The trail seemed to go on forever, but this mystery needed to be solved for the sake of Corona. If this stuff can really decay things and trap creatures, they were all in terrible danger.
Varian was following the small drips until he stopped at one bigger one. "Woah, step back Ruddiger, I think this substance imprisons animals." Varian said.
Curious, Varian stepped onto the slightly bigger spot. The weird thing is there were no imprisoned animals, so why was this one bigger?
Varian spotted something in the center of the black substance. Ruddier chirped nervously at him as Varian ventured further in. Varian saw something in the middle that made his heart drop to the bottom of his chest.
An eyepatch. A decaying eyepatch.
Varian stopped for a second, in shock as the puzzle pieces started to connect. He lifted up the eyepatch and placed in another glass jar. Then he walked back to Ruddiger who looked up at him nervously.
"Ruddiger, we have some experiments to run." Varian said. Varian dashed off to his house and burst open the door. He stopped at the doorframe and clung onto the sides while he caught his breath.
His dad peaked over the corner and looked at him with wide eyes. "Hey kiddo, you look like you had a busy morning. Just remember to close the door next time, there are bugs everywhere!" Varian's dad said, swatting at a fly.
"There won't be for long." Varian said and ran off to his lab.
"What." His dad said, looking very confused.
Varian raced to extract fingerprints from the letter. He found two finger prints and drew them both on a sheet of paper. One of them had to be Demanitus, and the other was Astra. Then Varian took a fingerprint from the eyepatch very carefully, in case some of the black substance was still on it.
"What are you up to-" Varian's dad started, but then Varian placed the trapped butterfly jar on the table. "Oh. My. God. What happened Varian?"
"YES I KNEW IT!" Said Varian after getting the fingerprints and comparing them. The fingerprints on the eye patch matched perfectly with one of the fingerprints on the letter. That had to be Astra, it just had to be.
Rapunzle was right all along, the eyepatch wouldn't work, and now Corona was in danger, and so was this strange girl Astra. All the things the black substance did matched up with the description of her eye in the letter.
"Sorry dad I'll explain everything later, but now I have got to get the the castle! Corana is in danger!" Varian said. His dad looked even more confused and scared. Varian handed him Ruddiger.
"I'm sorry Ruddigger but it's too dangerous for you." Varian said and rushed out the door. Ruddigger chirped in disappointment.
"VARIAN WAIT! WHAT DO YOU MEAN DANGER!" His dad yelled after him. But it was too late. Varian was out the door. His dad sighed and closed the door. Ruddigger chirped at him nervously.
"I'm sure everything is fine...he's just being dramatic right?" Ruddigger shook his head. Varian's dad sat down and put his hand on his forehead.
"Please be careful Varian."
