Chapter 12

With the arrival of others to the island, the three friends have to adjust their recent behaviour. Slightly.

Panic began to set in almost immediately. ‘Shit! Why the hell is Varian here?’ Cassandra swore to herself. Here she was in the middle of nowhere, completely naked, and somehow someone from back home was only a stone’s throw away! How in the world could that happen?

Before she could think any further Varian emerged from the underbrush, tripping over a rock and stumbling to the ground. Cassandra quickly ducked down behind a nearby bush to hide, and Varian looked up at the sound of her movement. He noticed her head poking up just above the bush.

“Ah, Cassandra. That WAS you. I thought I heard your voice,” he said, regaining his feet. “I’m glad I finally found you. We were wondering where everyone had wandered off to.”

“Um, hi Varian,” Cassandra said, trying to act as casual as possible but kept stumbling over her words. “What an ... unexpected surprise. Uh ... what brings you all the way out here? It’s a long way from Corona.”

“Well, the queen needed someone who knew how to fly, and since I’m the one who made the balloons faster and more controllable, who better than me?” He then looked closer at Cassandra, noting her odd behaviour. “Um, is everything alright?”

“Yes!” Cassandra nearly squeaked. “Everything’s fine!”

“Are you sure? You’re not hurt, are you? Do you need help?” As he was asking these questions he began to move closer and tried to circle around the bush.

Cassandra held up a hand. “Stop! Don’t come any closer!” she demanded.

With having closed some of the distance and seeing her outstretched hand, Varian noticed that Cassandra’s arm was completely bare. At first he thought she must be wearing a bathing suit, but then he became aware of the massive blush on her face, as well as the lack of any kind of shoulder straps now that he was close enough to see. As a particularly scandalous yet surely impossible idea popped into his mind his eyes went wide and he began to blush as fiercely as Cassandra.

“Cass ... are you ... are you...” Try as he might, he couldn’t actually say the words.

“Yes,” Cassandra admitted, knowing what he was trying to say. “So please stay over there.”

Varian immediately turned away from her, but he couldn’t stop himself from frequently glancing back in her direction. “Um, how? Why?” he asked.

“Well, in a nutshell, Rapunzel forgot her bathing suit and had to skinny dip, then she convinced Eugene and I to join in, and it kind of just stuck. But you never really answered me. Why are you here? Why is the queen here?”

“Okay, so, um, wow. Why am I here? Oh, right. The queen’s sister, you remember Princess Willow, right? She dropped by unexpectedly the day you three left. She was very disappointed that she missed Rapunzel, so she convinced the queen to commission another balloon so she could come see you on your vacation. It took a bit to get everything together but we made great travel time. After we landed I was asked to go look for you while Lance got the tents set up.”

“Wait, Lance is here too? Who else came?”

“Well the king had to stay behind since someone had to, but Queen Arianna and Willow came, and the queen brought one of the handmaidens, Faith, and then we have Lance and his family. And yours truly, of course.” As he spoke, Varian kept looking towards Cassandra, but after a moment glanced away, only to look again a few seconds later. Cassandra began to wonder if he’d suffer whiplash from jerking his head back and forth so much.

“I’m sorry, I can’t ... I can’t keep talking to you like this,” he said and started unbuttoning his shirt.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you doing?” Cassandra asked as she tried to hide herself more fully.

Varian’s blush deepened. “I wasn’t going to ... I’m just ... giving you my shirt. It’s too distracting with you being ... naked.” He removed his shirt and held it out. He walked towards the bush while covering his eyes with his other hand, though couldn’t help but peak ever so slightly.

Cassandra covered her chest with one arm and snatched the shirt as soon as it was within reach. “Thanks,” she said, meaning it. “You can back up a little bit.”

Varian did as she asked, though through the gap in his fingers he briefly saw her from her chest up. Her arm was covering her nipples, but his breath still caught for a moment at the sight. “So, um, are Rapunzel and Eugene similarly ... not dressed?”

Cassandra slipped on the shirt, which thanks to Varian preferring somewhat baggy clothes, was just large enough to cover the bare essentials. “Yeah,” she said. “Other than a few minutes this morning, none of us have worn anything since sunrise yesterday.”

“Cool, cool.” Varian tried to downplay his reaction to the idea of Cassandra and even the princess just walking around naked everywhere. He was simultaneously jealous of Eugene and scared of the idea of being in his place. “Um, think we should head back to the beach and let the others know what’s up?”

“Sure. Hopefully Raps and Eugene will get a bit more warning than I did about us not being alone anymore.”

While Cassandra was busy with Varian, Rapunzel and Eugene had started to make their own way back to the shelter. When they did get back they were both so lost in thought about what to say to Cassandra when they saw her again that they didn’t notice the sound of voices coming from further down the beach. As they rounded the corner of the shelter and came into full view a voice rang out.

“Rapunzel!” her mother called as soon as she noticed them arrive, her voice filled with love. But then, “WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU WEARING!?”

Rapunzel looked up in shock, finally noticing what was before her. A second, larger balloon ship was parked near hers, and three tents had been assembled in a neat row near the tree line. Lance and Adira were securing the final ropes for one of the tents; her aunt Willow had just emerged from the largest tent wearing a bathing suit that was just as garish as her normal clothes; Faith, Catalina, and Kiera were all carting foodstuffs from the balloon towards the shelter; and her mother, wearing a soft purple travel outfit, was standing on the balcony of the shelter, overseeing things.

“Mother?!?” Rapunzel cried out in surprise, and quickly hid behind Eugene.

With Rapunzel taking shelter behind him, Eugene couldn’t very well hide himself, so instead just covered his privates with his hands. “Your Majesty!” he said, just as surprised. “We’re so sorry. We weren’t expecting company and, um, definitely aren’t dressed for the occasion.”

“I would certainly say not!” the queen replied, blushing, though not looking away.

Before any of them could say anything more, Willow ran up to greet them. “There’s my favourite niece,” she called, then noticed what they were, or more correctly were not, wearing. “Oh wow!” she exclaimed. “Ari, why didn’t you tell me this was a nude beach? I wouldn’t have bothered packing my swimsuit if I’d known.” She immediately began to undo the ties that held her bathing suit in place.

“Willow!” her sister yelled.

She stopped what she was doing. “What?”

“This is NOT a nude beach.”

“I see plenty of evidence to the contrary,” Willow replied, smiling and looking over Eugene and Rapunzel.

“That is to be determined. Now, would you two care to explain yourselves?” Arianna asked, redirecting her attention back to her daughter and son-in-law.

“We would love to,” Eugene replied, “though maybe that could wait for a few minutes, so that things aren’t so ... distracting?” He nodded his head towards the other nearby ladies. Faith had dropped what she was carrying, staring open mouthed at the nude couple. She was trying to hold her hands over the eyes of Kiera and Catalina, who were themselves doing their best to look past her hands to get a better view of what was going on. “Hello girls,” he added, looking directly at them. “It’s rude to stare, you know.” All three blushed but none looked away.

“Yes, yes. Hurry up and put something on,” Arianna agreed.

On the brief walk into the shelter Rapunzel and Eugene did a good job of covering their fronts, but that left their backsides completely exposed. Everyone present got a very good look at both of them from behind before they slipped inside. As they were getting dressed Cassandra and Varian made their return. Cassandra wanted to go straight to her room, but paused when the queen spoke to her.

“You as well, Cassandra?” she asked, looking her up and down.

Cassandra blushed in answer. “I, um, take it you already saw Rapunzel and Eugene?” she asked.

“Indeed I did. In fact, I saw quite a bit more of them than I was expecting. Go change, then we’ll talk.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

A few minutes later everyone was seated around the fire pit, fully dressed, save for Willow who was in her bathing suit. There was an awkward silence and many people wore blushing faces when Arianna finally spoke up.

“So, what gives? What happened that resulted in my daughter, her husband, and her lady-in-waiting all ending up nude together?”

“Well, Mom, you see, it all started when I realised I forgot one of my suitcases in my room,” Rapunzel began, quite demurely.

“A problem we’ve now corrected,” the queen said. “Faith noticed it when she was cleaning and so we brought it with us.”

Faith gave a timid wave in acknowledgement.

“Oh, thanks. Well,” Rapunzel continued, “the suitcase I forgot had all my clothes. It’d take too much time to go back for it, so instead I tried wearing some of Cassandra’s stuff. But none of it fit and would just fall off if I tried to swim. Since I’m married to Eugene, and Cass and I bathe together all the time, and because it was just the three of us on the whole island, I decided to just not wear anything.”

“So you just took all your clothes off?” Kiera asked.

“Yes. They’ve both seen me naked plenty of times so there really was no reason to be shy. Then, as we were playing in the water, one thing led to another and they got naked as well.”

“To be honest, Rapunzel stole my bathing suit from me. But then I agreed to stay that way,” Eugene added.

“And you, Cass?” Varian asked.

“Me? Well, the two of them were naked at this point, and it’s not like I had anything left to hide either. What I mean is, Eugene and I did see each other before, but it was an accident! But I didn’t want to be a stick-in-the-mud, so I agreed, too.”

“So just to be clear, you all agreed to this?” Arianna asked.

All three nodded.

“And any of you could get dressed at any point, if you wanted to?”

Again they nodded.

“And there was no ... funny business going on?”

Cassandra panicked for a moment as she recalled what took place not even two hours ago, but said nothing.

“Not none,” Rapunzel admitted, “but Eugene and I would always go somewhere private for that.” While technically true, that statement was somewhat lacking in honesty, though no one mentioned that.

“Funny business?” Catalina asked, not knowing what was meant by that.

Adira, who was sitting next to her, leaned over and whispered into her ear. Catalina’s ears went as red as her hair.

“Okay, that’s probably enough questions for us for the time being,” Eugene said, changing the subject. “What about you? Why did you all come here so unexpectedly?”

“We would have sent word ahead if we could. We have no carrier pigeons set up for Tirapai Island,” Arianna said. “As for the why, you can blame my sister.”

“I came to Corona specifically to visit you, only to find I missed you by just a few hours,” Willow began. “Well, I wasn’t about to give up that easily, so I convinced Ari-”

“Nagged, she means,” Arianna interrupted.

“Fine. I nagged Ari until she agreed to have another balloon sent so I could see you as soon as possible.”

“And Frederic insisted I go along so we could have some sisterly bonding time,” added the queen.

“What about you, Faith?” Rapunzel asked.

“I’m just here as Her Majesty’s help,” Faith said timidly.

“Nonsense. You’re here to have fun, too,” Willow insisted. The young handmaiden smiled shyly, but didn’t deny it.

“And Varian already mentioned to me he was the pilot,” Cassandra said. “But why are you here Adira?”

“I’m actually on my way back home,” Adira explained. “Travelling by air is much faster than walking, so the journey here cuts down my travel time significantly, even if I have to wait another few days for the ferry at the new moon.”

“And she and I get to have a little more time together while she waits,” added Lance.

“And we weren’t about to be left behind while the rest of you go have fun on a tropical island,” Kiera said, with Catalina nodding in agreement.

“So, that’s that,” Willow said after a moment. “If that’s all our questions answered, are we good to go swim now? Flying in that balloon was surprisingly hot and I could really go for a dip.”

“Not yet,” Arianna said. “We still need to discuss certain rules.”

“Rules?” Rapunzel asked.

“First, let me say that before we left Corona, we all agreed that we didn’t want to impose on the three of you or ruin your vacation in any way. It’s why we brought enough tents so that we wouldn’t have to invade your space. However, I think it’s safe to say that none of us were expecting you to make it a nude vacation.”

“To be honest, when we left we weren’t expecting that either,” Rapunzel said.

“But I’m also not prepared to declare a total ban on nudity. Not since you three clearly enjoyed your time with it.”

“What are you saying, Mom?” Rapunzel asked.

“I think,” Arianna paused. “I think if we vote, and it’s unanimous, that maybe we could make this a clothing optional vacation.”

“Alright, Sis!” Willow cheered.

“What does that mean?” asked Faith.

“It means that if everyone agrees, then anyone can wear as much, or as little, as they want. If anyone votes no then no one gets naked, but if everyone votes yes, you don’t have to undress if you don’t want to, but you should be prepared to see others naked. And there will be absolutely no pressuring of anyone to take something off. Nor any ... adult activities where others could see. Period.”

“That sounds good to me,” Willow said. “If we vote yes I’m definitely stripping down. I don’t mind if I’m the only one, but it’ll be more fun if others join in.”

Arianna rolled her eyes. “Any other questions?” she asked. There were none, or if there were, people were too shy to voice them. “Then let’s vote. Raise your hand if you are okay with our time here being clothing optional.”

Willow immediately raised her hand, to no one’s surprise. What was surprising was that Kiera also raised her hand just as fast.

“Really, Kiera?” Eugene asked.

“Well, like Her Majesty said, we don’t have to get naked ourselves, right? We just have to be ready to see others naked.” She made a point to smile and obviously look down at Eugene’s crotch.

He chuckled and raised his own hand. “Just make sure you are properly prepared,” he teased. “We don’t want you regretting your choice later.” Kiera blushed slightly in response but her smile didn’t diminish at all.

Rapunzel’s raised hand joined her husbands, and so did Cassandra’s, as did Adira’s and Arianna’s. The princess gave her mother a questioning look.

“What? Did you actually think after everything I just said, that I’d veto it now?” her mother asked.

Lance also raised his hand, though turned to Adira. “Were you planning on getting naked?” he asked.

“You already know I don’t have a problem with being seen. It’s just skin after all,” she answered. “And I’m often naked outside. When I’m travelling I only have the one outfit, and I can’t very well wash it and wear it at the same time, now can I?”

Faith and Catalina also raised their hands, but did so quite slowly and blushed slightly when the others glanced in their direction. Varian had yet to raise his hand. He was blushing heavily and actively avoided eye contact with any of the girls.

“Are you voting ‘no’, Varian?” Arianna asked after a moment.

“No! I mean, no I’m not,” Varian stuttered.

“Then are you voting yes?”

“I, I don’t know,” he trailed off.

“What’s wrong Varian?” Lance asked. “You can’t honestly say you don’t want the chance to see any of these lovely ladies naked, can you?”

“How am I supposed to answer that without seeming like a creep or a pervert?”

“So the answer is obviously yes,” Eugene pointed out. “But guess what? If you’re a pervert, then so is everyone else here. Wanting to see an attractive person naked is not creepy, it’s normal. It’s biology. If you’re spying then yeah, that’s creepy, but if you have permission, why hold back?”

“Is, is it really okay?” a very apprehensive Varian asked the group.

“We all already voted yes,” Catalina pointed out.

“Then...” Varian slowly raised his hand.

It was unanimous. With the decision finalised, everyone smiled and there were a couple of cheers, though the youngest wore smiles that were more coy than confident.

“Woo-hoo!” Willow exclaimed, and began to untie her bathing suit once again.

“Really, Willow?” Arianna said, though everyone noticed she didn’t say anything to put a stop to it this time.

The straps around Willow’s neck came undone and she pulled it down, revealing her moderately sized breasts. Everybody stared, though the boys had a much more difficult time looking anywhere else. Varian, in particular, could not tear his eyes away from the first set of bare breasts he had ever seen. Though his heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was trying to burst out of his chest, he was very glad he had raised his hand.

“Yes, really,” Willow replied. “It’s been far too long since I’ve gone skinny dipping, so now that we’re all agreed I’m getting as much time in the water as I can while we still have daylight.” She stood and began to work the lower half of her bathing suit off. Eugene noticed that her nipples were the same colour as Rapunzel’s and as the bathing suit lowered he also saw the lack of hair between her legs.

Rapunzel gave her husband a playful hip check. “It’s rude to stare, you know,” she teased, repeating his earlier words back to him.

“With a body as fine as that, I’d say it’s more rude not to stare,” he teased back in a whisper. He also wondered to himself if every Coronan woman shaved everything below the neck as Rapunzel, Cassandra, and now Willow had all followed that trend.

Willow finished pulling her bathing suit down and stepped out of it. She smiled at the men’s reactions then said, “Are you all just going to look, or are you going to join me?” Then she turned and ran toward the water. All eyes remained on her until she disappeared under the surface of the water.

“Ahem, well,” Arianna said, clearing her throat, “my sister did have one valid point. It was a hot trip and daylight won’t last forever. I’m going to change and then go for a relaxing swim.”