Child of the Moon.

~Chapter Twenty-Four~

Eugene sat in front of the open fire on the polished wood floor of the farmhouse. He held Rapunzel gently in his arms. She had finally gone to sleep again, and she seemed to be at least mostly at peace. Lance sat not too far away, trying to read, but he just couldn't comprehend the words. No one in the farmhouse could think of anything but the home they had so recently left behind.

The sun had risen twice since Eugene had fled the capital city with Rapunzel on his shoulders. He had followed a group of people made up of some friends he knew (Including Lance) to an old farmhouse far outside the city. Three young sisters lived there with their aging father. They were apparently friends of the people who were loosely leading the group of refugees. The family had taken everyone in, offering what little they could. They were, after all, just simple shepherds. They had all been devastated when they learned of the tragedy that had struck the city. Some of their family lived there, and they desperately wanted to know if they were all right. Eugene had been regrettably unable to offer an answer.

The former thief took control of the group of refugees once they recognized him. They of course recognized the unmistakable woman he carried with him first, but they wanted him to lead them and to help them. He was their Captain; they trusted him. Eugene's first order had been to organize search parties using what capable people he had to scout out the countryside for any other refugees. He ordered them to bring anyone they found back to the farmhouse. He additionally assured the family who lived in the farmhouse that the survivors would hunt for their own food and that they needn't worry about finding supplies for all of them.

Immediately after the search parties had been organized and sent out, Eugene had asked for medical help for Rapunzel. The eldest of the three young shepherd girls, whose name was Elizabeth, was a skilled healer, so Eugene didn't have to look far. Elizabeth carefully removed the shards of amber from Rapunzel's body and bound the wounds that were left behind. That had been the hardest part, she had said, so the rest would be simple enough. Most importantly, Rapunzel would be all right.

Eugene then went out to search for refugees himself along with Lance and a few others. He'd stayed out all that first night, only returning when the sun began to rise. The former thief brought back with him twenty-seven people. Most of them belonged to the same three families who had escaped the city together, but there had also been a few lost children who didn't belong with the others. Eugene had taken all the refugees back to the farmhouse to join the others. There he found that the other several scouting parties had brought back an additional fifty survivors combined. It heartened Eugene to know that put together, their group consisted of just about a hundred people. But he only grew grieved again when he remembered how many hundreds more they had not found and how many were trapped in the city... how many were dead.

It was then, upon coming back to the shepherds' home and counting the survivors, that Rapunzel had come running down the stairs in tears, barely clothed. Elizabeth chased after her, and tried to pull her back up the stairs to bed so that she could rest. Rapunzel fought against her. Eugene took Rapunzel from Elizabeth and allowed his girlfriend to cry into his chest. Eugene did his best to soothe her, but nothing appeared to help. She just kept crying. Elizabeth had explained that Rapunzel had woken up during the night while Eugene had been gone. When Rapunzel had seen her shattered home in the distance, she broke down completely. It took Elizabeth and both her younger sisters just to get Rapunzel back up to her room. Once there, she had absolutely refused to sleep or to accept food and water. She just sat on her bed, sobbing, waiting for Eugene.

After the situation had been explained to him, Eugene quickly picked Rapunzel up and carried her back to her room where they could speak in private. There Eugene spent the rest of his morning and afternoon. At first, it was just a matter of waiting for Rapunzel's tears to subside so that Eugene could speak to her at all. But finally, she did stop crying, at least for the most part. Then Eugene had spent several hours listening to his girlfriend talk to him. She told him of her fears and of her grief at losing her city. The tears started to flow again when she began to speak of her people and her parents. She feared that they were all dead and that it was her fault. Eugene had carefully informed Rapunzel of how many survivors they'd found already. He then tried to tell her that what had happened was nowhere near her fault. But Rapunzel insisted. That was when Eugene found out how Cassandra had gotten into the city at all.