The water burst through the opening, carrying Flynn and Rapunzel out into the river.

  Coughing and gasping for air, Rapunzel, Pascal, and Flynn threw themselves onto the riverbank. Lying facedown, the three took a few moments just to breathe.

  “I’m alive!” Rapunzel choked out.

  Flynn looked at Pascal. Flynn was pale, and his eyes were wide with disbelief. He had done many daring things in his life, but he had never, ever experienced anything like this! “Her hair glows!” Flynn stifled a tiny shriek as he spoke to Pascal.

  “I’m alive!” Rapunzel screamed joyfully, not even hearing Flynn.

  “I didn’t see that coming,” Flynn desperately whispered to Pascal. The chameleon stared right back at him, unblinking. “The hair actually glows!”

  “Eugene!” Rapunzel called out.

  “Why does her hair glow?” Flynn asked Pascal, but the chameleon could only shrug.

  “Eugene!” Rapunzel shouted, trying to get his attention.

  “What?” Flynn shouted in reply. He was still in shock, trying to figure it all out. Rapunzel began dragging her hair out of the water. As she squeezed it dry, she stared at Flynn’s injured hand. It looked terrible.

  Rapunzel sighed. Flynn was freaked out by her. But she needed to help him. “It doesn’t just glow,” she added.

  Flynn’s jaw dropped. He looked at Pascal, who was staring at him with a very wide grin spreading impishly across his face. The chameleon knew that Flynn was in for an even bigger surprise.

  Mother Gothel’s dagger had been very convincing to the thug she had met outside the Snuggly Duckling. He had told her exactly how to get to the exit from the tunnel into which Rapunzel and Flynn had escaped.

  Having found her way to that very exit, Mother Gothel waited with her long dagger hidden in her cloak. She was ready to use it to get Rapunzel away from that thief Flynn Rider. But when the tunnel door finally opened, it wasn’t Flynn Rider and Rapunzel who came out. It was those two criminals she’d seen in shackles at the tavern. Mother Gothel quickly ducked behind a tree.

  “I’ll kill him. I’ll kill that Rider,” the talking Stabbington said angrily to his brother. “We’ll cut him off at the kingdom and get back the crown. Come on!”

  “Or perhaps you want to stop acting like wild dogs chasing their tails and think for a moment?” Mother Gothel rasped from her hiding place. Her plans had suddenly changed.

  The startled Stabbington brothers drew their swords. Mother Gothel fearlessly stepped out from behind the tree.

  “There’s no need for that.” She tossed them the satchel she had found in the tower and watched as they removed the crown and smiled broadly. Mother Gothel would not fight these two men. She hoped they could help her, so she offered them the crown for free and tempted them with something better.

  “Well, if that crown is all you want, then be on your way,” she said. “I was going to offer you something worth one thousand times that single crown.” The two brothers stared at her. “It would have made you rich beyond belief,” Mother Gothel continued. “That wasn’t even the best part.” She paused, taking time to let out a hearty laugh. “Ah, well! C’est la vie!”

  As Mother Gothel turned to leave, she heard a voice behind her. “What’s the best part?”

  Mother Gothel held up Flynn’s WANTED poster and slyly goaded the boys: “What if it came with revenge on Flynn Rider?” The Stabbingtons were suddenly all ears. Mother Gothel smiled wickedly. With their help, she would get Rapunzel back and get
rid of Flynn Rider once and for all.

  At that same moment, along the banks of the river, Flynn and Rapunzel were sitting by a campfire, drying out. Rapunzel took Flynn’s injured hand and began wrapping her hair around it. This was her gift, and she needed to use it to help Flynn.

  Flynn looked at her quizzically as she covered his hand with her hair.

  “Flynn. Please,” Rapunzel said soothingly. “Just…don’t…freak out.”

  Slowly, softly, she began to sing. Her hair began to glow. The long loops of hair that surrounded their campsite lit up the night.

  Flynn gazed in amazement but stayed silent. Something was happening to his injured hand. He could feel it. The hair felt warm and soothing, as soft and sweet as Rapunzel’s voice.

  When she finished, she gently pulled her hair from Flynn’s palm.

  He looked at Pascal. The little chameleon signaled to him to look at his hand.

  It was completely healed!

  “Oh,” Flynn said in a wavery voice, filled with dismay.

  “Are you completely freaked out?” Rapunzel asked, dreading the response.

  Flynn answered abruptly, “What? Me? Freaked out? No, not at all.” The problem was—he was freaked out! He let out a little shriek—actually a thunderous scream. Then, controlling himself, he resumed: “So. That’s pretty neat—what your hair does. How long has that been going on, exactly?”

  “I don’t know.” Rapunzel sighed. But she did trust Flynn. It was time to tell him her story. “People tried to cut it once when I was younger. They wanted to take it themselves. But when it’s cut, it loses its power. A gift like that? It has to be protected. That’s why Mother never let me…” Rapunzel sighed again. Should she tell Flynn that she had never left the tower? “That’s why I never left the…”

  Finally understanding, Flynn finished her sentence. “You never left that tower.” The revelation both shocked him and made him want to protect her. “And you’re still going to go back?”

  “No!” Rapunzel replied. Then she said, “Yes. Ughhhhh!” She buried her face in her hands. “It’s complicated.”