Secrets of an Alchemist

Happiness Is: Part 2

A little while later, the gang stood underneath the shelter. Owl circled overhead and gave a loud hoot, startling Ruddiger off of Varian's shoulders. The raccoon chittered and shook his fist at Owl, but was interrupted by Cassandra.

"We got a visual!" Cassandra declared, turning to the rest of the group. "She's coming." Varian stood, tense, still unnerved from last night's events.

"Alright," Eugene asked, turning to the rest of the group. "Did everyone sign the cheer up card for Rapunzel?"

"Sure did," Lance replied.

"Me too!" Hook Foot added.

"I did too," Varian said. The only sound that came from Shorty, however, was the sound of chewing.

Oh no, Varian thought, facepalming.

"Shorty?" Eugene asked as Shorty swallowed.

"In my defense, let the record show the card was made of cheese," Shorty defended himself. Varian gave a small groan. Eugene facepalmed.

"The card was not made of cheese," he stated plainly.

"Agree to disagree," Shorty said.

"Hi guys!" Came Rapunzel's voice, much cheerier than last night. She walked along the beach and up to them.

"Hey, look who cheered up," Varian observed, standing up from the tree he was leaning against.

"Yup!" Rapunzel agreed cheerily. She moved into the center of the group. "And wait until you see why! It is only the most incredible thing ever!" She drew a small, and frankly unimpressive, totem from her bag. The small brown totem had three faces carved into it. Varian gave a small involuntary shudder. For some reason, the eyes really creeped him out. For a split second, he swore he could see his hair stripe light up a bright green color, but it quickly faded back to normal. He pulled the streak of blue hair down to look at it, but it looked normal. Well, as normal as blue hair could look. Ruddiger climbed onto his shoulders and chittered, pushing the side of Varian's face to tell him to look at Rapunzel. Varian released his stripe with a small sigh.

Must have just been my imagination, he reassured himself. He turned back to Rapunzel, who was now holding the totem up so they could all see it.

"I give it a seven for effort," Shorty commented. Rapunzel gave a small laugh and turned to look at a plant behind her. Varian noticed that her eyes, and the eyes on the statue, were glowing a weird green color.

"It's so good to see you dad!" She exclaimed, hugging it. "See? I mean, can you believe it?" She turned back to the group, who were staring at her with a mixture of confusion and... actually, no, just confusion. Eugene and Cassandra shared a look. Rapunzel got slightly agitated at the fact none of them were as happy as she was. "Why aren't you guys more amazed by this?" This time, the entire group shared a look. Her face fell, and she looked back towards the plant. "Wait a sec, why can't they see you?" She asked it.

"This is getting weird..." Varian said to Cassandra out of the side of his mouth.

"She's back," Lance told Hook Foot. "But I don't know if she's all there..."

"Wait a minute!" Rapunzel exclaimed. "Maybe you have to be holding it to see anything." She quickly rushed forward and handed the totem to Eugene. Her eyes faded to their normal green, and Eugene's eyes lit up that strange green. Eugene gave a laugh.

"Blondie, I think your homesickness might be getting to you- sweet tomatoes, the royal yacht!" Eugene cut himself off as he turned toward the water, apparently seeing a large boat. "And look, my likeness is carved upon its wondrous bow! Now we can get off the island in style!" He walked forward to stand on the "yacht," which really was just Maximus. He held an invisible spyglass to his eye. "Blondie, you fill my world with amazing things, you know that?" He told Rapunzel. "The statue brings all the happy."