Siblings of Corona B1:Life In the Tower

Chapter 9

Flynn Rider woke up to find himself tied to a chair.  Lance was tied to a chair as well that was set back to back with Rider's.  They struggled to free themselves.  "Wait…  is this… hair?"

"Struggling… struggling is pointless!"  A person hidden in the shadows jumped from a beam.  Slowly, she began to step into the light.  "And I'm not afraid of you."

Flynn and Lance had to look sideways to see the girl with long hair.  "And the Angel's descended from above…"  Lance whispered.

"How did you find us?"  Another girl appeared, but she was much paler than the girl with the golden hair.  Her hair was black and was the length to her chin.  Her hazel eyes were threatening and would scare anyone with a lesser spirit out of their wits.

The two just gawked.  Rapunzel pointed the pan at them.  "How did you find us?"  she repeated.

Rider cleared his throat.  "I don't know how I came to find you, but may I just say: Hi.  How you doin'?  The name's Flynn Rider."

"Oh, my gosh!"  Varian jumped out of his hiding place.  "Flynn Rider!"

The two thieves gave a cry of surprise.  "How many of you are there?" Lance gasped.  "You keep popping out of everywhere, like daisies!"

"That's none of your business!"  Cassandra snapped.

"Guys, guys!"  Varian was practically jumping with excitement.  "That's Flynn Rider!"

"You can't prove anything!"  Flynn said.

"He's the guy in that book I had!"  Varian continued to exclaim.

"Really?"  Cassandra raised a brow.  "He's not as… heroic as I imagined…"

"Ouch,"  Flynn pouted at that comment.

"Cassie.  You don't judge a book by it's cover."  Varian crossed his arms.

"Look, I'm flattered, really,"  Flynn began.  "However, I really need to be going…"

"What adventure are you doing now, Mr. Rider?  Saving a princess from a dragon?  Off to find some treasure?  Oh!  Are you-"

"Kid, kid.  I'm not that…"  Flynn stopped as he saw the excitement in Varian's eyes.  Who was he to crush some barefoot kid's dreams?  He sighed.  "The adventure is classified."

"Exciting!"  Varian exclaimed.

"Okay, enough rambling here.  We need to get down to business,"  Cassandra said.

"Awe, but Cassie!  It's Flynn Rider…"  Varian pouted at his oldest sister.

"You can chat with Rider after we talk business,"  Cassandra crossed her arms.

"Fine," the fourteen year old grumbled.

The three teens gathered in a group circle.  "So what are we supposed to do with them?"  Cassandra whispered.

"Let them go?"  Varian suggested.

"But they might tell people about the tower,"  Cassandra pointed out.

"Cassie, this is Flynn Rider we're talking about.  He won't if we ask him not to."

"Varian, we don't actually know Flynn Rider.  All we had is a book, but things could have always been altered.  Not to mention, you only read book one.  No, he's just as much as a stranger to us as anyone else."

"You're right, I guess."  Varian put what Cass said into consideration.

"We can have them take us to the lights!"  Rapunzel gasped.  "Mother won't be back for three days.  We'll be home with tons of time to spare, I know it!"

"Raps, let's be real.  Why would two people take three random teenagers to go see a bunch of lights that magically appear in the sky on what so happens to be your birthday?"

"Well, it doesn't hurt to ask."  Rapunzel said.  "You all want to try?"

"I'm game.  V?  We understand if you don't want to."

Varian would be lying if he said he wasn't scared.  He bit his lower lip in thought.  His eyes caught sight of the painting over the mantle.  This was Rapunzel's dream and he was going to help her live.  "I'm in."

"Alright,"  Rapunzel spoke up and turned to the two thieves.  "Do you know what these are?"  she climbed up on the mantle and moved the curtain so that they could have a perfect view.

"You mean the lantern thing they do for the princess?"  Rider raised a brow.

"I knew they weren't stars…"  she whispered.  "Well, tomorrow night, they will light up the sky with these, 'lanterns'.  You two will act as our guides to take us there and then return us home safely.  It will be only then that we will give your satchel back."

"Where is the bag, anyways?"  Lance looked about the room.

"I have hidden it."  Cassandra crossed her arms.  "Somewhere where you lunatics will never find it."

"It's in that pot, isn't it."  Flynn pointed to the pot.

Cassandra and Rapunzel glanced at each other.

~~~~~~~~~~

Flynn Rider woke up to Pascal's tongue in his ear.  "Agh!  Would you stop that!"

"Now it's hidden where you'll never find it."  Cassandra crossed her arms.  "Are you ready to make the deal now?"

"What kind of a person takes their only belongings and force them to take them into the enemy territory?"  Lance asked in despair.

Flynn gave his partner in crime a look, but his friend could not see it.  Varian spoke up.  "Well, to be fair, you kind of did break into our home so…"

"Oh, yeah,"  Lance took this thought into consideration.

"Wait, what do you mean by enemies?"  Varian looked at Rider.

"Oh, well, you see, us and the kingdom aren't exactly 'St. Pratrick-al'."

"You mean like when you were running from the kingdom of Cleveland?"  Varian asked.

"Ye-wait…"  Flynn shook his head.  "It's slightly more uh… complicated."

"Huh, well, that's a way to put it,"  Lance added.

"Look, we're making a decision to trust you,"  Rapunzel cut in.

"Well, more or less,"  Cassandra said.

"A horrible decision, really,"  Rider deadpanned.

"But trust me, when I tell you this!  You can tear this tower apart brick by brick, but without our help, you will never find your precious satchel."

Flynn cleared his throat.  "Look, I didn't want to have to do this, but you three have left me no choice.  Here comes the smolder."

Cassandra and Rapunzel stood unfazed by the look.  Varian facepalmed his forehead.  "This has been a really off day for me…"  Flynn sighed.  "Fine, I'll take you to see the lanterns."

"Really!"  Rapunzel spun around with excitement.

Pang!

Her frying pan (that she forgot she was holding) collided with Rider's face.  "Ouch!  You broke my smolder."

"Woopes.  Sorry…"  she gave him an apologetic look.