Magic is Really Hard, Okay?

[Zamora]

The massive creature turns to glance at him, and— Oh dear god it has five eyes. And they’re all as pale as the moon. Blind.

Looks like this creature might be the 1%.

Despite this, an ear flops as she listens intently to his words, eyes blinking curiously. Once he’s put in his piece, she just... points to the person behind the boxes. She then turns to Rapunzel, tilting her head slightly.

“Ah'punzah? Finl— Fin— Filn R—...”

The creature’s face seems to peel back slightly in a shocking display, and her tongue lolls out for a moment. There’s a grumble here, one in a strange language.

It seems ‘Flynn Rider’ is a hard name to say when your native language comes from another planet.

Instead, one of three arms simply grabs Flynn, and tugs him forward. He seemed friendly enough, and he knew Rapunzel. Maybe he could help.

[Rapunzel]

Rapunzel hadn't noticed Eugene at first. She was too curled up in her little hide away with Shani and Zamora blocking most of the outside world. It was when Zamora had literally pulled the man forward that Rapunzel realized he was here. She instantly felt a strange mix of comfort and shame.

If there was anyone she trusted it was Eugene. He made her feel safe. But he was also the person who's opinion mattered the most to her. So Rapunzel immediately felt ashamed to have him see her like this. It was a confusing mix of feelings and Rapunzel didn't know how to react to them.

Shani. Zamora. And now Eugene.

Did all the people she care about have to see her like this? A sniveling lost little girl?

"O-oh, Eugene..." Rapunzel tried to give him a pathetic excuse for a smile, "Hi..."

[Flynn Rider]

Being picked and moved by someone isn't always the best experience. Finding out they have five eyes blind eyes, three arms and couldn't even speak your name only heightens the surprise and shock. Flynn was placed down carrying an open-jawed, wide-eyed stare as if he was seconds away from screaming in complete, utter fear. Quickly regaining his composure, he was about to turn and say something to the...thing (probably "Next time, use your words" or "At least buy me dinner before sweeping me off my feet") when he realized why she had moved him around. 

"O-oh Eugene... Hi..."

There she was. Eugene thought instantly about how she could still be so breathtakingly beautiful even when in tears. If only he could take her up and sweep all of her problems away. Then she'd be happy and maybe she'd even-

No no no. This is no boat in the middle of a lake, surrounded by lanterns. Sunshine needs a friend, not anything. Eugene smiled slightly, warm yet seeming to understand.

"Sunshine, you look... Honestly, I think "Dewdrop" would be a more appropriate nickname right now. You mind if I sit? I think I'm gonna sit."

Eugene sat down in front of her, thinking of something to say, some magic words to heal everything. Noticing Shani in her lap, Flynn spoke up, "Hey, a little lion cub. The, uh, cub speaks, right? Knowing where we are, I'd be surprised if she didn't." Catching Rapunzel's eye, Eugene's heart melted. He just wanted to hold her and tell her everything would be alright. 

"I heard almost nothing but your voice. Something about missing your magic hair, right? Finding out you can't do everything you could do before has to be rough. But hey! You have someone to blame for it, so that should help too." Eugene grinned mischievously and joked, "If I hadn't given you the world's choppiest haircut, none of this would have happened."

His smirk softened, and he reached out for her hand, holding it gently. "Rapunzel, seriously though, you're amazing, with or without 70 feet of hair. Did something happen that made you freak out?" Hastily, he added, "If you don't feel comfortable talking about it, that's fine, we can always talk later. You can trust me, Sunshine."

[Rapunzel]

"Sunshine, you look... Honestly, I think "Dewdrop" would be a more appropriate nickname right now. You mind if I sit? I think I'm gonna sit."

Rapunzel's little sniffs were broken with a small laugh. Dewdrop. Eugene always had the best little nicknames. He always seemed to be able to make her laugh. She took a shuddering attempt at a deep breath,"Yeah, this is Shani. She's a medic like me."

She bit back the urge to say 'a better medic than me...'

Eugene's hands were warm when he took hers in his. Between the warmth of Shani's fur, Flynn's hands, and Zamora's protective presence, she could finally feel the majority of the anxiety ebb away.

"It's..." Rapunzel bit her lip trying to figure out how to explain when Eugene asked if there had been some sort of trigger for her panic, "I was trying to use the magic again."

Rapunzel looked downward again, she couldn't meet Eugene and Zamora's eyes (even if Zamora was blind). It wasn't because she was afraid of what they might think. It was more out of habit than anything. To look away and down. Like a child admitting to having done wrong.

"I know I can heal a little bit. I've done it before, even after my hair was gone. But it's still really hard to do..." Rapunzel grimaced, "And I couldn't even do that little bit. I know it's there! All of it. But I just can't get to it."

She sighed in exasperation at herself and shook her head, "If I could just figure it out I could really help here! I could have even healed you after you lost your arm Zamora!"

She didn't think she could have regrown Zamora's arm (could she?), but the blood loss, and the stump. She was sure she could have healed Zamora completely from that at least. The alien would have been fine by now! Pain free! If only Rapunzel could just figure this out!

[Flynn Rider]

 

"It's... I was trying to use the magic again."

(Ah. The magic problem. Y'know, typical twenty-something-year-old princess problems.)

All joking aside, Eugene understood how important this specific trial was for Rapunzel. After her return to her family, she was shocked to discover she still had the ability to heal even without her hair, but using it had been a hassle. He had reached out to her over it in the past, but with her responsibilities in the medic tent here, perhaps the stress really got to her?

"I know I can heal a little bit. I've done it before, even after my hair was gone. But it's still really hard to do... And I couldn't even do that little bit. I know it's there! All of it. But I just can't get to it. "If I could just figure it out I could really help here!"

(Yeup. Pressure, with hints of low self-esteem. Good call, Flynn.)

Flynn recognized another problem in what Rapunzel was telling him; Now that her main outlet for her powers was gone, she had little to no idea on how to access the store of power inside her. Considering the foremost expert on what her inner power could actually do, the haggard Gothel, was now dead (and rightfully so, might Flynn add), figuring out how this power works would be as easy as keeping Shorty out of the Snuggly Duckling alcohol (which is to say, nigh impossible.)

(I mean, come on, it's not like a wizard or sorcerer will show up when we least expect it and grant us our own copy of So You Got Powers From A Magical Flower: Common Questions And Concerns, 1st edition.) 

Eugene ignored the urge to glance behind him. "Listen, Rapunzel, I can't say I've been where you are, but I think I know how you're feeling. You got used to singing the song, the hair glowing, and suddenly the cut, the bruise, the broken bone, whatever, they're all patched. Now, you don't know how to reach all of that again. I felt a lot like that once."

Flynn rested his back on a crate, looking upwards, staring back into his past. With a bit of trepidation in his voice, Flynn started, "I haven't told you this story, because it's not glamorous. Or exciting. Or anything like a "Flynnigan Rider" story. See, my best friend and I, from the orphanage, we used to pick pockets once we hit the streets. Nothing big, just enough to survive. But my friend, he got a bit greedy and ended up with his hand being caught in the Captain of the Guards' coin purse."

Flynn laughed quietly, "Imagine this; some scrawny little boys, hardly 15 years old, struggling to survive in the world, and the one who actually knew what they were doing... carted off to jail for a night. Leaving me alone to survive for who knows how long without any idea how to steal alone. So I improvised. I tried to find what I knew I could do and see if it could help me survive. Turns out, I could do things I didn't know I could do if I had been with Lan- um, my friend, the whole time. It made me into the greatest rogue the Kingdom of Corona would ever know, and I'm pretty grateful for it."

Eugene grinned slightly and looked back at Rapunzel, squeezing her hand gently. "Right now, you feel like you've been stranded, without the ease of your hair. But Sunshine, this is your chance to figure out what you can really do. Do I have all the answers? Ha! I'm still figuring out the weird rules of the world we live in. But I do think you're going to learn a lot more than we both can imagine right now."

A strange thought popped into his mind. "Blondie... That song you used to sing. Does it help now, or is it just an old habit?"

[Rapunzel]

Rapunzel sniffed and looked up at Eugene when he said that he had once felt like she did. How? Did he have magic powers he never told her about? Come on, this was Eugene! But as he continued his story, it began to make more sense. Eugene didn't talk much about his past. From what she did know, she couldn't blame him. She may have been trapped, but she had been provided for. She'd never gone hungry or cold. Eugene had...

Rapunzel seemed to pull out of herself the more Eugene spoke to her. She seemed to open more, her hand on Shani's head moving more steadily. She didn't seem to be shrinking as much from Zamora's blind gaze.

Rapunzel thought she knew what he was getting at. This was her chance to learn what she was more capable of. But, she wasn't like Eugene! He was strong he had learned how to take care of him self and she-

Wait.

Hadn't she done the same? She never would have imagined just a year or two ago that she would have been capable of subduing an intruder, lock him in her closet, and subsequently convince him to take her to see the lights she had loved her entire life...

Never thought she would have been able to make friends with frightening ruffians and thugs. Never thought she could out run guardsmen, and a flooding gorge. Never thought she could have done all the things that she had done.

"Blondie... That song you used to sing. Does it help now, or is it just an old habit?"

"Huh? Oh," Rapunzel blinked out of her own thoughts and took a moment to register Eugene's question, "Oh... well, no I don't think so? I mean I haven't tried in a while..."

Rapunzel tried to tuck her hair behind her ear fruitlessly. The short locks fell forward again. She chewed her lip for a moment in thought. It was worth a try again. But... she didn't want to go back to the tent just yet. She didn't feel up to it. She wanted to stay here with people she felt comfortable with.

Rapunzel's eyes were drawn to Zamora and the stump of her arm. Carefully she pulled her hand out of Eugene's and reached out to delicately touch Zamora, "Zamora? Does your arm hurt at all? I want to, uhm, try something."

[Zamora]

There’s a soft noise from the alien as Rapunzel addresses her, and the creature seems to be pulled from her observations of Flynn and the healer. She’d been asked about... her arm? If it hurt any?

In all honesty, Zamora was almost always dealing with some sort of ghost pain. It hadn’t been a clean removal, and field medicine could only do so much. Thankfully, the creature was used to a fair level of pain, and often forgot.

There’s a gentle chatter as she shifts, offering the aging wound to Rapunzel.

[Rapunzel]

"Thank you," Rapunzel responded with a smile to Zamora after she offered her arm. Rapunzel delicately placed her hands on the bandages and closed her eyes. She took deep breaths, trying to focus not just on the magic, but on herself. In the warmth inside her. The magic.

"Flower gleam and glow," her voice carried the tune with the ease of years of practice. She would never forget this song for as long as she'd live, "Let your power shine..."

The flower's magic was there. It had to be. She needed it. The Freedom Fighters needed. She tried to picture it. To visualize the flower. But she had never really seen it. She only had her mo-Gothel's stories and her imagination. How was she supposed to visualize a flower that had always been inside her?

Oh.

"It's... It's inside me," Rapunzel wasn't looking at anything, simply staring forth as her thoughts flew. Slowly, her smile crept up on her and she let out a half laugh of astonishment, "It's inside ME."

Rapunzel laughed again, this time a full laugh, a bright one. She turned and grabbed Eugene's shoulders, "Eugene! It's not the flower! It's inside me! I. Am. The. Flower!"

Gothel had called her 'flower' many times. It was supposedly a term of endearment at the time but looking back on it, Rapunzel could see it for what it truly was. Gothel only cared for the flower that she had been using. She saw the power that gave her, her youth. She never saw Rapunzel.

And so that's how Rapunzel had always seen it too.

Rapunzel pressed her hands over Zamora's wound again. She pressed a little harder than she intended probably hurting Zamora a bit in the process, but she was too excited to think clearly about that.

"Flower gleam and glow," Rapunzel sang again, but this time she thought of herself. She was the one who was powerful. She was the one who could help others. All she needed to do was...

"Let your power shine..."

A soft light flowed from her palms, it was so pale that it was almost lost in the African sunshine. It was only because the group was resting in the shade that they could even see it. But it was there, all the same.

Unseen beneath the bandages the wound stitched it's self together. Not completely. But it did heal. Days of healing took place in a matter of moments. Rapunzel felt it, could feel her magic pouring into Zamora and smoothing over the wound.

And she could feel it draining from her.

Rapunzel grew woozy and her hands fell from Zamora's arm limply and she swayed, the world rocking beneath her. Her body listed to the side and slumped against Eugene for support.

"Woah..." Rapunzel said woozily her face now pale from the exertion.