Tangled Spin-off Part 5
Rapunzel looked down from her tower, should she do it? Should she jump? Would mother approve? She already knew the answer to that. Mother never wanted her to leave the tower. But she would never know, would she? As long as she didn't tell, mother would have no way of knowing she had a little adventure. Rapunzel smiled deviously. She had read in a storybook that a princess once escaped a tower that held her captive by using a bunch of sheets tied together. Rapunzel looked over the edge, leaning out further, considering. She held there for a moment, like a picture trapped in time, and then she slipped. She grabbed her hair desperately, hoping for some sort of purchase, sliding down, down, down, and landed on her back. She was unable to breathe. She didn't know what was happening to her. was this dying? she wondered. How awful would it be for Mother to come back and find her dead? No, she wasn't dying, she was slowly able to breathe again. She sat up and scurried up the tower, pulling herself up on her hair. She was not going to try that anytime soon.
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Ryan was crying, while the children around him laughed. He was covered in mud, and in a lot of pain. A boy had jabbed him with a stick, in the gut, and he landed in the mud. All he had wanted was to play with the other kids, but this is what they did to him.
"How dare you?" Raisa called from across the field where they were.
"Look, it's his girlfriend coming to protect him. Look at him, he can't even take a joke." One of the boys said. The other boy chuckled, then the second boy jabbed the first boy in the stomach.
"Dude!" He said. "That's the princess."
"No way." said the first boy.
"Yeah, should we get out of here?" he asked.
"No, I have an idea."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, besides she's alone."
"I'm getting out of here." He said, slinking away. Raisa reached them by then, and the boy fell silent. He bowed for a moment in a mocking way.
"Look, princess, this doesn't concern you." The boy said.
"I think that it does." She said defiantly.
"We are just teaching this boy here a valuable lesson."
"And what lesson is that?" she replied as she crossed her arms.
"How to toughen up and be a man."
"By pushing him into a mud pit?" She said with a little bit of sarcasm.
"Yeah." Said the boy strongly.
"Sounds like bullying to me," Raisa said. The boy had no immediate response, so Raisa kept going, playing her trump card. "And is that how you treat your future king?"
"That's the prince?" The boy said. "Well, then I am doing him a favor, no one likes a weak king." But his voice had lost its edge, then grew again. "Besides, he can't even defend his own sister."
"Defend his..." she began to repeat, but she never had the chance. The boy grabbed her arm and yanked her away into an ally.
"Catch me if you can, my king!" He shouted mockingly, as he dragged her further and further away.
"Raisa!" He shouted plunging after his sister. He ran down an alleyway, then stopped. He had a better idea. He went up to some children playing, they glanced up from their game when he approached.
"Come quick, someone has just kidnapped the princess." That got their attention. "Come on, if we all look for them we can catch them quick. It's just one boy and he took off that way." At first, no one accepted. Then a boy a little older than Ryan stepped forward. He had raggy clothes on, just a plain brown shirt and some trousers. He had been sitting a little off from the group, watching. He had brown hair, that was parted to the side.
"I'll help you." He declared.
"Thank you, he went this way." Ryan said. They ran together for a little, then paused when they heard a sound. They heard Raisa's voice, calling carefully. At first it was hard ot make out, but finally they heard the words, following the sound of her voice.
"I'm over here!" She shouted. "Down an alleyway!" A pause. "Behind the baker..." Her voice was cut off. But they knew where to look. Sure enough, they found them, in an alleyway, surrounded by some older boys. The young boy with Ryan gestured to a tree, and they climbed it silently. Once they were out of earshot they began to discuss, and they hatched a plan.
Ryan stepped out into the clearing, facing the alley, alone.
"Well, well, well, look who decided to finally show up? The king." The boys laughed for a minute.
"Give me back my sister. As your future king, I command it." Ryan said with confidence.
"Or what?" One of the boys challenged.
"Or, I will beat each of you to the ground!" He said.
"You? Beat us? Hardly. You are too much of a runt to do that." The first boy said, and crossed his arms. Then he began to advance, motioning to the other boys to follow. Ryan bgant to slowly back up, then began to run. He dashed in and out of streets, until he found what he was looking for, some guards on patrol. He stopped short, and he recognized one.
"Mr. Allen!" He shouted. Allen had two sons whom Ryan liked to play with sometimes. Mr. Allen started at the sound of the young prince.
"Prince Ryan?" He asked. Ryan nodded. "What are you doing?" He stared at the prince covered in sweat and mud. Then the boys rounded the corner. Ryan stood just in front of the guards, his arms crossed. "Is there a problem here?" Mr Allen asked the boys. They began to back away.
"No, no problem, we-were just..." The boys didn't finish, they turned and ran.
"Thanks." Ryan said to the guards after they had left. "Now I just need to find Raisa."
The guards insisted on coming with him to find Raisa.
"Don't worry." Ryan assured. "We have a meeting place, they should be there by now."
"We?" The second gaurd asked.
"Yeah, another kid helped me. I was the distraction while he pulled Raisa out of there." Ryan explained casually.
"Out of where?" the same guard asked. Ryan launched into the story of his rescue of his sister.
"And then I figured that if I found some guards, or just some adults, who would stop them, and it worked." He concluded, they were almost at the rondevous.
"But, why didn't you just get a gaurd in the first place?" Mr. Allen asked.
"becuase, sometimes you have to do things yourself, and not depend on others." The guards had nothing to say to that.
"Raisa!" Ryan called. "Raisa we're here." her head popped out from behind a cart. She smiled and hugged her brother, getting mud all over herself.
"Wait, where did that boy go?" Ryan asked.
"Oh, he said he had to leave, and to wait here for you. But he was very clever. He waited until you drew out the kids and then he helped me climb up a tree. From there we just had to get to this meeting place, and wait. It was so cool." Raisa said excitedly.
"What was his name?" Ryan asked curiously.
"Flynn."