Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons [COMPLETED]

Chapter 22

And so Hiccup and Merida embarked on an adventure not recorded here. In the end, Hiccup accepted his role as chief of Berk. Three months after the quest, the Berkian chief and Scottish princess were married. They would have married sooner, but they wanted to wait for the ship carrying Queen Rapunzel. They would have had a dragon fly her to the wedding, but the new King Allister wouldn't hear of his pregnant queen flying.

The next year, when Anna was born, was a sad one for the Arendian queen. She was overjoyed when her second daughter was born, but in the same year, Pascal passed away in his sleep. Also, Anna's birth meant Rapunzel's parents would soon leave for the mountains. On their last day in Arendelle, the former queen told her two granddaughters Elsa's favorite story about the magic golden flower, even though she knew Anna would be too young to remember it. Not bearing to be parted, Rapunzel traveled with her parents to the ice harvesters' settlement. Despite her escort, the trip back down the mountains was very lonely for Rapunzel.

Continually reminding herself that her parents weren't truly gone, Rapunzel made it through the rest of the year, adapting to life without her parents. Her two daughters helped her through her grief by distracting her from her pain. Even though Anna never showed any ice powers, the two sisters adored one another and grew very close.

To everyone's surprise, Anna's hair grew out red. Rapunzel talked to Jack about it when they supervised their daughters playing in one of the palace gardens. "She couldn't have gotten the color from my parents, but that would mean your . . ." Too late, Rapunzel realized her mistake.

Jack's face hardened as he watched their daughters. Rapunzel scooted closer to him on the lawn. "Jack, I'm sorry."

He hugged his knees to his chest. "Don't worry about it. I've accepted that I don't have a family."

"You do have a family, Jack." Rapunzel gestured to Elsa and Anna.

The winter spirit smiled at his wife. "Thanks, Punzie."

For a long time, life was good. Rapunzel occasionally visited her parents, and Allister was a good Poppa to her daughters. But disaster struck in the year Anna was five and Elsa was eight. Elsa accidentally hit Anna with her ice powers. To keep her safe, Allister had magical mountain trolls erase Anna's memory of Elsa's abilities, and he isolated Elsa in her room. Only he and Rapunzel were allowed to visit her.

Rapunzel knew Allister was only trying to help, but she wished there was another way. Sometimes she would suggest other arrangements, but either Elsa or Allister would disagree with the idea. In the end, Rapunzel gave up trying.

Jack wasn't happy to hear of his daughter's "imprisonment" as he called it. To keep him from blasting Allister with his staff, Rapunzel allowed Jack to visit at night and take Elsa out to the gardens. He taught her different ice tricks and encouraged her to use her powers. However, Rapunzel had to perform intervention when Jack tried to teach Elsa how to handle bossy men with mustaches. Still, no matter how much mischief he got into, Rapunzel always missed him when he was gone. She missed his sense of humor, his playful yet gentle nature, and his (sometimes irresponsible) idea of a good time.

For the next ten years, Rapunzel trained her girls in the ways of royalty just as her mother had done for her. Anna would often goof off during her lessons and could hardly wait before she and Rapunzel could go outside and climb trees or sit on the swing seat. And she loved to laugh with Rapunzel when she made her daughter unnecessarily balance a book on her head.

Elsa was a quieter student and more serious with her studies. When Rapunzel taught her a queen's duties, she learned quickly essential activities such as speech-making and learning about problems in the kingdom. Rapunzel was sure her daughter would make an excellent ruler. However, when Elsa would think about her powers, she'd lose all confidence in her abilities.