Gothel's Child

Part 1

Prologue

"I shall always love you." She said. He kissed her, bringing her closer to him in a hug.

"Come away with me." He said.

"I can not leave my home. Corona is all I've ever known." She said. She gestured to the magnificent waterfall under which they stood. She ran her hand inside of it, letting the water fall over her slender fingers.

He looked into her eyes and knew she was right. How could she be so beautiful, so pure. He intertwined his fingers with hers.

"Promise I will always be your love." He whispered.

"No other will be mine." She said, and she led him away to her home, where they could say goodbye.

Chapter 1

The hovel was abandoned. Or, at least it looked that way. Cassandra opened the door cautiously. It swung open with a creak to reveal the most pitiful room Cassandra had ever seen. No furniture, dirt floors, and the remnants of a straw bed that some poor peasant must have used.

"Hello?" Cassandra called. She didn't expect an answer, of course. The hovel was too small for anyone to hide anywhere.

"Okay then. Looks like I'll spend the night here."

Cassandra waited for an answer she knew wouldn't come. She imagined Rapunzel-Raps- bouncing into the hovel, and seeing the beauty in it.

"We could add a rug and tear down this wall right here!" Raps would say. "Expand! In a few hours, this place would be fit for a king."

"Or princess." Cassandra said to herself. She sighed.

It had been five months since she had last seen Rapunzel. Or Eugene. Or even Varian. Five months she had had to deal with the nightmares, and memories, and all her mistakes-alone. But it wasn't all bad. Her journey felt right, despite the sleepless nights she often experienced. It felt good to be out in the open among wild things, sleeping under the stars at night, bathing in crystal cool streams in the early morning.

When she got lonely, she wrote letters. Or talked to Fidella. Or sang to herself.

It was easier to do that than admit to herself how lost she sometimes felt.

Once a fire was made and Fidella was fed, Cassandra sat outside the hovel near the fire, looking up at the sky.

"I miss you, Raps." Cassandra said to the stars. "And you, Eugene. And Varian- I hope the engineering going well."

She touched the necklace Varian had given her years ago and smiled sadly. "How was it that you still saw the good in me, Varian? And you, too, Rapunzel? How could you see it when I couldn't see it myself?"

She felt tears prick her eyes as she rattled off the name of her friends into the night sky.

"Lance. Catalina. Owl. Raps." She buried her head in her hands. "I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."

***

Axel was on her trail. As the night waned, he willed himself to stop and rest.

"It's no good being a tracker if you fall asleep on your feet." He said.

He frowned. What would his dear mother think of him if she saw him now? He looked down at his tunics and breeches- covered in mud, soaked, and stained from weeks on the road. The roads he traveled stunk of rotting logs and mildew. His boots soaked through with mud and his fingernails were permanently dirty. And- was that smell coming from him or some dead animal?

He couldn't tell.

"This is why I need a horse." He said. But no matter. Either he had a horse or he didn't and he didn't. He followed the tracks ahead of him- horse tracks. The horse was well-bred, that's for sure. The rider skilled and swift in the saddle. 

"She's good, I admit," Axel said aloud again. He knelt and felt how deep the hoof-print was. Judging by how long he had stopped in the last down, he was probably a day's length away from his target. And there was no telling how long she would sleep and how much longer he might be following her.

"Till I find you." He said. He wondered if she stirred in her sleep when he said that. If she could hear him.

You're just crazy. "Probably." He shrugged. "But if I am, what can I do about that?"

He followed the tracks for several more miles, until his muscles ached and his stomach growled. He hadn't eaten since morning, and he had been in the move ever since.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow I'll go hunting. "Sorry, animals." He said. To the side of the muddy road was a dense forest, much like the dense terrain he had been in for days now. No one lived here, in the Woods of Forevermore, because nothing but crooked, ugly, twisted, rotten trees could grow. In another day, he would be out of the woods, though, and into the pastoral kingdom of Dale-n-Elle. 

The path curved farther into the woods. It got engulfed in darkness the farther along Axel went. "First place to you for gothic imagery." He said, then sighed. His eyes grew heavy. He was tired of having mud stuck in his hair. Tired of having to walk all alone. Tired of the dark. Just plain tired. 

 He hated how alone he was. How small he seemed when the world was so big and wide. The stars used to remind him of good memories. Memories of home and of mother, of sitting out under the stars and having nighttime picnics with both his parents. Of picking flowers in the garden when Mother had the time to play. Of her.

"Stop whining, you're an adult." He said. He stumbled over a root that jutted out onto the path. His rucksack went flying into the woods, fueled by the momentum of his fall.

Just great.

Hesitantly, Axel stepped off the path into the woods to receive his rucksack. He found it a few yards in and sighed in relief. He could get back to the path no problem.

Then something caught his eye. There was a rock face several yards tall past the next tree. In the rock face was a shadowed area. A cave?

Axel caught exhaustion as he picked up his sack and walked to the rock. There was indeed a small cave in the side of the rock. He peaked his head inside. It was very dark.

"No wild beasties here, I hope!" Nothing. So he stepped inside.

His voice was small in the cave, echoing off the stone walls. He shivered. The cave was little more than an alcove, just enough to keep off the rain- if it were raining (it wasn't.)

Home, sweet home. 

The nightmares started as soon as he fell asleep. First, he saw his father: pale, thin, tired. "Why did you leave me?" He asked. His father smiled, a cruel glint in his eyes.

"You deserved it, didn't you? Naughty boy. Sneaking around when things should be left alone. Leaving the women-folk to fend for themselves at home. What kind of a son are you? What kind of a person? It's not a question of why I left so much as-why didn't I do it earlier?"

Then his mother: in her stern, caring glory. For a moment she was herself, smiling at him. Then she was gone, in a wisp of smoke that sent shivers up Axel's spine. 

"Stay!" He shouted. "Come back to me!" 

Then the Figure in the Night who he met last October, wearing a cloak and a hood. The Figure ordered him to follow her. 

The Figure turned to him, for he had been facing away.

"Find her for me!" The Figure said.

Axel fell to his knees. "I'm trying, please have mercy."

"Give me the moon child or...suffer the consequences."

The Figure glared at Axel and, drawing his broadsword, strove towards him. The sword swung, Axel screamed, and a blazing hot pain burst from his neck.

Axel woke up screaming. Just like every night. Every night since he has started the search for the moon child. 

Axel panted in the dark, terrified. He saw the moon in the sky outside his cave. "Cassandra!"