Secrets Beyond - The Beginning (a Tangled the series original fan fiction)

Lost - Chapter 8

crunch, thump, rustle, crinkle, rustle, crunch...

Iris tiredly walked along, luckily she had packed their stuff before going after Varian, but much against their good fortune, they had lost the path. "You sure you're alright?" She asked her companion for the millionth time. Varian nodded, now sitting cross legged atop her head. "What if we climbed a tree? we wouldn't necessarily have to take the path but we could see the mountains ans at least start heading in the right direction!" He proposed as the idea came to him.

"Genius!...well gosh i wish we had thought of that sooner!" She laughed as Varian climbed from her head, to her shoulder, then to her hand. Gently setting him down by a thick tree trunk, Iris placed the bags down near him as well. "I'll be right back!" She told him, climbing into a smaller tree near by and jumping from its thin, frail frame into the high limbs of the thicker oak Varian waited beneath. "Sheeeeeee's awesome..." Varian concluded to himself with a love sick grin. Looking down he jumped. Ruddiger was staring at him with knowing eyes. "What?!" The boy glared, feeling embarrassed. The raccoon replied with a chattery smirk and a nudge to the shoulder from his nose. "Pffft-! No!....Shoo!!! Its none of your business anyways!" Varian pouted back, shoving Ruddiger's face away, all the while the smug critter laughed.

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Iris climbed higher. Glancing down she could see the alchemist messing around with his raccoon on the ground, and she must admit it made her smile. Pulling herself up every branch and stable foothold, she reached the top of the tree after a little while. Sure enough they had been going the wrong way. Luckily not backtracking any progress as far as the girl could tell, but still, no new progress. Iris looked over the slowly darkening forests below. Trees seemed to extended as far as the eye could see, though there were some large grasslands, the forest still kept on, even inching up parts of the mountain. What she did not notice was the strange purple and black sickly looking patches of trees that peppered the further out woodlands.

Now with a sense of the best path to take, having it hopefully meet up with another road, that slithered through the trees toward the horizon, Iris began her decent toward the grassy, mossy ground below where the alchemist tussled with his pet in anticipation of her return.

With a soft thump, the siren landed by the two where she was greeted by Ruddiger having Varian half way crammed into his mouth. 'Ruddiger... spit him out... now." She pursed her lips, not entirely impressed with how much of the boy the raccoon had somehow managed to fit into his mouth in the first place.

Ruddiger promptly spat him out, varian tumbling out and landing in the odd position of his legs above his head. "Ha! See? I win! I'm the-..." varian coughed and pointed at Ruddiger trailing off as he realized why Ruddiger had really yielded. "Oh...." Varian went limp, dropping his hand as his legs fell to the ground, leaving him on his back to look up at Iris. "Ahem.... uhhhh Yeah- me and Ruddiger weren't doing anythi-"

"So you're really gonna pretend I didn't just see you and your raccoon having some sort of eating competition..." She cut him off, only able to raise a brow to display her opinion. Varian uncomfortably cleared his throat again, standing up and trying to wipe the spit off. "You two are nut heads..." She gave a sort of confused laugh, still unsure how to feel about what she had just witnessed. "Also that isn't coming out anytime soon... And I ain't carrying you till you're clean." She told him, pulling out her water and a cloth. Varian eyed her, "Whats that supposed to mean," He glared at her suspiciously.

"It means I'm rinsing you off!" The girl announced, abruptly ripping off the cap, and pouring some water on him. Varian tensed up when the cold liquid was dumped on him, sputtering and coughing. "hey-!" He croaked, drenched and startled. Iris snickered and handed him the cloth. "Sorry, but I'm not gonna smell raccoon spit all day long, plus, have you bathed once since we've been out here?" She asked, Varian not daring to answer, but climbing on Ruddiger, wrapped in his make shift towel, in spite. "That answers that then..." she half smirked, allowing the subject to go.