Chapter 5

This chapter brings with it the start of a little side adventure of tracking down some treasure with Catalina and Kiera. When I first made notes about this part of the story I hadn’t intended on including the girls and thought the whole trip would be less than a chapter. But with the girls now included, there’s so much more story to be told and it ended up turning into multiple chapters worth of content. I hope you enjoy.

Also, I had made an image of Catalina to go along with this chapter, but depictions of characters under 18 (SFW or not) are not allowed here on SOL, so I had to leave it out of this version.

Early the following morning the caravan was fully stocked and on its way to the Treehouse. Like the previous journey it was pulled by the same two horses, Max and Fidella. They hadn’t seen each other since Cassandra left Corona riding the mare, and they really enjoyed being side by side again after spending so much time apart. The king and queen, Pascal and his family, and much of the castle’s staff saw them off and wished the group safe travels. A few early risers in the town waved as they passed, but otherwise they left the city of Corona with little fanfare.

As they were trotting along the country road Eugene cleared his throat and addressed the women. “So ladies, I feel I shouldn’t have to ask, but ... should I be jealous?”

“Jealous?” they both asked.

“Well, you two have been spending an exorbitant amount of time together, so much so that it’s been nearly impossible for me to steal some one-on-one time with my wife. Other than at night, of course.”

“We’re sorry Eugene,” said Rapunzel, taking his hand. “It’s just that I’ve been so excited to have Cass back, and I guess I wanted to make up for lost time. I didn’t mean to exclude you.”

“And I may be Rapunzel’s Lady-in-Waiting again, but if you ever want some privacy just ask,” added Cassandra. “I could even make sure you two aren’t disturbed.” She couldn’t help but turn slightly red as she mentioned that.

Eugene smiled at Cassandra’s shyness. “Speaking of getting your old job back, that was some oath yesterday. ‘All I am is yours until the end of my days’? Sounds more like something I’d hear at a wedding, not a job application.”

Cassandra turned slightly more red at his comment. “Well ... she deserves it. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for Rapunzel. I owe her everything, and I would gladly give my life if it meant protecting her.”

“I know the feeling,” Eugene agreed. “What do you think about that, Princess? The two people who literally died for you, who you also brought back from death, have promised the rest of their lives to you. One as a servant, the other as a husband, which come to think of it, isn’t all that much different,” he joked.

“Stop it, you’re embarrassing me,” Rapunzel said. “And Cass, despite what you said and what you may think, you’re so much more than any servant. You’re practically my sister.”

Their conversation had to pause there as they arrived at the Treehouse. Even before the caravan came to a stop Kiera and Catalina were heading down to ground level, waving to the others as they went. Lance and Adira were close behind, though not in such a rush, and when the caravan did reach them Adira stepped forward to greet their guests.

“Hello Princess,” she said and nodded to the other two. “Eugene. Cassandra. It’s been a while.”

“It has,” Rapunzel answered. She hadn’t seen the seven-foot tall warrior since the incident with Zhan Tiri. “I trust you’ve been well? How are things going in the Dark Kingdom?”

“I’m quite well, thank you, and very grateful to Eugene’s father for giving me this extended leave to visit. As for the kingdom itself, many of its former residents have answered the king’s request to return, though it will be a long process to rebuild from all the damage and neglect our land has been through. And we’re working on re-branding. ‘The Dark Kingdom’ doesn’t really fit any more.”

While the ladies reconnected, Lance began to carry two very large suitcases towards the caravan.

“What’s all this?” Eugene asked as his friend slipped the two cases into the storage compartment.

“Clothes.”

“That much? I can understand a couple of spare outfits, but we can always take a break to do a bit of laundry if things get too dirty.”

“It’s not dirt I’m worried about,” Lance replied.

“It’s because of me,” Catalina admitted. “If I have to suddenly go Werewolf for some emergency, my clothes don’t exactly transform along with me and...” She put her hands together then quickly pulled them apart, mimicking the sound of something tearing.

“Why do you think you’ve never seen her change back?” Kiera added. “Cause she’d be naked.”

“Kiera!” her sister yelled, blushing while glancing towards the men.

“What? It’s true. And you’re the one who brought it up.”

Rapunzel placed a hand on Kiera’s shoulder. “Still, it’s not that polite to talk about certain ... specifics in front of others. Especially boys.”

“Sorry,” Kiera said to Catalina.

“It’s fine, but I’d prefer it if you didn’t draw attention to it.”

“Draw attention to what?” Eugene asked, feigning ignorance.

“Hey, Adira,” Cassandra called, trying to change the subject. “How about a quick spar, for old times sake?”

Adira gave her a chuckle. “Sure. It has been a while since we last crossed swords, and I still owe you some payback for stealing my old one. And for mind controlling me and the Brotherhood.”

“Yeah, sorry about that. It’s no excuse, but I wasn’t exactly in a right state of mind, myself.”

“No swords, please,” Rapunzel requested. “I don’t want either of you getting hurt, especially since we’re just heading out. It’d be a terrible shame if the person we’re doing this for is put out of commission before we even begin.”

“I’m fine with hand-to-hand if you are,” Adira said.

Cassandra nodded. “Works for me. First to land a solid body blow wins?”

“Alright.”

The two women squared off, and in an eerily similar fashion compared to when they first met Cassandra struck out first with Adira nimbly dodging to the side. Again and again Cassandra would swing but Adria seemed to anticipate the blows and completely evade each and every one.

“Honestly, Cassandra,” she said after another miss, “I thought you would have improved after-”

Mid-sentence, Adira unexpectedly found her entire body parallel to the ground as Cassandra suddenly changed her rhythm, put on a burst of speed and, combined with a superb feint, swept out Adira’s legs from under her. Unable to evade while in the air, she was forced to deflect the punch that was coming straight for her stomach. She was successful in knocking Cassandra’s fist off to the side, then fell to the ground and rolled away before swiftly regaining her feet.

“You were saying?” Cassandra said with a smile.

Adira was actually forced to be on the defensive, with Cassandra now anticipating her evades and ready with another punch or kick that Adira couldn’t dodge. Clearly all those attacks before were all just a trick to lure Adira into a false sense of security. At first she was able to divert the unavoidable attacks with just one hand, but then a particularly swift series of blows at both her head and chest forced her to use both hands to protect herself. She nearly lost the match right there but got lucky and was able to grab onto Cassandra’s wrist and pull her into a throw, which put some distance between the two of them.

Cassandra adjusted her body to move with the toss and hit the ground in a roll and was back on her feet in no time, facing her opponent. There was a brief pause in their combat as each caught her breath. Then Adira rolled her shoulders, altered her stance, and said, “My turn.”

Now it was Cassandra who was on the defensive. Adira came in fast and hard and Cass had to give her all to block or parry, with only the occasional counterattack to break up the constant assault. This exchange went on for nearly a minute, and both women were visibly slowing down from the exertion, when Cass saw an opening and went for a hit to Adira’s head as the other woman overextended her last attack and was off balance.

However, unnoticed by all, Adira had hooked her right foot under a tree root and, using that as an anchor, was able to pull back and dodge under Cassandra’s fist. At the same time she brought up her other leg and drove it into Cassandra’s stomach. The seemingly impossible movement caught Cassandra off guard and the counterstrike landed, hard.

The match was over. Cassandra had lost. The blow to her stomach caused her to reflexively drop to her knees and gasp for air.

“Cass!” Rapunzel shouted, running over to her. “Are you okay?”

She held up a hand for Rapunzel to stop. “I’m okay,” she said after a moment. “Just had the wind knocked out of me, that’s all.”

“Looks like Adira reigns supreme,” Eugene commented. “Although should that really be a surprise?”

“Honestly, yes,” Adira admitted. “Cassandra nearly had me on more than one occasion. Her fighting skills are impressive, far superior to what they were when we first met.” She held out a hand to Cassandra, who took it, then pulled her to her feet. “Thank you, Cassandra. That match was very enjoyable.”

“And thank you, too,” said Cass. “It’s a bit humbling to still lose after coming so close, but that just means I’ve got room for improvement.”

As the two combatants caught their breath and dusted themselves off, the others finished loading the caravan. Kiera and Catalina had already taken up seats on the roof and were wiggling with impatience.

“Come on, let’s go!” Kiera said to the adults. “There’s treasure waiting to be found!”

“Yeah, come on! We’re wasting daylight!” added Catalina.

Eugene, Rapunzel, and Cassandra boarded and, with a wave goodbye to Lance and Adira, they were off.

Before they were even out of eyesight of the Treehouse, the two teens hopped down to the font bench with the others. “Thanks for bringing us along,” said Catalina.

“Yeah, we’re really grateful for you giving us an excuse to escape,” added Kiera.

“Escape?” asked Eugene. “Escape from what?”

“We like Adira, really. She’s cool and has taught us a ton about wilderness survival and self defence and stuff. But now that she and Lance are a couple they get all mushy whenever they’re around each other,” Kiera explained. “We don’t want to have to see that for three weeks straight.”

“Really?” asked Rapunzel, her eyebrow raised. “Because the way Lance described things, the last time Adira visited they were having difficulty finding privacy because the two of you kept spying on them.”

“We weren’t spying!” Catalina said, defending herself and her sister. “It’s not like we wanted to see them. They kept making out in the kitchen, or the main room, or anywhere really, and at any time of day. It was impossible not to catch them doing ... stuff.”

“Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, girls, but you might not be any better off with us,” Cassandra said with a grin. “Not with these two being married now. They get up to all kinds of ... stuff, too.”

“We’re discrete!” Rapunzel said.

“If what I’ve seen is you being discrete, I’m not sure I want to know what being obvious is,” Cassandra teased.

“Oh, you want obvious, do you?” asked Eugene, playing along. “We’ll give you obvious.” Then without warning he pulled Rapunzel in and gave her a soul-melting kiss. For the briefest moment Rapunzel resisted, shocked by the suddenness of it all, but as the kiss lingered she forgot about their audience, gave in and returned the kiss with passion, wrapping her arms around Eugene’s neck.

At first Catalina and Kiera just stared and smiled at Eugene’s antics, but then their eyes went wide in surprise once they saw tongues get involved. They blushed and put up their hands to cover their eyes, but it was clear to all they kept their fingers spread and could still see quite easily.

Fifteen seconds into the kiss and even Cassandra was starting to get a little hot under the collar. “Ahem!” she coughed and the lovers quickly separated.

“Whew!” exclaimed Rapunzel as she fanned herself. “Wh-what were we talking about again?” she asked, legitimately dazed. Everybody gave a brief chuckle at that.

“Enough of that, you two,” Cassandra chided. “There are impressionable minds present.”

“What’s wrong with showing a little bit of love towards my wife?” Eugene asked.

“Nothing’s wrong with ‘a little bit’, but making the temperature rise a full ten degrees is a bit much.”

“Oh? So even Cassandra the Ice Queen can melt from just seeing a kiss, huh?” he teased.

Cassandra rolled her eyes. “A kiss is one thing, but you two trying to eat each other’s face is not exactly the norm.” The younger two giggled at her description, then she addressed them directly. “Sorry about all this. Pretty sure Eugene is doing this more to embarrass me, not you.”

“We don’t mind, really,” Kiera said and Catalina nodded in agreement.

Eugene smiled knowingly at the girls. Their blush deepened as they glanced away from him and just stared at the road ahead.

There was a moment of awkward silence before Kiera spoke up. “Anyway...” She dragged the word out. “How close is our first stop? I want to get to hunting for treasure as soon as we can.”

Rapunzel pulled out the map she and Cassandra had made, on which they recorded all the points of interest as well as the ideal path they would take that would minimise their travel time. She explained to the girls that much of their journey would have to be on foot or horseback as the terrain would be too rough for the large caravan. They’d park it somewhere safe and use it as a hub while they explored the local area for multiple caches each day.

They arrived at their first hub location a little after noon. They pulled the caravan off the main road far enough that it wouldn’t be spotted by random passers-by and unhitched the horses before trekking off into the wilderness. Each member was armed in some way to help fend off bandits or wildlife. Cassandra and Eugene both carried swords, while Kiera carried a dagger. Catalina carried no weapons, as she practically was one. And while Rapunzel didn’t have anything sharp, she did carry her trademark frying pan, and a whip on her hip.

“I’ve never seen that before,” Kiera said, looking at the long coil of woven golden cords.

Rapunzel took the whip and gave it a flourish. “Ever since I lost my hair, I’ve felt like something was missing, so I had Varian make this for me. It’s not quite as long, and it’s definitely not indestructible, but he did something to the leather to make it pretty durable, and he was able to dye it to match my old hair colour. And,” she said as she flung it out to coil around a tree branch, “it works just as good for grabbing onto or swinging from things.” With a flick of the wrist the whip came loose and she coiled it up again.