RGHee015 Eugene's Story

~ Rapunzel Goes Home (extended edition)
~ Chapter 015
~ Eugene's Story

---

The royal couple shared a look and looking back at Eugene and their daughter, the King said, "That sounds like quite the story, and we'd better find a place to sit and hear it."

The guards ushered them to a dining room, with a small table where they could sit close to each other.

"Please, just don't freak out" Rapunzel asked her parents. Eugene gave a small smile at that request, as they sat around the table heaped with several small easy-to-eat items. They looked somewhat tempting, they had only have some apples, cheese and some stale bread from the tower. The Snuggly Duckling had been empty; everyone was in prison.

Rapunzel gave a gasp of happiness when she opened the soup terrine and found hazelnut soup. She dug in while Eugene started his story. She hadn't had anything today, since the cupcakes yesterday, but a couple of apples, cheese and some stale bread from the tower.

"It all started three days ago when I stole the Crown of the Lost Princess," Eugene paused with a wince as the King gave him a stony look.

"I'm sorry. I betrayed my partners in crime and stole the crown from them while leaving them to face the palace guards alone. But I was still being chased. As I was trying to get away from Maximus the palace horse,-- a really good horse, by the way, he deserves a promotion, he's in the stable now recovering because he ran so hard to help me rescue your daughter, --I stumbled upon a hidden tower."

"I couldn't find an entrance, but thought it would make a great hideout. So I climbed up to a window and closed the shutters and paused to admire my treasure. But it turned out that it wasn't a good choice of hiding place. She was already in there and knocked me out with her frying pan." He rubbed the back of his head ruefully while the King gave a laugh.

"She hid the crown, tied me up with her own hair and proposed a deal. That I take her to see the floating lanterns the next day and return her safely home before she would return the crown. I agreed since I had little choice at that point. Not to say I didn't try to scare her back to her tower, I even took her to the Snuggly Duckling."

The King frowned. Eugene winced again.

"Where, ah, she charmed the whole place in about 5 minutes, and rescued me from the thugs who wanted the reward," he finished ruefully.

The queen smiled proudly at her daughter.

"But then we had to escape the guards so we were shown a secret passage that came out by the dam, which broke as we made our escape."

"You did that?" asked the King.

Eugene threw up his hands, "The dam was not my fault. Maximus broke the dam and we ended up in a collapsed mine entrance with the water coming in. We almost drowned but she made her hair glow and we found a way out."

"Made her hair glow?" the queen asked trading a look with her husband, Pascal and Rapunzel nodded as Rapunzel finished a bowl of soup.

"I know I'm going fast here, but you need the bones of the story so you know how we got here. It's going to take days to get all the details straight, I learned new things when we were talking to the seneschal. By the end of the first day she had saved my life twice. I had been so annoyed at her hiding my rightfully stolen loot and forcing me to babysit her to the kingdom to see the lanterns. But she had been so generous and good that I couldn't help wanting to be good to her in return."

"Then we got to the city here. Excuse me for saying this but even for a celebration, the kingdom is a little on the down side, I know because you all miss the Lost Princess, but everywhere she went happiness broke out. Doing a chalk painting in the square, and then dozens of kids were doing it too. Even when we stopped for dinner I was standing in line for some bread and cheese and the next thing I know a dance had broken out around her."

He looked down at her with great affection. The king and queen were looking amazed.

"Then I took her out in a little boat so she would have the best view possible of the lanterns for the best day of her life. She actually gave me back the crown and I realized that I didn't care about it any more, only her. Then I saw the Stabbington brothers on the shore, my former partners in crime."

"They still cared about the crown, or so I thought. I was going to give it to them so I could stay with her and turn it all around. But they knew about her magic hair; they knocked me out, tied me to a boat and sent me back to the docks where I was captured. She was saved by her 'mother' who had actually betrayed her," He gave the queen a significant look. Trying get the queen to understand that Rapunzel still thought of 'mother' as her mother.

"Then Maximus and the Thugs from the Snuggly Duckling broke me out of the prison."

"Oh, those were such darling men. I don't think they really want to be ruffians," interjected Rapunzel.

"Skipping a lot of detail," added Eugene, holding up his hand, as the King looked like he was going to interrupt.

"Maximus and I raced to the tower. I called for her, and her hair came down. I climbed up so happy to have found her, but I found her chained and gagged, and then her mother stabbed me. I fell to the floor on the shards of a broken mirror. She was fighting her mother harder then ever. She promised to go with her peacefully if she was allowed to heal me first."

"I couldn't let her do that, her 'mother' had betrayed everyone and we were all going to die, I feared that she was next. So when she was getting ready to heal me I pretended to want to kiss her, but instead I cut off her magic hair with a shard of the mirror, so she couldn't keep that promise. I would have rather died then let her be in the hands of that woman." He finished fiercely.

"Eugene, you did die," admonished Rapunzel.

"Oh, yeah, I did, didn't I." he said with a hand on his torn and bloody vest, why did he keep forgetting that? That had been quite the experience.

"She saved me yet again, and she was the one who figured out that she was the Lost Princess too. So we came back here, so she could be with her real parents."

The queen had tears running down her face and the king came around and gave them all another hug.

After they broke the hug, Eugene looked directly at the King. "Sir, I know you have no reason to trust me. I was a thief, I even stole the most valuable treasure your kingdom had to offer. But now there is nothing more important to me then your daughter. I gave the crown away, because all I wanted was to be with her and I thought that giving it away would protect her, I didn't know she was the Lost Princess."

"I broke out of your prison to try and save her so I could be with her again. Two days ago my greatest dream used to be to have a castle in some far off land, surrounded by money and to be alone. Now I would trade the world just to be with your daughter. I know I must pay for my crimes and I will accept any punishment you feel appropriate, even if you must hang me."

"Oh, please don't hang him." Rapunzel pleaded.

The King stood up and began to pace, "Hanging you would be the just thing to do, in this kingdom I rule by law, so justice might be served. I do not rule by whim, history has shown us that rule by whim destroys a country from within. But to hang you would cause pain to my daughter and I would not cause her pain for all the world."

"You have also returned our beloved daughter. You could have asked for any boon, up to half the kingdom and I would have given it to you gladly, but you have asked for justice and my daughter for mercy. The two of you have placed me in a dilemma and I must consider this."

Rapunzel clasped Eugene's hand protectively.
~ End of Chapter 015