Roused 092 The Lost Hair

- Roused
- Chapter 092
~ The Lost Hair

"Rapunzel you talked about your mind unraveling when you had the brandy, back home, and how you are holding yourself together all the time. I'm afraid we're doing something wrong. You should just be yourself and it should be pretty easy," said Queen Rebecca to her daughter Rapunzel with some concern in her voice, sitting on the bed next to her daughter. Some of the things her daughter had said this morning as they had cleaned Aurora concerned her too.

"It's not, mama. I am not who I was. I am not the girl in the tower any more. I'm a princess now and I have duties and responsibilities and so many things to do. The painting and the music help, the lessons are so interesting, I want to know so much. There are so many people to met and so many of them are hurt." Rapunzel says as her knees and hips throb, the pain of her ankles is lost in the haze of the burning in her feet.

"It breaks my heart all the time. I used to be able to heal, mama. I could have helped them. But I don't have my hair anymore, and I can't. I can't help them, love them. I've spent so many of my quiet times just crying for them. I don't have my hair anymore. I used to be able to do so much with my hair. I've told you. It used to be so beautiful."

"It's been 6 months and looking in the mirror is still a surprise in the morning. Like it's still supposed to be there. I'm missing a part of myself and I am having a hard time dealing with it. I look different, I move different, I feel different from when I had my hair." Rapunzel said, desperately trying to explain.

"Why didn't you say something?" Rebecca put all her love into that question.

"And what could you or anyone do about it? I talked to HookHand, and it helped, a little. We spend so much time on my snakes, which we can do something about, mostly, there's no point in spending time on something we can't." Rapunzel looked at her mama with pleading eyes.

Rebecca looked sad, but understood, and nodded. "At least you talked to someone about it, good for you for doing that." Giving her wonderful baby a hug.

"Who is Hookhand?" asks Briar Rose. There is just so much she doesn't know, but this seems important.

"Dear, sweet Hookhand, he's a concert pianist, with a killer show-tune medley and we invite him to the palace often. He has a hook instead of a hand. He's also the owner of the Snuggly Duckling," replies Rebecca.

"Wait, what?" Leah does a double take. "But that's…"

"The hangout of the roughest gang of thugs in the kingdom, yes, we know. But they are really sweet inside," finishes Rebecca.

"The Snuggly Duckling?" asks Aurora.

"It's a pub in the forest. A place where you can buy food, and drink and a place to sleep, among other things; like a home, but only temporarily as you are traveling from place to place." Rebecca fills in. Rapunzel needed, still needs, so many details filled in; it was now a habit for Rebecca to add basic filler information about a new subject.

"Okay," says Briar Rose slowly, trying to fit the concept of a pub into her mind, somewhere near cottage and walking.
"And thugs?" she hates asking so many questions, she feels so dumb, but this seems so important to her sister, she just had to know.

"Thugs are strangers who are bad. Like the goons."

"That doesn't sound nice," remembering the goons she'd observed in the forest. 

"They generally aren't, but the Snuggly Duckling gang have hopes and dreams just like everyone else. Rapunzel was able to find out what they were and make a connection to them," says Queen Rebecca, with a look of pride for her daughter.

"But it was so scary right at first. They don't look nice at all, but looks aren't everything. I told them why I needed Eugene and that it was my dream to see the floating lights. And then they were confessing their deepest dreams back to me and singing and dancing, it was wonderful," says Rapunzel.

"Let's just say, if you run into thugs, it is best to run away, but there is hope for even them. They fell in love with Rapunzel and when Maximus came asking for help to rescue her, they broke Eugene out of the royal prison because he was the only person they knew who knew where she lived," added Rebecca.

"Who's Maximus?" Why did every answer need to create more questions?

"He was the horse for the Captain of the Palace Guard, now he is the Captain of All Horses in the kingdom and is helping Eugene now for the war."

"Thank you." Briar Rose tried not to ask too many questions all at once, there was so much she didn't know and sometimes she didn't even know where to start asking.

- End of Chapter 092