Perilous Fates

4: Alive

"Varian, wake up," his father's voice boomed from the other side of the door.

Varian groaned and shifted on his bed, "Ruddiger, buddy, please open the door," he mumbled.

He heard another knock on the door, making him open his eyes. "Ruddiger–" he stopped.

Where is he?

Varian's eyes examined the room only to be startled at the new environment he's seeing.

"What–" he panicked and fell down the bed, his back hitting the floor.

"Ouch!" He reacted and sat on the floor.

"Varian? Are you okay?" Quirin asked and knocked on the door, worried when he heard his son's voice.

The Alchemist didn't answer, instead, his mind wandered to any possible reason on how he ended up in here.

Is there any explanation why he's here right now? He's pretty sure that there is. Was it because of the new machine he built? Are the universe conspiring into something? Could this be connected to the moonstone and the sundrop?

Theories by theories popped into his mind.

What about Ruddiger? Where is his friend? His partner! He knew that Ruddiger is a smart raccoon but– his thoughts were interrupted with a very familiar and melodic voice of a woman.

"Varian, honey, I'm coming in." And the door swung open.

And then there she is, Eliza, her long brown hair cascading down her back and some on her shoulder. Her dark blue eyes held the same spark of hope even when she's staring at her son with a worried expression. Her lips expressed into a thin line.

Quirin stepped inside the room after his wife. He examined his son who was looking rather pale and look a though he was about to get sick.

His mother. Right in front of him. Alive and well. It seemed too far from reality.

The young lad slowly stood up, his legs shaking from fear, excitement, disbelief — he doesn't know anymore!

Eliza took a step towards her son. "What's wrong, Varian? Are you having nightmares again?"

Varian hastily took a back, staring at his parents with the expression of outmost horror.

On the other hand, Eliza is seriously alarmed by her son's behavior. Had the nightmares been affecting him that much?

"Honey, everything's going to be alright," she whispered, trying to soothe her son.

Varian didn't know how to respond. Every theory, conclusions and calculations that popped into his mind doesn't make any sense — completely useless.

There's only one thing he could do right now — go with the flow.

"I–uh." He let out a nervous laugh. "I need to go," he blurted out and dashed away out of the unfamiliar room and unfamiliar house.

He doesn't know where he is right now. Everything seemed so new and yet positively welcoming but alarming at the same time.

He was too occupied on examining his surroundings and didn't noticed that someone was heading towards his direction.

He bumped into a girl, making him lose his balance for a second but not enough to make him fall to the hard and cold ground.

He turned to the unfamiliar girl. She was an inch smaller than him, have raven black hair and her green almond shaped eyes held a lot of emotions.

"Varian! Thank goodness, you're here!" said the mysterious girl with her high pitched voice and grabbed him by his arms, dragging him towards the huge castle that was a few walks away from them.

"W-wait! What's happening?" He managed to ask as his feet tried it's best to keep up with the girl's speed.

"Don't you remember? The day after tomorrow is Prince's Horace's coronation to be the King!" The raven haired girl exclaimed.

"Prince Horace? Are we in any chance at the Dark Kingdom?" asked Varian, looking at the castle with a spark of interest.

He knew that Horace was Eugene's birthname — Stan and Pete slipped that out — and he is actually a prince by birth.

"Yes," the girl stopped and stared at him. She raised an eyebrow and looked at him as if he's asking the most dumb question in the world. "Varian, are you okay?"

"Yes," he answered and continued to head towards the castle, leaving the girl behind. He knew that it was some what rude — he'll apologize later. He just have to. — but he needs to find Eugene.

He entered the castle with ease, some people greeted him. It startled and amazed him at the same time.

Again, distracted by his surroundings, he bumped into another person and just his luck—

"Eugene?"

"Varian?"

--
I haven't proofread this one. Beware of some errors.

Anyway, I was planning a Tangled The Series fanclub. Would you guys be interested to join? ^__^ I have a lot of activities in mind.