Tangled 2 Frozen 2

Chapter Nine

We ran and ran. Hawke's boots were obnoxiously loud against the floor, and Noelle and I were silent, but Noelle was leaving bloody footprints. My feet had somehow healed. I vaguely wondered about this, but I couldn't too in depth right now.

The passage began to narrow and slope upward. Eventually, it ended in a dead end. I turned in a circle looking for somewhere to go, but Hawke pushed against the ceiling. Amazingly it lifted. Light flooded in and I realized it was actually another trapdoor with a yellow duckling painted on it.

We climbed up through the trapdoor. We emerged into a library. Hawke immediately started pushing shelves over the trapdoor. Noelle and I helped him. The librarian yelled at us, so we left. Any emerging slave traders would be his responsibility now.

We exited the library and came out onto a street. I was immediately mesmerized by the mass of people. I had never seen so many people at once, and they were all happy. They were all celebrating. They were dancing, eating, and buying small purple flags with yellow suns on them.

I turned to look at Noelle. She wasn't even paying attention to me. She took a step forward. Then another. And another. It was like her feet didn't hurt her at all. And then someone pulled her into the dance and she smiled like she hadn't smiled in years. She laughed like I had never heard her laugh before. She was truly happy.

I walked to one of the carts selling the little purple flags. I picked one up, tracing the pattern of the yellow sun. I hugged it close to me and kept walking. Hawke rushed to flick a coin at the merchant before following me into the crowd.

I watched all the happy people. I watched the happy Noelle. I felt the happiness. I decided that if Noelle and I truly succeed in escaping from Mother, this is where I would want to live.

All of a sudden, an arm wrapped around my waist. I turned my head, finding myself face to face with Hawke.

"Come on, princess. Did you not even notice the sun setting? We need to find somewhere to watch from," he said.

"Princess?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What, am I not allowed to call you princess?" he retorted.

"No," I said, "but why?"

"I don't know," he said, "you just seem like one," and just barely audible he said, "to me."

I looked at him. He smiled at me, then raised his eyebrows.

"Hurry," he said, "get your friend or we'll miss the lanterns."

I walked away from him and over to where Noelle was dancing with a group of people. She was still leaving bloody footprints, I noticed with a frown, but didn't seem to feel the pain.

"Noelle!" I yelled. "Come on or we'll miss the lanterns!"

"Go on!" She called back. "Don't mind me! I'm happy here!" Then she laughed again as she switched partners.

I shrugged and walked back to Hawke. We walked down the street a little ways. I noticed we were in front of the bookstore again when we stopped.

"I have an idea," Hawke said. He ran to the library and climbed up the wall and onto the roof. He reached back down and pulled me up. We crawled up the roof and sat at the peak.

I gasped, my hands folded together at my chest in excitement. We had a perfect view of the sunset. We would have a perfect view of the lanterns. I never really understood what was so special about lanterns until I got here and saw all the happy people. Now I was so excited I could barely sit still.

I warily lowered my hands to find a good hold and not slide down the rooftop. My hand landed on top of Hawke's. I jerked it away quickly and looked apologetically at Hawke.

"No," he said, "It's okay." And he took my hand in his and smiled at me. I couldn't help but smile back.