Twisted Destiny

Father

Elsewhere, in the midst of a storm, two figures approached a building called the "Glass Sipper", a tavern full of the cruelest of ruffians. They opened the door and entered the building, taking a seat at the bar.

"Say, ain't you the Stabbingtons?" The bartender asked with amusement. The brothers tensed, knowing what his tone implied. "I can't believe these two losers have the guts to show their faces in a place like this!" He gestured to them and walked past them laughing. "Look at these dunderheads! Back from being beat by Flynn-Oh, sorry, Eugene Fitzherber, again!" He bust up laughing and others joined in.

"Hey, bud, don't give him a hard time." One of the other patrons said. "Eugene had a lot of help from that Princess and her pet frog." He laughed and the others all joined in again.

Eyepatch grabbed the mug in front of him and crushed it in his large hard silently, cutting off the laughter and making the bartender recoil quickly.

"No one's ever gonna take us seriously..." Sideburns pulled out his knife and threw it at a poster of Flynn Rider, forcing a patron to duck to avoid being hit by it, "as long as that maggot is alive."

They exchanged dark looks and then he walked over to grab the knife before they headed out, the poster dropping to the ground as they left.

--

Rapunzel walked up to a sign Feldspar was leaning on. "Oh, I would tilt it this way, Feldspar, so it's visible to the afternoon traffic."

He smiled gratefully at her. She smiled, relieved to see his black eye was gone.

"Princess Rapunzel!" A girl ran over as Rapunzel picked up a ball that bounced over.

"Keep your eye on the ball. And watch that follow-through." She said cheerfully, handing it to her before she ran off with it, then she moved on to a jewelry store. "Your plans are approved!" She held out a scroll to the owner. "Build that haberdashery!"

"Woohoo!" The man cheered.

"Live the dream!" She danced away from his stall and approached a horse. "Oat delivery tonight." She cooed, rubbing under his chin.

"Wow, Rapunzel, you're just going nuts with the whole Princess duties." Eugene said as he came over to her with Varian and Maximus, the white horse stopping next to Fidella, who Rapunzel had ridden here, and they got down to join her.

"You guys on the way to Old Corona?" Rapunzel turned to them.

"Yeah." Varian nodded. "Gotta get started on that scroll, right?"

"Well, don't push yourself on that, okay? Your health comes first." She smiled and cupped his cheek, then kissed Eugene's cheek. "Safe travels."

"I dunno, I'm tempted to hang back a bit and make sure you're not overworking yourself." Eugene said with amusement.

"Practice what you preach, Princess." Varian nodded.

"Oh, hush. I'm fine." Rapunzel assured him "Got a full eight hours of sleep last night, I am raring to go! I've been up since 6am!"

"As always." Eugene nodded.

Varian counted on his hands. "Wait, you were still up at ten-o-clock?"

"Which is perfectly fine, Mr. Haven't-slept-in-two-days." She raised an eyebrow.

"I haven't been up two-" He looked at Ruddiger, who was chattering at him on his shoulders. "Yes, but that was-ugh, fine. Yes, I have been up two days before."