"No! No! No! You will pay for this!" Medecka screamed as she was taken to the castle dungeon to await her execution. Medecka knew that she'd be held accountable for what had happened and fled the kingdom. Warrants and bounties were sent out to every kingdom in the hopes that she would be caught but to no avail. Cedric decided he had had enough of the wild goose chase and stepped in himself to find her. He enlisted the help of Robert Beck.
Robert knew she would go to the place she felt safe and that was the old abandoned cottage two kingdoms away where she had lived as a sorcceress' apprentice. Robert led Cedric and his men there and coaxed her out telling her that he would help her. When his lie was exposed by the men surrounding the cottage, She killed him without hesitation.
Robert's last words to Cedric were, "Do not lose hope, your love still lives." Cedric was perplexed at his dying friend's words but he thought nothing of it until he lay down to rest that night. He tossed and turned thoughts of Rapunzel till he slipped into unconsciousness, exhausted.
Cedric sat on his noble steed watching them burn Medecka. She was throwing curses and threats to the very end. But he found no comfort in looking at the burning corpse that once held so much evil and hatred. All he wanted to do was to hold Rapunzel in his arms again, to see her smile and laugh again.
He remembered that night so vividly. How Rapunzel looked so limp as she was carried away by her fellow fays. No matter how much he wanted to believe in Robert's last words, he found that he could not. He rode back to the Dryad Forest once again as he had done every day for the past six months. He uttered an anguished cry when he reached the spot where Rapunzel had taken her last breath. Bent down on his horse, he looked such a sorry sight.
"Cedric, Cedric." came a voice so familiar. It seemed to come from within the forest. He looked up and rode towards the voice.
The voice began to sing softly, coaxingly to Cedric.
'Come, come my sweet,
May it be that you find your heart's desire,
Come, come my sweet,
Don't be sad any longer,
For I will be with you forever'
Cedric came upon a clearing and there she was. Standing there, alive as ever dressed in forest clothes that made her look even more fayish. Her long hair was cut to her shoulders as golden as the day he first saw her. He jumped off his steed and ran to her as she leaped into his arms.
"Rapunzel. Oh, my love." said Cedric with disbelief.
"Cedric, it's me. I'm here and I won't leave you again. I missed you so much!"
"But how? Why?"
"Shh." Rapunzel gently pressed her finger on his lips.
"It is not my secret to tell. Just be thankful that I'm by your side again. The only thing I can tell you is that the other fays saved me, they healed me somehow."
"Sweetheart, let me meet them, I need to give them my thanks. May I?" Cedric inquired.Rapunzel nodded.
"But I must tell you something else, my real name is Elodea, it is my birth name. Rapunzel is a name that was given to me by Medecka."
Cedric smiled and said "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." and kissed her forehead.
Elodea held out her hand for him and led him deeper still into the forest, happy that she was with her beloved again.
And most importantly, of course, they lived happily ever after.
