Tangled 2 Frozen 2

Chapter Thirteen

"Is that the King and Queen?" I asked Hawke and Noelle.

Both their gazes settled on the couple I noticed.

"Yeah," Hawke said. "Wait, have I stolen anything recently? No, I don't think so," he said to himself.

"I thought you said you weren't a thief!" I scolded him.

"I'm not!" He replied. "Sometimes it's necessary for survival."

"Um, guys," Noelle said. We both turned our heads. The King and Queen were approaching us.

Then I heard Mother's voice from behind us.

"Ah, Flower," she said happily, "Rider," she said as if it were poison, "come to join us?"

"I thought you were dead!" The Queen yelled.

"In body, not in spirit," Mother said. "I need their magic to bring my body back."

"Well you can't have it!" The Queen yelled back.

"I've had it for eighteen years!" Mother yelled. "And if they are going to try to escape like you did, I might as well take all of it now!"

Mother began to walk towards us. We attacked her, but our frying pans and Hawke's knife just passed right through her.

"What," I muttered. "But how did it work when I hit you with the frying pan?" I asked.

"I was beginning to regain my body, but then you injured me and I missed a couple doses of magic and lost it," Mother said. "But wouldn't it be much more efficient if I took all of your magic at once?" And then she grabbed Noelle by the neck. Apparently she still had enough body to grab. And with her other hand, Mother ripped Noelle's gloves off and grasped her hands.

We all watched horrified as ice began to swirl out of Noelle's hands and into Mother's hand. Horrifyingly, at the roots of Noelle's white-blonde hair, it began to change to dark brown. The color change melted down her head and down her braid as Mother sucked the ice out of her hands. And then I pounced on Mother. I clawed at anything I could claw at. I was aware I had dropped my frying pan, but my anger was enough to cause her damage.

But Mother ignored me then dropped Noelle to the ground. She had completely drained her. Her hair was completely brown. Her hands were a bit frosty, but that was the only sign that the ice had ever been in there at all.

Hawke pulled me off of Mother though when she reached for me. He held me back from her and dragged me back over the where the King and Queen were. I glanced behind me to see the Queen pick up Hawke's knife that he must have dropped. The King pulled a knife out of a sheath at his side.

Hawke held my arms behind me as Mother got closer and closer. She wasn't moving very quickly, but the slower she went the scarier it was.

I sobbed as my eyes moved from Mother to Noelle's limp shape on the ground. I barely even felt it when the Queen worked my hair out of its braid. The only reason I knew it was the Queen was because Hawke was still holding me still.

I felt the Queen pull my hair into a ponytail midway down my back. I glanced around to see what she was doing just in time to see her pull Hawke's knife through my hair. I screamed as lengths of my golden blonde hair dropped to the ground and turned brown. I screamed as the hair still connected to my head turned brown. I could distinctly feel the change in the length. It was much lighter now.

"No!" Mother yelled and began to run towards me and my changing hair, but the King stepped out in front of her, holding his knife out in front of him. She ran onto it, stabbing herself. He pulled his knife back out of her and she fell to the ground.

"Now how does that feel?" he asked her. She said nothing.

"'Just let me heal him'," the Queen said, stepping forwards. "Remember that, Mother?"

Mother? I thought, The Queen was the girl who painted the walls? The one I thought had died?

"Hopefully this time you'll stay dead," the King said.

And then Hawke let me go. I rushed to Noelle, sitting on the ground beside her, touching her face and cradling her head in my lap.

"I can save her, can't I?" I asked Hawke. "My feet somehow mysteriously healed but hers didn't. Maybe it was the hair. I can save her, right?"

Hawke bit his lip. I shook my head. I reached to grab my hair but it wasn't there. I collapsed over onto Noelle, finally giving into the full waterfall of tears.

"Flower, gleam and glow," I sobbed.

"Don't ever sing that foul song again."

I looked up. Noelle's eyes were open. They were still blue even though her hair was now brown.

"Did you think I was dead?" She asked, laughing. I couldn't help but laugh with her even though I was still crying. "Come on, you know I'm a sleeper not a dyer."

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Hawke. He tilted his head towards the King and Queen who were still standing there.

I stood up, helping Noelle to her feet. I let her balance her weight in me. We approached the King and Queen. I grabbed Hawke's hand.

"Madelyn," the Queen sighed and wrapped her arms around me. The King followed her lead, embracing me. Then they opened their arms, bringing Noelle and Hawke into the hug too.

When they let go of me, the Queen said, "You're our daughter, Madelyn."

"You're the lost princess we set lanterns off for every year," the King added.

"I knew you seemed princess-like," Hawke whispered to me. I giggled.

"And you're the lost princess of Arendelle," the Queen said to Noelle.

Noelle and I exchanged a glance. We were princesses. I turned to look at Hawke, but he was studying the King. The King looked uncomfortable.

"Does he look familiar to you?" Hawke asked.

"Well, wouldn't I look like-"

Hawke waved me away. "No, not that." He hesitated for a moment then said, "You're Flynn Rider! But your nose is different in all the pictures."

The King frowned and the Queen laughed. "They never could get my nose right," the King remarked.

"So you are Flynn Rider," Hawke said.

"Yeah, and you are?"

"Hawke Collier: traveler and part-time thief," Hawke said.

"I thought you said you weren't a thief!" I scolded.

"I'm not!" Hawke replied. But I laughed because this was only the about the tenth time that we established that Hawke was "not" a thief. "But you're a princess," he said.

I looked at the ground, my thoughts running wild. I looked up at Hawke. "I am, aren't I?" Then I looked at Noelle. "And you are too."

I watched Noelle's face as the realization hit her too. She looked at me with an expression very similar to her "you're crazy expression".

I turned around as Hawke ran his fingers through my hair.

"Must be easier to keep up with now," he said. I smiled.

"Come on," the Queen, my mother, said, "You have families that haven't seen you in eighteen years."

Noelle and I locked arms and Hawke laced his hand with my free hand and we followed my parents back to the castle.

I looked up towards the sky to see one lone lantern still floating up there. I watched as it floated upwards to make a triangle with the two brightest stars in the night sky.